Yugiri - Evening Mist |
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Yugiri was an honest man who had never had a love affair before. But now, he was deeply in love with the Second Princess. As the Ichijo Lady had suffered from evil spirits, she came to the Ono Villa to take treatment. The Princess did not stay behind in the city but came with her mother. Yugiri took every preparation for that. Using the good excuse of seeing the Ichijo Lady, he himself visited them. On the night of the twentieth of the Eight Month, he sent back all his men and left alone to pursue the Princess.
The Princess tried to escape into a back room. Holding the bottom of her kimono, Yugiri stopped her and tried to win her: "You cannot pretend not to know about these things." She was wretched with such treatment. He tried to force her to the moonlight and continued to try to seduce her. Keeping her heart closed, she held stubbornly back. Without any further result, the dawn approached.
| Although the Princess
resisted Yugiri, a miserable fate result awaited her. The healer, who was
there to comfort her mother, saw Yugiri
leaving the room of the princess in the morning. She was now considered a
loose woman. As there was no solution but marriage to protect the princess
from the gossip, the mother wrote Yugiri
a letter requesting him to come. Just a short note arrived, but Yugiri
himself did not come. The honor of the former royal princess thus stained,
the old lady suddenly died in despair.
Actually, the letter of the old lady had not reached Yugiri. His wife Kumoinokari had taken it away out of jealousy. Astonished by what had happened, Yugiri helped with the funeral, and the princess kept her distance. She thought that her mother had died because of the cruel attitude of Yugiri. On the thirteenth of the Nine Month, as he could not bear the situation, he set off for Ono. The mountains nearly in the deep autumn, looked full of melancholy, sealing the sorrow of the people. He stood at the door and raised a fan to his eyes, with an elegance which even women could not have imitated. Talking with Koshosho, the servant of the princess, Yugiri asked her to convey his feelings. But the princess did not relent. |
Kunisada II & Hiroshige II 1864 |
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Kuniyoshi, 1845/46 |
By the time the memorial services of the forty ninth day of the Ichijo lady came around, rumor about the two of them had spread. Being restless, Yugiri started the necessary preparations to accept her into the Ichijo mansion, as if the dead lady intended it. On the appointed day, he came to Ono cordially to escort her. In tears, she was finally shown into a carriage. She had brought the sword and the seal of the royal impress, a sutra box and a memento of her mother. The Ichijo house was now filled with life. Yugiri had taken the main room as the master of the house. To flee from the pursuit of Yugiri, the princess locked herself in a closet, a measure that could not continue forever. With the help of Koshosho, he persuaded her to accept him. Yugiri’s affairs had caused various regrettable effects. For one thing, his wife Kumoinokari had returned to her house.
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Resumed by Mary Nagase. Published by UNESCO.© UNESCO 2000