Shinju Ten No Amijima (Double Suicide at Amijima)
Shinoda MasahiroClass Notes
Week 5
Effect of Live Theater
Shinju Ten No Amijima (Double Suicide at Amijima)
Shinoda Masahiro
1969
MAJOR CHARACTERS
Jihei: A paper merchant married to Osan and in love with Koharu.
Koharu: A prostitute working for the Kinokuniya House
Osan: Jihei's wife and cousin (Jihei's father's sister's daughter)
Magoemon: Jihei's older brother
Aunt: Jihei's aunt (father's sister) and Osan's mother
Osan's father: Jihei's uncle by marriage to Jihei's father's sister
Kantaro: Jihei and Osan's son
Osue: Jihei and Osan's daughter
Sangaro worker in Jihei's paper shop
Otama employee in Jihei's household.
Takei: A merchant
KEY TERMS
Theater
Bunraku
Bunraku is (a recent term, originally ayatsuri (puppetry) joruri (the dramatic text and its chanting). Bunraku is the "National Puppet Theater" and unlike puppet shows in the West, Bunraku tends to be adult entertainment. Stories are chanted (joruri) by a narrator accompanied by music played on a single shamisen (a 3 stringed musical instrument akin to a lute or banjo). The major puppets (about 3/4 life size are operated by 3 puppeteers: the junior working the feet, the second the left hand, and the main operator handing the head and right hand. There are generally dressed in black and wear black hoods with a gauze front to make them less visible. Often near the end of the performance the main puppeteer may remove the mask so as to be visible. Many Bunraku plays often are performed by Kabuki players as well, and it is said that when a Kabuki actor needs to get "in touch" they go to Bunraku to see how it is "supposed to be done".
One of the great Japanese playwrights is Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1754) whose play Love Suicides at Somezaki launched his career, revitalized Bunraku, and incidentally led to an increase in plural suicides (Shinju - these are further divided into jooshi (love) and ikka (family) suicides ). He wrote plays for both the puppet stage (ningyoo joruri) and for Kabuki, often based on current events.
Kabuki
Kabuki is far more popular and is often involved with complex stage effects - quick changes, water shows and so on.
Kyogen
Kyogen refers to a form of comic drama (it is also used for comic roles in Noo plays). Although complimentary to Noo it is it opposite in many respects.. It is straightforward direct and draws on the real world, not idealizing its characters. It portrays human weaknesses usually with compassion, humor and subtley. It is occasionally performed alone, although most commonly it is performed between Noo plays. In the broadest sense of Noo it is a part of it.
Noo/Noh
Noo is the oldest form of professional theater - a form of musical-dance drama originating in the 14th Century. It reflects a generally Buddhist view of existence, (life is a continuum) and has maintained a connection with its origin in ritual. It is a form of theater, highly ritualized and stylized. The performers (all male) wear heavy elaborate costumes and are masked.
The usual program today consists of two or three Noo plays and half hour comic pieces called "kyoogen" between them.(see Kyoogen above). Traditionally however, the performance contained five parts and was known as goban date.
Shobamme mono (Part One Plays) or wakinoo mono) or kami (god) plays.
Nibamme mono (Part Two Plays) (or shura-mono) are about men or warriors.
Sambamme mon (Part Three Plays) (or katsura mono "wig plays") are about women
Yobamme mono (Part Four Plays) (or zoo mono miscellaneous Noo) "madwoman" plays
Gobamme mono (Part Five Plays) (or kirinoo mono final plays) are about demons.
Scripts are in part in prose (kotoba) and in part in poetry (utai)
The cast consists of a chorus, instrumentalist, a supporting character (waki) and a leading character (shite)
Minimal use is made of stagecraft, but rather the music movement and words create and destroy time and space.
The aesthetic theory of Japanese music is there should be an introduction (jo); and exposition (ha) and a rapid finally (kyuu). This theory was applied to each play and a series of 5 plays.
It is somewhat akin to opera in the west (or perhaps ancient Greek drama) which is not "popular" theater. There is a saying in Japan that only tourists go to see Noh.
Fatalism
A concept that things are going to happen in a certain way and can not be changed.
Suicide
There are several kinds of suicides named in Japanese. Seppuku (also called harakiri or "stomach cutting") is one. Shinju is another. There is, as is obvious from this film, and aesthetic about certain kinds of suicides. When Chikamatsu wrote his first play about a romantic suicide the number of these suicides rose in the population.
Prostitutiom
Major Japanese cities, like Tokyo, had a "red light district" (akasen actually "red line district". The most famous was Yoshiwara in Tokyo. Sex integrates quite differently into Japanese culture than in the US. Please do not make the typical American error of confusing "prostitute" with "geisha" which is an entertainer.
Kuro-ko: literally "Black kids". The masked stagehands in kabuki. In the puupet theater, the puppeeter who works the feet and the one who works the left hand are usually dressed like this as well. The master puppeteer is often masked until some dramatic scene when the mask is often removed.
on: A debt or obligation not monetary. Owed because of something needed given without legal compulsion. Unrepayale. One can not repay 1/10,000 of an on.
ninjo: Feelings, natural inclinations, desires
giri: "social obligation" A requiement ot behave as society expects you to.
amae(ru): to impose on someone's good nature or love and to bask in another's indulgence. Seen sometimes to stem from a long overprotective childhood. Children may make excessive demands. Famous study of amae by L Takeo Doi
joruri: chanting done in Bunraku which tells the story.
bushidoo: The way of the samuai. An ethical and moral system.
aesthetics: the study of art (beauty)
NOTES
There is a statement that has been made that traditional Japanese theater had no effect on the film industry. That might be overstating the issue. The impact is generally slight except when it is being deliberate and experimental. This weeks film, Shinju Ten no Amijima and next weeks film Kumanosu-jo (Throne of Blood) are both films by different directors which borrow heavily deliberately and experimentally from traditional Japanese theatrical conventions.
There are many forms of traditional theater in Japan - Noh, Kabuki, Kyogen, and Bunraku are some of the major ones. Shimpa, a style of modern theater appeared and became rapidly almost as stylized as the others. (SEE ABOVE)
The Director: Shinoda Masahiro (1931-)
Influenced by French New Wave (which is influenced by Morris Engel's Little Fugitive). He was well regarded for having captured the nihilistic sensibility of Japanese youth after WW II..
The Film:
Shinju Ten no Amijimi (1969) is based on a bunraku play of the same name. Certainly one of the most striking aspects of the film is the way in which the puppet theater is integrated into the film itself.
The fim also makes heavy use of kabuki imagery. The initial conversation on the phone discusses the kabuki acting style and the kuro-ko from kabuki are ever present in the film.
There are comments made about the acting style and the "meaning" of the shinju. Be careful here again. The acting is not "naturalistic" at all times, but rather it is often stylized.
What can you say about the the topics we have been discussing here relative to this film. They are perhaps not all present. Which are?
City/country
past/present
ninjo/giri
gender
class structre
Photographic techniques
What photographic images are common?
What kind of use does Shinda make of the wide screen?
What is the function of the "freeze frame?"
What can you say about the acting style and choice of performers?
How is the film structured?
How does it begin?
How does the Suicide story begin? (the bodies under the bridge).
What does this for the story? Compare Sunset Blvd. with the flashback, narrated by a dead man.
How are we reminded that this is a story?
There are some strong images from Japanese culture in the film. Can you identify them? What do they mean?
blackened teeth
cutting of hair
aesthetics of suicide
white robed people on the bridge?
DISCUSSION AFTER THE FILM
What is the film about? plot/theme; text/sub text?
What does Shinoda feel about Japanese society?
What about the social classes: merchants? Samurai?
What about giri/ninjo?
Who has it in this film?
What about gender
How are women depicted? Men?
What does the casting say about Koharu and Osan
What photographic images are common?
bars, enclosures, feeling of entrapment - hemmed in by the social structure. Now way out (Compare film noir)
What kind of use does Shinda make of the wide screen?
Appearnace of kuro-ko off on the side
Scenes of the streets and buildings
What can you say about the acting style and choice of performers?
What does it mean that the same actress Iwashita Shima (Shinoda's wife) plays both women
There are some strong images from Japanese culture in the film. Can you identify them? What do they mean?
blackened teeth
white robed people on the bridge?
How is the film structured?
How does it begin? In Bunrake (puppet) theater
How are we reminded of the fact that this is being narrated?
constant appearance of kuro-ko
chanted narration (joruri)
How does the Suicide story begin? (the bodies under the bridge).
What does this for the story? Compare Sunset Blvd. with the flashback, narrated by a dead man.
Freeze frame: Stops time. Takes transitory moment and gives it prominence.
Rhythm: Does film use pans to build to climax?
The story deals with an ineffective husband (Jihei) (acn't even manage suicide without the help of the kuro-ko) with great passion for Koharu and lackof interest in his wife (played by same person) what is the difference? Different aspects of women? Like western stories wife vs, whore?
Women are pawns. Koharu at mercy of brothel, Osan at the mercy of her husband and father.
Bond between the women because they are women.
Giri owed in all directions, but causes conflict with ninjo.
How do rules about marriage and divorce affect the actions of the people?
Koharu is asked to "save" Jihei by giving him up. This is why Koharu is rponsive to Osan. She didn't ask that he be returned to her, but that he be saved. The bond os over the way they are treated by society
Jihei ignores Osan
Osan is dragged off by her father, Jihei does nothing
Koharu has threatened suicide if redeemed by Takei.
Koharu has a mother to support (return of on which all children owe to their parents. The mother will die if Koharu does.
Jihei says they will die together
Osan realizes that if Jihei doesn't redeem Koharu they will die together so she feels compelled to help her husband
The complexities of the giri are not easy to follow.
Cutting of hair before suicide renounces the world, family and connections.
Dislike for the merchant class here as well.
In Chikamatsu's work, the individual is always sacrificed to the social system embodied in the family.
Lovers escape only through death. Death becomes the ultimate protest against the system.
Shinoda is interested not only in this problem but in one that deals with the nature of ethics and eroticism. Eroticism is linked with death. This is a complex situation in Japanese (although it certainly occurs in some European traditions: see e.g. Wagner's Tristan and Isolde). The final romantic moments take place ina cemetery - we are even warned in advance of this in the prolog - a kind of fatalistic foreshdowing.
In many sexually charged scenes the backgrounds are unrealistic and equal sex as transcendent.
Samurai had ethics in bushidoo, merchants only interested in money. Story is set in Oosaka (Osaka) where the merchants achieved ascention is social level.
Many Japanese directors saw Japanese capitalism as a wrong move. Loss of "Japanese" values, some dislike for the feudal system, but changes are headed in wrong direction. Merchants typify "money" rather than "ethics".
Suicide difficult neither wants to - no way out. Fatalistic. Trapped by social rules. Kuro-ko are fate like and the hands of the both the author and the director.
Suicide has both eroticism and aestheticism in Japanese.
Violence natural part of life (Shinoda) Violent actions demonstrate commitment.
Shinoda says truth lies between fiction and reality, hence the mixing of the story with reality.
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