Kabuki actor Onoe Kikugoro VIII appeared on Tetsuko Kuroyanagi's long-running talk show "Tetsuko's Room" (TV Asahi) on June 1st. He assumed the name Onoe Kikugoro VIII last May. His father is the seventh Kikugoro, so there are now two Kikugoros, a rare occurrence in the Kabuki world. He spoke about the circumstances surrounding his succession to the name Onoe Kikugoro VIII.
He inherited the name of the eighth Kikugoro last May, and says that "a year has passed in the blink of an eye." When his father, the seventh Kikugoro, told him that he would inherit the name of Kikugoro, he revealed his feelings, saying, "I was surprised. My father had protected the name of Kikugoro as the seventh Kikugoro for over 50 years, so I thought that as long as my father was alive I would protect the Otowaya family as Kikunosuke."
My father told me, "You should take over," and at first I didn't understand what he meant. As soon as I took over the name Kikugoro, he said, "Why don't you have your son take over the name Kikunosuke?" When I asked him, "Does that mean you're going to change your name to something other than Kikugoro?" he said, "No, I'm going to stick with this name." "My father is the seventh, and I am the eighth," so there are now two Kikugoros. When I perform in the same show as my father, I'm written as "Eighth Kikugoro."
He feels that "the name Kikugoro is a very important name for the Otowaya family, and it is also a very significant name in the world of Kabuki." A year has passed since he inherited the name, and he has grown somewhat accustomed to it. "Recently, people have started calling me the eighth generation, and when they say the eighth generation, I think, 'Oh, they must be talking about me,'" he said.
