Background
The Chûshingura theatrical tale was based on on actual events from 1703 when former retainers of the lord of the Akô domain, Asano Naganori, exacted revenge by murdering Lord Kira Yoshinaka, who had (apparently) so enraged their lord that Asano attempted to murder Yoshinaka. Asano's action was an serious violation of the samurai code of behavior within a shogunal palace, whose punishment resulted in Asano's seppuku (lit., "incision of the abdomen," ritual suicide: 切腹).
The oldest surviving Chûshingura play is Goban Taiheiki (Chronicle of great piece played on a chessboard) written in 1706 by Japan's great playwright Chikamatsu Monzaemon. The plot involves the historical Kô no Moronao (高師直 died 1351), who was the first to hold the position of Shitsuji (Shogun's deputy) and became general of the Shogun's (Ashikaga) armies, which defeated the forces of the southern court in the fourteenth century. However, the genesis of Chikamatsu's story can be found in a puppet play also by him written less than a month earlier called Kenkô hôshi monomigurugusa (The sightseeing carriage of the priest Kenkô), in which the priest persuades a general named Kô no Moronao to transfer his unwanted libidinous attentions from a court lady to the wife of Enya Hangan. When she rejects Moronao, he denounces her husband and forces him to commit seppuku. Thus the catalyst for future theatrical treatments and their various expositions of the vendetta had been set by two Chikamatsu plays in 1706. Also established was the transfer to the sekai (world or sphere: 世界) of the fourteenth century. Naturally, this sekai resonated with another rousing saga, the Taiheiki (Chronicle of great peace:太平記), a historical epic from that era covering the period 1319-67. It deals primarily with the Nanboku-chô (1336-92), a period of war between the Northern Court of Ashikaga Takauji in Kyoto and the Southern Court of Emperor Go-Daigo in Yoshino.
Taiheiki chûshin kôshaku (Story of the loyal chronicle of great peace: 太平記忠臣講釈) premiered in Edo at the Ichimura-za in the second month of 1766. It was an adaptation of the foremost puppet and kabuki version, the 1748 Kanadehon chûshingura (Copybook of the Treasury of Loyal Retainers: 假名手本忠臣蔵, often called simply "The Forty-seven Rônin"), whose dramaturgic re-imagining features a vendetta by the retainers of Enya Hangan (a provincial daimyô) who committed seppuku after a confrontation incited by Kô no Moronao (a chief councilor to the Shogun).
The doubling structure of the Taiheki epic/plays with the Chûshingura dramas revolve around refashionings of the actual Kô no Moronao. In the historical Taiheiki, he is portrayed as a villain who is accused of unbridled violence, greed, and lewdness. It is this earlier, long-standing reputation that must have appealed to the Chûshingura playwrights when they sought a villain for their revenge tale to be set in a distant sekai, as they could not name the real-life figures in the Asano affair for fear of running afoul of the shogunate's censorship edicts.
Design
The role of the fictional Hayano Kanpei (ハ早野勘平) is adapted from the historical figure Kayano Sanpei (萱野三平) of the Akô Domain, who committed suicide before the vendetta. The story of the betrothed lovers Hayano Kanpei (早ノ勘平) and Okaru (おかる) forms a subplot within the tale of forty-seven rônin who avenge their lord Enya Hangan's forced suicide following a quarrel incited by the villain Kô no Moronao 高師直 (Acts III-IV). Okaru and Kanpei travel to her parent's country home, a scene often performed as a road-travel dance (shosagoto michiyuki, 所佐事道行). Okaru's father Yoichibei (与市兵衛) reluctantly sells her to a brothel for 100 ryô to raise funds for a monument to Hangan (actually a ruse to collect money secretly for arms and armor to attack Moronao in his mansion). This gesture would have also helped to redeem Kanpei's honor, for the quarrel leading to Hangan's seppuku ("incision of the abdomen" or ritual suicide, 切腹) occurred when Kanpei had briefly abandoned his lord at a critical moment to enjoy a covert dalliance with Okaru. In Act VI, Yoichibei is murdered and robbed of Okaru's earnings on a rainy night by the highwayman Ono no Sadakurô (斧定九郎), a former low-ranking retainer of Hangan's who deserted the avenging rônin. Kanpei, now a hunter, comes upon the scene and fires his rifle at a wild boar. The shot inadvertently kills Sadakurô, however, but it is so dark that Kanpei fails to recognize the dead villain when he picks up the money. Kanpei does recognize the body of Yoichibei, however, and believes he has slain his father-in-law. When his mother-in-law accuses him of the crime, he commits suicide to atone for his grievous action. As he lay dying, Kanpei learns the truth from two of the loyal samurai, and they add Kanpei's name to the list of the rônin as a reward for proving his loyalty and for donating the money gained from Okaru's indenture as a prostitute.
Taiheiki chûshin kôshaku seems to have been the Naka Theater's rival production to the Kado's staging of Taiheiki samurai kagami (Mirror of the Taiheiki warriors: 太平記土鑑) in 10/1835, which featured Nakamura Shikan II.
This design is one of Hokuei's finest mirror ôkubi-e. It is the first state with the Kumazô carver and Hide printer seals. Although slightly trimmed at top, the roundel remains intact, unlike many other impressions where the mirror is trimmed on the vertical sides.
References: IKBYS-II, no. 367; inv H241; Waseda (4-550; inv 016-0789); KNP-VI, vol. 6, p. 302; IKB-I, no. 263
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