Aidan Chaisson

I really enjoyed reading Gabriel’s alternate ending to The Love Suicide at Amijima. His reconstruction gives Koharu individual strength over Jihei, allowing her to be a more dynamic character. By omitting their suicides in favor of realizations of their lives’ values, it becomes a story of two people accepting reality. Interestingly, and in a very… Read more Final Post – My Favorite Project

Unsurprisingly, there’s a lot to unpack from the last five minutes of Double Suicide. In Koharu and Jihei’s final moments, both of them make very valid, rational statements that oppose their decision to move forward with their pact. Jihei acknowledges that Osan is no longer his wife, and as a divorced man he could remarry,… Read more Chikamatsu Act III question

The majority of act 2 contains conversations between Jihei and Osan, as well as Jihei’s brother and father in-law. While Osan at first reprimands Jihei for falling in love with Koharu, and subsequently out of love with her, she becomes increasingly submissive throughout the act. When she learns that Koharu will die by suicide if… Read more Chikamatsu Act 2 question

The samurai’s interactions with Koharu and Jihei are interesting in that his actions convey total neutrality. In his initial conversation with Koharu, he offers logical advice to dissuade her from suicide, citing family relations and religious values, and even offers to buy her out of the brothel. When Jihei overhears the conversation and attempts to… Read more Chikamatsu Act 1 question