Question: Are your training your son to become your successor?

Mr. Yamanaka: What Kageaki winds up doing is up to him. Young kids don't study traditional arts like noh on their own, though, and so I want to teach him the basics so he'll be able to keep up if he does choose to become a professional.

Question: You performed on stage for the first time when you were just four years old. Haven't you found it hard sometimes to go through practice as the son of a noh professional?

Kageaki: Not at all.

Kageaki practices every day as the performance approaches.

Question: Kageaki has very long hair, like a girl. Why is that?

Mr. Yamanaka: In the past, the Japanese used to tie their hair in a topknot. This practice ended, unfortunately, when Japan began modernizing at the end of the nineteenth century. Still, long hair looks better when you wear an eboshi [a type of hat worn by aristocrats], especially when you're still a boy. Quite a number of plays have roles for children. A majority of them are for boys, but often the characters are treated neither as male nor female. Having long hair when playing such roles looks terrific. It becomes harder to keep your long hair when you get older, so I thought I'd let my son experience it while he's a kid.

Question: Do you like your hairstyle, Kageaki?

Kageaki: Sure. I love it

Question: Don't your friends pick on you?

Kageaki: Yeah, some do, but I don't pay any attention. I tell them I'm not a girl.

Kageaki gets detailed instructions from his teacher, his father.

Question: Has anything changed since Kageaki began practicing noh?

Mr. Yamanaka: Unfortunately, his manners haven't gotten any better, and he isn't any more composed than before.

Mrs. Yamanaka: He doesn't seem as shy, though, about getting in front of people and performing in the school play.


Question: How often does he practice?

Mr. Yamanaka: Kageaki has a performance about once a month. He should know his part by heart about two weeks before, and practices during the final week are held every day. I try to make noh as natural a part of Kageaki's everyday life as possible; so sometimes, we have singing lessons while taking a bath together.

Question: Is there anything you particularly look out for during practice?

Mr. Yamanaka: I tell him to be 100 percent focused when performing on stage. It's very easy to make careless mistakes.

Mrs. Yamanaka: He'll be in tears after a performance when he slips up.

Question: Do you want to become a professional noh actor when you grow up?

Kageaki: Yes. I'd like to be a noh actor like my father.

Kageaki getting changed. His father puts his kimono on.