The Kabukiza in Ginza is presenting special kabuki programs in March, April and May to celebrate the shumei (succession to a stage name) of Nakamura Kanzaburo XVIII. Kanzaburo, 50, has mastered both tachiyaku (male lead) and onnagata (female) roles. He is showing off his prowess by playing the leads in several plays, which are all significant in the Nakamura clan repertoire.
Kanzaburo's pedigree
Nakamura Kanzaburo, is one of the most prestigious stage names in kabuki. Arriving in Edo in 1622 as a kyogen trained actor named Saruwaka (literally, jester) Kanzaburo soon got permission from the Tokugawa shogunate to establish the Saruwakaza theater in Nihombashi, where he staged performances of "Young Men's Kabuki" and steadily rose to stardom.
After the death of Kanzaburo I in 1658, his successors continued to run the Saruwa kaza (later called the Nakamuraza) throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. But the title of Nakamura Kanzaburo, faded in the public's memory until it revived in 1950 by Nakamura Kanzaburo XVII, a brilliant actor originally called Moshio. He had studied under his older brother Nakamura Kichiemon I alongside Onoe Kikugoro VI in the first half of the last century.