ICHIKAWA ENNOSUKE III

Stage names:

Ichikawa Ennosuke III
Ichikawa Danko III

Real name: Kinoshi Masahiko

Guild: Omodakaya

Line number: SANDAIME (III)

Birthday: 9 December 1939

Connections:

Great-grandfather: Ichikawa Danshirô II (Ennosuke I)

Grandfather: Ichikawa En'ô (Ennosuke II)

Father: Ichikawa Danshirô III

Brother: Ichikawa Danshirô IV

Career:

January 1947: he makes his first appearance on stage, at the Tôkyô Gekijô, where he receives the name of Ichikawa Danko III and performs in the dance "Ninin Sambasô".

May 1963: big name-taking ceremony for the Omodakaya guild; Ichikawa Ennosuke II, Ichikawa Danko III and Ichikawa Kamejirô I take the respective names of Ichikawa En'ô, Ichikawa Ennosuke III and Ichikawa Danko IV. The new Ennosuke celebrates his shûmei by playing in the dance-drama "Kurozuka", the jidaimono "Kamakura Sandaiki" and the michiyuki "Yoshinoyama".

April 1968: Ennosuke performs for the first time a chûnori exit for the role of the fox Genkurô at the end of the "Shi-no-Kiri" scene of the classic "Yoshitsune Sembon Zakura", which is staged at the National Theater.

May 1968: revival at the National Theater of "Ura Omote Sendai Hagi"; Ennosuke plays the role of Arajishi Otokonosuke [casting].

April 1977: revival at the Meijiza of Katsu Genzô II's drama "Kimi-wa-Fune Nami no Uwajima"; Ennosuke plays the roles of Date Tôtômi-no-Kami, Yanbe Seibei, the yakko Dôsuke and Takino [casting].

April 1979: historic revival at the Meijiza of Tsuruya Namboku IV long-forgotten play "Haji Momiji Ase no Kaomise" (commonly called "Date no Jûyaku", in English "the ten roles of Date"), whose plot and characters belong to the "Meiboku Sendai Hagi" and "Kasane" worlds. The play is produced by Ennosuke, who plays the ten hayagawari roles [casting].

April 1987: Ennosuke produces the revival at the Meijiza of the play "Jûni Hitoe Komachi Zakura", which includes the famous Tokiwazu-based dance-drama "Tsumoru Koi Yuki no seki no To" [more details].

29 June 1998: the Ôsaka District Court slaps an injunction on an unnamed 51-year-old female fan who had been stalking him for the previous six years. She is prohibited from approaching within 200 meters of him, banned from the theaters at which he performs and ordered to pay YEN 500,000 in compensation (text courtesy of Jean Wilson) [more details].

19 April 2000: Ennosuke performs his 5,000th flying stunt, called chûnori, on stage at the Shimbashi Embujô, playing the role of Guan Yu in the Super-Kabuki drama "Shin Sangokushi" (New Three Kingdoms).

November 2003: Ennosuke suddenly falls ill (first symptoms of a cerebral infarction) while performing in Fukuoka. He has to rest and can't take part in the December kaomise program in Kyôto.

February 2004: Ennosuke is back on stage, playing the role of Ichijô Ôkura Naganari in the "Ichijô Ôkura Monogatari" act of the drama "Kiichi Hôgen Sanryaku no Maki", which is the core of the program of an Omodakaya Japan tour. Because of some minor health problems in his lever, Ennosuke decides to rest longer after this tour and stops acting up to the end of 2004.

Comments:

Ichikawa Ennosuke is one of the most popular contemporary Kabuki actors. He's the head of a troupe that started a big revolution against the conservatism of Kabuki. More action, more stage tricks (keren), amazing costums and gigantic stage fights, everything is written in big letters in the Kabuki deviced by Ennosuke. He revived chûnori in an effort to bring back the joy and vigor that Kabuki had during the Edo period. Although it was once scolded by high-brow critics as being a circus-like trick, chûnori has obtained enormous support from contemporary audiences. About 8 million people have seen Ennosuke perform it in various dramas (as of April 2000).

Ichikawa Ennosuke created his own genre of theatre, called sûpâ kabuki in Japanese ("Super Kabuki" in English). It keeps many features of Kabuki, combined with the use of modern language and top-of-the-art stage effects.

Ichikawa Ennosuke is also famous for the revivals of many long-forgotten plays like the amazing "Date no Jûyaku" (the ten roles of Date), written by Tsuruya Namboku IV for Ichikawa Danjûrô VII and performed only in July 1815. Tobe Ginsaku rewrote the script in 1979 and Ichikawa Ennosuke played the famous ten roles in April 1979 at the Meijiza.

It's a tradition for Ichikawa Ennosuke and the the Omodakaya guild to be the top of the bill at the Kabukiza every July since 1971. If you're in Tôkyô in July, do not miss the 2 specaculars shows.

The Ichikawa Ennosuke line of actors