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Created page with "*''Written: Chikamatsu Monzaemon, 1715'' *''Japanese'': 国性爺合戦 ''(Kokusen'ya gassen)'' "The Battles of Coxinga" is a ''ningyô jôruri'' ('..."
*''Written: [[Chikamatsu Monzaemon]], [[1715]]''
*''Japanese'': 国性爺合戦 ''(Kokusen'ya gassen)''

"The Battles of Coxinga" is a ''[[ningyo joruri|ningyô jôruri]]'' (''bunraku'') and [[kabuki]] play written by [[Chikamatsu Monzaemon]]. Loosely based on the historical figure of the [[Ming loyalist]] [[Zheng Chenggong]] (aka Coxinga), it was the first puppet play to be adapted to the kabuki stage.

The play centers on the half-Chinese, half-Japanese Coxinga, called Watônai (lit. "between Japan and China") in the play, who fights to defend the noble and great [[Ming Dynasty|Ming Chinese]] from barbarian ([[Manchu]]) invasion. [[Marius Jansen]], in describing [[Edo period]] Japanese popular views of China, writes that the play shows the Chinese as good people, but cowardly and inferior at fighting; Watônai fights with Japanese prowess, a sword imbued with the power of the Japanese gods, and a special charm from [[Ise Shrine]] which brings the power of [[Amaterasu]] herself against his foes. Disparaging the Manchus (and possibly the Chinese as well) for looking down upon Japan as a small country, he cries "have you learned now the meaning of Japanese prowess, before which even tigers tremble?"<ref>Jansen, 85.</ref>

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==References==
*[[Marius Jansen]], ''China in the Tokugawa World'', Harvard University Press (1992), 84-85.
<references/>

[[Category:Poetry and Theater]]
[[Category:Edo Period]]
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