9 Best Performing Arts in Kyoto, Japan

This theater's 50-minute performances sample five traditional disciplines: gagaku (court music), kyomai (Kyoto-style dance), Bunraku (puppet theater), kyogen (comic drama), and koto (Japanese harp). The theater is old, the seats aren't comfortable, and this is definitely a tourist trap, but it's also only place to see these performing arts most of year. The admission price is a bargain considering the number of talented artists involved.

This is one of Kyoto's oldest Noh schools. The libretto is all in Japanese, with only some information in English.

This theater presenting performances of the Kongo school of Noh drama was moved to this location on the former estate of an aristocrat. The architecture is completely modern, but the garden—there's a view of it from the lobby—is completely traditional. English translations of the librettos are often available.

The architect Isozaki Arata designed this complex that has a huge round glass facade and a spiral entrance walkway up to the 1,839-seat Main Hall, the home of the Kyoto Symphony Orchestra. Visiting orchestras and artists, including excellent ones unknown outside Asia, also perform here and in the 514-seat Ensemble Hall. Ask your concierge for a schedule. There's a restaurant on the ground floor.

The renovated Minami-za theater, the oldest in Japan, hosts Kabuki performances most of the year. Even the mounted posters announcing the plays here are beautifully rendered. The typical Kabuki performance can last up to four hours; there are two shows daily. Box lunches are the choice meal during a play so that one does not miss anything. Front downstairs seats are often occupied by the “who's who” of the world of maiko and geiko.

The maiko and geiko of the Ponto-cho district perform at this theater in spring and fall. Occasionally other dance performances are scheduled here.