Namiki Gohei I (; 1747 – June 2, 1808) was a

Kabuki is a classical form of Theatre of Japan, Japanese theatre, mixing dramatic performance with Japanese traditional dance, traditional dance. Kabuki theatre is known for its heavily stylised performances, its glamorous, highly decorated costumes ...

playwright active in

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

Edo Edo (), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the '' de facto'' capital of Japan from 1603 as the seat of the Tokugawa shogu ...

and

Osaka is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...

. He wrote over 100 plays, mostly in the genres of ''

jidai-mono are Japanese kabuki or plays that feature historical plots and characters, often famous samurai battles. These are in contrast to , contemporary plays, which generally focus on commoners and domestic issues. is usually translated as "period pla ...

'' (historical) and '' sewa-mono'' (current events). Born in the Doshōmachi district in

in 1747, Gohei was a student of the playwright

Namiki Shōzō I Namiki Shōzō I (並木正三) (1730–1773) was a prominent Japanese playwright who produced roughly 100 works for ''bunraku'' (puppet theater) and for ''kabuki''. Shōzō is also credited with inventing the revolving stage (回り舞台, ''mawar ...

. By 1775 he was already the main playwright for the Hayakumo-za Kabuki theatre in

. Two of his plays have been translated into English, ''The Temple Gate and the Paulownia Crest'' (1778, translated by Alan Cummings) and ''Five Great Powers that Secure Love'' (1794, translated by Julie A. Iezzi), both in ''Kabuki Plays on Stage II: Villainy and Vengeance, 1773-1799'', edited by James R. Brandon and Samuel L. Leiter.

Plays

(The following list is only a small selection of Namiki Gohei's most famous works.) * ''Genpei Tsūrikimaru'' (1764) with Namiki Shōzō I * ''Hi-no-Moto Banzei no Hōrai'' (1772) with Namiki Jūsuke * ''Tenmangū Natane no Gokū'' (1777) with Nakamura Akei and Tatsuoka Mansaku * ''Ōiri Kabuki no Tsuitachi'' (1777) with Nakamura Akei and Tatsuoka Mansaku * ''Keisei Hakataori'' (1778) * '' Kimon Gosan no Kiri'' (The Golden Gate and the Paulownia Crest, 1778) * ''Keisei Yamato Zōshi'' (1784) * ''Katsuragawa Renri no Shigarami'' (1784) adapted from a work of Suga Sensuke * ''Taikō Shinkenki'' (1787) * ''Sewa Ryōri Yaoya Kondate'' (1788) * ''Shima Meguri Uso no Kikigaki'' (1794) * ''Godairiki Koi no Fūjime'' (Five Great Powers that Secure Love, 1794)''Kabuki Plays on Stage II: Villainy and Vengeance, 1773-1799''. (2002) p. viii. * ''Suda no Haru Geisha Katagi'' (1796) * ''Tomioka Koi no Yamabiraki'' (1798) * ''Bandai Fueki Shibai no Hajimari'' (1807)

Notes

References

* Frederic, Louis (2002) ''Japan Encyclopedia''. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, . * ''Kabuki Plays on Stage II: Villainy and Vengeance, 1773-1799''. (2002) University of Hawaii Press, . {{DEFAULTSORT:Namiki, Gohei 01 Kabuki playwrights Writers of the Edo period 1747 births 1808 deaths Writers from Osaka 18th-century Japanese dramatists and playwrights 19th-century Japanese dramatists and playwrights