In 2025, Japanese cinema witnessed a rare phenomenon: Kokuho, a film about the world of Kabuki, became both a cultural and box-office success. Rather than being a niche period piece, the film has drawn new, younger audiences to Kabuki theatres across Japan and sparked debate about how a centuries-old art form can remain alive in a global, digital era.
Kabuki is a 400-year-old theatrical tradition known for stylized movement, elaborate makeup, and hereditary acting lineages. Kokuho, directed by Lee Sang-il and based on Shuichi Yoshida’s novel, follows Kikuo Tachibana, the son of a former yakuza who is adopted into a Kabuki family and trained to become an onnagata – a male actor performing female roles. The casting itself mirrors the story’s theme of “outsiders breaking in”: lead actors Ryo Yoshizawa and Ryusei Yokohama are not from Kabuki families and spent about 18 months training in authentic Kabuki dance and gesture under professional masters.
Japanese media report that the film’s success has boosted ticket sales at Kabuki theatres and ignited new interest among young people in an art once seen as closed and hierarchical.
Image: A person walks by a poster of film “Kokuho,” in Tokyo, on Aug. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama); A movie about the Kabuki theater is a surprise hit in soul-searching Japan
When Kabuki Awakens: Kokuho and the Neuroscience of Artistic Empathy
Neuroscientists have shown that mirror neurons activate both when we perform an action and when we watch someone else perform it. When audiences watch Kabuki’s precise steps, stylized poses, and controlled breathing on screen, their mirror-neuron systems silently “rehearse” the same movements, creating a sense of embodied empathy. This helps explain why viewers can feel physically engaged – heart racing, muscles tensing – even if they have never set foot on a Kabuki stage.
For the actors, mastering Kabuki required intensive motor learning: repeating complex patterns until neural pathways in the motor cortex encoded the movements as “muscle memory.” Their training is a living demonstration of how the brain forms new connections to acquire a completely foreign physical language, linking biological plasticity with the preservation of cultural heritage.
Research from UCLA and others shows that cultural familiarity can modulate mirror-neuron responses: people’s brains react differently when observing actions that belong to their own cultural repertoire compared to unfamiliar ones. In Kokuho, Japanese audiences – already attuned to Kabuki’s gestures – may experience recognition and nostalgia, while international viewers encounter the novelty of a new movement vocabulary, which can trigger heightened attention and reward circuits.
Art and Science, Two Sides of the Same Performance
Kokuho demonstrates that tradition and innovation need not be opposites. Its cultural impact – reviving ticket sales and inspiring a generation of newcomers – coincides with biological truths: our brains are wired to imitate, empathize, and learn through movement.
Science explains why Kabuki can still move us; Kabuki proves how art can reshape the brain. When the curtain rises and the drums begin, neurons mirror the dance of centuries. Through Kokuho, the body remembers, the brain resonates, and an ancient art speaks fluently to the present.
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A movie about the Kabuki theater is a surprise hit in soul-searching Japan
