Fujito

藤戸 Fujito

1 Source and/or Related Material

The Tale of the Heike 10

2 Author

Unknown

3 Repertoire

Kanze, Hōshō, Komparu, Kongō, Kita

4 Synopsis

The warrior Sasaki Moritsuna (waki) sets off with his servant (wakitsure) to survey a territory in Fujito (modern Okayama) which he has recently acquired as a reward for service in battle. A woman (maeshite) appears before Moritsuna, her new lord, and tearfully insists that he killed her son. Moritsuna admits his sin and narrates the circumstances in which it took place. Having advanced ahead of his troops to the shore at Fujito, across from the enemy camp, Moritsuna asked a local man where there was a ford shallow enough to cross the water on horseback. Fearful that the man would share this information with others, Moritsuna then drowned him in the sea. Having confirmed the truth about her son’s fate, the woman weeps bitterly and demands that Moritsuna bring back her son. Moritsuna decides to hold a memorial service for the man and has his servant give the woman exemption from serfdom. As the music of the memorial service begins, the man’s spirit (nochishite) appears and describes how he was stabbed with an ice-cold blade. He then says that he was about to turn into an evil dragon out of resentment for Moritsuna, but thanks to the memorial service, he has attained Buddhahood. With this, he disappears.