Page:The Surviving Works of Sharaku (1939).djvu/278



he Soga brothers, Jūrō Sukenari and Gorō Tokimune, were respectively five and three years old at the time when their father was assassinated by Kudō Suketsune. This was in the year 1177. Their father’s enemy, fearing that they would take revenge in accordance with the Confucian maxim, “Thou shalt not live on the same earth with thy father’s slayer,” tried to have them killed in their childhood, and in this enlisted the support of the Shogun Yoritomo who had himself been responsible for the death of their grandfather.

The intervention of various influential personages saved the lives of the two boys, but Suketsune was proved right in fearing their enmity, for in 1193 they attacked and killed him. During the attack which was made at night at the Shogun’s hunting camp, Jūrō was himself killed. Gorō was captured, and was executed at the insistence of Suketsune’s son, in spite of the fact that even the Shogun wished to pardon him on account of his youth and filial piety.

The story has been famous in Japan ever since, and for centuries the brothers have been heroes of the stage.

Both this and the following play present variations of the theme, but these need not be discussed here, as the only extant Sharaku prints for the production now under consideration represent merely the climactic scene where the brothers finally confront their enemy.