Ichikawa Danjūrō XIII

(born December 6, 1977) is a Japanese Kabuki, film, television actor and stage producer. He is the eldest son and successor of the celebrated Ichikawa Danjūrō XII. He is known for being a renowned ''tachiyaku'' (actor specializing in male roles), in particular he specializes in '' aragoto'' roles (which is a tradition that has existed in his family since 1660 with his ancestor and founder of the Naritaya acting house, Ichikawa Danjūrō I).

Prior to assuming his current title, Danjūrō was known as , the eleventh holder of the Ebizō name.

Names and lineage

Danjūrō is a member of the acting guild Naritaya, founded by Ichikawa Danjuro I, which dates back to the 17th century. Born into the Ichikawa family, he is the heir to Ichikawa Kabuki. As is the case with the names of all Kabuki actors, his name is a yago, or stage name, that he succeeded from his father in 2004. Prior to this he went by the stage name Ichikawa Shinnosuke VII. His father Ichikawa Danjūrō XII died in 2013; in January 2019, he announced that he would adopt the name of Danjūrō, thus becoming Ichikawa Danjūrō XIII, in May 2020. The name change was postponed when Kabuki shows were cancelled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Danjūrō assumed his current title on 31 October 2022 ahead of performances starting the following week. At the same time his son Kangen Horikoshi took the name Ichikawa Shinnosuke VIII (the first name his father Ebizo used when he started acting in kabuki theater) and made his Kabuki debut.

Career

Early acting career

At a very young age, Danjūrō began rigorous training: voice training to master the unusual vocalizations that characterize Kabuki, and physical training to prepare for the stylized movements and poses demanded on the stage. Ichikawa Ebizō XI appeared on stage for the first time at age five in 1983 at the Kabukiza Theater in the role of “Harumiya” in the performance of The Tale of Genji (Genji Monogatari). In 1985, he received the stage name Ichikawa Shinnosuke VII, an honorific name in the Ichikawa lineage, and made his full stage debut in the performance of Uiro-uri also at the Kabukiza Theater. In 1994, he made his first television appearance in the NHK Taiga drama, Hana no Ran, which starred his father Ichikawa Danjuro XII. And in 2003, he was cast as a leading role Miyamoto Musashi, in the NHK Taiga drama, Musashi.

Later work

In 2011, Ichikawa Ebizō XI landed a starring role in the film Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai, which premiered at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. The film Ask This of Rikyu in 2013 was a biographical film of Sen no Rikyū in which he won Best Actor at the 37th Japan Academy Film Prize for performing the title role. The following year, he starred in the film Over Your Dead Body, and in 2017 he appeared in a supporting role in the Japanese samurai film Blade of the Immortal, which also premiered at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival. He has appeared numerous times at the Kabuki-za Theater, Osaka Shochikuza Theater, Minami-za Theater, and many other theaters in Japan.

In recent years, Danjūrō has been actively engaged in producing performances to reintroduce the values of traditional Japanese art to the contemporary generation in projects. Since 2012, Danjūrō has produced the performance series entitled “Invitation to the Classics” to make Kabuki more accessible to smaller cities in rural Japan. Also, in 2013, 2015 and 2017, he self-produced an innovative project called “ABKAI” where the original contemporary Kabuki was introduced. On November 28, 2019, Danjūrō starred as Kairennosuke in the stage production . In addition, his son Kangen Horikoshi portrayed a younger version of Kairennosuke in the play's third act.

On 22 May 2022, Danjūrō conducted a kabuki performance with his "nirami" glare atop the roof of Tokyo Skytree

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