Are there TV commercials for kabuki?

There are two layers to kabuki publicity. One is the announcement of a run itself — this month, this theatre, these plays. The other is indirect: an actor appears in a company's advertising, and kabuki comes into view as a by-product. The answer to "is there a TV commercial" depends on which of the two you mean.

Production spots do air, but not uniformly across the country: how a run is promoted varies with the theatre's region and the scale of the engagement. In recent years the centre of announcement has moved toward trailers on official sites, video channels and social media, so someone watching only broadcast television may reasonably conclude there are no commercials. To follow productions reliably, the theatre's and Shochiku's official pages — and the actors' own feeds — are the faster route.

The second layer — actors in advertising — is in fact an old story. In Edo, actor prints served as the pin-ups and posters of their day, and the names, favourite colours and patterns of popular actors were used to sell cosmetics, trinkets and sweets. That a colour name like Danjūrō-cha survives to this day is a trace of exactly that. Modern corporate commercials sit on the same long line. Someone who has never seen a play learns an actor's face and name first, and comes to the theatre from there — a route that is travelled often.