Ninagawa Twelfth Night In 2005,
Ninagawa Twelfth Night, based on
William Shakespeare's play and directed by
Yukio Ninagawa, was performed at the
Kabuki-za. Kikunosuke commissioned the stage director
Yukio Ninagawa to produce a Kabuki adaptation of
Twelfth Night for years. Ninagawa had never directed a Kabuki play before and had never considered producing one, but he was moved by Kikunosuke's enthusiasm and accepted the production. Kikunosuke had appeared in Ninagawa's stage production of
The Greeks in 2000. Since then he had asked Ninagawa to direct Kabuki many times. Kikunosuke explained why he chose
Twelfth Night by saying, "I chose Twelfth Night because it's a Shakespeare play with a history about as long as Kabuki's that also contains comedy, which I can do." Kikunosuke played the dual roles of the male and female twins Biwahime (
Viola) and Shiba-shuzennosuke (
Sebastian). His father Kikugoro VII played the dual roles of Maruobodayu (
Malvolio) and Sutesuke (
Feste). The play was so well received that it was performed again at the Kabuki-za in 2007, and then at the
Barbican Centre in
London in March 2009. The London audience applauded the vividly eye-catching setting of
cherry blossoms in full bloom and a colony of
lilies on a
moon bridge, as well as Kikunosuke's rapid costume changes, which led to a standing ovation at the
curtain call. Theater critic Philip Fisher, in
The British Theatre Guide criticized that Ninagawa had committed the heresy of having the play re-written with Shakespeare's plays,
The War Chronicles of the Mahabharata Kikunosuke also adapted the Indian ancient
mythological epic
Mahabharata into a Kabuki production. This is the first time in history that an Indian classic performed as a Kabuki play, and was staged in October to commemorate the "Japan-India Friendship Exchange Year" in 2017, which is also the 60th anniversary of the entry into force of The Cultural Agreement Between Japan and India. He conceived, wrote, choreographed, and starred in this work. The idea for this piece began when he saw SPAC's (Shizuoka Performing Arts Center)
Mahabharata Naracharitam, which was performed to rave reviews at
Festival d'Avignon in 2014, and wanted to turn it into a Kabuki play. He then asked SPAC's artistic director, Satoshi Miyazaki, to direct the production, and asked Go Aoki to write the script, which was original and newly created from scratch. According to Miyagi, the SPAC version of the
Mahabharata was staged in the parts of the long original work that did not depict battles, but since Kabuki has traditionally featured many subjects of warfare, he decided to make the work centered on battles, making it a counterpart to SPAC's play. It is a story of a battle between two opposing royal families and the gods who watch over them from above and sometimes change their appearance to engage with human beings. Kikunosuke played the two roles of the main characters,
Karna and
Shiva. Karuna is a hero who contributes to the losing royal family. In kabuki, unfortunate heroes are often portrayed as the protagonists. The Indian gods appearing in the play are dressed in gorgeous golden costumes, inspired by traditional Indian
Kathakali dance Prior to the performance, Kikunosuke visited
India and visited a
Hindu temple to feel the mythical world of the Mahabharata, and saw murals and statues of
Shiva. The play was nearly four hours long, and was well received. In 2023, Kikugoro's son Ushinosuke joined the cast for a second performance, bringing together three generations of Kikugoro and Kikunosuke.
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind In 2019,
Hayao Miyazaki's manga series
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind was adapted into a Kabuki play. Kikunosuke, who is fond of works of
Studio Ghibli, said that he had asked Studio Ghibli for a Kabuki adaptation five years prior to the production. Kikunosuke chose Nausicaa because he said that classical kabuki plays have "
universality" in their content, and that Nausicaa also has "universality" in its theme, and that he wished to depict energy resource problems and environmental issues through Nausicaa, which had not been depicted in kabuki before. He also said that he was attracted to the character of Nausicaa because of the strength and loveliness of the woman Nausicaa. He also said that he hoped to produce something that would appeal to people overseas about Japanese culture in preparation for the
2020 Summer Olympics to be held in
Tokyo. Suzuki explained that he had thought that Miyazaki would probably turn down the idea of a Kabuki adaptation, but for some reason, he said he would do it this time. The music was also rearranged from
Joe Hisaishi's music and performed with Japanese instruments. In July 2022, the cast was changed. Kikunosuke played the role of Kushana, and Nakamura Yonekichi V, who played Kecak in previous performance, played Nausicaa, and the play was performed again at the
Kabuki-za after two and a half years. ==Personal life==