The Love Suicides At Sonezaki Chkamatsu Analysis

Since the beginning of time, in every culture, in every epoch, human beings have had a burning desire for love. It seems as if no other topic has been able to captivate the popular imagination like love has. Love is the most irresistible of all emotions, there has never been an instance where a love story hasn’t attracted an audience. However, no matter how destined for each other lovers can seem, their story doesn’t always end with a “They lived happily ever after.” Of all love stories one genre is worthy of note and that is “love-death.” Death is another topic that seems to catch the attention of the popular imagination. When these two topics are combined it creates an irresistible story. In The Love Suicides at Sonezaki Chikamatsu uses double suicides as a means of rebirth. A departure from this temporary life to an eternal nirvana. Passionate pilgrims, Tokubei and Ohatsu,

Just like Shakespeare, Chikamatsu is another pursuer of love-death writings. He came from a family of wealthy samurai, whose members served the ruling daimyō as doctors, which is what gained them the samurai status. Perhaps this is where he got the inspiration of “Hara-kiri” which is a samurai ritual to commit suicide as an honorable alternative to disgrace or execution. The love Suicides at Sonezaki is a Japanese Bunraku, puppet, play. Although it isn’t his most famous play it is his most popular “domestic tragedy.” The Love Suicides is actually based on a true story of two young lovers who committed “shinju”, double suicide, right before it was written. His play became so famous that it started to inspire others to perform shinju. In hopes to prevent any more casualties, the Tokugawa government started to ban the use of the word shinju in the titles of plays. Even after all the hiatus this play has become a favorite of Japan. Just like the term “Romeo and Juliet”, “Ohatsu and Tokubei” has become a synonym for a pair of ill-fated