The Love Suicides at Sonezaki

The Love Suicides at Sonezaki's reception was popular and helped springboard Chikamatsu's future success as a playwright.

The two central characters are an orphaned oil clerk named Tokubei and Ohatsu, the courtesan he loves.

[3] In the first scene, Tokubei and an apprentice named Chozo visit the firm's customers at Osaka's Ikudama Shrine.

He sends the apprentice away and talks to Ohatsu, who berates him for making her worry due to a lapse in communication.

On his return, "Kuheiji the oil merchant", a close friend, tells Tokubei that he needs a loan of two kamme or else he will go bankrupt.

Kuheiji and his followers beat him up and the scenes ends with Ohatsu rushed away in a palanquin and Tokubei leaving in defeat.

Through this method, Ohatsu asks if Tokubei wishes to die and he signals that he does by passing her ankle across his throat.

Scene two ends with Tokubei and Ohatsu sneaking past the sleeping servant guarding the exit.

This alludes to the medieval vs. urban Edo period Japan and the argument states that this resembles old and new jōruri.

Western scholars such as Donald Keene argue that shinjū is based on a Confucian perspective on the conflict between giri and ninjō.

In the final scene, Tokubei is bothered because he did not repay his uncle and says it will last after his death and the Buddhist idea of karma states that actions surpass the limitations of time.

The michiyuki connects Confucian giri with Buddhist mujo (impermanence) because Tokubei and Ohatsu have a conviction to undergo shinju in hopes to go to the Western Paradise.

While Chikamatsu wrote The Love Suicides at Sonezaki as a jōruri play, both bunraku and kabuki versions exist.

One onnagata, Nakamura Ganjiro III, is a Japanese Living National Treasure (a high honor bestowed on artists by a government)[5] and has played the role of Ohatsu over 1225 times according to a 2006 theater review.

In this performance, Nakamura Ganjiro III's outfit consisted of a layered purple and brown kimono with a gold and black obi.

[6] In a 2001 review, Klett states in the second scene when Ohatsu defends Tokubei, Ganjiro talks slowly in an agonizing way and is accompanied by a drum and guitar by musicians onstage.

At Ikudama shrine, the set include hanging purple flowers, trees, grass and red drapes.

[6][7] Nakamura Ganjiro III founded the Chikamatsu-za (a theater organization) in 1981 to accurately perform and celebrate Chikamatsu's works.

[8] A manga adaptation by Kawashita Mizuki, titled "Sonezaki Shinjuu", retells the story in a positive way.