is a Japanese term meaning "double suicide", used in common parlance to refer to any group suicide of two or more individuals bound by love, typically lovers, parents and children, and even whole families. A double suicide without consent is called and it is considered as a sort of

murder–suicide A murder–suicide is an act where an individual intentionally kills one or more people before killing themselves. The combination of murder and suicide can take various forms: * Suicide after or during murder inflicted on others ** Suicide af ...

. Lovers committing double suicide believed that they would be united again in heaven, a view supported by feudal teaching in

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 ...

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 or the Pure Land School ( zh, c=淨土宗, p=Jìngtǔzōng) is a broad branch of Mahayana, Mahayana Buddhism focused on achieving rebirth in a Pure land, Pure Land. It is one of the most widely practiced traditions of East Asi ...

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

Pure Land Pure Land is a Mahayana, Mahayana Buddhist concept referring to a transcendent realm emanated by a buddhahood, buddha or bodhisattva which has been purified by their activity and Other power, sustaining power. Pure lands are said to be places ...

Etymology

The word ''shinjū'' is formed by the characters for and . In this usage it literally means "heart-inside" or "oneness of hearts", probably reflecting a psychological link between the participants.

In popular culture

In Japanese theater and literary tradition, double suicides are the simultaneous suicides of two lovers whose 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 theater repertory. The tragic denouement is usually known to the audience and is preceded by a '' michiyuki,'' a small poetical journey, where lovers evoke the happier moments of their lives and their attempts at loving each other. The term plays a central role in works such as '' Shinjū Ten no Amijima'' (''The Love Suicides at Amijima''), written by the seventeenth-century tragedian Chikamatsu Monzaemon for the ''

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 theater. It would later be adapted as a film in 1969 under the title '' Double Suicide'' in English, in a modernist adaptation by the filmmaker

Masahiro Shinoda was a Japanese film director, whose career spanned over four decades and covered a wide range of genres and styles. He was one of the central figures of the Japanese New Wave during the 1960s and 1970s. He directed films for Shochiku Studio fro ...

, including a score by

Toru Takemitsu TORU or Toru may refer to: *TORU, spacecraft system *Tōru (given name), Japanese male given name *Toru, Pakistan, village in Mardan District of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan *Tõru Tõru is a village in Saaremaa Parish, Saare County in western Es ...

. In the preface 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 Japane ...

's book ''Bunraku'', 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 range from shocking depictions of sexuality and destructive erotic obsessions to subtle portr ...

complained about the too-long endings known to be common in double suicide plays. In his novel '' Some Prefer Nettles'', he parodies the notion of ''shinjū'' and gives it a social and sensual double suicide with no clear ending.

Etymology

In popular culture

See also

References

Further reading