See Kumakichi/Cooma Kitchie for the Australian Kumakichi
Kumakichi, who became Murakami Kumataro, using the stage names of Como Ketchey and Koomakitchee, then later Como Tycoon and Como Tarro, was born in 1863 in Tokyo, first appeared in Britain in 1870 with Thomas King’s first Royal Tycoon’s Private Troupe. He then reappeared in Britain in 1876. Performed bamboo walking and then later was a foot equilibrist, initially settling in Britain and then moving to the Netherlands before returning to Britain again and joining the Mitsutas.
Timeline
1863 March 14th – Kumakichi born in Tokyo (according to Amsterdam census records, 1891 England census and marriage record of 1892). Family registration in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi, Japan. Murakami Kumataro, gymnast, was his father.
1869 October – passport records for Thomas King’s Royal Tycoon’s Private Troupe on a 3 year passport for Hong Kong:
From Osaka: Naminosuke aged 45, foot equilibrist, Mitsu, his wife aged 36, accompanist, Genji, Naminosuke’s son, aged 12, acrobat, Kanekichi, Naminosuke’s son, aged 7, acrobat
Fujikichi aged 38, block piling, Fusa, aged 38, wife of Fujikichi, accompanist, Kumakichi, son of Fujikichi, aged 12, acrobat, Asajirō, second son of Fujikichi, aged 11, acrobat
From Tokyo Asakusa: Matsui Yoshigorō, Matsui Gensui XV aged 36, top spinner, Moto 茂登 aged 38, Sawa, daughter of Moto, aged 18, accompanist, Kinjurō, son of Moto, aged 8, acrobat from Asakusa, Isojirō’s shop/house
From Osaka: Torakichi aged 36, propsman
From Yokohama: Isokichi aged 52.
1869 October – July 1870 – Hong Kong, India, then Hamburg, Germany. Photos below taken in Hamburg by Dammann could be of Kumakichi with Fusa and Fujikichi (Robert Sayers collection)
1870 July – Royal Tycoon Troupe perform at Crystal Palace, London
1870 August – Royal Tycoon’s Private Troupe perform at the Alhambra, Crystal Palace. “Two fat yellow boys without a symptom of bone in them” “did prodigies of elasticity… the fat yellow boy climbed the high bamboo balanced on the despondent juggler’s chin and capered thereupon in mid-air in the most suicidal manner.”
1871 Jan-Feb – tour Rotherham, Ashton, Brighouse, Leeds. 11 names given in billings for troupe of 15. Foo Gee Kitchee Wonder of Yeddo balancer, 5 boy contortionists – Koo Ma Kitchee, Ca Na Kitchee, Kin Ta, Mo To To and Ha Sa, Oh Sa Wah (female, flight of the butterflies), Eso Kitchee (juggler and equilibrist), Oh Ra To, top spinner, Mo Ko So, juvenile rope walker aged 9 and Namenoski, foot balancer, ladder feats, rope walker.
1871 February 4th – Fujikichi dies aged 39 of a tropical abscess of the liver and pyaemia (blood poisoning from the abscess). Buried in Southwark.
1871 March – May – “King’s Royal Tycoon Troupe” tours Manchester, Barnsley, Bradford, Huddersfield, Macclesfield. Fifteen artistes – “Five wonderful Japanese boys” (Koo Ma Kitchee, Ca Na Kitchee, Kin Ta, Mo To To and Ha Sa) performing as contortionists. Oh Sa Wah the first legitimate female artiste from Japan performing butterfly illusions. Eso Kitchee the inimitable Japanese juggler and equilibrist, Oh Ra To the Tycoon’s Private Top Spinner, Namenoski sensational ladder acts. Foo Gee Kitchee continues to be billed as the great shoulder balancer.
Audiences “were highly gratified, with the feats of the boys Kitchee and others, who as contortionists, we never saw equalled by any native of this country, either for actual agility, or gracefulness and completeness in every action.” Leeds Times, 8 April 1871
1871 May-June – King’s Royal Tycoon Troupe finish tour of Britain, start tour of Europe and the USA
1875 June – Of particular interest are the Japanese
court artists Mo-to and Assa, who achieve extraordinary feats in the field of acrobatics, and the Japanese Gin-Gero
and Ko-mo-Kitsche, whose productions on the bamboo Moravian Correspondent . Brno: G. Gastl, 24.06.1875,
15 (142), p. 4
1876 July – Como Ketchey, Gingero, Asakichi and Motokichi perform at the Crystal Palace at Myers’s Hippodrome. “The Japanese brothers Gingero and Como Ketchy”
1876 November – “Gin Goro and Komo Ketchey will perform the most astounding feat ever witnessed in the history of man. Komo, whose weight is over 10 stone, will climb to the top of a bamboo ladder 30 feet high, he will then be lifted by Gin Goro, placed on his shoulder and while balanced perform innumerable difficult feats to the delight of all beholders” Edinburgh Evening News 11 November 1876
1876 December – “The Royal Crystal Palace Tycoon Japanese Troupe” Gin Goro Jack, Fousah Ketchey, As Sa Ma Ki, Yama Moto, Moto Ketchie, Como Ketchey in Paisley
Tour Britain and by May 1879 are “Gingero’s great Tycoon troupe” five in number –
1878 May have been performing a man monkey act with John Gingero and James Dubois at the Exposition Universelle in Paris
1880 April – possibly on tour with the Tycoon Japanese Troupe in Europe as “Nama Meichey” with Walter Brown.
1880 May – to 1884 – possibly returned to Japan
1884 April – Komakitchee in Britain as a member of the Great Tycoon Japanese company in Belfast billed as the original troupe that appeared at the Crystal Palace in 1865. Komakitchee the Japanese Monkey. Japanese Tumbling Act. No further mention of this after April – so it may have been a one off burlesque or parody, rather than the authentic personnel.
1884 August – advertisement in The Era that The Original Comer Kitchey, just arrived from Japan, late of the Celebrated Tycoon Troupe was available in Britain from August 25th
1885 March Komakitchee “in his great barrel performance” with the Tycoon Japanese Troupe in Cardiff, Wales
1885 July – Komakitchee advertised with Pongo, the Royal Tycoon Troupe and Fuzzer Gingero in Middlesbrough
1885 October – Kumakichi and Hannah Storey’s first child, Louisa Motto Kitchee born in Lancashire (later added to register as Murakami)
1887 November – Kumakichi and Hannah’s second child Mura Kamy born in Liverpool – where Tannaker’s Village is showing. Was he named Mura Kamy, for Kumakichi’s family name, after death of Murakami Toyokichi, an acrobat in Australia, who died in April 1886?
1888 February – Como Tycoon who manipulated a barrel by means of his feet – Huddersfield
1888 March – Como Tycoon a Japanese equilibrist of appreciable skill, his pedal balancing feats being very clever – Edinburgh
1888 April – Como Tycoon with Pongo at Cooke’s Royal Circus, Dundee – the Yokohama marvel who exhibited a series of clever and dextrous dancing, balancing and other feats on a heavy barrel
1888 May – Como Tycoon with Pongo and other Japanese entertainers “troupe of real Japanese, from the original Japanese village, London, the rage of society in 1887”
1888 October – Kumakichi and Hannah’s third child Maud Omoyo Kitchee born in London
1889 January – Mura Kamy C Kitchee, Kumakichi and Hannah’s second child dies in London
1889 June – Kumakichi becomes Como Tarro, feet equilibristic and acrobatic act at Royal Albert Music Hall, Canning Town with AK Tarro, Canadian Blondin on the thin telegraph wire.
1889 August – the real Japanese and marvellous feet equilibrist, dances a monster wooden barrel weighing 36lbs on his toes in the air. Direct from Japan. Amersham Fete.
1889 September – October – Como Tarro – the original Pongo from Japan – outstanding acrobatic and balancing feats – The Era. Agent F Higham and Co
1889 October – November – Kamakitch troupe in Budapest
1890 February – May Kamakitch troupe performing in Austria
1890 July – Como Tarro a feet equilibrist and Pongo the man monkey
1890 – summer – Como Tarro in France
1890 September – the Japanese Kamakitch in Hannover: “In Sunday’s performance, the Japanese troupe Kamakitch, court artist to the Emperor of Japan, appeared before the public for the first time. The Japanese are known to be unsurpassed in the art of balancing, and those now performing at the City Theater have also achieved a remarkable level of mastery. Their unique productions, which they perform with the aid of barrels and a giant ladder, aroused the keenest interest of the well-filled house and received thunderous applause for both the skill and the power with which they were executed. The Japanese troupe thus represents a valuable addition to the already excellent ensemble of the City Theater.”
1890 Sep-Nov – in Denmark as Kamakitch troupe
1890 December – Como Tarro the Japanese equilibrist in Utrecht
1890 December – Kumakichi and Hannah’s fourth child Frederick Commer Kitchee is born in London (later addition to register as Murakami)
1891 April 5 – census: Como Tarro, actor, 28, Hannah Tarro 28, Motto Tarro 5, Maud Tarro 3, Frederick Tarro 4 months in Burnham Street, Canning Town, London.
1891 March – April 27th The Star music hall London Pongo the man monkey, Como Tarro Japanese feet equilibrist.
1891 May – The Great Como Tarro, the only Pongo Performing the World. Feet equilibrist and marvellous pyramid balancer, in Berlin. Returned from Japan.
1891 – June and August Como Tarro in Germany as a monkey man and foot equilibrist
1891 June – July – Kamakitch family (Mr and Mrs and 2 children) in Sweden – 21st July – the pole broke. The Kamakitch family, the Japanese jugglers, are now performing in Gefle. At the dinner representation on Sunday, an incident was reported as an accident. While Mr. Kamakitch was balancing his long bamboo tube, in the upper part of which Mrs. Kamakitch was conducting her daring experiments, the tube suddenly burst and the lady crashed to the ground. Fortunately, she did not hurt herself in the fall. The only thing is that after 18 years of service, the huge bamboo tube has worn out.
https://data.kb.se/dark-13439698/manifest?item=2
No further performances after 21st July – so perhaps Hannah dies in Sweden?
1891 December – Como Tarro in Scotland and Birkenhead and with the Tycoon troupe and Pongo the man monkey (James Dubois) at the Jollity Theatre in Bradford
1892 January – Como Tarro barrel balancing at New Star Music Hall Bristol, with Pongo
1892 6 February registered marriage with Japanese consulate in The Hague, the Netherlands
1892 10 February – Kumakichi marries Therese Laubach at St John’s Waterloo Road, under the name of Kumataro Murakami, aged 29. Therese is 34. Living at 124 Stamford Street, Lambeth. Featured photo taken at this point? (Photo courtesy of Judy Wood)
1892 May 13th – Therese Murakami advertises for country girls for all day long chores in Hamburg Fremdenblatt p 15
1892 December – Kumataro Murakani, Therese Laubach, Louise Murakani, Maud Murakani registered as living in Amsterdam. Kumataro is a shopkeeper
1892 December 2nd – advertises in Algemeen Handelsblad as opening a shop selling Japanese articles.
1895 November – notice that Murakami will return to his fatherland and sell off all his stock. 14th November 1895, Algemeen Handelsblad
1895 February – Kumakichi’s children’s surnames changed to Murakami on their registrations of birth
1896 January – last registration of Kumataro and his family as living in Amsterdam.
May have joined Takajiro Mitsuta’s troupe
1901 March 31 Mitsuta Comatro aged 38 taken into University College Hospital from an internal haemorrhage from overstraining. April census Comatro Mitsuta patient at University College Hospital, actor.
1901 April – census – Therese Mitsuta, 39 year old music hall artist, married, born in Germany living at 32 Coin Street with Louisa Mitsuta, daughter, 16 year old music hall artist born in Japan, Maud, 13 year old music hall artist born in Japan and son Kuma, 11 year old music hall artist, born in Japan. Actually these were Louisa, Maud and Kuma Murakami who were all born in the UK.
1904 – Frederick Kuma Murakami admitted to school in Pimlico
Professor Uyenishi and a lady pupil (perhaps Louisa?) The Graphic, 8 April 1905
1906 Frederick Kuma discharged from school.
1906 October – Kiyoko Uenishi, daughter of Kumakichi and Hannah’s oldest daughter Louisa Moto (aged 21) and Jujitsu exponent Sadakazu Uenishi is born in London.
1907 December – Kumakichi and Hannah’s second daughter Omoyo Maude marries Francis William Long. They had been demonstrating Jujitsu together. Kuma Tarro Murakami is described as a music hall artiste, still living.
1908 March – Omoyo and Francis’s daughter Omoyo Patricia born in London
1911 January – Mrs Uyenishi (Louisa?), Miss S, K, T Uyenishi all under 12 and Master T Uyenishi (infant under 1) depart London on Hirano Maru for Kobe.
1911 April – census – Therese Murakami widow, 48, living with Kumataro Frederick Murakami, 20 and Omoto Sarah Gingero, John Gingero‘s daughter, recorded as Therese’s niece, also 20. No sign of Louisa.
1922 – Therese in the Lambeth workhouse, aged 59
1923 – Frederick Kuma (in the British Royal Army Service Corps – sergeant?) marries Dora Hripsime Shirinian (Armenian) in Turkey. Photo courtesy of Judy Wood.
1924 – Maud Omoyo marries Leonard Webb
1925 – Frederick Kuma and Dora’s son Frederick Peter is born in London
1928 Uenishi Sadakazu dies in Japan
1928 Louisa Moto Uyenishi and Freda/Sakuko (20+ years old), Janet (12+ years old) and Dora/Kazue (15+ years old) start journey back to Britain but Louisa dies of small pox in Shanghai.
1936 – Therese dies aged 78. Family name changed by deed poll to Moss.
1971 – Frederick Kuma dies aged 80
1975 – Dora Hripsime dies aged 82
Ninjin 