Fragmented Bodies: The Construction and Deconstruction of Chikamatsu’s Plays on the Film Stage

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2013
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Bi-College (Haverford and Bryn Mawr Colleges). Department of East Asian Studies
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Thesis
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eng
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Open Access
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Abstract
Chikamatsu Monzaemon’s classic bunraku (puppet) plays found their new theater in the younger Japanese film industry of the 1950s and 60s. This fascination with the traditional aspects of Japanese society and life ran parallel to the changes that Japan was experiencing due to Westernization. In order to deepen my understanding of the ways in which film serves as an active space for cultural and even political discourse, I examine three films, all of which are based on Chikamatsu’s works: Chikamatsu Monogatari/Crucified Lovers (directed by Mizoguchi Kenji, 1954), Naniwa no Koi no Monogatari/Chikamatsu’s Love in Osaka (Uchida Tomu, 1959) and Shinjū Ten no Amijima/Double Suicide (Shinoda Masahiro, 1969). I argue that the concern and search for realism is the core of the relationship between traditional theater and film. I use the concept of “fragmentation” as a way to show that the full “picture,” or reality that the directors present, is in fact composed of fragments and that the fragments highlight the problems of society. I unpack the concept further by analyzing three conceptual “bodies.” The aesthetic body focuses on an individual’s place in the social hierarchy. The body as a warzone explores the social problems that surround the individual and the ways in which those problems destroy his relationships. Lastly, the visible invisible body looks into the personifications of fate and challenges the idea that one’s life is predetermined. This analysis ultimately reveals that in addition to being forms of entertainment, period films were used to affirm Japanese identity and question an individual’s relationship to society.
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