宙乗り

In chūnori ("riding the air"), a suspended actor flies above the stage and auditorium. The technique is said to date back to the Edo period; today, secured on wire rope, the actor rises near the hanamichi, sails over the first-floor seats, and vanishes into the upper balconies.

It is reserved for beings beyond ordinary logic—ghosts, goblins, foxes in human form. In the moment a character passes overhead, the auditorium itself becomes the story's sky: kabuki spectacle at its most complete, making a stage of the entire theatre.

Though the technique dates from the Edo period, chūnori long lay neglected in modern times as a mere sideshow trick. Its revival is credited to Ichikawa Ennosuke III (later En'ō II), who flew as the fox Tadanobu in Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura at the National Theatre in 1968. The staging caused a sensation, and chūnori has been indispensable to the kabuki stage ever since.

Chūnori belongs to no single family: it is part of kabuki's shared vocabulary of keren, the art of stage trickery. In its blend of refined convention and bold showmanship lies the generous breadth of kabuki itself.