Sakata Tōjūrō was actor-manager (zagashira) of the Mandayū Theatre in Kyoto; and during this period, the house playwright Chikamatsu Monzaemon.

Kuruwa Bunshō, a play heavily based on Yūgiri Nagori no Shōgatsu, and first performed in 1808, remains today one of the core pieces in the Kamigata repertoire.

The year 1693 saw the premiere, at the Miyako Mandayū theatre, of Butsumo Mayasan Kaichō, the first of a number of plays written by the great bunraku playwright Chikamatsu Monzaemon specifically for Tōjūrō.

Over the course of his career, Tōjūrō played a great many roles, perhaps most frequently that of Fujiya Izaemon, the male lead and Yūjiri's lover in the various versions of Yūgiri Nagori no Shōgatsu which were written and produced over the years.

Unlike his Edo counterpart, Ichikawa Danjūrō I, Tōjūrō's line lasted a very few generations and died out less than a century after his death.