幕間

Makuai is the interval from the close of one act to the rise of the next curtain. The reading is makuai—makuma is considered a misreading. For the audience it is a time to rest and eat; behind the curtain, the stage is being transformed for the scene to come.

The makunouchi bentō—"between-the-curtains lunchbox"—is said to take its name from this interval, so deeply is makuai woven into theatergoing culture since Edo. And note the theatre's own rhythm: while the offstage music continues after the curtain closes, the play is merely bridging to the next scene, and the makuai has not yet begun.

At today's Kabukiza a program usually includes two intermissions, the longer around thirty minutes—time for the enduring ritual of opening a bentō in one's seat or the lobby. In the sajiki boxes, a meal ordered in advance arrives at the seat in time for the makuai, an echo of the Edo theatre teahouses.

Makuai belongs to kabuki as a whole—a device that enriches the very time of theatergoing. It is the interval for savoring the afterglow of Danjūrō's stage and letting anticipation build for the next act, and this platform introduces it as part of the pleasure of a day at the theatre.