kari-hanamichi
仮花道
かりはなみちthe temporary second hanamichi
INSTANT ANSWER
A kari-hanamichi is a temporary second runway built on the right side of the auditorium, used with the main hanamichi to turn the whole theatre into the stage.
While the main hanamichi runs permanently through the left side of the auditorium, a kari-hanamichi ("temporary hanamichi") is erected on the right side when a production requires it. Narrower than the main runway, it is said to have evolved from the aisles of Edo-period playhouses, and can still be seen at historic theatres such as the Kanamaru-za.
When both runways are used at once—ryō-hanamichi—the audience itself is enclosed within the drama. In the Yoshino River scene of Imoseyama Onna Teikin, the two hanamichi are said to become the opposite banks of the river, the entire theatre turning into a single landscape.
The kari-hanamichi also carries an older name—higashi no ayumi, 'the eastern walkway.' In Edo playhouses of the Hōreki era, the walkway on the right side of the pit is said to have evolved into the temporary hanamichi; the name preserves, in words, the spatial world of the Edo-period theatre.
The kari-hanamichi is not the property of any one family but part of kabuki's shared wisdom—the will to use the entire theatre as its stage. At the Kabukiza, where Danjūrō XIII also performs, one is still erected when a production calls for it, keeping alive the idea of drawing the audience bodily into the story.
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- D-13 Editorial
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- Published
- Aug 15, 2026
- Updated
- Aug 16, 2026