Chikamatsu Monzaemon

Sugimori Nobumori, known as Chikamatsu Monzaemon, was born in 1653 into a samurai family, in Echizen according to the most widespread hypothesis. His father, having become masterless, settled with his family in Kyoto, where the young man served a household of the court nobility. He wrote for the puppet theatre, then mostly for kabuki until 1705, before settling in Ōsaka beside the chanter Takemoto Gidayū, whose official author he remained. The shogunate banned plays about lovers' suicides, which he had brought to the stage, in 1722 or 1723, depending on the sources. He died in 1725, in Ōsaka or in Amagasaki.

In the catalogue 1

• TheatreThe Love Suicides at Sonezaki曾根崎心中Chikamatsu Monzaemon · 1703Literature