I love Sonezaki Shinju. The whole performance gave me chills, but the Tenmaya scene was on another level, as always. And as always, today was the best.
The Love Suicides at Sonezaki: Forgetting They Are Puppets
Sonezaki Shinju (The Love Suicides at Sonezaki) is a sewamono, a drama drawn from real events of its own time, written by Chikamatsu Monzaemon after an actual double suicide. More than 300 years on, it still grips people’s hearts and refuses to let go.
With the film Kokuho being such a massive hit, plenty of people will have heard the title Sonezaki Shinju, but that film is about kabuki. Even if it left people thinking “I’d love to see Sonezaki Shinju!”, not many of them seemed to come all the way to the bunraku staging of the same play. What a waste… is what I was secretly muttering to myself.
The scene that gave me the biggest chills was the Tenmaya scene. Hidden under the veranda, Tokubei is asked by Ohatsu, with her foot, whether he is truly ready to die with her. That famous scene. As the tayu narrates the moment, Ohatsu’s foot glides, ever so quietly. They are puppets, and yet hesitation and resolve seemed to seep from the very tip of that foot. Before I knew it, I was holding my breath.
There are moments when you forget they are puppets.
That, I think, is in which the true power of bunraku lies. Well, that’s not all of it, obviously~…
The final scene, Tenjin no Mori, the michiyuki or lovers’ final journey through the forest, is one I dearly love too. And yet… the Tenmaya scene hit me so hard that, honestly, my memory of everything after is a little hazy (haha). I’ll savor it properly next time. Which is exactly why this play keeps pulling me back.
On top of that, I had once again booked a seat near the yuka, the platform in which the tayu and shamisen player perform, so the stage itself was a touch far away for puppet-watching… and then I went and forgot my opera glasses. Genius. Surely the universe is telling me to see it one more time?! (haha)
On the way home, I hopped straight onto the train, the story’s afterglow still in tow. It was the kind of night that settles in quietly and heavily, no detours required.
I love it. But goodness, it is heavy (haha).
