KAWAKAMI SADAYAKKO (川 上貞奴)
07/18/1871 - 12/07/1946

aka SADA YACCO (貞奴)



c. JULY - NOVEMBER 1900

                   
Mort de la Geisha
Kawakami Sadayakko ((川上貞奴) as
Keisei Katsuragi (傾城葛城) and
Kawakami Otojirô (川上音二郎) as
Nagoya Sanza (名古屋山三)

Play: The Geisha and The Knight
Performance Place: Théatre de la Loie Fuller, Paris
Performance Dates: in repertory 07/04/00 - 11/03/00
Print Date: 1900
Artist: Pierre-Georges Jeanniot
Medium: Etching
Personal Collection
 
 
 

                   
Mort de la Geisha
Kawakami Sadayakko ((川上貞奴) as
Keisei Katsuragi (傾城葛城) and
Kawakami Otojirô (川上音二郎) as
Nagoya Sanza (名古屋山三)

Play: The Geisha and The Knight
Performance Place: Théatre de la Loie Fuller, Paris
Performance Dates: in repertory 07/04/00 - 11/03/00
Published in Les Musiques Bizarres a l'Exposition
de 1900 by Judith Gautier (1900)
Artist: Pierre-Georges Jeanniot
Medium: Colored lithograph book cover
Personal Collection
 
 
 

                   
Kawakami Sadayakko (川上貞奴)
aka Sada Yacco

Date: 1900
Artist: Alfredo Müller
Medium: Lithographic poster
Image Courtesy of the Kyoto Institute of
Technology
 
 
 

SEPTEMBER 1900

                  
Sada Yacco, L’Etoile Japonaise

Published in La Rire #306 (September 15, 1900)
Artist: Leonetto Cappiello
Medium: Lithograph
Personal Collection
 
 
 


 




 
 
 

OCTOBER 1900

                   
A L'Exposition: Kawakami et Sada-Yacco au Théatre de la Loie Fuller
Kawakami Sadayakko ((川上貞奴) as Keisei Katsuragi (傾城葛城)
and
Kawakami Otojirô (川上音二郎) as Nagoya Sanza (名古屋山三)

Play: The Geisha and The Knight
Performance Place: Théatre de la Loie Fuller, Paris
Performance Dates: in repertory 07/04/00 - 11/03/00
Published in La Rire #310 (October 13, 1900)
Artist: Charles Lucien Léandre
Medium: Lithograph
Personal Collection
 
 

MAY 1901


Kawakami Sadayakko (川上貞奴) as Keisei Katsuragi (傾城葛城)

Play: The Geisha and The Knight
Print Date: 05/11/01
Artist: Utagawa Yoshiiku (歌川芳幾)
Personal Collection
               
Note: This was a play based in part on Kyôganoko Musume Dôjôji
(京鹿子娘道成寺).  Sadayakko performed The Geisha and the Knight
in the United States and in Europe between September 1899 and
November 1900.  Presumably, this print was made to commemorate
her performance abroad and/or as a souvenir for purchase during her
upcoming second European tour, which lasted from June 1901 to July
1902.  Sadayakko and her husband Kawakami Otojirô (川上音二郎)
would eventually perform a version of this play in Tokyo at the Meiji-za
in June 1909 under the title Geisha to Bushi (芸者と武士).  The print
is based on a photograph by the French photographer Paul Nadar
that was used as a color cliché cover for the October 2, 1900 of Le
Théâtre magazine.
 
 
 



                
                Kawakami Otojirô (川上音二郎) as Nagoya Sanza (名古屋山三)

                Kawakami Sadayakko (川上貞奴) as Keisei Katsuragi (傾城葛城)

                Play: The Geisha and The Knight
                Print Date: 1901
                Artist: Utagawa Yoshiiku (歌川芳幾)
                Personal Collection
       
                Note: This was a play based in part on Kyôganoko Musume Dôjôji (京鹿子娘道成寺) which Sadayakko
                performed in the United States and in Europe between September 1899 and November 1900.
                Presumably, this print was  made to commemorate her performance abroad and/or as a souvenir for
                purchase during her upcoming second European tour, which lasted from from June 1901 to July 1902.
                Sadayakko and her husband Kawakami Otojirô (川上音二郎) would eventually perform a version of this
                play in Tokyo at the Meiji-za in June 1909 under the title Geisha to Bushi (芸者と武士).  The print is
                based on a photograph by Joseph Byron of the final act of The Geisha and The Knight performed at the
                Berkeley Lyceum Theatre in New York City in March 1900.  It was likely made at the same time as
                Yoshiiku's May 1901 portrait of Sadayakko.
 
 
 
 


c. JUNE - AUGUST 1901

                   
Kawakami Sadayakko ((川上貞奴) as
Keisei Katsuragi (傾城葛城)

Play: The Geisha and The Knight
Performance Place: Criterion Theatre, London
(transferred to the Shaftsbury Theatre on 07/16/01)
Performance Dates: in repertory 06/18/01 - 08/07/01
Print Date: 1902
Artist: William Nicholson
Medium: Hand-colored woodblock print
Image courtesy of the Fitzwilliam Museum
 
 
 

                   
Kawakami Sadayakko ((川上貞奴) as
Keisei Katsuragi (傾城葛城)

Play: The Geisha and The Knight
Performance Place:  Criterion Theatre, London
(transferred to the Shaftsbury Theatre on 07/16/01)
Performance Dates: in repertory 06/18/01 - 08/07/01
Print Date: 1902
Artist: William Nicholson
Medium: Lithograph
Personal Collection
 
 
 

c. AUGUST - NOVEMBER 1901

                   
Kawakami Sadayakko ((川上貞奴) as
Keisei Katsuragi (傾城葛城)

Play: The Geisha and The Knight
Performance Place: Théatre de l'Athénée, Paris
Performance Dates: in repertory 09/14//01 - 11/08/01
Print Date: 1901
Artist: Raymond Tournon
Medium: Lithographic poster
Personal Collection
 
 
 

NOVEMBER 1903



[Ophelia] Orie (おりえ)

Play: Hamuretto [Hamlet] (ハムレット)
Performance Place: Hongô-za, Tokyo
Performance Date: 11/02/03
Print Date:  10/05/03
Artist: Kaburagi Kiyokata (鏑木清方)
Medium: Lithographic kuchi-e in the Hamuretto script published in
October 1903
Personal Collection

Note: Kawakami Sadayakko (川上貞奴) played Orie in the 1903
Hongô-za priemiere production of Hamuretto.

                                       
                    Kawakami Sadayakko ((川上貞奴) as Oriyé [Ophelia]

                    Play: [Hamlet] Hamuretto (ハムレット)
                    Performance Place: Hongô-za, Tokyo
                    Performance Date: 11/02/1903
                    Print Date: 04/20/2020
                    Artist: Jenna Manders-Wilde
                    Medium: Linocut reduction print
                    Personal Collection (#5/8)
 
                    Note: Although Sadayakko is not specifically referenced,
                    the artist has publicly stated that she based this print on a
                    photograph of Sadayakko as Ophelia.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 



MAY 1915


Kawakami Sadayakko (川上貞奴) as
[Salome] Sarome (サロメ)

Play: [Salome] Sarome (サロメ)
Performance Place: Hongô-za, Tokyo
Performance Date: 05/08/15
Print Date: 05/1915?
Artist: ?
Medium: Machine printed banzuke
Personal Collection

 



SEPTEMBER 1915


Kawakami Sadayakko (川上貞奴) as
Arutesu [Artemis] Ôjyo (アルテス王女)

Play: Ikusagami (軍神)
Performance Place: Ichimura-za, Tokyo
Performance Date: 09/06/15
Print Date: 10/01/15
Artist: Natori Shunsen (名取春仙)
Publication: Yakusha-e (Shin Nigao)
(新似顔), Vol. 4
Personal Collection

Note: Another reading of "軍神" is Gunshin.  I
used the "Ikusagami" reading because that it what
the database at the Ritsumeikan University's Art
Research Center uses.