【Translation】Sonezaki died for love

The last time I attended a seminar, I heard someone mention this play when they were studying the travel literature in opera~ I personally heard this story for the first time. After checking it, I found the plot and its follow-up influence very interesting.

Although the Chinese Wiki has also briefly translated the contents of the Japanese wiki, the Japanese is still relatively complete. Here, only the first two parts of the plot and the impact caused by the time are turned out, and a glimpse of the upsurge of Japanese love literature in the 18th century~ :D

background

"Sonezaki Suicide" is based on the morning of April 7, 1703 (May 22, 1703), a prostitute Achu (21), a prostitute at Tenmanya, Dojima, Dojima, Osaka, and Tokubei ( 25) It is based on the true story of martyrdom in the forest of the open-air shrine in Sonezaki Village, Seisei County.

After this incident, the open-air shrine is also often referred to as Achu Tenjin. (Deified?! Σ(ﾟдﾟ|||))

Although the joruri puppet show of "Sonezaki's Love" was performed for the first time at the Takemoto-za in Dojiboricho on May 7 (June 20) of the same year, according to rumors at the time, the same script was performed earlier It has been performed in the way of Kabuki before, and it can be seen that it was a hot news that everyone was talking about at that time.

In the first year of Bao Yong (1704), "The Great Picture Book of Martyrdom of Love" (Is there a picture book too? Σ(´Д`*)), Volume 3 "Osaka Department", it is published in the same event. The novel "The Dawn of Sonezaki".

Taking this play as a starting point, "the love story" became popular. The representative work of Kanmatsumon Zaemon, the joruri puppet drama "The Love of the Skynet Island" was also published in the fifth year of Kenbao (1720).

On the other hand, because of the popularity of such love stories, there have been more cases of love sacrifices in which the two vowed to continue their relationship in the next life. The Edo shogunate began to prohibit the screenwriting, performance and distribution of love stories from the eighth year of Kenbao (1723). At the same time, it was announced that if only one of them survived, they would be sentenced to death; if both survived, they would be paraded through the streets and their citizenship rights would be deprived; Etc., although extremely severe punishments were imposed on the incident of sacrificing love, compared with the events such as the "Four Great Edo Famines" and the "Rise of Dawn" that followed, people's sacrificial love was still quite popular.

(The terms of punishment are super severe!! How popular is it?! Σ(ﾟдﾟ(ﾟдﾟ*))

ps: The weather in the Edo period was very miserable. There were droughts, heavy rains, floods, insect pests, epidemics and volcanic eruptions for several years (there were volcanic eruptions in five years!!!! The Hoyo Great Fire eruption in 1707 was the latest in Mount Fuji. The volcano erupted, which lasted for two weeks at the time), and it even snowed during the rice harvest (cold summer), thus causing severe famine. It was later referred to as the Four Famines of Edo. As a result, the price of rice rose, resulting in several riots or looting of the people, known as the "Dawn Riots".

things go by

(This description seems to be carried out in the way of a drama, so the words "appearance" or "exit" appear)

The story tells that Chu, who has finished his tour of the thirty-three temples in the Western Kingdom (now that this kind of Kannon pilgrimage is not used much), meets Tokubei, the clerk of the soy sauce shop, on the last stop of Kannon's tour, " Ikokusoul Shrine ". The two were already lovers before the tour. Tokubei explained to Hatsu, who complained that he didn't write any letters during his tour, and explained how miserable he was during the period of not seeing each other.

In fact, Tokubei was an apprentice at his uncle's house since he was a child. He was trusted because of his sincerity in his work, so his uncle planned to let him marry his daughter (that is, Tokubei's cousin) and inherit the store. Although Tokubei rejected the matter because he was already in love with Ah Chu. But the uncle secretly continued the preparations without Tokubei's knowledge, and was not discovered until he gave Tokubei's stepfather a gift.

Furthermore, Tokubei's steadfast refusal to marry also angered his uncle, who announced that he would cut ties with him. The actual content is that he is not allowed to buy and sell in the future, he is asked to get out of Osaka, and the money for the clothes purchased for the wedding must be repaid within seven days. Just when Tokubei finally got the gift money back from his stepmother and planned to return it to his uncle, his friend Jiuheiji came and said that he needed the money urgently no matter what, and asked Tokubei to lend him the money and promised to pay it back within three days, so Tokubei came. Lend him that money.

Speaking of this, Jiu Pingji appeared. At the same time, the guests who were worried that Ah Chu would be involved in a quarrel led Ah Chu out of the arena.

Tokubei forced Jiupei to pay back the money. However, Jiuheiji retorted that Tokubei demanded repayment without any evidence, "I didn't borrow any money at all!", and called him a liar in front of everyone, and beat him, causing him to lose his reputation. Although he was so cruelly betrayed by a friend who was close to his brother, Tokubei felt that there was no other means other than suicide to prove his innocence for not embezzling the gift money. After making up his mind, Tokubei secretly went to Chu's residence at dusk to find her.

When Ah Chu saw Tokubei, he said it would be bad if others saw him, so he hid Tokubei under the floor. (Traditional Japanese-style buildings have raised floors.) At this time, Kuheiji visited Achu as a guest. Not only was he very rude to Achu, but he also spoke ill of Tokubei until he left. Tokubei was under the floor, trembling with anger at the treatment of Chu and the money that was cheated out of him. When he came out from the floor, he confessed his determination to seek death to Chu. In the end, Hatsu and Tokubei, hand in hand, headed to the open-air shrine forest of Sonezaki, the starting point of the journey to the underworld, and walked towards a path that would not be disturbed by the surroundings. (beginning of Dao Xingwen)

Although they tied each other to Lianri pine, and confirmed each other's determination, Tokubei couldn't help but hesitate to take the life of his beloved Ashu with his own hands. However, with the encouragement of Chu's "Hurry up! Hurry up!", Tokubei finally took Chu's life with a short sword, and in turn ended his own life with the same sword. In the end, the two people who died heroically in this world made a firm promise in the afterlife: "Whether you can become a Buddha in the future, there is no doubt that it has become a model of love." (The last sentence of Daoxingwen) realized their sad love and became this the end of the story.

[ps:] "Dao Xingwen" was originally the name of a opera to sing praises to the scenery and travel places along the way, but later it became a dance and music form that amused the audience when changing the stage. However, the doll Joruri's "Daoxing" is to express the sorrow of displacement under the pretense of place names and scenery, and it is accompanied by rhyming words and music that matches the scene, so that the audience can empathize with it. Therefore, the Taoxingwen here is a completely different deformation from the past. It talks about "the journey of seeking death", so the lyrics talk about the state of mind and the journey of seeking death. (Although the content is so dark, it is a classic representative of Taoism! Σ(ﾟдﾟ|||))

In the performance of Kabuki, the uncle of Tokubei was added to search for the missing Tokubei, so he went to the bridge section of Tenmanya, and after Achu and Tokubei left Tenmanya, the oil shop clerk came to Tenman Therefore, Jiuheiji's defrauding of Tokubei's money was exposed.

(Ah! It turned out to be in vain!  …(つД`)ノ)

Ah~ I finally finished it!ヽ(≧∀≦)ﾉ

I was a little curious about what kind of era caused such a passion for sacrificial love, so I went to investigate the culture of Japan in the middle and late stages of the 18th century (the so-called Edo period )~

During the Yuanlu period from 1688 to 1707, due to the vigorous development of agricultural and fishery merchants, it ushered in the peak of economy and culture: the Yuanlu culture . In art, he emphasizes "moving from world-weariness to floating world", and regards "present world" as "floating world" (the world of enjoyment), and reality and rationality are its spiritual characteristics. In addition to the noble art appreciated by the nobles, many creations with the style of the common people or reflecting the real society began to appear, especially the novels of Ihara Nishizuru, the wandering harmony of Matsuo Basho, and the puppet Joryuli of Zaemon near Matsue Gate .ｷﾀ━(ﾟ∀ﾟ)━!!!!

It is estimated that the real social event occurred in 1703, and the script of Kinmatsumon was written in 1720, and then the shogunate ban began in 1723 (the theme of suicide has been popular for 20 years?!). Although the Yuanlu culture was brilliant, the shogunate's finances were gradually embarrassed. Therefore, from 1716 to 1745, he promoted the reform of the protection of protection (the three major reforms together with Kanzheng and Tianbao, but the latter two reforms failed XD) aimed at saving, increasing tax and stabilize the price of rice. But in the middle of 1732, there was the Great Famine of Xiangbao (one of the four major famines), well, it felt very bad. In other words, the whole trend of sacrificial love continued during the change from prosperity to decline in the middle and late Edo period. Perhaps the entire context of the era also reflects the reasons why this craze can continue to burn.

In addition, what I personally find very interesting is that Tokugawa Ieyasu respected Confucianism (especially Zhu Xi), and although Buddhism was still the mainstream belief at that time, Confucianism still paid more attention to the present world. And from the perspective of the style of Yuanlu culture, it emphasizes the transition from the world of suffering to the praise of the world. At first glance, the style seems to have a strong sense of the world (reflecting the social news at the time), but from the content of the script, the central idea is still subtle. It has the color of world-weariness unique to Buddhist thought (in fact, Buddhism is not world-weary, but if the belief is crooked... um).

Therefore, judging from the story of Sonezaki's death in love, perhaps for the samurai family, they pursued Confucian loyalty, filial piety, benevolence, and righteousness, but for the common people of that era, perhaps it was a real feeling that life was like a dream and that all living beings were suffering. And art creators may be keenly aware of this, so it’s not necessarily that scripts written on the basis of this incident of martyrdom that sharpen the conflict of social values can be so popular in this era. (laugh)

But imagine that the highest love vow at that time was: "Let's die together!" Although it sounds ridiculous now, and it may be taken away by the police as a pervert, it was a very noble example of love at that time~
(Tea: Good boy, don’t mess around with your studies)

what! I forgot to check if Osamu Dazai, the lover king, is a big fan of this drama! XD

In the end, although it is not very relevant except for the theme of love sacrifice, this song expresses the entanglement and grief of a woman in love very well, so I attach the title song of "Showa Genroku Rakugo Heart", sung by Lin Yuanhui " Thin ice sacrifices love":