‘Bancho Sarayashiki’ was written by Okamoto Kido (1872-1939) as a new Kabuki, and premiered on the Hongoza in Tokyo in 1916. At the Edo period, Shogun had the direct retainers, Dainyo got more than ten thousands koku of rice, and less of it was called Jikisan. Jikisan who could meet to Shogun directly was called Hatamoto, and the other Jikisan was called Gokenin. Kido’s father was a Jikisan-Gokenin who got one hundred twenty koku of rice.

In 1868, Meiji Restoration happened. After that, many Jikisan lost their job, nevertheless Kido’s father managed to be employed as a clerk at the British embassy. When Kido was 10 years old, he started learning English and his text was ‘Sherlock Holmes.’ Sir Conan Doyle wrote the Victorian customs at London brilliantly in his works, and Kido was impressed by it. Kido might have been the first Sherlockian in Japan, or his father might have been. After Kido became a novelist/playwright, he wrote the customs of the Edo period very well.

The other side, Kido was a witness of the samurai class that was collapsing rapidly at that time, but he wrote the severe morality of the samurai class in this play ‘Bancho Sarayashiki.'

The Tokugawa Shogunate government was a military regime essentially which continued for 300 years. Although the samurai class was an army originally, its element changed to a civil servant gradually. In the era of the fourth shogun Ietsuna(reign 1651-1680), he started ruling over people by law and order instead of military force, for example forbidding martyrdom, encouraging learning. That was the same process that the society needed to change economically.

After the battle of Sekigahara finished, young guys who were called ‘kabuki mono’ appeared on the street in Kyoto. They walked around the street wearing punk clothes. The same kind of young people appeared on Edo at that time. A Hatamoto, Mizuno Jurozaemon and his friends were ones of them. This play’s hero Aoyama Harima also belongs to them. As the result, Mizuno was ordered to commit a ritual suicide, hara-kiri finally.

Based on such an era background, the social situation, and the real incident, Kido described daringly the samurai’s severe rule through Harima. As the problem concerned to his love, it became a serious tragedy.

'The one time love in a lifetime'; Harima said about his love with Okiku like that. However, Okiku didn’t believe it and tried if Harima’s love was true or not. Okiku’s that action was stupid, even if it happened anywhere, any era, and any situation. Harima made Okiku recognize her mistake, but Okiku had no time to show that she understood him. If a samurai was suspected about anything, committing suicide was the easiest way to prove his innocent.

However, in this case, Okiku was a woman who belonged to the common people class, so Harima thought that there was no way except to kill her. As for a samurai, everything is to bet life. It is difficult to understand the strict morality for a woman who doesn’t belong to the samurai society. Nobody can understand it recently, though.

Harima didn’t like his aunt, Lady Mayumi very much, nevertheless I think that she could be the most suitable woman as his wife, because she understood what a samurai was completely. They were the same kind of persons essentially.

If Harima had preparedness to stop being a samurai, he would be able to accept Okiku’s stupid action. However, I’m sure that he can’t do it. Although I can’t accept that Harima killed Okiku, his hardness moved me. (2005,2,6)