EA 116 Japanese Ghosts (Winter 2018) Week 8b
I. Chûshingura (A Treasure of Loyal Retainers, 1748) [Wikipedia, but ignore the section on "religious signficance"]
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 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 he will avenge his murder.
b. Oiwa, Iemon's wife
c. Kohei, Iemon's servant (formerly a servant of another retainer of Enya Hangan)
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
Image 1: Oiwa with her baby
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). 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)
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.
Youtube: highlights of recent version
Youtube: b&w version of kabuki play
E. Discussion questions:
1. What samurai values does Chûshingura celebrate?
2. Given that Yotsuya Ghost Stories was written as a kind of parody (or at least negative commentary) on Chûshingura, as you read the story, look for ways that samurai values (for example, loyalty at all costs, a belief in righteous vendettas, a disinterest in wealth) are perverted and betrayed. On the other hand, how are they supported?
3. Compare the representation of the Yotsuya ghosts to that of ghosts in the Heian and Medieval period. For example, how do the ghosts of Oiwa and Kohei die? How are they transformed into ghosts? How do they get their revenge in Yotsuya? Is there any interest in pacification of the ghosts? How are they portrayed visually? [for images, click here]
F. Example of one way that Chûshingura is subverted by Yotsuya Kaidan
1. Oiwa as ubume (woman who died in childbirth) (image)
a. Comparison to Okiku in Banshû Sarayashiki (The Plate Mansion)
b. Comparison to "The Weeping Rock"
II. Summary
A. New themes/cultural anxieties (non-Buddhist)
1.
2.
B. Character compared to Noh
1. Simplification of psychology (little interiority) -- why?
2. Passive (in stories -- not so passive in Kabuki)
3. Guilty conscience
4. Often need help
C. Visual representation of change in level of power for victim ghosts
1.2.
3.
D. Neo-Confucian ideal of "onna-rashisa" (female-likeness)
1. Supposed inherent qualities of females that they must work hard to overcome
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
1) female demons
2. Male ideal of femininity
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
1) female victim ghosts