Ikushima Shingorô was a kabuki actor of the Genroku period, famous for his realistic and provocative performances in love scenes onstage,[1] and for his involvement in the 1714 scandal known as the Ejima-Ikushima Affair.
Originally based in Osaka, Ikushima arrived in Edo in 1702/3. He performed in the premiere of the play Sukeroku, as the saké merchant Shimbei, in 1713.
Ikushima was then banished from Edo following the Ejima-Ikushima Affair, in which he played a central role, spending much of the rest of his life on Miyakejima, one of the Izu Islands, before being pardoned.[2]
References
- Roger Keyes, Ehon: The Artist and the Book in Japan, New York Public Library (2006), 70.
- ↑ Donald Shively, "Bakufu Versus Kabuki," Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 18, no. 3/4 (1955), 348.
- ↑ Shively writes that Ikushima spent 18 years on the island, being pardoned only the year before his death. However, counting 18 years from 1714 brings us only to 1732, and Ikushima lived until 1743. Counting backwards eighteen years from 1742 (the year before his death) would mean he wasn't sentenced and exiled until 1724, a full ten years after the incident.