Kawakami Otojiro (川上音二郎; 川上音次郎)

KAWAKAMI OTOJIRÔ (川上音二郎; 川上音次郎)
02/08/1864 - 11/11/1911

c. JULY - NOVEMBER 1900

            Mort de la Geisha
            Kawakami Sadayakko ((川上貞奴) as
            Keisei Katsuragi (傾城葛城) and
            Kawakami Otojirô (川上音二郎) as
            Nagoya Sanza (名古屋山三)

            Play: The Geisha and The Knight
            Performance Place: Théatre de la Loie Fuller, Paris
            Performance Dates: in repertory 07/04/00 - 11/03/00
            Print Date: 1900
            Artist: Pierre-Georges Jeanniot
            Medium: Etching
            Personal Collection

            Note: This appears to be a different (perhaps final?) state.

Mort de la Geisha
Kawakami Sadayakko ((川上貞奴) as
Keisei Katsuragi (傾城葛城) and
Kawakami Otojirô (川上音二郎) as
Nagoya Sanza (名古屋山三)

Play: The Geisha and The Knight
Performance Place: Théatre de la Loie Fuller, Paris
Performance Dates: in repertory 07/04/00 - 11/03/00
Published in Les Musiques Bizarres a l'Exposition
de 1900 by Judith Gautier (1900)
Artist: Pierre-Georges Jeanniot
Medium: Colored lithograph book cover
Personal Collection

1901

Kawakami Sadayakko ((川上貞奴) as
as Nagoya Sanza (名古屋山三)

Play: The Geisha and The Knight
Performance Place: Théatre de l'Athénée, Paris
Performance Dates: in repertory 09/14//01 - 11/08/01
Print Date: 1901
Artist: Raymond Tournon
Medium: Lithographic poster
Image Courtesy of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France

Kawakami Otojirô (川上音二郎) as Nagoya Sanza (名古屋山三)

Kawakami Sadayakko (川上貞奴) as Keisei Katsuragi (傾城葛城)

Play: The Geisha and The Knight
Print Date: 1901
Artist: Utagawa Yoshiiku (歌川芳幾)
Personal Collection

Note: This was a play based in part on Kyôganoko Musume Dôjôji (京鹿子娘道成寺) which Sadayakko
performed in the United States and in Europe between September 1899 and November 1900.
Presumably, this print was made to commemorate her performance abroad and/or as a souvenir for
purchase during her upcoming second European tour, which lasted from from June 1901 to July 1902.
Sadayakko and her husband Kawakami Otojirô (川上音二郎) would eventually perform a version of this
play in Tokyo at the Meiji-za in June 1909 under the title Geisha to Bushi (芸者と武士). The print is
based on a photograph by Joseph Byron of the final act of The Geisha and The Knight performed at the
Berkeley Lyceum Theatre in New York City in March 1900. It was likely made at the same time as
Yoshiiku's May 1901 portrait of Sadayakko.

JUNE 1903

? as ?

? as ?

Play: Edojô Akewatashi (江戸城明渡)
Performance Place: Meiji-za, Tokyo
Performance Date: 06/04/03
Print Date: 05/28/03
Artist: ?
Medium: Woodblock printed kuchi-e, published in the script of Edojô Akewatashi (江戸城明渡)
Personal Collection

Note: The inaugural production of this play was performed by Kawakami Otojirô (川上音二郎)
and his troupe. Since Kawakami would have played a leading role, his character is likely
one of the two depcited in this print.

FEBRUARY 1910

Opening Ceremonies

Performance Place: Teikoku-za, Osaka
Performance Date: 02/27-28/10
Print Date: 02/1910?
Artist: ?
Medium: Woodblock printed postcard
Personal Collection

Note: The Teikoku-za was the first Western-style theater in Osaka.
It was built by the actor Kawakami Otojirô (川上音二郎; 川上音次郎).

1927

Oppekepe-Bushi Ryûkô (オッペケペ節流行)
[The Fashion for Oppekepê Chanting (1888) ]

Song: Oppekepê (オッペケペ)
Date: 1927
Artist: Miyao Shigeo (宮尾しげを)
Series: Nikuhitsu Manga Kaikoku Rokujūnen-shi Zue
(肉筆漫画開国六十年史図絵)
[Manga Paintings of Sixty Years of History Since the
Opening of the Country]
Medium: Watercolor
Personal Collection

Note: The performer depicted is Kawakami Otojirô
(川上音二郎). Although paintings are normally
outside the scope of this website except as reference
images, the watercolors in this collaborative series
were issued in an edition of 50 and thus turn up
with some frequency in the marketplace. Since
each is handpainted, lines, colors, and patterns
may vary from copy to copy.