Nishikido

錦戸 Nishikido

1 Source and/or Related Material

Ballad of Yoshitsune, kōwaka “Izumigajō”

2 Author

Unknown

3 Repertoire

Kanze, Hōshō

4 Synopsis

A travelling monk (waki) and his subordinates (wakitsure) are travelling to Mutsu Province in the wild Northeast. On their way through a village called Kyō, they meet a man (maeshite) holding a “brocade branch” and a woman (maetsure) holding some local cloth. The travelling monk asks the man to tell about these two regional specialties. The man explains (relating an old legend, perhaps based loosely on Ainu culture, which was common in premodern mainland Japan) that when a Northeastern man is in love with a woman, he sets up a “brocade branch” in front of the gate of her house, and if she accepts him she will take it into her house. The man tells of a man who once set up “brocade branches” for the object of his affection three years in a row, but his love went unrequited, and he died alone. His tomb, called the “brocade mound”, is up on yonder mountain. The man and woman show the monks there, but suddenly they disappear into the tomb. A villager (ai) appears and retells the story in plain speech. Later that night, the monks are reciting sutras before the tomb when the ghosts of the man and woman (nochishite, nochitsure) appear. The ghost of the man narrates his sadness and the agony of unrequited love, but then he dances for joy because the power of the sutra has made him whole.