Child actors are indispensable in kabuki. They play a wide variety of roles, ranging from a tragic boy who willingly sacrifices his life for his parents to an apprentice at a merchant family who speaks on equal terms with adults by delivering witty dialogue.
The generation of child actors born in the 2010s is now excelling on stage.
Kazufumi Terajima, age 5, will appear in this month's program at the Kabukiza Theatre in Tokyo, which will start on May 3. He will perform under the stage name Onoe Ushinosuke VII for the first time and will play the title role in the act titled "Ehon Ushiwakamaru" (The Picture Book of Ushiwakamaru).
During a recent rehearsal, Kazufumi was given instructions from his father, Onoe Kikunosuke, about performing a fight scene.
"Put your hand here. Not that way, this way ... The sword should be in front of your feet!" Kikunosuke, 41, said to his son.
"Some days, he runs out of motivation," Kikunosuke said. "But when I tell him the days left until opening day, he gets motivated and starts rehearsing again."
Kazufumi has appeared on stage several times under his real name since he was 2. For a kabuki actor, however, making his stage-name debut marks a major milestone. Both Kazufumi's father and grandfather, Onoe Kikugoro, a living national treasure, used to perform under the stage name Ushinosuke.
When Kikunosuke made his stage-name debut in 1984 under the name of Onoe Ushinosuke VI, he played the same role in "Ehon Ushiwakamaru."
"While telling Kazufumi how to play the part, I recalled that I did the same moves in my debut performance," Kikunosuke said.
The celebratory stage curtain to be used for the play is designed by legendary anime director Hayao Miyazaki. Those who will costar in the production will include not just Kikugoro and Kikunosuke, but also Nakamura Kichiemon, who is Kazufumi's maternal grandfather and also a living national treasure. He will also deliver a greeting to the audience to celebrate his grandson's debut.
Kazufumi is a future heir of the Onoe Kikugoro family -- also known by the family stage name Otowaya -- which has produced many distinguished actors since the Edo period (1603-1867), and the gorgeous celebrations for the boy's stage debut indicate what high expectations are placed on him.
"He's lucky that he can make his stage debut in the first year of [the new era] Reiwa," Kikugoro said of his grandson. "Do your best."
The sons or grandsons of kabuki actors who currently perform on stage include Nakamura Kantaro, 8, and Nakamura Chozaburo, 5, who are sons of Nakamura Kankuro; Mahoro Terajima, 6, another grandson of Onoe Kikugoro and the son of actress Shinobu Terajima; Kangen Horikoshi, 6, the son of Ichikawa Ebizo; Ichikawa Ukon, 9, the son of Ichikawa Udanji; and Bando Kamesaburo, 6, the son of Bando Hikosaburo.
There is also a way for those who are not from kabuki families to take to the stage as child actors. In 2014, Shochiku Co. opened a school to train child kabuki actors, accepting boys and girls from age 4 up to elementary school ages. Although women are forbidden to be kabuki actors, girls are allowed to perform on stage.
About 150 children have registered at the school so far, of whom more than 100 have appeared on stage. Last year, one of the students in the school's inaugural class became a disciple of Kataoka Ainosuke and was given the stage name Kataoka Aizaburo to start his apprenticeship.
-- Morishige covers traditional performing arts.
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