According to Zoë Kincaid, Danjūrō, the ninth, was the bridge that spanned the sudden gulf which yawned between the traditional past and the uncertain and changing modern world.

He may be regarded as the saviour of Kabuki during a period when it might have suffered shipwreck, had there not been a man of genius at the helm to guide the craft through the troubled waters.

Born in 1838, in Edo's Sakai district, the fifth son of Ichikawa Danjūrō VII, his parents were not legally married.

At the reopening ceremony, or perhaps shortly afterwards, he took the honored name Ichikawa Danjūrō IX, which had not been held for twenty years.

He returned to Edo (now Tokyo) in 1881, and performed for Emperor Meiji at the house of the Minister for Foreign Affairs, along with the celebrated actors Onoe Kikugorō V and Ichikawa Sadanji I, in April 1887.

Two years later, in November 1889, he became zagashira (head) of the newly opened Kabuki-za, which is today the principal Kabuki theater in Japan.

Unquestionably one of the top actors of the time, Danjūrō performed in the premieres of many plays at the Kabuki-za, and took part in a number of other events of import.