Ikarikazuki

碇潜 Submerging the Anchor

1 Source and/or Related Material

The Tale of the Heike 11

2 Author

attributed to Komparu Zempō

3 Repertoire

Kanze, Kongō

4 Synopsis

One day, a Heike-affiliated monk (waki) from the capital visits Hayatomo Bay in Nagato (Yamaguchi) to mourn his clan’s catastrophic defeat there. As he is waiting for his ferry, an old fisherman (maeshite) rows by in a boat. The old man offers the monk a ride in exchange for a recitation of the Lotus Sutra. He then lights a brazier and listens attentively to the sutra. The old man, appreciative of his encounter with the monk, tells a story about how Taira no Noritsune confronted Minamoto no Yoshitsune in the climactic Battle of Dan-no-ura, and how Noritsune drowned himself in the sea, taking the enemy down with him. The old man then reveals that he is the ghost of a Taira warrior and vanishes. A man who lives at the beach (ai) tells the story of the battle in plain speech. The monk holds a memorial service for the Heike clan, and a large ship emerges from the sea. The music of the koto echoes over the roar of waves. Nii no Ama (tsure), Dainagon no Tsubone (tsure), and Taira no Tomomori (nochishite) is aboard on the ship. Nii no Ama and other ghosts reenact the scene of throwing themselves into the sea with the child Emperor Antoku. The ghost of Tomomori fights endlessly as an ashura in warrior hell, then reenacts his last moments as he drowns himself by holding onto a sinking anchor.