English: This is a photograph of the popular
Meiji period kabuki actor Ichimura Uzaemon XV taken at the
Kabukiza in 1930 in Tokyo. He is dressed as Togashi, the aristocrat in charge of the road barrier in the play
Kanjincho, or the Subscription List. During the 1930s Uzaemon played opposite another popular Meiji period kabuki actor
Matsumoto Koshiro VII who played
Musashibo Benkei, the
warrior monk and retainer of
Minamoto Yoshitsune. Also in the picture is
Ito Shinsui and possibly
Hasui Kawase, both artists who were part of the revival at the time of the
ukiyo-e woodblock print. They are surrounded by other dignitaries both Japanese and Western. The Western woman may possibly be an actress. It was around this time that kabuki as an art form was being popularized in the West and shortly before
Charlie Chaplin visited Japan in 1932 and saw the Kabuki at
Minamiza in Kyoto and Kabukiza in Tokyo where he met Nakamura Kichiemon I. Chaplin was and is still, extremely popular in Japan and his film '
City Lights' was adapted to Kabuki being called Komori no Yasusan, or Batman Yasu. In the photograph are Itō Shinsui
伊東深水 (4 February 1898–8 May 1972) ukiyo-e woodblock printer and
Nihonga artist. Born Itō Hajime 伊東一 looking over Uzaemon's shoulder and Hasui Kawase
川瀬 巴水 (1883-1957) painter of
Shin Hanga 新版画 (new prints) style of revived woodblock printing rear and between the two women