The puppet theater drama "Taiheiki Chûshin Kôshaku" was premiered in Ôsaka at the Takemotoza in the 10th lunar month of 1766. It was quickly adapted to Kabuki the following year and was premiered in the 2nd lunar month of 1767 in Edo at the Ichimuraza [casting]. It was quite popular during the Edo period, especially the "Kinai Sumika" scene but, most likely due to the cruelty of some scenes ^[1], it is nowadays a rarely-staged drama. Only one revival for "Taiheiki Chûshin Kôshaku", without the "Kinai Sumika" scene, in July 1966 in Tôkyô at the Tôyoko Hall. We do hope that it will be revived at the National Theatre in the future to come!

The original drama was in 10 acts (12 scenes). Only 5 acts (6 scenes) have survived. "Kinai Sumika" was the sole scene of the 7th act of "Taiheiki Chûshin Kôshaku".

Orie, the wife of the rônin Yamaza Jûtarô, and Omutsu, the younger sister of Jûtarô, come to the house of Yazama Kinai, Orie's father-in-law and Omutsu's father. Before entering the house, they ask each other not to tell Kinai and their mother(-in-law) that Orie pretended to work as a cheap prostitute (sôka) at the Kamo dry riverbed the previous night and that Omutsu is serving as a yûjo ^[2] in the Kyôto pleasure quarter (kuruwa) of Gion. The old man is at home, crippled because of a long-protracted illness.

Yazama Jûtarô, Kinai's son, who has been absent from the house for several days, comes back and tells his father that he has been newly employed by a feudal lord (shikan). Kinai suddenly gets angry and accuses him bitterly, saying that a samurai of honor should never serve a second lord in his life just as a woman of chastity will never marry a second husband.

Kinai's wife Mayumi and Orie ask Jûtarô to reconsider his decision to serve a different master but he ignores them and tries to go out of the house when Orie pushes her son Taichirô to him, telling him to take care of the boy if he deserts her. The boy is suffering from smallpox (hôsô).

The yakko Sekinai, Jûtarô's servant, comes to urge his master to join his two colleagues who are waiting for him to go on a trip to Kamakura with him. Jûtarô unsheathes his sword and stabs Taichirô to death with the small knife (kozuka) located in the groove of the sheath. Kinai, suddenly realizing that Jûtarô is indeed trying to avenge his former lord's death, praises him for his loyalty and gives him the money he has been saving as a fund to help the loyalists' cause. Jûtarô in turn offers to Kinai the money he has received as his traveling expense from the leader of the loyalists' group.

Kinai's wife Mayumi and Omutsu bring Orie's body, saying that Orie has killed herself (jigai) to enable Jûtarô to devote himself to the loyalists' cause without worrying about her livelihood. Omutsu reads aloud Orie's parting message to her parents-in-law.

"There is an anecdote about Onoe Kikugorô V, whose final career performance was as Kinai. He had suffered a disabling stroke, which made him appropriate casting for the crippled Kinai. Kikugorô V admitted, however, that acting occurred when someone who had full use of his legs played a person who did not."

Courtesy of Samuel Leiter Trivia from "New Kabuki Encyclopedia"

[1] A father killing his own boy, suicide used as a problem-solving solution for several characters, ...

[2] Ukibashi was a keisei, the highest rank in the pleasure quarters, in the 1966 revival at the Tôyoko Hall.

The actors Bandô Mitsugorô III (left print/left), Ichikawa Komazô V (left print/right) and Nakamura Shikan I (right print) playing the roles of Yazama Jûtarô, Jûtarô's son Taichi and Yazama Kinai in the "Kinai Sumika" scene of the drama "Taiheiki Chûshin Kôshaku", which was staged in the 9th lunar month of 1818 at the Nakamuraza (print made by Utagawa Toyokuni I)

Prints & Illustrations