Sakurama Banma (櫻間伴馬)
Banma SAKURAMA (1835 - 1917) was a Nohgakushi (Noh actor) playing shite (principal roles) of Konparu-ryu school. In 1911, he changed his name to Sajin SAKURAMA in commemoration of Kiju (the cerebration of a person's 77th birthday).
He was the 17th head of the Sakurama family, which was a reputable family served the Kumamoto clan with the Tomoeda family of the Kita-ryu school.
At the age of 21, he followed a command of the clan to go to Edo and studied under Heizo NAKAMURA, Jiutai-kata (Noh chorus) of Konparu-ryu school. After that, he went back and forth between Edo (later, Tokyo) and his hometown due to unquiet days of the Restoration, but he settled permanently in Tokyo after he moved to Tokyo for the third time in 1879 on Morihisa HOSOKAWA's advice. He was reputed to be 'one of the three masters of the Meiji period,' along with Kuro Tomoharu HOSHO, the 16th, and Rokuro UMEWAKA (the 52nd). It was said that he was good at "Dojoji" (Dojo-ji Temple), "Shunkan" (Shunkan, a priest), "Kantan" (The Pillow of Kantan) and also he was the best in profoundness and gracefulness of Kazuramono (a woman play).
He accomplished a great achievement in which he carried Konparu-ryu school declined in Meiji period on his shoulders, watched over and supported Mitsutaro KONPARU (later Hachijo KONPARU) and his younger brother Eijiro KONPARU, the heads of the Konparu-ryu school, and he was praised as 'the founder of a renaissance of the Konparu-ryu school.'
His second son was Kyusen SAKURAMA. Michio SAKURAMA was his nephew.