Download Chushingura (The Treasury of Loyal Retainers): A Puppet Play
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Chushingura (The Treasury of Loyal Retainers): A Puppet Play
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Review
"Through his graceful, resourceful translations and his elegant, exhaustive scholarly books, [Keene] is almost single-handedly responsible for the current popularity of Japanese literature in English-speaking countries." -- "The New Yorker"
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From the Back Cover
Chushingura (The Treasury of Loyal Retainers), also known as the story of the Forty-Six (or Forty-Seven) Ronin, is the most famous and perenially popular of all Japanese dramas. Written around 1748 as a puppet play, it is now better know in Kabuki performances. In the twentieth century, cinema and television versions have been equally successful. Donald Keene here presents a complete translation of the original text, with notes and an introduction that increase the reader's comprehension and enjoyment of the play. The introduction also elucidates the idea of loyalty. This traditional virtue, as exemplified in Chushingura, has never completely lost its hold on audiences, in spite of twentieth-century changes in Japanese society and moral ideas. Moreover, as Professor Keene points out, the excitement, color and violence expressed in the play may be considered the counterpoint to the austere restraint and understatement which are more commonly thought to be "traditionally" Japanese.
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Product details
Series: Translations from the Asian Classics
Paperback: 183 pages
Publisher: Columbia University Press; 1st edition (1971)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 9780231035316
ISBN-13: 978-0231035316
ASIN: 0231035314
Product Dimensions:
5.5 x 0.5 x 8 inches
Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
4.6 out of 5 stars
23 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#134,722 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Popularly known as the Tale of the 47 Ronin, this is one of the most famous stories in Japanese history and literature - and one well worth knowing because it is so basic to an understanding of Japanese culture. Based on a series of actual events at the beginning of the 18th century, Chushingura tells the story of a group of samurai who have lost their Master to ritual suicide ("seppuku"). The suicide was ordered as honorable atonement for the master's purportedly unjustified treatment of a court official. The term "Ronin" refers to samurai (also known as "retainers") who are masterless - which usually means their master (lord, or daimyo) has been killed or disgraced.In this story the samurai, now left on their own as ronin, plot revenge against that court official. Without going further with the story, it's impact was to underscore the basic Japanese virtues of loyalty, bravery, and self-sacrifice. You'll find treatments of this famous historical incident throughout Japanese literature, art, film and drama. This version was written for the puppet theater, known as Bunraku. I don't want to take time to detail bunraku here, other than to say that it is powerful drama which uses large "puppets" - animated by people rather than strings, as in the West. This particular puppet play is one of the most highly regarded treatments of the ronin story.Here's an interesting footnote to the drama, which was written in 1748 - nearly half a century after the actual event in 1703. Chushingura takes place in 1338 - almost four centuries earlier than the event. Why? Government policy forbade portrayal of recent events in the arts. (In the long span of Japanese history a half century qualified as "recent".) The shoguns wouldn't brook criticism of their rule, which often was the intent baked into drama or woodblock prints. Nor would they tolerate art which stirred popular passions based on current events like murder or suicide. A pacified populace going about its mundane business was the best assurance against revolution. So dramatists and artists wishing to exploit recent events for commercial gain routinely disguised their characters as long-ago figures of history and legend, and transplanted their plots back in time accordingly.
"Chushingura" is Japan's "Romeo and Juliet". Not literally, of course, as the stories are very different, but in the way that it is a story that every Japanese person knows. Based on an actual incident, the story has been glorified and told and re-told for every generation, and still reverberates in hearts today. It is also, traditionally, a very hard story for Westerners to come to grips with, because the morals on display are not what we would consider to be admirable.Loyalty is something we can admire, of course, but this is unearned loyalty. The 47 Ronin do not avenge their lord because he was a good man, because he is worthy of their loyalty. They avenge him because he is their Master, and because he was born to be their master. The samurai also did not earn their position, they were born samurai, as an inherited class. Their job, rank and income was all decided the moment they drew their first breath, along with whom they would owe their loyalty to. The very word "samurai" translates as "servant", and without someone to serve they have no purpose. They uphold an inherently unfair system, as shown by their unwillingness to include a merchant in their vendetta, not because his courage is less but because his birth-determined class is lower than theirs.Donald Keene has performed a minor miracle with his translation of "Chushingura: The Treasury of Loyal Retainers". First off, his introduction deals with the inherent difficulties in the work. Even in Japan, since the inception of the work their has been debate on who are the heroes and who are the villains. A hotheaded lord sacrifices his life, family, home and the lives of the hundreds who depend on him simply because he could not swallow an insult. His personal pride was more important to him than all of these people's lives, all of whom paid his price. Keene shows the various points of view, the commentary given by Japanese authors over the years, and the way the story has been interpreted to support the various viewpoints of society.On top of that, he has created a thrilling translation, one that can be read as a novel and is hard to put down once started. Think what you may of the moral lesson, the story itself is pure adrenalin, and it is hard not to cheer for the sword-hard loyalty that drives the 47 Ronin. In this translation, there is no dispute as to who the heroes are, even as they sell their wives into prostitution in order to raise funds for the vendetta, or willing slit the throats of their own children in order to prove their earnestness. Keene also provides annotations for some of the more obscure references and translations, especially the references to famous Chinese poems and allegories which are abundant.I picked up this book thinking it was going to be a study guide for Japan's most famous story, hoping to glean some insight into a tale I have seen dozens of times in different interpretations. I got that, but what I also got was a great book, fun and exciting to read. I wasn't expecting that at all.
As another reviewer has noted, this book is impossible to put down. Although I am not a big fan of introductions-before-book, this one by Donald Keene helps a lot (the spoilers are few) and is recommended. Professor Keene's translation style is very limpid and flowing -- one is surprised by the end of Act Eleven when the climactic action sequence is brought to an end.Fans of Bunraku (puppet theatre) and Kabuki should have this book -- and hopefully the National Theatre in Tokyo might offer either version of the play (one can get in and see Bunraku these days for about 40-50 bucks).A note of warning: as Prof. Keene points out, this work of literature shows the other side of Japanese art (in contrast to austere restraint, this shows the Japanese love for color and violence) -- but it is not a non-stop action work. Instead, it deals more with the "tests" of loyalty (hence the title) each retainer must show in order to be allowed to participate in the final plan to kill their lord's enemy. In that way, Chushingura is much more about the love the retainers have for their lord than, in my opinion, the hatred and violence they harbor against the enemy. Uma Thurman in samurai garb, they are not...uh...Fans of Chikamatsu's plays will find this popular work refreshing -- it moves at a much faster pace, with more feints here and there. As a result, it lacks the gravitas of Chikamatsu's works, but it is much more fun. A great book to own and then pass around to friends.
It's an excellent translation of a complicated puppet theatre play. I don't suppose changes can be made at this point, but the one improvement that could be made would be a list of principal characters at the start of the translation. It gets confusing for students.
It was a nice read but very interesting.
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