Dōjōji

道成寺 The Dōjōji Temple

1 Source and/or Related Material

stories of Dōjōji Temple, as in Dai nihonkoku hokekyō genki “Miracles of the Lotus Sutra in Japan”

2 Author

developed by unknown authors from Kanemaki, by Kanze Nobumitsu

3 Repertoire

Kanze, Hōshō, Komparu, Kongō, Kita

4 Synopsis

At Dōjōji Temple in the province of Kii (present-day Wakayama), a dedication is to be held for a new temple bell. The chief priest (waki) orders a temple servant (ai) to hang the bell in the belltower and warns him that women are forbidden from the ritual space. Shortly thereafter, a shirabyōshi dancer woman (maeshite) arrives and asks to pay respects to the bell. The servant tells her that she is prohibited from entering the area around the bell, but she pleads with him to let her in to perform an offertory dance. The servant acquiesces, so the woman puts on a court cap and performs a wild ranbyōshi dance. At nightfall, the woman, seeing that everyone is asleep, jumps up inside the bell, which immediately falls to the ground. Startled awake, the temple servants report what has happened to the chief priest, who leads a group of monks (wakitsure) to the belltower and tells them a story about this bell. Long ago, the daughter of the lord of the Manago manor fell in love with a mountain ascetic who visited the manor every year. Believing a joke her father made about her marrying the ascetic, she pressured the ascetic to marry her. The unwilling ascetic ran away and hid inside the bell at Dōjōji. However, the girl’s desire transformed her into a poisonous serpent, which slithered to the temple and wrapped itself around the bell, roasting the priest to death within. After that, no bell hung at Dōjōji Temple until now. The chief priest and monks raise the bell through their prayers, revealing the woman, who has turned into a snake demon (nochishite). She puts up a fierce fight but is finally subdued by the monks’ prayers, disappearing into the nearby Hidaka River.