Umewaka Minoru I.

Umewaka Minoru

Umewaka Minoru I. ( Japanese (初 世) 梅 若 実 ; * July 7, 1828 - January 19, 1909 ), also Umewaka Rokurō LII. ( 五十 二世 梅 若 六郎 ), was a Japanese actor and is one of the three great Nō masters of the Meiji era , along with Hōshō Kurō and Sakurama Banma .

He belonged to the Kanze School and was a master in the role of shite-gata . His eldest son was the no -actor Umekawa Manzaburō I.

Life

Minoru came from the Kujirai family who served in the former Kan'ei-ji temple Rinnō-ji in Ueno , Edo and was in the respected Nō-actor family of Umewaka Rokurō LI. adopted. From 1865, during the fall of the shogunate , he headed a small theater in Tokyo, where he continued the Nō drama even after the Meiji Restoration. After an excellent performance in Okina , a combination of Shinto ritual and dance in Nō drama, he gained increasing support from 1871 and was able to move his venue to a larger theater.

In 1876 he participated in an appearance Hōshō Kurō before the Tennō Meiji and the politician Iwakura Tomomi , and in the following years he worked closely with Hōshō. Several other appearances before the Tennō cemented his reputation as a major actor. He introduced the American philosopher Ernest Francisco Fenollosa to Nō drama and made this art known outside of Japan in this way. He had his last appearance in 1905 in the piece Shakkyō .

literature

• Shinko Kagaya: The First Umewaka Minoru and Performances for Guests from Overseas

Web links

• Great Masters of Noh: Umewaka Minoru (1828–1909)

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