YAKUSHA OF PRE-RESTORATION PERIOD
The one hundred years previous to 1868—the year Emperor Mutsuhito began
his epoch-making reign—is regarded as the period of Kabuki’s modern
history. By 1868 the Tokugawa Shogunate had come to an end, the Emperor
had been restored to power, and his capital removed from Kyoto to Yedo,
and Japan, which had been closed to the outside world, was thrown open
to trade with other countries.
The Tokugawa Shogunate’s steadily diminishing power, and the general
stagnation of society due to the lack of stimulus from without, were
faithfully reflected in Kabuki. From 1764 to 1788 the people continued
to idolise the favourite actors, the productiveness of the critics
continued as before. But in the Kwansei era, 1789–1800, the theatre
began to decline, and during the years of Bunsei, 1818–1829, the climax
of Kabuki’s downward plunge was reached.
These were lean years for the people, and unless they saved their money
they could not afford to attend the theatre, for the price of admission
was high. It was the custom for Yedo people after they had seen a
performance to go through the streets imitating the actors’ delivery
of their lines, much as the popular airs of the latest musical comedy
are heard in the thoroughfares of London, Paris, or New York. In these
slack years the theatre audiences fell off steadily, and no echo of
Kabuki was heard. At this time, too, the actors demanded an increase in
their salaries, as it was impossible for them to carry on their former
easy and extravagant existence during the hard times. The theatres
were involved in greater and greater financial difficulties. Many of
the good old theatre customs began to be neglected.
There was, however, no decrease in theatre genius, and very many
actors rose high above their fellows, although they lived through an
unprofitable period.
The most representative actor during Kwansei (1789–1800) on the stages
of Osaka and Kyoto was Nakamura Utayemon, an actor of the same name
and line being at present the senior of the Tokyo stage. This first
Utayemon was the son of a physician, who had led a life of dissipation
and finally took to the stage. He kept steadfastly to one specialty,
that of katakiyaku, or villain rôles. When he played in Yedo he was
well received, but on a visit to Osaka, he said something on the stage
which offended his audience, and they returned the compliment by giving
him the cold shoulder for some time. The famous bad characters of the
doll-dramas he made his own, particularly the heavy villain Iruka, the
formidable tyrant in _Imoseyama_, and the evil-doing but loyal Gonta of
_Sembonzakura_, two characters that modern audiences are never tired
of seeing portrayed. When he was 68 he gave his name to a follower; at
75 he played his best villains, and died three years later. Although a
pupil succeeded as second, his own son became Utayemon, the third, and
was an actor of great prominence.
Some years junior to the first Utayemon was Asao Tamejuro, who was a
famous onnagata of the Kyoto and Osaka stages. He was a small man,
possessed a light, bright style, and appeared best in plays depicting
everyday life rather than those dealing with the unreal.
In Yedo also there were two bright and particular stars at this time.
They were Nakamura Nakazo and Matsumoto Koshiro.
The career of Nakamura Nakazo is one of the most varied of all the
actors. He was possessed of many theatre gifts, but he had inherited
a samurai temperament and exercised his genius just when social
conditions had begun to dampen the enthusiasm of the people for the
theatre.
Nakamura Nakazo was the son of a ronin called Saito, and was born in
Fukugawa ward of Yedo. Left an orphan when young, he must have had no
relatives to care for him, but by chance O-Shun, a dancing mistress,
saw the boy, and adopted him at the age of five. She went to pay her
respects at a temple, and a ferryman plying across the Sumida River
gave the boy to her. His only sponsor was the keeper of a sake shop, so
far had fallen the child from his rightful position in society as the
son of a samurai.
The dancing mistress not only belonged to a well-known school of
dancing, but her family were costumers to the Nakamura-za. Her husband
was a teacher of Nagauta, the special Yedo Kabuki music, so the boy was
brought up in the theatre atmosphere. At 7 he began to be instructed
in dancing, in which he did not take much interest at that early age,
and he was often chastised. His adopted father tried to make him a
Nagauta singer, but he proved a failure. From childhood he substituted
on the stage when the regular actors were unable to attend. Nakazo has
left a journal in which he wrote of his boyhood and how pleased he was
when he was allowed to wear a good kimono, had a little room upstairs
all to himself, and was not scolded so much for his many lapses from
grace. O-Shun, his adopted mother, saw to it that he grew up proficient
in dancing, and he repaid her, for he was very graceful, and was
often asked to perform at the residences of the nobility when they
entertained.
His accomplishments included familiarity with the Nō, writing and
fencing, and he learned how to perform on the drum of the Nō orchestra,
that instrument of complicated rhythms. He married O-Kichi, the
daughter of the third Kineya Kisaburo, a member of the leading family
of theatre musicians that flourishes to-day. When his adopted mother
died, his wife, O-Kichi, took her place, and taught the samisen, while
he taught dancing.
On the stage he took part in dangerous feats—in which, had the
arrangements failed, he would have been killed. His wife became ill and
luck went against him. He attempted to commit suicide; he drank and
gambled and led a dissipated life, which led to endless money troubles,
and now and then he was forced to make geta, or wooden clogs, for a
living. His difficulties lasted for twenty-four years, but gradually he
reformed, began to study, and became a pupil of the fourth Danjuro.
His face was his fortune, and perhaps because of his handsome
appearance his fellow-actors were often jealous of him. He was proud
and sensitive and easily given to quarrelling. The change for the
better in his career was a decided contrast to his previous melancholy
existence, for he became the chief actor of Yedo, and received a salary
of 1000 ryo.
Then, when it might have been expected that he would throw his gains
away, he began to save. The wife of his youth died, and he soon
possessed himself of another. He started a new theatre, and fire
burned it down; rebuilt it in summer, and that autumn his house was
inundated. Gave his name to a pupil and took it back, and at last was
so unsuccessful in every venture, he determined to change his luck by
acting in Osaka and Kyoto. In Osaka he was successful, but in Kyoto
he quarrelled over a money matter, and died soon after at the age of
53—a samurai to the end, hot-tempered, and ready to fight at a moment’s
notice.
His style of acting was similar to that of the second Danjuro, but it
was in Kabuki’s music-posture pieces, or shosagoto, that he was at his
best.
The fourth Matsumoto Koshiro, who acted on the Yedo stage at the same
time as Nakazo, was born in Kyoto, and also led a troubled life. He
acted at the Ichimura-za, but was not a success, and his elder sister,
who owned a theatre tea-house, advised him to give up his attempts
on the stage, and take over the management of her business. Later on
he must have proved his worth, for the fourth Danjuro took him
under his patronage. He was not on friendly terms with the fifth
Danjuro, which caused a good deal of Yedo gossip. The Ichimura-za could
scarcely maintain itself, and the salaries of the actors were not paid.
Koshiro went to Osaka by ship, taking with him the Yedo onnagata,
Iwai Hanshiro, and some one thirsting for revenge because Koshiro had
insulted another actor, threw stones at him as he was departing.
In Kyoto, where he acted, feeling was stirred up against him and he was
not popular. To increase his troubles the Ichimura-za went bankrupt.
Towards the end of his career, he and the fifth Danjuro, who had so
long been estranged, became good friends. One of his sons became a
famous actor, and succeeded him as Matsumoto Koshiro, the fifth.
In the period that followed, the most popular actor was Ichikawa
Danjuro, the fifth. He was the son of the fourth, and his mother was
the adopted daughter of the second. He acted with Nakamura Nakazo. His
wife was the daughter of Iwai Hanshiro, but they did not get along well
together; she wished for a divorce, and they lived separately. Finally
he married the widow of Ichikawa Yaozo. At 51 he retired to Mukojima
across the Sumida River from Yedo, where he drank sake, wrote poems,
and wore a patched kimono of many colours, refusing to meet theatre
folks. One of his sons, to whom he gave the illustrious stage name of
Ichikawa Danjuro, the sixth, died young, and another of his sons became
Danjuro, the seventh.
The most famous actor of the Bunka-Bunsei period (1804—1829) in Kyoto
and Osaka was Kataoka Nizaemon, the seventh, directly descended from
the Genroku actor who founded the line. Born in Kyoto, he became a
follower of Nakamura Nakazo, but for some reason master and pupil
parted company. He was very large and stout and well adapted to play
villains, which was his specialty. Everywhere he acted he was popular.
He was active on the stage until the age of 75, when he played in
a rôle that required that he should appear scantily clothed. Some one
in the audience called out to him: “Be careful not to take cold!” to
which the veteran replied: “When I am on the stage, I don’t feel cold,
I perspire.” Death claimed him but a short time after his retirement.
His own son died, and he adopted the actor who later became Kataoka
Nizaemon, the eighth.
When Nizaemon, the seventh, was acting in Osaka and Kyoto, the star of
Yedo during the corresponding period of Bunka and Bunsei was the third
Bando Hikosaburo, youngest son of the eighth Ichimura Uzaemon. In later
years he shaved his head, retired from the world, and lived in Honjo, a
Yedo ward, where he posted up a notice on the gate to the effect that
waste-paper dealers and actors were not allowed in. He was handsome
and gifted, and died at the age of 75. Acting with him was the fifth
Matsumoto Koshiro, son of the fourth. The fifth Koshiro had a very
large nose and his eyes were close together, two facial defects the
print artists were fond of depicting, so that this Yedo actor is easily
picked out in the pictures illustrating the theatre of this time. His
daughter married the seventh Danjuro, but was divorced and became a
nun, and lived at Ikegami near the Nichiren temple, not far from modern
Tokyo.
Also, about this time there was Onoe Kikugoro, the third. He was a
specialist in sewamono, or plays of everyday life, and established
traditions that are being carried on by his descendants to-day. His
wife O-Kiku was the daughter of an actor, and he had three sons and two
daughters, but the sons died in youth. Koshiro’s daughters both married
actors, one to Ichimura Uzaemon the twelfth, and the other to the
fourth Kikugoro. His grandson by Uzaemon was the fifth Onoe Kikugoro,
the rival of Ichikawa Danjuro, the ninth—the two great stars of the
Meiji era. His great-grandson is Kikugoro, the sixth, one of the most
energetic actors of the contemporary Tokyo stage.
At one time the third Kikugoro thought he would try what it felt
like to be a plain citizen of Yedo. He opened a mochiya, or cake
shop dealing in a favourite refreshment of his day, as it still
remains of Tokyo people—steamed and pounded rice moulded into mound
shapes, and prepared in various ways. He hung out a shop sign, in
shape sexagonal, lacquered in red, and adorned with a gold design
of grasses and written characters signifying Mochiya Kikuju, or the
Chrysanthemum-Long-Life-Mochi shop. It was not true to its name. Inside
the place there were costly art objects, and rare dwarf plants, while a
mechanical toy, a Chinese boy, moved by a special device, came to meet
the guests as they entered, and brought them tea and cake.
Of course, Kikugoro was the object of the visitor’s interest, and the
matter of cakes was of much less importance. The actor would sweep the
garden and talk with the visitors, but one day he suddenly tired of
the whole scheme, after some customers had purchased a particularly
small amount of his cakes. Kikugoro is said to have exclaimed: “They
have seen my beautiful garden and listened to my compliments, and paid
only 64 mon for cakes, so I’ll go back to the stage.” Perhaps he was
hankering after it anyway, and made this an excuse.
From the latter part of Bunka and Bunsei to Kaei, or from 1804 to 1848,
the great actor of Yedo was the seventh Danjuro, grandson of the fifth,
the sixth having died young. He went on the stage at the age of four,
and when he started to cry, a convenient substitute was hurried up. At
the age of 17 he succeeded to the ancestral name. At the age of 42,
he was exiled by the Governor of Yedo because of extravagance on the
stage, since he had used real armour, and the stage setting for one of
his plays had been an exact reproduction of the interior of a mansion
of the aristocracy. Forbidden to come within a ten ri radius of the
town, it meant that the Yedo stage was not to know him for many a year.
He was small, and had large eyes, and was very similar to his son,
the ninth Danjuro, whose memory is cherished by many Tokyo playgoers
to-day. Like all the members of his family, he showed a special leaning
towards aragoto, and added to the family plays by adapting the Nō drama
to Kabuki. He is said to have combined the strong points of the third,
fourth, and fifth in this actor line, and had literary talent, composed
poems, and wrote a diary called _Tokumiyemasu_, I Can See Afar.
He took unto himself three wives and three concubines. His first wife
was the daughter of the fifth Matsumoto Koshiro. She had been the
wife of Sawamura Sojuro, had married again, and her third venture was
to marry the seventh Danjuro, but this union did not last long, and
they were divorced. Danjuro, who was very courageous, married another
daughter of Koshiro, divorce separating them again, due this time to
disputes between Danjuro and Koshiro. For his third wife he picked out
the daughter of a theatre tea-house proprietor. He had seven sons and
five daughters. There was, therefore, every reason to believe that the
Ichikawa clan would survive for years to come. The fate of the family
was otherwise, for not only is there no Ichikawa Danjuro at present,
but the sole blood link as representative to carry on this family is
the little granddaughter of Danjuro, the ninth.
The seventh Danjuro was famous for his extravagance. His residence
was more beautiful than that of a daimyo, and no doubt the Yedo
authorities, ever alert to suppress luxury among the people, were ready
to pounce upon him, using some pretext or other in order to hold him up
as an example to be avoided.
When he was obliged to go into exile his eldest son had the
responsibility of carrying on the affairs of the Ichikawa family in
Yedo, and succeeded as Ichikawa Danjuro, the eighth. He gave every
sign of great promise, but because of family and professional troubles
committed suicide in Osaka.
The fifth son of the seventh Danjuro inherited the headship of the
family after the tragic death of the young actor who had been
called Ichikawa Danjuro, the eighth, for such a short time. Ichikawa
Danjuro, the ninth, became the most famous actor of this line, and he
brings us down to modern times. Danjuro, the seventh, had a number
of followers who distinguished themselves. Among them were: Ichikawa
Kodanji, the third; Ichikawa Monosuke, the fifth; and Ichikawa Danzo,
the fifth.
As the leading yakusha passed away one after another, the only one
considered capable of filling the place they had left vacant was the
fourth Nakamura Utayemon.
His father kept a theatre tea-house in Yedo, and his mother was related
to Fujima Kanjiro, the costumer and dancing teacher. It was natural
that this Utayemon should take to dancing, and he was trained to become
a teacher of dancing. At the age of 10 he was adopted by Fujima. When
the famous third Utayemon was about to produce a certain play in Osaka,
he did not have the correct costumes and sent for his Yedo costumer.
It was a month’s journey from Yedo to Osaka in those days, and it was
Fujima’s adopted son who travelled along the Tokaido on the mission.
While very youthful he knew all the needful information regarding the
costumes, and was helpful in many ways.
He remained in Osaka, where he became a student of the stage and made
rapid progress. The famous onnagata, the fourth Iwai Hanshiro, had
asked him to fashion a costume, but did not like the manner in which
it had been finished, and not only scolded the lad, but boxed his ears
into the bargain. The desire to get even for this insult made the
fourth Utayemon ambitious to succeed on the stage.
After an absence of sixteen years, he returned to Yedo a finished
actor. At the age of 39, the third Utayemon did him a great honour
by conferring his name upon him. A deshi, or follower, of the third
Utayemon was righteously indignant, since he considered the third
Utayemon’s adopted son should have succeeded. There were hot disputes
among Utayemon’s followers, and at last he invited them all to his
house, and said: “I will not give my name to Hichitaro, but I will give
it to his art.” The fourth Utayemon was large of stature, had fine eyes
and good features, and excelled his master, the third, in many respects.
His rivals were the fourth Bando Mitsugoro and the fifth Sawamura
Sojuro, but he won for himself a higher place on the stage than either
of these Yedo actors. His adopted son was a star of the Meiji era, who
was succeeded by the present Nakamura Utayemon, the veteran onnagata,
who has the position, both from service on the stage and for his art,
as head of the Tokyo stage.
Utayemon the fourth’s two rivals were the fourth Bando Mitsugoro and
the fifth Sawamura Sojuro. Mitsugoro, the fourth, was the adopted son
of the third. He suffered from paralysis and was frequently away from
the stage, and yet in spite of his physical disability continued to
act supported by a kurombo, or black-robed property man. He was known
for his literary talents, wrote poetry, and the chroniclers say he was
always poor.
The fifth Sawamura Sojuro was the son of a servant in a chaya of the
Ichimura-za, and his mother was the daughter of a farmer living at
Kameido, the district of modern Tokyo famous for its wistaria garden.
He seems to have been a pet of all the actors, and became a pupil of
the fourth Sojuro, who died at the age of 21. The third Onoe Kikugoro
said he would make an actor of him. Matsumoto Koshiro also lent him his
patronage, and took him to Osaka where he remained to study. Sojuro,
the fifth, had four daughters, and two sons, one of whom, the second
Tannosuke, became a star of the Meiji period.
These actors did not enjoy the prosperity of their predecessors. The
theatres had a hard struggle for existence, the players were always
involved in financial difficulties. The stage grew dull, the playwright
stale. The Tokugawa Shogunate was toppling to its fall, and the
whole country waited for the restoration of the Imperial power,
the breaking down of the barriers that had prevented relations with
other countries, and the birth of modern Japan with its remarkable
changes and developments.
[Illustration: Crest of Matsumoto Koshiro (Blossom of Icho tree).]
[Illustration: Crest of Nakamura Kichiyemon (Wings of butterfly).]
[Illustration: Crest of Nakamura Ganjiro (Combination of four
characters)]