This Sadoshima Chogoro was the son of Dempachi, a dokegata, or comedian, and a dancer of great skill who was prominent just before Genroku. Chogoro was fortunate in having such an experienced stage father, and he was soon apprenticed to dancing. The chroniclers of Kabuki tell how the father taught the boy to dance on the goban, or small table used for playing go, the national chess game. The child was often summoned by persons of high degree to take part in entertainments, and once a prince ordered an artist to make a model of him dancing on the goban.
He never seriously competed for a place among the actors, but long remained Kabuki’s most famous dancing teacher. When he reached old age he shaved his head and retired from the world, taking up his abode in front of Kennin-ji, a Buddhist temple of Kyoto. Sadoshima Chogoro left one of Kabuki’s literary treasures, the Sadoshima Nikki, or Journal of Sadoshima, in which he disclosed the secrets of shosagoto.
He criticised the actors of his time as having gone astray from the true path of dramatic art, and reflected in his writing the change that had already set in—the beginning of the decline of Kabuki, for the brilliancy of the Genroku period and the progress of Horeki were not repeated in the years that followed.
Crest of Morita Kanya
(Three-petalled blossom).
Crest of Nakamura Utayemon
(Kyoto shrine charm).
Crest of Bando Mitsuguro
(Three Chinese characters, meaning dai, or great).