Photo/Illutration Sakata Tojuro IV addresses the audience after finishing his 1,400th performance of "Sonezaki Shinju" (The Love Suicides of Sonezaki) in Fukuoka in June 2015. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

It was in Kyoto in 1953 that Donald Keene (1922-2019), an American-born scholar of Japanese literature, first saw a Kabuki performance by Nakamura Senjaku II, who would later take the name of Sakata Tojuro IV.

"That experience opened my eyes to Kabuki, and what held me spellbound first was 'onnagata' (an actor who plays female roles in Kabuki)," Keene recalled in the Japanese translation of his 1990 work titled "Noh and Bunraku: Two Forms of Japanese Theater."

Senjaku played O-Hatsu, the lead female character in "Sonezaki Shinju" (The Love Suicides of Sonezaki) by dramatist Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1725).

Keene was apparently not the only audience member smitten with Senjaku, whose performance launched him into instant stardom.

The scene where O-Hatsu leads her lover by the hand to the site of their double suicide was said to be groundbreaking at the time.

Welcomed enthusiastically as "the new onnagata," this young Kabuki actor in the "Kamigata" (Kansai region) style would continue to focus on Chikamatsu's works over many decades. In 1981, Senjaku founded the Chikamatsu-za, a traveling troupe.

Throughout his career, he played O-Hatsu an astounding 1,400 times.

He was named a Living National Treasure in 1994.

Born Kotaro Hayashi in 1931, he died on Nov. 12 at the age of 88.

By his own admission, he was not particularly interested in Kabuki as a young boy. But blessed with accomplished instructors, he came around, and refined his acting chops under the tutelage of first-rate Noh and "kyomai" (traditional Kyoto dance) masters.

He greatly admired Sakata Tojuro I (1647-1709), a top Kamigata Kabuki actor of the Genroku Era (1688-1704), hoping dearly to take his name some day.

His reason was that the name of Ichikawa Danjuro--the icon of the Edo-style Kabuki--was handed down steadily through generations, but that was not the case with Sakata Tojuro.

He must have felt that something was amiss about the continued excessive concentration of the nation's political, economic and cultural functions in Tokyo.

When preparing for a role, he always started by rereading the play's original text. Even when reprising a role he'd played more than 1,000 times, he would think of "what to do today, how it should be done tomorrow," he wrote in his book.

He performed with polish and allure until the end.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Nov. 16

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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