白猿

Kabuki actors often carry a haimyō—a literary name used when composing haiku. In the Ichikawa Sōke, the haimyō Hakuen (written with different characters but read the same way) had been in use since Danjūrō II.

Danjūrō V is said to have changed the name to Hakuen written as "white monkey," drawing on the folk saying that a monkey falls three hairs short of a human: he meant that his own art still fell three hairs short of the true masters. That an actor at the height of his fame chose to call himself "the one who falls short" is the depth of this name.

The haimyō reflects the actor's literary face—the man of letters who composes haiku beside his life on stage. Danjūrō V is said to have borne several in his lifetime, from Baidō and Onagawa to Sanshō, before arriving at Hakuen. It was this playful spirit of letters that gave the white-monkey name its urbane twist.

In 2022 the present holder succeeded to the name as Ichikawa Danjūrō XIII Hakuen, joining the white-monkey name to his own—a vow, engraved in the name itself, to keep striving as one who has not yet reached his forebears.