The Love Suicides at Sonezaki (Sonezaki Shinju)

Chikamatsu Monzaemon · 1703

Overview

A sewa joruri, a domestic puppet play, in three scenes. Tokubei, a clerk at an Osaka soy sauce shop, is in love with Ohatsu, a courtesan of the Tenmaya. He refuses a marriage proposed by his master and gets back the dowry his stepmother accepted, but lends the money to his friend Kuheiji, is cheated out of it and humiliated in public. With no way to prove his innocence, Tokubei goes with Ohatsu to the Sonezaki wood before dawn.

Background

In the fourth month of 1703, a double suicide really happened in Osaka; Chikamatsu Monzaemon turned it into a joruri play in about a month and staged it at the Takemoto theater. Until then joruri had centered on jidaimono, history plays about historical figures, but this work began the sewamono, plays about contemporary townspeople. It was a huge hit and put the Takemoto theater back on its feet. Love-suicide plays then became so popular that the shogunate eventually banned their performance and publication.

Highlights

  1. Before Ikutama ShrineOhatsu and Tokubei meet after a long time. Then Kuheiji appears, and Tokubei is beaten down in front of the crowd.Read “Before Ikutama Shrine” →
  2. Resolve beneath the verandaAt the Tenmaya, Ohatsu uses her foot to ask Tokubei, hidden under her robe, if he is ready to die, and he answers by pressing her foot to his throat.Read “The Tenmaya” →
  3. The michiyuki"Farewell to this world, farewell to the night. If I liken myself, going to die, to something, it is the frost on the road to the graveyard." A journey passage famed for its beauty.Read “The Tenjin Wood (Michiyuki)” →