EA 116 Japanese Ghosts Week 8b
I. Chûshingura (A Treasure of Loyal Retainers, 1748) [Wikipedia, but ignore the section on "religious signficance," which is just wrong]
A. Tôkaidô Yotsuya Kaidan was originally performed in conjunction with Chûshingura, and therefore served as a parody/ironic commentary
B. Plot and characters of Chûshingura:
1. Time period: "Genroku"
2. Chûshingura story characters:
a. Enya Hangan (good guy)
b. Ko no Moronao (bad guy)
c. 47 ronin (masterless samurai) led by Oboshi Yuranosuke
Chûshingura is a fictionalized account of an historical incident that occurred in 1701-1703. In the play version of events, on the day of an important shogunal ceremony, the evil Ko no Moronao so insults and goads the young Lord Enya that Enya feels compelled to draw his sword and attack Moronao. Moronao escapes serious harm, but because Enya drew his sword when a representative of the Shogun was present, Enya is forced to commit ritual suicide. His house is broken up and his retainers all become masterless samurai (ronin). Nevertheless, they remain loyal to their dead master, who they believe has been unfairly punished, and after a year of great hardship and self-sacrifice, on the anniversary of Enya's death they stage a raid on Moronao's mansion and kill him. Afterwards they all commit ritual suicide (seppuku).
3. Chûshingura celebrates Edo period samurai (Bushidô) values:
a.
b.
c.
II. Yotsuya Ghost Stories (Tôkaidô Yotsuya Kaidan)
A. author: Tsuruya Nanboku IV (1755-1829)
B. period: first performed 1825
1. situation of Tokugawa government
C. Basic Story and Images of Yotsuya Kaidan
1. Characters:
a. Tamiya Iemon ( former retainer of Enya Hangan, now a masterless samurai, or rônin). In the first act, Iemon murders his father-in-law, then promises Oiwa that if she marries him, he will avenge his murder.
b. Oiwa, Iemon's wife, who has recently has a baby and is still unwell
c. Kohei, Iemon's servant (formerly a servant of another retainer of Enya Hangan, who has been too ill to participate in the vendetta)
NOTE: the role of Oiwa and Kohei are played by the same actor
d. neighboring doctor named Itô Kihei and his grandaughter Oume (Itô is the personal doctor of the evil Ko no Moronao)
2. Other characters that complicate the story:
a. Oiwa's sister Osode is also married to a Enya Hangan retainer, Sato Yomoshichi. In the first act, another evil ronin retainer, Naosuke, murders a man he thinks is Yomoshichi and then (like Iemon) promises Osode if she marries him, he will avenge Yomoshichi's murder. (Later on, it is revealed that Naosuke is actually Osode's brother and that he killed his own lord, who was pretending to be Yomoshichi.)
2. Plot
Youtube: Kabuki Kool, short exerpt of Yotsuya Kaidan (6:50 scene where Iemon takes mosquito netting; 8:20 Oiwa's ghost emerges from the lantern)
Image 1: Oiwa with her baby
Iemon is invited to the neighbor's home, Ito Kohei, where he finds out that Ito's daughter Oume has fallen in love with him and wants to marry him. Iemon and his men are bribed with a great deal of gold coins to do so.
Image 2: While Iemon is at the doctor's house, being bribed to marry Oume, Oume's nurse comes with "medicine" for Oiwa. She drinks it and is hideously disfigured.
Image 3: Oiwa dies by running into a short sword sticking in a pillar; Kohei is murdered by Iemon and his men. Iemon ties them on either side of door and throws them in a canal (reference to a recent real life murder of a wife and her lover by the husband, who nailed their bodies to a door).
Iemon, thinking that he has successfully gotten rid of both Oiwa and Kohei, proceeds with his plans to marry Doctor Ito's daughter, but the ghost of Oiwa tricks him into killing both Oume and her father. A rat runs onto the stage and drags off Oiwa's baby as well. So all of Iemon's plans go awry.
Video 2:00
Later on, when Iemon is fishing in the canal, he pulls the door up to find the two bodies.
Youtube: canal scene with Oiwa and Kohei nailed to board (Ichikawa Ennosuke as Oiwa/Kohei and Ichikawa Danjuro as Tamiya Iemon)
Oiwa: “ Let the leaves of the Tamiya and Ito family branches wither to exorcise my vengeance!” and holds out the mamori that Oume had when she got killed.
Iemon: Oh Buddha! Save me! Save me! Save me!
When she collapses: “Ha, so you’re not ready to make your peace yet!”
Flips the board
Iemon: My god! On the other side too!
Kohei: My master has an incurable disease. Give me your family medicine!
Youtube: B&W canal scene (1:46:20)
Image 4: Illustration of Oiwa as a ghost
Image 5: Snake Mountain. Iemon dreams that he meets a beautiful young woman and they have a romance; it turns out to be Oiwa, whose spirit emerges from a paper lantern
Image 6: the same scene in Kabuki, with images of the baby held by Oiwa. At the very end of the play, Iemon is killed by Yomoshichi.
Videos: Cocoon Bunkamura performance of Yotsuya Kaidan
Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan part 1 (Bando Tamasaburo as Oiwa, Kataoka Nizaemon XV as Iemon)
Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan part 4: Snake mountain scene
III. Discussion
A. Given that Yotsuya Ghost Stories was written as a kind of parody (or at least negative commentary) on Chûshingura, how are samurai values (for example, loyalty at all costs, a belief in righteous vendettas, a disinterest in wealth) perverted and betrayed? On the other hand, how are they supported?
Examples you might consider:
1. Comparison to Okiku in Banshû Sarayashiki (The Plate Mansion)
a. Does Oiwa care about the 47 Ronin's righteous vendetta?
b. Is she a good example of onna-rashisa or not?
2. Comparison to "The Weeping Rock"
a. Does Oiwa care about her child?
a. Visual representation: Oiwa as ubume (woman who died in childbirth) (image).
B. Why might Tsuryuya Nanboku have been able to present such a negative view of samurai values in 1825?
IV. Summary
A. New themes/cultural anxieties (non-Buddhist)
1.
2.
B. Character compared to Noh
1. Simplification of psychology (little interiority) compared to Noh or Heian period literature -- why?
2. Passive (in tales/stories -- not so passive in Kabuki)
3. Guilty conscience of men
4. Often need help from living to get revenge
C. Visual representation of change in level of power for victim ghosts compared to Noh
1.2.
3.