Stage names:

Kawarazaki Gonnosuke I
Kawarazaki Kozaemon

Guild: Yamazakiya

Line number: SHODAI (I)

Existence: 1596 ~ 22 July 1690

Connection:

Son (or adopted son ?): Kawarazaki Gonnosuke II

Career:

1596: born in Kyôto. His first name was Kawarazaki Kozaemon and he helped his father, Kawarazaki Gonnosuke (not an official member of this line), who was the manager of a Nô theater.

1648: he goes to Edo, takes the name of Kawarazaki Gonnosuke I and opens a Nô theater.

1650s: Gonnosuke has the chance to meet the Kabuki actor Bandô Matakurô I, who convinces him to give up Nô and become a Kabuki zamoto.

1656: Gonnosuke opens his Kabuki theater. He has the brilliant idea to use paper fan to promote his programs all over town.

September 1668: Gonnosuke and Morita Kan'ya I join forces to open a new common theater in the district of Kobiki-chô.

1686: Gonnosuke published an important comments book about Kabuki titled "Bukyoku Senrin".

1689: end of the Morita-Kawarazaki joint venture; Gonnosuke retires and dies the following year.

Comments:

Kawarazaki Gonnosuke I was the founder of an important line of theater managers and opened the Kawarazakiza in Edo, a theater which became later on the hikae yagura of the Moritaza. He was also occasionally an actor and a playwright: "among several plays he composed, that concerning the revenge of the Soga Brothers was most popular." (Zoë Kincaid in "Kabuki, the Popular Stage of Japan")

Morita Kan'ya I (left) and Kawarazaki Gonnosuke I (right) in November 1675