Amakusa Shiro

...A general term for plays that have Christianity as a theme. Since the prohibition of Christianity in 1638 (Kan'ei 15), it has not been permitted to deal with Christianity in a serious manner in puppet theater or kabuki. Only a few plays were performed as "Amakusa Gunkimono" (Amakusa Shiro Shimabara Monogatari) (published in 1666) and "Keisei Shimabara Kaeru Kassen" (written by Chikamatsu Monzaemon, November 1719, Takemotoza), as well as its variant "Tenjiku Tokubei Sato no Sugatami" (written by Chikamatsu Hanji, April 1763, Takemotoza), and these cannot be called orthodox Christian plays. In modern times (after the ban was lifted in 1873), there was a boom in Nanban tastes, and first appeared Kinoshita Mokutaro's series of works "In front of the gates of the Nanban temple" (1909), "Ebumi: The strange tale of the Nagasaki martyrdom" (1913), "Amakusa Shiro" (1914), "Tsunenaga" and "The plaintiff" (all 1928), which depict the overlapping suffering of modern people.

*Some of the terminology that refers to "Amakusa Shiro" is listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

…キリシタンを題材とした戯曲の総称。1638年(寛永15)キリシタン禁制以来，人形浄瑠璃，歌舞伎ではまともにこれを取り扱うことが許されず，わずかに〈天草軍記物〉として，古浄瑠璃の《天草四郎島原物語》(1666年刊)や《傾城（けいせい）島原蛙合戦》(近松門左衛門作，1719年11月竹本座)，またその変種である《天竺徳兵衛郷鏡（さとのすがたみ）》(近松半二作，1763年4月竹本座)などが行われたにすぎず，正統な切支丹物とはいいがたい。近代に入って(明治6年解禁後)，南蛮趣味の流行もあり，まず木下杢太郎の連作《南蛮寺門前》(1909作)，《絵踏（えぶみ）長崎殉教奇談》(1913作)，《天草四郎》(1914作)，《常長》《訴人》(以上1928作)などが現れ，近代人の苦悩を重ねあわせて描いている。…

※「《天草四郎》」について言及している用語解説の一部を掲載しています。

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