Theatrical Innovator. Born Kawakami Otokichi in Fukuoka, Kyushu, Japan. He left home in his early teens for Kyoto, where he worked odd jobs and became a liberal political agitator before he apprenticed to rakugo (comic storyteller), Bunnosuke Katsura. He later founded an amateur theater company with fellow political activists. In 1888, he wrote a satirical song that would make him famous, 'Oppekepe,' which poked at the Meiji oligarchy and highlighted the travails of the poor. For six months in 1893, he visited Paris to study European style theater. Upon his return, he married former geisha, Sada Yakko. His wife joined him on stage, marking the first time a woman appeared on the professional stage in Japan since the 17th century. They opened the Kawakami Theater in Kanda in 1896, and were the first to take Japanese theatre on tour to the West, touring from 1899 to 1901, and again from 1901 to 1902. Upon returning to Japan, they staged several Western plays in Tokyo. They traveled in France again from 1907 to 1908 to further study Western theater. Upon their return to Japan, they opened the Imperial Actress Training Institute and the Imperial Theater in Osaka. They introduced adaptations of Western plays by Shakespeare, Maeterlinck, and Sardou to Japanese audiences. The troupe embarked on a tour of Japan in 1911, after which he complained of ill health. Diagnosed with dropsy, he submitted to surgery, but never recovered, dying at age 47.
Theatrical Innovator. Born Kawakami Otokichi in Fukuoka, Kyushu, Japan. He left home in his early teens for Kyoto, where he worked odd jobs and became a liberal political agitator before he apprenticed to rakugo (comic storyteller), Bunnosuke Katsura. He later founded an amateur theater company with fellow political activists. In 1888, he wrote a satirical song that would make him famous, 'Oppekepe,' which poked at the Meiji oligarchy and highlighted the travails of the poor. For six months in 1893, he visited Paris to study European style theater. Upon his return, he married former geisha, Sada Yakko. His wife joined him on stage, marking the first time a woman appeared on the professional stage in Japan since the 17th century. They opened the Kawakami Theater in Kanda in 1896, and were the first to take Japanese theatre on tour to the West, touring from 1899 to 1901, and again from 1901 to 1902. Upon returning to Japan, they staged several Western plays in Tokyo. They traveled in France again from 1907 to 1908 to further study Western theater. Upon their return to Japan, they opened the Imperial Actress Training Institute and the Imperial Theater in Osaka. They introduced adaptations of Western plays by Shakespeare, Maeterlinck, and Sardou to Japanese audiences. The troupe embarked on a tour of Japan in 1911, after which he complained of ill health. Diagnosed with dropsy, he submitted to surgery, but never recovered, dying at age 47.
Bio by: Iola
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