Bandō Tamasaburō V

Who is Bandō Tamasaburō V?

Bandō Tamasaburō V is a Kabuki actor, and the most popular and celebrated onnagata currently on stage. He has also acted in a handful of films.

Born in 1950, Shin'ichi Morita was adopted by Morita Kan'ya XIV, and made his first appearance on stage at the age of seven, under the name Bandō Kinoji. At a shūmei in 1964 he became the fifth to take the name Bandō Tamasaburō; his adopted father had been the fourth.

Like all kabuki actors, Tamasaburō has devoted his life to the theater from a very young age. By 1975, when Morita Kan'ya XIV died, Tamasaburō had already performed in countless plays, many of them alongside his adopted father and other noteworthy actors such as Ichikawa Danjūrō XII. Since then, he has continued to perform, not only in numerous plays at the Kabuki-za in Tokyo, but in many other venues. He took part in an American tour in 1985, performing at New York's Metropolitan Opera House, the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, and in Los Angeles as well; he would perform in Paris the following year.

In 1993, he directed the film Yearning, which was entered into the 43rd Berlin International Film Festival.