is a Japanese kabuki

Kabuki

is classical Japanese dance-drama. Kabuki theatre is known for the stylization of its drama and for the elaborate make-up worn by some of its performers.The individual kanji characters, from left to right, mean sing , dance , and skill...

 actor, one of the most popular tachiyaku (specialist in male roles) currently performing.

Like many members of the kabuki community, he can trace his lineage back several generations, many members of his family being kabuki actors as well. His father and grandfather were the eighth

Matsumoto Hakuo I

, born , was a Japanese Kabuki actor, regarded as the leading tachiyaku of the postwar decades; he also performed in a number of non-kabuki venues, including Western theatre and films...

 and seventh

Matsumoto Koshiro VII

Matsumoto Kōshirō VII was one of the leading tachiyaku Kabuki actors of Japan's Meiji period through the late 1940s.-Names:...

, respectively, to hold the name of Matsumoto Kōshirō

Matsumoto Koshiro

Matsumoto Kōshirō is the stage name of a line of kabuki actors in Japan. Most of these were blood relatives, though some were adopted into the family....

, and he traces his lineage back to his great-great-grandfather Nakamura Karoku I, if not further. Kōshirō's brother, Nakamura Kichiemon II

Nakamura Kichiemon II

is a Japanese actor, kabuki performer and costume designer. He is a so-called Living National Treasure.Nakamura Kichiemon is a formal kabuki stage name. The actor's grandfather first appeared using the name in 1897; and Nakamura Kichiemon I continued to use this name until his death...

, and son Ichikawa Somegorō VII are active in the kabuki theater as well, and his daughter, Takako Matsu

Takako Matsu

, born , is a Japanese actress and pop singer/songwriter born on June 10, 1977 in Tokyo, Japan. The style of her music is often laid-back and relaxing.- Profile :* Interests: Watching movies and stage plays...

 is an experienced film actress. In addition, Kōshirō has a number of disciples, including Matsumoto Kingo III, Matsumoto Kōemon I, and Ichikawa Komazō XI.

Life and career

He made his stage debut in 1945, at the age of three, under the name Matsumoto Kintarō II, and took the name Ichikawa Somegorō VI four years later. He succeeded his father to the name Matsumoto Kōshirō in 1981.

A graduate of Waseda University

Waseda University

, abbreviated as , is one of the most prestigious private universities in Japan and Asia. Its main campuses are located in the northern part of Shinjuku, Tokyo. Founded in 1882 as Tokyo Senmon Gakko, the institution was renamed "Waseda University" in 1902. It is known for its liberal climate...

, and a versatile actor, Kōshirō IX has performed extensively not only in kabuki, but in Western stage plays, film, and television. He has played, among many other roles, Benkei in Kanjinchō

Kanjincho

Kanjinchō is a Japanese kabuki play by Namiki Gohei III, based on the Noh play Ataka. It is one of the most popular plays in the modern kabuki repertory....

, Kōchiyama Sōshun in Kōchiyama, Kumagai Jirō Naozane in Kumagai Jinya, and Matsuōmaru in Sugawara Denju Tenarai Kagami

Sugawara Denju Tenarai Kagami

is a Japanese bunraku and kabuki play jointly written by Takeda Izumo I, Takeda Izumo II, Namiki Sōsuke and Miyoshi Shōraku. Along with Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura and Kanadehon Chūshingura, it is one of the three most famous and popular plays in the kabuki repertoire...

.

In 1970, Kōshirō appeared in the lead role in Man of La Mancha

Man of La Mancha

Man of La Mancha is a musical with a book by Dale Wasserman, lyrics by Joe Darion and music by Mitch Leigh. It is adapted from Wasserman's non-musical 1959 teleplay I, Don Quixote, which was in turn inspired by Miguel de Cervantes's seventeenth century masterpiece Don Quixote...

on Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 in New York

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. Also, he has appeared as the King of Siam in The King and I

The King and I

The King and I is a stage musical, the fifth by the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. The work is based on the 1944 novel Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landon and derives from the memoirs of Anna Leonowens, who became governess to the children of King Mongkut of Siam in...

in the West End

West End of London

The West End of London is an area of central London, containing many of the city's major tourist attractions, shops, businesses, government buildings, and entertainment . Use of the term began in the early 19th century to describe fashionable areas to the west of Charing Cross...

 in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

. Other stage roles have included Motl in Fiddler on the Roof

Fiddler on the Roof

Fiddler on the Roof is a musical with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Joseph Stein, set in Tsarist Russia in 1905. It is based on Tevye and his Daughters by Sholem Aleichem...

, the title role in Sweeney Todd

Sweeney Todd (musical)

Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a 1979 musical thriller with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and libretto by Hugh Wheeler. The musical is based on the 1973 play Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street by Christopher Bond....

, Salieri in Amadeus

Amadeus

Amadeus is a play by Peter Shaffer.It is based on the lives of the composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri, highly fictionalized.Amadeus was first performed in 1979...

, Kitagawa Utamaro

Utamaro

was a Japanese printmaker and painter, who is considered one of the greatest artists of woodblock prints . His name was romanized as Outamaro. He is known especially for his masterfully composed studies of women, known as bijinga...

 in the musical Utamaro, and Zeami Motokiyo

Zeami Motokiyo

Zeami Motokiyo , also called Kanze Motokiyo , was a Japanese aesthetician, actor and playwright.-Acting:...

 in Musical Zeami.

His film credits include Emperor Hirohito in Japan's Longest Day (日本のいちばん長い日, Nihon no ichiban nagai hi), in which famous actor Toshirō Mifune

Toshiro Mifune

Toshirō Mifune was a Japanese actor who appeared in almost 170 feature films. He is best known for his 16-film collaboration with filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, from 1948 to 1965, in works such as Rashomon, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, and Yojimbo...

 played General Korechika Anami, Ii Naosuke

Ii Naosuke

was daimyo of Hikone and also Tairō of Tokugawa Shogunate, Japan, a position he held from April 23, 1858 until his death on March 24, 1860. He is most famous for signing the Harris Treaty with the United States, granting access to ports for trade to American merchants and seamen and...

 in Samurai Assassin

Samurai Assassin

is a 1965 Japanese movie directed by Kihachi Okamoto and starring Toshirō Mifune, Koshiro Matsumoto, Yunosuke Ito, and Michiyo Aratama.Samurai Assassin is set in 1860, immediately before the Meiji Restoration changed Japanese society forever by doing away with the castes in society and reducing the...

(侍, Samurai), and a number of other jidaigeki

Jidaigeki

is a genre of film, television, and theatre in Japan. The name means "period drama" and is usually the Edo period of Japanese history, from 1603 to 1868. Some, however, are set much earlier—Portrait of Hell, for example, is set during the late Heian period—and the early Meiji era is also a popular...

(samurai period films).