"Plum Willows and the Evening Moon" - Umeyanagi Nakayoizuki

...Kiyoyoshi and his wife, pursued by the authorities, take refuge in Muenji Temple, where Kiyoyoshi's father is the keeper of the grave, but when Kiyoyoshi learns that the woman he killed earlier is Izayoi, or Osayo's younger brother, and that his father, Monzo, committed seppuku for a stolen short sword, he regrets his past wrongdoings and commits suicide, while Osayo also dies and Shobei is surrounded by his captors. The play ends with Izayoi and Seishin's journey and double suicide at the 4th Hundred Stakes scene, and then when Seishin climbs out of the river and sees the entertainment on a pleasure boat, he has a change of heart, kills the woman, and the only one who finds out about it is the moon, which leads him to live a life of evil. This part is emotionally effective thanks to the use of Kiyomoto's Umeyanagi Nakayoizuki and the 7-5 rhythm of the dialogue, and is still performed today. The author wrote a play with the same theme in his later work, Funehe Uchikomu Hasshima no Shiranami (White Waves Between the Bridges).

*Some of the terminology explanations that refer to "Umeyanagi Chuyoizuki" are listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

…役人に追われる清吉夫婦は，清吉の父が墓守をしている無縁寺に逃れて来るが，清吉は以前殺した求女が十六夜すなわちおさよの弟であること，盗んだ短刀のため親の主筋の紋三が切腹したことを知り，前非を悔いて自害し，おさよも死に，庄兵衛も捕手に囲まれるところで終わる。四建目百本杭の場で十六夜と清心の道行と心中を描き，次に川からはい上がった清心が遊山舟の遊興を見て心が変わり，求女を殺し，それを知るのは〈お月様とおればっかり〉と言って悪に生きることになる変心のドラマを描くが，ここは清元《梅柳中宵月（うめやなぎなかもよいづき）》と七五調のせりふの駆使により情緒的な効果を上げていて，今でも上演される。作者は後年の作《船打込橋間白浪（ふねへうちこむはしまのしらなみ）》でも同じ趣向の芝居を書いている。…

※「《梅柳中宵月》」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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