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　　The Amagasaki Scene

16 century, Japan was in the warring states period. Oda Nobunaga had almost finished the unification of the feudal countries in Japan. Nobunaga was a feudal lord, and was a great military commander, and he forced everyone to join to his ideal. His thought was very reasonable, but sometimes it was too reasonable for people.

Akechi Mitsuhide was one of the generals of Nobunaga, and he was well known as a real gentleman. The other general Hashiba (Toyotomi) Hideyoshi was called 'monkey', because he had a funny face. Hideyoshi wasn't from the warrior's class, and he was from the poverty class actually.

Nobunaga killed himself at Honnoji temple, and it was called the Honnoji incident that happened in 1582. The incident was a revolt against Nobunaga that was caused by Mitsuhide. After that, a lot of theories why Mitsuhide had rebelled against Nobunaga were suggested. It was made into many movies, novels, and plays, and 'Ehon Taiko Ki' is one of them. I think that nobody knows Mitsuhide's real mind, though.

'Taiko Ki' is a history book about Hideyoshi, and he is very popular, especially at Osaka still now. After Hideyoshi had killed Mitsuhide, he usurped Nobunaga's ideal. After Hideyoshi had died, Tokugawa Ieyasu accomplished it on his own way. Ieyasu started Tokugawa shogunate government in 1601, and it had continued until 1868.

Tokugawa shogunate government forbade any stage play based to a real incident in order to avoid criticizing the government. Giving a good estimation to Hideyoshi was an inadvisability matter for the Tokugawa clan, because Ieyasu made the Toyotomi clan go to ruin after Hideyoshi had died. So playwrights needed to change characters' name in order to perform this play on the stage.

However playwrights weren't afraid of only the government. They were afraid of audiences even more than the government.

In this play, Jujiro is performed by Shinnosuke, a young star actor who is called 'Nimaime'. He got wounded seriously at the battlefield, but it isn't clear who injured him on the stage. So both of Jujiro and Shinnosuke could die with no problem on the stage.

Mitsuhide killed his mother Satsuki, but it was a mistake. Hrakiri, a ritual suicide is the best way to die on the stage. There would be no problem if parents killed his own child on the stage, because a good child should die silently dutifully for his parents. If a man killed a prostitute who was unfaithful to him, it would be good on the stage. Of course double suicide is very good, because most Japanese love melodramas.

After the terrorism at the World Trade Center towers, it became well known to the world that Muslim fundamentalists despise women. Also Confucianism made Japanese be male chauvinists. And every parent thinks that a child is one of the private property as Nietzsche said.

At the ending of this play, Mitsuhide and Hideyoshi stand on the stage at the same time. Although Hideyoshi's army surrounded Mitsuhide completely, Hideyoshi didn't try to kill Mitsuhide, moreover Hideyoshi didn't even restrict Mitsuhide. It isn't rare case in Kabuki plays.

Both of Mitsuhide and Hideyoshi were performed by the leading actors, Danjuro and Gato this time. They both have fanatic fans. After the play finished, if Hideyoshi killed Mitsuhide on the stage, Danjuro's fan might attack Gato's fans as the revenge near Ginza station. So the playwrights didn't write the killing scene.

I wonder if you know that there isn't a curtain call in Kabuki. After a character is killed in the play, sometimes the same actor appears on the stage as a different character. It shows to audiences instead of a curtain call that the actor who they love didn't die. Of course every audience knows it, but playwrights would like to avoid also their own danger.

I have a friend who is a writer of RPG manual books. He said before that I might be attacked by Shinnosuke's fan, if I wrote about Kabuki with a real name. So I have been using a pen name 'Sekidobashi Sakura'.

This time, Mitsuhide and his son were performed by Danjuro and his son Shinnosuke. I have seen the same play that was performed by Koshiro and his son Somegoro in 1997. I have no idea that it might be good or bad that real father and son perform father and son in the play. Its estimation would be changed by each audience. Actually I don't care of their blood relationship, because they both are just actors when they are on the stage.

I think that Nobunaga was a real genius. If Nobunaga had continued building his world, Japanese might have chosen the different way to live. But the genius was killed. And Mitsuhide didn't have time to build his own ideal. It might not have been enough that Mitsuhide was smart and intelligent. This play shows the sadness Mitsuhide wasn't a genius. (2001,10,6)