At one time, returning with Kaneko from the theatre, he stopped suddenly on the bridge they were crossing and stood motionless, looking down into the water, deep in meditation over some problem of acting. The playwright asked him if he had dropped something, but he did not answer. After a pause he said: “Well I have learned a great lesson!”
On another occasion he stopped at a tofu-ya, or white-bean-curd shop, went straight in and watched how it was manufactured, and after thoroughly acquainting himself with the process, thanked the proprietor of the place and went away. Such information might be worth while to know, since he could use it on the stage some day, and therefore he put it into his beggar’s bag.
That Tojuro valued the art of the real upon the stage may be judged from the many stories that have been handed down about him, but that he was aware that the real might be carried too far is shown from the Jijinshu: “Tojuro had to play the part of a beggar, but did not wish to wear tattered and soiled garments. He thought the audience came in order to be amused, and that if things were too realistic it would make a bad impression upon them.”
On the other hand, the care he exercised with regard to naturalness on the stage is shown from another of Kaneko’s little stories. A gatekeeper suddenly aroused from sleep was to yawn and ask: “Who is it?” Tojuro objected to the manner of the actor playing the gatekeeper, and made him repeat it many times before he considered it satisfactory in giving the audience the correct impression of one suddenly awakened in the dead of night.
Tojuro’s claim to fame began with his acting of Izaemon, the lover of Yugiri. Yugiri was a courtesan of the gay quarter of Shimbara, in Kyoto, and afterwards lived in a famous house called the Ogiya in Shimmachi, Osaka. It was first written in one act. Chikamatsu Monzaemon took the love story of Izaemon and Yugiri, and wrote a masterpiece, Keisei Awa no Naruto. It is the favourite play of Nakamura Ganjiro, of Osaka, to-day. Tojuro acted Izaemon in this piece on the eighteen occasions it was performed during Genroku, and it never failed to attract a large audience.
Thus Tojuro was the founder of the natural school, which, if there had been no other influences to hinder its supremacy, would have developed in a similar way to the realistic stage of the West.
There were, however; other theatre materials for the asking, and the members of the Ichikawa family made use of these with lavish hand, causing the talents of the actors to flow in channels quite removed from Tojuro’s realistic art.
The first of the nine Ichikawas was born in 1660, and died in 1704. His father was a samurai in the province of Kii, named Horikoshi. When the daimyo he served was defeated in battle, Danjuro’s father became a ronin and lived in retirement in the district. Afterwards he removed to a village in the province of Shimosa, where he became a farmer. He went to Yedo in 1644, and called himself after the village he had left. He was a man of strong character, skilled in writing, an adept at figures. It was very natural, possessed of such accomplishments, that he should become popular among his neighbours in Yedo, and he was chosen to represent the landlords of his locality.
He was good at business and made a fortune for himself. There were in Yedo in those rough-and-ready times men called otokodate, or chivalrous men of the people, who did not fear the blustering two-sworded samurai, who too often attempted to intimidate the peaceful citizens. Danjuro’s father associated himself with these brave spirits, who were always ready to defend the helpless and to protect the interests of the middle and lower classes. Such was the father of the first Ichikawa Danjuro, the representative Yedo yakusha of the Genroku period.
The exact date of the first Danjuro’s advent into the world is in question, some accounts say 1660, others 1648, but as the inaccuracy of dates in Japanese records is so frequent, it is not a matter to be greatly concerned about. His father’s friend acted as godfather and called the child Ebiso,—a name which has persisted in the family, and is given to the members when they are very young. The boy’s dwelling was in the vicinity of the Nakamura-za and Ichimura-za, that drew him irresistibly, just as the Tokyo urchin of to-day steals off to see the moving pictures whenever he has sufficient to pay the entrance fee. He must have made up his mind at an early age that he wanted to become an actor, for he appeared for the first time at the Nakamura-za, when he was 14 years of age. He took the stage name of Ichikawa Danjuro, and acted the rôle of Kintoki, the fabulously strong baby-hero of a Japanese fairy tale,—a red-faced, muscular baby, generally depicted with an axe over his shoulder. The new actor was an immediate success.