How are sets and large stage properties stored?

The sliding doors, the staircases, the house structures called yatai, the panel painted with a pine — none of this is smashed up at the end of a run. Specialist scenery companies keep warehouses and store the pieces sorted by play. When a staging is fixed they come out again, damaged parts are repaired, and they are adjusted to the width and height of that particular theatre before returning to the stage.

What makes this reuse possible is the idea of jōshiki — established convention. Kabuki scenery is standardised by type of scene: this kind of scene calls for this construction. The pine panel used in matsubamemono, the yatai for townhouse scenes, the fittings of a palace interior — these form a system, so the same pieces serve across different plays. The jōshiki in jōshiki-maku, the striped house curtain, carries the same sense. Sharing fixed forms is what lets a stage come together in a short preparation window.

Not everything, of course, can be met from stock. Devices peculiar to one play, or properties for a new conception, are built for the occasion. And because wood suffers from damp and from transport, storage and repair are continuous work. Something that passes in an instant as background from the seats may have been maintained in a warehouse for decades.