Take no Yuki

竹雪 Bamboo Snow

1 Source and/or Related Material

Various tales of mistreated stepchildren

2 Author

Unknown

3 Repertoire

Hōshō, Kita

4 Synopsis

In Echigo Province (Niigata), a man named Naoi no Saemon (waki) has a son and a daughter with his first wife. However, since he has now taken on a new wife and is living with her and his son from his first marriage, his former wife and their daughter are living separately in Nagamatsu. Naoi leaves his son and heir Tsukiwaka (kokata) in the care of his second wife (ai) while he goes on a religious retreat. The new wife resents Tsukiwaka and begins to torment him. Tsukiwaka decides to go to Nagamatsu to be with his mother and sister. While his mother (maeshite) is overjoyed by his surprise visit, she senses that Tsukiwaka is being bullied by his stepmother. Meanwhile, the stepmother, noticing Tsukiwaka’s absence, sends a servant (ai) to Nagamatsu to find the boy and bring him back, whereupon she orders him to clear the snow from the bamboo grove wearing only a thin layer of underclothes, and he freezes to death. Hearing from the servant about Tsukiwaka’s death, the boy’s mother and sister (tsure) are overwhelmed with sadness and come to dig his body out of the snow. When he comes home, Saemon bemoans his son’s death and the loss of his honor as a father. A voice from the heavens is heard saying that Tsukiwaka will be brought back to life through the power of his family’s grief; indeed, Tsukiwaka begins to breathe again.