Stage names:

Arashi Rikaku IV
Arashi Kakô
Arashi Kakuzô IV
Onoe Baikaku
Arashi Toyomaru

Real name: Ôe Kakuzô

Guild: Teshimaya

Line number: YODAIME (IV)

Poetry name: Kakô

Existence: 1854 ~ 24 November 1918

Connections:

Masters: Onoe Shôroku, Arashi Rikaku II

Adopted son: Arashi Rikaku V

Career:

1854: born in Ôsaka in the district of Matsuyachô. His father was a Bunraku puppeteer.

1859: he started his career as a disciple of the Kabuki actor Arashi Rikaku II, who gave him the name of Arashi Toyomaru.

14th day of the 7th lunar month of 1864 ^[1]: his master Arashi Rikaku II died.

1870: he became disciple of Onoe Shôroku and took the name of Onoe Baikaku.

May 1873: his master Onoe Shôroku died.

1874: he went back to the Arashi clan, taking the name of Arashi Kakuzô IV.

1883: Arashi Kakuzô IV took the name of Arashi Kakô (Kakô was his haimyô).

1887: Arashi Kakô took the name of Arashi Rikaku IV.

March 1896: Rikaku played at the Bentenza (Ôsaka) the role of Onoe in the drama "Kagamiyama Kokyô no Nishikie"; his stage partners were Arashi Sangorô VI (Ohatsu) and Arashi Kitsusaburô IV (Iwafuji).

November 1909: revival of Chikamatsu Monzaemon's drama "Onna Goroshi Abura no Jigoku", in Ôsaka at the Asahiza, which was based on a new script written by Watanabe Katei; Rikaku played the role of Osawa [casting].

January 1910: Chikamatsu Monzaemon's drama "Onna Goroshi Abura no Jigoku" was staged for the first time in Kyôto, at the Minamiza; Rikaku played the role of Osawa [casting].

May 1910: Chikamatsu Monzaemon's drama "Onna Goroshi Abura no Jigoku" was staged for the first time in Tôkyô, at the Shintomiza; Rikaku played the role of Osawa [casting].

24 November 1918: Rikaku died.

Comments:

Arashi Rikaku IV spent all his career in Kamigata and was a mainstay at the Bentenza (Ôsaka). He was able to perform a broad range of roles, as katakiyaku, tachiyaku, nimaime (in his youth) or oyajigata (in his latter years). His popularity was high up to the beginning of the nineties (of the 19th) but started to slowly but surely decrease afterwards. For some Kabuki experts, he was somehow the Onoe Matsusuke IV of Ôsaka.

[1] The 14th day of the 7th lunar month of the 1st year of the Genji era was the 15th of August 1864 in the western calendar.

Arashi Rikaku IV playing the role of Kiichi Hôgen in the "Kikubatake" scene of the drama "Kiichi Hôgen Sanryaku no Maki"

The Arashi Rikaku line of actors