Maholo Terajima, a ten-year-old Franco-Japanese child, will make his official kabuki debut in May, becoming the first recognized binational actor in this form of traditional Japanese theater, of which his grandfather is one of the stars.
"
I've loved kabuki since I was little
," said the young actor on Tuesday during a press conference at the French Embassy in Tokyo.
“
I will train so hard that the audience will enjoy the show
,” he promised.
Maholo Terajima is the son of Japanese film actress Shinobu Terajima, herself the daughter of Onoe Kikugoro VII, designated a "living national treasure" by the Japanese government.
Maholo's father is a French artistic director.
"
I would like to do a kabuki performance one day in my father's country, France
," the actor said in French, dressed in a black kimono and wide gray pleated "hakama" pants worn during big occasions.
Read alsoKabuki, Japanese theater costumes
The links between France and Japan "
are also manifested through the dialogue between the traditional forms of Japanese theater and contemporary French creation, which you embody
", said the French ambassador, Philippe Setton.
Maholo has already appeared on stage several times since he was four years old, but the performance he will give in May in Tokyo will mark his debut under the stage name Onoe Maholo.
He is the first bi-national child to officially become a kabuki actor, but actor Ichimura Uzaemon, adopted in the late 19th century by a middle-class family, is believed to have had a French-American father.
This traditional Japanese art that appeared in the 17th century combines dance, theater and music, and all the roles are held by men, even if women appeared in it at its beginnings.
Actors, descendants of families of kabuki performers, typically begin training from childhood, donning elaborate costumes, wigs, and heavy makeup to perform in rich sets.
