GOCHUSHIN
PLAYED BY ICHIKAWA DANJURO
In history plays adapted from the puppet theatre, this is a soldier who enters to report conditions on the battlefield. Also, the word refers to the performance of such a role. Wearing a gorgeous net yoten* costume, he runs in on the hanamichi* bearing the sword or spear and crying, ” gochushin, gochusin’, ( i Have come to report, I have come to report).
He outlines the course of a battle supposedly raging offstage while performing a striking series of movements to the accompaniment of a chanter and shamisen* player. When finished, he runs off shouting, Hayaosaraba ( i bid you a hasty farewell). Gochushin roles include Sagami Goro and irie Tanzo in the Daimotsu Beach scene of Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura and shiragaki Taro in Omi Genji Senjin Yakata