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Sato Moyo Azami-no Ironui

'Sato Moyo Azami-no Ironui' is better known as 'Izayoi Seishin'. It is one of the thieves' plays that are called 'Shiranami drama'. Its playwright Kawatake Mokuami was good at to write 'Shiranami drama', so sometimes he was called a Shiranami playwright. Kawatake Mokuami wrote this play based to a real incident that happened in 1855. 3000 gold pieces had been robbed from Tokugawa shogunate government's safe. The shogunate didn't allow performing any play that based to a real incident. So this play was set up at Kamakura period, and also its location was changed from Edo that was the past name of Tokyo to Kamakura.

However, the shogunate had to be nervous this time more than usual, because that incident involved to the government's authority closely. Although this play was first performed in 1859, the shogunate demanded to erase some scenes and to change some things. A lot of changing had been done, nevertheless the performance of this play was forbidden finally.

When this play was performed first, although this drama had been done many changes that were beyond concerned persons' understanding, audiences had known what it meant. I think that it might have been the most important reason that this play had been forbidden.

At act-1, its heroine Izayoi appears on the stage as a young beautiful prostitute. She loves Seishin very purely then. Next act-2, Izayoi changes the name to her real name Osayo, and appears on the stage as an elegant mistress. Although she seems to have become a little bit shrewder than before, her mind still loves Seishin purely. At the final act-3, Osayo appears on the stage as a shrewd criminal woman. She doesn't have pure mind any more. One of the most popular actors, Tamasaburo performed Izayoi this time. Audiences can enjoy the typical three women by Tamasaburo. Of course he has done it marvelously.

Nizaemon performed Seishin this time, and he and Tamasaburo have been called the best couple of the Kabuki world. And Sadanji who performed Hakuren this time is well known as a bad guy character actor. I think that audiences' expectation wouldn't be betrayed, when Tamasaburo, Nizaemon and Sadaji are on the stage.

Well, at act-1 scene-3, Seishin takes care of Motome who was struck by colic suddenly. He tries to stroke Motome's chest in order to erase his pain. This scene has an erotic nuance of homosexuality. Actually, Motome is a temple boy. It means that Motome is made sport of by monks sexually. However, when I watched this scene, there wasn't an erotic atmosphere. Kankuro performed Motome, and he was just a young man, and didn't have a homosexuality nuance on the stage unfortunately. It was very sorry, because Nizaemon's Seishin was erotic enough.

As I mentioned before, 3000 gold pieces had been robbed from Tokugawa shogunate government's safe in 1855. This play was written based to that incident. Although the shogunate didn't allow performing any play that based to a real incident, government had to be nervous more than usual, because that incident involved to the government's authority closely. At that time, Japanese society was in disorder, and this era has been called Bakumatsu, the end of the Tokugawa regime.

In 1853, the US' commander M. C. Perry came to Japan, and demanded to the shogunate to open a nation to foreign trade and diplomatic relations by force. And there was a succession problem of the next shogun, because the 13th shogun didn't have an heir. The powerful feudal lords and the Imperial Court became to interfere in the shogunate's policy. Ii Naosuke who was the most powerful feudal lord of the shogunate-side tried to solve those problems all at once.

Between 1858 and 1859, a lot of the anti-Tkugawa persons were killed (Ansei-no taigoku incident). Ii Naosuke signed the trade agreements with the foreign powers despite imperial disapproval in 1858. It made the anti-Tokugawa movement expand rapidly. In 1860, Ii Naosuke was killed as a result (Sakurada-mongai incident). Many terrorism happened at that time.

In 1855, the robbery of the shogunate's safe gave a terrible impact to people of Edo. And its drama, 'Izayoi Seishin' made a hit as big as the shogunate had to stop it in 1859. It was performed in the turbulent social condition. So I think that audiences might have seen social unrest at that time in this drama. Meiji Restration had needed 9years since then. (2002,3,10)