Kabuki Star Beaten Up By “Half-Black” Man
A few days ago, Kabuki mega star Ichikawa Ebizo was admitted to the hospital with serious facial injuries after having been beaten up. Few details were reported other than the fact that there was some kind of argument that led to a fight. Ebizo and other witnesses to the brawl were not offering much information about the identity of the person who beat him up, apparently because the attacker was a yakuza or gangster of some sort.
The 32-year-old actor says he was drinking with his friends at a restaurant in Tokyo’s Nishiazabu district on Wednesday night, where they met with a group of people. He went to another restaurant with the group, where he got into an argument and was beaten up, according to the police.
Ebizo suffered injuries on his left eye and nose, and a broken front tooth, while he remains fully conscious, they said.
The police are investigating the incident as a case of suspected assault.
An article on ZakZak.co.jp included the above graphic showing the areas of Ebizo’s face that sustained damage. With his once handsome face so badly mauled, he will be out of action for a few months while doctors do their best to repair the damage.
Here’s an approximation of his appearance (created by somebody on 2-channel):
As I don’t normally follow Kabuki news, I wasn’t planning on posting about this story. However, the story took an unexpected twist yesterday when details started to emerge about the man who beat up Ebizo:
The first part of the headline states, “The Criminal was Half-Black?” It goes on to describe how Ebizo ended up drinking with a gang of some sort, and may have provoked the attack by drunkenly berating and messing with one of the gang members who had passed out. A fight broke out, and Ebizo was beaten up by a man who was described as appearing to be half-black [黒人のハーフのように見えた]. There is also speculation that the gang took Ebizo’s mobile phone, and that the star might be afraid to talk because of the private information that the phone contains.
A couple reports that appeared in the more sensational sports newspapers emphasized the huge size of the assailant by apparently quoting eyewitness accounts that compare the man to foreign athletes:
The Yomiuri’s Sports Hochi paper ran a headline in which the attacker was described as looking like Bob Sapp. The Mainichi and the Sponichi paper decided to go with another account, which describes the attacker as looking like Dennis Rodman. The Rodman comparison apparently comes from the fact that the guy had dyed hair. Ebizo is quoted as describing the man as a “black-colored” and “foreign-looking” [外国人風の色の黒い男].
The latest reports state the police have issued an arrest warrant for the man. He is apparently a 26-year-old former soccer player who used to be a forward on a junior-level J-League team.
Update: Nihon Television is reporting that the man is half-American[アメリカ人の父と日本人の母のハーフ], but ZakZak.co.jp is saying that he’s half-Central/South American[中南米系のハーフ]. Both seem to agree that the man’s mother is Japanese.
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