Are multiple sets of a costume prepared?

The key is that kabuki dress is layered. Outermost is the sumptuous garment the audience sees. Inside that come middle robes and under-robes. And touching the skin directly are the half-collar and the innermost layer. It is these inner layers that take the sweat.

Whether spares exist therefore differs by layer. Under-robes, half-collars and tabi next to the skin are kept in multiples and rotated through the wash: they are relatively easy to make and are of washable material. The great outer pieces are another matter altogether — a gold-embroidered uchikake, or the vast suō of Shibaraku, worked by hand from weaving to needlework, can take from several months to more than half a year to make. A second one is simply not on the table.

So the great pieces are protected rather than replaced. After each curtain they are aired, the damp of sweat drawn out for the next day, while the inner layers stop the sweat from reaching them at all. Between these two measures, one garment carries a month-long run. What looks new every day on stage is in fact the same single piece, held up by maintenance done every night. It is this accumulation that lets a costume keep working for decades.