Girish Mahajan (Editor)

Kaidan botan dōrō

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Kaidan Botan Dōrō (怪談牡丹燈籠) (Peony lantern kaidan) is a story inspired by the Chinese influenced kaidan Botan Dōrō. Published as a stenography narrated and created by the rakugo artist San'yūtei Enchō and written with the aid of both Sakai Shōzō (酒井昇造) and Wakabayashi Kanzō (若林玵蔵). Published in 1886, it is considered a famous kaidan in Japan.

Contents

Content and style

Kaidan Botan Dōrō is inspired by the Chinese influenced Botan dōrō, a story in which a young man falls in love with the spirit of a beautiful young woman. Nevertheless, San'yūtei's telling of the popular myth also tells the novel story of a young shoeman, Kōsuke, and his quest to avenge his deceased master. This adds a new story to the Botan dōrō myth and develops the relationships with the main characters. The book contains twenty-one chapters and a final chapter. Written in a vernacular Japanese, Kaidan Botan Dōrō is one of the first books written in the unified language or Ichitai genbun, a free speech style resembling the spoken language of the time (Meiji era).

Publication and influence

The book was first serialised in a newspaper and published every Sunday. It has also contributed to the success of publishing stenographies during the Meiji era. Kaidan Botan Dōrō has had a notable influence on consequent versions, which are usually loosely based in San'yūtei's version of the story, including most theatre and cinematographic productions of the myth.

The stories

  • The book can be divided into three main parts: the Tale of Kōsuke and his master Iijima, Shinzaburō and his ghost lover O-Tsuyu, and Kōsuke's revenge. The two first parts take place during the sixteen first chapters. Chapters seventeen through twenty-one tell the story of Kōsuke's revenge.

    • The sixteen first chapters are divided between two groups: odd chapters (Kōsuke and Iijima) and even chapters (Shinzaburō and O-Tsuyu).

  • Chapters 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, and 15 explain how Iijima Heizaemon, a notable hatamoto, killed a drunken samurai and how eighteen years later, the latter's son, Kōsuke, became Iijima's servant. Iijima is fooled by his wife, O-Kuni, who cheats on him with Iijima's nephew Genjirō and the adulterers plan to kill the master. However, the hatamoto is killed in an accident and Kōsuke swears revenge. O-Kuni and her lover eventually flee the house of Iijima.
  • Chapters 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 explain how Shinzaburō, a charming young man, meets Iijima's only daughter O-Tsuyu. They fall in love with each other but social class prevents them from being together. O-Tsuyu dies longing for the young man and returns during the Festival of spirits (O-Bon), to visit her lover. Shinzaburō's neighbours and servants, Tomozō and his wife O-Mine, learn of the young man's misfortune but in the end help the spirit consume Shinzaburō's soul in exchange for money. Tomozō and his wife then flee the neighbourhood.

    • All chapters after 17 explain how in a twist of events, Tomozō meets O-Kuni and both start a love affair resulting in the murder of Tomozō's wife. O-Kuni is finally faced with Kōsuke and Tomozō is arrested for his wife's murder. In the final chapters Kōsuke meets his mother who left him alone as a child.

    References

    Kaidan botan dōrō Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA