EA 120 WEEK 7B I. Review of Bushido in Chushingura Treasury of Loyal Retainers A. In Edo period (1603-1868) replacement of Buddhism (abhorence of killing) with Neo-Confucian morality (justifies rigid hierarchical order, okay to kill in a just cause) 1. Loyalty: highest value is loyalty to superiors 2. Suicide: committing suicide is ultimate way to prove loyalty a. Chushingura: (Kampei, Heimon and Okaru,; all 47 retainers in the end) b. instead of suicide, can substitute your own son (Kumagai in Battle of Ichinotani); not clear if this ever happened in real life or if it is only a set plot element in Kabuki 3. "Righteous vendetta" is now okay, but must be okayed by government
4. Disinterest in wealth B. Review of Genres, Audience and Patronage in Edo Period 1. Genre expectations always influence plot elements
2. What was the audience/patronage for Kabuki and Bunraku?
4. How (and why) did samurai Neo-Confucian values affect stories?
5. Development of "worlds" (sekai) in response to censorship, which forbade jidaimono about contemporary political events and living samurai or aristocrats a. definition: "conventional settings or 'worlds' (sekai) populated with selected historical and fictional figures used by many puppet--and particularly, kabuki--playwrights in creating new plays. By setting contemporary plots in early periods, the playwright could add new levels of meaning and avoid being censored by government authorities." (TJT p. 543) b. Chushingura is based on a real event (see intro to play). In 1702 a lord was forced to commit suicide because he drew his sword in the presence of a shogunal deputy; 46 of his now masterless retainers bided their time, and then on the anniversary of their lord's death (1703), they attacked and killed the other lord. Three months later the government ruled that because they had not registered their vendetta with the government they all had to commit suicide. To avoid government censorship Chushingura was set in the world of the Taiheiki (covering historical events from 1318-1338) using both real/historical and fictional characters. II. Review of Chushingura story A. Basic Story 1. Chûshingura major story characters:
B. What values does Chûshingura celebrate? C. Question to consider for today: Yotsuya Kaidan as a parody/commentary on Chûshingura (A Treasury of Loyal Retainers, 1748) 1. How does Yotsuya pervert and betray those values? 2. How does Yotsuya continue to support samurai values? III. Yotsuya Ghost Stories (Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan) A. author: Tsuruya Nanboku IV (1755-1829) B. first performance: 1825, interwoven into a two-day performance of Chushingura 1. situation of Tokugawa government: weak; will fall within 40 years
2. popularity of new kinds of Kabuki: ghost stories (kaidan), kizewamono (twisted or raw domestic dramas) and shiranami mono (bandit/outlaw dramas) a. In Yotsuya Ghost Stories Nanboku mixes all three new types, with lots of spectacular effects (quick changes etc.) and including sly references to contemporary scandals 1) In original, Kohei and Oiwa are played by the same actor, using quick costume and makeup changes. b. All three new types showcase the lower depths of Edo period class structure (low-level prostitutes, beggars and outcastes, bandits and thieves) and include a good deal of violence c. Nanboku introduces new male type (adding to aragoto and wagoto): the iroaku or "sexy bad guy" d. Although ultimately good triumphs and evil is punished, evil is given much more attention along the way.
III. Basic Story of Ghosts Stories at Yotsuya Kabuki Kool (Yotsuya Kaidan starts @ 7) Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan (short excerpts from a recent performance, in Japanese no subtitles) Cocoon kabuki performance Yotsuya Kaidan at Bunkamura that appears to have been influenced by the 2002 performance below (trailer). Shinpa Kabuki style, with onnagata but combining elements from Kabuki and modern theater (in Japanese). It has a really interesting treatment of the dream sequence. @1 intro of story; Oiwa drinks medicine @75; @77 begins to feel pain; @93:30 Iemon sees her face and says he doesn't care about revenge:@109 Takuetsu tells Oiwa that she's disfigured and @110:30 forces her to look in the mirror; @121:blackens teeth and combs hair; @126 wrings blood out of her hair; 134 Iemon prepares to sleep with Oume Taisho Yotsuya Kaidan part 1, part 2 (2002 Bunkamura performance, in Japanese with no subtitles) This is not Kabuki (female actors and modern Japanese in Shinpa style) but intentionally includes many kabuki-like effects, including showing the hand-driven revolving and stage-tricks such as the board gettting pulled out of the river (part 2 at 17:00). It is a full performance of the Yotsuya Kaidan story; most modern kabuki performances eliminate the secondary story of Oiwa's sister and simply concentrate on Oiwa's transformation and haunting of Iemon, but that secondary story is fully included here. It eliminates the idyllic dream vision from Kabuki. @88:30 Oiwa drinks poison; @102:30 Takuetsu sees her face @105:30 Iemon's speech about revenge; 1:18 Oiwa sees her face; @1:23 tooth blackening and hair combing; @1:27:30 revealsher face; @142 kills Oume and her father; PART 2 @17:45 canal scene B&W 1956 version: @23 Oiwa gives thanks for medicine and drinks; @33 Iemon has come back and sees her face; 61:30 sees herself in the mirror; @75:30 she wrings blood out of her hair Invitation to Kabuki: Intro to Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan (includes three famous scenes: hair combing, the wooden board in canal, danmari) A. Characters and connection to Chushingura 1. Iemon (former retainer of Enya Hangan, now masterless) B. Central Story: Oiwa's husband Iemon is a former retainer of Enya Hangan, now a masterless samurai. She has just had a baby and is very weak. Iemon treats her badly but she stays with him because he has promised to help her find her father's murderer. In fact he is the murderer. Iemon is reduced to making umbrellas for a living, and so is tempted by the money of a rich doctor (Ito Kihei) living next door, whose daughter Oume wants to marry Iemon. The doctor tricks Oiwa into drinking a poison that horribly disfigures her face, so that Iemon won't want her anymore. She is accidentally killed when she runs into a sword (people are always doing this in Nanboku's plays). Iemon kills his servant Kohei, after Kohei steals some herbal medicine that he believes will help his former master Matanojo to join the vendetta. He kills him so he can blame his wife’s death on Kohei. He then takes the bodies and nails them to either side of a door panel and dumps them in the river. (Based on a big scandal at the time -- a husband killed his wife and her lover and nailed them to a door and dumped them in the river in Osaka) For the rest of the play, Kohei and Oiwa come back in various forms to haunt Iemon. Basically they torment Iemon with hallucinations that cause him to hurt himself and others. C. parallel story lines with Chushingura
D. How does Yotsuya Ghost Stories problematize: 1. Virtue of loyalty and disinterest in wealth?
2. Value of traditional vendettas?
4. The power of wealth?
E. How are samurai values supported? 1. parody always assumes shared values -- the audience knows how you're supposed to act -- and then presents the opposite. But this means that samurai values are assumed to be the correct values, even as the characters go against them. 2. In the original performance context, the values of Chushingura were standing behind Yotsuya Ghost Stories 3. In the end, Iemon does get his comeuppance by Oiwa's brother-in-law Yomoshichi, so evil is punished. And all his co-conspirators are dead as well. F. Ghosts in Kabuki versus Noh 1. What do these ghosts look like? What is their motivation? a. Kohei gets medicine for Matanojo, so he can participate in vendetta b. Oiwa drives Iemon insane and then Yomoshichi kills him [image] F. What to watch for in video 1. the same actor plays Kohei and Oiwa -- how is it done?
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