was a Japanese

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 kabuki

Kabuki

is classical Japanese dance-drama. Kabuki theatre is known for the stylization of its drama and for the elaborate make-up worn by some of its performers.The individual kanji characters, from left to right, mean sing , dance , and skill...

 performer and "dean of kabuki actors at the Kabuki-za

Kabuki-za

' in Ginza was the principal theater in Tokyo for the traditional kabuki drama form.-Architecture:The original Kabuki-za was a wooden structure, built in 1889 on land which had been either the Tokyo residence of the Hosokawa clan of Kumamoto, or that of Matsudaira clan of Izu.The building was...

 in Tokyo. He was a prominent member of a family of kabuki actors from the Keihanshin region.

Nakamura Utaemon was a stage name with significant cultural and historical connotations.

Utaemon V was the artistic heir of Nakamura Utaemon IV. He was born in the fifth generation of a line of famous Kabuki actors. In the conservative Kabuki world, stage names are passed from father to son in formal system which converts the kabuki stage name into a mark of accomplishment.

Lineage of Utaemon stage names

• Nakamura Utaemon I
  Nakamura Utaemon I
  was a Japanese kabuki performer. He was the progenator of a family of kabuki actors from the Keihanshin region. He was the son of a provincial doctor...
  
   (1714–1791)
• Nakamura Utaemon II
  Nakamura Utaemon II
  was a Japanese kabuki performer in the lineage of a family of kabuki actors from the Keihanshin region. Nakamura Utaemon is a stage name.In 1782, Utaemon I presented this name to a favored apprentice, who was formerly known as Mizuki Tōzō or Nakamura Tōzō...
  
   (1752-1798)
• Nakamura Utaemon III
  Nakamura Utaemon III
  was a Japanese kabuki performer. He was a prominent member of a family of kabuki actors from the Keihanshin region. Nakamura Utaemon was a stage name with significant cultural and historical connotations.Utaemon III was the natural son of Nakamura Utaemon I...
  
   (1778-1838)
• Nakamura Utaemon IV
  Nakamura Utaemon IV
  was a Japanese kabuki performer. He was a prominent member of a family of kabuki actors from the Keihanshin region. Nakamura Utaemon was a stage name with significant cultural and historical connotations....
  
   (1798-1852)
• Nakamura Utaemon V (1865-1940)
• Nakamura Utaemon VI
  Nakamura Utaemon VI
  was a Japanese kabuki performer and an artistic director of the Kabuki-za in Tokyo. He was a prominent member of a family of kabuki actors from the Keihanshin region....
  
   (1917-2001)

In a long career, he played many roles; but he was best known for his oyama

Oyama (Japanese theatre)

Onnagata or oyama , are male actors who impersonate women in Japanese kabuki theatre. The modern all-male kabuki was originally known as yarō kabuki to distinguish it from earlier forms...

 or onnagata roles.

Selected works

In a statistical overview derived from writings by and about Nakamura Utaemon VI, OCLC

OCLC

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/WorldCat

WorldCat

WorldCat is a union catalog which itemizes the collections of 72,000 libraries in 170 countries and territories which participate in the Online Computer Library Center global cooperative...

encompasses roughly 7 works in 7 publications in 2 languages and 20+ library holdings.

• 1950 — OCLC 033711674
• 1935 — . OCLC 44435876

Further reading

• 中村歌右衛門. (1935). . Tokyo: .

External links

• Waseda University, Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre Museum