Sakata_Tōjūrō_IV

Sakata Tōjūrō IV
Sakata Tōjūrō IV ( 四代目坂田藤十郎 , Yondaime

Sakata Tōjūrō, born Hirotarō Hayashi ( 林宏太郎 , Sakata Tōjūrō IV
Hayashi Hirotarō), 31 December 1931 – 12 November 四代目坂田藤十郎
2020) was a Japanese kabuki actor in the Kamigata
style[2] and was officially designated a Living National
Treasure.[1] Unlike most kabuki actors, he performed
both male and female roles, and was renowned as both
a skilled wagotoshi (actor of male roles in the wagoto
tradition) and onnagata (actor of female roles). He was
the fourth in the line of Sakata Tōjūrō,[3] having
revived the name after a lapse of over 230 years.
Lineage
Though he bears no direct hereditary connection to the
previous lineage of Sakata Tōjūrō which he has
Sakata Tōjūrō in 1955
revived, Tōjūrō traced his line back several generations
Born Hirotarō Hayashi[1]
within the kabuki world. He is the eldest son of
31 December 1931
Nakamura Ganjirō II, the grandson of Nakamura
Ganjirō I, and the great-grandson of Nakamura Kyoto, Japan
Kanjaku III, who was adopted into the kabuki families Died 12 November 2020 (aged 88)
by Nakamura Utaemon IV. Other names Kōtarō Hayashi
Nakamura Senjaku II
Tōjūrō's sons Nakamura Ganjirō IV and Nakamura
Senjaku III perform as kabuki actors, as do his Nakamura Ganjirō III
grandsons Nakamura Kazutarō and Nakamura Narikomaya Yamashiroya
Toranosuke. [1]
Occupation Kabuki actor

Years active 1941–2020
Early life and career
Spouse Chikage Oogi (m. 1958)
Tōjūrō was born on New Year's Eve 1931, the eldest Children Nakamura Ganjirō IV (eldest
son of actor Nakamura Ganjirō II. He made his first son)
appearance on stage in October 1941, under the name Nakamura Senjaku III (youngest
Nakamura Senjaku II, at the Kado-za in dotonbori son)
Osaka, in the play Komochi Yamanba.
Father Nakamura Ganjirō II
Throughout his career, Tojuro IV has performed Relatives Nakamura Kanjaku III (great-
primarily in Osaka, performing in both traditional grandfather)
pieces which have long been in the repertoire, and in Nakamura Ganjirō I
new kabuki works, primarily by playwright Nobuo (grandfather)
Uno. He also Hayashi Mataichirō II (uncle)
frequently took Tamao Nakamura (younger
part in revival sister)
performances in Azuma Tokuho II (daughter-in-
Tokyo of works by law)[a]
the great bunraku
Nakamura Kazutarō
(puppet theatre)
(grandson)[b]
playwright
Chikamatsu Nakamura Toranosuke
Monzaemon. (grandson)
Tōjūrō acted in the
first performance of "The Love Suicides at Sonezaki" (Sonezaki
Shinjū), one of the playwright's most famous works, since the end of
World War II at the Shinbashi Enbujō in 1953. In February 1955,
Tojuro in September 1954.
Tojuro IV left Shochiku and became an exclusive actor for Hankyu
Corporation and Takarazuka Film Productions, a subsidiary of Toho.
In March 1963, Tojuro IV returned to Shochiku and resumed his activities as a kabuki actor. The
playwright's 250th memorial service was observed with the revival of Horikawa Nami no Tsuzumi in
1973.
In 1982, Senjaku founded the Chikamatsu-za, a traveling troupe devoted to performing and reviving
Chikamatsu's works. These tours have taken him to many cities across Japan, as well as to England, the
US, China, and elsewhere. On these tours he not performed, but gave lectures and cultural workshops as
well. The tours frequently feature "The Love Suicides at Amijima" (Amijima Shinjū), and sometimes
feature revivals of plays not performed for centuries. The 1998 tour saw the revival of Keisei Mibu
Dainenbutsu which had not been performed since 1702.
Senjaku inherited his father's name and he became Nakamura Ganjirō III in November 1990, in a shūmei
ceremony at the Kabuki-za in Tokyo. Ganjirō was then named a Living National Treasure (人間国宝,
ningen kokuhō) in 1994.
He took the name as Sakata Tōjūrō in December 2005.[1] He adopted this new name at the Minami-za in
Kyoto.[4] His goal was reviving the lineage which had died out over 230 years prior, with the death of
Sakata Tōjūrō III in 1774. He sought to not only honor the memory of the line of Sakata Tōjūrō before
him, who pioneered, developed, and maintained the Kamigata (Kansai) kabuki tradition, but also as part
of an effort to revive and maintain that tradition himself. He is thus, like the other Tōjūrō before him,
seen as a symbol of the Kamigata tradition, and as the top actor in that tradition.
In addition to performing, Tōjūrō oversaw and participated in a number of cultural programs to help
encourage interest in kabuki, and to maintain the Kamigata tradition. His September 2007 tour took him
to Guangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai, and Hangzhou. In December of that year, he celebrated his 77th
birthday (a special birthday in Japan) with a performance of Musume Dōjōji.
In December 2019 just one year before his death, his last stage performance was at the Kyoto Minamiza
Theater as Keijuinni in Gion Festival Faith Record Kinkakuji.
Personal life
In October 1958, Tojuro IV married to an actress and politician
Chikage Oogi. They had two sons, Tomotaro (b. 6 February 1959)
and Hirotaro (b. 19 December 1960), who are both kabuki actors,
following in their father's path. His two grandsons, Kazutarō and
Toranosuke, who are also both kabuki actors.
Death
Then-Japanese Prime Minister
Junichiro Koizumi (left), kabuki
Tōjūrō IV died of natural causes in hospital in Tokyo on 12
actor Sakata Tōjūrō IV (center),
November 2020, at the age of 88. His death was unrelated to COVID-
and actress and politician
Chikage Oogi (right) during their 19.[5]
meeting at the Kantei in Tokyo
(27 October 2005)
Selected works
OCLC/WorldCat lists roughly 30+ works by and about Sakata Tōjūrō IVin 30+ publications in 2
languages and 170+ library holdings .[6]
近松劇への招待 : 舞台づくりと歌舞伎考 (1989) with Koshirō Uno;

通し狂言宿無団七時雨の傘 : 三幕六場 (1992) with Shōzō Namiki and Ginsaku Tobe
一生青春 (1997) with Michiko Toki
雁治郎芸談 by 中村雁治郎 (2000) Kiyoshi Mizuochi
恋飛脚大和往来. 封印切 : 一幕 (2000) with Mansaku Tatsuoka
加賀見山旧錦絵: 通し狂言: 四幕七場 (2004) with Yōtai Yō and Shōichi Yamada
坂田藤十郎 : 歌舞伎の真髄を生きる (2006)
Honors
1990 – Medal with Purple Ribbon
1994 – Living National Treasure
2003 – Person of Cultural Merit
2006 – Osaka Culture Prize Cultural Transmission Prize
2008 – Praemium Imperiale[7]
2009 – Order of Culture[8]
See also
Nakamura Kanzaburō
Notes
1. Library of Congress authority file, Sakata Tōjūrō IV n85-59796 (http://errol.oclc.org/laf/n85-5
9796.html); Note that while the stage names of all kabuki actors have retained traditional
order (Surname-Givenname) on Wikipedia, birth names of those born after the Meiji
Restoration are in Western order (Givenname-Surname).
2. Kabuki Preservation Society. (2008). Kabuki techō, p. 130.
3. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Sakata Tōjūrō" in (https://books.google.com/books?id=
p2QnPijAEmEC&pg=PA812)Japan Encyclopedia, p. 812 (https://books.google.com/books?i
d=p2QnPijAEmEC&pg=PA812), p. 812, at Google Books; n.b., Louis-Frédéric is pseudonym
of Louis-Frédéric Nussbaum, see Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Authority File (http://dispatch.
opac.ddb.de/DB=4.1/PPN?PPN=128842709) Archived (https://archive.today/201205241748
28/http://dispatch.opac.ddb.de/DB=4.1/PPN?PPN=128842709) 2012-05-24 at
archive.today.
4. Art Research Center, Kyoto Traditional Performing Arts Project, Shumei (name-change)
anniversary (http://www.arc.ritsumei.ac.jp/lib/english/kabuki/eventinfo/kabuki_performance/s
akata_tojuro_shumei_name-change_anniversary_chikamatsu-za_performance_no_18.htm
l), 2006.
5. 坂田藤十郎さん死去歌舞伎の人間国宝、88歳 (https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXMZO662
45060U0A111C2MM8000/) (in Japanese). Nikkei. 14 November 2020.
坂田藤十郎さんご逝去 (https://www.kabuki-bito.jp/news/6455/) (in Japanese). Kabuki. 14

November 2020.
坂田藤十郎さん死去、８８歳歌舞伎俳優、人間国宝―「曽根崎心中」１４００回 (https://w

eb.archive.org/web/20201220014345/https://www.jiji.com/jc/article?k=2020111400544&g=o
bt) (in Japanese). Jiji Press. 14 November 2020. Archived from the original (https://www.jiji.c
om/jc/article?k=2020111400544&g=obt) on 2020-12-20.
6. WorldCat Identities (http://www.oclc.org/research/activities/identities/default.htm): 中村鴈治

郎 1931- (http://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n85-59796)
7. Praemium Imperiale, 2008 laureates (http://www.praemiumimperiale.org/en/laureate/laureat
es) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20110510015301/http://www.praemiumimperiale.
org/en/laureate/laureates) 2011-05-10 at the Wayback Machine
8. "Emperor awards decoration to Russian Japanese art expert," (http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnne
ws/news/20091104p2a00m0na008000c.html) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/200911
07083445/http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20091104p2a00m0na008000c.html) 2009-
11-07 at the Wayback Machine Mainichi Shimbun. November 4, 2009.
a. She is the daughter of the late Kabuki actor Nakamura Tomijūrō V, wife of Nakamura Ganjirō
IV (Tōjūrō IV's eldest son) and mother of Nakamura Kazutarō
b. Son of Nakamura Ganjirō IV (Tojuro IV's eldest son) and Azuma Tokuho II (daughter of
Kabuki actor Nakamura Tomijūrō V).
References
Kabuki Preservation Society (伝統歌舞伎保存会, Dentō kabuki hozonkai). (2008). Kabuki

Notebook 2008 (かぶき手帖 2008年版 (http://www.actors.or.jp/syupan/2008kabuki_tetyo.ht
ml), Kabuki techō 2008). Tokyo: Japan Actors' Association (日本俳優協会編集, Nihon Haiyū
Kyōkai). ISBN 978-4-902675-04-7
Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan encyclopedia. (https://books.goo
gle.com/books?id=p2QnPijAEmEC) Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-
01753-5; OCLC 58053128 (http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/58053128?referer=di&ht=edition)
External links
Kabuki 21 (http://kabuki21.com/index.htm), Sakata Tōjūrō IV (http://kabuki21.com/tojuro4.ph
p)
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