Hanamichi

The hanamichi is typically used for character entrances and exits, though is also used for asides and scenes that do not take place in the location as scenes on the main stage; the hanamichi also typically features a trapdoor just before the runway meets the stage, placed to be visible to everyone in the audience, which is commonly used for character entrances.

The hanamichi was first used in 1668 in the Kawarazaki-za, in the form of a simple wooden plank that reached from the centre of the stage to the middle of the theatre.

Some theatres have since begun to make use of a secondary hanamichi on the right side of the audience, known as "karihanamichi" (仮花道, "copied flower path") which is one-third to half the width of the honhanamichi on the left.

Though rarely used for the main action of a play, much of the more dramatic or famous character moments occur during entrances or exits along the hanamichi.

Many particularly dramatic actions take place seven-tenths of the way down the hanamichi (three-tenths away from the stage), at a spot known in Japanese as shichisan (七三) (lit., "seven-three").