SOURCE: “Tragedy and Salvation in the Floating World: Chikamatsu's Double Suicide Drama as Millenarian Discourse,” in Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 53, No. 2, 1994, pp. 367-93.

In this essay, Heine distinguishes love suicide (shinju) from other forms of suicide in Japanese culture, in order to consider its significance in Confucian and Buddhist frameworks. Heine argues that understanding the theological context of love suicides is crucial to recognizing the potential social power of Chikamatsu's double suicide dramas.

Farewell to this world, and to the night farewell. We who walk the road to death, to what should we be likened? To the frost by the road that leads to the graveyard, Vanishing with each step we take ahead: How sad is this dream within a dream! 

Chikamatsu, Sonezaki Shinjū (Love Suicides at Sonezaki)

Significance of Double Suicide

A distinctive feature of Japanese society is its apparent eagerness to embrace various forms of...