Ukiyo Honpukunegai Kanayakingoro Chikaimusubu Kamononagare Taikomochi Ukinanogaku

Inspired by Ki Kaion's "Kanaya Kingoro Ukina no Gaku" (1702), also known as "Chikai Musubu Ukina no Tategaku" (Plaque of Entanglement).

This three-volume puppet theater play premiered at the Toyotake-za Theater in Osaka in 1702 (Genroku 15), based on the love story between the real-life kabuki actor Kanaya Kingoro and the bathhouse hostess Ukino Kosan, who lived during the Genroku period. This play is a representative example of the "Kosan-Kingoro" genre, which dramatized scandalous love affairs of the time. Its success led to numerous subsequent kabuki plays and kasai-bon (traditional Japanese folk songs).

The play tells the love story of Kosan, a resident of Shinmachi, Osaka, and his regular customer, Kanaya Kingoro.
Their relationship became a source of public acclaim, but financial and obligational ties drove them into a corner.
Words such as "miuke" (purchase), "kane" (money), and "fugi" (adultery) appear throughout the story, suggesting that the couple will either seek financial means to be together or will be thwarted by obstacles.

At the climax of the story, the "michiyuki" (travel) and "ukina no gaku" (plaque bearing their illicit fame) seem to suggest that their scandal and love affair became the subject of public gossip (ukina), and that they became famous enough to be made into a plaque (such as a votive tablet or signboard), or that their names remained after their deaths.