Born in a merchant family  in the year of the Meiji Restoration (1864), Otojiro engaged in satire through subversive, pro-democratic amateur theater and the song Oppekepe. His troupe also performed Japanese plays overseas, wrote plays and founded new wave theater. Together with his wife Sadayakko, he left a significant historic legacy in Japanese theater. A statue of Otojiro Kawakami is found at the entrance to the Kawabata Shopping Arcade.