Ichikawa Sadanji II.

Sasanji Ichikawa II as Togashi-zaemon in the Kabuki piece Kanjinchō

Ichikawa Sadanji II. ( Japanese 二代 目 市 川 左 團 , Nidaime ~ , real name: Takahashi Eijirō ( 高橋 榮 次郎 ); * October 19, 1880 , Tokyo Prefecture ; † February 23, 1940 ) was a Japanese Kabuki actor .

Life

The son of the actor Ichikawa Sadanji I. appeared on stage for the first time at the age of four and appeared under the names Ichikawa Botan , Ichikawa Koyone I. ( 市 川 小米 ) and Ichikawa Enshō II. ( 二代 目 市 川 莚 升 ). After the death of his father in 1904 he took over his Meiji-za theater , which he continued with the support of Kawakami Otojirō and Matsui Shōyō , and in 1906 took the stage name Ichikawa Sadanji II.

In the years 1906-07 he undertook a study trip to Europe. He met Sarah Bernhardt and Réjane in Paris and studied at the Herbert Beerbohm Trees Theater School in London . After returning to Japan, he continued his work on his kabuki theater. With Osanai Kaoru he founded the " Free Theater " ( 自由 劇場 Jiyū Gekijō ) in 1909 , with which he brought the Japanese premiere of Henrik Ibsen’s John Gabriel Borkman to the Yūraku-za theater in the same year .

In the following years Ichikawa played numerous pieces at the Meiji-tza, including several world premieres of pieces by Okamoto Kidōs , until he sold the Meiji-za in 1912. In the summer of 1928 he organized the first foreign trip of a Japanese Kabuki group (with Ichikawa Shōchō II. , Kawarazaki Chōjūrō IV. , Ichikawa Danko II. , Ichikawa Enshō III. , Ichikawa Arajirō II and Ichikawa Sakon ), which took him to Moscow and Leningrad and where he met Sergei Eisenstein , Wsewolod Meyerhold and Konstantin Stanislawski .

Ichikawa played and staged at his theater until a few weeks before his death. In addition to classical Kabuki pieces, he always endeavored to perform modern works. With Okamoto Kidō , Osanai Kaoru and Mayama Seika he worked on a series of Shinkabuki dramas, which became known under the title Kyōka Gikyoku Jūshu and which is on the repertoire of Japanese kabuki theaters to this day. His adopted son was the actor Ichikawa Shōen ( Sawamura Sōjūrō ), his students included Ichikawa Arajirō II , Ichikawa Sashō II , Ichikawa Kudanji III. , Ichikawa Tsutanosuke II. , Ichikawa Sabunji II. , Ichikawa Sakizō and Ichikawa Shōhaku .

Already at the beginning of the 19th century there was an actor of the same name about whom little is known. He was a student of Ichikawa Ebizō V. , appeared as a child in 1813 under the name Ichikawa Sankichi and from 1815 on was named Ichikawa Sadanji II.

Web links

Commons : Sadanji Ichikawa II  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Ichikawa Sadanji II. Kabuki21
• Ichikawa, Sadanji II (1880-1940). Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . So Ichikawa is the family name, Sadanji the first name.