Background
Igagoe mono were a popular series of plays for both the puppet and kabuki theaters, dramatizing one of Japan's three celebrated tales of revenge (the other two theatrical groupings being the Chûshingura mono and Soga mono). The inspiration for the Igagoe mono lay in an actual vendetta that took place in 1634 at Iga Ueno (an area near Nagoya and Nara), when Watanabe Shizuma (Kazuma) and his brother-in-law, Araki Mataemon (a skilled swordsman), sought vengence against Kawai Matagorô, a retainer of the lord of Koremori and the murderer of Kazuma's father, Watanabe Yukie. Ultimately, Mataemon kills Matagorô and several others, becoming a legendary figure in the folklore of Japan. Having captured the imagination of the public, he was celebrated in bunraku (puppet theater: 文楽), kabuki, kôdan (oral narratives or spoken stories: 講談), and popular novels.
Playwrights diverged from the real events, amending names, locations, and plots to create various complex vendetta tales. In the present version Karaki Masaemon is a martial arts master who teaches his craft under the auspices of the lord of Koriyama Castle, Konda Naiki. Masaemon is recruited to leave Naiki to join in a revenge against Matagorô, who has murdered his wife's father, Wada Yukie. Masaemon fears that winning a scheduled fencing (kendô) match against Matagorô's uncle, as expected, would further demonstrate his prowess and make his lord reluctant to allow him to leave, so he loses on purpose, which brings taunts from Naiki. When his lord stabs at him with a long lance (naginata), Masaemon — as shown in Ashiyuki's design — deftly grabs the lance to the surprise of Naiki, who then relents and permits Masaemon to join in the vendetta.
The Iga katakiuchi mono (plays about revenge killings at Iga: 敵討物) constitute one of the three most frequently performed stories, the others being Chûshingura mono (plays about the treasury of loyal retainers, or "Forty-seven rônin": 忠臣藏物) and Soga mono (plays about the Soga brothers: 曾我物). The first known kabuki staging of Iga katakiuchi mono took place in 1725 (Iga Ueno katakiuchi) in Osaka. Bunraku staged its first performance in 1776. Igagoe norikake gappa (1777) written by Nagawa Kamesuke, was premiered for bunraku in 1778, and presented for kabuki in Edo (1784) and Osaka (1793).
The standard version of these tales is the ten-act drama called Igagoe dôchû sugoroku (Crossing at Iga along a sugoroku journey: 伊賀越道中双六). It was scripted by Chikamatsu Hanj along with Chikamatsu Kasaku in the fourth month of 1783 for the Takemoto puppet theater, Osaka. It was quickly adapted for kabuki in the ninth month of the same year. In English, an early retelling was written by Algernon B. Mitford (Lord Redesdale, 1837-1916) in his Tales of Old Japan, where it is called "Kazuma's Revenge." For Igagoe dôchû sugoroku, in keeping with censorship edicts issued by the Tokugawa shogunate, the names, dates, and many details were altered for the various theatrical productions. For example, Watanabe Shizuma was changed to Wada Shizuma, and Kawai Matagorô was renamed Sawai Motogorô (as well as becoming a cousin of his enemy, Wada Shizuma).
Design:
The exceedingly long naginata in this scene becomes, in effect, a stage prop, requiring the width of two sheets to display its full length. With his folding fan (ôgi 扇), Konda Naiki fends off the thrust of the weapon wielded by Karaki Masaemon and will at any moment grasp the naginata.
The sugoroku (double sixes) in the play title refers to a game played with a single die and counters in which the winner is the first player to reach the goal (agari) from the starting point (furidashi) on a game board. In some versions, various types of routes or paths were featured, particularly (as in another character in the play title, dôchû or "on the road"), which were picture-map games. One familiar example was based on the fifty-three stations of the Tôkaidô (gojûsan-tsugi sogoroku) illustrated on woodblock-printed paper, where players attempted to reach Kyoto in the center from Edo at the outer edge.
References: KNZ, no. 291
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