Nationality Japan Died 1808 Role Playwright | Name Namiki I | |
Occupation Kabuki actor and playwright | ||
Namiki Gohei I (Japanese: 並木五瓶初代; 1747 – June 2, 1808) was a Kabuki actor and playwright active in Kyoto, Edo and Osaka. He wrote over 100 plays, mostly in the genres of jidai-mono (historical) and sewa-mono (current events).
Born in the Doshōmachi district in Osaka in 1747, Gohei was a student of the playwright Namiki Shōzō I. By 1775 he was alredy the main playwright for the Hayakumo-za Kabuki theatre in Kyoto. He is credited with helping establish the new genre of sewa-mono plays.
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: Villany 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.)