Leading kabuki actor Nakamura Kanzaburo died early Wednesday of acute respiratory distress syndrome at a Tokyo hospital. He was 57.

Kanzaburo, who was also a popular actor in film, TV and stage dramas, made public in June that he had esophageal cancer. He had undergone surgery and had been receiving treatment since then.

Kanzaburo, whose real name was Noriaki Namino, was born in Tokyo, the first son of Nakamura Kanzaburo XVII. He made his debut in 1959 at the age of 3 as the fifth Nakamura Kankuro and became Nakamura Kanzaburo XVIII in 2005 in a name-succession ceremony known as "shumei."