Kanadehon Chūshingura
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is an 11-act
bunraku is a form of traditional Japanese puppet theatre, founded in Osaka in the beginning of the 17th century, which is still performed in the modern day. Three kinds of performers take part in a performance: the or (puppeteers), the (chanters) ...
puppet play composed in 1748. It is one of the most popular Japanese plays, ranked with
Zeami , also called , was a Japanese aesthetician, actor, and playwright. His father, Kan'ami Kiyotsugu, introduced him to Noh theater performance at a young age, and found that he was a skilled actor. Kan'ami was also skilled in acting and formed a ...
's ''
Matsukaze is a play of the third category, the woman's mode, by Kan'ami, revised by Zeami Motokiyo. One of the most highly regarded of Noh plays, it is mentioned more than any other in Zeami's own writings, and is depicted numerous times in the visual ...
'', although the vivid action of ''Chūshingura'' differs dramatically from ''Matsukaze''.


Medium

During this portion of the
Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...
, the major dramatists preferred not to write for the
kabuki is a classical form of Theatre of Japan, Japanese theatre, mixing dramatic performance with Japanese traditional dance, traditional dance. Kabuki theatre is known for its heavily stylised performances, its glamorous, highly decorated costumes ...
theater since the kabuki actors frequently departed from the texts to invent parts and aggrandize their own roles; however, ''Chūshingura'' was so successful that it was almost immediately adapted for the kabuki theater as well. The general story has been depicted in many mediums such as
ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art that flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock printing, woodblock prints and Nikuhitsu-ga, paintings of such subjects as female beauties; kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers; scenes ...
prints.


Kabuki

The kabuki adaptation appeared shortly after the puppet play did in Osaka and Kyoto, and soon was being performed by three companies in Edo. It is "only intermittently faithful" and frequently cuts entire acts. The saved time is available for a lengthier 11th act, with a sequence featuring a duel on a bridge; as well, the kabuki theater could use a revolving stage to switch between scenes of the siege in Act 9. The short sequence with the highwayman Sadakurō has been developed into an elaborate
mime A mime artist, or simply mime (from Greek language, Greek , , "imitator, actor"), is a person who uses ''mime'' (also called ''pantomime'' outside of Britain), the acting out of a story through body motions without the use of speech, as a the ...
, rendering it a "coveted assignment" for ambitious actors.


History


Composition

On 20 March 1703, the 46
rōnin In feudal Japan to early modern Japan (1185–1868), a ''rōnin'' ( ; , , 'drifter' or 'wandering man', ) was a samurai who had no lord or master and in some cases, had also severed all links with his family or clan. A samurai became a ''rō ...
were ordered to commit
seppuku , also known as , is a form of Japanese ritualistic suicide by disembowelment. It was originally reserved for samurai in their code of honor, but was also practiced by other Japanese people during the Shōwa era (particularly officers near ...
by the ''
shōgun , officially , was the title of the military rulers of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, except during parts of the Kamak ...
''. Two weeks later, a kabuki play opened in Edo. It was entitled ''Akebono Soga no Youchi'' ("Night attack at dawn by the Soga rothers; see ''
Soga Monogatari ''Soga Monogatari'' () is a Japanese military chronicle-tale based on the vengeance incident, Revenge of Soga Brothers. The story is often known as ''The (illustrated) Tale of the Soga Brothers'' or ''The Revenge of the Soga Brothers''. It is ...
''), a standard topic of plays. It was shut down by the authorities, and is thought to have been a disguised version of the recent events. Perhaps because of the touchiness of authorities, kabuki companies did not attempt any further plays on the subject. In 1706, the great playwright
Chikamatsu , real name , was a Japanese dramatist of jōruri, the form of puppet theater that later came to be known as bunraku, and the live-actor drama, kabuki. The ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' has written that he is "widely regarded as the greatest Japa ...
wrote a three-act puppet play entitled ''Goban Taiheiki'' ("A chronicle of great peace played on a chessboard"), placing the action in the era of ''
Taiheiki The (Chronicle of Great Peace) is a medieval Japanese historical epic (see '' gunki monogatari'') written in the late 14th century and covers the period from 1319 to 1367. It deals primarily with the Nanboku-chō, the period of war between the ...
'' (the 14th century); the third act appeared in another puppet play, and was ostensibly about the historical
samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...
Kō no Moronao was a Japanese samurai of the Nanboku-chō period who was the first to hold the position of '' Shitsuji'' (''Shōgun''s Deputy). He was appointed by Ashikaga Takauji, the first ''shōgun'' of the Ashikaga shogunate. As Deputy, he served not ...
; Moronao was actually a cipher for the offending master of court etiquette,
Kira Yoshinaka (October 5, 1641 – January 30, 1703) was a Japanese ''kōke'' (master of ceremonies). His court title was ''Kokushi (officials), Kōzuke no suke (上野介)''. He is famous as the adversary of Asano Naganori in the events of the forty-seven ...
, who was nearly slain by
Asano Naganori was the ''daimyō'' of the Akō Domain in Japan (1675–1701). His title was ''Takumi no Kami'' (). He is known as the person who triggered a series of incidents retold in a story known as ''Chūshingura'' (involving the forty-seven rōnin), ...
. The use of Moronao's name for Kira and many of the other renamings would be copied in the later ''Chūshingura''. Three years later in the
Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...
-
Osaka is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...
region where censorship was reportedly lighter, ''Chūshingura'' premiered. It was an instant success, and was quickly imitated countless times, with variants coming out annually between 1706 and 1748.


Authorship

Early materials listed the authors in order as: #
Takeda Izumo II Takeda Izumo II (1691–1756) was a Japanese playwright. The successor to Chikamatsu Monzaemon at the Takemoto Theater, Osaka, he wrote the three most celebrated period plays in the ''bunraku is a form of traditional Japanese puppet theatre ...
#
Miyoshi Shōraku Miyoshi may refer to: Places *Miyoshi, Aichi, a city in Aichi Prefecture *Miyoshi, Chiba, a former village in Chiba Prefecture *Miyoshi, Hiroshima, a city in Hiroshima Prefecture *Miyoshi, Saitama, a town in Saitama Prefecture *Miyoshi, Tokushima, ...
#
Namiki Senryū Namiki is a Japanese brand of writing implements, most specifically, fountain pens, owned by the Pilot (pen company), Pilot Corporation. Namiki is mostly famous for its handmade ''maki-e'' (a Japanese lacquerware Japanese craft, craft with a wi ...
Likely Izumo conceived the overall plot and write acts 1, 4, 6, & 9; Shōraku likely wrote 2, 10, and 11. The fiction author
Jippensha Ikku was the pen name of Shigeta Sadakazu (重田 貞一), a Japanese writer active during the late Edo period of Japan. He was among the most prolific writers of the late Edo period — between 1795 and 1801 he wrote a minimum of twenty novel ...
, in his analysis & anecdotal history ''Chūshingura Okame Hyōban'' (1803), implies that authorship was: # Izumo: Act 9 # Shōraku: 2 & 10 # Senryū: 4 Keene suggests that Acts 6 & 7 be assigned to Izumo, and Act 3 to Senryū. These identifications are tentative, and not based on
stylometry Stylometry is the application of the study of linguistic style, usually to written language. Argamon, Shlomo, Kevin Burns, and Shlomo Dubnov, eds. The structure of style: algorithmic approaches to understanding manner and meaning. Springer Scie ...
or similar approaches. The multiple authorship may be responsible for some of the shifts characters undergo during the 11 acts:
"Sagisaka Bannai, for example, is a comical character in the third act, but by the seventh act there is hardly a trace left of his comicality, and at the end of the play the triumph of the loyal retainers is climaxed by killing Bannai, as if he, rather than Moronao, were the chief villain.
Again, Kakogawa Honzō fawningly offers bribes to Moronao in the third act by no means appears the same man as the heroic Honzō of the ninth act...
The same holds true of Rikiya; the blushing young man of the second act is so unlike the resolute hero of the ninth act as to require two actors."


Translations

A Chinese translation appeared by 1794, and translations into English, French, and German by 1880 - making it 'probably the first work of Japanese literature to be translated' - and a play by
John Masefield John Edward Masefield (; 1 June 1878 – 12 May 1967) was an English poet and writer. He was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, Poet Laureate from 1930 until his death in 1967, during which time he lived at Burcot, Oxfordshire, near Abingdon ...
(''The Faithful'') appeared in 1915. The Australian National University's
Za Kabuki Za Kabuki (), founded in 1976 at the Australian National University, is the longest running Kabuki troupe outside Japan. Directed by Shun Ikeda of the ANU Japan Centre, with a cast and crew consisting mainly of ANU Japanese students, the troupe ...
performed an English-language version of the play in 2001, directed by Mr. Shun Ikeda.


post-Edo period

After
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, during the
Occupation of Japan Japan was occupied and administered by the Allies of World War II from the surrender of the Empire of Japan on September 2, 1945, at the war's end until the Treaty of San Francisco took effect on April 28, 1952. The occupation, led by the ...
, performance of Chūshingura was banned "because it glorified militarism and was feudalistic in its insistence on such outmoded concepts as honor and loyalty"; later in 1960, members of the
Japanese Diet , transcription_name = ''Kokkai'' , legislature = 215th Session of the National Diet , coa_pic = Flag of Japan.svg , house_type = Bicameral , houses = , foundation=29 November 1890(), leader1_type ...
criticized performances of Chūshingura overseas by traveling kabuki companies over similar fears that it would give foreigners misleading ideas


Plot

The chiefest theme of Chūshingura is the code of
bushido is a Samurai moral code concerning samurai attitudes, behavior and lifestyle. Its origins date back to the Kamakura period, but it was formalized in the Edo period (1603–1868). There are multiple types of bushido which evolved significantl ...
& loyalty, as exemplified by its protagonist, the chief retainer of the dead lord, Yuranosuke. The retainers seek revenge for their lord even though they know no good will come of it, as Yuranosuke admits in Act 7:
"I realized when I thought about it calmly that if we failed in our mission our heads would roll, and if we succeeded we'd have to commit ''seppuku'' afterwards. either way, it was certain death. It was like taking expensive medicine, then hanging yourself afterwards because you couldn't pay for the cure."
Yuranosuke in this speech is cloaking his true intentions, as he must constantly through the play, rendering him a challenging role. It has been argued that in reality, En'ya was undeserving of loyalty as he was arrogant & hot-tempered and Moronao was a good man who helped the peasants on his land - thus further emphasizing the unconditional nature of Yuranosuke and the other ''rōnin'''s loyalty.


Act 1

"The same holds true of a country at peace: the loyalty and courage of its fine soldiers remain hidden, but the stars, though invisible by day, at night reveal themselves, scattered over the firmament. Here we shall describe such an instance ..."—Narrator
The ''shōgun''
Ashikaga Takauji also known as Minamoto no Takauji was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Ashikaga shogunate."Ashikaga Takauji" in ''Encyclopædia Britannica, The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 15th edn., 1992, Vol. ...
has put down the Genko uprising led by the nobleman
Nitta Yoshisada also known as Minamoto no Yoshisada was a samurai lord of the Nanboku-chō period Japan. He was the head of the Nitta clan in the early fourteenth century, and supported the Southern Court of Emperor Go-Daigo in the Nanboku-chō period. He famo ...
, and has built a shrine to the kami of war
Hachiman In Japanese religion, ''Yahata'' (八幡神, ancient Shinto pronunciation) formerly in Shinto and later commonly known as Hachiman (八幡神, Japanese Buddhist pronunciation) is the syncretic divinity of archery and war, incorporating elements f ...
to commemorate his victory. Its chief trophy will be the helmet of the dead Yoshisada, but there is confusion as to which of the 47 helmets found by his body is really his. The ''shōgun''s brother & deputy,
Ashikaga Tadayoshi "Ashikaga Tadayoshi" in ''Encyclopædia Britannica, The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 15th edn., 1992, Vol. 1, p. 624. was a general of the Nanboku-chō period, Northern and Southern Courts period (1337 ...
, convenes a conference to discuss the issue. Attending is the governor of
Kamakura , officially , is a city of Kanagawa Prefecture in Japan. It is located in the Kanto region on the island of Honshu. The city has an estimated population of 172,929 (1 September 2020) and a population density of 4,359 people per km2 over the tota ...
, Lord Moronao (Kira), Wakasanosuke, and Lord En'ya (Asano). Moronao objects to preserving the helmet, even though Yoshisada was a noble descendant of the Genji, a mistake would be embarrassing, and there were many loyal retainers descended from the Genji anyway. En'ya and Wakasanosuke support the helmet's preservation. Tadayoshi summons En'ya's wife, for as a maiden in the imperial palace, she saw the helmet presented to Yoshisada. She verifies the correct choice. As the conference ends, Moronao, who has been tutoring En'ya's wife in classical
waka WAKA (channel 8) is a television station licensed to Selma, Alabama, United States, serving as the CBS affiliate for the Montgomery area. It is owned by Bahakel Communications alongside Tuskegee-licensed CW+ affiliate WBMM (channel 22); B ...
poetry, presses upon her a love letter. She rejects it entirely, and Moronao is embittered with hatred for En'ya.


Act 2

En'ya sends his retainers a message that he and Moronao have been charged with the welcoming of Tadayoshi the next day. Wakasanosuke, aware of Moronao's rejection, tells his fellow retainer Honzō of his plan to assassinate Moronao before Moronao can attack or provoke their master En'ya. Honzō applauds the plan, suggests that Wakasanosuke take a nap first, and immediately departs to find Moronao first to bribe him.


Act 3

Honzō finds Moronao at Tadayoshi's palace, and delivers his handsome bribe in the guise of thanks for etiquette instruction. Moronao accepts it and invites Honzō to an audience. After an interlude in which a minor retainer of En'ya, Kanpei, gives into temptation to leave his post with his lover, Wakasanosuke arrives. When Wakasanosuke encounters Moronao, Moronao's attitude is so welcoming and apologetic that Wakasanosuke confusedly abandons his murderous intentions - as Honzō planned. Unfortunately, when En'ya arrives, he comes bearing a note from his wife to Moronao; it is a poem from the ''
Shin Kokin Wakashū The , also known in abbreviated form as the or even conversationally as the Shin Kokin, is the eighth imperial anthology of waka poetry compiled by the Japanese court, beginning with the '' Kokin Wakashū'' circa 905 and ending with the '' Shin ...
'' which indicates her definitive rejection of Moronao's love. Angered, Moronao takes exception to En'ya's tardiness and begins mercilessly insulting & verbally abusing En'ya. Provoked beyond his limits, En'ya draws and slashes Moronao. He does not kill Moronao as he is held back by Honzō (who hopes to lessen En'ya's punishment). Outside, Kanpei hears the commotion and rushes to the back gate, only to realize his failure as a samurai: he dallied and was not there when his master needed him.


Act 4

En'ya is placed under house arrest. The retainers and women discuss his fate, and En'ya's wife, Kaoyo, reveals Moronao's motives. The ''shōgun''s envoys arrive with En'ya's sentence: seppuku, confiscation of En'ya's estate, and the reduction of his men to ''rōnin''. En'ya's chief retainer, Yuranosuke, rushes in just as En'ya is pulling the dagger across his stomach; En'ya charges him with seeking vengeance. Yuranosuke orders the men to not commit seppuku nor barricade the mansion and die fighting the shogunate, but likewise to seek vengeance.


Act 5

Kanpei, long after the expulsion, has become a hunter. One rainy day, he meets on the highway a fellow ''rōnin''. The conversation reveals that Yuranosuke and the others did not immediately assault Moronao's extremely well guarded mansion, but dispersed peacefully, and that Yuranosuke & his son have fallen into decadent seeking of pleasure. Kanpei mentions rumors he has heard that 40 or so of the ''rōnin'' are conspiring to kill Moronao. The other ''rōnin'' categorically denies this: the meetings and solicitations are for the charitable purpose of raising funds for a fitting memorial for En'ya's grave. Kanpei resolves to acquire money to donate towards the memorial. Later, an old man comes along the road with the large sum of 50
ryō The was a gold currency unit in the shakkanhō system in pre- Meiji Japan. It was eventually replaced with a system based on the '' yen''. Origins The ''ryō'' was originally a unit of weight from China, the ''tael.'' It came into use in Ja ...
in his wallet, earned by selling his daughter — Kanpei's wife — to a brothel. He is accosted and then killed by Sadakurō the highwayman. No sooner has Sadakurō hidden the body and counted the money than he is accidentally shot by Kanpei, hunting a boar. Kanpei does not see clearly the body in the dark, but takes the money as a gift from heaven and hurries home with his donation to find the other ''rōnin''.


Act 6

At Kanpei's home, his wife and mother-in-law await the return of the old man; their money will enable Kanpei to become a samurai again. But he has yet to return when the pimp comes to claim Kanpei's wife. While the pimp argues with them and describes his transaction with the old man, Kanpei arrives with the tell-tale wallet. He is accused of murdering his father-in-law, and because it was dark, even Kanpei believes it. While Kanpei gives his account of events, he commits seppuku. His fellow ''rōnin'' arrive, and tell how they inspected the body of the old man more carefully - he had died of a sword, not a gun. But it is too late for Kanpei. Impressed by his dying sincerity, they accept the donation and allow Kanpei to sign in blood the written
oath of vengeance In Mormonism, the oath of vengeance (or law of vengeance) was part of the endowment ritual of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) implemented in 1845. Participants swore an oath to pray for God to avenge the blood of p ...
to become the 46th member.


Act 7

"It's quite true that I felt a certain amount of indignation — about as big as a flea's head split by a hatchet — and tried forming a league of 40 or 50 men, but what a crazy notion that was! ... Oh, when I hear the samisens playing like that, I just can't resist."—Yuranosuke
Kudayū, now a spy for Moronao, arrives at a
teahouse A teahouse or tearoom (also tea room) is an establishment which primarily serves tea and other light refreshments. A tea room may be a room set aside in a hotel, especially for serving afternoon tea, or may be an establishment that only ser ...
in the pleasure quarter of
Gion is a district of Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto, Japan, originating as an entertainment district in the Sengoku period, in front of Yasaka Shrine (Gion Shrine). The district was built to accommodate the needs of travellers and visitors to the shrine. ...
 — Yuranosuke's favorite haunt (in reality
Ichiriki Chaya The , formerly , is an historic ("tea house") in Kyoto, Japan. It is located at the southeast corner of Shijō Street and Hanami Lane, its entrance right at the heart of the Gion Kobu district. It is considered an exclusive and high-end establ ...
, which changed its name to the disguised name in this play). He intends to learn whether Yuranosuke is indeed dissipated. 3 ''rōnin'' are also there on a similar mission: when Yuranosuke disavows revenge, they plan to kill him as a warning to the others not to waver. But they decide to let him sober up first. While waiting, Yuranosuke receives a letter from Kaoyo to the effect that Moronao is leaving for the provinces and they will need to strike soon. Just then, Kudayū interrupts and accuses Yuranosuke of being wanton as a deceptive stratagem. But seeing Yuranosuke casually break a taboo and eat octopus on the anniversary of En'ya's death, and looking at how rusty his sword is, Kudayū is almost convinced — but he hides under the veranda to spy on the letter, to make sure. He is shortly stabbed to death by Yuranosuke.


Act 8

An act in the ''
michiyuki is the term for a journey scene in Japanese theatre, which shows the characters dancing or conversing while travelling. The term , in its generic sense of ''michi wo yuku'' "to go on a road", is used in lyrical descriptions of journeys from t ...
'' style, a standard short act written poetically, describing the gloomy thought of Konami, daughter of Honzō and fiance of Rikiya, as she travels with her mother to Rikiya and Yuranosuke's house. They hope the marriage will be carried out, though all presume it was broken off when Rikiya and Yuranosuke became ''rōnin''.


Act 9

Konami arrives at Yuranosuke's house, and her mother asks Yuranosuke's wife to permit the marriage's consummation. She is rebuffed because of Honzō's bribery of Moronao and restraining En'ya from killing him. The mother and daughter resolve to commit seppuku, impressing Yuranosuke's wife, who consents if Honzō's head is brought to her as a wedding gift. Honzō unexpectedly appears, insults Yuranosuke and Rikiya as debauchees, provoking Yuranosuke's wife to attack him with a lance. Honzō disarms and pins her, when Rikiya enters and stabs Honzō with the discarded lance — just as Honzō planned. Honzō provides the ground plans for Moronao's mansion and expires, having atoned for his prudence.


Act 10

The merchant Gihei of the port of
Sakai is a city located in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. It has been one of the largest and most important seaports of Japan since the medieval era. Sakai is known for its '' kofun'', keyhole-shaped burial mounds dating from the fifth century. The ''kofun ...
is loading onto a ship his highly illegal cargo: more than 40 sets of samurai armor and weapons. 2 ''rōnin'' visit to inquire about the preparations. Later, he is surrounded by dozens of police who threaten to kill his son if he doesn't confess. The merchant scorns them and makes to strangle his son. Yuranosuke bursts out: it was a test, and the ''rōnin'' are impressed. They will use his shop name as a password. (Of course, since he was born a merchant, he cannot join the raid no matter how much he sacrifices.)


Act 11

The 46The names of only 45 are given; an apparent error. Keene 172 ''rōnin'' (the dead Kanpei making 47) stage an amphibious assault with rowboats. A party scales the walls, captures the nightwatchman, and open the front & back gates. A fierce battle ensues. The neighboring mansions attempt to interfere, but when the ''rōnin'''s mission is explained, they applaud and return home. Moronao is soon captured and hacked to death by all the men, Yuranosuke striking first. They offer up his head with incense to En'ya's memorial tablets and withdraw to En'ya's family temple to await their fates.


See also

*
Chūshingura is the title given to fictionalized accounts in Japanese literature, theater, and film that relate to the historical incident involving the forty-seven ''rōnin'' and their mission to avenge the death of their master, Asano Naganori. Including ...


Notes


References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kanadehon Chushingura Bunraku plays Edo-period works Kabuki plays 1748 plays