Pen names:

Enomoto Torahiko
Takeshiba Haryû

Real name: Enomoto Torahiko

Poetry name: Haryû

Existence: 10th day of the 1st lunar month of 1866 ^[1] ~ 16 November 1916

Connection:

Master: Fukuchi Ôchi

Career:

10th day of the 1st lunar month of 1866 ^[1]: born in Wakayama.

1887: he settled in Tôkyô.

1890: he became an apprentice playwright at the Kabukiza, as a disciple of Fukuchi Ôchi. His first pen name was Takeshiba Haryû ^[2].

1890s: after a few years at the Kabukiza, he became a staff writer of the Yamato Shinbun newspaper ^[3], writing novels for it.

1897: he went back to the Kabukiza, to work as a sakusha. His new pen name was in fact his real name.

April 1897: premiere at the Kabukiza of Fukuchi Ôchi's drama "Otokodate Harusame Gasa" [more details]; Torahiko worked on this drama in the sakusha team working for Fukuchi Ôchi.

October~November 1898: Torahiko worked at the Kabukiza on the classic "Ichi-no-Tani Futaba Gunki", starring Ichikawa Danjûrô IX (Kumagai Jirô Naozane), Onoe Kikugorô V (Midaroku, Taira no Munekiyo, Taira no Atsumori, Kojirô), Nakamura Fukusuke IV (Minamoto no Yoshitsune, Princess Tamaori), Bandô Shûchô II (Sagami) and Onoe Eizaburô V (Fuji-no-Kata).

April~May 1899: Torahiko worked at the Kabukiza on the classic "Imoseyama Onna Teikin", starring Ichikawa Danjûrô IX (Daihanji no Kiyosumi, Soga no Iruka, Omiwa), Onoe Kikugorô V (Sadaka, Fukashichi, Kanawa Gorô), Nakamura Fukusuke IV (Hinadori, Motome), Ichimura Kakitsu VI (Koganosuke) and Onoe Eizaburô V (Princess Tachibana).

March 1902: premiere of the Nagauta-based dance-drama "Nankô" focusing on the 14th century warrior Kusunoki Masashige. The lyrics were written by Torahiko and the music by Kineya Rokuzaemon XIII.

4 January 1906: his master Fukuchi Ôchi died.

March 1906: Torahiko became tatesakusha at the Kabukiza.

May~June 1906: premiere at the Kabukiza of Enomoto Torahiko's drama "Nanto Enjô", starring Nakamura Shikan V and Ichikawa Yaozô VII.

November 1912: premiere at the Kabukiza of Enomoto Torahiko's drama "Meikô Kakiemon"; the role of Kakiemon, a distinguished ceramist and a kind of Japanese Bernard Palissy, was played by Kataoka Nizaemon XI.

16 November 1916: Enomoto Torahiko died ^[4].

Comments:

Enomoto Torahiko was tatesakusha of the Kabukiza for 10 years, from 1906 to 1916.

[1] The 10th day of the 1st lunar month of the 2nd year of the Keiô era was the 24th of February 1866 in the western calendar.

[2] This name was not reported in Nojima Jusaburô's book "Kabuki Jinmei Jiten".

[3] This daily newspaper was published in Japan from 1886 to 1945.

[4] Enomoto Torahiko's tombstone was located in the cemetery of the Hôzenji temple in Fukagawa.

The name of Enomoto Torahiko in a 1910 Tôkyô Kabukiza yakuwari banzuke (the zone within the red box)