Chikamatsu: Five Late Plays

Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1725), Japan's most famous playwright, produced more than one hundred works during a career of about forty-five years spent writing for the joruri (bunraku) and kabuki theaters in Kyoto and Osaka.Chikamatsu: Five Late Plays, translated and annotated by C. Andrew Gerstle includes new and complete translations of Twins at the Sumida River, Lovers Pond in Settsu Province, Battles at Kawa-nakajima, Love Suicides on the Eve of the Koshin Festival, and Tethered Steed and the Eight Provinces of Kanto, as well as notes, a bibliography, and a glossary of key terms. Interspersed throughout the plays are dozens of Japanese plates, drawings, and figures illustrating the scenes of the plays.