Stage names:

Osagawa Tsuneyo I
Somematsu Tsuneyo
Yamatogawa Tsuneyo

Guild: Wataya

Line number: SHODAI (I)

Poetry name: Kyosen

Existence: 1724 ~ 12th day of the 5th lunar month of 1766

Connection:

Masters: Osagawa Heizô (Osagawa Jûemon's disciple), Somematsu Shichisaburô I, Yamatogawa Akashi

Disciple: Osagawa Tsuneyo II

Career:

Before 1748: born in Kamigata. He starts his career at an early age, as a disciple of Yamatogawa Akashi, who gives him the name of Yamatogawa Tsuneyo. He joins Somematsu Shichisaburô I in 1746 and changes his name to Somematsu Tsuneyo. His third master is Osagawa Heizô, who welcomes him as a disciple and lets him take the name of Osagawa Tsuneyo I.

1st lunar month of 1748: he becomes wakaonnagata and plays at the Kitagawa no Shibai the role of the keisei Suminoe in the new year drama "Keisei Momoyo no Chibumi".

Fall 1750: Tsuneyo goes to Edo.

11th lunar month of 1750: Tsuneyo plays at the Ichimuraza the role of Kôtô-no-Naishi in the kaomise drama "Gaijin Taiheiki".

1st lunar month of 1752: Tsuneyo's rank in the Edo hyôbanki, wakaonnagata section, is jô-jô-hankichi.

8th lunar month of 1756: Tsuneyo plays at the Nakamuraza the role of Sakuramaru in the drama "Sugawara Denju Tenarai Kagami".

11th lunar month of 1762: Tsuneyo plays at the Moritaza in the kaomise drama "Tôzai Tôzai Wagakuni no Ume Yashiki".

2nd lunar month of 1763: first Kabuki adaptation of the puppet theater drama "Ôshû Adachi-ga-Hara", which is staged at the Moritaza; Tsuneyo plays the roles of Sodehagi and Bunji's wife [casting].

11th lunar month of 1763: Tsuneyo plays at the Moritaza in the kaomise drama "Ume ya Suisen Izu no Irifune", which celebrates the shûmei of Nakamura Sukegorô II.

11th lunar month of 1764: Tsuneyo plays at the Moritaza in the kaomise drama "Gyosei Kanatami no Megumi", which welcomes in Edo the Kamigata actor Sawamura Kunitarô I.

11th lunar month of 1765: Tsuneyo moves to the Nakamuraza and plays the role of Ayase in the kaomise drama "Kagura Uta Amagoi Komachi", which celebrates the shûmei of Iwai Hanshirô IV.

1st lunar month of 1766: Tsuneyo appears on stage for the last time, in Edo at the Nakamuraza, playing in the new year drama "Kaidô Ichi Izu no Harugoma".

12th day of the 5th lunar month of 1766: Tsuneyo dies in Edo.

Comments:

Osagawa Tsuneyo I served his apprenticeship as an actor in Kamigata but spent the 1750s and the 1760s in Edo, where he made a successful career as an onnagata. He was equally at home in sewamono and jidaimono dramas, and excelled in nyôbô roles. He unfortunately died too young, at the beginning of his 40s, very close to the jô-jô-kichi level!

Osagawa Tsuneyo I portraying Sakuramaru of the drama "Sugawara Denju Tenarai Kagami" in a print made by Utagawa Toyokuni III (1862~1863)

Print made by Torii Kiyomasu in the 1750s

The Osagawa Tsuneyo line of actors