Stage names:

Nakamura Utae
Kagaya Utae II
Nakamura Utaji

Real name: Nakayama Yukio

Guild: Narikomaya

Existence: 6 June 1932 ~ 26 March 2016

Connections:

Master: Nakamura Utaemon VI

Career:

October 1951: he made his first appearance on stage at the Ôsaka Kabukiza, where he received the name of Nakamura Utaji.

June 1957: he became nadai and took the name of Kagaya Utae II at the Kabukiza, performing in the dramas "Kagamiyama" and "Imamiya Shinjû".

April 1996: he joined the first league of Kabuki actors (kanbu shôshin) took the name of Nakamura Utae at the Kabukiza, playing the role of Omaki in the play "Kôchiyama".

January 2015: Utae appeared on stage for the last time, in Tôkyô at the Kabukiza, where he played the role of the shôya's nyôbô in the drama "Ippon Gatana Dohyô Iri".

26 March 2016: Utae passed away from pneumonia.

Comments:

Nakamura Utae was a veteran onnagata actor of the Narikomaya guild. He excelled in sewa nyôbô roles in sewamono dramas, tsubone roles in jidaimono dramas and kôshitsu in both sewamono/jidaimono. His best roles were Awa-no-Tsubone ("Kamakura Sandaiki"), the nyôbô Otsuta ("Meigetsu Hachiman Matsuri"), the kôshitsu Okô ("Hikosan Gongen Chikai no Sukedachi") and Chôgorô's mother Okô ("Hikimado").

Nakamura Utae
Courtesy of DANGO JIRÛ HYPER
This image was part of an amazing 2010 web project, which was entitled Kabuki Bijin Tokei (The Kabuki Beautiful People Clock), a special countdown with original pictures of Kabuki actors, one picture per day up to the closing of the Kabukiza (video on youtube)
Nakamura Utae was Number 92 in this countdown (online the 29th of January 2010, 92 days to go before the closing of Tôkyô's most famous theater)