The influence of “Chusingura”

As I said last time, Chusingura (“The Treasury of Loyal Retainers”) is one of the most influential play in the history of Japanese theatre. In January a new Opera entitled “Chusingura” was composed by Saegusa and staged at Tokyo. Foreigners might wonder why Opera now. Why does Japan need a musical drama in an European style for “Chusngura” at this moment in time? I believe it is a play suitable for expressing the Japanese spirit. It is said that Japanese act very often as a group and their behaviour is defined in respect of the group entity, while compared to the Japanese, other nations, Chinese, Indians and Asian people have a more individualistic trait. Judging from youth’s behaviour, this definition is not always true. But it is an undeniable fact that Japan has acted in the economical and cultural field as a “group”, even in the modern era. According to our traditional outlook on the world, we must form a group in order to reach our target or goal. ”Chusinngura” is the epitome of the “group” idea, 47 retainers revenged their Lord. They showed the spirit of samurai in the Edo era, when the samurai were on decline and civil culture was in full bloom. .”Chusingura” is a story of vendetta, but people of Edo found the vertu in it so as to create a brilliant future; the play humanized and moralised the vendetta. This is the reason why the American authorities prohibited the play to be staged or filmed under the occupation of Japan. We often use two key-words for Japanese behavious and mentality: one a little bit stereotyped, ”Giri”(obligations) and Ninjo(Human feeling). I translated them into English, ”obligation” and “Human feeling”, however this translation is not correct. To say the truth these words are untranslatable; Gir” and “Ninjo” are rather one word which contains the content of two words. .”Obligations originated from human relationship” might”, which would be a more correct translation.

Let us go back to “Chusingura”. How could the loyal retainer achieve the honourable vengeance, under the control of the brilliant Oishi without any person who wanted to withdraw? It is needless to say that there were some who wanted to retire or couldn’t take part in the plot for some personal reason. But all retainers succeeded in carrying out the plan, because they gave priority to the group instead of giving priority to individuals. They succeed in carrying out the plan due to their collective mind. This is how the idea that the group must come before the individual was created. Japanese have begun to think “Giri” and “Ninjo” are very important if one wants to achieve something and we know many popular dramas that are based on this truth. Moreover, many popular songs choose “Gir” and “Ninjo” as theme. Evidently, not only “Chusinngura” and its variations but also other popular creations preach the teaching. Nowadays, we apply the terms .”Giri” and “Ninjo” even to business and they have become very important concepts for any community.