Ichimura Uzaemon XV

Ichimura Uzaemon XV — even just saying that name out loud makes me stand a little straighter. Born in 1874 Meiji-era Tokyo, this was a kabuki actor from a world before film could capture every performance, which means almost everything we know about him comes down to photographs and the stories people kept repeating long after they saw him. And the stories stuck: they called him beautiful, magnetic, the kind of stage presence that made a whole theater hold its breath. He died in May 1945, weeks before the war ended, which hits differently when you think about how much spectacle and tradition he carried through some of Japan's most turbulent decades. I've never seen him perform, obviously, but something about the Uzaemon name still carries this weight — like glamour that outlasted the man himself.

Ichimura Uzaemon XV (1874–1945) was a Japanese kabuki actor born in Tokyo during the Meiji era. He carried one of kabuki's most storied stage names, the fifteenth in the Ichimura Uzaemon lineage. He lived through the Meiji, Taisho, and early Showa periods, and passed away on May 6, 1945, shortly before the end of World War II.

Name (English)

Ichimura Uzaemon XV

Name (Japanese)

十五代目 市村羽左衛門

Reading

じゅうごだいめ いちむら うざえもん

Born

November 5, 1874 – May 6, 1945

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Scorpio / Dog

Origin

Tokyo, Japan

Occupation

Kabuki actor

• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B8%82%E6%9D%91%E7%BE%BD%E5%B7%A6%E8%A1%9B%E9%96%80%20(15%E4%BB%A3%E7%9B%AE)
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11480515

Tags

• From Tokyo
• Kabuki actor

Last updated

2026-06-02

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.