If the children wear wigs and makeup but the adult actor does not — is that still kabuki?

Behind this question lies a rather fundamental one: is kabuki the costume? The kumadori, the wig and the magnificent robes are its face — but is it not kabuki without them?

Look at how kabuki is actually performed and the answer is clear. Su-odori — a kabuki actor dancing in formal montsuki-hakama — omits the costume, yet is recognised as a dignified form in its own right. Indeed, since there is no help from the robes, the bodily technique stands exposed, and connoisseurs sometimes regard it as the harder form. Simplification and imitation are entirely different things.

With that in place, consider the case in the question: children in costume while the actor teaches in plain dress. This is common at school performances, regional playhouses and workshops. What is happening there is the handing on of an art. A child puts on the robes, learns what a wig weighs, and the actor beside him shows the kata. It is a different activity from presenting a finished production, but it belongs just as fully to kabuki. From the standpoint of transmission, such occasions are precisely where future audiences and future bearers are raised. If one understands kabuki as a culture to include not only the works performed but the process by which they are passed on, the answer is obvious.