''Kurofune'' ( ''kurofune'', an

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 ...

term meaning "black ships") is a 1940 Japanese-language western-style opera by Kosaku Yamada, which is regarded as the first Japanese opera. It is based on the

Black Ships The Black Ships (in , Edo period term) were the names given to both Portuguese merchant ships and American warships arriving in Japan in the 16th and 19th centuries respectively. In 1543, Portuguese initiated the first contacts, establishing a ...

story of a

geisha {{Culture of Japan, Traditions, Geisha {{nihongo, Geisha{{efn, {{IPAc-en, lang, ˈ, ɡ, eɪ, ., ʃ, ə, {{IPA, ja, ɡei.ɕa, ɡeː-, lang{{cite book, script-title=ja:NHK日本語発音アクセント新辞典, publisher=NHK Publishing, editor= ...

"caught up in the turmoil that swept Japan in the waning years of the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...

". The American ships were steam powered, which impressed the Japanese at the time. Arriving at Shimoda, they conveyed messages to open up Japan to trade. Synopsis The time is the final years of the Tokugawa shogunate; the place, the port of Shimoda, newly opened by the United States–Japan Treaty of Peace and Amity. The vagrant samurai Yoshida, an imperial loyalist, bursts into a drinking party of the town magistrate and officials, makes an impassioned speech calling on them to "expel the barbarians," and disappears, but the geisha Okichi, who happens to be present, is given the mission of assassinating the American consul-general. She becomes the consul's mistress, but is torn between her growing feelings for his kindness toward her and her duty to kill him. Losing patience with all this, Yoshida steals into the temple Ryosen-ji that serves as the consulate, and draws his sword. He is on the verge of killing the consul when a messenger arrives from Kyoto conveying the Emperor's desire for peace.

External links

Broadcast audio recording of the preface
Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Tadashi Mori, June 1968.

References

1940 operas Compositions by Kosaku Yamada Japanese-language operas Operas Operas set in Japan Operas set in the 19th century {{opera-stub