A Japanese actor is killed after being stabbed with a prop samurai sword

Diago Kashino, a 33-year-old Japanese actor, has died after being stabbed in the stomach with a samurai sword during a stage-play rehearsal in Japan.

A police representative told $4 the actor was pierced in the abdomen "with a sword-like object" during an action scene in a rehearsal session for a "jidaigeki" drama (a genre based on the Edo period of Japanese history) at a studio in Koto, Tokyo.

The other actors $4 heard Kashino groan and turned to discover him hunched over - but no one saw what happened.

Police are now investigating whether his death was an accident or a criminal act.

Jidaigeki dramas portray the daily lives of samurai, farmers, and ninjas during Japan's $4 between 1603 and 1868.