Actors

A portion of a triptych print by Toyokuni III ca. 1828-1829 depicting kabuki actors including Ichikawa Ebizō V, Ichikawa Danjūrō VIII, and Matsumoto Kōshirō V. Direct link. © The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence.

Although kabuki was initially performed by women (onna-kabuki) and then later young boys (wakashū), once both were banned from the stage in 1629 and 1652, respectively, men’s kabuki (yarō-kabuki) became the basis for what we know kabuki to be today. With men’s kabuki firmly established by the second half of the 17th century, kabuki acting styles, families of actors, and specific acting lines emerged. There are various acting styles in kabuki, including onnagata (female role types), tachiyaku (male role types), and more, but the two main acting styles for lead male roles are aragoto (“rough” style) and wagoto (“soft” style). These two acting styles, integral to kabuki performance, were each developed by individual actors and then– in the case of aragoto acting– carried down by their successors, often their sons or adopted sons. In this sense, kabuki acting families became a central part of developing kabuki performance. 

One such family is the Ichikawa family, and within it, the “Ichikawa Danjūrō” lineage. The first actor to have this name, Ichikawa Danjūrō I (1660-1704), is credited with not only creating the aragoto acting style but also the first usage of the quintessential kabuki style of makeup, kumadori. The Danjūrō line can be traced down to today: from Danjūrō I’s son (Danjūrō II, 1688- 1758), to his grandson (Danjūrō IV, 1711-1778), great-grandson (Danjūrō V, 1741- 1806), great-great-great grandson (Danjūrō VII, 1791-1859), great-great-great-great grandsons (Danjūrō VIII, 1823-1854 and Danjūrō IX, 1838-1903), through to two of the most famous Danjūrō in contemporary times, Danjūrō XII (1946-2013) and his son Danjūrō XIII (1977-), who recently took the Danjūrō name in November 2022. All performed in kabuki, learned how to dance and act from their fathers or adoptive fathers, and took on the name “Ichikawa Danjūrō” in name-succession ceremonies (shūmei), which mark their achievements and acknowledge their skill and prowess in performance as well as their popularity and good reputation amongst fans. 

With each shūmei, an actor moves one step further in their career. One example is the great tachiyaku actor Ichikawa Danjūrō XII (1946-2013), who first took the kabuki stage under the name Ichikawa Natsuo in 1953 at age seven, where he played a child role (koyaku). In 1958, at age 12, he took the name Ichikawa Shinnosuke VI and performed in the play Kaze Kaoru Kurama no Irodori, where he was cast as Ushiwakamaru, the childhood version of the famous 12th century samurai general Minamoto no Yoshitsune. Ten years later, at age 22, Danjūrō played his first major role: the thunder god Narukami. One year later, he was cast as the lead in two plays, Sukeroku and Kanjinchō, and was given the name Ichikawa Ebizō X. By the time he took the name Danjūrō in 1985, signaling that he had reached the pinnacle not only of his career as a kabuki actor but also his position in the hierarchy of kabuki actors, he was continuously cast in major roles. As this exploration of Danjūrō XII’s early acting career shows, it took about 15 years before he was cast in a major role, and over three decades to reach the peak of his career.

Another example that illustrates the varying roles an actor takes on as he progresses through his career is the famous onnagata actor Nakamura Utaemon VI (1917-2001), who first performed under the name Nakamura Kotarō III in 1922 at age five. In 1941, he took the name Nakamura Shikan VI and played the lead onnagata role in the dance play Rokkasen. Ten years later in 1951, he played his first major role as Masako in the play Meiboku Sendai Hagi. The role is known for its difficulty, and marks a key point in Utaemon’s career as an onnagata. It is important to note that it took him 29 years to reach this point. Later in 1951, he received the name Nakamura Utaemon VI and performed the lead in the famous dance play Musume Dōjōji. After achieving this pinnacle name, Utaemon went on to perform with famous tachiyaku like Nakamura Kanzaburō XVII (1909-1988), traveled to the United States to perform kabuki, and repeatedly played major roles in various plays. In 1968, he was designated a Living National Treasure (ningen kokuhō) by the Japanese government. So, no matter the type of actor one is, it takes decades of practice and experience for an actor to be cast in a major role, let alone be considered for receiving an acting name of prestige.

As illustrated in the Danjūrō line, some actors who earned the name were not blood-related to the Ichikawa family. It was common practice in the Tokugawa period– and even occurred well into the mid-20th century– for actors to adopt boys who showed great promise and talent. Danjūrō XI (1909-1965) is one such example out of three actors in the Danjūrō line: the son of Matsumoto Kōshirō VII (1870-1949; himself the son of a merchant and adopted into the Fujima family known for traditional dance [buyō]), Danjūrō XI was adopted into the Ichikawa line in 1940 and became Danjūrō XI in 1962. The Matsumoto and Ichikawa kabuki families have been greatly intertwined since the 18th century and this relationship continues today with the name “Ichikawa Somegorō” continuing to link the two families. The current holder of that name, Ichikawa Somegorō VIII (2005-), is the son of Matsumoto Kōshirō X (1973-). 

Kabuki actors are not only integral to kabuki, but also to the development of other forms of entertainment such as film and television. With the advent of film, Japanese film directors and producers looked to kabuki for plot, characters, and aesthetic, not to mention acting talent. For example, Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 film Seven Samurai takes inspiration for storyline, fight scenes, and characters from the traditional kabuki theatre– specifically the narrative theme of kanzen chōaku (“reward good and punish evil”), tachimawari (choreographed fight scenes), and several character types typical of kabuki, such as the jitsugoto (“serious style”). As such, kabuki actors started to cross over into the film industry in the early 20th century, producing famous actors such as Hasegawa Kazuo, Nakamura Katsuo, and Ichikawa Utaemon. Growing up in a kabuki actor family, Utaemon’s second son, Kitaōji Kin’ya, went on to star in jidaigeki (period drama) films and, later, TV shows. To this day, kabuki actors continue to act in jidaigeki TV shows, as well as shows set in contemporary times, illustrating kabuki’s continuing connection to Japanese entertainment. 

As film and TV’s popularity grew from the mid-20th century onward, kabuki was pushed out of its role as a pillar of popular culture and the number of actors performing kabuki decreased gradually over time. In 1970, the Japan Arts Council, established by the National Theatre Law of 1966, formed the National Theatre Traditional Performing Arts Training Institute, which offers training in traditional arts such as kabuki, bunraku (puppet theatre), and traditional instruments for two years. Located at the National Theater, the Training Institute accepts male applicants who express a desire to learn one of the traditional arts. Currently, there are close to 300 students learning kabuki performance at the Institute, but only about one third go on to graduate and perform kabuki on stage. Throughout their two-year program, students get a holistic immersion into becoming a kabuki actor: they are taught everything from dance and vocalization to make-up and costuming, and more.

Perhaps most notable about the Training Institute is the hands-on training students receive. In an interview on the Institute’s homepage, Ichikawa Shinjūrō IV (1969-), who graduated from the Kabuki Acting Program in 1990, recalled working with his master (shishō), the great Ichikawa Danjūrō XII (1946-2013). He says that despite doing simple tasks at first (e.g. holding Danjūrō’s water and snacks during rehearsals; taking care of props; preparing costumes; etc.), as he progressed through the program, he gradually took on more responsibilities, including helping Danjūrō’s tachimawari scenes on stage. It was this hands-on experience that, Shinjūrō says, allowed him to deeply and intimately understand the goings-on of theatrical production, especially one so “gorgeous” (hanayaka) as kabuki. In this way, the Training Institute helps keep Japan’s traditional performing arts alive. 

However, very few of these students go on to play major roles in kabuki plays. They are typically cast in wakiyaki roles, or supporting roles, where they often have no dialogue or very little time on stage. Graduates from the training program spend the following 10 years post-graduation continuing their training as nadai-shita, the lowest level of the hierarchy of kabuki actors. During this time, a typical salary would be anywhere from $30,000 to $70,000. Even though kabuki actors from the training program, or even minor kabuki families, often do not receive the same level of celebrity that actors from the major families experience, their presence on the kabuki stage is integral to performances. Without wakiyaku actors, plays could not be staged and star actors would not be able to shine as brightly. 

Kabuki actors from the major families, on the other hand, can first appear on stage around age two or three and, as they grow in skill, go on to be cast in more major roles, as seen in the earlier examples of Ichikawa Danjūrō XII and Nakamura Utaemon VI. The current Ichikawa Shinnosuke VIII (2013-) is the young son of Ichikawa Danjūrō XIII (1977-). His omemie (first stage appearance) was at age two. At his first performance (hatsubutai) in 2022, at the time his father took on the Danjūrō name, Shinnosuke played the role of the uirō-uri, someone who sells a medicine claiming to make someone speak quickly and gracefully. The role is challenging due to the long and tongue-twisted speech the actor must perform, so it was impressive that a nine-year-old could perform something so difficult. Precisely because of the training and connections they receive from birth, kabuki stardom typically only comes to actors like Shinnosuke— who already has a fan base— who are born to kabuki lineages. 

Even actors from kabuki-adjacent families (e.g. kabuki musician or dance families) have an easier time gaining prominence amongst kabuki patrons than graduates of the Training Institute. Onoe Ukon II (1992-), for instance, was born into a kabuki musician family: the Kiyomoto family. Ukon, being the second son of Kiyomoto Enjudayū VII (1958-), was not pressured into continuing the Kiyomoto line (although he still learned his family’s art and earned the name Kiyomoto Eijudayū VII in 2018). He pursued a career in kabuki with the help of his father’s cousin, the great actor Nakamura Kanzaburō XVIII (1955-2012). At age 13 he officially became a disciple of Onoe Kikugorō VII (1942- ) and, nine years later at age 22, Ukon finally achieved the title of nadai, the level when an actor is examined and considered to be mature and can stand on their own. Now, Ukon has become a well-known actor cast in many lead onnagata roles in plays such as Musume dōjōji and Shinpan-utazaimon– Nozaki-mura. He even appears in commercials and hosted a radio show about kabuki on NHK from 2018 to 2021. Unlike Shinnosuke, who is the son of a major actor, Ukon is not a direct descendant of a kabuki line. However, his close ties to the kabuki world gave him the means to start his career earlier than those at the Institute and gain a following amongst kabuki patrons. Thus, unlike in the Tokugawa and early Meiji periods, where even a merchant’s son could apprentice under an actor and grow to a position of status within the actor hierarchy, such a trajectory today is highly unlikely if not impossible. One notable exception is star onnagata actor Bandō Tamasaburō V (1950-). Born to a non-kabuki family, in 1956 Tamasaburō became a heyago (dressing room assistant) for Morita Kan’ya XIV (1907-1975). As a heyago, Tamasaburō was able to learn proper kabuki manners and etiquette, and even the basics of kabuki actor training. At his hatsubutai in 1957, Kan’ya gave him the name Bandō Kinoji. He adopted Tamasaburō into his kabuki family in 1964, giving him his current name. Tamasaburō is regarded as an extremely talented onnagata—arguably the most talented onnagata currently on stage. He has performed kabuki all over the world, and has branched out to act in TV, films, and western plays such as King Lear and Romeo and Juliet. An extraordinary rise in kabuki hierarchy like Tamasaburō’s has not been seen in recent years but nevertheless remains an example of kabuki’s prioritization of talent even within the lineage system.

Today, as in the Tokugawa period, kabuki actors, like their predecessors in the Tokugawa period are still very much in tune with popular culture and participate in play production, even to utilizing stories and characters in pop culture to create new kabuki plays and experiment with the form. For example, kabuki actors like Ichikawa Ennosuke III (1939-2023) and Ennosuke IV (1979-) have, since the 1980s, have created new plays under the genre of “Super Kabuki” (sūpā kabuki), which takes inspiration from Japanese mythology (e.g. Yamato Takeru) and the plots and characters of popular manga like One Piece or Naruto. Super Kabuki is most well-known for its combination of flashy stunts (e.g. flying through the air on a wire [chū-nori]) and unconventional play settings. Since 2016, Nakamura Shidō II (1972-) has performed a unique version of the classic play Yoshitsune Senbonzakura (Yoshitsune and the Thousand Cherry Blossoms) with hologram vocaloid artist Hatsune Miku. In 2019, Ichikawa Ebizō XII (now Ichikawa Danjūrō XIII) created a new kabuki play based on the most recent Star Wars trilogy called Star Wars Kabuki– Kairennosuke and the Three Shining Swords, where he starred as Kairennosuke (the kabuki-fied name of the Star Wars character Kylo Ren). In both the past and the present, kabuki actors play a crucial role not only in on-stage performances, but also engaging in behind-the-scenes work.