Chikamatsu Monzaemon: Historical Drama and Love Suicide Plays

Abstract

Chikamatsu Monzaemon was a playwright for the early modern puppet and kabuki theaters of Japan. His image has been subject to changing notions of the world and world canons in Japan. Though in the early modern period his historical plays were more frequently staged, he is remembered today for his love suicide plays, which are often compared to the works of Shakespeare and framed as possessing world literary value. In his period pieces, Chikamatsu rewrote materials from ancient myth, court narratives, and military chronicles, making figures and stories from the historical past newly relevant. In his domestic tragedies, he turned to petty merchants and other members of the lower class torn between social obligations and personal desires. Drawing on warrior culture, literary traditions of the court, and contemporary urban life, Chikamatsu elevated puppet theater into an art form that recreated the past and engaged with the urban present.