Yashima

八島 Yashima

1 Source and/or Related Material

Tale of the Heike book 11

2 Author

Zeami

3 Repertoire

Kanze, Hōshō, Komparu, Kongō, Kita

4 Synopsis

A traveling monk (waki) and his disciples (wakisure) are on pilgrimage around Western Japan, when they come to Yashima Bay in Sanuki Province (Kagawa), the scene of an important battle in the Genji-Heike Wars. At twilight, they meet two fishermen, one young (tsure) and one old (maeshite), who are on their way home to their salt-making hut, and so the monks ask them for a night’s lodging. The old fisherman refuses once on the grounds that the hut is unsightly, but when he learns that the monks are from the capital, yearning for that place, he offers them lodging. The monks ask the old man to tell them about the battle between the Genji and the Heike here at Yashima. The old man tells how the Heike warrior Kagekiyo grasped the neck-guard of Mionoya no Shirō’s helmet and pulled it so hard that it was torn off, and then of Satō Tsugunobu’s last moments, in which he sacrificed himself for the great Genji general Yoshitsune. The monks ask the old man who he is, and after dropping hints that he is Yoshitsune himself, he disappears. Just then, a local (ai) comes and rebukes the monks for trespassing in his salt-making hut. The monks tell him about the strange fisherman, and he surmises that it must have been Yoshitsune; he gives them permission to stay and suggests they pray for Yoshitsune. The monks doze off, and Yoshitsune appears before them in full warrior regalia, acting out in song and dance the way that he dropped his bow, then exposed himself to great danger trying to retrieve it, because of his great concern for his honor as a warrior. Then he acts out his battle with Noto-no-kami Noritsune, before vanishing with the break of dawn.