Peter

Shinnosuke Ikehata (池畑慎之助, Ikehata Shinnosuke), stage name Peter, is a Japanese star singer and actor belonging to the Tokyo-based talent agency FIRST AGENT. Since their debut, they have used the name Peter in their career, and in about 1985, continued to use the name regardless of whether they were playing a female or male character, and then in 2019 repealed the name, the new nickname being Pi.

Known for cross-dressing, Peter was assigned male at birth but identifies as non-binary and is gay.

Peter was born in Sōemonchō, Chuo Ward, Osaka, Japan, as the eldest son to their father Yuki Yoshimura, who was the fourth generation Iemoto (family head) of the Kamigatamai Yoshimura-ryu school. Peter, as a succession to the family specialty, made their debut on the stage at age 3, having been trained rigorously by their father. Peter also has one older sister, Toyoko Ishikawa. At the age of 5, their parents divorced, and Peter was told to choose which parent they liked better, and since their father “was terrifying like an ogre during his dance practice", they chose to live with their mother, Kiyoko Ikehata. In their second year of elementary school, they moved to live with their grandparents in the Kagoshima Prefecture, and lived out their childhood days there. Their mother ran a ryoutei in Tenmonkan, (a shopping district in downtown Kagoshima) named 'Yodogawa (淀川)'. From this point onwards, Peter has used their mother’s surname, ‘Ikehata (池畑)’ instead of their father's paternal surname, ‘Hashimoto (橋本)’.

They went to school at Shimizu Elementary School, Kagoshima City, and then onto Japanese La Salle Academy. They studied desperately hard to make their mother happy. However, due to being unable to handle dorm life, they transferred to Jōsei Junior High School, Kagoshima City. In their third year of junior high, they ran away from home, going to Tokyo via Osaka.

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