In 1953, kabuki actor Nakamura Ganjiro III (then known as Nakamura Senjaku) scored his first major success on a Tokyo stage with his unorthodox perfomance in "Sonezaki Shinju (Double Suicide at Sonezaki)," a 1703 work by the celebrated playwright Chikamatsu Monzaemon. The director, Nobuo Uno, allowed the brash young actor, who was playing the courtesan Ohatsu opposite his father Ganjiro II, to essentially develop his own style as he went along. The result was an original and naturalistic performance that was very different from the expected kabuki of the time.
The audience responded enthusiastically, and since then Ganjiro III, now 74, has played Ohatsu more than 1,200 times.
He has also intimitely explored other works by Chikamatsu (1653-1724) in both onnagata female roles and tachiyaku male roles. In 1693, the playwright, whose kabuki used the romantic wagoto style of acting that was popular in the Kamigata region of Kyoto and Osaka, found his muse in one of the four top tachiyaku actors, Sakata Tojuro I (1647-1709), who was worshipped by kabuki fans for his gentle and sensous wagoto acting.