Ichikawa Danjūrō XI

Eldest son of Matsumoto Kōshirō VII

The Naritaya official site records that he was born on 6 January 1909, eldest son of Matsumoto Kōshirō VII, with younger brothers who became Matsumoto Kōshirō VIII (later Hakuō) and Onoe Shōroku II. The Kabuki Actor Directory calls the three the Kōraiya brothers. Their father is named by the Japan Arts Council among the great actors of Tokyo kabuki's golden age.

Adopted into the Ichikawa head house

The Kabuki Actor Directory records that he was sought as an adopted son by Ichikawa Sanshō V — son-in-law of Danjūrō IX, who had been his own father's teacher — and so became heir to the Ichikawa head house. The two official sources differ on the year: the Naritaya site gives 1939, the Kabuki Actor Directory April 1940.

The Jūhachiban play Uirōuri

In May 1940 he took the name Ichikawa Ebizō IX at the Tokyo Kabukiza, at thirty-one. The Kabuki Actor Directory records that at the succession run he played the medicine pedlar — in truth Soga no Gorō — in the Ichikawa house's Jūhachiban play Uirō.

Postwar Sukeroku, and 'Ebi-sama'

The Kabuki Actor Directory records that when a Sukeroku with a young cast was staged at the Tōkyō Gekijō in 1946, Onoe Kikugorō VI put him forward for the title role and taught it to him. The Naritaya official site likewise dates his popularity from that performance. After his Hikaru Genji in Genji Monogatari in 1951 came the 'Ebi-sama' boom.

Work in newly written kabuki

The Cultural Digital Library records that in the postwar Shōwa years Danjūrō XI also left his mark in newly written kabuki and was a star of the recovery. The Kabuki Actor Directory names Fumimaro in Katō Michio's Nayotake, Oda Nobunaga in Osaragi Jirō's Wakaki Hi no Nobunaga, and Nobuyasu in Tsukiyama-dono Shimatsu.

Conferring the tenth's name on his adoptive father

In 1956 his adoptive father Sanshō died. The Naritaya official site records that on the day of the funeral his successor Ebizō conferred the name of Danjūrō X upon him; the Kabuki Actor Directory likewise states that he conferred the name when his adoptive father died. His own succession came six years later.

Araisokai, a study group for the house

The Naritaya Danjūrō Encyclopaedia carries the twelfth's recollection that it began with his father, Danjūrō XI, setting the house's pupils to study at a restaurant, and that the first formally numbered meeting was held at the Sabō Kaikan in July 1963. The series ended with its seventh meeting in 1973. The name derives from the araiso pattern originated by Danjūrō IX.

Black-and-white television reaches the home

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications white paper records that black-and-white television spread rapidly through Japanese homes during the 1950s and 60s, reaching ninety per cent of households by 1964. Average daily viewing across the population rose from fifty-six minutes in 1960 to two hours fifty-two minutes by 1965.

The first designation of the Traditional Kabuki Preservation Society

The Kabuki Actor Directory records that the first designation of members of the Traditional Kabuki Preservation Society took place in April 1965 — part of a period in which the transmission of the classics was being given institutional support.

The National Theatre opens

The Japan Arts Council records that in 1966 the National Theatre opened, dedicated to preserving and promoting the traditional performing arts, and began staging classical kabuki on a stage built with kabuki's own machinery. This was the year after his death.

Wartime consolation performances

The Naritaya official site records that the Pacific War began in 1941 and that he took part in consolation performances and the like — the year after he had become Ichikawa Ebizō IX.

Genji Monogatari at the rebuilt Kabukiza

The Japan Arts Council records that the Kabukiza was rebuilt in 1951 and that kabuki began to recover, helped by the wide response to a staging of Genji Monogatari. The Naritaya official site records that in March of that year he played Hikaru Genji in Funahashi Seiichi's version at the Kabukiza to great acclaim. He was on the stage that became the emblem of the recovery.

A Danjūrō after fifty-nine years, and the kabuki boom

The Naritaya official site records that in April 1962 he took the name Danjūrō XI at the Kabukiza, and that an Ichikawa Danjūrō came into being after a gap of fifty-nine years since the death of the ninth. The Japan Arts Council records that the succession run drew such crowds that it amounted to a kabuki boom.

Three brothers side by side at the kōjō

The Naritaya Danjūrō Encyclopaedia relates that at the Kabukiza in March 1965, at a memorial run for Kōshirō VII, the three brothers appeared together in plain formal dress for the kōjō address, to much comment — and that the eleventh, thought to be a halting speaker, delivered his with humour and fluency enough to startle his younger brothers. It was the year he died.