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This is a Jiuta piece
in the Tegotomono style
from the Ikuta Ryű school
.
Shin Musume Dojoji is also known as: Kanegamisaki.
This piece was composed for koto by Ishikawa Koto
.
This piece was composed for shamisen by Kikuoka Kengyo
.
History (from Tsuge Gen'ichi)
Kanegamisaki ('Cape of Temple Bell'), a popular jiuta piece, is also known by another name, Shin Musume-dojoji. It is generally thought that it was adapted from a nagauta piece called Kyonganoko Musume-dojoji which accompanies a well-known kabuki dance, because the song-text of the former is virtually identical with the first third of the latter.
The text is based on an old legend concerning the great temple bell of Dojoji a Buddhist temple in the province of Kishu (present Wakayama Prefecture) (1). The no play Dojoji is also based on the same story.
Every year the hermit Anchin of Shirakawa (in Fukushima Prefecture) traveled south to pay his respects at the Kumano Shrine of Kishu. On these trips he stayed with Masago no Shoji, whose daughter Kiyohime fell in love with the handsome priest. Balking at her unexpected infatuation, he fled to the Dojoji temple and hid himself under the great temple bell, whereupon, in a feline fury, the girl turned herself into a demon-snake and pursued Anchin, swimming across the Hidaka River. Finding him, she wrapped herself seven-fold around the great bell, dissolving it and the poor priest in her molten anger. Much later, when the priests of Dojoji recast the bell, a female street dancer (shirabyoshi) appeared at the ceremony of the first striking, asking to be allowed to dance at the belfry. During her dance she suddenly ran under the bell. The bell sounded a great peal and fell over her. When the priests lifted the bell, an enormous snake crawled out breathing fire. Ah, the tenacity of a woman's vindictiveness!
Though the song-text of Kanegamisaki does not actually include this story, the audience is assumed to be familiar with it. The text ends abruptly with an inserted ball-bouncing song which enumerates the names of the renowned pleasure quarters of the Edo period.
(1) The original story is found in the Konjaku monogatari ('Ages Ago,' and eleventh century collection of Indian, Chinese and Japanese stories), Vol. 14.
Poem (translated by Tsuge Gen'ichi)
The great temple bell
Harbors myriad malices.
Struck at midnight,
The bell echoes
The evanescence
Of all things.
Struck at the ghost hour,
The bell echoes
The birth and death
Of all beings.
Struck at daybreak,
The bell echoes
Supreme enlightenment.
Struck at sunset,
The bell echoes
The gospel of Nirvana.
All who hear understand.
Clouds of the Five Womanly Obstacles
Have been cleared away,
And now I will enjoy
The moon of absolute truth.
I will not unbosom
Myself to you,
But my heart is disordered
Like my hair.
Heartless and cruel
Is the fickle man.
No matter what they say,
Men are no good-
'Cherry blossom' dandies
Vying for praise
But then it's true
That women in love
Perform their duties
Absentmindedly.
No matter what they say
Women are not food.
Women from the capital
Are shallow indeed,
Yes, indeed.
Count them-
The villages of love, where
A samurai visits without his sword,
Screening his face with a deep basket-hat
A town of pride and self-respect
Is Yoshiwara (2).
The capital of cherry blossoms
Softens with song;
That woman who works
In Shimabara (2) - who is she with?
The black robes of Sumizome (2)
In Fushimi recall that evil
Passions are cleared by the bell-hammer
Of Shumoku-machi (2), and on
To the Yosuji of Naniwa (2)
And Kitsuji (2) of Nara.
The little girl flowers early
At Muro (2) of Harima-
Truly this is
The world of love.
One, two, three, four
Through the dew night,
Snowy days and frost,
He came from beyond Shimonoseki.
We grew closer
At Maruyama (2) of Nagasaki.
I hoped it would last, and
I fell in love-
That was my fate.
(2) Names of famous pleasure quarters in the Edo period.
Shin Musume Dojoji appears on the following albums:
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Copyright 2007 - The International Shakuhachi Society
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