Namiki Shozo II

• Died: 1807/7/25
• Childhood Name: 正吉 (Shoukichi)
• Other Names: 浅尾正三 (Asao Shouzou)
• Japanese: 並木正三 (Namiki Shouzou)

Namiki Shôzô II was a kabuki playwright, active in Kamigata in the 1790s-1800s.

He was born into a family which ran a shibaijaya, that is, a tearoom attached to a theatre, in the Dôtonbori area of Osaka. It is said he was of some relation to the wife of Namiki Shôzô I.

He performed as an actor for a time, under the name Asao Shôzô, having trained as a disciple of Asao Tamejûrô, but beginning in the 11th month of 1787, he appeared on the banzuke of Osaka's Ônishi no Shibai as a playwright, under the name Namiki Shôzô.

He became the chief playwright (tatesakusha) of the Naka no Shibai in Osaka in 1794, but after that worked under Tatsuoka Mansaku, Chikamatsu Tokuzô, and Nagawa Shimesuke I, and never again achieved the position of tatesakusha for a theatre. He worked alongside Mansaku and Tokuzô in writing the play Ise Ondo Koi no Netaba, which premiered at the Kado no Shibai in 1796, but no other plays he created are said to be of particular note.

References

• "Namiki Shôzô II." Asahi Nippon rekishi jinbutsu jiten (朝日日本歴史人物事典, "Asahi Encyclopedia of Japanese Historical Figures"). Asahi Shimbun. Accessed via Kotobank.jp, 27 January 2011.