O-Tsuta

The play

The play "Women's pedigree" is based on a novel written in 1907 by Izumi Kyoka (1873-1939). It is a Shinpa (New school) play, a modern, more naturalistic version of kabuki, popular towards the end of Meiji period (1868-1912). It is a melodramatic kabuki, sentimental with tragic endings with roles played by actresses and onnagata (male actor playing female roles). Shinpa is now in decline and is only played in Tokyo.

The novel "Women's pedigree" (Onna keizu) (also translated as "Women genealogy") is a paean to romantic love and a indictment of Japan's old marriage system with its hypocrisy of families looking for a bride with the "right" pedigree.

Main characters

• Hayase Chikara (早瀬主税): A translator in the army General Staff Office

• O-Tsuta (お蔦 ): A geisha, Chikara's lover

• Sakai Shunzo: A high-ranking officer and Chikara's mentor

• Takeo: Sakai's daughter

• Kono Eikichi: Another suitor for Takeo's hand

The plot

Hayase Chikara, a German translator in the Japanese Army's General Staff Office can lose his job when his past as a pickpocket is made public. Chikara and the geisha O-Tsuta are in love, but this relationship is disapproved by Sakai Shunzo, Chikara's superior. Sakai summons Hayase and gives him an ultimatum: Leave the girl or lose your job. But Sakai's true motive is that he would like for Hayase to marry his own daughter Takeo. In this light, O-Tsuta is viewed as having the "wrong pedigree". However Takeo is Sakai's child with another geisha O-Yoshi. Kono Eikichi is also looking for Takeo's hand as she has the right pedigree. Chikara resents Eikichi hypocrisy as he is himself a child born out of wedlock. In the famous parting scene, under the moonlight among the blossoming plum trees, O-Tsuta and Chikara meet for the last time. She has inserted a maegata in her hair, an accessory to create a marumage, a hair style for married women as a proof of her love for Hayase and her own desire for respectability. Chikara leaves and Sakai comes on stage, full of remorse for his inflexible position. But it is too late and O-Tsuta dies in his arms.

The actor

Kitamura Rokura (1871-1961) was a popular Onnagata (male actor playing female roles) of Shinpa kabuki.

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