CHŪSHINGURA BETWEEN INNOVATION AND ARTISTIC EXPERIMENTATION Silvia Vesco1 Becoming old, one waits for the day of flowering; How difficult it is to be witnesses of the year that ends Onodera Jūnai Hidetomo 小 野寺 重 内秀 知2 The most famous Japanese play of all time is the Kanadehon Chūshingura, 仮 名手 本 忠臣 蔵 (The Syllabic Manual, The Treasury of Loyal Retainers)3 or simply Chūshingura 忠臣 蔵 and represents the historical episode of the "revenge of the forty-seven rōnin", known as Akō gishi jiken 赤 穂 義士 事件 (The Case of the Just Warriors of Akō), which became famous also outside of Japan. It was performed for the first time in 1748 in Ōsaka 大阪 at the Takemotoza 竹 本 座 theater, but originally it was written by Takeda Izumo 竹田 出 雲 (1691-1756) for the ningyō jōruri 人形 浄 瑠 璃, the puppet theater, and then readjusted for the kabuki 歌舞 伎, which at the time constituted the favorite show by the middle class middle class. In the representation are staged the heroic deeds of the forty-seven samurai without master, the rōnin 浪人, precisely, who want to avenge the death of their lord Asano Naganori 浅 野 長 矩, forced to seppuku 切腹 (ritual suicide), because inside the castle Edo had unsheathed his sword and wounded the master of ceremonies (kōke) 豪 家 (高家). Having carried out this absolutely forbidden action earned him this severe and definitive punishment. In fact, Asano (En'ya Hangan Takasada 塩 谷 判官 高 貞 in the drama) had reacted to the repeated provocations and offenses of the master of ceremonies Kira Yoshinaka 吉 良 義 央4 (Moronao)5 in the service of Tsunayoshi 綱 吉, fifth shōgun of the Tokugawa family 徳 川. Following Asano's death, his assets were confiscated and his family ended in ruin. The samurai who were at his service lost their status 1 Department of Asian and North African Studies, Ca ' Foscari University of Venice. 2 Farewell poem before committing seppuku 切腹 (ritual suicide). Onodera Jūnai (also written 小 野寺 十 内) was 61 years old and was considered one of the bravest of the 47 rōnin. 3 Kanadehon (the syllabary of the 47 signs) refers to the number of rōnin, in addition to the fact that the number forty-seven also recalled the same number of signs of the kana alphabet that appears in the title. 4 Although the name has been pronounced for a long time especially in plays and novels such as "Yoshinaka", in the report of events the Ekisui renbeiroku 易水 連袂 録 written by an anonymous contemporary in 1703, the name is transcribed as "Yoshihisa". H. D. SMITH II, The Trouble with Terasaka: The Forty-seven Rōnin and the Chūshingura Imagination, in "Japan Review", XVI, 2004, pp. 3-65. The title Ekisui renbeiroku 易水 連袂 録 refers to the poem "Starting from the river Yishui (ch.Yishui ge 易水 歌, jap. Ekisui sōbetsu no uta 易水 送別 歌) which is attributed to Jingke 荊軻 (Jokka Keika) and composed after the failed attempt to assassinate Emperor Qin 秦 in 227 BC. 5 Kōno Musashi no Kami Moronao 高 野 武 蔵 守 師 直 . becoming, in fact, rōnin (samurai without master)6, but they did not resign themselves to such injustice and for twenty-two months they prepared their revenge; they waited until the protection on Kira loosened and then attacked him, killing him. After bringing Kira's severed head into the Sengakuji 泉 岳 寺7, the shōgun granted them the honor of performing the ritual seppuku as an extreme demonstration of loyalty to their lord.8 The ceremony took place on the fourth day of the fourth month of the sixteenth year of the Genroku era 元禄, ie March 20, 1704. The story is set in the fourteenth century, at the time of the Taiheiki 太平 記 (Chronicle of the Great Pacification), replacing the names of the protagonists to avoid censorship that invested any reference to facts or people related to current events. The plot develops in eleven acts in which the events are articulated and the sufferings of some vassals are told, but two themes are central in the whole story: the first concerns the money necessary to participate in the revenge and to realize it and the second represents the love that becomes the dominant feeling of the cruel Moronao who became infatuated with the young wife of En'ya (Asano) causing his sudden reaction.9 Shortly after the real events, which took place between 1701 and 1702, (the attack on the palace of Kira, in Edo, in fact, the fourteenth day of the twelfth month of the fifteenth year of the Genroku era, which corresponds to January 30, 1703), began to circulate theatrical works that narrated the story. The theater, with its ability to interpret, which underlines the dramatic, romantic, elegant, allusive or parodic aspect from time to time, contributed to the spread and success of the drama. The theatrical performances at the time were also a means of communicating events, usually dramatic, that captured the imagination and referred to specific ideals such as filial piety, honor, incorruptibility, courage, respect, the obedience and sacrifice for one's lord. When Takeda's Chūshingura was staged, almost fifty years had passed since the events and by now the protagonists had become true legendary folk heroes. Two significant aspects can make the work's value deeper understood: on the one hand we find the cultural habit of avoiding direct reference, explicit explanation: in the theater this manifests itself in the lack of expression that is too evident that it is tempered by the adoption of highly conventional, stereotypical and codified dramatic forms. On the other hand, this aspect is inextricably linked to the concept of shibui 渋 い that is to a restrained understanding, in which the fact narrated is represented in austere and unadorned way, where the implicit refers to the intrinsic meaning or something very profound that it must be achieved if one wants to avoid being superficial and all this is manifested also as modesty, tranquility, naturalness. 6 Since the word rōnin has, in common language, a derogatory value, the protagonists of the story are designated as "forty-seven gishi (straight men)". 7 Temple of Edo in the current district of Minato 港区. 8 Through the extreme gesture of the seppuku the bushi have the freedom to demonstrate the ability to dispose of their own destiny. At the same time, it is a gesture of maximum autonomy and gratitude towards one's lord. 9 B. RUPERTI, Storia del teatro giapponese. Dalle origini all’Ottocento, Marsilio, Venezia 2016, p. 142. In the collective imagination, the 47 rōnin, for their determination to do justice to their lord, become the emblem and incarnation of the ideal of loyalty (chū 忠) which, of all the Confucian virtues, more than any other has conditioned the hierarchical and social relations in the Japanese society of the Edo period. Moreover, by their gesture, the samurai without master also demonstrate that they possess another virtue, isagiyosa 潔 さ (kind purity or proud grace). Therefore in the story it is clear that the attack on the castle, the subsequent capture and killing of Kira are not dictated by a sudden instinctive reaction, but are the result of a long preparation with the constant awareness that the epilogue, for all, will be the death. The Chūshingura drama is also an opportunity to highlight another fundamental aspect in the social relations of the Tokugawa period. This is the delicate ratio giri-ninjō (義理 / 人情): the duty, the moral obligation required by certain rules or laws of the state and human sentiment, in this case linked to loyalty to one's lord. The loyal vassals act in contravention of a law of the bakufu 幕府 and committing a murder, but they do so according to the feeling of loyalty that binds them to their master. This purity of sentiment and the idealization of revenge, which leads to the sacrifice of individuals for the realization of the enterprise, are sufficient to legitimize a violent action in the eyes of the public.10 Precisely the explicit representation of this complex dynamics could be one of the reasons why the events of Chūshingura enjoy, even today, unequaled popularity.11 Not only do we follow the stories of faithful samurai who do their duty to themselves but in every episode "[...] Mothers, spouses, children, husbands and parents show you how, in the face of the essential duty imposed by the moment, the secondary duties and the deepest feelings must courageously step aside so that the work can be accomplished and injustice be expelled from the Earth ".12 The success of the work soon crossed the borders of Japan: in fact, the Chūshingura was in fact known in Europe as early as 1822 through Illustrations of Japan by the Dutch Isaac Titsingh (1745- 1812),13 an official (opperhoofd)14 of the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie or VOC) who stayed at Deshima 出 10 For the relationship between the Chūshingura and the concept of loyalty: see R. MARANGONI, Specchio di Edo. Il Kanadehon Chūshingura tra ideologia di potere e cultura popolare, unpublished degree thesis 2004/2005, Università degli Studi di Torino; and R. MARANGONI, L’istituzionalizzazione della vendetta in una società guerriera: l’esempio del Giappone dei Tokugawa (1600-1868), in «Itinera. Rivista di Filosofia e di Teoria delle Arti e della Letteratura», 2009, http://www.filosofia.unimi.it/itinera/. 11 Also the cinema has drawn inspiration from this story: from the director Mizoguchi Kenji 溝口 健 二 (1941-1942) with Genroku Chūshingura 元 禄 忠臣 蔵 (The Chūshingura of the Genroku Era), to Akira Kurosawa 明 黒 澤 with Warui yatsu hodo yoku nemuru 悪 い 奴 ほ ど よ く眠 る (The Bad Guys Sleep in Peace) from 1960 to Inagaki Hiroshi 稲 垣 浩 (1962) with Chūshingura: Hana no Maki, Yuki no Maki 忠臣 蔵 花 の 巻 雪 の 巻 (Chūshingura part I: Flowers; Chūshingura part II: Snow) whose cast is the famous actor Toshirō Mifune 敏 郎 三 船.