Futari Shizuka

二人静 Two Shizukas

1 Source and/or Related Material

legends of Minamoto Yoshitsune, The Story of Yoshitsune 5

2 Author

Unknown

3 Repertoire

Kanze, Komparu, Kongō, Kita

4 Synopsis

A priest (waki) at Katte Shrine in Yoshino asks a servant (ai) to send a woman (tsure) to participate in the ritual gathering of young herbs by the Natsumi River on the seventh day of the first month of the new year. While she is doing so, another woman (maeshite) suddenly appears. She asks the herb-picker to pray for her and vanishes. When the herb-picker tells the priest about her encounter, the woman’s ghost possesses her. The ghost reveals that she is in fact the great dancer Lady Shizuka and tells about a costume in the treasury of Katte Shrine, which she donated long ago. The herb-picker dons the garment and starts dancing, and the priest and his servant see the ghost of Lady Shizuka (nochishite) standing close to her. As the women describe Shizuka’s flight to Mount Yoshino with her lover the renegade Yoshitsune, and how she performed in front of her enemy, the shogun Yoritomo, their dancing figures blend into one. Amid the falling blossoms of wild cherry trees, the ghost asks that prayers be said for her, and by and by she fades from sight.