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The Love Suicide at Amijima (Shinju Ten no Amijima): A Study of a Japanese Domestic Tragedy by Chikamatsu Monzaemon
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173 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1703
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About the author
Chikamatsu Monzaemon
95 books25 followersBorn in Japan in 1653 with the name of "Sugimore Nobumori", Chikamatsu Monzaemon was to become perhaps the greatest dramatist in the history of the Japanese theatre.
Chikamatsu is said to have written over one hundred plays, most of which were written for the bunraku or puppet theatre. His works combine comedy and tragedy, poetry and prose, and present scenes of combat, torture, and suicide on stage. Most of Chikamatsu's domestic tragedies are based an actual events. His Sonezaki shinju (The Love Suicides at Sonezaki), for example, was based on reports of an actual double suicide of the apprentice clerk and his lover.
But he wrote some famous historical plays, too.
In 1705, Chikamatsu moved to Osaka where he became a writer for Takemoto Gidayu's puppet theatre and remained here until his death in 1725.
Chikamatsu is said to have written over one hundred plays, most of which were written for the bunraku or puppet theatre. His works combine comedy and tragedy, poetry and prose, and present scenes of combat, torture, and suicide on stage. Most of Chikamatsu's domestic tragedies are based an actual events. His Sonezaki shinju (The Love Suicides at Sonezaki), for example, was based on reports of an actual double suicide of the apprentice clerk and his lover.
But he wrote some famous historical plays, too.
In 1705, Chikamatsu moved to Osaka where he became a writer for Takemoto Gidayu's puppet theatre and remained here until his death in 1725.
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June 2, 2020
ეს იყო ემოციათა სრული გრიგალი.
პირველ რიგში მაინც თარგმანის ქებათ-ქებით უნდა დავიწყო. უდიდესი მადლობა ჯემალ ადიაშვილს. თითქმის დარწმუნებული ვარ რომ ბევრი ეპიზოდი ქართულ ენაზე უფრო ლამაზად გაჟღერდა, ვიდრე ორიგინალ ენაზე გაჟღერდებოდა.
საკუთრივ სიუჟეტი ერთი შეხედვით ბანალურია - შეყვარებული ქალ-ვაჟი, რომლიდანაც ერთს ცოლი ყავს, მეორე კი სიძვის დიაცია. და რა თქმა უნდა ამ ორივეს თვითმკვლელობა, რასაც სათაურიც კი გვაუწყებს. მიუხედავად ამ „ბანალურობისა“ ტექსტი ყოველგარ ჩარჩოებს გაცდა. მონძაემონ ჩიკამაცუმ საკუთარი სტილით საფუძველი დაუდო იაპონურ დრამატურგიას ჯერ კიდევ მეთვრამეტე საუკუნეში და მაინც ისე მოაღწია ამ ტექსტმა ჩემამდე, რომ საკმაოდ გაოცებული დამტოვა. ყველა ძირითადი პერსონაჟის ემოცია, სიტყვები თუ მთხრობელის ქარაგმა ცრემლებამდეა მისული და მკითხველს არ აძლევს საშუალებას სხვა რამეზე ფიქრით შეიწყინოს თავი. თითოეული პერსონაჟი ცალკე სამყაროა, საკუთარი გრძნობებით, ფსიქოლოგიური პორტრეტებით თუ ცხოვრებისეული იდეოლოგიით.
ჯიჰეი და კოჰარუ - იმდენად არიან ერთნი, რამდენადაც განსხვავდებიან ერთმანეთისგან. ამ ორ პერსონაჟზე საუბრით თავს არ შეგაწყენთ, ეს ორი თვითონ უნდა გაიცნოთ, თვითონ უნდა დაუგდოთ ყური მათ გულის ცემას და შეიცნოთ ისინი, იქამდე სანამ თავს მოიკლავენ.
ო. სანი - ჯიჰეის ცოლია. ჩემი საყვარელი პერსონაჟია მთლიანი პიესიდან. არ ვიცი უბრალოდ რა ვთქვა მასზე, მის სიტყვებზე, მის დამოკიდებულებაზე და მის თავგანწირვაზე. ის არის კარგი ცოლი, კარგი დედა, კარგი შვილი, კარგი მეგობარი და უბრალოდ კარგი ადამიანი.
მეტზე არავისზე მოგახსენებთ თუმცა გამოვარჩევ მაგოემონს, გოძაემონს და ჯიჰეისის, რომლებიც „ძლიერი“ პერსონაჟები იყვნენ. და კიდევ ტაჰეი უბრალოდ ნაგავია და სხვა არაფერი.
სიუჟეტი სამ მოქმედებად იყოფა.
პირველი მოქმედება - ორ სურათად. პირველი სურათი ყველაზე სუსტია და ყველაზე ნაკლებად ემოციური, იმდენად არაფრით გამორჩეულია, რომ ტექსტის შესავალი უნდა იყოს და სხვა არც არაფერი. აი რაც შეეხება მეორე სურათს - აქედან იწყებს ავტორი საკუთარი სილამაზის ჩაქსოვას ტაეპებში და მკითხველს საკუთარ მარყუჟებში აქცევს. აქ არის ერთი დიდი სიყვარული და ამ სიყვარულის შერწყმა ზიზღთან, რომელიც არათუ საძულველი არამედ შესაშურიც კია ბევრისთვის.
მეორე მოქმედება - იაპონურ კულტურას გვაცნობს ახლოს. არა გარემოს ან კონკრეტულ ნივთებს არამედ ადამიანთა ბუნების კულტურას. მთლიანი მოქმედება ადამიანთა აზროვნებასა და ფიქრებზეა აგებული. მათ მართალ-ტყუილზე და მეტწილად მათ ცრემლებზე.
მესამე მოქმედება - ასევე ორ სურათად არის გაყოფილი. მესამე მოქმედებაზე კი სიტყვებიც ზედმეტია, ეს არის შეყვარებულთა თვითმკვლელობა ციურ ბადეთა კუნძულზე.
მოკლედ ეს უნდა სცადოთ! ბოლოს იმასაც ვიტყვი, რომ რითმებისა და ლამაზი სიტყვების იქით არაერთი ფილოსოფიური აზრია ჩაქსოვილი, რასაც ვფიქრობ რომ ბოლომდე გავუგე და გირჩევთ რომ გაუგოთ თქვენც!
პირველ რიგში მაინც თარგმანის ქებათ-ქებით უნდა დავიწყო. უდიდესი მადლობა ჯემალ ადიაშვილს. თითქმის დარწმუნებული ვარ რომ ბევრი ეპიზოდი ქართულ ენაზე უფრო ლამაზად გაჟღერდა, ვიდრე ორიგინალ ენაზე გაჟღერდებოდა.
საკუთრივ სიუჟეტი ერთი შეხედვით ბანალურია - შეყვარებული ქალ-ვაჟი, რომლიდანაც ერთს ცოლი ყავს, მეორე კი სიძვის დიაცია. და რა თქმა უნდა ამ ორივეს თვითმკვლელობა, რასაც სათაურიც კი გვაუწყებს. მიუხედავად ამ „ბანალურობისა“ ტექსტი ყოველგარ ჩარჩოებს გაცდა. მონძაემონ ჩიკამაცუმ საკუთარი სტილით საფუძველი დაუდო იაპონურ დრამატურგიას ჯერ კიდევ მეთვრამეტე საუკუნეში და მაინც ისე მოაღწია ამ ტექსტმა ჩემამდე, რომ საკმაოდ გაოცებული დამტოვა. ყველა ძირითადი პერსონაჟის ემოცია, სიტყვები თუ მთხრობელის ქარაგმა ცრემლებამდეა მისული და მკითხველს არ აძლევს საშუალებას სხვა რამეზე ფიქრით შეიწყინოს თავი. თითოეული პერსონაჟი ცალკე სამყაროა, საკუთარი გრძნობებით, ფსიქოლოგიური პორტრეტებით თუ ცხოვრებისეული იდეოლოგიით.
ჯიჰეი და კოჰარუ - იმდენად არიან ერთნი, რამდენადაც განსხვავდებიან ერთმანეთისგან. ამ ორ პერსონაჟზე საუბრით თავს არ შეგაწყენთ, ეს ორი თვითონ უნდა გაიცნოთ, თვითონ უნდა დაუგდოთ ყური მათ გულის ცემას და შეიცნოთ ისინი, იქამდე სანამ თავს მოიკლავენ.
ო. სანი - ჯიჰეის ცოლია. ჩემი საყვარელი პერსონაჟია მთლიანი პიესიდან. არ ვიცი უბრალოდ რა ვთქვა მასზე, მის სიტყვებზე, მის დამოკიდებულებაზე და მის თავგანწირვაზე. ის არის კარგი ცოლი, კარგი დედა, კარგი შვილი, კარგი მეგობარი და უბრალოდ კარგი ადამიანი.
მეტზე არავისზე მოგახსენებთ თუმცა გამოვარჩევ მაგოემონს, გოძაემონს და ჯიჰეისის, რომლებიც „ძლიერი“ პერსონაჟები იყვნენ. და კიდევ ტაჰეი უბრალოდ ნაგავია და სხვა არაფერი.
სიუჟეტი სამ მოქმედებად იყოფა.
პირველი მოქმედება - ორ სურათად. პირველი სურათი ყველაზე სუსტია და ყველაზე ნაკლებად ემოციური, იმდენად არაფრით გამორჩეულია, რომ ტექსტის შესავალი უნდა იყოს და სხვა არც არაფერი. აი რაც შეეხება მეორე სურათს - აქედან იწყებს ავტორი საკუთარი სილამაზის ჩაქსოვას ტაეპებში და მკითხველს საკუთარ მარყუჟებში აქცევს. აქ არის ერთი დიდი სიყვარული და ამ სიყვარულის შერწყმა ზიზღთან, რომელიც არათუ საძულველი არამედ შესაშურიც კია ბევრისთვის.
მეორე მოქმედება - იაპონურ კულტურას გვაცნობს ახლოს. არა გარემოს ან კონკრეტულ ნივთებს არამედ ადამიანთა ბუნების კულტურას. მთლიანი მოქმედება ადამიანთა აზროვნებასა და ფიქრებზეა აგებული. მათ მართალ-ტყუილზე და მეტწილად მათ ცრემლებზე.
მესამე მოქმედება - ასევე ორ სურათად არის გაყოფილი. მესამე მოქმედებაზე კი სიტყვებიც ზედმეტია, ეს არის შეყვარებულთა თვითმკვლელობა ციურ ბადეთა კუნძულზე.
მოკლედ ეს უნდა სცადოთ! ბოლოს იმასაც ვიტყვი, რომ რითმებისა და ლამაზი სიტყვების იქით არაერთი ფილოსოფიური აზრია ჩაქსოვილი, რასაც ვფიქრობ რომ ბოლომდე გავუგე და გირჩევთ რომ გაუგოთ თქვენც!
May 31, 2024
Hablando con el club de lectura, conversamos sobre la diferencia entre el dilema que hay en una obra como Romeo y Julieta en contra posición a la obra de Chikamatsu. El honor, en esta obra, se encuentra puesto el "yo" con "yo" es decir en la capacidad para sostener la palabra, los principios, el amor.
En la obra de Shakespeare creemos nosotros hay un tema del "yo" con la sociedad, una pelea de apariencias, familias y creencias. El honor es pues una cuestión muy diferente en oriente y occidente.
Esta obre es fundamental para la historiografía literaria del Japón, pero creo también que debe ser de obligatoria lectura para comprender esos motivos repetitivos, incrustado en una y otra cultura. Los amantes que mueren por amor. En los dos casos planteados de manera muy distintas. El acercarse a la muerte por las circunstancias impuestas por los otros que vemos en Romeo y Julieta,. dista mucho de la decisión consiente de aproximarse al abismo de los personajes de Chikamatsu.
Una obra clásica pero no lejana, no difícil de leer ni mucho menos ajena. Sensible, una ventana para conocer también las creencias budistas del Japón.
En la obra de Shakespeare creemos nosotros hay un tema del "yo" con la sociedad, una pelea de apariencias, familias y creencias. El honor es pues una cuestión muy diferente en oriente y occidente.
Esta obre es fundamental para la historiografía literaria del Japón, pero creo también que debe ser de obligatoria lectura para comprender esos motivos repetitivos, incrustado en una y otra cultura. Los amantes que mueren por amor. En los dos casos planteados de manera muy distintas. El acercarse a la muerte por las circunstancias impuestas por los otros que vemos en Romeo y Julieta,. dista mucho de la decisión consiente de aproximarse al abismo de los personajes de Chikamatsu.
Una obra clásica pero no lejana, no difícil de leer ni mucho menos ajena. Sensible, una ventana para conocer también las creencias budistas del Japón.
May 8, 2021
He odiado a los tíos de esta historia, Koharu y Osan merecían algo mejor. En un principio tanto drama me parecía hasta cómico, pero el final es precioso. Además las anotaciones están muy bien para una inculta de la cultura japonesa como yo.
Gracias Krovi por este libro 🥺❤️❤️
Gracias Krovi por este libro 🥺❤️❤️
December 14, 2022
ვფიქრობ ხოლმე ამაზე და ტექსტი ხომ ლამაზი და დიდია, მარა მიზოგუჩიც ძააააააან დიდია
July 17, 2013
"THE LOVE SUICIDES AT AMIJIMA" OF CHIKAMATSU, "ROMEO AND JULIET" & THE ARCHETYPE OF THE STAR-CROSSED LOVERS IN WORLD LITERATURE—FROM THE WORLD LITERATURE FORUM RECOMMENDED CLASSICS AND MASTERPIECES SERIES VIA GOODREADS—-ROBERT SHEPPARD, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
For most of us in the West, when we think of the idea of "star-crossed lovers" or of the love suicides of doomed lovers the first image that comes to our minds is that of the tragic lovers Romeo and Juliet of Shakespeare. When we then attempt to take in the similar traditions of other cultures, such as the immortal Japanese play, "The Love Suicides at Amijima" by the great 17th Century Japanese playwright Chickamatsu Monzaemon, our first reaction is to see it as "The Japanese Romeo and Juliet," and we may be forgiven our presumption by realizing the universality of egocentrism such that Japanese readers may regard Romeo and Juliet as the Western Amijima, Arabic or Iranian readers as the Western "Layla and Majnun." In truth all of these works are the product of the universal Collective Unconscious manifesting itself in its innumerable variations on the themes of fundamental archetypes and patterns in World Literature, here the universal Archetype of The Star-Crossed Lovers, and which Archetypes are shared by all of us as the common heritage of mankind.
WHAT IS AN ARCHETYPE?
C.G. Jung identified as "Archetypes" enduring dynamic symbolic complexes charged with energy in the human psyche which mediate and help transcend the inextricable contradictions and limitations of human existence, and which serve to enhance psychic wholeness, growth, and the powers of greater life itself. Archetypes recurrently irrupt from latent unconsciousness into living human consciousness in the form of dreams and as recurrent motifs expressed in literature, art, religion and myth serving as guides and healers towards grater life. Archetypes are generally manifested in the three major forms of characterological personas, situational motifs and oppositional symbolic patterns.
Examples of archetypal characterological personas charged with the immense hidden energies of the Collective Unconscious would include:
1. The Hero--who typically struggles against inimical and powerful forces beyond his control;
2. The Scapegoat--an animal or more likely a human whose ceremonial sacrafice or expulsion expiates some taint or sin afflicting the community;
3 The Outcast--a figure banished from a human community
4. The Devil--Evil incarnate, inimically opposed to human well-being;
5. The Earthmother--symbol of fruition, abundance and fertility;
6. The Star-Crossed Lovers--These lovers represent the element of Doom in erotic love relationships, implying that whatever forces determine their fate, the lovers are not and ultimately cannot be in essential control of them. These overpowering forces may include "fate" or "the stars," the internal irresistable and ultimately lawless forces of libido, lust and love, the countervailing overweening powers of society,family, social repression, convention social duty, and perhaps even the power of Death itself.
Examples of Situational Archetypal Motifs would include:
1. The Quest--a search for something or a powerful talisman which will restore fertility to a wasted and blighted land;
2. The Task--to save the kingdom, win a fair lady or perform some superhuman deed;
3.The Journey--usually to find some vital information or truth;
4. Death & Rebirth
Sybolical Archetypal oppositional patterns might include:
1. Darkness & Light
2. Water & Desert
3. Heaven & Hell---Man has traditionally associated places not accessible to him as the dwelling places of the hidden primordial powers that govern his world, as exemplified by the Heaven and Hell.
Since Archetypes emerge from and express the universal Collective Unconscious of humanity as they deal with the uneradicable contradictions and limitations of the human condition, they occur in all cultures and at all times in human history, though shaped in specific expression by each cultural tradition and historical context in its own way.
THE ARCHETYPE OF THE STAR-CROSSED LOVERS IN WORLD LITERATURE
The Archetype of the Star-Crossed Lovers appears in World Literature from earliest antiquity. A famous example at the center of Homer's Iliad, is the fated love of Helen of Troy and Paris, forbidden by Helen's marriage to Menalaus, which ends in Paris' death and the destruction of his homeland Troy. Also, in Ovid's Metamorphoses we encounter the figures of Pyramus and Thisbee, two Babylonian lovers frequently used in Shakespeare, who, like Romeo and Juliet kill themselves out of frustrated love.
Similar stories abound, as in the case of Hero and Leander at the Dardanelles, in which Leander perishes swimming the straits with the guidance of a lantern in the night lit by Hero, until bad winds and weather extinguish the lamp and he drowns. In Celtic mythology, the tale of Tristan and Isolde follows similar lines with Tristan, a faithful Knight of King Mark sent to bring Mark's new bride from Ireland to Cornwall. Isolde however, falls in love not with King Mark but with Tristan and they drink of a magic love potion binding them together body and soul. The lovers cannot keep apart until King Mark to save the honor of himself and the kingdom must banish Tristan to France where Tristan dies of separation from Isolde, resulting in her own love suicide. This also serves as model for other stories of ill-fated lovers, such as the Arthurian legend of the love of Sir Lancelot and Queen Guenevire.
In non-Western traditions similar expressions of the Star-Crossed Lovers appear, such as Nizami's famous Persian tale of "Layla and Majnun," popularized in Arabic, Persian, Indian and Islamic Literature. There Layla and Majnun are inextricably in love, but Layla's father refuses to allow them to marry, citing Majnun's poverty and his reputed mental illness arising from his excessive love for Layla. Layla is forced to marry another wealthy suitor and Majnun is reduced to wandering in the wilderness, Heathcliff-like, inscribing poems to Layla on rocks and the walls of her home. Finally he dies from grief causing her to do so at the same time.
In Chinese Literature similar tales are abundant, such as the fate of Imperial Consort Yang Gui Fei celebrated in Bai Juyi's "Song of Everlasting Sorrow" in which the Imperial lovers' excesses threaten the downfall of the Tang Dynasty such that the Emperor Xuanzong is forced by his army to have her executed to save the Empire. The fabled doomed love of Liangshan Bo and Zhu Yingtai, Ovid-like, ends in their being transformed into butterflies to be united in spirit. Another celebrated case is the ill-fated love of Jia Baoyu and his sickly cousin Lin Daiyu in Cao Xueqin's immortal classic "The Dream of the Red Chamber," another case in which love's consummation in marriage is blocked by Lin's poverty and ill health, causing her to waste away and die, blighting both lives.
Other cases of the appearance of the Star-Crossed Lovers Archetype are those of Goethe's "Sorrows of Young Werther," Bronte's "Wuthering Heights" and "Lady Chatterly's Lover."
THE LOVE SUICIDES AT AMIJIMA BY CHIKAMATSU
"The Love Suicides at Amijima" tells the story of two ill-fated lovers, Jihei, a married unsuccessful merchant of commercial Osaka, and Koharu, a beautiful courtesan for whom he has contracted a fatally intense love attraction, and from whom his love is reciprocated, but a love which can never be fulfilled due to his marriage and family and her indentured status as a paid courtesan.
Unlike Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, who begin their story in youthful innocence and exuberant hope, Jihei and Koharu begin Chikamatsu's play in a state of hopelessness that is never relieved. As the play opens they have exchanged vows to commit mutual suicide together when an inevitable opportune moment arrives. Their fate is sealed from the outset, and the drama consists less in their attempting to change it for the better, as do Romeo and Juliet, but in how the attempts of all those around them who represent "rationality," control,social duty and convention, foremost Jihei's loyal wife Osan and their children, Jihei's brother and extended family all attempt and ignominiously fail to divert the lovers from their doom.
The characters are portrayed in a thoroughly realistic manner as Jihei appears not the ideal tradesman of Osaka but rather one of the unsuccessful members of a profession that demanded a high level of diligence, reputation and devotion, exhibiting a weak, conflicted and vascillating nature, though ultimately devoted to his passionate but hopeless love to Koharu. Chikamatsu explains that even the love of a prostitute is deep beyond measure, a bottomless sea of affection that cannot be emptied or dried. The action is relieved by episodes of humor and insight into personalities and human foibles. Practically, Jihei is surrounded by "love" ----love between man and woman, husband and wife, father and children, younger brother and elder brother, but none of these conventionalized loves can rise to the reality of his true love for Koharu.
He tries to control his overpowering passionate love for Koharu----in fact, a part of him desires nothing more than to live up to what society expects of him as a husband and father. Torn between the two opposing worlds of duty (giri) and passionate private desire (ninjo), Jihei is forced over and over to reject his home and family. Like any other human nature, Jihei's nature is impulsive and changeable. He begs Gozaemon, Osans father who threatens him with divorce and bankruptcy over the affair, to let him stay with his wife Osan. In his quickness of tongue, his impulsiveness and his fear of being shamed in public, Jihei represents a typical representative of inconstant males so vividly portrayed by western female songstresses like Joni Mitchell: "Be careful now - when you court young men: They are like the stars On a summer morning, They sparkle up the night, And theyre gone again----Daybreak---and gone again." Under pressure from his wife and family, Jihei attempts to give up Koharu, but ultimately finds it impossible. In the end, Jihei's love for Koharu makes a double suicide seem as the only course open to him.
Part of the pathos of the tragedy comes from our admiration for Jihei's wife Osan, who appears as a plausibly ideal and admirable wife, forgiving Jihei and Kohatsu, seeking to protect her children and family, taking the strong initiative to ask Kohatsu to give up Jihei to protect his children and family. When Koharu is threatened with disaster Osan even makes great sacrafices to raise money for her, though a rival, acting with great strength, courage and honor. But Jihei's love is fatally unaffected by his wife's virtues, and he is impelled further and further towards his hopeless love for Koharu and its inevitable consequence of self-destruction.
In the end, Jihei and Koharu resign themselves to their fate and to each other, setting off in the night to commit suicide together, justified in their hopeless love and expectation that they will be together in future lives and reincarnations even if their love is impossible in this life and world. A main theme of The Love Suicide at Amijima is that marriage and living out social conventions and roles does not equal happiness and love. This can be seen during the play through Osan’s self-sacrifice and Jihei ultimately choosing a tragic death with Koharu instead of living with Osan.
It is not coincidental that "The Love Suicides at Amijima" found birth in the Japanese Bunraku "puppet theater," though it also is performed by live actors in the Kabuki theater as well. McLuhan famously stated that "the medium is the message," and the telling of Chikamatsu's story via the strings of puppets emphasizes the hidden strings of forces beyond our control which may well take over our destinies. Von Kleist's famous essay, "On the Puppet Theater" and its uncanny effects makes the same point in our Western tradition.
LOVE AND DEATH: CHANCE, FATE, EROS & THANATOS
One of the teasing and maddening perplexities of Romeo and Juliet is the knife-edge balance of seeming chance on which their fates depend and ultimately turn. "If only" comes repeatedly to mind: If only Juliet had awoken from the potion ten minutes earlier; if only Romeo had known she was not dead but only drugged; If only Friar Laurence's messenger had got to Romeo in time! Similar operations of seeming chance operate in the Love Suicides: If only Osan had discovered Jihei's absence on the fatal night an hour earlier she might have intercepted him and prevented the suicide. Yet part of the mastery of both Shakespeare and Chikamatsu lies in how these seemingly chance events reveal the workings of inexorable hidden forces that ultimately cannot be either eliminated or controlled. If they do not work their will in one chance event they will through another until they have worked out the character's fate.
The point is that there really are latent forces immensely greater than the individual wills or ego-consciousness of Romeo, Juliet, Jihei, Kohatsu and the reader or spectator which are poised to take over their lives, and potentially our lives. What are these forces? Eros, libido, sexuality, overwhelming sensuality and passion rooted in our DNA and the forces of life within and beyond individual consciousness and control is one such force that can become a law and destiny for any individual. To put it rather crudely, when men "think with their dicks" it is often biological "life force" which is doing the thinking for them, a force unfortunately indifferent to their individual destinies and wholly willing to ruthlessly make "puppets" of them, or even hurl them into disaster and death for its own greater ends. For both parties to a fatal passion, that passion, as the cliche would have it, is "bigger than both of us."
Another such "superforce" is death, or Thanatos as Freud expressed in in "Beyond the Pleasure Principle," or the fact that the Darwinian-driven life force is using each of us for its own ends, like God's invisible hand working the puppet strings of our lives, rather than each of us using life for our own ends, and of which our own little lives and deaths are but part of a much greater "master plan." The desire for death is also the deisre for peace and escape from the pain and travail of troubled life. Who is using whom? In the greater scheme of things Life will prove Master, and Death will prove Master over each of us, try as we may to overmaster their powers for our own egocentric aims. It is the Archetypes that reveal and catalyze these latent and inexorable contradictions in human life and brings them to light. However we struggle for our own ends we discover, and the Archetypes disclose, that we are in fact inevitably and inexorably serving ends beyond ourselves.
THE PERVERSE CONNECTION BETWEEN LOVE AND DEATH: VAMPIRES, ZOMBIES & LOVERS SUICIDE PACTS, AND DEATH AS THE PRICE OF SEX
Our movies and media are strangely pervaded by the onmipresence of a fatal intertwining of sex and death: Twilight vampires enmeshed in the net of passion and blood-death, and zombies crazed for the blood of life. Sex and death have a number of connections other than having been taboo topics in polite company and controversial subjects in school curricula. As is the case with many taboos, both can lead to fetishes and eroticisms, and their mere mention holds shock value for young adults.
Few question that life's greatest drives are to reproduce and to avoid death. Yet the great psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud and the French social theorist Michel Foucault argued that the two are fused, that the death instinct pervades sexual activity—--a connection easily seen by such a Frenchman as Foucault whose language frames orgasms as "petit mort," or "little-deaths." As in the "Play it Again Sam" song of Casablanca, love and sexuality have always been a case of "do or die," from the upstream spawning quests of anadramous salmon to modern film.
It has been often observed that death is the price multicellular creatures must pay in order to reproduce. The biologist William Clark observed, "Obligatory death—as a result of senescence (natural aging)—may not have come into existence for more than a billion years after life first appeared. This form of programmed cell death seems to have arisen at about the same time cells began experimenting with sex in connection with reproduction." Perhaps one legacy of this original immortality is the telomerase, the so-called immortality enzyme, found within the cells of testes and ovaries. Absent from normal cells that age and die, telomerase is what allows cancerous cells to reproduce without limits. Sexuality, followed by human individuation may have been the "original sin" against the primitive amoeboid immortality of undifferentiated binary fission as a means of reproduction, along with the later adoption of a murderous carnivore diet and evolutionary ethos.
Humanity is not immune from this law of death as the cost of sex. This toll for reproduction has particularly been borne by women. Unlike at the start of the twenty-first century, when women held a seven-year life-expectancy advantage over males in developed nations, historically, because of their high maternal death rates, women were the shorter-lived sex. The era of AIDS reinforces the notion that the sex act itself may be the cause of death. Perhaps in the evolutionary scheme sexuality, like the Pentagon in times of budgetary retrenchment, adopts a scheme of "up or out" as a corollary to "do or die" whereby sex and love, if not fulfilled in fruitful union and evolutionary potential, press inexorably towards necessary death as the default reset position. Perhaps Romeo and Juliet, Jihei and Kohatsu fulfill another Archetype, the Scapegoat, to tragically purge the gene pool for more viable options, yet in their deaths, ironically, inspire us towards the roots of greater life. Perhaps ironically also, it is in the moment when forces greater than ourselves take over and even end our lives, that we so often find the potential for essential alignment with those forces that lends transcendent meaning to our lives, often expressed through Archetypes and myth.
The composition of my own recent novel, Spiritus Mundi, is rooted in the exploration of Archetypes, most notably those of The Quest, in this case the Quest to save humanity from destruction in WWIII and the establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly. In it the protagonist Sartorius overcomes the urge to suicide and finds inspiration in love for the Anima figure of his beloved Eva, who accompanies him on his Quest. I invite you to look into Spiritus Mundi, Romeo & Juliet and the Love Suicides at Amijima to explore the world and power of Archetypes in World Literature.
For a fuller discussion of the concept of World Literature you are invited to look into the extended discussion in the new book Spiritus Mundi, by Robert Sheppard, one of the principal themes of which is the emergence and evolution of World Literature:
For Discussions on World Literature and Literary Criticism in Spiritus Mundi: http://worldliteratureandliterarycrit...
Robert Sheppard
Editor-in-Chief
World Literature Forum
Author, Spiritus Mundi Novel
Author’s Blog: http://robertalexandersheppard.wordpr...
Spiritus Mundi on Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17...
Spiritus Mundi on Amazon, Book I: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CIGJFGO
Spiritus Mundi, Book II: The Romance http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CGM8BZG
Copyright Robert
March 10, 2025
Todas las épocas y culturas tienen su particular historia de amor trágico. En occidente, tenemos a "Romeo y Julieta", una obra cuyo contenido ya se basaba en otras leyendas parecidas como la de "Píramo y Tisbe", mito grecorromano sobre el amor y la muerte. Japón no es una excepción y aquí tenemos una obra diseñada para el jōruri, teatro de marionetas que más tarde sería conocido mundialmente como Bunraku,en honor de un famoso actor que dominaba el arte de manipular marionetas.
La mano detrás de esta obra es Chikamatsu Monzaemon, célebre autor de obras para Bunraku. No es muy conocido fuera de Japón, siendo esta obra la primera que se traduce al español. Ni que decir tiene que Monzaemon es un gran maestro con la pluma. Su estilo de escritura es muy japonés; es decir, es refinado, elegante y con una ejecución impecable. Esto lo consigue gracias a una prosa lenta aunque profunda y rica y con un desarrollo magnífico, un lenguaje de gran belleza, muy bien escogido que consigue dotar de armonía al conjunto, y unas descripciones en las que resalta la fuerza de la naturaleza en contraposición con las mezquindades humanas. El problema resultan ser los personajes. Al ser una obra de teatro, la construcción de personajes resulta insuficiente para comprender del todo la psicología de los mismos. Es cierto que el prólogo de la edición ayuda bastante a dilucidar ciertos aspectos sobre la sociedad, las costumbres y la concepción del honor y deber que todo individuo tenía para con su familia y con los demás. Pero me hubiera gustado conocer un poco más la dimensión emocional de los personajes.
Los amantes suicidas de Amajima, trata la clásica historia de amor truncada por las clases , las responsabilidades y la presiones sociales de la época. En el siglo XVII, Jihei, afamado mercader de papel, casado y con un hijo, se enamora locamente de Koharu, una geisha del barrio rojo de Osaka. Este amor, imposible de llevarse a cabo, desgarra a ambos amantes. Jihei, siempre sometido a las presiones familiares, vive dividido entre el amor que siente y su sentido del deber hacia su familia. Mientras que Koharu, que no tiene la libertad para decidir plenamente sobre su vida, también tiene un fuerte conflicto entre sus sentimientos y la culpa. Como era habitual en la época, ambos amantes deciden suicidarse de manera ritual en las orillas del Río Yodo, con la creencia de que volverían a encontrarse en la próxima vida. Como podéis ver, ya desde el título sabemos cómo va a transcurrir el final de la obra. Pero este detalle no le resta ningún atractivo o fuerza a una trama en la que apreciamos la importancia que el amor tiene para los protagonistas.
Definitivamente, Los amantes suicidas de Amajima, es una portentosa obra dramática, a la altura de algunos de los mejores dramaturgos de nuestra cultura. Quizás peque un poco de excesiva en ciertos momentos, aunque supongo que esa intensidad a "destiempo" tiene más que ver con la cultura y el tipo de teatro para la que fue concebida que con una intención clara del autor. Una lectura que nos recuerda lo fuerte que el amor puede ser. Y que por él estamos dispuestos a dar lo único realmente valioso que tenemos, nuestra vida.
La mano detrás de esta obra es Chikamatsu Monzaemon, célebre autor de obras para Bunraku. No es muy conocido fuera de Japón, siendo esta obra la primera que se traduce al español. Ni que decir tiene que Monzaemon es un gran maestro con la pluma. Su estilo de escritura es muy japonés; es decir, es refinado, elegante y con una ejecución impecable. Esto lo consigue gracias a una prosa lenta aunque profunda y rica y con un desarrollo magnífico, un lenguaje de gran belleza, muy bien escogido que consigue dotar de armonía al conjunto, y unas descripciones en las que resalta la fuerza de la naturaleza en contraposición con las mezquindades humanas. El problema resultan ser los personajes. Al ser una obra de teatro, la construcción de personajes resulta insuficiente para comprender del todo la psicología de los mismos. Es cierto que el prólogo de la edición ayuda bastante a dilucidar ciertos aspectos sobre la sociedad, las costumbres y la concepción del honor y deber que todo individuo tenía para con su familia y con los demás. Pero me hubiera gustado conocer un poco más la dimensión emocional de los personajes.
Los amantes suicidas de Amajima, trata la clásica historia de amor truncada por las clases , las responsabilidades y la presiones sociales de la época. En el siglo XVII, Jihei, afamado mercader de papel, casado y con un hijo, se enamora locamente de Koharu, una geisha del barrio rojo de Osaka. Este amor, imposible de llevarse a cabo, desgarra a ambos amantes. Jihei, siempre sometido a las presiones familiares, vive dividido entre el amor que siente y su sentido del deber hacia su familia. Mientras que Koharu, que no tiene la libertad para decidir plenamente sobre su vida, también tiene un fuerte conflicto entre sus sentimientos y la culpa. Como era habitual en la época, ambos amantes deciden suicidarse de manera ritual en las orillas del Río Yodo, con la creencia de que volverían a encontrarse en la próxima vida. Como podéis ver, ya desde el título sabemos cómo va a transcurrir el final de la obra. Pero este detalle no le resta ningún atractivo o fuerza a una trama en la que apreciamos la importancia que el amor tiene para los protagonistas.
Definitivamente, Los amantes suicidas de Amajima, es una portentosa obra dramática, a la altura de algunos de los mejores dramaturgos de nuestra cultura. Quizás peque un poco de excesiva en ciertos momentos, aunque supongo que esa intensidad a "destiempo" tiene más que ver con la cultura y el tipo de teatro para la que fue concebida que con una intención clara del autor. Una lectura que nos recuerda lo fuerte que el amor puede ser. Y que por él estamos dispuestos a dar lo único realmente valioso que tenemos, nuestra vida.
January 3, 2023
პირველად გავეცანი იკამაცუს შემოქმედებას და ყველაზე მეტად რაც მომწონს, ის არის, რომ პერიოდისდა მიუხედავად, ძალიან გულრწფელია პერსონაჟებთან მიმართებით- ადამიანისთვის დამახასიათებელ ეჭვს, სისუსტეს და ბევრ სხვა თვისებას არ უკარგავს, პირიქით, სიუჟეტს მთლიანად პიროვნების გარშემო ქმნის, რაც მის სიდიადეზე ცხადად მიანიშნებს.
მოკლედ, ეჭვგარეშეა, საინტერესო გამოცდილება იყო.
მოკლედ, ეჭვგარეშეა, საინტერესო გამოცდილება იყო.
Read
April 18, 2023Obra de teatro para marionetas compuesta por el dramaturgo japonés del siglo XVII Chikamatsu Monzaemon, que retrata la tragedia de los amantes suicidas de Amijima.
La historia inicia inmediatamente en un punto álgido de emociones, presentando a los involucrados, Jihei, comerciante venido a menos y padre de familia, y a Koharu, cortesana de la casa Kiinokuni, ambos ya fusionados románticamente y cargados con el peso de las culpas, quienes deciden suicidarse, destino ineludible debido a las consecuencias irremediables que se han desatado por su amor y obsesión. Una relación marcada por el sufrimiento en vida, que les orilla a buscar paz y tranquilidad en la muerte como refugio para su amor. Sin embargo , una sucesión de personajes, que van desde Tahei, obsesivo y descarado pretendiente de Kahoru, hasta Monzaemon y Gonzaemon, familiares ambos de Jihei, guardianes de las costumbres familiares, se interponen continuamente en la formalización de la relación entre los protagonistas, como así también en la ejecución del pacto de muerte que han acordado al verse imposibilitados de seguir juntos.
Una obra que goza de un final que funciona como motor de arrastre para los acontecimientos que se narran durante todo el libro, que les sella con un tono trágico y terrible; una suerte de destino que ya fue interiorizado por los protagonistas.
El libro goza de diversos mecanismos interesantes que suscitan interés. Las lagunas narrativas concernientes a los inicios de la relación entre los personajes, que más que acusar de falta de prolijidad del autor , estas funcionan como posibilidad de recreación narrativa por parte de los lector@s al nutrirse de las claves que poco a poco se conocen por medio de acciones y diálogos en el texto, la presencia cada vez mayor del budismo a medida que se precipita el final de la historia, quizás en consonancia con la preocupación del paso de la vida hacia la muerte mediante el suicidio, y el breve, pero importante deseo que ocupa a Kahoru en las puertas de la muerte, que nos permiten introducir la duda al respecto de si se encontraba realmente en comunión con el desenlace que le esperaba. Quizás una pequeña posibilidad para cuestionar a las voluntades imperiosas que acrecientan la tragedia en las mujeres presentes en el libro.
Una obra importante en el repertorio teatral japonés, que, según Jaime Fernández, traductor y editor del libro, supuso una coyuntura en las formas posteriores que adoptó el género dramático en la isla.
La historia inicia inmediatamente en un punto álgido de emociones, presentando a los involucrados, Jihei, comerciante venido a menos y padre de familia, y a Koharu, cortesana de la casa Kiinokuni, ambos ya fusionados románticamente y cargados con el peso de las culpas, quienes deciden suicidarse, destino ineludible debido a las consecuencias irremediables que se han desatado por su amor y obsesión. Una relación marcada por el sufrimiento en vida, que les orilla a buscar paz y tranquilidad en la muerte como refugio para su amor. Sin embargo , una sucesión de personajes, que van desde Tahei, obsesivo y descarado pretendiente de Kahoru, hasta Monzaemon y Gonzaemon, familiares ambos de Jihei, guardianes de las costumbres familiares, se interponen continuamente en la formalización de la relación entre los protagonistas, como así también en la ejecución del pacto de muerte que han acordado al verse imposibilitados de seguir juntos.
Una obra que goza de un final que funciona como motor de arrastre para los acontecimientos que se narran durante todo el libro, que les sella con un tono trágico y terrible; una suerte de destino que ya fue interiorizado por los protagonistas.
El libro goza de diversos mecanismos interesantes que suscitan interés. Las lagunas narrativas concernientes a los inicios de la relación entre los personajes, que más que acusar de falta de prolijidad del autor , estas funcionan como posibilidad de recreación narrativa por parte de los lector@s al nutrirse de las claves que poco a poco se conocen por medio de acciones y diálogos en el texto, la presencia cada vez mayor del budismo a medida que se precipita el final de la historia, quizás en consonancia con la preocupación del paso de la vida hacia la muerte mediante el suicidio, y el breve, pero importante deseo que ocupa a Kahoru en las puertas de la muerte, que nos permiten introducir la duda al respecto de si se encontraba realmente en comunión con el desenlace que le esperaba. Quizás una pequeña posibilidad para cuestionar a las voluntades imperiosas que acrecientan la tragedia en las mujeres presentes en el libro.
Una obra importante en el repertorio teatral japonés, que, según Jaime Fernández, traductor y editor del libro, supuso una coyuntura en las formas posteriores que adoptó el género dramático en la isla.
January 17, 2019
"Si las lágrimas de tristeza se lloraran por los ojos y las de resentimiento por los oídos, podría mostrarte sin palabras mis verdaderos sentimientos. Pero son sólo los ojos los que lloran todo tipo de lágrimas, y así es natural que no puedas saber lo que pasa en mi alma (...) Estoy llorando. Mis lágrimas, más que lágrimas de fuego, más que lágrimas de sangre, más que lágrimas interminables, son lágrimas de hierro fundido"
November 6, 2015
Las notas y el estudio previo ubican a este teatro de muñecos como un desarrollo directo de formas de recitado de baladas épicas. Chikamatsu combina el uso experto de los temas tradicionales y del ritmo con una recombinación creativa de algunos de los tropos más antiguos y queridos de la humanidad. Una historia contada mil veces pero siempre atractiva.
February 28, 2019
Una historia preciosa <3
May 9, 2018
one of those books that's easy to teach but not ultimately that interesting to read.
August 18, 2022
fun bc puppets and drama and shit. terrible bc men
July 17, 2013
"THE LOVE SUICIDES AT AMIJIMA" OF CHIKAMATSU, "ROMEO AND JULIET" & THE ARCHETYPE OF THE STAR-CROSSED LOVERS IN WORLD LITERATURE—FROM THE WORLD LITERATURE FORUM RECOMMENDED CLASSICS AND MASTERPIECES SERIES VIA GOODREADS—-ROBERT SHEPPARD, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
For most of us in the West, when we think of the idea of "star-crossed lovers" or of the love suicides of doomed lovers the first image that comes to our minds is that of the tragic lovers Romeo and Juliet of Shakespeare. When we then attempt to take in the similar traditions of other cultures, such as the immortal Japanese play, "The Love Suicides at Amijima" by the great 17th Century Japanese playwright Chickamatsu Monzaemon, our first reaction is to see it as "The Japanese Romeo and Juliet," and we may be forgiven our presumption by realizing the universality of egocentrism such that Japanese readers may regard Romeo and Juliet as the Western Amijima, Arabic or Iranian readers as the Western "Layla and Majnun." In truth all of these works are the product of the universal Collective Unconscious manifesting itself in its innumerable variations on the themes of fundamental archetypes and patterns in World Literature, here the universal Archetype of The Star-Crossed Lovers, and which Archetypes are shared by all of us as the common heritage of mankind.
WHAT IS AN ARCHETYPE?
C.G. Jung identified as "Archetypes" enduring dynamic symbolic complexes charged with energy in the human psyche which mediate and help transcend the inextricable contradictions and limitations of human existence, and which serve to enhance psychic wholeness, growth, and the powers of greater life itself. Archetypes recurrently irrupt from latent unconsciousness into living human consciousness in the form of dreams and as recurrent motifs expressed in literature, art, religion and myth serving as guides and healers towards grater life. Archetypes are generally manifested in the three major forms of characterological personas, situational motifs and oppositional symbolic patterns.
Examples of archetypal characterological personas charged with the immense hidden energies of the Collective Unconscious would include:
1. The Hero--who typically struggles against inimical and powerful forces beyond his control;
2. The Scapegoat--an animal or more likely a human whose ceremonial sacrafice or expulsion expiates some taint or sin afflicting the community;
3 The Outcast--a figure banished from a human community
4. The Devil--Evil incarnate, inimically opposed to human well-being;
5. The Earthmother--symbol of fruition, abundance and fertility;
6. The Star-Crossed Lovers--These lovers represent the element of Doom in erotic love relationships, implying that whatever forces determine their fate, the lovers are not and ultimately cannot be in essential control of them. These overpowering forces may include "fate" or "the stars," the internal irresistable and ultimately lawless forces of libido, lust and love, the countervailing overweening powers of society,family, social repression, convention social duty, and perhaps even the power of Death itself.
Examples of Situational Archetypal Motifs would include:
1. The Quest--a search for something or a powerful talisman which will restore fertility to a wasted and blighted land;
2. The Task--to save the kingdom, win a fair lady or perform some superhuman deed;
3.The Journey--usually to find some vital information or truth;
4. Death & Rebirth
Sybolical Archetypal oppositional patterns might include:
1. Darkness & Light
2. Water & Desert
3. Heaven & Hell---Man has traditionally associated places not accessible to him as the dwelling places of the hidden primordial powers that govern his world, as exemplified by the Heaven and Hell.
Since Archetypes emerge from and express the universal Collective Unconscious of humanity as they deal with the uneradicable contradictions and limitations of the human condition, they occur in all cultures and at all times in human history, though shaped in specific expression by each cultural tradition and historical context in its own way.
THE ARCHETYPE OF THE STAR-CROSSED LOVERS IN WORLD LITERATURE
The Archetype of the Star-Crossed Lovers appears in World Literature from earliest antiquity. A famous example at the center of Homer's Iliad, is the fated love of Helen of Troy and Paris, forbidden by Helen's marriage to Menalaus, which ends in Paris' death and the destruction of his homeland Troy. Also, in Ovid's Metamorphoses we encounter the figures of Pyramus and Thisbee, two Babylonian lovers frequently used in Shakespeare, who, like Romeo and Juliet kill themselves out of frustrated love.
Similar stories abound, as in the case of Hero and Leander at the Dardanelles, in which Leander perishes swimming the straits with the guidance of a lantern in the night lit by Hero, until bad winds and weather extinguish the lamp and he drowns. In Celtic mythology, the tale of Tristan and Isolde follows similar lines with Tristan, a faithful Knight of King Mark sent to bring Mark's new bride from Ireland to Cornwall. Isolde however, falls in love not with King Mark but with Tristan and they drink of a magic love potion binding them together body and soul. The lovers cannot keep apart until King Mark to save the honor of himself and the kingdom must banish Tristan to France where Tristan dies of separation from Isolde, resulting in her own love suicide. This also serves as model for other stories of ill-fated lovers, such as the Arthurian legend of the love of Sir Lancelot and Queen Guenevire.
In non-Western traditions similar expressions of the Star-Crossed Lovers appear, such as Nizami's famous Persian tale of "Layla and Majnun," popularized in Arabic, Persian, Indian and Islamic Literature. There Layla and Majnun are inextricably in love, but Layla's father refuses to allow them to marry, citing Majnun's poverty and his reputed mental illness arising from his excessive love for Layla. Layla is forced to marry another wealthy suitor and Majnun is reduced to wandering in the wilderness, Heathcliff-like, inscribing poems to Layla on rocks and the walls of her home. Finally he dies from grief causing her to do so at the same time.
In Chinese Literature similar tales are abundant, such as the fate of Imperial Consort Yang Gui Fei celebrated in Bai Juyi's "Song of Everlasting Sorrow" in which the Imperial lovers' excesses threaten the downfall of the Tang Dynasty such that the Emperor Xuanzong is forced by his army to have her executed to save the Empire. The fabled doomed love of Liangshan Bo and Zhu Yingtai, Ovid-like, ends in their being transformed into butterflies to be united in spirit. Another celebrated case is the ill-fated love of Jia Baoyu and his sickly cousin Lin Daiyu in Cao Xueqin's immortal classic "The Dream of the Red Chamber," another case in which love's consummation in marriage is blocked by Lin's poverty and ill health, causing her to waste away and die, blighting both lives.
Other cases of the appearance of the Star-Crossed Lovers Archetype are those of Goethe's "Sorrows of Young Werther," Bronte's "Wuthering Heights" and "Lady Chatterly's Lover."
THE LOVE SUICIDES AT AMIJIMA BY CHIKAMATSU
"The Love Suicides at Amijima" tells the story of two ill-fated lovers, Jihei, a married unsuccessful merchant of commercial Osaka, and Koharu, a beautiful courtesan for whom he has contracted a fatally intense love attraction, and from whom his love is reciprocated, but a love which can never be fulfilled due to his marriage and family and her indentured status as a paid courtesan.
Unlike Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, who begin their story in youthful innocence and exuberant hope, Jihei and Koharu begin Chikamatsu's play in a state of hopelessness that is never relieved. As the play opens they have exchanged vows to commit mutual suicide together when an inevitable opportune moment arrives. Their fate is sealed from the outset, and the drama consists less in their attempting to change it for the better, as do Romeo and Juliet, but in how the attempts of all those around them who represent "rationality," control,social duty and convention, foremost Jihei's loyal wife Osan and their children, Jihei's brother and extended family all attempt and ignominiously fail to divert the lovers from their doom.
The characters are portrayed in a thoroughly realistic manner as Jihei appears not the ideal tradesman of Osaka but rather one of the unsuccessful members of a profession that demanded a high level of diligence, reputation and devotion, exhibiting a weak, conflicted and vascillating nature, though ultimately devoted to his passionate but hopeless love to Koharu. Chikamatsu explains that even the love of a prostitute is deep beyond measure, a bottomless sea of affection that cannot be emptied or dried. The action is relieved by episodes of humor and insight into personalities and human foibles. Practically, Jihei is surrounded by "love" ----love between man and woman, husband and wife, father and children, younger brother and elder brother, but none of these conventionalized loves can rise to the reality of his true love for Koharu.
He tries to control his overpowering passionate love for Koharu----in fact, a part of him desires nothing more than to live up to what society expects of him as a husband and father. Torn between the two opposing worlds of duty (giri) and passionate private desire (ninjo), Jihei is forced over and over to reject his home and family. Like any other human nature, Jihei's nature is impulsive and changeable. He begs Gozaemon, Osans father who threatens him with divorce and bankruptcy over the affair, to let him stay with his wife Osan. In his quickness of tongue, his impulsiveness and his fear of being shamed in public, Jihei represents a typical representative of inconstant males so vividly portrayed by western female songstresses like Joni Mitchell: "Be careful now - when you court young men: They are like the stars On a summer morning, They sparkle up the night, And theyre gone again----Daybreak---and gone again." Under pressure from his wife and family, Jihei attempts to give up Koharu, but ultimately finds it impossible. In the end, Jihei's love for Koharu makes a double suicide seem as the only course open to him.
Part of the pathos of the tragedy comes from our admiration for Jihei's wife Osan, who appears as a plausibly ideal and admirable wife, forgiving Jihei and Kohatsu, seeking to protect her children and family, taking the strong initiative to ask Kohatsu to give up Jihei to protect his children and family. When Koharu is threatened with disaster Osan even makes great sacrafices to raise money for her, though a rival, acting with great strength, courage and honor. But Jihei's love is fatally unaffected by his wife's virtues, and he is impelled further and further towards his hopeless love for Koharu and its inevitable consequence of self-destruction.
In the end, Jihei and Koharu resign themselves to their fate and to each other, setting off in the night to commit suicide together, justified in their hopeless love and expectation that they will be together in future lives and reincarnations even if their love is impossible in this life and world. A main theme of The Love Suicide at Amijima is that marriage and living out social conventions and roles does not equal happiness and love. This can be seen during the play through Osan’s self-sacrifice and Jihei ultimately choosing a tragic death with Koharu instead of living with Osan.
It is not coincidental that "The Love Suicides at Amijima" found birth in the Japanese Bunraku "puppet theater," though it also is performed by live actors in the Kabuki theater as well. McLuhan famously stated that "the medium is the message," and the telling of Chikamatsu's story via the strings of puppets emphasizes the hidden strings of forces beyond our control which may well take over our destinies. Von Kleist's famous essay, "On the Puppet Theater" and its uncanny effects makes the same point in our Western tradition.
LOVE AND DEATH: CHANCE, FATE, EROS & THANATOS
One of the teasing and maddening perplexities of Romeo and Juliet is the knife-edge balance of seeming chance on which their fates depend and ultimately turn. "If only" comes repeatedly to mind: If only Juliet had awoken from the potion ten minutes earlier; if only Romeo had known she was not dead but only drugged; If only Friar Laurence's messenger had got to Romeo in time! Similar operations of seeming chance operate in the Love Suicides: If only Osan had discovered Jihei's absence on the fatal night an hour earlier she might have intercepted him and prevented the suicide. Yet part of the mastery of both Shakespeare and Chikamatsu lies in how these seemingly chance events reveal the workings of inexorable hidden forces that ultimately cannot be either eliminated or controlled. If they do not work their will in one chance event they will through another until they have worked out the character's fate.
The point is that there really are latent forces immensely greater than the individual wills or ego-consciousness of Romeo, Juliet, Jihei, Kohatsu and the reader or spectator which are poised to take over their lives, and potentially our lives. What are these forces? Eros, libido, sexuality, overwhelming sensuality and passion rooted in our DNA and the forces of life within and beyond individual consciousness and control is one such force that can become a law and destiny for any individual. To put it rather crudely, when men "think with their dicks" it is often biological "life force" which is doing the thinking for them, a force unfortunately indifferent to their individual destinies and wholly willing to ruthlessly make "puppets" of them, or even hurl them into disaster and death for its own greater ends. For both parties to a fatal passion, that passion, as the cliche would have it, is "bigger than both of us."
Another such "superforce" is death, or Thanatos as Freud expressed in in "Beyond the Pleasure Principle," or the fact that the Darwinian-driven life force is using each of us for its own ends, like God's invisible hand working the puppet strings of our lives, rather than each of us using life for our own ends, and of which our own little lives and deaths are but part of a much greater "master plan." The desire for death is also the deisre for peace and escape from the pain and travail of troubled life. Who is using whom? In the greater scheme of things Life will prove Master, and Death will prove Master over each of us, try as we may to overmaster their powers for our own egocentric aims. It is the Archetypes that reveal and catalyze these latent and inexorable contradictions in human life and brings them to light. However we struggle for our own ends we discover, and the Archetypes disclose, that we are in fact inevitably and inexorably serving ends beyond ourselves.
THE PERVERSE CONNECTION BETWEEN LOVE AND DEATH: VAMPIRES, ZOMBIES & LOVERS SUICIDE PACTS, AND DEATH AS THE PRICE OF SEX
Our movies and media are strangely pervaded by the onmipresence of a fatal intertwining of sex and death: Twilight vampires enmeshed in the net of passion and blood-death, and zombies crazed for the blood of life. Sex and death have a number of connections other than having been taboo topics in polite company and controversial subjects in school curricula. As is the case with many taboos, both can lead to fetishes and eroticisms, and their mere mention holds shock value for young adults.
Few question that life's greatest drives are to reproduce and to avoid death. Yet the great psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud and the French social theorist Michel Foucault argued that the two are fused, that the death instinct pervades sexual activity—--a connection easily seen by such a Frenchman as Foucault whose language frames orgasms as "petit mort," or "little-deaths." As in the "Play it Again Sam" song of Casablanca, love and sexuality have always been a case of "do or die," from the upstream spawning quests of anadramous salmon to modern film.
It has been often observed that death is the price multicellular creatures must pay in order to reproduce. The biologist William Clark observed, "Obligatory death—as a result of senescence (natural aging)—may not have come into existence for more than a billion years after life first appeared. This form of programmed cell death seems to have arisen at about the same time cells began experimenting with sex in connection with reproduction." Perhaps one legacy of this original immortality is the telomerase, the so-called immortality enzyme, found within the cells of testes and ovaries. Absent from normal cells that age and die, telomerase is what allows cancerous cells to reproduce without limits. Sexuality, followed by human individuation may have been the "original sin" against the primitive amoeboid immortality of undifferentiated binary fission as a means of reproduction, along with the later adoption of a murderous carnivore diet and evolutionary ethos.
Humanity is not immune from this law of death as the cost of sex. This toll for reproduction has particularly been borne by women. Unlike at the start of the twenty-first century, when women held a seven-year life-expectancy advantage over males in developed nations, historically, because of their high maternal death rates, women were the shorter-lived sex. The era of AIDS reinforces the notion that the sex act itself may be the cause of death. Perhaps in the evolutionary scheme sexuality, like the Pentagon in times of budgetary retrenchment, adopts a scheme of "up or out" as a corollary to "do or die" whereby sex and love, if not fulfilled in fruitful union and evolutionary potential, press inexorably towards necessary death as the default reset position. Perhaps Romeo and Juliet, Jihei and Kohatsu fulfill another Archetype, the Scapegoat, to tragically purge the gene pool for more viable options, yet in their deaths, ironically, inspire us towards the roots of greater life. Perhaps ironically also, it is in the moment when forces greater than ourselves take over and even end our lives, that we so often find the potential for essential alignment with those forces that lends transcendent meaning to our lives, often expressed through Archetypes and myth.
The composition of my own recent novel, Spiritus Mundi, is rooted in the exploration of Archetypes, most notably those of The Quest, in this case the Quest to save humanity from destruction in WWIII and the establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly. In it the protagonist Sartorius overcomes the urge to suicide and finds inspiration in love for the Anima figure of his beloved Eva, who accompanies him on his Quest. I invite you to look into Spiritus Mundi, Romeo & Juliet and the Love Suicides at Amijima to explore the world and power of Archetypes in World Literature.
For a fuller discussion of the concept of World Literature you are invited to look into the extended discussion in the new book Spiritus Mundi, by Robert Sheppard, one of the principal themes of which is the emergence and evolution of World Literature:
For Discussions on World Literature and Literary Criticism in Spiritus Mundi: http://worldliteratureandliterarycrit...
Robert Sheppard
Editor-in-Chief
World Literature Forum
Author, Spiritus Mundi Novel
Author’s Blog: http://robertalexandersheppard.wordpr...
Spiritus Mundi on Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17...
Spiritus Mundi on Amazon, Book I: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CIGJFGO
Spiritus Mundi, Book II: The Romance http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CGM8BZG
Copyright Robert
January 20, 2022
3.5
Not something I would typically pick up, but it was one I had to read for school. It wasn’t bad by any means, it just didn’t hold my interest.
Chikamatsu Monzaemon tells a tale of two forbidden lovers, a prostitute and a paper merchant, who decide to commit suicide together with the hopes of being reborn in the next life as husband and wife.
The comedy aspects took me by surprise, with it being such a serious topic. For example, when Jihei overhears Koharu telling the samurai that she didn’t want to die after they had decided to do a love suicide, he expresses that he “feels like a monkey who has tumbled from a tree” (106). Monzaemon’s choice of words are effective in its comedic and yet pressing tone that still convey how Jihei feels.
I also found Jihei stomping on Koharu’s face to be somewhat comedic as well. It was such a visual scene that I could picture the action taking place. Along the same line, the arguing prior to that between Jihei, Tahei, and the samurai felt somewhat similar to a soap opera. The irony of the samurai actually encouraging and helping Jihei trample Tahei when moments before, he was restraining him was not lost on me.
The Love Suicides at Amijima sufficiently displays this beautiful tragic tale including brief moments of social comedy. The audience goes into the play knowing how it ends and yet it doesn’t take away from the impact of the final scene. On the contrary, it in some way enhances the dread and agony and remorse of the departure.
Not something I would typically pick up, but it was one I had to read for school. It wasn’t bad by any means, it just didn’t hold my interest.
Chikamatsu Monzaemon tells a tale of two forbidden lovers, a prostitute and a paper merchant, who decide to commit suicide together with the hopes of being reborn in the next life as husband and wife.
The comedy aspects took me by surprise, with it being such a serious topic. For example, when Jihei overhears Koharu telling the samurai that she didn’t want to die after they had decided to do a love suicide, he expresses that he “feels like a monkey who has tumbled from a tree” (106). Monzaemon’s choice of words are effective in its comedic and yet pressing tone that still convey how Jihei feels.
I also found Jihei stomping on Koharu’s face to be somewhat comedic as well. It was such a visual scene that I could picture the action taking place. Along the same line, the arguing prior to that between Jihei, Tahei, and the samurai felt somewhat similar to a soap opera. The irony of the samurai actually encouraging and helping Jihei trample Tahei when moments before, he was restraining him was not lost on me.
The Love Suicides at Amijima sufficiently displays this beautiful tragic tale including brief moments of social comedy. The audience goes into the play knowing how it ends and yet it doesn’t take away from the impact of the final scene. On the contrary, it in some way enhances the dread and agony and remorse of the departure.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 27, 2025
LOS AMANTES SUICIDAS DE AMIJIMA
AUTOR: CHIKAMATSU MOZAEMON
EDITORIAL: @editorialtrotta
COLECCION: PLIEGOS DE ORIENTE
PAGINAS: 125
TRADUCCION: JAIME FERNANDEZ
Es la primera vez que me acerco a un autor tan interesante como Mozaemon por medio de su obra mas conocida. Está edición es del año 2000, lo que hace que este libro sea totalmente único y diferente.
Esta obra del género teatral jōruri, o teatro de marionetas nos acerca a la historia de Jihei y Koharu dos amantes prohibidos que buscan estar juntos pero las circunstancias los hacen terminar con sus vidas para finalmente cumplir con su amor. A lo largo de tres Actos esta obra, tiene diferentes personajes que entran en acción e intentan separar a estos amantes con lazos profundos del amor. Pero a lo largo vamos descubriendo intrigas y odio por parte de familiares hacia Jihei y hacia la pobre Koharu.
Jihei es comerciante , Koharu una mujer galante , los dos se aman y aunque Osan (esposa de Jihei) los intento separar ellos dos siguieron hasta el final planeando la forma en quitarse la vida y aunque algunos intentaron detenerlos al final cumplieron su cometido. De verdad es una pieza de teatro exquisita que refleja parte de lo que fue Osaka en aquellos años como un espacio de comercio, de entretenimiento y se convirtió en un lugar muy popular lejos de la elegancia de Kioto.
Aunque hay similares historias de Amor, el autor logra darle un toque de sufrimiento, y que por medio de tres Actos (no cinco como solía ser) cuente una historia tan intensa que hasta nuestros días sigue siendo tan fascinante.
AUTOR: CHIKAMATSU MOZAEMON
EDITORIAL: @editorialtrotta
COLECCION: PLIEGOS DE ORIENTE
PAGINAS: 125
TRADUCCION: JAIME FERNANDEZ
Es la primera vez que me acerco a un autor tan interesante como Mozaemon por medio de su obra mas conocida. Está edición es del año 2000, lo que hace que este libro sea totalmente único y diferente.
Esta obra del género teatral jōruri, o teatro de marionetas nos acerca a la historia de Jihei y Koharu dos amantes prohibidos que buscan estar juntos pero las circunstancias los hacen terminar con sus vidas para finalmente cumplir con su amor. A lo largo de tres Actos esta obra, tiene diferentes personajes que entran en acción e intentan separar a estos amantes con lazos profundos del amor. Pero a lo largo vamos descubriendo intrigas y odio por parte de familiares hacia Jihei y hacia la pobre Koharu.
Jihei es comerciante , Koharu una mujer galante , los dos se aman y aunque Osan (esposa de Jihei) los intento separar ellos dos siguieron hasta el final planeando la forma en quitarse la vida y aunque algunos intentaron detenerlos al final cumplieron su cometido. De verdad es una pieza de teatro exquisita que refleja parte de lo que fue Osaka en aquellos años como un espacio de comercio, de entretenimiento y se convirtió en un lugar muy popular lejos de la elegancia de Kioto.
Aunque hay similares historias de Amor, el autor logra darle un toque de sufrimiento, y que por medio de tres Actos (no cinco como solía ser) cuente una historia tan intensa que hasta nuestros días sigue siendo tan fascinante.
May 13, 2021
No es la primera obra de Monzaemon que me leo y puede que eso haya influido en que no me haya sorprendido demasiado. Parece que el tipo de obras de "amantes suicidas" de Monzaemon siguen la misma estructura, así que habiendo leído "Los amantes suicidas de Sonezaki" ya intuía por donde iban los tiros. A pesar de ello, la obra tiene su encanto. Con algunos giros en la trama y un sabor del deber tan a la japonesa, que me ha descolocado a la vez que intrigado.
Curioso, que a lo largo de la introducción mencionen que esta es su obra culmen, cuando sus piezas: "Los amantes suicidas de Sonezaki" y "Las batallas de Coxinga" me parecieron de mejor calidad. Pero puede que eso se debiera a que era de mis primeros contactos con Monzaemon.
Curioso, que a lo largo de la introducción mencionen que esta es su obra culmen, cuando sus piezas: "Los amantes suicidas de Sonezaki" y "Las batallas de Coxinga" me parecieron de mejor calidad. Pero puede que eso se debiera a que era de mis primeros contactos con Monzaemon.
April 23, 2025
3.5 stars.
A three act play that portrays the brothel system in 18th century Japan. Koharu is a courtesan who falls in love with Jihei, who is married to Osan, and has two children with her.
Because the lovers cannot be together in this lifetime, they make a suicide pact to be together in the next life.
I read this play while subbing a World Lit class just so I could understand the assignment. The whole thing is just depressing, but I guess it is a good portrayal of the class system, family dynamics, extended family dynamics, and the great importance of honor during this time period in Japan.
A three act play that portrays the brothel system in 18th century Japan. Koharu is a courtesan who falls in love with Jihei, who is married to Osan, and has two children with her.
Because the lovers cannot be together in this lifetime, they make a suicide pact to be together in the next life.
I read this play while subbing a World Lit class just so I could understand the assignment. The whole thing is just depressing, but I guess it is a good portrayal of the class system, family dynamics, extended family dynamics, and the great importance of honor during this time period in Japan.
May 26, 2017
Definitivamente no puede imaginarme en ningún momento como rayos se hacía esta historia con títeres... A pesar de eso, que en realidad no tiene nada que ver con la historia, me pareció una obra muy entretenida, que te mantiene hasta el final con la incógnita de lo que sucederá, aunque estoy segura de que esa no era la idea y que sólo yo fui la ingenua de dudar como terminaría.
En fin, me gustó, tampoco fue la mejor obra del mundo pero para ser teatro oriental que está dedicado a la representación y para nada a la lectura, me resulto muy fluida y divertida.
Cambio y fuera.
En fin, me gustó, tampoco fue la mejor obra del mundo pero para ser teatro oriental que está dedicado a la representación y para nada a la lectura, me resulto muy fluida y divertida.
Cambio y fuera.
December 4, 2020
🌸მძიმედ ირწევა სიჯიმის ტალღა
ირწევა წყვილიც
აღმოსავლეთით
ცა იწვერება მაღლა და მაღლა🌸
🐲ტაძარს ბევრი ჰყავს მოყურიადე,
გუგუნებს მრევლი: – მეოხედ გვექმენ! –
თუმც შემაღლებულ სამრეკლოებზე ზარების მაგივრად
ჭორები რეკენ🐲
Mondzaemonma dawera.
Me gadavwere yvela qagaldze,rac shemxvda.
ირწევა წყვილიც
აღმოსავლეთით
ცა იწვერება მაღლა და მაღლა🌸
🐲ტაძარს ბევრი ჰყავს მოყურიადე,
გუგუნებს მრევლი: – მეოხედ გვექმენ! –
თუმც შემაღლებულ სამრეკლოებზე ზარების მაგივრად
ჭორები რეკენ🐲
Mondzaemonma dawera.
Me gadavwere yvela qagaldze,rac shemxvda.
September 7, 2023
Maybe one of the most important texts in Japanese literature, it's still hard to grasp how good it is since it full of Japanese culture and was originally a puppet play. It's a great read. If only I read Japanese and knew more Japanese culture it would be so much better.
May 22, 2018
Worth the read.
December 7, 2020
So sad but beautiful
January 21, 2022
Impresionante obra. Me ha dejado sin palabras.
January 24, 2022
NOT GOOD. did not like this one. very sad and disgusting.
(western lit)
(western lit)
April 5, 2023
იაპონელებს სცოდნიათ დრამები თუ სცოდნიათ!
10/10
10/10
Read
March 2, 2023read for my world lit class. not really sure how to rate this one honestly
(check trigger warnings always)
(check trigger warnings always)
September 27, 2013
Excelente edición de Jaime Fernández para este clásico realmente arrollador de Chikamatsu. Una gran introducción a su obra, se le podría objetar el dedicarse únicamente a una obra del prolífico autor. La edición de tres obras más de Chikamatsu de la editorial Satori complemente y aumenta el valor de esta publicación pionera en el conocimiento del gran dramaturgo japonés.
Read
May 25, 2014This was a surprisingly deep and moving puppet play about romance and Buddhism. Obviously very unique. I recommend it. I loved the end.
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