Takemoto Gidayu

Takemoto Gidayū ( Japanese 竹 本 義 太 夫 ; * 1651 in Tennōji; † October 18, 1714 in Ōsaka ) was a Japanese Jōruri singer ( Tayū ), founder of a Bunraku theater and founder of the musical style named after him, Gidayū-bushi .

Life

Takemoto Gidayū was the son of a farmer from the village of Tennōji near Osaka. As a musician and singer, he became a student of Kiyomizu Rihei and first took the name Kiyomizu Gorōbei, then the name Kiyomizu Ridayū. He began with the performance of musical stories in the puppet theaters of the Kamigata region, including in Kyoto as an assistant to the Jōruri singer Uji Kaganojō (also Uji Kidayū). Under the influence of Uji Kaganojō and the singer Inoue Harimanojō he developed his own special singing style, the Gidayū-bushi named after him. A first attempt to found their own puppet theater in Kyoto failed. After a few years that he spent with performances in the country, he changed his name to Takemoto Gidayū and in 1684 founded the Takemoto Bunraku Theater in the Dōtonbori entertainment district of Ōsaka. Just a year later he was considered the most important Jōruri singer in the region, even before Uji Kaganojō.

The theater's success lasted for years, especially as Takemoto was able to win the most famous playwright of his time, Chikamatsu Monzaemon , as a writer. In 1686 he wrote the play Shusse Kagekiyo for the Takemoto-za , which is considered the first significant work of the Bunraku theater. Shortly after the beginning of the 18th century, Takemoto's theater was on the verge of bankruptcy. It was saved by Chikamatsu's Sonezaki Shinjū , which became a great success in 1703 and was performed continuously for 17 months. After Chikamatsu could be won as a permanent author for the theater, it experienced a new high point, to which in addition to the singing of Gidayūs also the Shamisen play Takezawa Genemons and the puppet show Tatsumatsu Hachirobeis contributed. Takemoto, who called himself Takemoto Chikugonojō since 1701, handed over the management of the theater to Takeda Izumo I in 1705 in order to be able to concentrate fully on the singing.

swell

• William E. Deal: Handbook to life in medieval and early modern Japan , revised new edition Oxford University Press, 2007, ISBN 9780195331264 , p. 280
• Samuel L. Leader: New Kabuki Encyclopedia. A Revised Adaptation of Kabuki Jiten . Greenwood Press, Westport Connecticut and London 1997, ISBN 0-313-29288-4 , pp. 48, 124f and 639.
• Monzaemon Chikamatsu, Donald Keene (transl.): Four major plays , Columbia University Press, 1961, ISBN 9780231085533 , p. 4

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Takemoto is the family name, Gidayū the first name.