Namiki Sōsuke

Namiki Sōsuke ( Japanese 並 木 宗 輔 , Namiki Senryū ; * 1695 in Ōsaka ; † October 25, 1751 ) was a Japanese Bunraku and Kabuki author.

Namiki Sōsuke was born as Matsuya Sōsuke. He was a Buddhist priest in Mihara before he decided to work as a writer. From 1726 he was alternating with Nishizawa Ippū the Tatesakusha at the Toyotake -Bunrakutheater in Osaka. Together with Yasuda Kabun , he wrote fourteen dramas by 1732, some of which were significant for the history of Japanese puppet theater. 1733–35 he wrote a number of pieces in collaboration with his student Namiki Saisuke . In the following years he wrote a few dramas by himself and was busy revising the plays of other authors. In 1741 he interrupted his literary work. In the following year he began working as a Tatesakusha at various Kabuki theaters in Osaka. In 1745 he took the name Namiki Senryū and switched back to the Bunraku Theater. In the next five years he wrote other dramas as the sole writer for the Takemoto Theater. However, he had his greatest successes as a co-author with Takeda Izumo II and Miyoshi Shōraku . Together they wrote the so-called "Three Great Drama" Sugawara Denju Tenarai Kagami (1746), Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura (1747) and Kanadehon Chūshingura (1748). Three historical dramas that are still on the repertoire of the Kabuki and Bunrakutheater to the present day. Other collaborative works by the three authors were Natsu Matsuri Naniwa Kagami (1745), Futatsu Chōchō Kuruwa Nikki (1749) and Genpei Nunobiki Taki (1749).

In 1750 Senryū changed his name back to Namiki Sōsuke and returned to the Toyotake Theater, for which he wrote his main work, the drama Ichinotani Futaba Gunki ("Chronicle of the Battle of Ichinotani") in the following year . He died before the drama was completed; however, research suggests that he was the author of most of this piece. Shortly after his death, some contemporaries honored him as the greatest playwright since Chikamatsu Monzaemon .

swell

• Ronald Cavaye, Paul Griffith, Akihiko Senda: A guide to the Japanese stage: from traditional to cutting edge. Kodansha International, 2004, ISBN 4-7700-2987-X , p. 29.
• Martin Banham: The Cambridge guide to theater. 2nd Edition. Cambridge University Press, 1995, ISBN 0-521-43437-8 , p. 562.
• Samuel L. Leader: New Kabuki Encyclopedia. A Revised Adaptation of Kabuki Jiten . Greenwood Press, Westport Connecticut / London 1997, ISBN 0-313-29288-4 , p. 456.
• Haruo Shirane: Early Modern Japanese Literature: An Anthology, 1600-1900. Columbia University Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-231-14415-5 , pp. 179 ff.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 並 木 宗 輔 . In: デ ジ タ ル 大 辞 泉 at kotobank.jp. Shogakukan, accessed January 13, 2011 (Japanese). 

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . So Namiki is the family name, Sōsuke the first name.