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Monzaemon Chikamatsu (1653-1724) is recognized as Japan's Shakespeare. Author of 110 Bunraku
plays and 30 Kabuki plays, he profoundly influenced the development of the
modern Japanese theater. His domestic dramas of love and duty are accurate
reflections of life in Japanese society of the period: his characters are
samurai, farmers, merchants, and prostitutes who speak colloquially in
shops, tea houses and brothels.
Chikamatsu's works are distinct for adding human elements to the theme of
the conflict between social pressure and personal desire. His dramas usually
revolve around the tragedy that can arise when one blindly chooses the
importance of loyalty (to one's feudal lord, family, etc.) over personal
feelings.
A great many of Chikamatsu's plays were about shinju, or love suicides.
He made the revolutionary effort of taking a recent event (the death of a
courtesan and her lover) and dramatizing it into the play "Sonezaki Shinju"
("The Love Suicides at Sonezaki"). That play spawned not only copies, but
influenced others to actually commit double suicide in the hope that their
love would live on forever.
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