A Chikamatsu masterpiece, The Love Suicides at Amijima (心中天網島 Shinjūten no Amijima) is based on a real incident involving a pair of lovers who killed themselves on the Amijima Diachō Temple grounds in Osaka on November 13, 1720.[1] The puppet play opened not quite two months later on January 3, 1721.

"In Amijima, Chikamatsu goes well beyond simply staging a current event. The play explores the intricacies of a love triangle by treating the wife, Osan, as a major character. The entangling web of interactions between the wife and the courtesan, Koharu (小春), complicates the plot and adds new depths to a familiar story" which ends in the double suicide of Koharu and her lover, Jihei.[1]   

This print is from the supplement to Volume 1 of the "Complete Works of Chikamatsu."

[1] Various dates are given for the couple's suicide, including October 14, 1720 in "The Bunraku Handbook" by Shuzaburo Hironaga, Maison Des Arts, Inc. Tokyo, 1976.

[2] Traditional Japanese Theater: An Anthology of Plays, Karen Brazell, Columbia University Press, 1998, p. 333-334. For a translation of the entire play see The Major Plays of Chikamatsu, translated by Donald Keene, Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 387-425.

Chikamatsu tells the story of the lovers Chūbei, a courier, and Umekawa (梅川), a courtesan from Osaka's Shinmachi entertainment district, in his 1711 play The Courier for Hell (冥途の飛脚 Meido no hikyaku). Chūbei will steal his customers’ money to buy Umekawa’s contract and the two run away to his home town in the mountains to escape punishment. As the snow intensifies, they will perish in the mountains.[1]  

In this print we see Umekawa with Chūbei beside her (only his headwrap is seen) as they flee in the snow.

This print is from the supplement to Volume 2 of the "Complete Works of Chikamatsu."

Kitano repurposed this design for his slightly later woodblock print, titled The Heron Maiden (Sagi musume), published in 1925, as shown on the right. 

[1] For a translation of the entire play see The Major Plays of Chikamatsu, translated by Donald Keene, Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 161-194.

This print depicts princess Kinshōjo (錦祥女) from Chikamatsu's play The Battles of Coxinga (国性爺合戦 Kokusen'ya kassen). The play, a masterpiece of the puppet theater (ningyō jōruri 人形浄瑠璃), was first staged in November 1715 and it remains the most successful play in the history of jōruri. 

Nishiyama portrays the moment after Kinshōjo stabs herself, allowing her blood to flow into the Lion Castle moat as a signal that her husband, general Kanki, will join Watōnai (later known as Coxinga) to fight the Tartars. The two become allies and Watōnai is given the name Coxinga (Kokusen'ya in Japanese), Lord of Enpei.[1]

This print is from the supplement to Volume 3 of the "Complete Works of Chikamatsu."

[1] For a translation of the pivotal Act 2 of the play see Donald Keene's translation in Traditional Japanese Theater: An Anthology of Plays, Karen Brazell, Columbia University Press, 1998, p. 314-332. For a translation of the entire play see The Major Plays of Chikamatsu, translated by Donald Keene, Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 195-269.

In this print Yamamura depicts the prostitute Koman (小萬) walking along under a waning moon, leading an unseen horse and its rider, Yosaku, who has collapsed on his saddle, as they travel on the "Road of Dreams," in Act 3 of Yosaku from Tanba Singing a Song of Komuro  (丹波与作待夜のこむろぶし Tanba Yosaku machiyo no komurobushi).[1]

"Yosaku is a samurai reduced to working as a horse driver because of his offenses in the past. He has betrayed his wife, failed to repay his master’s kindness, and abandoned his child. We learn that he gambles and has recently lost at a game in which the stake was a horse belonging to another man. In order to raise some money, Yosaku persuades the boy Sankichi to steal. When Koman, the courtesan who is Yosaku’s sweetheart, protests, Yosaku answers, 'You’re too timid. If the kid is caught, the worst he’ll get is a spanking.' Sankichi is in fact caught, and eventually condemned to be executed. Yosaku and Koman, overcome with remorse, decide they must kill themselves. On their journey to death Yosaku emerges as a tragic figure, and his transgressions, though not forgiven, seem to have made possible at last the flowering of his true nature."[2]

This print is from the supplement to Volume 4 of the "Complete Works of Chikamatsu."

[1] For a complete translation of the play see The Major Plays of Chikamatsu, translated by Donald Keene, Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 91-130. The play's title is also seen translated as "The Night Song of Yosaku from Tamba." 

[2] Ibid. p. 22-23.

In this print, we see a tree shaded straw hut, Buddhist offerings and a lute. Semimaru, the blind lute player, sits in contemplation in the fourth act of the play Semimaru. 

"The year 1688 is the likeliest date of composition of Chikamatsu’s puppet play Semimaru (蝉丸). It was the third notably successful play presented with Chikamatsu’s name as playwright. Chikamatsu transforms the legend of Semimaru into a love story while retaining the traditional identity of Semimaru as an enlightened poet whose most famous poem shows the futility of man’s emotional attachments to others."[1]   

This print is from the supplement to Volume 5 of the "Complete Works of Chikamatsu."

[1] The Legend of Semimaru, Blind Musician of Japan, Susan Matisoff, Cheng & Tsui, 2006, p. 130-131, 148. 

This print depicts the character Matsukaze (松風), an ama (female diver) from the play The Story of Matsukaze (松風村雨束帯鑑 Matsukaze Murasame sokutai kagami). First staged around 1705, the play tells the story of the love of the courtier Ariwara Yukihira, in exile in Suma, for two local brine maidens, the sisters Matsukaze and Murasame. The sisters die of grief after Ariwara returns to the capital.

This print is from the supplement to volume 6 of the Complete Works of Chikamatsu.

A bunraku puppet in the role of Asahina Saburō Yoshihide (朝比奈三郎), a man of great strength, in the fourth scene in the play The Soga Heir (世継曽我 Yotsugi Soga), first performed in 1683.

Chikamatsu sets this story after the Soga brothers' death. In summary, "the Soga brothers take revenge on their father's killer, Kudō Suketsune. However, the older brother, Jūrō, dies in the fighting, and the younger one, Gorō, receives the death sentence after being treated like an animal at a hunting site by Shingai no Arashirō and Arai Toda. Asahina no Saburō, a relative of the Soga Family, becomes enraged by this and tells the retainers of the Soga, Onio and Dozaburo, to avenge their lord by killing these men. Onio, Dozaburo, Tora (the lover of Jūrō) and Shosho (the lover of Gorō) kill Arashiro and Toda with the support of Asahina no Saburō. Jurō's son Sukewaka was made the lord of the province of the Soga family which is controlled by Minamoto no Yoritomo (the first shogun of the Kamakura shogunate), and becomes the Soga Family heir."[1]

This print is from the supplement to volume 6 of the Complete Works of Chikamatsu issued ins September 1921. 

[1] City of Amagasaki website devoted to Chikamatsu https://www.city.amagasaki.hyogo.jp/manabu/art/chikamatu/055chikamatsu_sakuhin.html [accessed 3-7-24]

Chikamatsu's play The Almanac-Maker's Tale (大経師昔暦 Daikyōji mukashi goyomi), first performed in 1715, is based on the real life story of the illicit love affair of Osan (おさん) and Moemon, leading to their execution. "While Osan’s husband, the almanac maker, was absent in Edo, the maidservant, Tama, acted as an intermediary to arrange a love affair between her mistress and the clerk, Moemon. Osan became pregnant and when the result of her infidelity could no longer be concealed she fled to Tanba with Moemon. The fugitives were soon discovered, brought back to Kyoto and executed at Awataguchi, together with the maid."[1]

In Chikamatsu's play, Osan and her lover are saved at the end of the play by the intercession of a powerful priest. In the first act "Osan, realizing that her husband has been visiting the maid Tama at night, decides that she will teach him a lesson. She changes places with the maid and prepares to upbraid her unfaithful husband when he joins her in bed. Meanwhile the clerk, Mohei, who is under obligation to the maid and who knows that she is in love with him, steals to her bedroom, intending finally to gratify her desires. He is, instead, received by Osan, who, believing that it is her husband, responds warmly to his advances.[2] 

Okada presents Osan glancing over her shoulder with clasped hands held to her cheek. 

This print is from the supplement to Volume 6 of the "Complete Works of Chikamatsu."

[1] "The Life of an Amorous Woman," Ihara Saikaku, New Directions Books, 1963, p. 271.

[2] Ibid.

First performed on September 26, 1717, Chikamatsu modeled the play Gonza the Lancer (鑓の権三重帷子 Yari no gonza kasane katabira) on events which occurred about six weeks before its first performance, changing the names of the characters and moving the location of the final scene. He called the chief character Gonza, the hero of a half-century-old ballad.[1]

In the print Osai (おさい), the wife of a tea ceremony teacher, who secretly longs for Sasano Gonza, her intended son-in-law, holds the sash she has just torn from Gonza after a struggle. The sash displays his crest and a reverse chrysanthemum joined in a lover's knot. After tearing off the sash she cries "Are you so devoted to that sash? Here, I know you won't like it, but wear my sash instead. It will become a vengeful snake, wrap itself around you waste, and never let you go."[2] While jealous, she smiles sweetly, looking over her shoulder with a tender expression of affection. When Gonza throws her sash into the garden it is taken by the samurai Bannojō, hiding there, as proof of their adultery, the penalty for which is death.

This print is from the supplement to Volume 7 of the "Complete Works of Chikamatsu."

[1] J-STAGE website https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/nihonbungaku/30/7/30_KJ00009986281/_article/-char/ja/ [accessed 3-7-24]

[2]For a translation of the play see The Major Plays of Chikamatsu, translated by Donald Keene, Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 270-312. 

Yohei (与兵衛), a 23 year old debt-ridden oil merchant, draws his dagger to kill Okichi the wife of the oil merchant Teshimaya Shichizaemon and take the money she's removed from a safe, in the third act of Chikamatsu's The Oil-Hell Murder (女殺油地獄, Onnagoroshi abura no jigoku), first performed in August 1721 on the bunraku stage.[1] 

The play is based on the real-life story of a murder that occurred in Osaka in 1720. "The murder which inspired this work occurred, as in Chikamatsu's dramatization, on the night before the Boys' Festival in 1721. Little is known of the events surrounding the crime, but Chikamatsu's version may have been influenced by a slightly earlier Kabuki play on the same theme. Chikamatsu attempted to relieve the gloomy atmosphere with lighter touches . . ., but the play was not well received, and its present high reputation dates only from the end of the nineteenth century."[2]

This print is from the supplement to Volume 8 of the "Complete Works of Chikamatsu."

[1] The play is also seen translated as "The Woman-Killer and The Hell of Oil."

[2] The Major Plays of Chikamatsu, translated by Donald Keene, Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 426. For a complete translation see the same work p. 426-472.

The puppet play The Mountain Witch (嫗山姥 Komochi yamanba) premiered in the 7th lunar month of 1712 in Osaka at the Takemoto-za. It tells the story of a beautiful young woman, Yaegiri, formerly a courtesan, who is transformed into a yamanba with supernatural power who leaves for the mountains to raise her son Kintarō, born with superhuman powers.[1]

Ogawa's print depicts the mountain witch on her mountain pilgrimage in the fourth act of Komochi yamanba. She stands on the clouds to show her supernatural powers. 

This print is from the supplement to Volume 9 of the "Complete Works of Chikamatsu."

[1] The title of the play is also seen translated as "The Pregnant Mountain Ogres" and "Yamauba with a Child" among other English translations.

Chikamatsu Monzaemon's jōruri drama Yūgiri and the Awa Whirlpool (夕霧阿波鳴渡 Yūgiri Awa no naruto) was first staged in 1712 at the bunraku theater Takemoto-za in Osaka.[1]

Based on the real life story of a high-ranking courtesan of the Osaka's Shinmachi licensed quarter, Yūgiri Tayū (夕霧太夫), known for her beauty and entertainment skills, her death in 1678 while still in her twenties was met with grief and mourning in Osaka. Her death would spawn many plays, including this jōruri.

The play tells the story of Yūgiri and her lover Izaemon, who has been disowned by his family. They  conceive a child and to secure the child's future she convinces a wealthy client that the child is his. When the ruse is discovered Yugiri is cast out and falls ill. Just when all seems lost, Izaemon's mother accepts both Yugiri as her son's wife and the child. 

This print is from the supplement to Volume 10 of the "Complete Works of Chikamatsu."

[1] The title of the play is also seen translated into English as "Yūgiri and the. Roaring Gateway to Awa." 

In the most well-known and praised print in the series, the female artist Uemura Shōen depicts the Snow Woman (Yuki onna 雪女), the spirit of the maidservant Nakagawa, bearing the sword she has stolen from the shogun, in Chikamatsu's jōruri play Yuki Onna Gomai Hagoita.

Tales of the Snow Woman date back to the mid-14th century. Chikamatsu's play The Five Battledores of the Snow Woman (雪女五枚羽子板 Yuki onna gomai hagoita) was first performed in 1708. The play is based on the historical event of the Kakitsu Incident, in which Akamatsu Mitsuyuki assassinated Ashikaga Yoshinori, the sixth shogun of the Ashikaga shogunate.

The play tells the story of Nakagawa, a maidservant of Yoshinori who is tricked by Akamatsu into stealing Yoshinori's sword. She is caught and imprisoned in a snow-covered courtyard where she freezes to death and transforms into a snow woman (yuki onna) who seeks revenge on Akamatsu.

This print is from the supplement to Volume 12 of the "Complete Works of Chikamatsu."

The story of "Kezori" (Kezori Kuemon 毛剃九右衛門) is based on a real incident involving a gang of seven smugglers who were caught in Nagasaki and were nose-cut and put in  stocks for three days in Osaka in October 1718. Chikamatsu Monzaemon immediately adapted this event for the puppet theater (ningyō jōruri 人形浄瑠璃), writing the drama The Girl from Hakata, or Love at Sea (博多小女郎波枕 Hakata kojorō namimakura), staged at the Takemoto-za in November 1718.[1]

Noda depicts the smuggler captain Kezori ("close shave") on the deck of his ship lying in anchor in the Port of Shimonoseki. The sun is setting as Kezori awaits the arrival of his passengers.

This print is from the supplement to volume 13 of the Complete Works of Chikamatsu. 

[1] The Major Plays of Chikamatsu, translated by Donald Keene, Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 4. For the complete translation of the play see the same work p. 351- 386.

Kitani Chigusa, the wife of Kitani Hōgin, editor of The Complete Works of Chikamatsu, and one of two women artists contributing to this series, depicts the beauty Ochiyo (お千代), wife of the greengrocer Hanbei, who was once a samurai.

Chikamatsu's Love Suicides on the Eve of the Kōshin Festival (心中宵庚申 Shinjū yoi gōshin), first performed in the fourth month of 1722 at the Takemoto-za in Osaka, was based on an actual incident in Osaka in which a married couple, the wife pregnant, committed suicide. It was Chikamatsu's last play based on contemporary events.[1] 

This print is from the supplement to Volume 14 of the "Complete Works of Chikamatsu."

[1] The day of kōshin recurred every 60 days and signified a wake to exorcise bad spirits. For an English translation of the play see Chikamatsu 5 Late Plays, C. Andrew Gerstle, Columbia University Press, 2001, p. 278-324.

This print by Tomita Keisen depicts the priest Mongaku (文覚) paying penance for his sins by standing under Nachi waterfall in winter in the play The Five Precepts of Law (一心五戒魂 Isshin gokai no tama). About to die, he is rescued by the god Fudō Myō-ō (Buddhist Diety of Fire) and his attendants Kongara and Seitaka.

Chikamatsu's Isshin gokai no tama was first performed in 1703. It is the second of Chikamatsu's two plays based on the story of the monk Mongaku from the "Tale of the Heike." In the play, Mongaku commits a heinous crime, killing his lover in a fit of jealousy. He then goes on a journey of atonement and penance, including his standing for days under Nachi waterfall in winter. Eventually he becomes a great monk. 

This print is from the supplement to Volume 14 of the "Complete Works of Chikamatsu."

[1] The five precepts of Buddhism are: (1) not to kill; (2 ) not to steal; (3) not to commit adultery; (4) not to speak falsely; (5) not to drink wine.  

The heroine Tora Gozen (虎御前) in the play The Sogas, Tora and the Stone Basin (曽我虎が磨 Soga tora ga ishiusu) first performed in 1716.[1]

Ishikawa depicts Tora Gozen, Soga Jūrō's lover, candle lighting her way, as she enters the camp of Kudō Suketsune, the killer of Jūrō's and Gorō's father. The Kudō clan's crest is seen on the curtain.

This print is from the supplement to volume 16 of the Complete Works of Chikamatsu. 

[1] The name of the play is also seen translated into English as "Tora Gozen's stone mortar."

The Sixteen Volume Set

The Complete Works of Chikamatsu

The entire sixteen volume set can be viewed on the website of the Haithi Trust at - https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/002892816

Preface to Volume 1 by Kitani Hōgan [partial translation][1]

It is not appropriate to regard Chikamatsu's plays as mere literary works, to be read as poetic dramas. At the very least, Chikamatsu's plays are a new and vibrant form of stage art that was first created in Japan for the masses. It is important to remember that they are a unique Japanese folk art that uses the world-renowned joruri narrative style, in which a chanter uses his or her voice to bring the puppets to life and enlighten the masses. They were also a powerful and influential form of popular art that formed the spiritual basis of plebeian culture in the modern era.

I was born and raised in Osaka, the city that nurtured and cultivated the great art of Chikamatsu. I could not contain my feelings of joy and pride, and regardless of my shallow knowledge and poor talent, I finally decided to publish this book. However, I believe that this is something that I should do as a citizen of Osaka. And I believe that it is important to correct the narrow-minded and subjective views of Chikamatsu that are prevalent in the modern era.

I have spent many years studying Chikamatsu's plays, and I have come to believe that they are a treasure trove of Japanese culture. They are a valuable source of information about the history, society, and culture of Japan in the Edo period. They are also a powerful and moving expression of the human spirit.

I hope that this book will help people to understand and appreciate Chikamatsu's plays for their true value. I also hope that it will inspire people to learn more about Japanese culture and history.