VII
Love tragedies were in high favour, as may be seen by the number of plays produced that have for motive shinju, or the double suicide of unfortunate lovers who hope by departing this life to obliterate their sins and omissions and to be united in the after-world. Invariably the settings of these romances were the immoral quarters.
Chikamatsu Monzaemon wrote several pieces of this character, and they were so popular that they had a great deal to do with the encouragement of young people to become partners in the shuffling-off of this mortal coil.
If Chikamatsu had written little else, his characters Jihei and Koharu would save his name from oblivion. This piece, Sayo Shigure Tenno Amijima (lit., Evening-shower-heaven-net-island), was first staged in 1720 in the Osaka Doll-theatre, when Chikamatsu was in the sixties. He had taken an excursion to the ancient Shinto Shrine of Sumiyoshi, near Osaka, when the news reached him of the double suicide of a couple called Jihei and Koharu. He ordered his palanquin-bearers to carry him home as quickly as they could, and within his dwelling seized paper and writing brush and elaborated the ideas that had come to his mind, scarcely stopping to take breath until the play was finished.
Koharu is a belle of the Kinokuniya, a house in the Osaka pleasure quarters, and Jihei conducts a prosperous paper shop, and has a wife, O-San, and two children. His wife has been bestowed upon him by his parents, and as she is not his own choice, his wandering fancy is captivated by Koharu. He forgets everything in his infatuation, and is on the brink of ruin when O-San writes to Koharu asking her to give up Jihei. This Koharu consents to do after a struggle between her apparent duty and her love for the young man. Jihei, unacquainted with the facts, believes her false and mercenary.
Jihei cannot settle down to the domestic routine, and his thoughts will turn to Koharu. His peace of mind is further disturbed, for he learns that he has a rich rival who intends to purchase Koharu’s freedom and who has invented various belittling tales about his desertion of Koharu.
When O-San hears how things are, she declares that Koharu would die rather than submit to her new patron, and that Jihei must buy her out without delay. Her treasured kimono are given to Jihei, and, sobbing, the loyal wife says that although she and the children may have no clothing, reputation is dear to a man, and that the wealthy person who wishes to take possession of Koharu must be defeated at all costs.
O-San’s father then arrives on the scene, declaring that he has come to take her home, and that they must consider themselves divorced.
Beset on every side, Jihei and Koharu decide to die together. Jihei leaves the Kinokuniya after paying his account. Then he stands by the side of the house waiting for Koharu. His elder brother, Magoyemon, who fears that Jihei may do something rash, comes to inquire about him, and is told that Jihei has returned home and Koharu is sleeping. It is late at night, and Magoyemon has Jihei’s little son on his back to whom he says: “I hope you won’t take cold. You are unfortunate to have such a father”, which remark Jihei overhears as he hides in the shadow.
The night-watch strikes his two pieces of wood as a signal that all is well, and the sound echoes in the deserted street. Then Koharu keeps the tryst, and they run as fast as they can to the river-bank, where their bodies are found together in a clump of bamboo the next morning.
Nakamura Fukusuke of Osaka as a belle of the gay quarters. Letters are made as long as possible to produce the better effect.
Equally familiar are Wankyu and Matsuyama in a drama of the gay quarters by Kino Kaion; while Hanshichi and Sankatsu in a long play by Takemoto Saburobei are stage characters known the length and breadth of Japan. Hanshichi, a victim of the marriage system, becomes enamoured of Sankatsu, which brings so many complications around them, they are obliged to commit shinju, Hanshichi’s long-suffering wife O-Sono adopting their daughter as her own.
Almost all the playwrights of this period pandered to the popular taste, and wrote long plays with the gay world as background, but there is a marked difference in the compositions of the Osaka and Yedo writers, since the tastes of the audiences of these two towns were so unlike. The tragic heroines of the Yedo Yoshiwara did not resort to shinju to the same alarming extent as did the members of the frail sisterhood in Osaka.
Ihara Seiseiin, explaining the close connection between the gay world and shibai, says: “Foreigners sometimes ridicule the intimate relations between the plays and the Yoshiwara. This was not the fault of Kabuki, but rather must be attributed to the state of society at that time. Just as priests and temples had ruled the spirit of the people during the Hojo and Ashikaga periods, so during the Tokugawa age it was the courtesans’ quarters which influenced the customs and spirit of the people. The leading characters of the Nō plays were priests, while the plays of the people related to heroines of the gay world.”
The patronage of these quarters and interest in plays dealing with the inmates was largely a protest against the official desire to make of society one drab, colourless pattern. The immoral quarters were almost the only places where men could assemble for relaxation and amusement. Peace continued for more than two centuries, and the samurai had nothing to do. The country was shut off from intercourse with the outside world, the atmosphere grew stagnant, and men resorted to the pleasure-quarters as a relief from boredom. In consequence, gossip of prostitutes, their love stories and tragedies, formed the chief topics of the day, and these were faithfully reflected in the works of the Doll-theatre and Kabuki playwrights.