A Noh stage of solid hinoki cypress stands three floors beneath GINZA SIX. The distance between the retail floors above and the stage below is what produces a rank no other venue can manufacture. The Kanze school is the largest school of Nohgaku, descending from Kan'ami and Zeami, who brought Noh to its full form. In 2017 it moved its cypress stage from Shoto in Shibuya and opened a 480-seat theater here. Guests ride an elevator down through one of the world's leading luxury malls and come face to face with a stage carrying 600 years.
The room works in two acts. The 480-seat house — 261 seats front, 158 center-side, 59 side and two wheelchair spaces — takes a formal symposium, a dialogue or a corporate conference exactly as it is. To close, real Noh can be performed on that same stage, and the room built for argument becomes a space of yugen, the beauty that lies past what can be stated. The heritage the venue carries lifts the rank of the event quietly and decisively.
Ginza and Noh together give central access and cultural standing with no compromise on either. No journey to a regional Noh theater is required: at one of Ginza's best addresses, guests meet the cypress stage of an orthodox school. When a traditional art is wanted at the core of an event rather than as an amusement, few venues satisfy formality and convenience at once.