Rashōmon (otogi-zōshi)
Rashōmon (羅生門) is a Japanese otogi-zōshi in two books, likely composed around the middle of the Muromachi period.
Date, genre and sources[edit]
Rashōmon was probably composed around the middle of the Muromachi period.[1]
It is a work of the otogi-zōshi genre[1] in two books.[1] It is one of a number of works depicting legendary encounters between Minamoto no Yorimitsu and Watanabe no Tsuna and some form of monster.[1] Other such works include the Heike Tsurugi no Maki (平家剣巻),[1] the Tadafuyu shōraku no koto tsuketari onimaru, onigiri no koto (直冬上洛事付鬼丸鬼切事) passage in Book XXXII of the Taiheiki,[1] the otogi-zōshi Shuten-dōji[1] and the yōkyoku (Noh libretti) Rashōmon[1] and Ōe-yama.[1] The work also incorporates legends of the swords Onimaru (鬼丸) and Onigiri (鬼切).[1]
Plot[edit]
Minamoto no Yorimitsu and his four generals, including Watanabe no Tsuna, and Fujiwara no Yasumasa defeat the demon of Ōe-yama.[1] Later, one night at a banquet, Yasumasa tells of a servant of the Ōe-yama demon, Kidōji that is menacing passers by at the Rashōmon.[1] Tsuna, expressing doubt, visits the Rashōmon to verify the rumour, and cuts off Kidōji's right arm with a tachi called Hizamaru (膝丸), but as he is returning with his prize the demon steals his arm back.[1] Later, Yorimitsu falls ill.[1] Hearing that his master's sickness will be cured if the demon who lives in the forest of Uda, Yamato Province, Tsuna heads out.[1] He encounters an ushi-oni in the form of a beautiful woman, cuts off its hand with a tachi called Higekiri (鬚切), and carries it home.[1]
On the advice of a fortune-teller, Yorimitsu places the hand in a red chest (朱の唐櫃 shu no karabitsu), placing the chest in a northwest-facing storehouse.[1] He encloses it in a shimenawa and for seven days reads aloud the Humane King Sutra before it.[1] On the sixth day, the ushi-oni appears before Yorimitsu in the form of the latter's mother, in order to steal back its hand,[1] but Yorimitsu cuts it down with Higekiri.[1]
The swords Hizamaru and Higekiri are dubbed, respectively, Onimaru and Onigiri and become prized family heirlooms of the Minamoto clan.[1]
Textual tradition[edit]
There are picture book copies under the title Rashōmon E-kotoba (羅生門絵詞) in the holdings of Toyo University,[1] Kyoto National Museum[1] and the Tenri Library,[1] as well as one in the collection of Yutaka Shimizu.[1] There is also a two-volume Nara-ehon edition in the Seikadō Bunko Art Museum.[1]
References[edit]
Citations[edit]
Works cited[edit]
- Inui, Yoshihisa (1983). "Rashōmon2". Nihon Koten Bungaku Daijiten 日本古典文学大辞典 (in Japanese). Vol. 6. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten. p. 197. OCLC 11917421.