The Courier for Hell

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The Courier for Hell

Bunraku: 1711, Osaka Kabuki: 1796 (revised as Koi Bikyaku Yamato Orai), Osaka

The Courier for Hell is a three-act domestic affairs drama. The event that inspired the piece is unknown, but there was reportedly an incident in 1710 where an adopted son named Chubei stole his shop’s money and bought out the courtesan Umegawa in Osaka’s Shinmachi pleasure district. They ran away together but were caught in Yamato in Nara Prefecture. This had been depicted in both Bunraku and Kabuki prior to Chikamatsu’s show. Chubei was supposedly executed, while Umegawa was returned to her pleasure house but later became a nun to pray for Chubei’s soul. Chikamatsu’s initial puppet piece later went through various revisions, with significant changes in both characters and scenes, until finally reaching its current form. We use the original storyline here for simplicity’s sake. The revisions and Kabuki production are described in Kabuki Plus.

●main graphic ［from left］Kameya Chubei（Sakata Tojuro）、Tanbaya Hachiemon（Bando Mitsugoro）　October 2007　Kabukiza Theatre

●publication date　 September 2015