Kanjincho

Kanjincho presents the climactic scene of one of the most beloved kabuki plays — the story of Benkei's inspired lie at the barrier at Ataka, where he reads a fictitious subscription list (kanjincho) to the suspicious barrier guard in order to allow his lord Yoshitsune to pass in disguise. The play's mixture of loyalty, quick thinking, and emotional sacrifice (when Benkei publicly beats his own lord to maintain the disguise) created one of kabuki's most dramatically satisfying and morally complex narratives. Mori's rendering would have focused on the theatrical climax of this confrontation.