Kido Okamoto

Kido's father, Okamoto Keinosuke (岡本佳之助), later Kiyoshi (清), was a samurai who, after the Meiji Restoration, left the service of the Tokugawa Shōgunate and went to work for the British Legation as an interpreter.

He was good friends with Ichikawa Danjūrō IX (九代目市川團十), Konakamura Kiyonori (ja:小中村清矩), Kawanobe Mitate (川辺御楯) and Kurokawa Mayori (黒川真頼), who together formed the Antiquarian Society (求古会, Kyūko Kai) to promote the modernisation of Kabuki based on the doctrine of the Theatre Reform Movement (演劇改良運動, Engeki Kairyō Undō).

He was also friends with Morita Kan'ya XII (十二代目守田勘弥)), the owner-manager of the Shintomiza Theatre, and an employee of the British Legation; avid Kabuki fan Thomas Russell Hillier McClatchie; and Austro-Hungarian diplomat Heinrich von Siebold.

With the relocation of the British Legation to Kōjimachi District in 1873, Kido's father moved there with his wife and daughter.

Kido learnt tokiwazu (常磐津) from the daughter of a local hairdresser and nagauta (長唄) by listening to his older sister's lessons.

During his early attendances at the Kabuki, he took a dislike to Danjūrō IX after witnessing what he described as childish behaviour during an incident backstage.

He bought the contract of and married a Yoshiwara Geisha from the Uwajima feudal domain called Kojima Sakae (小島栄).

Success eluded him until in 1911, his popular play The Mask maker's Story (修善寺物語, Shuzenji Monogatari) premiered at the Meijiza.