Wig master Tadashi Kamoji (left) helps kabuki actor Nakamura Tanenosuke to put on his wig before a performance at the Kabukiza theater in Tokyo. | AFP-JIJI

Every actor in kabuki relies on one final, essential element to fully inhabit their role: the wig.

Ahead of a show at the famed Kabukiza theater in central Tokyo, wig master Tadashi Kamoji carefully places a topknot creation on a young performer in a flamboyant kimono costume.

"A kabuki actor can't just walk onto the stage as he is … it's only when he puts on a wig that he truly becomes a kabuki performer," says Kamoji, 60. "So we must take pride in our job with a sense of very heavy responsibility."

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