SOURCE: “Tragedy and Emotion: Shakespeare and Chikamatsu,” in Shakespeare and the Japanese Stage, edited by Takashi Sasayama, J. R. Mulryne, and Margaret Shewring, Cambridge University Press, 1998, pp. 145-58.

In this essay, Sasayama offers a comparative study of Shakespeare's and Chikamatsu's careers, including not only their dramatic works but also the material conditions of the theaters and their status as national poets. Sasayama focuses on tragedy and emotion, finding that for Chikamatsu, pathos can be distinguished from the moral judgement that is often a central part of Shakespeare's tragedies.

Many attempts have been made by scholars and critics of drama in Japan since the Meiji era to compare Monzaemon Chikamatsu (1653-1724)—the greatest figure of the classical popular theatre of Japan—with Shakespeare. The aim of the comparison has often been to gain recognition for Chikamatsu in the world of theatre as a national playwright analogous to Shakespeare in...