Plays

I who speak, Sirs, am Warden of the shrine of Aso in the land of Higo within the isle of the Nine Territories, and Tomonari is my name. Never yet have I beheld City-Royal, and so am I minded to go up to the Capital; and for that so good an occasion may not be mine again, I would fain turn aside a space by the way and gaze upon the strand of Takasago in the land of Harima.

Chorus

Describing the journey.

In trim of traveller this day to start he mindeth for City-Royal, for distant City-Royal⁠— across the surf he upon the shipway oareth, gentle the skies are, the spring-winds softly blowing⁠— what tale of days shall his bark in the cloudy distance sail o’er the sea-plain till Harima he reacheth, and Takasago at last his keel receiveth, his keel receiveth!

Tsukushi, in Autumn

Merchant

I am a child-merchant from the East. I have lived for a long time in Kioto, but now I have come down to Hiuga, in Tsukushi, Yesterday, towards evening I bought a young boy, and he begged me to take the money that I paid for him, together with this letter, to ask for the mother of Young Sakura, and to deliver both safely to her. Now I am hastening on my way to find her dwelling. This looks like the place. I will ask admission. Pray, is the mother of young Sakura here?

Mother

Who art thou?

Merchant

Here is a letter from Young Sakura. Also he bade me safely to deliver this money, so I have brought it hither, and hereby do deliver it.

Mother

O this is strange! First let me see the letter. She reads.

“Now these many months I have been sore grieved to look upon thy wretched state, and so I have sold myself to a Child Merchant, and am going Eastward⁠ ⁠… ⁠ ⁠…

Stay, what is this? My child was not for such as they⁠ ⁠… The Merchant has disappeared. Ah! Woe is me, he is gone, and lost from sight. What can this mean Reading.

The evening sun leaves a shadow.

Waki

Go on, tell out all the story.

Shite

There is an old custom of this country. We make wands of meditation, and deck them with symbols, and set them before a gate, when we are suitors.

Tsure

And we women take up a wand of the man we would meet with, and let the others lie, although a man might come for a hundred nights, it may be, or for a thousand nights in three years, till there were a thousand wands here in the shade of this mountain. We know the funeral cave of such a man, one who had watched out the thousand nights; a bright cave, for they buried him with all his wands. They have named it the “Cave of the many charms.”

Old Woman

Ho, ho, travellers, come, come stop over the night at my little mountain hut! The day has already set. This, the Azero mountain pass, is a place far away from human dwellings.

Servant

How glad! We are taken aghast by this early unexpected sun-setting. We will accept your kind invitation with thanks.

Old Woman

There is a particular reason for my offering you a lodging for the night. Let me hear a bit of the song on Yamauba. That is a desire I have cherished for a long long time. For this purpose I intentionally made the day grow dark, and even offered a lodging. By all means, sing, pray, sing!

Servant

What a strange request is yours! For whom do you take us? Why do you wish for the song on Yamauba?

Old Woman

Conceal it not⁠—the lady I see is nobody but Hyakma Yamauba, the renowned singer of the capital. Her song begins, I understand, by describing how Yamauba wanders round the mountain. That is merely a she-devil of her song. But do you know what the real Yamauba looks like?

Servant

It is told in her song, I believe, that Yamauba is an evil spirit living in the mountain.

The winds blew their flutes through the long forests of pine-trees⁠—the long mournful sound echoing to the clear depth of a valley stream. How the moon finds her lonely home in the silvery heart of the water! What silence of the mountains⁠—

Yamauba

What a nocturnal ghastliness! There a maddening spirit beats his own corpse in a cold forest and with tears repents over the sins of his previous life. Here a glad angel offers flowers to her own corpse in a deep field and with smiles delights in the worthy acts of her former life. To say good or bad, right or wrong, that is after all nothing so different;⁠—what has one to repent? And what has one to delight in? Go to Nature. Learn there a lesson of true perception! The waterfall rushes down, and the rocks are steep. Lo, mountain over mountain! What carver carved such a wonderful shape of green granites? Lo, water on water! What dyer dyed such a pleasing colour of blue brocade?

Singer

Alas and alas! What a fearful face from amid the shadowy gloom of mountains and trees! Ah, are you Yamauba?

Yamauba

Do not fear, do not be afraid of me!

Chorus

Though I speak a human tongue⁠—

Yamauba

my hair is thorn-like, icy-white⁠—

Chorus

my eyes are star-flaming⁠—

Yamauba

and my face is red⁠—

Chorus

like a red demon-tile threatening the world from the roof of a house.

Singer

Oh, the fear that never struck me before!

Chorus

If I were devoured at one mouthful! What terror! Oh! What a horror!