CHANTER: She has a graceful manner of receiving him. So gentle yet dignified are her appearance and actions that no one would object if she were introduced as the greatest lady of Kyoto. Who could guess that she was reared in the mountains of Inaba? Ofuji enters.
[OFUJI]: I’m Ofuji, Otane’s younger sister. I’m in service in one of the households of the fief. Your kindness to Bunroku is very gratifying to us all. My sister’s husband is away, and he draws only a small stipend. His house is so cramped that we must do the wash and everything else here, at my father’s place. That’s why we even have to ask you to give Bunroku his drum practice here, though I can imagine how inconvenient everything must be. I’m sure that Hikokurō will invite you to his house as soon as he returns. (To maid) Bring some saké cups, please. (Calls) Father, are you at home? (To Gen’emon) We’ve just the one maid, fresh out of the country, and even with only a single guest everything is in complete chaos, as you can see. (Laughs) Really, it’s quite embarrassing.
CHANTER: She bows in greeting. Her eyes are as lovely as Otane’s.
[GEN’EMON]: Please don’t go to any trouble on my account.
CHANTER: But even while they exchange these compliments, the maid, realizing what is needed, brings saké and relishes.
[OTANE]: Oh, what a good idea! (To Gen’emon) My father’s only a rōnin, and we can’t offer you anything to eat with the drinks, but have a cup—it’ll cheer you.
[GEN’EMON]: I’m sure you must be busy, and I most appreciate your kindness. Please, you drink first.
[OTANE]: No, please, guests first. There’s no need to stand on ceremony.
[GEN’EMON]: In that case, what about starting with Bunroku?
CHANTER: He offers the cup to Bunroku but tippler that she is, Otane’s hand intercepts the cup.
[OTANE]: I’ll play the part of a good mother and make sure first the saké’s properly heated.
CHANTER: She accepts some sakeé and drains the cup. She offers it to Bunroku.30
[BUNROKU]: I’ve never drunk any saké before.
CHANTER: He swallows a little.
[BUNROKU]: Excuse me, master, for drinking first.
CHANTER: He bows. Gen’emon politely accepts the cup. He comes from a family of heavy drinkers, and his lips smack like a drum.
[GEN’EMON]: Ahhh, what marvelous saké! I don’t drink very much as a rule, but I like a little saké now and then, and I’ve tried it all over the country. But not even the Kyoto saké can touch this. It has a good color, a fine bouquet, and the taste is excellent. I’m quite impressed by your husband’s palate!
CHANTER: His praise of the saké and his company manners are a trifle too glib; how unfortunate that nobody recognizes this portent of later calamity!
[GEN’EMON]: Here, I’m returning the cup immediately to Bunroku.
[OTANE]: Let me, his mother, intervene here, and keep you company in drink!
CHANTER: She accepts some saké and again empties the cup.
[OTANE]: Please show you like the saké by having another drink.
CHANTER: He takes the cup from her hand without even letting her put it down.
[GEN’EMON]: I’ll be delighted, of course.
Bunroku (left) and Gen’emon, the drum teacher, drinking saké. (Photograph courtesy of Barbara Curtis Adachi Collection, C. V. Starr East Asian Library, Columbia University)
CHANTER: He accepts the brimming cupful and swallows it in one gulp. He returns the cup to Bunroku, who again merely touches it to his lips.
[BUNROKU]: Excuse me, but I’d like to offer my aunt some saké.
CHANTER: He is about to hand Ofuji the cup.
[OTANE]: You can’t be so unsociable, no matter how unaccustomed you may be to drinking. Here, have a cup. I’ll keep you company.
CHANTER: She lifts the flowing cup and empties it.
[OTANE]: It’s a happy occasion when a mother drinks with her child. To make it all the happier, let’s have an extra drink now for your father in Edo. Here, please join us.
CHANTER: She offers the cup once again to Gen’emon.
[GEN’EMON]: I see, madam, that you’re partial to a little saké. Excuse my familiarity, but I’d like to see what kind of a drinker you are!
CHANTER: He returns the cup. Ofuji is dismayed.
[OFUJI]: No, Otane can’t drink so much. Lately especially she’s been under the weather and hasn’t been feeling too well. Otane, I think you’ve had enough.
CHANTER: She stands beside Otane and tries to restrain her, but Otane, drinker that she is, becomes obstinate.
[OTANE]: What are you trying to tell me? We have nothing to eat with the sake, so the best entertainment I can offer our guest is to drink with him.
CHANTER: She speaks in haughty tones. Another bottle is brought from the kitchen. Her guest, beating a drum accompaniment with his hands, sings out.
[GEN’EMON]: Well, then, another for me too.
CHANTER: They pass the saké back and forth. Here indeed is a splendid (chants) gathering of champions, a drinking party of bosom friends.31
They tilt their cups a number of times, and soon the sun is slanting in the evening sky. A servant comes from the mansion where Ofuji serves.
[SERVANT]: Miss Ofuji, I’ve come to escort you back. Please return with me. The gate will be closing soon.
[OFUJI]: Oh, is that you, Kakuzō? Sorry to have bothered you. Otane, I’ll be leaving now. I must apologize to you, sir, for my rudeness, but a woman in service can’t do as she pleases. I hope to see you again.
CHANTER: She takes her leave with these words and departs. Bunroku quietly speaks.
[BUNROKU]: I think I’ll be going too. Tonight they’re expecting guests at the house of the gentleman I wait on. Master, would you kindly remain here a bit longer, until my grandfather returns?
[GEN’EMON]: Well, if you say so. But how will it look if I’m found here with your mother, just the two of us? I’ll go to the next room.
CHANTER: He leaves his seat in some embarrassment. Otane shows Bunroku to the door.
[OTANE]: Please stop by our house for a minute and ask your grandfather to return. I’m anxious to go home. Ask him to send Rin to fetch me.
[BUNROKU]: Yes, I will.
CHANTER: He departs for his master’s house. This is the hour when gates are shut, here on the outskirts of town. The youthful mistress of the house, whose husband has been away for many months in Edo, is a trifle too fond of liquor—she thinks it will bolster her spirits. Her face has not lost its composure, but it is burning hot. In the mirror, when she combs her hair and strokes her heavy head, an indefinable seductiveness glows in her reflection. Tonight she seems to be awaiting her husband.
Isobe Yukaemon, though a fellow retainer of the same fief, was excused from accompanying his lordship to Edo, and remained in the country, claiming to be sick. Now he suddenly bursts into the house through the side door, all alone, without even a servant.
[YUKAEMON]: I’ve come to see how you’re getting along.
CHANTER: Otane pushes away her mirror in alarm.
[OTANE]: Chūdayū isn’t here. He’s been out ever since morning.
[CHANTER]: She intends these words as a dismissal and starts to withdraw inside when Yukaemon catches her in his arms.
[YUKAEMON]: I knew he was out. That’s why I came. I haven’t any business with your father. It’s you I’ve been longing to see. I’ve felt like a boat, trapped by the shoals of other people’s eyes, with the breakers pounding in on me.32 I knew for a fact that if I spent this year serving in Edo, my stipend would be increased, but I gave up all thoughts of advancement as a samurai. I pretended to be sick, and I begged permission to remain here in the country. I want you to know that it’s all been on account of you. My sickness was a ruse and yet not entirely so—I was suffering from the malady called love, and you were the cause, Otane. Please, I beg you, give me just one small dose of the medicine of your love. I implore you.
CHANTER: He holds her tightly in his arms. Otane is
a little drunk from the saké.
[OTANE]: Stop it! You’re acting outrageously. Leave me alone!
CHANTER: She shakes him off and gets away from him, but her hair bristles in terror, and she is trembling all over.
[OTANE]: Dog of a samurai! To think you’re a close friend of Hikokurō! It goes against all the rules of human decency. The whole fief will point at you with scorn, and if his lordship hears about it, you’ll be ruined. Don’t you realize that? I’m Ogura Hikokurō’s wife, a samurai wife! Don’t do anything contemptible that will only make you hate me later on. I won’t tell anyone what has happened. Now leave!
CHANTER: She forces out the words.
[YUKAEMON]: I’ve thought about how people would criticize me and the disgrace I would suffer. I’ve taken all that into account. I came here resolved that if by any chance you refused me, I would stab you first and then myself. Rumors would soon be flying throughout the province that we’d committed a lovers’ suicide, the kind so popular in Osaka, and we would share a common disgrace.
CHANTER: He draws his sword and catches her by the front of the kimono.
[YUKAEMON]: What is your answer to that?
CHANTER: He threatens her. Otane supposes in her woman’s heart that he speaks the truth, and she is mortified to think that she may die like a dog and be branded for a crime of which she is blameless. She decides that she will trick him.
[OTANE]: Are you really in love with me as you say?
[YUKAEMON]: If I’m not telling the truth, may I be dismissed by his lordship and have my head cut off by a common soldier!
[OTANE]: You delight me. Why should I treat you unkindly? But this is my father’s house. Just supposing he were to return now! What would we do then? If you will come secretly to my house tomorrow night, I’ll throw off my reserve and chase away all your cares.
CHANTER: She taps him gently, with artful deceit. The ignorant, illiterate Yukaemon is tricked by one word and turns sentimental.
[YUKAEMON]: Oh, I’m so grateful for your kindness! I know that it’s shameless to ask anything more, but I’d much rather if now, here, we might just—
CHANTER: He clutches her.
[OTANE]: You’re unreasonable!
CHANTER: She runs from place to place trying to get away from him. On the other side of the partition Gen’emon beats his drum and raises his voice.
[GEN’EMON] (chants):
The evil demon of lust
Will attack and attack your flesh.
Your beloved one will appear
Over the Mountain of Swords.
You’ll cry in delight
And grope your way up,
Only for swords to pierce your flesh
And great rocks crush your bones.
What does this mean? What horror is this?33
[OTANE]: Somebody’s heard! What am I to do?
CHANTER: She is terrified. [YUKAEMON]: Everything I’ve been saying has all been a joke—not a word of truth in it.
CHANTER: With these parting words he dashes out and makes his escape. Otane, poor creature, is distraught with shame. Undoubtedly her guest from Kyoto has overheard the conversation without realizing that it was all a trick. Now he will despise her in his heart, and more than that, being a man with a wide acquaintance throughout the fief, he will soon spread the scandal. Then what will she do? Unable to control the agitation in her breast, she rouses the maid and orders her to heat some saké.
[OTANE]: You can shut the front gate while you’re at it. It’s time you went to bed.
CHANTER: She pours some saké and, drinking alone, forgets her grief and bitterness. The one thing she cannot forget is her husband in Edo. Her tears make the moonlight seem the mistier as it bathes the veranda where footsteps now are heard.
[OTANE]: Oh, it’s you, Gen’emon.—Where are you going, sir?
[GEN’EMON]: I feel rather awkward being here in a house with only women. I’m leaving.
CHANTER: He starts to go, but she catches his sleeve.
[OTANE]: Did you hear what happened just now? It was a perfect disgrace, a horrible experience. I’m sure you don’t suppose for a moment that a woman with a husband like Hikokurō could actually have meant what I said. I talked to him that way only to deceive him, so that I might escape my predicament. Please don’t tell anyone. I beg you most earnestly.
CHANTER: She joins her hands in supplication and weeps. Gen’emon is at a loss for words.
[GEN’EMON]: I wasn’t listening—or not listening, for that matter. The conversation was exceedingly unpleasant for an outsider to overhear. I sang that piece to distract myself. What happened seems trivial enough, though it’s quite a serious matter. I don’t intend to tell anyone, but as they say, you can hide a gimlet in a bag but it’ll soon show itself. I don’t know what rumors other people may start.
CHANTER: He shakes himself loose, but she clings to him again.
[OTANE]: What a cruel thing to say! You are a young man and I am a young woman—even if what you heard was really true, it would be normal human kindness to hide it as best you could. I won’t have any peace of mind if I let you go as things stand. Please exchange a cup with me as a promise that you won’t tell.
CHANTER: She takes the sake jar and fills a large tea bowl to the brim. She empties the cup and, filling it again, drinks half, then offers the rest to him.
[GEN’EMON] (to himself): This is very strange, giving me the remains of the cup she drank from.
CHANTER: He accepts it politely and drinks. Otane by now is quite intoxicated. She presses Gen’emon’s hand tightly.
[OTANE]: Now that you’ve shared a cup of sake with a married woman, your guilt is the same as mine. You mustn’t ever tell anything.
CHANTER: She forces him into a hopeless dilemma.
[GEN’EMON]: Damn it! What a mess to put a man in!
CHANTER: He rushes for the door, but she throws her arms around him.
[OTANE]: You don’t know anything about love, do you? What an infuriating man you are!
CHANTER: Her arms still around him, she undoes his obi, undoing his heart as well, for his mind is befuddled with drink and desire. Embracing and embraced, their love has become real before they knew it.
[OTANE]: Now do you agree never to tell what happened?
[GEN’EMON]: I thought it didn’t concern me, but now that I’m involved, how could I fail to hide what’s happened?
CHANTER: He opens the shōji, and they go into the next room. They share momentary dreams on one pillow, the beginning of a short-lived union, an evil alliance, a connection doomed from the start.
Otane clinging to Gen’emon. (Photograph courtesy of Barbara Curtis Adachi Collection, C. V. Starr East Asian Library, Columbia University)
Scene 2: Later that night.
CHANTER: The night is far advanced. Otane’s father, Naruyama Chūdayū, returns alone, without a servant, and bangs furiously at the gate.34 Otane, sober now, is awakened by the noise. She looks at herself. Her sash is undone, and the bed where she slept with a man is disordered.
[OTANE]: Good heavens! How unspeakable! I remember now deliberately enticing him, hoping to stop him from telling about Yukaemon’s advances. Yes, I remember that. But afterward—I was so drunk I can’t be sure what was only a dream and what really happened. My sister always warned me about my drinking, but I wouldn’t listen to her. Now I have disgraced myself by touching another man’s body—a perfect stranger! How depraved of me! I’m guilty of the worst sin a woman can commit, and I’ll suffer for it, not only the torments of hell, but dishonor in this life. What shall I do, now that I’ve destroyed the reputations of even my father and brother? I feel utterly wretched. If only this would turn out to be a dream!
CHANTER: She chokes in tears. Gen’emon, wakened by the sound of her sobbing, rises from bed. Drunkenness had so stupefied him, too, that he violated the code of a man of honor. Their eyes meet for an instant, then they look down in tears and embarrassment, ashamed to stand before each other.
Chūdayū, his patience exhausted, pounds all the more violently at the gate.
[OTANE]: If my father discovers me, I’ll have to kill myself. What am I to do?
CHANTER: She wanders around the room looking for somewhere to hide. By mischance she stumbles onto the sleeping place of the maid, who jumps up, stark naked.
[MAID]: Something awful’s happened! A burglar’s crawled into my bosom while I was sleeping, and now he’s ravaging my snow white skin!
CHANTER: Carried away by her own shrieks and gyrations, she kicks over the standing lantern. “The darkness of the ways of love” they sing about—how could it be compared to this? Delusion springs even from inconsequential acts. At the gate someone shouts insistently, “Open up! Open up!” and pounds. Otane and the man, trembling with fear, whisper a plan: with her hand held behind her, she pulls his sleeve, shielding him with her body. She unfastens the latch and calls, “Is that you, Father?” But it is not her father. Yukaemon, his face averted, stretches out his hands, and tightly clasps their sleeves together.
[YUKAEMON]: Now, you adulteress, I’ve got proof of your crime!
CHANTER: At his shout, she slams the gate shut with a cry of dismay, but Yukaemon does not let the sleeves out of his grasp. Gen’emon, in desperation, unsheathes the dagger at his side, and slits off the ends of the sleeves. Opening a side door, he flees precipitously for home. Yukaemon stuffs the sleeves into the fold of his kimono. He forces his way in through the gate.
[YUKAEMON]: Well, madam, you’ve been unkind! Why were you so cold to me when you let someone else untie your girdle strings? If you want me to keep this a secret, I expect you’ll show me some love tonight in return.
CHANTER: In the darkness he gropes for Otane, his arms spread wide, an object inspiring terror. As he wanders here and there, he bumps into the naked maid.
[YUKAEMON]: Now I have you! So this is where you were!
CHANTER: He throws his arms around her. The maid, knowing her way even in the dark, slips off to her bed.
[YUKAEMON]: This is wonderful! Thank you!
CHANTER: He pulls the bedclothes over him and flops down beside her. The maid dislikes his advances, and as she is fending him off, a voice calls from outside.
Early Modern Japanese Literature: An Anthology, 1600–1900 Page 40