From The Love Suicides At Amijima Summary

Chikamatsu Monzaemon, a writer in the early 18th century in Japan, wrote many puppet plays including ‘From the Love Suicides at Amijima’. This play is considered a contemporary-life play which was inspired by an incident involving a prostitute and a shopkeeper in the early 1700s. This incident, and the play itself, takes place in a city called Osaka in Japan.

In ‘From the Love Suicides at Amijima’, one of the leading characters include Koharu, who is the courtesan, or prostitute. Koharu, works for a pleasure quarter in the northern part of Osaka, had planned to commit suicide with the one she loved, Jihei. Another character goes by the name of Tahei, who expresses love and admiration for Koharu. He seems playful towards Koharu and tends to brag quite a bit throughout the play. Tahei isn’t ashamed to express his feelings. Finally, there is Jihei, who is a paper merchant that is also in love with Koharu. Jihei planned to commit suicide with Koharu even though he is married to his cousin and has two children.

In the first act of the play, Koharu opens up to a new customer called Samurai. She then realizes that she no longer wants to die because of the possibility of orphaning her mother. Jihei shows up to the pleasure quarter only to sneak around and listen in on Koharu’s conversation with

With the two of them knowing that Koharu would commit suicide, Osan gives him money she had hidden and items to pawn in order to save Koharu from suicide. Gozaemon, Jihei’s father-in-law, comes just before Jihei leaves for the quarter, stops him, and tells him to divorce his daughter so she may come home. Gozaemon realizes that Osan has no clothes and demands divorce but neither of them want that, so Gozaemon drags his daughter from the house, wakes the children, and they begin to cry because they have never been away from their