Sawamura Shirogorō V

There's something quietly staggering about a name like Sawamura Shirogorō V — the "V" alone tells you this wasn't a career, it was a lineage, a weight passed down through generations. Born in Tokyo in 1877, he came of age right in the thick of Japan's Meiji era, when the country was tearing itself open to the modern world, and yet here was a man who chose to plant his feet on the kabuki stage and carry forward a tradition that was already centuries old. We don't have a lot of hard detail on his specific performances, but honestly, just surviving as a kabuki name-holder through the Meiji and Taisho periods — when Western culture was crashing in from every direction — says plenty about his commitment. He died at 55 in 1932, which feels too soon, but the fact that the name itself endured says he did his part right.

Sawamura Shirogorō V (born September 15, 1877 in Tokyo; died August 27, 1932) was a Japanese kabuki actor who carried one of the theatre's hereditary stage names as its fifth holder. Active during the Meiji and Taisho eras, he represented a lineage of performers who sustained kabuki traditions through Japan's rapid modernization. He passed away at the age of 54, leaving behind a career defined by the weight of a distinguished generational name.

Name (English)

Sawamura Shirogorō V

Name (Japanese)

五代目 澤村四郎五郎

Reading

ごだいめ さわむら しろごろう

Born

September 15, 1877 – August 27, 1932

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Virgo / Ox

Origin

Tokyo, Japan

Occupation

Actor / Kabuki Actor

• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%BE%A4%E6%9D%91%E5%9B%9B%E9%83%8E%E4%BA%94%E9%83%8E%20(5%E4%BB%A3%E7%9B%AE)
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11565890

Tags

• Tokyo-born
• Actor
• 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.