His accomplishments included familiarity with the Nō, writing and fencing, and he learned how to perform on the drum of the Nō orchestra, that instrument of complicated rhythms. He married O-Kichi, the daughter of the third Kineya Kisaburo, a member of the leading family of theatre musicians that flourishes to-day. When his adopted mother died, his wife, O-Kichi, took her place, and taught the samisen, while he taught dancing.
On the stage he took part in dangerous feats—in which, had the arrangements failed, he would have been killed. His wife became ill and luck went against him. He attempted to commit suicide; he drank and gambled and led a dissipated life, which led to endless money troubles, and now and then he was forced to make geta, or wooden clogs, for a living. His difficulties lasted for twenty-four years, but gradually he reformed, began to study, and became a pupil of the fourth Danjuro.
His face was his fortune, and perhaps because of his handsome appearance his fellow-actors were often jealous of him. He was proud and sensitive and easily given to quarrelling. The change for the better in his career was a decided contrast to his previous melancholy existence, for he became the chief actor of Yedo, and received a salary of 1000 ryo.
Then, when it might have been expected that he would throw his gains away, he began to save. The wife of his youth died, and he soon possessed himself of another. He started a new theatre, and fire burned it down; rebuilt it in summer, and that autumn his house was inundated. Gave his name to a pupil and took it back, and at last was so unsuccessful in every venture, he determined to change his luck by acting in Osaka and Kyoto. In Osaka he was successful, but in Kyoto he quarrelled over a money matter, and died soon after at the age of 53—a samurai to the end, hot-tempered, and ready to fight at a moment’s notice.
His style of acting was similar to that of the second Danjuro, but it was in Kabuki’s music-posture pieces, or shosagoto, that he was at his best.
The fourth Matsumoto Koshiro, who acted on the Yedo stage at the same time as Nakazo, was born in Kyoto, and also led a troubled life. He acted at the Ichimura-za, but was not a success, and his elder sister, who owned a theatre tea-house, advised him to give up his attempts on the stage, and take over the management of her business. Later on he must have proved his worth, for the fourth Danjuro took him under his patronage. He was not on friendly terms with the fifth Danjuro, which caused a good deal of Yedo gossip. The Ichimura-za could scarcely maintain itself, and the salaries of the actors were not paid. Koshiro went to Osaka by ship, taking with him the Yedo onnagata, Iwai Hanshiro, and some one thirsting for revenge because Koshiro had insulted another actor, threw stones at him as he was departing.
In Kyoto, where he acted, feeling was stirred up against him and he was not popular. To increase his troubles the Ichimura-za went bankrupt. Towards the end of his career, he and the fifth Danjuro, who had so long been estranged, became good friends. One of his sons became a famous actor, and succeeded him as Matsumoto Koshiro, the fifth.
In the period that followed, the most popular actor was Ichikawa Danjuro, the fifth. He was the son of the fourth, and his mother was the adopted daughter of the second. He acted with Nakamura Nakazo. His wife was the daughter of Iwai Hanshiro, but they did not get along well together; she wished for a divorce, and they lived separately. Finally he married the widow of Ichikawa Yaozo. At 51 he retired to Mukojima across the Sumida River from Yedo, where he drank sake, wrote poems, and wore a patched kimono of many colours, refusing to meet theatre folks. One of his sons, to whom he gave the illustrious stage name of Ichikawa Danjuro, the sixth, died young, and another of his sons became Danjuro, the seventh.
The most famous actor of the Bunka-Bunsei period (1804–1829) in Kyoto and Osaka was Kataoka Nizaemon, the seventh, directly descended from the Genroku actor who founded the line. Born in Kyoto, he became a follower of Nakamura Nakazo, but for some reason master and pupil parted company. He was very large and stout and well adapted to play villains, which was his specialty. Everywhere he acted he was popular.
He was active on the stage until the age of 75, when he played in a rôle that required that he should appear scantily clothed. Some one in the audience called out to him: “Be careful not to take cold!” to which the veteran replied: “When I am on the stage, I don’t feel cold, I perspire.” Death claimed him but a short time after his retirement. His own son died, and he adopted the actor who later became Kataoka Nizaemon, the eighth.