Matsumoto Kōshirō VII

Matsumoto Kōshirō VII 七代目松本幸四郎
Kōshirō Matsumoto VII as Benkei
Born	(1870-05-12)12 May 1870 Tokyo, Japan
Died	27 January 1949(1949-01-27) (aged 78)
Other names	Kōraiya, Ichikawa Komazō VIII, Ichikawa Somegorō IV, Ichikawa Kintarō, Fujima Kansai, Fujima Kan'emon III

Matsumoto Kōshirō VII (七代目 松本 幸四郎, Shichidaime Matsumoto Kōshirō^?, 12 May 1870-27 January 1949) was one of the leading tachiyaku Kabuki actors of Japan's Meiji period (1868–1912) through the late 1940s.

Like most Kabuki actors, Kōshirō held a number of stage names (gō) over the course of his career. A member of the Kōraiya guild, he would often be called by that name, particularly in the practice of yagō, in which an actor's guild name is shouted out as a cheer or encouragement during a performance. Following in his birth father's footsteps as a master of traditional dance, he bore the stage name Fujima Kan'emon III within that context. In his first appearance on the Kabuki stage, he took the name Ichikawa Kintarō, and would later take the names Ichikawa Somegorō IV and Ichikawa Komazō VIII before coming to be known as the seventh Matsumoto Kōshirō.

The son of buyō (traditional dance) master Fujima Kan'emon II, he was adopted into the kabuki theatre by Ichikawa Danjūrō IX, who then became his master. Kōshirō's sons would come to take the stage names Ichikawa Danjūrō XI, Matsumoto Kōshirō VIII, and Onoe Shōroku II; his son-in-law, Nakamura Jakuemon IV, was also an actor, along with many of Kōshirō's grandsons and great-grandsons.

Third son of a builder and contractor, he was noticed in his early years by Fujima Kan'emmon II, an important buyō dance master, who quickly adopted him and instructed him in the art of traditional dances. However he was later noted by Ichikawa Danjuro IX, who thought he would have been better suited in the world of Kabuki and took him under his protection. Under the stage name of Ichikawa Kintarō, he made his stage debut in 1881, at the age of eleven. He would then grow up to become the best disciple of Danjuro. However, the young Kintaro was indiscrete in this youthness with many escapades, which angered his master who expelled him from the Ichikawa clan. For a long time it was thought he would never return on the stage. He was later forgiven and by April 1890 he went back to stage and he took the name of Ichikawa Somegorō IV. In 1893 he took part in the opening ceremonies of Tokyo's Meiji-za theatre.