Page:Tales from old Japanese dramas (1915).djvu/47

Rh lessons under Izumo, and became a dramatist. He wrote about fifty pieces, as a collaborator. His best work is the Imoséyama Onna Teikin. Shōraku and Bunkōdō were also playwriters for the Takemoto Za.

Chikamatsu Hanji, who called himself Chikamatsu on account of his being a writer of the Monzayemon school, wrote fifty-four pieces for the Takemoto Za, in collaboration with two or three writers. His best works are the Honchō Nijūshikō, the Sekitari Senryō Nobori and the Shimpan Uta Zaimon, from the last of which the present author has adapted "O-Somé and Hisamatsu," or a Japanese Romeo and Juliet. This drama is so popular, that it is performed all the year round at some theatre or other.

Chikamatsu Tokuzō (1753–1810), a pupil of Chikamatsu Hanji, wrote many pieces for the Toyotaké Za. His best works are the Hana wa Uyeno Homaré no Ishibumi, and the Hakoné Reigen Izari Kataki-uchi, which is reproduced in the present volume as "Katsugorō's Revenge." About 1804, he wrote a kyaku-hon entitled the Asagao Nikki, or "Miss Morning-glory's Diary," the plot of which was suggested to him by Kumazawa Banzan's