Namiki Gohei I(1747–1808) was a 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 and playwright active in both Edo

Edo

, also romanized as Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of the Japanese capital Tokyo, and was the seat of power for the Tokugawa shogunate which ruled Japan from 1603 to 1868...

 and Osaka

Osaka

is a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...

. He wrote over 110 plays, mostly in the genres of jidai-mono (historical) and sewa-mono (current events).

Gohei was a student of the playwright Namiki Shōzō I

Namiki Shozo I

Namiki Shōzō I was a prominent Japanese playwright who produced roughly 100 works for bunraku and for kabuki...

, and may have in fact taken on the name "Namiki" as a result of this relationship.

Plays

(The following list is only a small selection of Namiki Gohei's most famous works.)

• Kimon gosan no kiri (The Thief of the Temple Gate, 1778)
• Keisei kogane no sachihoko (The Thief of Fish Scales, 1782)
• Kanjin kammon tekuda no hajimari (Murder of a Foreign Envoy, 1789)
• Godairiki koi no fūjime (Seal of the Five Great Powers, 1794)
• Sumida no hara geisha-katagi (Geisha Spirit of the Sumida Valley, 1796)

See also