The Battles of Coxinga at Takemoto-za

After Takemoto Gidayū’s death in 1714, the young chanter Takemoto Masadayū succeeded him at Osaka’s Takemoto-za. In 1715 the theater premiered Chikamatsu’s Kokusenya kassen, or The Battles of Coxinga. Its successful run extended over seventeen months.

The model was Zheng Chenggong, whose parents were Chinese and Japanese. The play makes him Watōnai, a fisherman at Hirado. He and his parents cross to China to restore the fallen Ming dynasty. When they seek the commander Kanki’s support, family ties draw Watōnai’s half-sister Kinshōjo and his Japanese mother into the struggle to change his allegiance. Their sacrifices give the military adventure a household tragedy at its center.

Other theaters followed the success, including a rival Coxinga production at Toyotake-za; the story also entered kabuki, related publications and Chikamatsu’s own sequels. These results belong to the play’s commercial history. Its Ming-restoration adventure reshapes Zheng’s career and gives him an imagined family story, so the staged action cannot serve as a factual account of his campaigns.