Tatsunosuke Onoe; Leading Kabuki Actor

Tatsunosuke Onoe, a celebrated Kabuki performer who also took starring roles in Japanese productions of Shakespeare and headed his family’s dance school in Japan, has died in Tokyo.

Sources in Los Angeles confirmed that Onoe, 40, died last Saturday in a Tokyo hospital after a long battle against liver disease.

Scion of a family with a long theatrical history, one of his last Southern California appearances was with the Grand Kabuki at UCLA’s Royce Hall nearly two years ago when he performed the title role in “The Sword Thief.”

A year earlier, he appeared in the comedy dance-drama “Tsuchi-gumo” at the Japan America Theater in Little Tokyo.

Onoe, whose name at birth was Toru Fujima, was the son of Shoroku II, a performer revered in Japan as a national living treasure who survives him. He also leaves a son, Sakon.

In addition to his career in Kabuki, Onoe played the Shakespearean parts of Iago and Richard III and under the name of Kanyemon Fujima VI headed the Fujima Classical Dance School, an institution more than 200 years old.