Kyoka Izumi's play, The Sea God's Villa, is a personal favorite of mine. It's written in old Japanese, and even native Japanese speakers would struggle to read it, so I wouldn't recommend it if you're a Japanese learner, but just in case you want to read it, you can find it here in its entirety.

Here's a short synopsis:

A wealthy man offers his extraordinarily gorgeous daughter as a sacrifice to the sea god, and the sea god bestows upon him numerous treasures. His daughter makes her way to the sea god's villa by sinking beneath the waves. She's greeted by the sea god at his fancy villa, where he lavishes her with exquisite food, dancing, and singing. However, she's unhappy since she's unable to show the people back home how luxurious her life is. She insists on returning to her home village to show them her affluent lifestyle.

The sea god has no choice but to send her back. However, to the villagers living on land, she appears as a massive sea snake. They run away from her, and she goes back to the sea god feeling quite sad.

She's depressed and can't stop crying. The sea god intends to kill her after becoming infuriated by her refusal to accept his love. When she gives up everything, she sees his face with clear eyes for the first time and falls in love with him. She smiles and asks him to kill her quickly. Now they love each other, and he forgives her. They live happily ever after.

I read it a long time ago, before the internet or social media. As a high school student, I was shocked by how complicated happiness was. The only thing that mattered to me was my own feelings and I had never given any thought to happiness that had to be validated by others.

However, because of social media, we're now accustomed to seeing that kind of boasting. Human happiness is becoming more and more complicated.