Kabuki is a traditional Japanese performing art, registered as an "Intangible Cultural Heritage" by UNESCO. In Gifu Prefecture, part of the Shoryudo, Central region of Japan, a couple of hours north of Nagoya, you can experience Edo-period (1603-1868) style Jikabuki or "local Kabuki" theater up close and personal. You can even have a chance to watch a local townsperson actor(s) get ready before a performance – makeup, costume, wig, and all.  Or you can even try getting made up as an actor yourself! At Aioiza, a small museum and shibai-goya (playhouse) in the Gifu town of Mizunami, my companions and I watched as makeup was applied onto a local actor by a professional male geisha – one of only seven in Japan, and the only one in Gifu. (The other six male geisha are based in Tokyo.) This same geisha also demonstrated some percussion sound effects used in the various... keep reading