Overview
| Title | The Love Story of Izayoi & Seishin |
|---|---|
| Writer | Kawatake Mokuami |
| Premiere |
February 1859, Edo |
| Overview |
A colorful domestic affairs drama written for the actor Ichikawa Kodanji IV by Kawatake Mokuami, known for his plays about petty thieves. It incorporated elements of the Soga revenge legend, the template for New Year’s plays in Edo, and its main storyline involved succession struggles in the Oe family, a popular tale at the time. The focus in present days, however, is the secondary plot, which was taken from incidents involving a thief executed in 1805 and a robbery in Edo Castle in 1855. The play’s enduring popularity derives from two outsized characters. Hakuren was modeled on the thief Fujioka Tojuro, who stole a large amount of money from Edo Castle in the mid 19th century, while Seikichi was based on a thief of the same name, nicknamed the Devil Monk, who committed joint suicide with a courtesan. Mokuami disguised the setting by shifting the action to Kamakura to avoid attracting the eye of the censors. Still, it was written with Edo in mind, and the settings were clearly indicative of spots familiar even today like Ryogoku, Asakusa and Nihonbashi. The military government considered the play too close to actual incidents and shut it down, cutting off a highly successful run. Mokuami edited the story years later after the fall of the shogunate, using the actual names of the people involved as per the new fashion, and staged it again under a new title in 1885, eighteen years into the rise of the modern era. The play again became a major hit, establishing it firmly in the modern repertoire.
●main graphic ［from left］Osayo（Bando Tamasaburo）、Seikichi（Kataoka Nizaemon）、Ofuji（Kataoka Hidetaro）、Hakuren actually Odera Shohei（Ichikawa Sadanji） March 2002 Kabukiza Theatre
●publication date April 2015 |
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