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Kabuki kids: the children of Japan’s traditional theatre

May 04, 2023 (Dawn) - Mahalo Terajima made his debut kabuki performance in Tokyo on May 1, 2023, becoming Japan’s first officially recognised dual national kabuki actor.

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 child made his first appearance to rapturous applause this week under his new stage name, Onoe Maholo, at Tokyo’s Kabuki-za theatre, the storied home of the classical artform.

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. “Practice is hard,” the soft-spoken Terajima said, conceding he is sometimes jealous of friends who don’t have hours of training after school.

With his debut, Terajima has taken up the mantle of his maternal grandfather, the celebrated kabuki actor Onoe Kikugoro VII. ...continue reading

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Typhoon Jangmi (Typhoon No. 6) swept across Japan on June 3rd, bringing record-breaking rainfall, widespread flooding, landslides, transport disruptions, and powerful winds, while prompting Tokyo's first-ever issuance of a Level 4 danger alert under the country's new weather warning system. The storm also exposed challenges surrounding evacuation behavior, as many residents chose not to leave their homes despite official warnings affecting more than 1.6 million people across the Tokyo metropolitan area.

[updated 10:50 p.m.] Typhoon Jangmi (Typhoon No. 6) continued to disrupt transport across eastern Japan late on June 3rd, although many major rail and air services began shifting into recovery mode after the storm moved away into the Pacific, with nearly 900 flights canceled during the day, several regional railway lines still suspended, and operators warning that delays and reduced services could linger into June 4th.

As Typhoon Jangmi (Typhoon No. 6) struck Wakayama Prefecture on June 3rd, the storm became the first major test of Japan's newly introduced disaster weather warning system, revealing both the benefits of earlier evacuation calls and the challenges local authorities faced in helping residents understand and respond to the new alerts.

Flooding was reported around the popular tourist district of Oharai-machi in Ise City following the passage of Typhoon No. 6, with some businesses forced to clean up after floodwaters overflowed from a nearby river during the early hours of June 3rd.

A breaking weather alert was issued for the Izu region of Shizuoka Prefecture early Wednesday morning, after the formation of a linear rain band, a phenomenon capable of producing prolonged and extremely intense rainfall over the same area. Authorities warned that the risk of disasters has risen sharply as heavy rain continues to fall, increasing the likelihood of flooding, landslides, and other weather-related emergencies.

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