The Journey to an Inevitable Death

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Recommended: Japanese society and culture

Japanese culture is very different from culture that many Americans are use too. The differences, some large, some small are ones that really need to be looked at closely. In Japanese culture the idea of suicide is often embraced in an effort for enlightenment. When Chikamatsu creates a piece of art littered with tragedy he shows the duel between a society unwilling to change and an individual who is changing and leaving the path of the social norm. The work of Chikamatsu is an art, the majority of his work being that of a puppet show, when dealing with a puppet show it is, imaginably, difficult for the audience to see how the characters are changing and leaves little room for the character to develop both mentally and physically, however, Chikamatsu is able to penetrate into the true nature of things and makes the audience feel as what is happening is real. That being said Chikamatsu is able to take the audience on a ride, through scenes where the reader feels the sorrow, the pain, the love of the characters and are able to relate and sympathize for the characters in which they are watching develop. Chikamatsu forces characters to their final demise by portraying their battle of human nature against their social and personal obligations.
Suicide is defined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary as “the act of killing yourself because you do not want to continue living.” However, Chikamatsu gives a very different meaning to it. Yes, in essence it is still how it is defined in the dictionary but the reason behind it bears much more weight. According to the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) 76% of Americans would consider themselves to be part of the Christian faith. According to the Roman Catholic Church, suicide betrays ...

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... 02 Apr. 2014. .
Gerstle, C. Andrew. "Love Suicides at Amijima." Circles of Fantasy: Convention in the Plays of Chikamatsu. Cambridge, MA: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University, 1986. 136-54. Print.
Heine, Steven. "Tragedy and Salvation in the Floating World: Chikamatsu's Double Suicide Drama as Millenarian Discourse." The Journal of Asian Studies 53.2 (1994): 367-93. JSTOR. Web. 30 Mar. 2014. .
Kosmin, Barry A., and Ariela Keysar. "American Religious Identification Survey." Summary Report. Trinity College, Mar. 2009. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.
"Suicide." Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2014. .

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