>> tonight, on this special edition of "60 minutes presents," home for the holidays. few people can say they have ever played at the super bowl. this year, shakira added her name to that list. we went to spain to watch the 5'3" ball of energy work, mix a new song, and keep the father of ♪ ♪ and keep the father of her two children, barca star gerard pique, on his toes. >> you said i'm going to win the world cup just to see you at the finals. >> okay. >> didn't you?

>> okay. ( laughter ) ( ticking ) ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> this musical prodigy has been performing around the world since he was 11 years old. ♪ ♪ and he's blind. which caught the attention of this neuroscientist, who wanted to see what would happen inside his brain. >> okay. shall we give it a shot? >> yep. >> the part that's used for sight when he listens to music. >> this is what changes in his brain. >> jeez, lights up. ( ticking ) >> kabuki is-- well, what is it, exactly? performed exclusively by men, part opera, part dance, part pro wrestling. and it is proudly more than a little over the top.

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later, we'll meet a star of japan's kabuki theater, and a blind american pianist whose musical talent is so unusual doctors are studying his brain. but we begin with shakira, one of the world's biggest music stars. a crossover phenomenon with hits in both spanish and english. she has won three grammys, 11 latin grammys and amassed a $350 million fortune. on her 43rd birthday, she hit one of her highest notes: performing at the half-time show at this year's super bowl with jennifer lopez. the show, and a new music video that went viral this month, helped make her the top trending musician on google this year in the u.s. it's a remarkable journey for a woman who was cut from her elementary school choir in colombia-- her classmates said she sounded like a goat. shakira now lives in spain. we went to see her there and,

as we first reported in january, found an artist bristling with restless energy and drive that sometimes torture her, but always propel her, lifting her to one of the biggest stages in the world: the super bowl in miami. two months before kickoff. ♪ ♪ shakira lit up center court at the davis cup tennis tournament in madrid with the kind of full-throated, hip- thrusting performance that has electrified audiences for more than two decades. this was her first live performance in more than a year-- a warm-up for the super bowl and a showcase for the distinctive music and eye-catching moves that have catapulted her to one-name international pop star status. ♪ ♪ shakira fills huge stadiums around the world. her devotees cry out-- sometimes

just plain cry-- to hear hits like, "hips don't lie." ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ i've seen you running around. you go from guitar to drums, and the dancing and the singing. it just looks like you're having so much fun. are you? >> shakira: oh, yeah. i have a blast on stage. i feel that that's my turf. it's a comfortable place for me. >> whitaker: do you feel the music? >> shakira: i listen to music through my body. even when i'm mixing songs in the recording studio, if i don't move, i know that there's something wrong. i say, "do you see them moving? do you see my hips moving? it's not working." ( laughs ) hips don't lie. >> whitaker: a lot of your dance

moves are quite provocative. >> shakira: that's what my mom says. ( laughs ) >> whitaker: that's what your mom says. >> shakira: now you're sounding like her. ( laughter ) it just comes out like that. >> whitaker: so you're just feeling it and that's-- that's what happens. >> shakira: it's the way i move, baby. ( laughter ) ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> whitaker: when it comes to her moves and her music, shakira leaves nothing to chance. the davis cup performance in november was just eight minutes. she spent a full month rehearsing. ♪ ♪ when we dropped in, we saw an artist in constant motion and total control. she fine tunes the fine points of every performance. no detail is too small, whether working on the choreography... critiquing the dancers... >> i'm the hair police. >> can we start over?

>> whitaker: or directing the timing of the show. >> shakira: from "she wolf" into "tutu," right? that's the one you stretched out? >> whitaker: they used to call james brown the hardest working man in show business. it seemed to us shakira is vying for that title. in the studio, on the stage, shakira strives for perfection. >> shakira: i can really be hard on myself wanting it to be 100% perfect, but i know perfection doesn't exist, but it's a lesson i haven't quite learned yet. if it were up to me i wouldn't be celebrating any of my performances. >> whitaker: none of them? >> shakira: none of them, no. there's always something that i wish would have been done differently, and i could have done better. ♪ ♪ >> whitaker: where she sees imperfection, her multitude of fans see incandescence. she has sold 80 million records

worldwide. five albums cracked the u.s. billboard top ten. she writes or co-writes nearly all her songs. ♪ ♪ what does creating the music do for you? >> shakira: sometimes it saves me a visit to a shrink. ( laughs ) literally, it's such-- >> whitaker: it's cathartic? >> shakira: such a therapeutic, yeah, cathartic vehicle, you know, for me to express my thoughts and my angst sometimes i'm just restless, and i don't know what it is. and i think it's what i just need is a piece of paper and a pen or my computer, and just start writing. and then being able to put music to those words. it's something really beautiful, i guess. ♪ ♪ >> whitaker: her distinctive sound is a blend of the music and colors of home, the coastal colombian city of barranquilla--

a melting pot of cultures: indigenous, european, african, middle eastern. >> shakira: i have a little bit of everything in my blood. >> whitaker: you mix all of those elements with your dance and the sounds of your music. >> shakira: you know, when i was a kid, i wanted to be an anthropologist. i guess that somehow i'm kind of vicariously being one through my music. >> whitaker: one of her biggest hits, "waka waka," the anthem for the 2010 soccer world cup, had african roots. >> shakira: there are songs that make you feel like a dog biting your own tail. you never-- ( laughs ) you never figure it out. and there are songs that are so easy that just come to you. songs like "waka waka," for example. >> whitaker: that came to you easily? >> shakira: the music and the lyrics came to me at the same time. ♪ you're a good soldier choosing your battles ♪ pick yourself up dust yourself off ♪ back in the saddle i'm, like, "i need a paper, and

a pen! a paper and a pen! someone, run." >> whitaker: "waka waka" hit number one in more than 15 countries, racked up more than 2.5 billion views on youtube, and it swept gerard pique into her life. the barcelona soccer star was one of several world cup players who appeared in the music video. >> gerard pique: for me, it was, like, very shocking. i had to dance and-- ( laughs ) i'm not-- >> shakira: well, that's not dance, going like this. >> pique: no. no. i had to-- >> shakira: that's not dancing. ( laughs ) >> pique: i had to do some-- some-- some movement. yeah. >> shakira: you did a little bit of that, of the waka. >> whitaker: you had to do the "waka waka" movement? >> pique: and for me, it was ridiculous. >> whitaker: but his one-second cameo was enough to catch shakira's eye. >> shakira: i wasn't a soccer fan, so i didn't know who he was. but when i saw the video, i was like, "hmm. that one's kind of cute." ( laughs ) and then someone decided to introduce us. >> pique: yeah. >> whitaker: the couple now has two boys, live in barcelona and

have enough combined star power that "forbes magazine" named them one of the most powerful couples on the planet. for all intents and purposes, you-- you two are married. >> shakira: we're not married. >> whitaker: but you're not officially married. >> shakira: to tell you the truth, marriage scares the out of me. i don't want him to see me as the wife. i'd rather him see me as his girlfriend. >> pique: the girlfriend. >> shakira: exactly. his lover, his girlfriend. it's like a little forbidden fruit. ( laughs ) you know? i want to keep him on his toes. i want him to think that anything's possible depending on behavior. ( laughter ) >> whitaker: "anything's possible" should be the mantra of shakira isabel mebarak ripoll. at ten, she entered a singing contest and won. at 13, she signed her first record deal. five years later, she was one of the biggest rockeras-- rock stars-- in latin america. but she craved a broader

audience. so she learned english, studied the lyrics of bob dylan and the poetry of walt whitman, and at age 24 was blasting up the u.s. charts with a new look and a new song. ♪ wherever, whenever what made you believe you could make it in the united states? >> shakira: destiny? i had no doubt in my mind. i had visions of what was going to happen to me since a very early age. >> whitaker: it was a steady rise until 2018, when she ran afoul of spanish authorities over when she took up residence and how much tax she owes. she's paid about $16 million while she fights the assessment. it's a staggering sum that would have been unimaginable to a young shakira. when she was seven, her father's jewelry business went bankrupt. the family went from middle class to poor overnight.

what impact did that have on you? >> shakira: oh, a tremendous impact. it was really important to me to vindicate my family's financial situation and social status. and to a point that it became-- an obsession to me. a healthy obsession, i-- i would say. you know, to succeed in life. to bring my dad and my mom out of that precarious situation. i think that i would not be the same person if my dad hadn't had that financial setback. >> whitaker: her father scraped together the money to keep his bookish daughter in catholic school. at 18, with money from her first hit abum, she started a foundation to educate disadvantaged children. why'd you do that? you were a kid yourself. >> shakira: i was a kid myself. i grew up witnessing that many kids my age, many kids just like

me, instead of going to school, were sleeping barefoot in the park. hola! >> whitaker: she has built six schools and educated 23,000 children in colombia. she's considered a global leader on education who lobbies presidents to invest in early childhood development. >> shakira: i've always been convinced that my purpose in life is not to shake it endlessly, you know? ( laughter ) there's got to be so much more to it. you know? my musical career has served as a vehicle to work for children, which is the project of my life. >> whitaker: changing lives, creating music, she says she's as driven as ever. she was working on her latest hit. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> shakira: got you moving. >> whitaker: got me moving. >> shakira: okay, and your hips

don't lie. ( laughter ) >> whitaker: in true shakira fashion, she thought it could be better. >> shakira: there's something in the frequency of the bass that is bugging me a little bit. i was just feeling it as i was listening. ♪ ♪ >> whitaker: pop star, mother, philanthropist. it's a lot to carry on her 5'3" frame. on a walk in barcelona, we got a taste of what it's like to be shakira. >> can i have a photo from you? >> shakira: yeah, of course. >> whitaker: the super bowl was just weeks away. >> shakira: you'll see me in all my splendor. ( laughs ) meaning i'll be, like, stressed out. ( laughs ) >> whitaker: that, she told us, is part of her process-- her drive for perfection which is taking her all the way to the super bowl. >> shakira: i know that was on my to-do list, so, february 3, i'm going to go, "check." >> whitaker: you said you like your music to say something? what would be the message that

you will send in your super bowl performance? >> shakira: i think the message is going to be "listen, i'm a woman. i'm a-- latina. it wasn't easy for me to get to where i am. and being at the super bowl is the proof that everything is possible-- that the dreams of a little girl from barranquilla, colombia, they were made of something of what dreams are made of and i'm going to be there, giving it all. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ( ticking ) drum roll, please! (drumroll noises) another r dud. i'll check the turkey. jiggle it. jiggle it. -just jiggle it. arrgh! ♪ ('hallelelujah chororus') ahah ha ha! incrcredible, dadad! wowow!

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>> whitaker: every so often, someone so young does something so amazing, you can't help but wonder, "how do they do that?" that's what happened the first time we heard matthew whitaker play piano. matthew is a jazz pianist who is blind, and since the age of 11, he's been performing around the world. he's been called a prodigy, and as sharyn alfonsi first reported in february, his talent is so extraordinary, he's also caught the attention of scientists who are now studying his brain and trying to understand his vision of music. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> alfonsi: matthew whitaker doesn't just play music. he plays with it. twisting melodies, crafting

complex harmonies and improvising at lightning speed. ♪ ♪ it's acoustic acrobatics performed over 88 keys and it is not for the faint of heart. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ matthew made his first appearance at the new orleans jazz festival. we watched backstage with his dad. ♪ ♪ the sheer complexity and spontaneity of his sets-- like this "look ma, no hands!" moment-- make the most seasoned musicians sweat, and jazz fans go wild. ♪ ♪ he plays with his shoes off so he can feel the pedals, and his head turned so he can feel the crowd. it's new orleans jazz fest. this is the tiffany of jazz festivals. was this a dream? >> matthew whitaker: it is amazing to be here. like, this is where jazz

started. >> alfonsi: do you get nervous before a big show like this? >> matthew whitaker: honestly, i was a tiny bit nervous. but, you know, once i started playing, i-- i felt good. >> jazz fest is a jambalaya for the senses. it's a lot of music coming at you! >> matthew whitaker: it's a lot! >> alfonsi: we negotiated our way through the thick roux of humidity, suffocating crowds, and the 14 stages of music that often boil over into the fairgrounds. can you hear all the different stages? are you like, is this like overwhelming? we're right behind the tuba. but as we walked around, we noticed matthew was able to cut through the sensory assault and identify songs in seconds. >> matthew whitaker: he's playing "just closer." yeah. "just a closer walk with thee." >> alfonsi: you got that song just that quickly? >> matthew whitaker: yeah. >> alfonsi: i heard like three notes and you already know what song it is? lord! matthew grew up in hackensack, new jersey.

>> moses whitaker: he is just happy all the time. >> alfonsi: his parents, moses and may whitaker, say matthew had an ear for music even before he could even talk. tell me about-- the first time he picked up an instrument. >> moses whitaker: he was playing "twinkle, twinkle, little star." but he was playing it with both hands. matt was playing the chords and the melody of the song at the same-- >> alfonsi: had he had a lesson at this point? >> moses whitaker: he hadn't had a lesson or anything. and he was three years old. so my question was, "okay, who showed him how to do that? somebody had to show matthew how to-- how to play this song." and nobody showed him. >> alfonsi: matthew whitaker was born at 24 weeks. he weighed one pound 11 ounces. his parents were told he had less than a 50% chance of survival. one of the many complications he faced was retinopathy of prematurity, a disease which can lead to blindness. >> may whitaker: i think at the time, i-- i didn't think he was going to make it. so, it was, you know, just-- just very scary. >> alfonsi: may and moses whitaker watched helplessly as matthew braved 11 surgeries to

try and save his sight. after two anxious years, they decided they didn't want matthew to endure anymore. even if it meant he'd be permanently blind. >> moses whitaker: we just felt like he was going through too much. we were going through too much. because the doctors weren't seeing it was getting any better. we just said, "you know what? that's enough. we'll just deal with it as it is." >> alfonsi: they told you he might not even speak? >> moses whitaker: exactly. they said that he might not crawl. and he might not ever walk. because he needed those things to see. you know, most kids learn to crawl-- they learn to walk because they want to try to get to something. well, matthew couldn't see to get to anything. so, a lot of his toys and stuff we had to have sounds. so that he would want to crawl-- want to reach to those things. >> alfonsi: matthew did start crawling towards music. sometimes sliding up to the speaker to feel the music. no one in his family was a musician, but his grandfather bought him his first keyboard

when he was three years old. how complicated were the songs he was playing early on? >> moses whitaker: they were nursery rhymes more so than anything. so, they weren't that complicated. but what he was doing was complicated. because most kids don't play with both hands. and they don't play the chords and the harmonies and all of that, and matt was doing that. >> alfonsi: so you realized he has a gift? >> moses whitaker: yes. >> alfonsi: let's get him a teacher. >> moses whitaker: yes, which was the difficult part. >> alfonsi: why was that the difficult part? >> moses whitaker: because, at the time, we got a lot of answers where people were saying he's too young. he was three years old at the time. or, "i don't know how to teach a blind child." >> alfonsi: dalia sakas agreed to meet matthew. sakas is the director of music studies at the filomen m. d'agostino greenberg music school in new york city, a school for the visually impaired. >> moses whitaker: so we brought him over. and dalia played something on the piano, and matt repeated it. then she played something else and matt repeated it. she said "bring him in.

we'll make the exception." ♪ everybody sing amen everybody sing amen ♪ >> alfonsi: dalia has been teaching matthew ever since. ♪ ♪ she is a classically trained concert pianist. ♪ ♪ >> dalia sakas: i was performing a couple of recitals, and the dvorak piano quintet is a piece actually for a piano and string quartet. so there's five of us. so matt and his mom came to hear, you know, the night i played. he comes in saturday morning. i walk into the studio and he's playing the opening of the dvorak quintet. you know, and then the cello comes in and he knew that whole thing. and i thought, "oh, very nice." ♪ ♪ >> alfonsi: dvorak's piano quintet is a challenging piece for five musicians. matthew was playing his version of all five parts on his piano. can he listen to a piece of music for the first time and then play it? does he have that ability?

>> sakas: yeah. >> alfonsi: just hearing it once? >> sakas: yeah. he can pretty much get it. >> alfonsi: that's insane >> sakas: yeah, it is insane. ( laughs ) ♪ ♪ >> alfonsi: yeah. >> sakas: yeah. >> alfonsi: it could be exhausting? >> sakas: yeah, well it was scary more than exhausting. >> alfonsi: why scary? >> sakas: because you didn't want to blow it. because you have someone of this talent, of this creativity, this enthusiasm. you don't want to squelch that. you don't want to mess up. he's obviously, you know, got something to offer to the world, and so you want to make that possible. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> alfonsi: she did. by the time he was 11, matthew was performing around the world. his first paying gig was in capri, italy, where he cut his chops with seasoned jazz musicians. ♪ ♪

since then, he's played in more than 200 clubs and concert halls around the world. that caught the attention of dr. charles limb. limb, a musician himself, is a surgeon and neuroscientist who uses m.r.i. brain scans to better understand how exceptionally creative people do what they do. what's interesting about a kid like matthew? why do you want to look at his brain? >> charles limb: i think anytime somebody watches matthew play piano the first thing that you think is, "how does he do that?" except rather than just wondering, i'm actually trying to answer the question. >> alfonsi: specifically, doctor limb wants to know why the brains of certain artists seem better wired to give rise to new ideas. in matthew's case, improvising. but when doctor limb approached the whitakers, they were dubious. >> may whitaker: because somebody comes to you and says, "can we put your son in this scan?" and right away you're thinking, you know, lab rabbit, or you know, what are they trying to do

with my child? >> alfonsi: once doctor limb also explained other artists had participated, the whitaker's agreed to let him scan matthews brain. he brought matthew to this mr.i. facility at the university of california, san francisco, and put matthew in the scanner with a mini keyboard on his lap. >> limb: okay, shall we give it a shot? >> matthew whitaker: yup! >> alfonsi: matthew played a melody, with his feet keeping time, while dr. limb and his team recorded his brain's activity levels with the m.r.i. scanner. >> limb: what you're seeing on this computer screen is some brain data that we obtained from matthew. >> alfonsi: then dr. limb put matthew through a different series of auditory tests. he showed us the results. >> limb: so we started out not by looking at music, but by looking at somebody like this who would give a lecture that most people would consider to be a little bit boring. >> in an effort to alleviate the effect of the-- anyone? anyone? >> limb: this is what happened when he was listening to that. and then, interestingly, because he is blind we looked at his

visual cortex. and we didn't see any significant activity there at all. >> alfonsi: so nothing's happening. >> limb: exactly. and then we switched the soundtrack for him, and we put on a band that he knows quite well, snarky puppy. ♪ ♪ this is what changes in his brain. >> alfonsi: jeez. lights up. look closely. this is his visual cortex listening to the boring lecture, and this is it listening to music. >> limb: pretty remarkable. his entire brain is stimulated by music. his visual cortex is activated throughout. it seems like his brain is taking that part of the tissue that's not being stimulated by sight and using it, or maybe helping him to perceive music with it. >> alfonsi: so he's using that visual part of his brain to kind of see music, as it were? >> limb: exactly, yeah. and so, it's sort of borrowing that part of the brain and rewiring it to help him hear music. >> alfonsi: when they told you that the visual cortex of your brain-- >> matthew whitaker: lit up! like for music.

like, that was amazing. i didn't even know that that was happening. >> alfonsi: what do you think it means? >> matthew whitaker: i love music. ( laughs ) >> one, two... >> alfonsi: his love of music has never been in doubt, but matthew's teacher dalia sakas wanted to make sure matthew wasn't just a flash in the pan prodigy. >> matthew whitaker: ah, i just switched the-- i keep switching those-- >> alfonsi: she wanted him to be a literate musician. >> sakas: where is the second beat? >> alfonsi: so she decided he needed to learn to read braille music. to do that, you have to feel, read and remember dots that represent the music, first for the right hand, and then for the left hand. it's a painstakingly slow process. >> matthew whitaker: how far do you want to go to? >> sakas: i don't know. let's keep just going, okay? >> alfonsi: and matthew does not like to slow down. stay still. stay still. when we interviewed him, he was exceedingly polite and exceedingly bored. >> matthew whitaker: ( yawns ) my gosh! i'm so sorry. >> alfonsi: you're fine!

matthew just wants to play. >> matthew whitaker: may i go to the piano? >> alfonsi: so he did. ( "africa" by toto ) ♪ ♪ at the piano, he is pure joy. jumping from the classics... ♪ ♪ ...to beyonceé. ( "crazy in love" by beyonceé ) ♪ ♪ but what's so special is how he takes those songs, any song-- oh, you are speaking to my soul now! ( "naughty girl" by beyonceé ) ♪ ♪ improvising it on the spot to make it his own. ♪ ♪ matthew's latest album is called "now hear this." ♪ ♪ his vision of music that a critic noted sounds like matthew is playing with six hands. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ( cheers and applause )

>> matthew whitaker: thank you so much! ( ticking ) >> friends at "60 minutes" pay tribute to producer katie textor, who passed away before finishing this story, at 60minutesosovertime.cocom.

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lelet's meet up on v video instetead. i rathther you notot hug me toy so youou can hug m me tomorro. don't t let your g guard down with covid-1919. hazlzlo por amoror. ( ticking ) >> whitaker: if the story of coronavirus has dominated your thoughts-- and how could it not-- here's a story that likely hasn't. before the global pandemic, japan was set to confer one of its highest honors on one of its most towering celebrities, a man who was supposed to be a kind of ambassador at the tokyo olympics. but ebizo-- so big he goes by

only one name-- is not an actor, a singer or an athlete. actually, he's all three. he's the brightest star in the cosmos of kabuki, the eccentric theater art unique to japan. kabuki stars are not just made, they're born into dynasties, distinguished families passing the craft, and that trademark kabuki glare, from one generation to the next. jon wertheim went to japan last february, before travel bans and social distancing, to meet the man breathing fresh life into this beguiling 400-year-old art form. ♪ ♪ >> wertheirm: kabuki is... well, what is it, exactly? performed exclusively by men... ♪ ♪ ...it is equal measures drama and melodrama, and... ♪ ♪ ...part opera, part dance, part

pro-wrestling. and it is, proudly, more than a little over the top. kabuki has been called "a masterpiece of heritage," by no less than the united nations. and here's a good sign you've reached the pinnacle of this art: you have a personal "spritzer" perfuming the path to your dressing room. so it goes for ebizo ichikawa, kabuki's biggest star. he invited us backstage for a rare look at preparations before a show. no ritual here is more elaborate, more central, than the application of makeup, which the actors do themselves. when you go through that ritual of putting on the makeup, what do you go through? >> ebizo ichikawa (translated): the makeup brings you into the role. it's a time for you to step into that role and become the character. >> wertheim: if you think his makeup looks heavy, get a load of ebizo's costume-- 130 pounds and packed with ice, to keep him

cool for hours on stage. and, the guy knows how to make an entrance. ♪ ♪ in this production he plays a faithful lieutenant. ironic, since, in real life, ebizo is the center of attention. yet, for all the extravagant trappings, kabuki came from humble origins. in 1603, right around the time shakespeare first started staging his plays in london, here in kyoto a woman named okuni came down to the river and began performing interpretive dance dramas, which, like shakespeare's plays, found an audience among the common folk. these stylized performances, once banned, grew to become a national art form: kabuki, derived from a japanese word meaning something a little off- kilter. >> ebizo ( translated ): weekend.

come in kyoto. >> wertheim: kyoto is where we met kabuki's crown prince, 42 years old and looking every bit the modern pop star in designer glasses and a tailored suit. what is it like performing here? >> ebizo ( translated ): being able to perform something that started as an entertainment for the masses in front of so many people, is a great honor and pleasure. >> wertheim: mere days before social distancing, they showed up en masse for ebizo's sold-out run here, one stop on his national kabuki circuit. but, in a country with an aging population, the groupies aren't teenagers. this longtime fan admitted to being a little nervous to see the star in person. >> ( translated ): i'm so excited right now. >> wertheim: after the show, a crush of well-dressed patrons, overwhelmingly female, waited to send him off. ( cheers and applause ) his longtime friend denjiro tanaka, the lead musician on stage, performs with ebizo every day. what distinguishes him as a

performer, as you see it? >> denjiro ( translated ): i would have to say his aura is something which is very unique. which you can sense almost coming out of him. it's the power of his eyes and of his gaze. >> wertheim: yes, the eyes have it. that stare is called a "mie," and it's ebizo's signature move, like john wayne's walk. the mie is meant to draw the audience in, conveying a character's raw emotion, while the crowd goes wild. ( cheers and applause ) but when we asked him to tell us more, ebizo politely declined. could you teach it to me? >> ebizo: no. difficult. >> wertheim: family secret? >> ebizo ( translated ): yes, basically. >> wertheim: we traced ebizo ichikawa's family secret all the way here, to the naritasan temple, outside tokyo. this buddhist priest told us the famous stare was inspired by this god, fudo.

in the 1600s, ebizo's ancestor, ichikawa danjuro i, an early kabuki talent, came here to pray to fudo for a son. his prayers were answered. a son was born, and with him, a family dynasty, the ichikawa danjuro line. through the centuries, they would cacanonize a r repertoiref 18 c classic plalays. ♪ ♪ ebizo's grandfather, danjuro the 11th, and father, danjuro the 12th, were bona fide kabuki matineée idols, famous as much for their good looks as their skill. ebizo trained under his father, and performed with him until his death seven years ago. last year, ebizo announced that he would take on the danjuro name. >> ichikawa danjuro hakuen. >> wertheim: the 13th man of the ichikawa lineage to take on that title. what does that mean to you? >> ebizo ( translated ): well, i think the time has come. >> wertheim: why do you say that? >> ebizo ( translated ): it's my fate, you know.

this is the house i was born into, what i have trained for. >> wertheim: is there one quality shared by all the men with the danjuro title? >> ebizo ( translated ): i think really holding the whole future of kabuki on your shoulders. >> wertheim: that's how you feel? >> ebizo ( translated ): yes. it's not just about me. i really need to think about the whole enterprise. >> wertheim: mark oshima, an american living in tokyo, translates kabuki plays into english and has followed these kabuki bluebloods. >> mark oshima: i mean, ebizo looks like a kabuki actor. and he comes from what people think of as a pure kabuki family. so people all say, "he's a thoroughbred." and japanese love thoroughbreds. >> wertheim: that said, kabuki has never been an especially profitable enterprise. given massive overhead-- giant casts on ornate sets. the hope is that ebizo will be a one-man boom to the industry. what's going on in the audience

during performances? >> oshima: it's just like a sports crowd. you know, there are times when you have your beers and hot dogs, and times when you cheer... times when you pay attention to what's going on, and times when you don't. >> wertheim: you'll also hear audiences during these performances yelling out, "narita-ya." >> narita-ya! >> oshima: this is something called a yago, or house name. if i were going to cheer you on, i would say "60 minutes!" now, you may, every-- everyone would know that. ebizo's yago comes from the temple at narita, which has been very, very important to generations and generations of-- of-- danjuro. >> wertheim: so there's real connoisseurship here. >> oshima: connoisseurship. >> wertheim: you should feel free to yell out the "60 minutes" yago anytime you want. ( laughs ) for all its idiosyncrasies, kabuki is grueling business. actors perform for hours every day, sometimes twice a day, month after month.

>> ebizo ( translated ): every morning, i have to assess my condition. i have to figure out: can my body do this today? can it do that? >> wertheim: you speak like an athlete. do you think of yourself as an athlete? >> ebizo ( translated ): yes, but with no off-season. >> wertheim: not unlike some athletes, ebizo indulged in his share of nights out in his youth, once getting into a nasty bar brawl. an entire country worried the injuries to his face would thwart the trademark stare. his friend tanaka recalls this rebellious phase. >> denjiro ( translated ): yes. when he was young, he was a bit of a bad boy, you could say. he was quite famous in the kabuki world for that. but i think to be a superstar, in a way, you do need to be a bit of a bad boy. otherwise, getting up on stage in front of thousands of people, you wouldn't be able to charm them with your performance. >> wertheim: leaving his bad boy days behind him, ebizo proved

himself last summer in tokyo, taking on 13 roles in a four- hour production. here he is slipping offstage as the dutiful wife... and reappearing seconds later as the warrior. can you name the roles? do you remember? >> ebizo ( translated ): eh... ( laughs ) yeah, i can't remember them all right now. there are too many of them. >> wertheim: and ebizo plays yet another role full time: single dad. it was ten years ago, with fanfare befitting a royal wedding, that ebizo married a popular tokyo newscaster, mao kobayashi. in short order, they had a daughter and a son. but in 2014, mao was diagnosed with breast cancer. when she passed away three years later, all of japan went into mourning. >> wertheim: what would you like people to know about her? >> ebizo ( translated ): about

mao? i just think about my son and daughter, the way they are maturing. without mao, none of that would have been possible. she was a human overflowing with love, and i hope people won't forget that. >> wertheim: he told us he tries his best to balance performing with parenting. made a little easier when his son kangen, now seven, announced that he would follow his father into kabuki. kangen is now in the same line of work as you are, and your father and his father. how do you feel about that? >> ebizo ( translated ): at the moment, he's talented. he's very cute. but i'm sure one day he'll face some struggles in his life, in kabuki. and so i need to make sure i can support him without being overprotective.

>> wertheim: his son kangen is already adept at tapping into his emotions as an actor. watch how his eyes well up while he rehearses a scene about a boy who's separated from his father. i've seen kangen already does connect with the audience. did you teach him that? >> ebizo ( translated ): no, i think it really comes naturally to him. >> wertheim: also a natural gift, kangen's ability to sneak in a nap during makeup. as for ebizo's eight-year-old daughter, reika, a dancer in training, going into the family business is not as straightforward. women are banned from most kabuki stages-- though perhaps not for much longer, if you ask her father. does any part of you regret that she won't be able to have a career as a kabuki actor? >> ebizo ( translated ): it's not set in stone that she can't one day become a kabuki actor herself. >> wertheim: you'd like to see more women involved in kabuki? >> ebizo ( translated ): it used to be that everybody was, you know, "kabuki, you know, it's only for men." but i think that's quite an old-

fashioned way of looking at it. >> wertheim: if anyone can modernize the art form, it's ebizo. his influence in japan transcends kabuki. his face moves magazines. his multi-million dollar endorsement portfolio includes mcdonald's. and, case in point: he recently adapted "star wars" for kabuki. but the future, as they say, will have to wait. kabuki theaters, like theaters across the world, went dark last march. as they wait for the lights to come back up, this source of continuity, the man who will braid together kabuki's past and its destiny, also waits, proudly, an artist in full bloom. ( ticking ) >> cbs sports hq is presented by progressive insurance, the i am james brown with the scores of

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