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, 03:11, 12 May 2010
*''Other Names: Ôkichiya (''[[yago|yagô]]''), Uemura Kichizaemon, Yamamura Kichiya, Kamimura Kichiya I, Uemonjiya Kichizaemon<ref>Kabuki21.com. The latter two names were not stagenames, but other names Kichiya used at various times in his life, outside of the theatre.</ref>
*''Japanese'': 初代上村吉弥 ''(Shodai Uemura Kichiya)''
Uemura Kichiya I was an ''[[onnagata]]'' [[kabuki]] actor active in [[Kamigata]] (specifically, Kyoto) in the 1670s. He was particularly celebrated for his dances, and but is known chiefly for his influence on women's fashions, including the popularization of a certain kind of basket hat, a type of face powder, and certain ways of tying one's ''[[obi]]'' (kimono belt).
The ''Kichiya-musubi'', or "Kichiya knot," was in fact particularly famous and popular, mentioned specifically in a number of poems. The knot is a relatively simple one, but with small lead weights attached to the ''obi'' somehow (and hidden), weighing down the ends of the bow, so they drooped "like the ears of a ... Chinese lion-dog."<ref>Waterhouse. p45.</ref> This style can clearly be seen in numerous ''[[bijinga]]'' (pictures of beauties) from the time, particularly in works by [[Hishikawa Moronobu]], including one of his most famous paintings<ref>"Beauty Looking Back." c. 1694. Tokyo National Museum.[http://www.tnm.jp/en/servlet/Con?processId=00&ref=2&Q1=&Q2=&Q3=&Q4=114_____4182_&Q5=&F1=&F2=&pageId=E15&colid=A60 Click for Image]</ref>. A variation on this way of tying the ''obi'' has survived into the modern day, and is still called ''Kichiya-musubi''.
Kichiya claimed Saitô Yogorô, an Osaka-based comic actor, as his master.<ref name=kabuki>Kabuki21.com.</ref> Though his dates of birth and death are unknown, it is known that he went on tour in Edo in 1677, and performed at the [[Nakamura-za]]. He retired several years later, in 1680, and opened a cosmetics shop on Shijô in Kyoto, operating it under the name Uemonjiya Kichizaemon.<ref name=kabuki/>
[[Ryutei Tanehiko|Ryûtei Tanehiko]], a 19th century samurai writer, discusses Kichiya to some extent in his ''[[Ryutei iko|Ryûtei ikô]]'', a sort of compilation of miscellaneous writings by Ryûtei, compiled and published in [[1909]], long after his death.
Ryûtei also discusses Kichiya's adopted son and successor, [[Uemura Kichiya II]], though information pertaining to one or the other is often confused both by Ryûtei and by his sources.
==References==
*"[http://kabuki21.com/kichiya1.php Uemura Kichiya I]." Kabuki21.com. Accessed 11 May 2010.
*Waterhouse, David. "The Hishikawa Mode." ''Impressions'' 31 (2010). pp42-49.
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