 Yoshizawa Ayame I

Yoshizawa Ayame I (初代 吉沢 菖蒲) (1673-15 July 1729) was an early Kabuki actor, and the most celebrated "onnagata" (specialist in female roles) of his time.His thoughts on acting, and on "onnagata" acting in particular, were recorded in "Ayamegusa" (菖蒲草, "The Words of Ayame"), one section of the famous treatise on Kabuki acting, "Yakusha Rongo" (役者論語, "The Actors' Analects").