''Shinjū'' (心中, the characters for "mind" and "centre") means "double suicide" in Japanese, as in '' Shinjū Ten no Amijima'' (''The Love Suicides at Amijima''), written by the seventeenth-century tragedian Chikamatsu Monzaemon for the ''

bunraku (also known as ) 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 ( puppeteer ...

'' puppet theatre. In common parlance ''shinjū'' is used to refer to any group suicide of people (two or more individuals) bound by love, typically lovers, parents and children, and even whole families. A double suicide without consent is called '' Muri-Shinjū'' (無理心中) and it is considered as a sort of

murder–suicide A murder-suicide is an act in which an individual kills one or more persons either before or while killing themselves. The combination of murder and suicide can take various forms: * Murder linked with suicide of a person with a homicidal idea ...

. In Japanese theatre and literary tradition, double suicides are the simultaneous suicides of two lovers whose ''ninjo,'' (personal feelings) or love for one another are at odds with ''giri'', social conventions or familial obligations. Double suicides were rather common in Japan throughout history and double suicide is an important theme of the puppet theatre repertory. The tragic denouement is usually known to the audience and is preceded by a ''

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 th ...

,'' a small poetical journey, where lovers evoke the happier moments of their lives and their attempts at loving each other. Lovers committing double suicide believed that they would be united again in heaven, a view supported by feudal teaching in

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional ''daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was character ...

Japan, which taught that the bond between two lovers is continued into the next world, and by the teaching of

Pure Land Buddhism Pure Land Buddhism (; ja, 浄土仏教, translit=Jōdo bukkyō; , also referred to as Amidism in English,) is a broad branch of Mahayana Buddhism focused on achieving rebirth in a Buddha's Buddha-field or Pure Land. It is one of the most widel ...

wherein it is believed that through double suicide, one can approach rebirth in the

Pure Land A pure land is the celestial realm of a buddha or bodhisattva in Mahayana Buddhism. The term "pure land" is particular to East Asian Buddhism () and related traditions; in Sanskrit the equivalent concept is called a buddha-field (Sanskrit ). T ...

. The filmmaker

Masahiro Shinoda is a retired Japanese people, Japanese film director, originally associated with the Shochiku Studio, who came to prominence as part of the Japanese New Wave in the 1960s. Early life Shinoda attended Waseda University, where he studied theater ...

adapted the puppet theatre play ''Shinjū Ten no Amijima'' as a film in 1969, released under the title '' Double Suicide'' in English, in a modernist adaptation, including a score by

Toru Takemitsu TORU or Toru may refer to: * TORU, spacecraft system * Toru (given name), Japanese male given name * Toru, Pakistan, village in Mardan District of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan * Tõru, village in Kaarma Parish, Saare County, Estonia {{disambig ...

. In the preface he wrote for

Donald Keene Donald Lawrence Keene (June 18, 1922 – February 24, 2019) was an American-born Japanese scholar, historian, teacher, writer and translator of Japanese literature. Keene was University Professor emeritus and Shincho Professor Emeritus of Japan ...

's book ''Bunraku'', the writer

Jun'ichirō Tanizaki was a Japanese author who is considered to be one of the most prominent figures in modern Japanese literature. The tone and subject matter of his work ranges from shocking depictions of sexuality and destructive erotic obsessions to subtle port ...

complained about the too-long endings of all the double suicide plays, since it is a known denouement. In his novel ''

Some Prefer Nettles is a 1929 novel by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki. It was first published in 1928–9 as a newspaper serial. The novel is often regarded as the most autobiographical of Tanizaki's works and one of his finest novels. The Japanese title of the novel is lit ...

'', he parodies the notion of ''shinjū'' and gives it a social and sensual double suicide with no clear ending.

See also

References

Further reading