— Anonymous
First of all, the word, that come to my mind by looking at the title of the play “The Love Suicides at Amijima” by Chikamatsu Monzaemon, is “tragedy,” (events fill with great sufferings and destructions). As I started reading, I came to notice a tremendous metaphorical expression where the author is depicting the significance of a prostitute’s love by saying, “The love of a prostitute is deep beyond measure; it’s a bottomless sea of affection that cannot be emptied or dried.” Again, the writer reveals that love is such a thing that surpasses the imagination (uncountable object).
The play consists of some interesting characters, such as Tahei, Jihei, Koharu, Magoemon, Osan. I found it really difficult to recognize the characters while I was reading, as the play is full of Japanese names and places. I also thought like my respected classmates that the play is done by humans (they custom themselves as puppets) rather than some people control the puppets and a person reads the scripts with enormous tunes. Although I wouldn’t like to see a puppet show, I at least have realized that it quite difficult to run a puppet show. Whoever perform a puppet show, they need a profound skills and patience to do it. I am very amazed to see that men like Tamao (82) and Sumitayu (76), who are supposed to be retired at this point, are still presenting wonderful performance before the audiences.
In addition, the people along with the Puppeteer do excellent job as they have to keep on track with the Puppeteer (by moving footsteps and so forth). Moreover, I think the Bunraku Chanter does exceptional art of altering his voice according to the scripts. The reason, why this type of puppet show still attracts the Japanese’s attention, is that it carries their (Japanese) tradition generation after generation, which cannot be attained through actors’ performance. For instance, the last scene of the play is a marvelous work of the art, where Koharu and Jihei share their last moment on earth and leave behind their dearest ones (Koharu’s mother and Jihei’s children).
After all, it was great to be introduced with a country’s old heritage that has been a valuable asset to its generation. The play introduces me with the Japanese’s beliefs of after life in Buddhism. However, I am not impressed by the belief that people like Koharu and Jihei will meet in the next life, even they commit suicide, which is a tremendous sin.
