Show and Tell Post #2- The Love Suicides at Amijima

So about a month ago I read The Love Suicides at Amijima for Dr. Sikes’s Theatre History II and completely fell in love with it. I mean, not literally fell in love, but I really liked it and that’s a lot coming from me because I usually don’t care for things. Anyway, the play was written by Chikamatsu Monzaemon and is believed to be a true story, although none of the “true” events have been confirmed. I couldn’t find an actual production history list, but its first performance occurred in January of 1721 and it has since been performed in multiple venues across the world as a popular Kabuki piece. I read a PDF file on Moodle, but the play can also be found at the link below. https://eee.uci.edu/clients/sbklein/articles/gender/LoveSuicidesAmijima.pdf Jihei and Tahei are competing for Koharu, a teenage prostitute. Jihei is a married man with kids while Tahei has no friends or family. What he does have is money, but Koharu avoids Tahei at all costs because she’s in love with Jihei. Later, Koharu meets a samurai who saves her from Tahei. They discuss several issues, including the topic of suicide. The samurai believes this is the source of Koharu’s depression and begs her to tell him all. Meanwhile, Jihei eavesdrops from outside. Koharu tells the samurai of the near miserable future, which will most likely be her death because she knows Jihei cannot afford her. She tells him of the pact the two made and then asks the samurai to basically substitute in for Jihei so that Tahei cannot claim her, to which the samurai agrees. Jihei hears this, becomes furious and attempts to kill Koharu right there. The samurai stops him and ties him to a pole; ironically, Tahei walks by later, sees his competitor helpless and beats on him. This all happens in Act 1, so as you can see, this is a very detailed play or I just such at summarizing. Either way, the story ends with the two lovers running off to Amijima (a temple) and committing suicide. Jihei stabs Koharu and then hangs himself from a tree, committing a frowned upon lover’s suicide. There are several dramaturgical choices that really stand out in this play, but it’s difficult to identify them at times because I don’t know whether or not these things actually happened. I don’t know the “original” story, so what I think is cool may just be how the story played out. Oh well. One choice that seemed noteworthy to me was the whole samurai thing. Not revealing that he was Jihei’s brother until late in the first act changed my perspective on the rest of the play. Magoemon criticizes his brother for pretty much throwing his life away over a pretty face and lets him know that his actions don’t affect just him. I sort of saw him as a guardian-angel figure, always over your shoulder but only interfering when necessary. Something else that stood out to me is the world of the play- apparently, love trumps all. The two lovers know they can’t be together, so they decide that if they can’t have each other, no one can. That’s pretty irrational to me, but then again so is love. Another example is Osan. Osan has been a good, obeying, loving wife and even she states that she’s losing her husband due to uncontrollable circumstances a.k.a. it’s not her fault. Jihei tells her that he can live without the girl, but he can’t live knowing that he lost her. I’m pretty sure this is a lie but she puts up with this fool-that’s unbelievable to me. Having the two main characters start off as poor is also an interesting dramaturgical choice. Again, different culture, different world.