Ichikawa Danjūrō II

Called the child granted by Fudō

The Naritaya official site records a rumour that he was granted to Danjūrō I in answer to prayer at the Fudō of Narita, and was therefore called the child of Fudō. He made his stage debut at ten, in the fifth month of 1697 at the Nakamuraza, as the mountain ascetic Tsūrikibō — later revealed as a manifestation of Fudō Myōō — in a play in which his father appeared.

A father's sudden death, and the name at seventeen

In 1704 Danjūrō I was stabbed while performing and died. The Naritaya official site records that his son took the name Danjūrō II at the Yamamuraza in the seventh month of that year, but struggled for some years afterwards with roles that did not suit him.

Aragoto as the art of the house

The Japan Arts Council describes aragoto as born from the temper of Edo, with Danjūrō I winning particular acclaim in it, and states that the technique was perfected by Danjūrō II and has been handed down ever since, chiefly within the Ichikawa house.

The bearing of a man of letters

The Naritaya official site notes that, like his father, he was a cultivated man accomplished in haikai. Holding a literary name outside the theatre would continue in the Danjūrō house.

Perfecting aragoto

The Japan Arts Council states plainly that aragoto — exaggerating raw vitality through forceful techniques such as the mie pose and the roppō stride, and through the almost incantatory makeup called kumadori — was brought to completion by Danjūrō II.

A range widened by wagoto and jitsugoto

The Naritaya official site records that his patron Ikushima Shingorō was a master of Edo wagoto who had inherited the art of Nakamura Shichisaburō I, and that under his guidance Danjūrō II came to command not only bold aragoto but a wide range — wagoto, jitsugoto, nure and yatsushi.

Bringing kumadori to its settled form

The Naritaya official site credits him with completing the formal system of kumadori. The way an aragoto hero's face is built was settled in his generation.

Founding the plays that became the eighteen

Beyond refining what he had inherited, the Naritaya official site records, he founded new aragoto pieces — Sukeroku, Yanone, Kenuki among them — that would later be counted in the Kabuki Jūhachiban, and so established what is called the art of the house. What made this possible, it argues, was a new manner of playing that kept the bones of aragoto while drawing in the softness of wagoto.

Making persimmon the colour of aragoto

The Naritaya 'Danjūrō Encyclopaedia' relates that after he used persimmon for the suō robe of the hero of Shibaraku, that colour became the colour of aragoto and the colour of the Ichikawa line, invariably used on their kamishimo. It had seldom been seen before.

Puppet-theatre plays cross into kabuki

The Japan Arts Council records that Chikamatsu Monzaemon won a following with works such as Sonezaki Shinjū, drawn from the affections of the townspeople of his own day, and that Kokusen'ya Kassen was carried into kabuki to great acclaim, leading the way for staging puppet plays there. The distinction between jidaimono and sewamono also dates from this time.

The Ejima–Ikushima affair, and the three theatres of Edo

The Naritaya 'Danjūrō Encyclopaedia' records that Edo's licensed large theatres were fixed at four — the Nakamuraza, Yamamuraza, Ichimuraza and Moritaza — until the Ejima–Ikushima affair of 1714 brought down the Yamamuraza, leaving three. When one could not operate, the Miyakoza, Kiriza and Kawarasakiza stood in as reserve houses.

The theatre, one of three places where a thousand ryō moved

The Naritaya 'Danjūrō Encyclopaedia' names three places in Edo where a thousand ryō was said to change hands in a day: the Nihonbashi fish market in the morning, the three great theatres at midday, and the Yoshiwara quarter at night — a saying that marks the place the theatre held in the city's economy.

Caught up in the Ejima–Ikushima affair

The Naritaya official site records that in 1714, at twenty-seven, he was drawn into the Ejima–Ikushima affair but escaped with a light penalty, while his benefactor Ikushima Shingorō was banished to a distant island. Its encyclopaedia relates that one cause was a gift bearing the Konoe family's secondary crest, the gyōyō-botan, which he had received from Ejima, and that a magistrate's quick thinking let it be explained away as a crest used by the Ichikawa house. The Yamamuraza, where he had premièred Sukeroku the year before, was destroyed by the same affair.

Becoming a thousand-ryō actor

The Naritaya official site records that in 1721, at thirty-four, he was paid a salary of a thousand ryō and so became a senryō yakusha — a thousand-ryō actor. In an age when the theatre formed part of the city's economy, an actor's worth was now named in the same terms.

Kamigata wagoto flows into Edo aragoto

The Naritaya official site records that his patron Ikushima Shingorō was a master of Edo wagoto who had inherited the art of Nakamura Shichisaburō I, and that his guidance gave Danjūrō II his wide range. In an age the Japan Arts Council describes as setting Edo aragoto against Kamigata wagoto, he brought the two together in one body.