takiyasha in love
Tales of fortunate and misfortunate love between the living and spirit world fascinates me. In Japan there are stories concerning “Yuki-onna, the Snow Woman … [whose] custom is to appear in snowstorms … [she] is young and has an extremely beautiful body and a seemingly gentle disposition” (Piggott, 69) though taking a Snow Woman as a lover apparently proves fatal to most wayward travelers.
I do not claim to have a wide knowledge of Japanese Shinto's belief in the obake, that is, “restless spirits who, in life, suffered at the hands of others and thirst for revenge, or who died under less than honorable circumstances” (Littleton, 92) but one of the stories I have been reading recently has been that of Takiyasha, a popular thwarted lover play in Kabuki dance theater.
Takiyasha is a beautiful ghost witch in love with a dashing young samurai, Mitsukuni. The play I found them in, Masakado, is named after Takiyasha's dead father, a rival to the Emperor who was killed in battle and now roams his ruined palace as a ghost. Though by the end of the play Takiyasha and Mitsukuni have become mortal enemies in the beginning Takiyasha attempts to seduce the young man to become her lover. She sings a fascinating poem-song translated by Leonard C. Pronko:
Love is a thief in the lives of poor mortals,
struggling, oh, how pitifully,
in the deep gulf of confusion
as their lives follow the path
down from the mountain heights.
Perplexing, too, is the love of those
who sleep together in this floating world.
Wild ducks call out to each other,
“My beloved!” Our lives
are spent in writing tender words.
Even women of pleasure,
experts in the arts of love,
cannot contain themselves
when they behold the man they love.
Pensively, in the spring rain,
falling like hidden tears,
I come along under my umbrella. (211-12)
Since Takiyasha is a creature not of flesh and blood like Mitsukuni (who scorns her advances) she feels doubly hurt as a spirit and as a lover. I would love to see a retelling of the Masakado play where Mitsukuni (who is the so-called hero here) is not such an uptight jerk. Even ghost witches need love too.
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Works Cited
Brandon, James R. and Samuel L. Leiter (eds). Kabuki plays on stage: darkness and desire, 1804 - 1864, vol.3 Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press. (2002)
Littleton, C. Scott. Shinto: origins, rituals, festivals, spirits, sacred places. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press. (2002)
Piggott, Juliet. Japanese Mythology. New York, N.Y.: P. Bedrick Books. (1983)