is a puppet play by Chikamatsu Monzaemon. It was his most popular play. First staged on November 26, 1715, in Osaka, it ran for the next 17 months, far longer than the usual few weeks or months. Its enduring popularity can largely be attributed to its effectiveness as entertainment. Its many scenes over more than seven years follow the adventures of Coxinga (based on the adventures of the historical figure Koxinga; as the play is loosely based on history, it is a jidaimono play, not a domestic play) in restoring the rightful dynasty of China. It features effects uniquely suited for the puppet theater, such as the villain Ri Tōten gouging out an eye (ostensibly to prove his loyalty). Donald Keene suggests that the adventures in exotic China played well in isolationist Tokugawa Japan. While generally not considered as great in literary quality as some of Chikamatsu's domestic tragedies like The Love Suicides at Amijima, it is generally agreed to be his best historical play.
Plot Act 1 Scene 1 The plot begins in the exceedingly luxurious and profligate court of the Chinese Emperor Shisōretsu (思宋烈; actually Chongzhen Emperor of the Ming dynasty), in May 1644. His wife is ready to give birth to their first son and future heir; Ryūkakun (柳歌君), wife of the loyal and sagacious counselor Go Sankei (Wu Sangui), has just given birth so she can be the imperial heir's wet nurse.
The Great King of Tartary (the Manchus) sends Prince Bairoku (梅勒 王) as his emissary to the court. The emissary's demand is that the emperor's wife be sent to him, to become his consort. The minister and General of the Right, Ri Tōten (李蹈天) reveals that the reason that the Great King believes he can make this demand is because, in 1641, Ri Tōten had sought ten million bushels of grain to relieve the famine gripping the land. In exchange, Ri Tōten had given them his promise that later they could ask for anything they wished.
Go Sankei opposes making good on Ri Tōten's promise, pointing out to him the immorality and outright foolishness of sending away the Empress with the heir. The envoy is deeply offended and rises to leave, uttering promises of war, when Ri Tōten takes his dagger and gouges out his left eye and presents it to the prince, who is thereby mollified when he leaves.
Scene 2 The Emperor, favorably impressed by Ri Tōten's sacrifice decides to marry his younger sister, the lovely Princess Sendan (栴檀皇女) to him. She is opposed to any marriage so the Emperor forces her to wager her assent on the outcome of a mock battle between 200 court ladies wielding plum or cherry branches. At the Emperor's previous instruction, the plums lose, dooming Sendan to the marriage.
Alarmed by the commotion of battle, Go Sankei apparels for war and rushes in. When he discovers the "senselessness" of the mock battle, he reproaches the emperor at length for alarming the palace; for setting a bad example; for his extravagances; his dislike of governance; and for being such a careless ruler that he didn't know that Ri Tōten was responsible for the famine by stealing rice from the Imperial storehouses and using his ill-got proceeds to bribe and corrupt people throughout the country; and last (but not least) for not recognizing that Ri Tōten gouging out his eye was a message to the Tartars that they had his complete backing and should invade. (Go Sankei "proves" this through use of yin and yang and analysis of ideographs.)
The Emperor scorns Go Sankei's lecture but immediately an ancient plaque with the dynasty name on it shatters. With a great tumult, the former envoy breaks into the palace at the head of an irresistible enemy host. Go Sankei's forces are hopelessly outnumbered and cannot resist. He instructs Ryūkakun to take the Princess to a certain harbor, named Kaidō (海登). Go Sankei and his men cut a path through the opposing hordes and secure the escape of the Empress and Emperor. Before Go Sankei's forces succeed and he returns, Ri Tōten and his brother, Ri Kaihō (李海方), seize the Emperor and cut off his head. Tōten takes the head to the Great King. Ri Kaihō is left to bring the Empress along into custody. On Go Sankei's return, he wrathfully strikes down Ri Kaihō and sorrowfully removes the imperial appurtenances and imperial regalia from the imperial corpse. With his own son and the Empress, the three escape to the coast at Kaidō.
Scene 3 Unfortunately for the three fugitives, no ships can be found at Kaidō to take them across to safety. They are pursued by musketeers who kill the Empress. Pausing in his haste, Go Sankei realizes that the rightful heir to the throne may yet be salvaged. With his sword, he performs a Caesarean section and removes the still living prince. However, fearing that the enemy forces would realize that the prince lived when they saw the empty womb, Go Sankei kills his infant son and places the corpse in the womb to gain time and fool the enemy.
Go Sankei does not meet up with Ryūkakun and the princess. Ryūkakun ambushes one of Ri Toten's henchmen, seizing his boat and sword. She puts the princess in the boat, pushes it off, trusting in the elements to deliver the princess to an old loyal courtier exiled to Japan, "Ikkan" or "Tei Shiryū Rōikkan" (鄭芝龍老一官; Zheng Zhilong, also known as Iquan).
Ryūkakun remains on the shore and perishes fighting the Tartars; they leave satisfied that everyone (including the prince) is dead, except for Go Sankei — although he does not worry them.
Act 2 Scene 1 Act 2 dawns in a sleepy Japanese fishing village, to which the "Grand Tutor" Tei Shiryū fled after being banished from China so many years ago. There he remarried and had a son, Watōnai (和藤内), whom he raised as a fisherman and who has married a sturdy fisherwoman. He ceaselessly studied all the texts his father brought with him from China, studying with especial ardour the works on military strategy and tactics, and histories of war. Despite his earnest efforts, he never truly grasps military matters until one day walking on the beach he espies a clam and a shrike locked in combat. The shrike's beak has been trapped and it cannot escape; at the same time the clam is vulnerable as it is only safe so long as it holds on. The lesson Watōnai draws from this is "to provoke a quarrel between two adversaries, and then catch both when they least expect it." Watōnai immediately decides to try to apply his newfound insight to the war between China and Tartary.
No sooner has Watōnai's wife Komutsu (小むつ) pried apart the shrike and clam than the two see a small boat drifting towards them. Inside is the Princess Sendan. Neither Watōnai nor Komutsu speak Chinese. Perplexed what to do, they summon Tei Shiryū, who relates to Sendan his exile. Sendan then pours forth her recent history.
Encouraged by a prophecy of victory mentioned by Tei Shiryū's unnamed Japanese wife and by analysis of ideograms and the I Ching, Watōnai resolves to reconquer China for the emperor. Watōnai tries to leave without his Komutsu but, shamed by this, she tries to persuade Watōnai to beat her to death first with his oar. Watōnai refuses. He relents when she is about to hurl herself off the cliff; apparently he had only been testing her to see whether he could entrust the princess to her. She passes, and Watōnai, Tei Shiryū, and his wife set off for China.
Scene 2 In China, Tei Shiryū has a plan of sorts. In his exile, he left behind one daughter named Kinshōjo (錦祥女), who has married a puissant lord and general named Gojōgun Kanki (甘輝). With her aid, hopefully Kanki could be persuaded to rebel and join forces with them and Go Sankei against their foreign overlords.
They decide to split up and take separate routes to avoid suspicion. While passing through the "Bamboo Forest of a Thousand Leagues" (千里ケ竹), Watōnai and his mother encounter a large and fierce tiger driven there by a tiger hunt. Watōnai defeats the tiger and receives its submission. An Taijin (安大人), underling of Ri Toten, rushes up with his officers and soldiers – they had driven the tiger thence, intending to take its head as a present for the Great King.
Watōnai refuses to give over the tiger and speaks rudely to them. They attack, but the tiger intervenes, splintering and shattering all their weaponry. Watōnai seizes An Taijin and hurls him against a rock. His body is shattered and he dies. Threatened, the officers and soldiers avow that they were not particularly enthused by Tartary and its regime, and so would join Watōnai. He gives them all Japanese-style shaved heads and new names like "Luzonbei" or "Siamtarō" or "Jakartabei" or even "Englandbei".
Act 3 Scene 1 At the impregnable Castle of Lions (獅子城), Watōnai is in favor of attacking at once with his newfound soldiers, arguing that his half-sister's failure to ever send a letter to Tei Shiryū amply proves her disloyalty. His mother dissuades him, pointing out that a wife must obey her husband.
Tei Shiryū asks at the gate to be allowed entrance and a private audience with General Kanki. Kanki is not there at that moment, so Tei Shiryū asks to speak to Kanki's wife and mentions that he is recently arrived from Japan. Agitated by his request and foreignness, the guards begin threatening them and preparing for battle; the narrator suggests that Kinshōjo rushes to the gate because she hears the rising tumult the guards make. She instructs the guards to "do nothing rash!" She then inquires into the identities of the visitors. Tei Shiryū reveals himself.
Kinshōjo allows that Tei Shiryū's story of himself is accurate, but she demands proof. He replies that his face should be compared to a portrait he had made of himself and left with her many years ago. This proof conclusively settles the matter, as the image matches and none by Kinshōjo and Tei Shiryū would remember the portrait now as well.
Kinshōjo would let them all in, but the Great King of Tartary has issued orders that no foreigners be allowed into any fortresses. Kinshōjo asks the soldiers to make an exception for her stepmother. They agree only on the condition that she be fettered like a criminal (so if anyone should take them to task for breaking their orders, they would have an excuse).
Before she vanishes into the gate, an agreement is made with Tei Shiryū and Watōnai waiting outside: If the negotiations go well, white dye will be dumped into the cistern, which will shortly flow into the river outside and be very visible. If the negotiations fail, the dye will be red.
Scene 2
While Kinshōjo's maids are occupied trying to find some acceptable fare for the mother to eat, Kanki returns with good news: He has been promoted by the Great King to general of cavalry, commanding 100,000 horsemen. The mother comes in, and Kanki is moved by her hindrances and the love of her stepdaughter that prompted her to travel over the dangerous oceans. She asks him to throw in his lot with Watōnai.