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Masuda String Puppets
Kotobuki Sanbanso
'Amagasaki' of Ehon Taikoki
'Junreiuta' of Keisei Awa no Naruto
'Nagatsubone' of Kagamiyama Kokyo no nishikie
The greengrocer's daughter, Oshichi
Tsubosaka-dera
'SUSHIYA' of Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura
This is a
celebratory piece and often played at New Years. It is said that this piece
preserves the old Sarugaku performance style.
ACT 10 ' Amagasaki' of Ehon Taikoki
Akechi Mitsuhide was a general under Oda Harunaga but rebelled against
his lord. He hid in a small cottage in Amagasaki with his mother Satsuki
and wife Misao.
A retainer of Oda Harunaga came to take vengeance on Mitsuhide. Mitsuhide
became aware of it and made a bamboo spear to kill his enemy. He
thought he stabbed the enemy through a paper door, but it was his mother. With the dying breath, she pled Mitsuhide not
to go to the war but he turned the deaf year.
ACT 'Junreiuta' of Keisei Awa no Naruto
This is a
heartrending scene of a mother and a daughter. The daughter had traveled to look
for her mother from whom she was separated when she was an infant. Finally they
met by accident, but the mother for certain reasons, could not reveal herself
to her daughter.
ACT 7 'Nagatsubone' of Kagamiyama Kokyo no nishikie
The high class female servant Iwafuji was a malicious person. She disliked
Onoe, a middle class female servant. One day Iwafuji beat Onoe with a sandal
in public. Onoe decided to commit suicide but her maid Ohatsu interceded
and tried to prevent. But while she was sent to Onoe’s mother, Onoe committed
suicide. When Ohatsu came back and found Onoe’s body, she grieved deeply.
She decided to avenge her master and took vengeance on Iwafuji. This story
was made from a true incident happened in the Edo residence of Hamada domain.
The greengrocer's daughter, Oshichi
This story is based on a true incident.
Oshichi was a greengrocer's daughter in the Edo period. After her house was burnt down in the great fire in winter, she lived temporarily in a temple. During her stay in the temple Oshichi met Kichisaburo, who was of a samurai family, and they fell in love.
Kichisaburo failed in a situation that he might have to commit seppuku(ritual suicide), following his lord who lost a valuable sword which was ready to be offered to the Emperor. It was customary at that time.
Just after Kichisaburo left to go to the court, Oshichi found the sword. She rushed to the samurai area, but the area was enclosed and all gates ware sealed.
What she did was to climb the ladder to the fire tower, and made a big sound expecting the gate to open.
At that time, the action of ringing the fire bell without a fire deserved
the death penalty. Nevertheless, Oshichi kept ringing just for the sake
of saving Kichisaburo's life.
Tsubosaka-dera
Sawaichi and Osato were a poor but happy married couple. Sawaichi was a blind shamisen tutor, and Osato made kimonos for a living.
As Osato started to come home very late, Sawaichi became suspicious. One day, when he found out that his wife had visited Tsubosaka-dera temple to pray for his eye's recovery, he felt very shameful.
So he decided to practice Buddhism at the temple. He was alone there and deeply reflected on himself. He thought Osato would be unhappy with him. Such a hopeless feeling made him commit suicide. He jumped off a cliff, and Osato followed when she found out about it.
On the valley floor, Kannon (Buddha of mercy) appeared to give rebirth
to the two adherents. When Osato was reborn and found Sawaichi's eyes were
open, she was delighted and they felt gratitude towards the Kannon.
This is a story of a time after the flourishing Taira family was defeated by the Minamoto family during the Genpei War (B.5) at the end of the 11th century.
Yazaemon was a sushi restaurant owner and a supporter of the Taira family. He ran his sushiya (= sushi restaurant) with his wife, daughter and a waiter, Yasuke. Yasuke was a handsome and courteous young man whom his daughter dreamed about marrying.
One day, a young woman, Aoba came to the sushiya with her young son. There, she found her husband, who had fled. It was Yasuke, but his real name was Taira-no-Koremori, the son of the Taira family. He was escaping from searchers from the Minamoto family and hid his name.
Yazaemon managed to let Koremori and his family escape from the searchers who were coming to his village. Yazaemon was in obligation to Koremori's father.
Gonta, the disowned son of Yazaemon, appeared at the sushiya expecting to get money from his mother. When he was satisfied, he soon left.
Finally, a searcher arrived at the sushiya. Gonta got back and announced that he caught the Koremori family and brought Koremori's head in a case, and he requested the reward. The searcher checked inside the case, and gave Gonta a package as his reward.
When Yazaemon heard his son's cruel words, he was so upset, then without thinking, he stabbed his son.
Gonta confessed, gasping for breath, that what he said was a lie. He just wanted Koremori to safely escape. The head was a part of another dead person and the woman and child were Gonta's wife and son.
Koremori unfolded the package and found a priest gown set. He was able to find out that it was a gift from Minamoto-no-Yoritomo, the head of the Minamoto family. The searcher knew that the head in the case was not Koremori's. He was ordered to save Koremori, because at his young age, he was once able to escape with the help of Koremori's father. He thought it was his turn to help his benefactor's son, and gave him the priest gown. Koremori was saved in the temple.
So, he left his family and went to Koya-san, a famous Buddhist temple to become a priest.