Four Major Plays of Chikamatsu

Four Major Plays of Chikamatsu is a collection of four major dramas by the famous Japanese playwright Chikamatsu Monzaemon. The four plays were first translated by Donald Keene in 1961, and have appeared in various collections and books over the years; Four Major Plays contains a Preface, an Introduction, and two appendices in addition, and is published by Columbia University Press.

Four Major Plays of Chikamatsu

"Behind the scenes at an Edo puppet theater of 1690"
Author	Chikamatsu Monzaemon; Keene wrote the Preface, the Introduction, and the two appendices
Translator	Donald Keene
Illustrator	Not listed
Cover artist	Benjamin S. Farber
Language	English
Series	as "Major Plays of Chikamatsu", was Number LXVI of the "Records of Civilization Sources and Studies"; it was also included in the "Japanese Translations Series" of the UNESCO Collection of Representative Works[1]. Also part of Columbia University Press's "Translations from the Asian Classics"
Genre	Drama
Publisher	Columbia University Press
Publication date	the 4 plays, 1961; with Preface, 1998
Publication place	USA
Media type	Print (softcover )
Pages	220 pages
ISBN	0-231-11101-0 (1998 Columbia University Press edition)
OCLC	37904817
Dewey Decimal	895.6/232 21
LC Class	PL793.4 .A6 1998

The Preface gives a more popular account of matters, mentioning that Keene's translations of the plays have actually been performed; the lengthy introduction gives a brief biographical sketch of Chikamatsu and a discussion of various literary features and other background useful for understanding Chikamatsu's plays.

Contents

Plays

• The Love Suicides at Sonezaki (Sonezaki Shinjū)
• The Battles of Coxinga (Kokusenya Kassen)
• The Uprooted Pine (Nebiki no Kadomatsu)
• The Love Suicides at Amijima (Shinjū Ten no Amijima)

Appendices

The two appendices are:

• A Note on Prostitution in Chikamatsu's Plays
• Contemporary Puppet Performances of Chikamatsu's Plays