Toribeyama Shinju (Love Suicide at Mt. Toribe)

鳥辺山心中

Toribeyama Shinju (Love Suicide at Mt. Toribe)

Overview

by Hashimoto Hiroki
Title

Toribeyama Shinju (Love Suicide at Mt. Toribe)

Writer Okamoto Kido
Premiere

September 1915, Tokyo

Overview

A major New Kabuki classic written by Okamoto Kido. It is based on an incident during the Edo period in which two lovers committed joint suicide due to an embezzlement scandal. Kido has turned this into a romantic piece between a single-minded young samurai and a beautiful girl. The play, written for Ichikawa Sadanji II, was an immediate hit. It was selected as one of Sadanji’s “Kyoka Ten Select Plays” and has been frequently performed since. The story is redolent of the romanticism and idealism of Japan’s brief Taisho Era in the 1910s and 1920s. It is distinguished by its use of takemoto music and a narrator, both normally found in puppet plays.

 

●main graphic [from left]Osome(Nakamura Tokizo)、Kikuchi Hankuro(Matsumoto Koshiro) March 2001 Kabukiza Theatre

 

●publication date  April 2016