The Love Suicides at Sonezaki

Sonezaki shinjū (1703; The Love Suicides at Sonezaki), for example, was written within a fortnight of the actual double suicide on which it is based. The haste of composition is not at all apparent even in this first example of Chikamatsu’s double-suicide plays, the archetype of his other…

…Shinjū ten no Amijima (1720; The Love Suicide of Amijima), the leading male and female characters in his sewamono dramas are unable to resolve the contradictions between giri and ninjō in this world and so die by shinjū (a suicide pact between lovers) in order to realize their love in…