Makura Jidō A

枕慈童：甲 Chrysanthemum Boy / The Boy of the Pillow (in schools other than Kanze)

1 Source and/or Related Material

Tendai Buddhist tales about the youth Jidō, traditionally imparted on the occasion of the accession of the Emperor

2 Author

Unknown

3 Repertoire

Kanze, Hōshō, Komparu, Kongō, Kita

4 Synopsis

In ancient China, an envoy (waki) of the Wei Emperor leads some companions (wakitsure) into the depths of Mt. Lixian, where they find a beautiful little boy (shite) living in a hut overgrown with chrysanthemums. The boy tells them that he served Emperor Mu of the Zhou Dynasty. The envoy is taken aback, as that was seven hundred years ago. They boy explains that the Emperor gave him a pillow on which he had written Buddhist praise verses. When the boy copied the verses from this pillow onto the leaf of a chrysanthemum, the dew on the leaf turned into an elixir that made him immortal. The boy then does a frolicking dance among the chrysanthemums and blesses the Wei Emperor’s reign.