was an early
kabuki
is a classical form of Japanese dance- drama. Kabuki theatre is known for its heavily-stylised performances, the often-glamorous costumes worn by performers, and for the elaborate make-up worn by some of its performers.
Kabuki is though ...
actor in
Japan. He remains today one of the most famous of all kabuki actors and is considered one of the most influential. His many influences include the pioneering of the ''
aragoto
, or 'rough style', is a style of kabuki acting that uses exaggerated, dynamic (forms or movements) and speech. roles are characterised by the bold red or blue makeup () worn by actors, as well as their enlarged and padded costumes. The term i ...
'' style of acting which came to be largely associated with
Edo kabuki and with Danjūrō and his successors in the
Ichikawa Danjūrō line.
Like many actors, Danjūrō also dabbled in playwriting, which he did under the ''
haimyō'' (poetry name) Mimasuya Hyōgo. "Mimasu" (三升) is the name for the ''
mon'' of the Ichikawa family; many actors in the Danjūrō line have since used "Mimasu" or "Sansho", an alternate reading of the same
characters
Character or Characters may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk
* ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to The ...
, as their ''haimyō''.
Lineage
As the originator of the most celebrated and prestigious stage name in kabuki, there have been a great many descendants of Danjūrō I in the kabuki world, some of them quite famous and accomplished themselves. Danjūrō's father, Horikoshi Juzō, was not involved in the theatre, but was an ''
otokodate'', something of a street ruffian, but nevertheless a man very much a part of Edo popular urban culture; though not in the theatre himself, he may have been a patron of various types of performances, as well as of the closely related
sex industry
The sex industry (also called the sex trade) consists of businesses that either directly or indirectly provide sex-related products and services or adult entertainment. The industry includes activities involving direct provision of sex-related ...
.
The sons of Danjūrō I were known as
Ichikawa Danjūrō II and
Ichikawa Sen'ya. The
fourth Danjūrō was his grandson; the
fifth his great-grandson. His great-great-grandsons, as well as their sons and grandsons were kabuki actors of the Ichikawa family as well. Danjūrō I also had a great many disciples.
A devout follower of
Fudō Myōō
or Achala ( sa, अचल, "The Immovable", ), also known as (, "Immovable Lord") or (, "Noble Immovable Lord"), is a wrathful deity and ''dharmapala'' (protector of the Dharma) prominent in Vajrayana Buddhism and East Asian Buddhism., Jp. re ...
, one of Japan's
Thirteen Buddhas
The is a Japanese grouping of Buddhist deities, particularly in the Shingon sect of Buddhism. The deities are, in fact, not only Buddhas, but include bodhisattvas and Wisdom Kings. In Shingon services, lay followers recite a devotional mantra ...
, Danjūrō was the first to perform as Fudō onstage, and founded the actors' guild
Naritaya, named after the Fudō temple
Narita Fudōson.
Life and career
Born in Japan's capital of
Edo in 1660, he first performed at the age of 13 at the
Nakamura-za
was one of the three main ''kabuki'' theatres of Edo alongside the Morita-za and Ichimura-za.
History
It was founded in 1624 by Nakamura Kanzaburō 1st. The Nakamura-za relocated to the new capital Tokyo in 1868 and reopened under Nakamura ...
, under the name
Ichikawa Ebizō. The first to take the name Ebizō, he was thus the founder or originator of this prestigious actor lineage as well. This 1673 performance of ''Shitennō Ochigodachi'', in which Ebizō played
Sakata Kintoki
Sakata may refer to:
People
* Jeanne Sakata, American actress and playwright
* Lenn Sakata (Lenn Haruki Sakata) (born 1954), former American professional baseball player
* Harold Sakata (Toshiyuki "Harold" Sakata) (1920–1982), American Olymp ...
marks not only his first performance, but also the first use of red and black striped makeup, now called ''
kumadori
is the stage makeup worn by kabuki
is a classical form of Japanese dance- drama. Kabuki theatre is known for its heavily-stylised performances, the often-glamorous costumes worn by performers, and for the elaborate make-up worn by ...
'', and thus the nascent origins of the ''aragoto'' style.
Two years later, taking the name Danjūrō, he performed in the first kabuki presentation based on the
Tale of the Soga Brothers. The famous actor print seen here, though produced for a 1697 performance, depicts Danjūrō in the same role, that of
Soga Gorō. Serving as playwright as well as actor, Danjūrō produced a number of works, several of which were early forms of plays extremely popular later in the
Edo period
The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characte ...
and still performed today, though they have undergone great changes over the centuries. Two of these such plays are ''Narukami'', written and premiered in 1684, and ''
Shibaraku
''Shibaraku'' (暫, しばらく) is a play in the Kabuki repertoire, and one of the celebrated ''Kabuki Jūhachiban'' ("Eighteen Great Plays"). The play is noted for its flamboyantly dramatic costumes and makeup (''kumadori''). {{citation need ...
'', in 1697.
The
Genroku
was a after Jōkyō and before Hōei. The Genroku period spanned the years from the ninth month of 1688 to the third month of 1704. The reigning emperor was .Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). ''Annales des empereurs du japon'', p. 415.
The period w ...
period marked the peak of Edo period extravagance and hedonism. Danjūrō was one of the most popular actors in Edo in this period, alongside
Nakamura Shichisaburō I and
Nakamura Denkurō I. The first ''aragoto'' performance in
Kyoto
Kyoto (; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin, Keihanshin metropolitan area along wi ...
was that of ''Genji Musha Homare no Seiriki'' in 1694; the following year, Danjūrō would be featured in the Edo ''
hyōbanki'', a popular publication ranking actors and performances, as ''jō-jō-kichi'' (上々吉, higher-higher-excellent) and his annual salary would reach 500 ''
ryō
The was a gold currency unit in the shakkanhō system in pre- Meiji Japan. It was eventually replaced with a system based on the '' yen''.
Origins
The ''ryō'' was originally a unit of weight from China, the ''tael.'' It came into use in Jap ...
''.
Over the course of his career, Danjūrō performed in, and wrote, a great number of plays. Unlike many later actors, he was not particularly faithful to any one theater, and moved back and forth between them many times. He also performed alongside his son, Ichikawa Kuzō, who would later take his father's name and become
Ichikawa Danjūrō II. Danjūrō is said to have also been the first kabuki actor to write
haiku
is a type of short form poetry originally from Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases that contain a ''kireji'', or "cutting word", 17 '' on'' (phonetic units similar to syllables) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern, and a ''kigo'', or s ...
and to take a poetry name (''haimyō'').
While performing at the
Ichimura-za
The was a major kabuki theatre in the Japanese capital of Edo (later, Tokyo), for much of the Edo period, and into the 20th century. It was first opened in 1634 and was run by members of the Ichimura family for much of the following nearly thre ...
on 24 March 1704, Danjūrō was stabbed and killed in his dressing room by fellow actor Ikushima Hanroku.
See also
*
Shūmei
''Shūmei'' (, "name succession") are grand naming ceremonies held in kabuki theatre. Most often, a number of actors will participate in a single ceremony, taking on new stage-names.
These stagenames, most often those of the actor's father, gran ...
*
Ichikawa Danjūrō – overview of name and succession
*
Ichikawa Danjūrō XIII – current head of the line
*
Ichikawa Danjūrō XII
*
Ichikawa Ebizō XI may refer to:
Places
*Ichikawa, Chiba, a city in Chiba, Japan
** Ichikawa Gakuen (Ichikawa Junior and Senior High School), a large private boys and girls school in Moto-kita-kata, Ichikawa, Chiba
* Ichikawa, Hyogo, a town in Hyōgo, Japan
*Ichikaw ...
Notes
References
* Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005)
''Japan Encyclopedia.''Cambridge:
Harvard University Press
Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retir ...
.
OCLC 48943301
External links
Ichikawa Danjūrō I at Kabuki21.com*Audio recording of Ichikawa Danjuro I's play Narukami at LostPlays.co
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ichikawa, Danjuro 01
1660 births
1704 deaths
Kabuki actors
Japanese murder victims
People murdered in Japan
Actors from Chiba Prefecture
17th-century Japanese male actors
18th-century Japanese male actors