Extraordinary exemplars in the period pieces of Chikamatsu Monzaemon

By courageous, death-defying deeds, adventurous widows, wives, daughters, and courtesans---women from all walks of life---serve the higher good within the period pieces of Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1724), the most prolific playwright for the puppet theater during Japan's Tokugawa period (1603-1868). Chikamatsu composed nearly one hundred works for the puppet theater, broadly grouped into contemporary-life plays (sewamono) and period pieces (jidaimono). This study examines the intersection between the playwright's period pieces and prevalent notions of exemplary female conduct in early modern Japan. The appendices contain new translations of three period pieces.;Chapter One considers why Chikamatsu's over seventy period pieces have been overshadowed by his twenty-four contemporary-life plays during the processes of canonization, anthologization, and translation in Japan and abroad. Chapters Two to Four, each featuring one of the translated period pieces, discuss aspects of Chikamatsu's dramaturgical craft as a foundation for the subsequent analysis of the female protagonists. Centering on Yoshino no miyako Onna Kusunoki (Female Kusunoki in the Yoshino Capital, 1710), Chapter Two examines the reception of the war tale Taiheiki in the early Tokugawa period and the playwright's use of established fictional universes. Spotlighting Komochi yamauba (Mother Mountain Witch, 1712), Chapter Three discusses the playwright's deployment of earlier dramatic narratives and the new technology of print as both influence and inspiration. Based on Keisei Shimabara kairu kassen ( Courtesans at the Shimabara Toad War, 1719), Chapter Four considers how the period piece can be imaginatively harnessed to bypass strict shogunal censorship.;In a society new to the technology of print, conduct guides for women and rakes' guides to popular courtesans symbolized two of the most popular idealizations of womanly conduct. My research concludes that the heroines of Chikamatsu's period pieces offer a variety of alternatives to this dichotomized representation of women as virtuous family member or recreational plaything. Choosing to express their familial loyalty through deeds rather than death, they uphold their household legacy and contribute to restoring order in the public sphere.