Like most 10-year-olds in Japan, Maholo Terajima enjoys baseball and video games, but recently his schedule has also included lessons in sword fighting, choreography and fan dancing — preparations for his kabuki debut.
The French-Japanese boy made his first appearance to rapturous applause this week under his new stage name, Onoe Maholo, at Tokyo's Kabukiza theater, the storied home of the classical art form.
He joins just a handful of children who tread the boards in the ranks of Japan's kabuki actors, part of a tradition that is hundreds of years old.