Tortoiseshell beam - Tortoiseshell beam

…In 1842 and 1843, the two new theaters were built and opened, and the Yoshiwara pleasure quarters, Sensoji Temple, and the Saruwakacho theater district adjacent to Okuyama were formed, and the area flourished for 30 years during the last years of the Tokugawa Shogunate. During the Ansei period (1854-60), the 12th Kabuki stagehand Kanbei Hasegawa devised the use of a tortoiseshell beam to remove the pillars that had been in the way of the auditorium.
[Incorporation of Western-style structures]
With the Meiji Restoration, the various shogunate regulations that had restricted Kabuki were abolished one by one.

*Some of the terminology that refers to "Tortoiseshell beam" is listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

…1842,43年にそれぞれが新築開場し，吉原の遊里や浅草寺，また奥山に隣接した猿若町に芝居町が形成され，幕末の30年間にわたって殷賑（いんしん）をきわめる。歌舞伎大道具方の棟梁12世長谷川勘兵衛によって，安政期(1854‐60)に，それまで客席にあってじゃまであった柱を除く〈亀甲梁（きつこうばり）〉が工夫された。
［洋風構造の摂取］
　明治維新を迎えると，歌舞伎を拘束していた幕府の諸条例が次々に廃止されていく。…

※「亀甲梁」について言及している用語解説の一部を掲載しています。

出典｜株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典 第２版について | 情報