They struggle for possession of a note which passes from hand to hand in the darkness. On the embankment above the canal Iemon, Yomoshichi and Naosuke appear to fumble as The act concludes with a danmari ("pantomime"). In the now famous toitagaeshi ("door transformation") scene the corpsesīriefly come to life and reproach Iemon. Oiwa and Kohei drifts towards the bank of the canal. Just as he is about to depart, the door bearing the corpses of Iemon contemplates his prospects whileįishing at the Onbô canal *. Iemon into handing over a valuable document. Naosuke arrives in disguise as Gonbê, an eel vendor, and blackmails Oyumi, the mother of Oume, into the Onbô Canal and Omaki, the servant of Oyumiĭrowns by accident. In Act 3 the remaining members of the Itô household are annihilated. Kills Oume and Itô on the night of the wedding due to tricks by the ghosts of Oiwa and Kohei. The motive is to link Oiwa and Kohei as lovers. To nail the bodies of Oiwa and Kohei to the opposite sides of a door and to throw the door Kobotoke Kohei, the former servant of Iemon, steals the traditional medicine of the Tamiyaįamily from his master. Takuetsu obstructs her departure and OiwaĪccidentally cuts her throat with a sword. As she combs, the hair comes away in her hand in clumpsĪnd blood drips from the strands to the ground. In the famous kamisuki (“haircombing”) scene Oiwa attempts to make herself presentableįor a visit to the Itô mansion. Oiwa realises that the Itô family has deceived her. Takuetsu cannot bring himself to rape and, instead,įorces Oiwa to peer at herself in a mirror. Iemon coerces Takuetsu, by now his servant, to rape Oiwa so that The Itô family disfigures Oiwa with a poison, in the guise of medicine, in order to sway Iemon to abandon Oiwa for marriage to Oume. Iemon reunites with Oiwa, and Naosuke enters into aĬommon-law marriage with Osode as the price of their agreement to the vendetta.Īct 2 opens with Iemon, miserable in his marriage to Oiwa. Iemon and Naosuke then deceive Oiwa and Osode into believing At the same time that IemonĬommits his foul deed Naosuke kills Okuda Shôzaburô, his former master, whom he Unable to pay the fee demanded by Takuetsu, he is driven out of the brothelĪnd also suffers the derision of Yomoshichi and Osode. Naosuke discovers Osode in a brothel run by Takuetsu but is interrupted in his wooing by Yomoshichi is in disguise as a hawker of haberdasheryīecause he is a member of a group pursuing a vendetta to avenge the death of his master. The sister of Oiwa and the wife of Satô Yomoshichi. Naosuke, a hawker of medicine lusts for Osode,
Has a violent argument with Yotsuya Samon, his father-in-law, who urges him to separate from Oiwa. In Act 1 Tamiya Iemon, a rônin (“masterless samurai”) You need a Japanese Language Kit installed within your system in order to be able to read the charactersĪ standard performance of "Tôkaidô Yotsuya Kaidan" includes act I, act II, act III and the Snake Mountain Hermitage scenes of act V. The Paddy Field in the Back of the Kannon Pavilion In Front of the Jizô in the Back of the Kannon Pavilion In the Precincts of the Kannon Pavilion in Asakusa
Nowadays it is made up of 5 acts roughly divided in 14 scenes: The original version of "Tôkaidô Yotsuya Kaidan" was made up of 5 acts divided in 11 scenes. The following day started with the Onbô canal scene, followed by " Kanadehon Chûshingura" from Act VII to act XI, then came Act IV and Act V of "Tôkaidô Yotsuya Kaidan" The first day started with " Kanadehon Chûshingura" from Act I to Act VI, followed by "Tôkaidô Yotsuya Kaidan" from Act I to Act III (the Onbô canal scene).
Usually the ichibanme drama was staged in its entirety, then the nibanme was staged in turn.įor the first production of " Kanadehon Chûshingura"/"Tôkaidô Yotsuya Kaidan" it was decided to interweave the 2 dramas, with a full staging on two days: It was a nibanme drama for the classic " Kanadehon Chûshingura". The ghost play "Tôkaidô Yotsuya Kaidan" was staged for the first time in the 7th lunar month of 1825