Mother of Tsubouchi Syouyou

Tsubouchi Syouyou is a man who brought about a monetization of Japanese theatre, translating Shakespeare in the Meiji era. He also wrote many novels. This paper attempts to investigate his mother Michi\u27s life as far as possible. In doing so, one can see the influence it had en Syouyou\u27s childhood years. Michi was born in the suburbs of Nagoya in the fourth year of the Bunsei era (1821). She was married at the age of 14, the fifth year of Tempo era (1834), and gave birth to ten children. She was 39 years old when she had Syouyou, who was the last child of the family. When she died, at the age of 60, in the thirteenth year of Meiji era (1880), Syouyou was 21 years old. The 4th anniversary of her death was in the 4th of Showa era (1929). Even after her death, Syouyou continued to have strong feelings for Michi. When Michi moved to Mino-Oota (present day Gifu Prefecture) with marriage, she found that there were no theatres there. Due to the Meiji Restoration, Michi and her family moved to Nagoya, and there the 50 year old Michi became a great shibai enthusiast. Although conventionally, it is said that her love for the theatre began here, in fact, when she lived with her parents in Nagoya before marriage, there was a theatre nearby. It is of significance also that her parents were in a position to help the theatre economically. We can see that since her childhood, Michi was brought up in an environment where it was natural to be familiar with theatres. So after marriage, when she moved back to Nagoya, her hometown, it fuelled her long kept passion for the theatre again. This, in turn, also had a great influence on Syouyou during his boyhood. In addition to the above, this paper will attempt to analyse social trends from the end of the Edo period through to Meiji, from Michi\u27s point of view, and also considers how that affected Syouyou as a person