One of 18 prints published from 1922 to 1923 as part of the celebration of the two-hundredth anniversary of the death of Chikamatsu Manzaemon (1623-1724), perhaps the greatest dramatist in the history of the Japanese theater. Each design illustrates a scene or character from one of Chikamatsu’s famous works.  For more details on this series see Woodblock Print Supplements to the Complete Works of Chikamatsu.

The Story of The Heroine Osan

While Osan’s husband, the almanac maker, was absent in Edo, the maidservant, Tama, acted as an intermediary to arrange a love affair between her mistress and the clerk, Moemon. Osan became pregnant and when the result of her infidelity could no longer be concealed she fled to Tamba with Moemon.  The fugitives were soon discovered, brought back to Kyoto and executed at Awataguchi, together with the maid.

In Chikamatsu's play, first performed in 1715, Osan and her lover are saved at the end of the play by the intercession of a powerful priest.  In the first act Osan, realizing that her husband has been visiting the maid Tama at night, decides that she will teach him a lesson.  She changes places with the maid and prepares to upbraid her unfaithful husband when he joins her in bed.  Meanwhile the clerk, Mohei, who is under obligation to the maid and who knows that she is in love with him, steals to her bedroom, intending finally to gratify her desires.  He is, instead, received by Osan, who, believing that it is her husband, responds warmly to his advances.