Ichimura Uzaemon XV () Born 5th November 1874 115 ( Meiji 7 ) Died 6th May 194556 ( Showa 20) Aged

d 7070 Male role specialist Guild Given name Haiku poets name Tachiyaku Tachibanaya Ichimura Rokutar Kak .

Ichimura Uzaemon XV - Backstage at the Kabukiza circa 1930 (dressed as Togashi -: )

In the novelist Satomi Tons ( - real name Hideo Yamanouchi) 1954 book Uzaemon Densetsu (), serialised in the newspaper Mainichi Shimbun, the secret of Uzaemons birth was touched on. Satomi Ton theorised that Uzaemon, who was born in Hong in the district of Tenjin-ch, was the illegitimate son of Ito Ikeda (herself an illegitimate daughter of Matsudaira Yoshinaga ( ), one of the Four Wise Lords of the Bakumatsu (Bakumatsu no Shikenk - ) and the Daimyo, or Lord, of Fukui Domain), wife of Charles Legendre who fought in the United States Civil War as a Colonel and later Brigadier under Ulysses S Grant in the Union Army and was part of the US diplomatic mission to Japan as an advisor to the new Meiji Government. This has now become an established belief. Uzaemon would therefore have been a 16th generation descendant of the first of the Tokugawa Shguns, Tokugawa Ieyasu ( ).

In spite of his illustrious origins the fate of a mixed race child in Japan at the time would not have been good and he was put up for adoption and was adopted by Ichimura Uzaemon XIV (), who gave him the name of Ichimura Rokutar. His life on stage had begun and he began an early life of rigorous training. LeGendre would probably have been at the June 1879 performance at the Shintomiza when Prince Heinrich of Prussia attended, and most definitely on the occasion of the July 16, 1879, visit to the Shintomiza by one time President of the USA Ulysses S Grant. Uzaemon would have been five years old in 1879 and one wonders if he attended the July 1879 performance. If he did though LeGendre may have been pointed out to him it was doubtful at such an early age that he would have known about his potential blood ties with him. In January 1881 141) he made his first appearance on stage and took the name of Band Takematsu at the Shintomiza. Then in July 1893 267), after the death in March of that same year of his father, then Band Kakitsu II (), he took the name of Ichimura Kakitsu VI at the Kabukiza (). Whether or not Uzaemon could prove his regal lineage, at his kj he was to be entrusted with the succession to the Ichimura Uzaemon name by and at the request, and during the final performance, of Ichikawa Danjur IX ( who had performed in front of Ulysses S Grant at the Shintomiza July 1879). However, just before this was due to be staged Danjurs health deteriorated and he suddenly died in September 1903369 ). The inauspicious death of Gekisei ( - Danjurs nick name) caused a great stir and some confusion and many emotional debates amongst his peers as to who would conduct the kj in his place. Uzaemon kept his own counsel whilst the debates churned around him. On the opening day performance Danjur IXs death portrait (iei -) was placed on stage alongside that of Uzaemons uncle (his adoptive fathers older brother) Onoe Kikugor V (; formerly Ichikawa Uzaemon XIII - ) who had passed away 6 months earlier. At the Dankikusai ( the programme held at the Kabukiza to commemorate the memory of Danjur IX and Kikugor V) the kj was very emotional and summed up their popularity and success throughout their lives. Uzaemons succession to his name at the Kabukiza in October 19033610) was unparalleled, happening as it did in oddly complicated circumstances, and in the afterglow of the careers of Danjur IX and Kikugor V. He went on to become a hugely successful and popular actor and though in his youth he was considered too awkward to be a Kabuki actor he later developed to be one of the best tachiyaku (male role specialist) of the first half of the twentieth century. Uzaemon had a reputation as a womaniser and having been rejected by one famous geisha married another, Okoi ( - 1880-1948) of the Omuja geisha house in Shimbashi, who was also one of his fans. The marriage was arranged by his fans and admirers through a matchmaker, with the blessing of her former husband, a wealthy stockbroker by the name of Heizo Yajima. The wedding was a gala occasion and Okoi went to live with Uzaemons parents. Okois mother-in-law allegedly behaved very badly to her daughter-in-law, reducing her to servitude while Uzaemon, having secured a famous geisha for a wife set off on a lavish philandering spree accruing substantial debts which had to be paid off by Okoi. After two years Okoi asked for and was granted a divorce. She borrowed 1,000 yen and set up her own teahouse, later becoming the lover of Prime Minister Taro Katsura (Longstreet, S & E., Yoshiwara: Geishas, Courtesans and the Pleasure Quarters of Old Tokyo, Pub. Tuttle, 1970/2009).

He reputedly had a wonderful and charismatic personality and when asked what he could do on stage, he replied, Im happy not doing anything people are going to look at me anyway! One day, when the hanamichi lights had gone off Uzaemon remarked to his onnagata partner that he would be good even without the lights and to an astounded and somewhat anxious stage technician that just by getting on with it he would brighten things up. Even without the lights on the hanamichi Uzaemon was able to create an atmosphere, said two Kabuki critics, He doesnt have to have hanamichi lighting when his white face appears in the pitch darkness. Uzaemon was admired by many, and even Ichikawa Danjr IX ( ) exhibited a grudging admiration for him. He was a fan of Charlie Chaplin and after having seen Chaplins film, City Lights, in America in 1931 helped Kimura Kinka, a popular playwright of the day, with his Kabuki adaptation of the film called Komori no Yasusan (Bat Man Yasu). He had a great physical appearance, a strong presence on stage and an amazing voice. He was one of the pre-eminent nimaime (handsome refined young male lover role specialist) and sabakiyaku (villain defeating male role specialist) of his day. He kept on playing young lover roles even in his later years though he never played elderly male characters. His duo with Onoe Baik VI was one of the most famous goruden kombi (Golden Combi of onnagata/tachiyaku) in Kabuki history. When his best stage partner, Onoe Baik VI (), died in 1934, he successfully continued to perform in duo with Kataoka Nizaemon XII (the most famous contemporary goruden kombi is the duo Band Tamasabur/Kataoka Nizaemon, affectionately known as Taka-Tama) During a European-American tour, probably in 1931, Uzaemon was watching the crowds at the Paris Louvre who were looking at the Venus de Milo when he remarked, it seems to be the business when a womans hands are cut off. In 1945, with a favourable outcome for Japan in the Second World War increasingly uncertain and the air raids on Tky a daily occurrence, it was decided that Uzaemon should be evacuated to a hot springs in Yada, in Nagano Prefecture. Uzaemon would never stand on the Kabuki stage again. He passed away whilst at Yada on 6 May 1945 and is buried in Zshigaya cemetery () in Minami-Ikebukuro, Toshima, Tky, next to Onoe Baik VI, his much-loved onngata (female role specialist) stage partner. His funeral was marked as a day of National mourning and the Police were drafted in to control the crowds (Longstreet, S & E., Yoshiwara: Geishas, Courtesans and the Pleasure Quarters of Old Tokyo, Pub. Tuttle, 1970/2009) On the 25th May there was an exceptionally heavy air raid on Tky and when a worried Faubion Bowers, accompanying the head of the US Army of Occupation General Douglas McArthur, landed in Atsugi four months later the first question he asked of a waiting Japanese journalist was, Is Ichimura Uzaemon still alive?

Crest

Orange Tree ne ueri tachibana

For details of his stage appearances please see http://www.kabuki21.com/uzaemon15.php Uzaemon Dentetsu (in Japanese) http://i-sys.info/special/hazaemon/hazaemon.html Ichimura Uzaemon XV (in Japanese) http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/_(15)