Stage name:

Nakayama Sayonosuke

Other name (musician):

Nakayama Mandayû

Existence: ???

Connection:

Sons: Nakayama Kohachi, Nakayama Senkichi

Career:

1684: recorded for the first time, in the hyôbanki "Yarô Sanza no Wabi".

1686: Sayonosuke performed in Kyôto.

7th lunar month of 1687: Sayonosuke performed at the yashiki of the daimyô Môri; it was recorded that he performed in a dance entitled "Suruga Meisho" ^[1].

1688: Sayonosuke performed at the Ichimuraza. He was said around that time to be one of the Yakusha Shitennô, literally the Big Four Actors ^[2].

1793: he became musician, performing under the name of Nakayama Mandayû in Edo.

Comments:

Nakayama Sayonosuke was an Edo onnagata actor, who was active during the Tenna and Genroku eras. He was also an outstanding singer.

[1] Literally 'The Famous Places of the Province of Suruga'.

[1] There were not four actors in the 1688 Big Four but ... nine actors : beside Nakayama Sayonosuke, the others were Nakamura Shichisaburô I, Itô Kodayû II, Nakayama Kiyonosuke, Noda Kuranojô, Matsumura Gennosuke, Murayama Heijûrô I, Fujita Shosaburô and Saigoku Hyôgorô I.

Nakayama Sayonosuke in an ilustration from the book
"Kokon Shibai Irokurabe Hyakunin Isshu" (1st lunar month of 1693)