[11] He made his stage debut in February 1984 under the name Onoe Ushinosuke VI in Ushiwakamaru in The picture book Ushiwakamaru, and succeeded the name Onoe Kikunosuke V in May 1996 in roles such as Benten Kozō Kikunosuke in Benten Musume Meo no Shiranami.
[11] In 2000, he played Murasaki no Ue in the Kabuki production of The Tale of Genji and received favorable reviews along with other young kabuki actors such as Ichikawa Shinnosuke VII (current Ichikawa Danjūrō XIII) as Hikaru Genji and Onoe Tatsunosuke II (current Onoe Shoroku IV) as Tō No Chūjō, and became popular among the masses as "the Sannosuke of Heisei era.
[23][12] His major appearances in TV series include Onihei Hankachō The Final and La Grande Maison Tokyo, Taiga drama Aoi and Segodon.
Kikunosuke commissioned the stage director Yukio Ninagawa to produce a Kabuki adaptation of Twelfth Night for years.
[26] 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.
[28] Kikunosuke played the dual roles of the male and female twins Biwahime (Viola) and Shiba-shuzennosuke (Sebastian).
[31] 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.
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.
[37] 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.
[38] 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.
[45] 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.
[43][47] 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 unprecedented attempt to depict the world of the epic story in the original seven-volume manga by presenting it as a new Kabuki play with a daytime and evening performance, created a great sensation upon its announcement.
[48] Tickets for the performance were difficult to obtain, so in February and March of the following year, both the first and second parts were screened in movie theaters nationwide for a limited period of one week each.