Kawatake Mokuami was a Japanese dramatist of Kabuki. It has been said that "as a writer of plays of Kabuki origin, he was one of the greatest, if not the greatest, Japan has ever known". He wrote 150 or so plays over the course of his 58-year career, covering a wide variety of themes, styles, and forms, including short dancepieces, period plays, contemporary genre pieces, tragedies and comedies, as well as adaptations of foreign stories, though he is perhaps most famous for his shiranamimono, plays featuring sympathetic or tragic rogues and thieves. For the greater part of his career he wrote under the professional name Kawatake Shinshichi, only taking the name Mokuami on his retirement from the stage in 1881.
Life and career
Mokuami was born in the Nihonbashidistrict of Edo. He was disinherited by his father at age fourteen, and obtained work at a lending library, introducing him to the world of theatre. In 1835, he entered into an apprenticeship with Tsuruya Nanboku IV, and in 1843 became the lead playwright for the Kawarazaki-za theatre, succeeding to the name Kawatake Shinshichi II. He began working with kabukistarIchikawa Kodanji IV in 1854, producing kizewamono pieces. Most of Mokuami's works are in this form, and were written specifically for the star actors of the time, such as Onoe Kikugorō V and Ichikawa Kodanji IV. Many of his plays, such as the famous Benten Kozō, featured thieves and robbers, also known as shiranami, whom he represented somewhat sympathetically, as low-class heroes, or as tragic figures. As Japan modernized and Westernized rapidly in the Meiji period, Mokuami moved along with new trends in theatre, becoming a pioneer of Shin-kabuki, writing plays in new genres such as katsurekimono and zangirimono. During his 58-year career, he became the most prolific kabuki author in history, producing over 360 works: 130 sewamono, 90 jidaimono, and 140 dances. Mokuami formally retired in 1881, but continued to present new works, and was spoken highly of by novelist and literary criticTsubouchi Shōyō. Mokuami died in 1893 and is buried at Gentsū-ji in Nakano, Tokyo.
