Who are you?

The women of “Love Suicides of Amijima,” “The Death of Kiso,” and “Patriotism,” display three timeless honor codes: the bonds between women, the loyalty of a wife and mother, and the code of warriors. By taking the honor codes individually displayed throughout the literature and finding one body that encompasses every aspect of those codes, Chushingura’s Oishi is found to transcend boundaries and expectations.

Woman

Women portray their motherly and womanly virtues in the matter of marriage politics. “Love Suicides at Amijima” provides a basic understanding of womanly bonds through the characters Osan and Koharu. They both sacrifice their honor and reputation in order to service the obligations of womanly bonds. Koharu, the lover of Jihei, seemingly betrays her own honor. She freely accepts the reputation of a fickle hearted woman. She sacrifices the man she loves, only for the request of another woman, “Her [Koharu’s] true feelings are hidden in the words penned by Jihei’s wife, a letter no one has seen. Jihei goes his separate way without learning the truth” (Chikamatsu 185). The letter is a request from Osan, asking Koharu to cease her relationship with Jihei in order to prevent a love suicide. Osan is asking Koharu to sacrifice love, and Koharu complies with Osan’s request without hesitation. Yet, when Osan heard that her request would lead to Koharu’s death, she reveals everything to Jihei in order to keep her alive, “She answered that she would give you up, though you were more precious than life itself, because she could not shirk her duty to me” (192). The duty Osan mentions is the duty of a woman. There is a strong connection between the two women—they understand that a family comes first. Jihei could not leave his obligations of father and husband behind because he was the sole caretaker. Yet, Osan could not let Koharu die. The bond between women ultimately rose above the bond of the family.

Oishi goes through a similar process that Osan went through: refusing the union of two people to save the family’s honor, yet obliging to the union in order to uphold the bond between women. Oishi uses her control over the marriage politics to save her family’s and Enya’s honor by refusing to allow Rikiya to marry Konami. Her reason is, “But now I am a ronin…the daughter of a high-ranking officer like Kakogawa would make as ill-suited bride for my son as…a paper lantern for a temple bell” (Chushingura 134). Tonase believes that Oishi is refusing the marriage because of financial differences. Since Enya’s death, Oishi’s family stipend has been eliminated. The Honzo stipend would benefit the Obashi family greatly if they accepted the marriage. But the refusal is not out of financial pride, but of family honor. Rikiya and Honzo do not have, “true matching of hearts… The precious son of Yuranosuke, a man who refuses to serve two masters, cannot take a wife so ill-suited as the daughter of Honzo, a man who draws a stipend as a sycophant samurai” (135). By refusing Honzo’s wife and daughter happiness, Oishi is indirectly punishing Honzo’s behavior.

But like Osan, Oishi allows the union in order to prevent the deaths of the women. Two possibilities must be considered at this point: was Oishi allowing the marriage to save the women, or did she see it as an opportunity to revenge Enya? Because of Oishi’s complexity in the play, the motivations are overlapping. Oishi does it to save two women that have proven themselves chaste and dedicated, while also seeking out the death of Honzo.

Warrior

As seen with Oishi, women are capable of unifying and overlapping womanly and warrior attributes. Before exploring the overlapping duties of a woman and a warrior, the duties of a female warrior must be explained. The Tale of Heike’s “The Death of Kiso” shows the exact warrior codes women are expected to respect. Tomoe, although not Kiso’s wife, is literally a samurai that fights among the men. The narrator describers her as, “the first captain…and she performed more deeds of valor than any of the other warriors. She was now one of the seven who remained after all the others had fled or perished” (“The Death of Kiso” 291). She is physically a warrior—at first, to a Western reader, perhaps the equal to a male warrior because she is recognized as one of the few that has stood by Lord Kiso. Her strength and loyalty is put high above other warriors, and she is seen as stronger than a thousand men.

In strength, bravery, and dedication, she is more honorable than Kiso’s men. Yet, when Kiso is faced with his death, he says, “’You are a woman, so be off with you…I intend to die in battle, or to kill myself if I am wounded. It would be unseemly to let people say, ‘Lord Kiso kept a woman with him during his last battle’’” (292). Why, if Tomoe is held in such high regard, would it be an embarrassment to die by her side? In fact, she is braver than Lord Kiso, who runs away and dies while looking back. He dies a pathetic death: his horse sinking in the mud and the enemy displaying his head on their sword. Tomoe’s death is seen as valiant: fighting thirty men with her armor discarded. Her dismissal from Kiso is parallel to Rikiya’s interference with Oishi’s attack on Honzo. She is forced to stop because of her gender. Once a male interferes, a woman’s duties as a warrior are no longer needed.

Oishi, unlike Tomoe, is not a genuine samurai. At first, she goes about her samurai agenda through womanly means. She grants permission for Rikiya and Konami to marry, but only with the dowry present of Honzo’s head. When she says, “[I want] the head of Honzo, on this wooden stake,” she gives the image of an angry samurai, hitting the stake on the ground as if claiming her territory (140). Even though this image is masculine, Oishi is still within the boundaries of feminine codes. She is merely using the political marriage system to carry out her obligation as a servant to Enya. In short, she is carrying out masculine related deeds: killing Honzo, through feminine techniques: controlling the marriage.

When this tactic fails, Oishi turns to a warrior’s mode of action. She physically attacks Honzo with a spear. She’s described as, “gnash[ing] her teeth in helpless rage” when Honzo pins her down to the floor, giving yet another image of masculine traits (142). Although she herself fails in killing Honzo, her attempts are what make her an honorable warrior. After her attempt at physically attacking Honzo, Rikiya intervenes. Once the son takes her lance and assumes control, Oishi retreats back into her complete feminine role. Both as a woman and warrior, Oishi attempts to honor Enya.

Union

These ideas of woman and warrior are able to fuse together. As earlier stated, Oishi never has just one reason for her actions—many aspects of the situation motivate her. In this way, while a woman is a wife, she is able to simultaneously be a warrior. In Mishima’s “Patriotism,” he creates a unification of wife and warrior in both Reiko and the lieutenant. This idea of both man and woman adopting unexpected roles shows the importance of fusing two roles together. By fusing the two gender roles together, deeds of honor can be harmoniously accomplished.

Reiko is given the complete trust of her husband, given praise for her loyalty, and trusted with an officer’s duty of witnessing the lieutenant’s death. The first sign of the dynamic between wife and warrior is shown in the wedding photograph of the married couple: the lieutenant is wearing his military uniform while Reiko, although just as stern and strict as the lieutenant, is wearing her wedding kimono. She is also able to encompass the duties of a military wife while accepting their inevitable suicides their first night together (“Patriotism” 94).

The lieutenant shows great appreciation and approval that these two ideas could merge into one:

A lonely death on the battlefield, a death beneath the eyes of his beautiful wife…in the sensation that he was now to die in these two dimensions, realizing an impossible union of them both, there was sweetness beyond words. (111)

What is more interesting, however, is that this merging of two dimensions is not limited to Reiko. Even the lieutenant, after the last night with his wife, helped with the chores that are usually only left for a woman (108). A merger of both warrior and wife are seen in both characters, which creates the idea that these two honor codes are desired because they work so completely together.

Unlike “Patriotism,” Oishi is the only one to merge both qualities of a wife and warrior together in Chushingura. Like Reiko, Oishi displays the fusion of warrior and wife when her husband treats her as an equal. She proves herself an honorable wife when she does not complain about Yuranosuke’s philandering and drinking. She tolerates his misbehavior because it is in service to a greater cause. Evidence can be taken from when Yuranosuke is dishonoring Enya and his own name by eating the squid, drinking, and sleeping with prostitutes. Oishi does not question his actions, but fixes him a cup of salt tea when she knows he is faking being drunk. Therefore, she has proven herself loyal, and he can then trust her with the honor of a samurai.

The fact that she is aware of the greater cause is what sets her apart as a warrior-like wife. Her husband, Yuranosuke, discloses his plans of attacking Moronao to Oishi. There are two reasons why his confidence in his wife is so particular and honorable: Yuranosuke proves that he mistrusts people and does not confide in them until they have proven themselves worthy, and Honzo literally kicks aside his wife and daughter when they ask about his plans to bribe Moronao (122 and 46). Yuranosuke cannot include Oishi in his battle plans simply because she is a woman, but allowing her to join on the secret, and trusting her as a secret keeper, she too bears the responsibility of loyalty to their master Enya and her husband Yuranosuke.

Each woman has their own identity, yet Oishi successfully encompasses the ideas of all codes presented by Osan, Koharu, Tomoe, and Reiko. Oishi portrays a strong character that is able to feel hatred, revenge, sorrow, pity, and guilt all at once. She is an extremely dynamic character that protects the higher cause over everything else. She rises above and beyond all characters through her dedication and virtues.