On the final day of my short trip to Shikoku Island, I visited an old theater named "Kanamaruza" in Kotohira Town. It's a historic theater constructed in 1835 especially for performing kabuki. As you know, kabuki is a Japanese traditional performing art. Its stage makeup is very vivid. Kabuki is usually performed in the urban large theaters; however, Kanamaruza is an exceptionally famous kabuki theater located in the countryside of Japan. I fully appreciated the traditional architecture of Kanamaruza.
It was time to go home. I took the JR Shikoku-Dosan line from Kotohira station. My vehicle was the limited express train, "Nanpu (south wind)", the JR Shikoku 2700 series. Along with "Marine Liner", Nanpu is the inter-island train. Connecting Okayama on the Honshu Island (the mainland of Japan) and Kochi, the major city in the southern part of Shikoku Island, the total operating length is 180 kilometers. The 2700 series is a DMU (diesel multiple unit), because Nanpu is partially operated on the unelectrified track. It was launched in 2019 to replace the old model, the DMU 2000 series. 41 cars in total were built by Kawaski Heavy Industries. One car has two 331kW diesel engines made by Komatsu. The 2700 series is so-called a "pendulum train" with a computer-controlled tilting mechanism. For passing through tight curves in mountain ranges at a high speed, the train automatically tilts its body to mitigate the centrifugal force just before entering the tight curves. Its maximum angle of inclination is five degrees.
