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The Love Suicides At Amijima
''The Love Suicides at Amijima'' (''Shinjū Ten no Amijima'' or ''Shinjūten no Amijima'' 心中天網島) is a domestic play (''sewamono'') by Japanese playwright Chikamatsu Monzaemon. Originally written for the ''bunraku'' puppet theatre, it was adapted into kabuki shortly after its premiere on 3 January 1721. It is widely regarded as one of his greatest domestic plays and was hailed by Donald Keene as “Chikamatsu’s masterpiece”. Adaptations The Japanese new wave filmmaker Masahiro Shinoda directed a stylized adaptation of the story as ''Double Suicide'' in 1969. Milwaukee, WI-based Dale Gutzman (book, lyrics) and Todd Wellman (score) debuted the musical adaption ''AmijimA'' in 2007. Listen to thWUWM interviewwith the creative team. The Australian National University's Za Kabuki performed a version of the play in 2005, directed by Mr. Shun Ikeda. References * pg 170–208 of ''Four Major Plays of Chikamatsu'' * Chikamatsu Monzaemon, ''The Love Suicides at Amijima'', ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sewamono
''Sewamono'' (世話物) is a genre of contemporary setting plays in Japanese traditional theatre. The term applies to both bunraku and kabuki. The genre is in contrast to "period setting plays" or jidaimono. Though the distinction between "historical" and "contemporary" is not exact, and there are also plays that do not fit either category. Sewamono plays are naturalistic and set in contemporary normal environments rather the historical and samurai plays typical of the bombastic aragoto style. In the conflicted lovers genre, such as ''The Love Suicides at Sonezaki ''The Love Suicides at Sonezaki'' (曾根崎心中, ''Sonezaki Shinjū'') is a jōruri play by the Japanese playwright Chikamatsu Monzaemon. The double suicides that occurred on May 22, 1703 inspired Chikamatsu to write this play and thus ''The ...'', conflict between emotions (''ninjo'') and social pressure (''giri'') form the motor of the plot. The engirimono, cut-knot-thing meaning “drama of cutting the lovers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north toward the East China Sea, Philippine Sea, and Taiwan in the south. Japan is a part of the Ring of Fire, and spans Japanese archipelago, an archipelago of List of islands of Japan, 6852 islands covering ; the five main islands are Hokkaido, Honshu (the "mainland"), Shikoku, Kyushu, and Okinawa Island, Okinawa. Tokyo is the Capital of Japan, nation's capital and largest city, followed by Yokohama, Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo, Fukuoka, Kobe, and Kyoto. Japan is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eleventh most populous country in the world, as well as one of the List of countries and dependencies by population density, most densely populated and Urbanization by country, urbanized. About three-fourths of Geography of Japan, the c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chikamatsu Monzaemon
was a Japanese dramatist of jōruri, the form of puppet theater that later came to be known as bunraku, and the live-actor drama, kabuki. The ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' has written that he is "widely regarded as the greatest Japanese dramatist". His most famous plays deal with double-suicides of honor bound lovers. Of his puppet plays, around 70 are ''jidaimono'' (時代物) (historical romances) and 24 are ''sewamono'' (世話物) (domestic tragedies). The domestic plays are today considered the core of his artistic achievement, particularly works such as ''The Courier for Hell'' (1711) and ''The Love Suicides at Amijima'' (1721). His histories are viewed less positively, though ''The Battles of Coxinga'' (1715) remains praised. Biography Chikamatsu was born Sugimori Nobumori. to a samurai family. There is disagreement about his birthplace. The most popular theory. suggests he was born in Echizen Province, but there are other plausible locations, including Hagi, Nagato Provi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bunraku
(also known as ) is a form of traditional Japanese puppet theatre, founded in Osaka in the beginning of the 17th century, which is still performed in the modern day. Three kinds of performers take part in a performance: the or ( puppeteers), the ( chanters), and musicians. Occasionally other instruments such as drums will be used. The combination of chanting and playing is called and the Japanese word for puppet (or dolls, generally) is . It is used in many plays. History 's history goes as far back as the 16th century, but the origins of its modern form can be traced to around the 1680s. It rose to popularity after the playwright Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653–1724) began a collaboration with the chanter Takemoto Gidayu (1651–1714), who established the Takemoto puppet theater in Osaka in 1684. Originally, the term referred only to the particular theater established in 1805 in Osaka, which was named the after the puppeteering ensemble of , an early 18th-century p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kabuki
is a classical form of Japanese dance-drama. Kabuki theatre is known for its heavily-stylised performances, the often-glamorous costumes worn by performers, and for the elaborate make-up worn by some of its performers. Kabuki is thought to have originated in the very early Edo period, when founder Izumo no Okuni formed a female dance troupe who performed dances and light sketches in Kyoto. The art form later developed into its present all-male theatrical form after women were banned from performing in kabuki theatre in 1629. Kabuki developed throughout the late 17th century and reached its zenith in the mid-18th century. In 2005, kabuki theatre was proclaimed by UNESCO as an intangible heritage possessing outstanding universal value. In 2008, it was inscribed in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists, UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Etymology The individual kanji that make up the word ''kabuki'' can be read as , , and . ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Donald Keene
Donald Lawrence Keene (June 18, 1922 – February 24, 2019) was an American-born Japanese scholar, historian, teacher, writer and translator of Japanese literature. Keene was University Professor emeritus and Shincho Professor Emeritus of Japanese Literature at Columbia University, where he taught for over fifty years. Soon after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, he retired from Columbia, moved to Japan permanently, and acquired citizenship under the name . This was also his poetic and occasional nickname, spelled in the ''ateji'' form . Early life and education Keene was born in 1922 in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, New York City and attended James Madison High School. He received a Bachelor's degree from Columbia University in 1942 and studied under Mark Van Doren, Moses Hadas, Lionel Trilling, and Jacques Barzun. He then studied the Japanese language at the United States Navy Japanese Language School in Boulder, Colorado and in Berkeley, California, and serve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Masahiro Shinoda
is a retired Japanese film director, originally associated with the Shochiku Studio, who came to prominence as part of the Japanese New Wave in the 1960s. Early life Shinoda attended Waseda University, where he studied theater and also participated in the Hakone Ekiden long distance race. Career He joined the Shōchiku Studio in 1953 as an assistant director, where he worked on films by such directors as Yasujirō Ozu. He debuted as a director in 1960 with ''One-Way Ticket for Love'', which he also scripted. His focus on youth and the cultural and political turmoil of 1960s Japan made him a central figure in the Shōchiku New Wave alongside Nagisa Ōshima and Yoshishige Yoshida. He worked in a variety of genres, from the yakuza film (''Pale Flower'') to the samurai film (''Assassination''), but he particularly became known for his focus on socially marginal characters and for an interest in traditional Japanese theater, which found its greatest expression in ''Double Suici ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Double Suicide
is a 1969 film directed by Masahiro Shinoda. It is based on the 1721 play ''The Love Suicides at Amijima'' by Monzaemon Chikamatsu. This play is often performed with puppets. In the film, the story is performed with live actors but makes use of Japanese theatrical traditions such as the ''kuroko'' (stagehands dressed entirely in black) who invisibly interact with the actors, and the set is non-realist. The kuroko prepare for a modern-day presentation of a puppet play while a voice-over, presumably the director, calls on the telephone to find a location for the penultimate scene of the lovers' suicide. Soon, human actors substitute for the puppets, and the action proceeds in a naturalistic fashion, until from time to time the kuroko intervene to accomplish scene shifts or heighten the dramatic intensity of the two lovers' resolve to be united in death. The stylized sets and the period costumes and props simultaneously convey a classical theatricality and contemporaneous moderni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Za Kabuki
Za Kabuki ( ja, ザ歌舞伎), founded in 1976 at the Australian National University, is the longest running Kabuki troupe outside Japan. Directed by Shun Ikeda of the ANU Japan Centre, with a cast and crew consisting mainly of ANU Japanese students, the troupe performs traditional Kabuki plays almost entirely in classical Japanese, with some English translation and ad-libs inserted to assist the mainly English-speaking audiences. History The tradition of annual Japanese performances at the ANU began in 1976, with the first shows taking place in the walkway between the Sports & Recreation building and the Union building. During the 1980s and 1990s, productions became increasingly elaborate, with authentic makeup and costumes, original sets and musical accompaniment, hosted at a number of the theatre facilities around the ANU campus. In 1999, Producer Suzy Styles led the Za Kabuki troupe on their first tour of Japan, with performances in Nara and Kobe. On 11 September 2001, a t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Four Major Plays Of Chikamatsu
''Four Major Plays of Chikamatsu'' is a collection of four major dramas by the famous Japanese playwright Chikamatsu Monzaemon. The four plays were first translated by Donald Keene in 1961, and have appeared in various collections and books over the years; ''Four Major Plays'' contains a Preface, an Introduction, and two appendices in addition, and is published by Columbia University Press. The Preface gives a more popular account of matters, mentioning that Keene's translations of the plays have actually been performed; the lengthy introduction gives a brief biographical sketch of Chikamatsu and a discussion of various literary features and other background useful for understanding Chikamatsu's plays. Contents Plays *''The Love Suicides at Sonezaki ''The Love Suicides at Sonezaki'' (曾根崎心中, ''Sonezaki Shinjū'') is a jōruri play by the Japanese playwright Chikamatsu Monzaemon. The double suicides that occurred on May 22, 1703 inspired Chikamatsu to write this pla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Waseda University Library
The collections of Waseda University Library (早稲田大学図書館; ''Waseda Daigaku Toshokan'') form one of the largest libraries in Japan. Established in 1882, they currently hold some 5.6 million volumes and 46,000 serials. History The Waseda University Library (早稲田大学図書館; ''Waseda Daigaku Toshokan'') was originally established at the time of the founding of the university in 1882 (at that time called 東京専門学校; ''Tokyo Senmon Gakkou''). Its current Central Library building was opened in 1991, commemorating the university's centennial. All together the university has 29 libraries: the Central Library, four Campus Libraries, and school libraries or reading rooms for students, attached to each school and institute. These libraries are said to hold 5.6 million books. The Waseda University Library also possesses a unique collection which survived the Bombing of Tokyo in World War II unlike many of its counterparts. It possesses some items which even ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kabuki Plays
is a classical form of Japanese dance-drama. Kabuki theatre is known for its heavily-stylised performances, the often-glamorous costumes worn by performers, and for the elaborate make-up worn by some of its performers. Kabuki is thought to have originated in the very early Edo period, when founder Izumo no Okuni formed a female dance troupe who performed dances and light sketches in Kyoto. The art form later developed into its present all-male theatrical form after women were banned from performing in kabuki theatre in 1629. Kabuki developed throughout the late 17th century and reached its zenith in the mid-18th century. In 2005, kabuki theatre was proclaimed by UNESCO as an intangible heritage possessing outstanding universal value. In 2008, it was inscribed in the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Etymology The individual kanji that make up the word ''kabuki'' can be read as , , and . ''Kabuki'' is therefore sometimes transl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
