Born in Japan's capital of Edo in 1660, he first performed at the age of 13 at the Nakamura-za, under the name Ichikawa Ebizō.

Two years later, taking the name Danjūrō, he performed in the first kabuki presentation based on the Tale of the Soga Brothers.

Serving as playwright as well as actor, Danjūrō produced a number of works, several of which were early forms of plays extremely popular later in the Edo period and still performed today, though they have undergone great changes over the centuries.

The first aragoto performance in Kyoto was that of Genji Musha Homare no Seiriki in 1694; the following year, Danjūrō would be featured in the Edo hyōbanki, a popular publication ranking actors and performances, as jō-jō-kichi (上々吉, higher-higher-excellent) and his annual salary would reach 500 ryō.

While performing at the Ichimura-za on 24 March 1704, Danjūrō was stabbed and killed in his dressing room (some accounts say "on stage") by fellow actor Ikushima Hanroku, who was either subsequently executed for this crime or died in prison under police interrogation.