Izumo no okuni wiki
Izumo no okuni geisha.
Izumo no Okuni (出雲阿国)
Izumo no Okuni (1572? - year of death is unknown) was a female artist of the Azuchi-momoyama period who is considered the creator of Kabuki.
Izumo no okuni wiki
There are a variety of ways to write her name, including Okuni, Kuni, Kuniko (in kanji) and Okuni, Kuni (in hiragana).
Origins
According to tradition, she was the daughter of San-uemon NAKAMURA from Matsue City in Izumo Province, became a Miko at Izumo-taisha Shrine, and in the Bunroku era became famous for traveling to all the provinces to promote Izumo Taisha.
From The Diary of Tamon-in, May 1582: An entry notes that "Kaga Kuni children 8 and 11" was doing a "Yayako-odori" dance at Kasuga-taisha Shrine. Interpreting this to mean two children named Kaga and Kuni, respectively 8 and 11 years old, and counting back from that date, the prevailing view has come to be that Kuni was born in 1572.
However, it can also be interpreted to mean two girls, 8 and 11 years old, from the province of Kaga.
To quote a more reli