Stage names:
Sawamura Shozan III
Sawamura Tanosuke III
Sawamura Yoshijirô I
Guild: Kinokuniya
Line number: SANDAIME (III)
Poetry name: Shozan (3)
Existence: 8 February 1845 ~ 7 July 1878
Connections:
Father: Sawamura Sôjûrô V
Brother: Suketakaya Takasuke IV
Son: Sawamura Yoshijirô II
Adopted son: Sawamura Tanosuke IV
Career:
July 1849: he makes his first appearance on stage, at the Nakamuraza, where he receives the name of Sawamura Yoshijirô I and plays the roles of Gihei's son Yoshimatsu and Tonase's daughter Konami in the drama "Kanadehon Chûshingura"; the roles of Amakawaya Gihei and Tonase are played by Ichikawa Kuzô II and Sawamura Chôjûrô V.
September 1851: Yoshijirô plays at the Kawarazakiza the role of Sankichi in the drama "Shigenoi Kowakare"; the role of Sankichi's mother Shigenoi is played by Yoshijirô's father Sawamura Chôjûrô V.
November 1853: his father Suketakaya Takasuke III dies.
January 1859: Sawamura Yoshijirô I takes the name of Sawamura Tanosuke III at the Nakamuraza, playing two roles in the drama "Hatsudôchû Sugoroku Soga".
January 1860: Tanosuke becomes tateonnagata at the Moritaza and plays in the drama "Momo Chidori Nigiwai Soga".
April 1864: premiere at the Moritaza of the drama "Wakaba Ume Ukina no Yokogushi" (commonly called "Kirare Otomi", in English "Scarface Otomi"); Tanosuke plays the role of Otomi [casting].
1865: Tanosuke falls seriously ill because of a foot wound gone gangrenous; Doctor Hepburn, the surgeon of the Yokohama foreign community, has to remove his two feet in order to save Tanosuke's life. The call of the stage is stronger than anything else and Tanosuke does his best to overcome his handicap.
1872: Tanosuke retires and opens a chaya, named Kinokuniya and located in the heart of Sarauwaka-Chô, the theater district.
August 1873: Tanosuke becomes zamoto and tateonnagata at the Satsumaza, a theater located in the district of Kyôbashi Minami-Shiode.
November 1874: the Satsumaza is renamed Sawamuraza; the classic "Kanadehon Chûshingura" is produced but it is a commercial failure and the theater has to close.
1875 ~ 1876: Tanosuke goes on tour in Kamigata, performing under the name of Sawamura Shozan III. This tour ends in a fiasco.
1878: Tanosuke loses his reason, falls seriously ill and dies in July.
Comments:
"An actor of the first ability was Sawamura Tanosuke, the second son of Sawamura Sôjûrô, the fifth. In the first year of Meiji, he was playing at the three chief theatres in Saruwaka-chô. At the age of 16, he began to act in leading onnagata rôles, and was a genius in the delineation of women's characters. A tragic fate overtook him, and his loss to the Tôkyô stage was very great. Suffering an injury to his feet, gangrene set in. Everything was done to save him, and he was taken to Yokohama, where an American medical missionary was consulted. Both feet, however, were amputated in the third year of Meiji. In spite of this great physical disability, Tanosuke continued to appear on the stage, supported by several black-robed property-men, and so great was his popularity that the people crowded to see him. His wife was unfaithful to him, and was on intimate terms with one of his pupils, and this added to his hopeless condition, filling the remaining days of this unfortunate onnagata star with unhappiness. The young actors who followed afterwards in Tanosuke's specialty were deprived of the stimulus and high standard he had set, and a lack of good onnagata was characteristic of the greater part of the long Meiji era." (Zoë Kincaid in "Kabuki, the Popular Stage of Japan")
Sawamura Tanosuke III in a print made by Utagawa Toyokuni III (1861)
Print made by Utagawa Toyokuni in 1861
Print made by Meirindô Kakushijo in 1862
Print made by Utagawa Kunisada in 1864
Print made by Toyohara Kunichika in 1870
Print made by Toyohara Kunichika in 1873
The Sawamura Tanosuke line of actors