Chikamatsu Monzaemon (近松門左衛門) (author mid 1650s - early 1720s)

Links

Biography:

Gerald Groemer in an article, ‘A Retiree’s Chat (Shin’ya meidan): The Recollections of the Kyōka Poet Hezutsu Tōsaku’, in Japan Review (#34, 2019) wrote on page 13: “1. Many authors have written texts intended for recitation, but none excelled Chikamatsu Monzaemon 近松門左衛門 (1653–1724). Next in line came Namiki Sōsuke 並木宗輔 (1695–1751). Many of the expressions used by Chikamatsu in dramas such as Shinjū yoigōshin 心中宵庚申 (Love suicides on the eve of the Kōshin festival, 1722), Shinjū ten no Amijima 心中天の網島 (Love suicides at Amijima, 1720), Meido no hikyaku (The courier of hell, 1711), Keisei hangonkō 傾城反魂香 (The courtesan of Hangon incense, 1708), and other plays reveal human emotions in wondrous ways.”