The rigid social hierarchy and the already miserable situations of both Jihei and Kohei were the two catalysts that prompted to their suicide as an escape from the harsh reality of 18th century Japanese society. The story was originally intended as a play for the Bunraku Puppet Theatre but due to the immense popularity, the play was adopted in to Kabuki theatre which further emphasized the realistic theme of the play. Chikamatsu was indeed a master of Japanese play with his successful combinations of social duty and love to create conflict. The timeless romance between the star-crossed lovers Kamiya Jihei, a paper merchant and Koharu, a courtesan appeals to the taste of the audience from the 18th century as well as even in the 21st century. The charm of this play is that the author provided a powerful contrasts or issues which can only be resolved through death. The love felt by the two opposing sides of the coin makes it possible for the modern audience to study the life and social structure of the Japanese society through the characters.
The play’s setting was during the age of the samurai; young and beautiful 19 year old Koharu sets off to do her job at the Kawachi Tea House. The scene reveals that she was called by the manager of the brothel to attend Tahei-sama, a young and arrogant samurai who desired Koharu to be his woman. He was preparing to buy her contract from the tea house so that she can be his woman. But the lovely maiden was secretly in love with a paper merchant Kamiya Jihei but his station was not a secret to everybody; the poor man was already a father of two married to his cousin. In the play, Chikamatsu compares Jihei to a ‘scrap of paper’ and Tahei calls him lowly being because of his miserable situation. He recently acquired a surname which was really uncommon in the Japanese society since only the nobles and the samurai gentry had the privilege of using a surname. Jihei chose the surname kami-ya or ‘paper dealer/paper shop’ since it is his profession. On the other hand, Koharu’s stature as a courtesan from a tea house was one of the issues why this play was called a sewamono, a Japanese word meant ‘romance cut’; in a way, the story was deprived of romance between Jihei and Koharu since because of their different station in life, Koharu being a prostitute, they cannot marry first and foremost. To explain their situation, the tea house in Chikamatsu’s play represents the red-light district or the equivalent of Yoshiwara. Young girls who lack the means of survival were often sold off by their parents to brothel masters in exchange for food. They stay in the brothel where they receive their extensive training in arts and coquetry; they remained tied to their brothel owners even until the day they attain womanhood. The only time they can be separated from their brothel owners will be when wealthy men especially from the landed gentry or any other men with enormous amount of money buy off their contract of release. (Yonemoto 129-134). Although courtesans received extensive training in arts and crafts than any women in 18th century Japan, the attitudes of Japanese towards brothels and its workers were hostile. In fact, during the Tokugawa Shogunate, these pleasure districts were isolated and confined within the walls and hidden in the city to avoid their intermingling with other people. This was due to the fact that the Japanese had a Confucian ideology rooted in their culture. According to Heine, the main edict of the Confucian theology is to suppress passions and this was a trait adopted by the Japanese. The relationship of Jihei and Koharu stems out from the Confucian belief of giri which pertains to the suppressed emotions; the purpose of the pleasure quarters was to provide entertainment but it was more than that. From Chikamatsu’s work, the job of a courtesan becomes so complex; she acts like a beacon of hope for the disillusioned merchants like Jihei as their anchor to pursue working for the his family. The whoring business in the pleasure quarters became popular due to the isolation of the middle class and the favor towards the farmers. The notion of giri is divided into two: tsumetai (cold) and atatakai (warm). The cold giri reflects the duties and the perception of other people while warm giri pertains to the warmth given and warmth received; like quid-pro-quo, a kindness given is a kindness shared, this type opposes the cold giri because it does not care whether the other person has an equal standing like their own. (373-375). Jihei’s attitude was the opposite of what was expected from the Japanese male; in a patriarchal society like Japan, the male was the provider and the embodiment of the strong force as opposed to the weak female. But in Chikamatsu’s Love Suicides at Amajima, he portrayed Jihei, the main character as both a villain and a weak character.
“Chikamatsu portrays townsmen who are flawed and petty and who for the most part bring ruin upon themselves.” (Heine 375).
“Chikamatsu's realistic sewamono tragedies with their lowly heroes and heroines are certainly startling for their variety of incidents and characters that have appealed especially to modern audiences and readers. These works focus on young men and women driven by passion who go against the rules of society, with nearly all of them committing a crime of some kind such as theft, absconding, adultery or murder. Most of these characters meet a tragic end either by their own hands or by the hands of the law.” (318).
Love Suicides at Amajima is escapism at its best, story providing an opposite context of love and duty.
WORKS CITED
Gerstle, C. Andrew. "Hero as Murderer in Chikamatsu". Monumenta Nipponica 51.3 (1996): 317-356. Web. JSTOR. 18 Apr. 2016.
Heine, Steven. "Tragedy and Salvation in the Floating World: Chikamatsu's Double Suicide Drama as Millenarian Discourse". The Journal of Asian Studies 53.2 (1994): 367-393. Web. JSTOR. 18 Apr. 2016.
Yonemoto, Marcia. Mapping Early Modern Japan: Space, Place, and Culture in the Tokugawa Period 1603-1868. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003. Web. JSTOR. 18 Apr. 2016.
