Suketakaya Kodenji I - 初代助高屋小伝次  (しょだいすけたかや こでんじ) 1884-1889 was a child Kabuki actor of note in the late Meiji Era.

His real name was Ito Seikichi 伊藤政吉 (いとうせいきち). His mon or crest was 'maru ni kozuchi' 丸に小槌 or 'circular mallet'. His father was Sawamura Tosshi VII 七代目 澤村 訥子（しちだいめ

さわむら とっし).

His brothers were Sawamura Sōnosuke I 初代沢村宗之助（しょだい さわむら そうのすけ) and Sawamura Chōjūrō VII 七代目澤村長十郎（ しちだいめ さわむら ちょうじゅうろう）.

A rising star in Tōkyō of the late 19th century Suketakaya Kodenji I did not live to see the turn of the new century or his potential fulfilled. Born 2 May 1884 Suketakaya Kodenji I the son of Sawamura Tosshi VII debuted at the age of four in 1887 on the occasion of the opening of Tōkyō’s Azumaza Theatre. In 1894 at the age of ten he debuted one of his disciples, the then six year old Sawamura Daisuke. In August 1895 at the Asakusaza Theatre he starred as the diminutive masseur Tomiichi alongside such luminaries as Nakamura Shikaku I (later Nakamura Denkurō VI) as Katsuragawa Chōuemon, Onoe Matsusuke IV as Masuda Sangorō, Ichimura Kakitsu VI (later Ichimura Uzaemon XV) as Ohan, and his father Sawamura Tosshi VII as Azekura Jūshirō in the play Ada Musubi Ayase no Shigarami: Seidan Koi no Azekura (仇結綾瀬柵 (あだむすびあやせのしがらみ): 政談恋畦倉 (せいだんこいのあぜくら) Resentment of the ties of obligation at Ayase: The Case of the Love of Azekura). He went on to become zagashira, or leader, of a children’s troupe at the theatre in 1896 when it was renamed the Miyatoza Theatre. In May 1897 the acting troupe of Suketakaya Kodenji I was launched at the Asakusaza Theatre. He appeared on stage alongside Nakamura Kichiemon I in January 1899 and after he had performed to great acclaim at the Shintomiza Theatre he had been expected to become a great Kabuki actor. However, in August 1899 he fell ill and passed away on the 24th of that month aged 16 and was interred in Saikoji Temple 西光寺（さいこうじ） in Chitose just south of Ryōgoku, Tōkyō alongside generations of the Sawamura line of Kabuki actors. His death picture (shini-e) was produced the same year by Toyohara Kunichika

From left to right: Sawamura Chōnosuke as the Child Isshi Ishidōmaru and Sawamura Sōnosuke I as the Monk Karukaya Dōshin. Memorial print to the memory of Suketakaya Kodenji I (son of Sawamura Tosshi VII) who passed away August 24 th Meiji 明治時 代 32 (1899) aged 16 and is buried in Saikoji Temple, Chitose, Tokyo. From the performance of Karukaya Dōshin Tsukushi no Iezuto at the Shintomiza dated 16th

Sept Meiji 32 (1899).

初代助高屋小伝次 (しょだいすけたかや こでんじ) Suketakaya Kodenji I family plot at 西光寺（さいこうじ） Saikoji Temple

His nephew, the film actor Itō Yūnosuke 伊藤 雄之助, son of Sawamura Sōnosuke is also interred in Saikoji Temple

Itō Yūnosuke ’s grave at Saikoji Temple, Chitose, Tōkyō

Okamoto Kido, in his book ‘Talks on Meiji Era Theatre: Under the Lamp’ says…

‘In this way, as it kept going, the three year period from Meiji 30 (1897) to Meiji 32 (1899) became the Golden Age of Child Drama. Conversely in August Meiji 32 (1899) Suketakaya Kodenji, a company boss (zagashira) of a children’s troupe, was on his way by steam train to play at Hakone when he suddenly became ill. At an Onsen (Mountain Spring Hotel) at Tou-no-Sawa he died, the cause of his illness a cerebral haemorrhage. He was sixteen years old. Before I’d even finished grieving over Shikomaru’s premature death I was also grieving over Kodenji’s death. His style of acting was out of proportion to his age. How he would have developed later on in life as an adult could only be guessed at. Anyway, even at his youthful age he was certainly an actor of royal pedigree. He had been reading and intending to study Chinese Classics and was clever in the way he was able to communicate in English. His younger brother Sōnosuke, who was with him when he was on his deathbed, went on to live a much longer life becoming the managing actor at the Teikoku Gekijō (Imperial Theatre) but then, in spite of not being over forty years old, succumbed to a sudden illness and was gone. As siblings they surely had both been ill-fated.’

Monuments to Sawamura Tosshi VII and Suketakaya Kodenji I at Mimeguri Shrine 三囲神社 (みめぐりじんじゃ). The monuments used to be located at Sensōji Temple 浅草 寺 (せんそうじ) but they eventually were moved from Sensōji Temple to Mukojima’s Mimeguri Shrine on the other side of the Sumida River to the shore opposite Asakusa’s Imado Shrine 今戸神 社 (いまどじんじゃ) where there were local connections and the location of the Sawamura house.

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Japan