Ebizō was also referred to in various circumstances as Ichikawa Jukai I, Matsumoto Kōshirō, Hatagaya Jūzō and Naritaya Shichizaemon II, though he did not formally use these names onstage.

He was born in Edo in 1791, to the daughter of the famous Ichikawa Danjūrō V; his father owned a shibai jaya (a teashop inside the theatre), and is said to have been a musician and low-ranking samurai.

The following year, he played the famous child roles of Emperor Antoku and Rokudai in Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura at the Nakamura-za, where he had made his premiere.

In the early 1810s, Danjūrō performed at the Ichimura-za in a number of new plays by the great playwright Tsuruya Nanboku IV, and played the titular role of Sukeroku in Sukeroku Yukari no Edo Zakura for the first time in 1811, alongside Iwai Hanshirō V and Matsumoto Kōshirō V. Upon its reopening in 1815, he moved to the Kawarazaki-za, along with Hanshirō, Kōshirō, and Seki Sanjūrō II.

Close friend of Kunisada, the most popular ukiyo-e artist of those times, Ichikawa Ebizo is portrayed on hundreds of kabuki prints.