Stage names:

Itô Kodayû I
Itô Kokon [1]

Line number: SHODAI (I)

Existence: 1649 ~ 21st day of the 9th lunar month of 1687 ^[2]

Connection:

Disciple: Itô Kodayû II

Career:

1649 ~ 1660: born in Kyôto; he started his career at an early age in Kamigata. His first stage name was Itô Kokon ^[1]. He took the name of Itô Kodayû I at an unknown date.

1661: Kodayû went to Edo.

10th lunar month of 1661: Miyako Dennai's theater, where Kodayû performed as a wakashugata, split up into two theaters, the Kodennaiza (the "old" theater of Dennai) and the Shindennaiza (the "new" theater of Dennai); according to the chronicles, Kodayû joins the Kodennaiza.

4th lunar month of 1662: Kodayû performed at the Kodennaiza; his stage partners were Tamamura Kichiya, Fujita Kumenosuke, Yamamoto Kantarô, Segawa Kurando, Fujita Sakyô, Yoshikawa Rokuya and Edo Samon.

1668: Kodayû retired.

21st day of the 9th lunar month of 1687 ^[2]: Kodayû died.

Comments:

Itô Kodayû I was a wakashugata, who was born and trained in Kyôto and settled in Edo at the beginning of the 1660s. He retired in 1668.

[1] Not recorded in Nojima Jusaburô's book "Kabuki Jinmei Jiten", only in the latest edition (2012) of "Kabuki Haiyû Meiseki Benran".

[2] The 21st day of the 9th lunar month of the 4th year of the Jôkyô era was the 26th of October 1687 in the western calendar.

Itô Kodayû I as depicted in an illustration from the book "Yarô Daibutsushi" (1668)

The Itô Kodayû line of actors