Stage name:

Ikushima Hanroku

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Existence: ??? ~ 3rd day of the 4th lunar month of 1704 ^[1]

Connection:

Master: Ikushima Shingorô

Career:

1687: his name was recorded for the first time, for a performance of a Kabuki troupe in a daimyô's palace.

3rd lunar month of 1701: Hanroku's rank in the Edo hyôbanki, tachiyaku section, was naka no jô (superior in the middle class).

19th day of the 2nd lunar month of 1704 ^[2]: Hanroku performed at the Ichimuraza in the drama "Watamashi Jûnidan"; He stabbed to death the star Ichikawa Danjûrô I in his dressing room.

3rd day of the 4th lunar month of 1704 ^[1]: Hanroku was executed in Edo.

Comments:

Ikushima Hanroku was a minor Edo tachiyaku actor who was active from the end of the Jôkyô era to the Genroku era. He found his place in Kabuki history, not on the level of Art, but as the murderer of the star Ichikawa Danjûrô I.

"Ikushima Hanroku was recorded as an actor of considerable ability, being ranked as first of the middle class. Accounts with regard to the motive prompting the deed are conflicting. Some say jealousy; others that this actor had a son who was a deshi, or follower, of Danjûrô, and had changed his name to Ichikawa; again that Hanroku was a man of evil character, and Danjûrô gave him some sound advice which he did not heed, and that this made Danjûrô indifferent to the son. Yet most accounts agree that the cause of the tragedy was Danjûrô's changed attitude towards the son. The result of this crime was that the proprietors of the theatres were summoned to the magistrate's office, and an order was issued that continuous plays could not be given, and only those of one act were allowed, the audience to be changed at the end of each act. Hanroku made good his escape from Danjûrô's dressing room, but was taken to prison on that day." (Zoë Kincaid in "Kabuki, the Popular Stage of Japan")

[1] The 3rd day of the 4th lunar month of the 1st year of the Hôei era was the 6th of May 1704 in the western calendar.

[2] The 19th day of the 2nd lunar month of the 17th year of the Genroku era was the 24th of March 1704 in the western calendar.

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