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[[File:Photograph of Ichizō Kobayashi.jpg|thumb|350x350px|Photograph of Ichizō Kobayashi  (courtesy of Mukōyama Tateo).]]
'''Ichizō Kobayashi''' (小林 一三, ''Kobayashi Ichizō'', January 3, 1873; [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirasaki,_Yamanashi Nirasaki, Yamanashi] – January 25, 1957; [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikeda,_Osaka Ikeda, Osaka]), is Japanese industrialist. He is best known as the founder of [[Hankou railway station|Hankyu Railway]], the [[Takaraz(contracted; show full)ofessor at the [[University of Yamanashi]] who lives in the city and has researched the life of Kobayashi, he came from a wealthy merchant family and at a young age frequently attended plays put on by a small theater near his elementary school. Even after entering [[Keio University|Keiō University]], he continued to regularly attend theater and [[kabuki]] performances. He also enjoyed writing and had a novel serialized in the local Yamanashi newspaper.

After graduating from university, Kobayashi joined [[
:en:Mitsui_Bank|Mitsui Bank]] and worked there for 15 years. In part because the staid life of a bank employee did not suit him, while working in [[Osaka]] he was attracted to the literary and theatrical world. He spent more and more time in the entertainment district and got to know the men about town who were regulars there. The experience and connections that Kobayashi built up during this time would serve him well when he launched his theater group.

== A Unique Atmosphere ==
(contracted; show full)

What he loved to work on most of all was Takarazuka, a kind of theater that ordinary people could easily attend. There were expensive seats, but there were plenty of cheap seats, too—“like outfield seats in baseball or third-tier seats in sumō,” Mukōyama notes. “People could go all year round. You don’t have to be close to the action to simply enjoy a little culture. Isn’t that what finding culture in our daily lives is all about?”