Ichikawa Danjūrō XII
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| Ichikawa Danjūrō XII 市川団十郎十二代目 |
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| Birth name | Natsuo Horikoshi[1] |
| Born | 6 August 1946 Tokyo, Japan |
| Other name(s) | Ichikawa Ebizō X, Ichikawa Shinnosuke VI, Narita-ya |
| Notable roles | Benkei |
Ichikawa Danjūrō XII (市川團十郎 (12代目)?) is a Japanese actor. He is the twelfth kabuki actor to hold the illustrious name Ichikawa Danjūrō.
Born in 1946, he is the eldest son of Ichikawa Danjūrō XI. He first appeared on stage in 1953 under his birth name Natsuo Horikoshi, and in 1958 took the name Ichikawa Shinnosuke. In 1969, he graduated from Nihon University, and took the name Ichikawa Ebizō X, acting in major roles such as the title character in Sukeroku and Togashi in Kanjinchō. He assumed his present name in 1985, appearing as Benkei (again in Kanjinchō). Though he underwent the formal shūmei naming ceremony at the Kabuki-za in Tokyo, the celebrations continued for several months, as is traditional; his performances that year in New York, Washington DC and Los Angeles would mark the first (and as of 2006, only) time that a shūmei was celebrated abroad.
Active outside Japan, Danjūrō has appeared in New York, Washington, Los Angeles, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, Brussels, East Berlin, Dresden, Vienna, and Paris.
In addition, he has acted in television roles, including portraying Ōoka Tadasuke in Honō no Bugyō Ōoka Echizen no Kami, as well as Tokugawa Mitsukuni and Ashikaga Yoshimasa.
Though illness, and subsequent hospitalization, has forced him to leave the stage for long stretches in 2004-5, he is still currently acting.
[edit] Note
- ^ While the stage names of all kabuki actors have retained traditional order (Surname-Givenname) on Wikipedia, birth names of those born after the Meiji Restoration are in Western order (Givenname-Surname).
