Ichikawa Danjūrō IV

A name vacant for twelve years

The Naritaya official site records that in the eleventh month of 1754, longing for the name of Danjūrō that had lain vacant for twelve years, he became the adopted son of Ebizō — Danjūrō II — and took the name as the fourth, at forty-four. The name passed not by descent but by his own wish and an act of adoption.

Two accounts of his origins

The Naritaya official site records him as the second son of Izumiya Kanjūrō, keeper of a large teahouse in Sakai-chō, Edo, while noting that he was also said to have been in truth the son of Danjūrō II. Its encyclopaedia likewise allows that some hold him to have been Danjūrō II's own child, while stating that he came from the Matsumoto house to the Ichikawa by adoption. Both accounts stop short of asserting either, and so does this page.

The Matsumoto art, and a start in women's roles

The Naritaya official site records that at three he was adopted by Matsumoto Kōshirō I, made his debut at nine under the name Matsumoto Shichizō, and appeared in women's roles until he was twenty-four. From the end of the Kyōhō years he turned to male leads, and in the eleventh month of 1735 became Matsumoto Kōshirō II, at twenty-five.

An aragoto he could not simply inherit

The Naritaya official site describes him as tall and long-limbed, with a narrow face lacking fullness, and hooded lids over sharp triangular eyes befitting a jitsuaku villain — features, it argues, plainly at odds with the image of Ichikawa Danjūrō built by the first and second, and unsuited to the bright, open temper of aragoto.

Kagekiyo plays as a way through

The Naritaya 'Danjūrō Encyclopaedia' records that, troubled by the question of his own style, he found his way through jitsugoto and villain roles, and excelled above all in the Kagekiyo plays. Meeting wife and child in prison, breaking out of the cell — through such devices, it suggests, he worked out effects a step apart from plain aragoto, and his makeup too took on the spirit of jitsuaku, adding an inked beard to the sujiguma lines.

First stagings of two of the eighteen

The Naritaya Jūhachiban pages record that he first staged Gedatsu at the Ichimuraza in the third month of 1760 and Kamahige at the Nakamuraza in the fourth month of 1774. The same source states that every play included in the eighteen was chosen from among those first staged by the first, second and fourth Danjūrō.

Shugyōkō, a working group on acting

The Naritaya official site records that he gathered disciples — Danjūrō V, Kōshirō IV, Nakamura Nakazō I among them — into a study group on acting called the Shugyōkō. Its encyclopaedia describes meetings at his house at Fukagawa Kiba given over to the study of acting and of kata, and credits him with helping others by suggestion even when he no longer performed himself.

Turning from onnagata to male leads

He appeared in women's roles until twenty-four and turned to male leads at the end of the Kyōhō years, the Naritaya official site records. That he had passed through the onnagata art before entering a house of aragoto is not to be overlooked in weighing the range of his playing.

Three gidayū masterpieces enter kabuki

The Japan Arts Council records that as puppet theatre reached its height in the mid-eighteenth century, its hits were moved into kabuki one after another — Sugawara Denju Tenarai Kagami, Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura and Kanadehon Chūshingura above all, revived so often that they came to be called the three masterpieces of the gidayū repertoire. They still make up a large share of the kabuki repertoire today.

The première of Kyōganoko Musume Dōjōji

The Japan Arts Council explains that the Dōjōji plays, staged since the Genroku years, were gathered to their summation in Kyōganoko Musume Dōjōji, first performed by Nakamura Tomijūrō I in 1753 — a great work of onnagata dance carried by a single performer for close to an hour. It came the year before his own succession.

The staging of Shibaraku settles at the kaomise

The Japan Arts Council explains that it was customary to build into the varied plays of the kaomise a scene in which a figure of blazing justice enters on the cry of 'shibaraku' and saves people about to be killed by a villain; played again and again, the scene grew more refined until its staging was fixed. Only from the Meiji era was it performed as the separate piece Shibaraku.

Taking the Kōshirō name at the run where Danjūrō moved

The Naritaya official site records that at the run of the eleventh month of 1735, at which Danjūrō II became Ebizō and Masugorō became Danjūrō III, Matsumoto Shichizō also took the name Matsumoto Kōshirō II, at twenty-five. It coincided with his turn from women's roles to male leads, and the road that would carry him to the Danjūrō name began there.

Taking the vacant name by adoption

The Naritaya official site records that in the eleventh month of 1754, longing for a name vacant twelve years, he became the adopted son of Ebizō — Danjūrō II — and took the name as the fourth, at forty-four. Seen from the other side, Danjūrō II, having lost his third, took in a forty-four-year-old son at sixty-seven.

Passing the name to his son, and going back to the old one

The Naritaya official site records that in 1770, at sixty, he had his own son, Matsumoto Kōshirō III, take the name Danjūrō V, while he himself returned for a time to his former name of Kōshirō. He went on performing after handing the name over, first staging Kamahige in 1774.

Shaving his head, and the boss of Kiba

The Naritaya official site records that in 1776, at sixty-six, he abruptly shaved his head on the closing day of a run at the Ichimuraza and retired, taking the name Zuinen, withdrawing to his house at Fukagawa Kiba and keeping company with chivalrous commoners and fellow haikai poets. Its encyclopaedia relates that his obliging nature and his retreat to Kiba earned him the affectionate name of the boss of Kiba.