Sajiki

桟敷　さじき

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歌舞伎

The audience seating area on both sides and at the rear of an Edo-period kabuki theatre. In kabuki’s early days in outside venues there was a single level of roofed sajiki on either side of the doma. The sajiki became two levels when theatres became permanent and enclosed in the early eighteenth century. The left-side “western” sajiki, right-side “eastern” sajiki, and the rear “facing” sajiki made up the different gallery sections. Tickets to sit in the sajiki were expensive relative to the doma and varied according to level and proximity to the stage, partly because they allowed for better viewing and partly for the greater luxury and privacy they afforded.

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