Kabuki actor Nakamura Kotaro, 32, faces an assault allegation over a woman aged 26, his second violence scandal in two years, and Daily Shincho reports that his return to the stage now looks hopeless, with the future of one of kabuki's most storied names in question.
The first scandal came in June last year, when Weekly Shincho, a sister publication of Daily Shincho, reported severe domestic violence by Kotaro against his wife, who is in her 30s. He was then arrested in October this year on suspicion of assaulting a woman he knows.
A person close to the matter told the magazine that Kotaro had been suspended for more than a year and four months after the violence against his wife. Those around him had been considering a full comeback for him at the start of the new year.
"Then the second act of violence happened," the person said.
A run of trouble in kabuki
Kotaro is not the only kabuki actor in trouble this year. In January, Nakamura Tsurumatsu, 31, was arrested after he destroyed the door of a restaurant while heavily drunk.
In July, Nakamura Kosaburo, 77, who shares the same family stage name, was referred to prosecutors on suspicion of a hit-and-run involving a woman in her 20s.
Tsurumatsu returned to the stage on October 1 in a performance at Heisei Nakamura-za after a nine-month suspension. Kosaburo was not indicted in October.
Negotiations over Kotaro's divorce from his wife were expected to conclude if the two sides could agree on money, the person said. "An onnagata who plays women assaulting a woman is no joke," the person said, referring to the male actors who specialize in female roles. "Kotaro stands at the brink of whether he can keep being a kabuki actor."
The weight of a name
Kotaro's father is Nakamura Fukusuke IX, 66, who also heads the Nakamura school of Japanese dance. His grandfather was Nakamura Shikan VII, who was designated a Living National Treasure in 1996.
Fukusuke took the name Nakamura Utaemon VII in 2014, a major title for an onnagata, and Kotaro was to inherit the name Fukusuke as its tenth holder. Fukusuke suffered a cerebral hemorrhage the year before, and both successions remain on hold.
Fukusuke returned to the stage in autumn 2018, but his body no longer moves as it once did and the succession is seen as difficult. Ichikawa Danjuro, 48, took pity on Kotaro after his father collapsed and reached out to him, casting him as the courtesan Agemaki opposite his own role in the play Sukeroku.
The support helped Kotaro grow into what the person called a young onnagata to watch. "But lately Danjuro has been appalled and keeps his distance," the person said.
After the second case, Kotaro told the magazine: "I had been aiming to return, but I think I can never stand on the stage again."
An heir from outside the line
Nakamura Utaemon V and VI ruled over kabuki from the Taisho era into the Showa era. If Kotaro cannot return, not only Utaemon but even the Fukusuke succession looks hopeless.
Fukusuke's younger brother is Nakamura Shikan VIII, 61. His wife, the former actress Mita Noriko, 60, has three sons: Nakamura Hashinosuke, 30, Fukunosuke, 29, and Utanosuke, 25. All play male roles, not onnagata.
That has left people talking about a fallback: the succession of Nakamura Shichinosuke, 43, described as the leader of onnagata after Bando Tamasaburo, 76. Shichinosuke's mother, Yoshie, 67, is a daughter of Shikan VII and a sister of Fukusuke and Shikan VIII.
Shikan VII was Shichinosuke's grandfather, and Kotaro is his cousin. The Nakamura family has no other major name besides Kanzaburo, which his elder brother Kankuro, 45, will inherit, and that shortage of names is cited as the basis for the talk.
The collapse of one of kabuki's most promising young actors has cast a shadow over where its great names go next.