The Love Suicides at Amijima

The Love Suicides at Amijima was written in 1721 by Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1725). His experience with writing for kabuki, a theatrical form of entertainment, is put to good use in this, his most notable "contemporary-life" play.

Summary 

The story of The Love Suicides at Amijima follows the lives of paper merchant and family-man Jihei and his prostitute lover Koharu during the days leading up to their premeditated double suicide. The main conflict is Jihei's obligation to the family he would be leaving behind and depriving of financial sustenance versus his desire to either buy off Koharu or be together with her in the realm of death. Neither his wife Osan nor his lover Koharu wish for Jihei to end his life. In their own ways, they try to save him; Koharu tries to give him up so that he will return to his life as a husband, while Osan tries to sell everything she has so that Jihei can pay off Koharu's debt and be happy with her. However, Osan's father will not tolerate the way Jihei is treating his wife, so he brings Osan back home and Jihei is left alone to finally commit suicide with Koharu. They leave the city with all its restrictions behind and the titular love suicides at Amijima take place.

Connections to Melodrama

Some aspects of the story that make it particularly melodramatic are the tension between obligations and emotions (giri and ninjo), the failed attempts at preventing a tragedy, and the ordinary and believable circumstances surrounding the plot. 

Giri vs Ninjo

There are lots of obligations going on in the story. Jihei has his obligations to his family and his father-in-law, Koharu has her obligations to the teahouse and to Osan, Osan has obligations to Jihei, her father, and Koharu. These are all being affected by the emotions the characters have towards each other. Jihei is unable to keep up with his familial obligations while he has feelings for Koharu. He spends all his money on her to try to free her from her debt. His neglect of his wife causes him to fail in his obligations to his father-in-law as well. No matter how much Koharu loves Jihei, she can do nothing so long as she owes money to the teahouse. As Jihei's lover, Koharu also feels an obligation to Osan. Osan is the one most burdened by obligations. She still loves Jihei and wants him to forget about Koharu, but not if it causes Koharu to kill herself. "Interdependent, symbiotic moral principles of exteriority and interiority, giri and ninjo, sometimes interpreted as restraint and emotion, are forever at war within the Japanese melodramatic psyche, and it is only in death that the struggle can be overcome" (Russell 146). The characters are all entangled by their emotions and ensnared by their duties. Jihei understood that there was no way to consolidate these forces except through death. 

Tragedy

The tragic ending had already been decided since before the beginning of the play. Jihei and Koharu had already agreed to a double suicide. They were just waiting for the right time to do it. The melodrama is in the prolongation of hope. The more that Osan and Koharu try to keep Jihei alive, the more tension and anticipation keeps building up. Their attempts are ultimately in vain, still resulting in conflict and a miserable resolution for everyone involved. The only thing the reader is left to go on, is the hope that Jihei and Osan were reborn on the same lotus and can finally be happy together.

Drama of the Ordinary

What makes this the most melodramatic of all is that this was a realistic scenario for the time. Women like Koharu and Osan had little to no agency and even men like Jihei couldn't always do as they pleased. "The family melodrama...more often records the failure of the protagonist to act in a way that could shape the events and influence the emotional environment, let alone change the stifling social milieu" (Elsaesser 55). Trying to find a balance in life didn't always work out and sometimes ended in tragedy. Situations that lead to these extreme decisions are fraught with the excessive emotions that are characteristic of the genre of melodrama.