by Randy Pinion

Created on: September 21, 2007   Last Updated: September 22, 2007

Ghost Stories at Yotsuya/Chushingura

In Tsuruya Nanboku's Edo-period play, Yotsuya Ghost Stories, readers and viewers alike are introduced to a variety of Lord Enya's retainers who were not so loyal to their lord as heroes like Chushingura's Yuranosuke. Chief amongst these men was Tamiya Iemon, who fell upon hard times after Enya's death and, lacking the moral fiber of the famed 47 Loyal Retainers, sought many disreputable solutions to his debt troubles.

At first, he merely scrounged for money in a destitute part of Edo, no different than characters like Kampei, who became a hunter to make what money he could. However, when an opportunity to marry into a rich family came along, Iemon took it immediately, even though it meant murdering his wife, framing his servant, and abandoning his old master (It was a retainer of Enya's enemy, Moronao, who wished to adopt Iemon through marriage).
While it may be easy at first to compare Iemon to Chushingura ronin-turned-villains like Sadakuro (the highway bandit) and Kudayu (the attempted spy), neither of those characters received the depth of treatment or focus that Iemon does in Yotsuya. Indeed, Iemon and fellow ronin Naosuke take up the majority of the latter tale with their criminal exploits of ruthless murder and deceit, showing little or no remorse throughout.
They contrast with Chushingura's impoverished heroKampei. When he accidentally murdered his spouse's father and was denied admittance to the conspirators' group, he ended his own life in shameful dishonor. When Iemon killed his first wife's father, he falsely swore to help her avenge the murder, and when he killed his second wife's father, he showed no emotion at all, beyond fear of his wife's ghost. He was truly a man with no honor at all.
These moments, and other instances, illustrate a fundamental difference between the two worlds, and explain why the two plays were often shown simultaneously. Yotsuya takes Chushingura's world of honor and glory and turns it on its head, showing the ugly side of greed in the wake of a lord's death. Unlike the heroic, mythical figures of the earlier work, Nanboku's ronin show loyalty to only themselves, and are generally portrayed as detrimental to society.
This shift was reflected in Japanese society at the time. As modernity overtook the country, transforming centuries-old traditions in mere decades, the samurai class quickly fell from grace. Years of relative peace in the Tokugawa shogunate forced armies to dwindle away,

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