a

Two Butterflies and a Tale of the Pleasure Quarters

'Futatsu Chocho Kuruwa Nikki' was first performed in July 1749 as a puppet play. And it was first performed as kabuki in August of the same year. It was written by Takeda Izumo, Miyoshi Shoraku, and Namiki Senryu, and they are well known as the playwrights who wrote the big three kabuki plays. A butterfly is a cho in Japanese, and the title 'Two Butterflies' means that there are two men who have 'cho' in their name in this play, Nuregami Chogoro and Hanaregoma Chokichi.

This play has 9-act, and the National Theater presents its 3-act this time. Ordinarily, I go to the Kabukiza Theater to watch kabuki, but it is very difficult to get a ticket in January, because many audiences come there in January only. Although I couldn't get a ticket this month, I managed to get a ticket of the National Theater. That's why I wrote about this play.

This drama goes around two couples of lovers, Yogoro and Azuma, Yohei and Miyako/Ohaya. And two sumo wrestlers, Nuregami and Hanaregoma give activity to this drama. Azuma and Miyako are geishas in the same pleasure quarters. After Miyako got married with Yohei, she changed her name to Ohaya. Ohaya is described as a good wife of Yohei, but Azuma isn't happy because Yogoro has gone to mad finally.

Although Yohei's crime wasn't shown this time, he killed a man to help his lover Miyako. However, Yohei wasn't accused, because the victim was a bad guy. Nuregami killed four men to help Yogoro and Azuma. Also those victims were bad guys, but Nuregami was accused of course. It seems that Yohei was very lucky, but Nuregami wasn't. However, Nuregami's case isn't enough to say just unlucky. Yohei became a detective of the murder of Nuregami, and Nuregami was a murderer. This stage finished when Nuregami managed to run away. But after that Nuregami is arrested by Yohei at the result. So it isn't wrong to say that their situation are very different.

When Nuregami fought a sumo match against Hanaregoma, Nuregami lost the game intentionally in order to make Hanaregoma ask his backer Gozaemon to stop buying Azuma. Like Hanaregoma was angry with Nuregami, Nuregami shouldn't have lost the game then. And it was also wrong that Nuregami killed four men, even if he thought that there was no other method. Nuregami was a very popular sumo wrestler, and was known as a reliable person, but it was just as a civilian.

As for Yohei's case, he was from a ruling class, so-called a samurai/a bushi. Yohei isn't a heroic person, but he is a mediocre man as a bushi. Sometimes Yohei did an unreasonable thing, but it was in an accepted extent. Yohei seems very honesty, cautious, and adroit, and they are shown as his living policy. Gozaemon and Ariemon who were killed by Nuregami were also bushi, but they weren't strong, smart, or stylish. However, a bushi should have a strict morality, and Yohei seems to have it.

Although Yohei was a mediocre person, Nuregami was a hero of ordinary people. And sometimes Nuregami's heroic character made him make mistakes. Kichiemon performed as Nuregami this time, and he showed Nuregami's sadness of a hero completely.

Well, Nuregami's real mother Okoh made Nuregami a foster child, and after that she got married again with Yohei's father. Yohei was a son of a former wife of his father, so he became a step-son of Okoh. At the beginning, Okoh tried to guard her real son Nuregami, but she decided to give a murderer Nuregami to a detective Yohei finally. Okoh thought it was a human way to respect a step-son better than a real son. But I think that it is wrong.

Sometimes people think an unreasonable moral as a human way. One of them says that step-mother should treat better a step-child than a real child, because people guess very easily that step-mother treats cruelly her step-child. Of course, ordinarily people love better a person who has blood-relationship than the others. However, it is an animal instinct rather than a human emotion. When someone needed to guard his child, I think that he should guard also the others regardless of blood-relationship. If there was an unacceptable moral emotionally, I think that intelligence should do supplement of the emotion.

I think that step-mother doesn't always treat cruelly her step-child. Okoh was good step-mother of her step-son Yohei. Nuregami and Yohei were adults already, so Okoh should have respected both of them as a human. I think that she forgot her responsibility as a human, because she couldn't think herself except as someone's mother.

There is an old tale 'Cinderella' in Europe. It is often mentioned as a story of cruel step-mother. Why did Cinderella's step-mother treat cruelly her? She was a step-mother, but I think that that might not be enough as a reason that she treated cruelly Cinderella. She could have had somewhat difficulties as Cinderella's step-mother. Okoh made me think so. (2003,1,20)