Background
Tsuruya Namboku IV was born in 1755 Edo (now Tokyo), Japan. He came from a family of kabuki playwrights, the 4th generation of which being the most distinguished. His father was a textile dyer named Isaburo.
源蔵 海老屋
Tsuruya Namboku IV was born in 1755 Edo (now Tokyo), Japan. He came from a family of kabuki playwrights, the 4th generation of which being the most distinguished. His father was a textile dyer named Isaburo.
Tsuruya Namboku IV was a disciple of Sansho Kanai, a Japanese dramatist.
Tsuruya Namboku IV began his career by writing plays for Hikosaburo Bando III. He achieved fame when he wrote "Tenjiku-Tokube Ikokubanashi" (Exotic Romance of Tokube) for Matsusuke Onoe (1804) and was immediately appointed chief writer at Kawarazakiza Theater.
Later he wrote dramas one after another for Mitsugoro Bando, Koshiro Matsumoto, Kikugoro Onoe and Danjuro Ichikawa. He excelled in writing plays on everyday life and ghost stories. All in all, he wrote about 120 plays.
About 1780 Genzo Ebiya married the daughter of Tsuruya Namboku III, a well-known kabuki actor of the time.