Twice ToldIroha-gana Yotsuya kaidan in Kyakuhon kessakushū, second volume (1922): Act 2, Iemon's house
- Language
- Japanese
- Reading
- transcribed from the page image
- Translation
- ours
- Retrieved
- 15 October 2026
脚本傑作集 (Kyakuhon kessakushū, “Masterpiece scripts”; the NDL catalogue calls it 脚本集), the volume marked 下 and dated 1922 (pid 970249), prints modern-typeset texts of Edo kabuki plays. Its text headed いろは假名四谷怪談 is the play usually known as Tōkaidō Yotsuya kaidan, by Tsuruya Nanboku IV. The speaker names are abbreviated in small type: 伊右 is Iemon, 喜兵衛 is Itō Kihei, お梅 is Oume, お弓 is Oyumi, お岩 is Oiwa. The three passages come from the scene in Iemon’s house in Act 2, in which Kihei and his family press Iemon to marry Oume.
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[p. 221, columns 1 to 4] 伊右「これは〳〵存もよらぬ事を承はる、そりや隨分家柄とこひ [といひ?] 娘御の御器量、直に承引致す所なれども、こゝに一つの難儀は、お岩が舅 [as printed] 四谷左門、先達て何者とも知れず手にかけたる故、舅は親、この敵を討つ迄は、お岩と不縁にはなり難し、世の人口にて伊右衛門は敵が怖さ討ともなさに、お岩を離別致せしとあつては、拙者武士道は相立たず
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[p. 222] 喜兵衛「イヤ〳〵面當では御座らぬ、 [ … ] 最前持て遣はしたは、血の道の薬とは嘘言、誠は一日のうちに異形の姿と變る秘薬でござる、娘が願ひを叶へんと、罪なき人に秘薬を盛り、一生涯の廢人にしたも、子故の闇から闇、迷ふ心は親の事
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[p. 223, columns 1 to 2] 伊右「イヤ民谷伊右衛門承知致した」
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[p. 223, last columns] 爰にお岩以前の形にて子を寐さして薬を呑んでゐる見得、時の鐘、凄き合方にて道具とまる
Translation
1. Iemon’s objection. Iemon: “This is a thing I never expected to hear. Considering your family, and your daughter’s looks, I would agree at once. But there is one difficulty. Yotsuya Samon, [as printed, “Oiwa’s father-in-law”; Oiwa’s father and Iemon’s father-in-law is meant] was killed some time ago by someone nobody can name. A father-in-law is a parent, and until I have taken revenge for him I cannot part from Oiwa. If people say Iemon divorced Oiwa out of fear of the enemy, so as not to avenge him, my way as a samurai does not stand.”
2. Kihei’s confession. Kihei: “No, no, I was not acting out of spite. [ … ] What I sent over a while ago, saying it was medicine for women’s complaints, was a lie; it is in truth a secret drug that turns a person into a deformed shape within a day. To grant my daughter’s wish I put a secret drug into an innocent person and left her incapacitated for life. It is the darkness of a parent’s heart, from dark into dark; a parent’s mind is lost over a child.”
3. Iemon agrees. Iemon: “Very well, I, Tamiya Iemon, consent.” [The text writes the family name as 民谷.]
4. The stage direction. Here Oiwa, in her earlier form, puts her child to sleep and holds a stage pose, drinking the medicine; a bell sounds the hour; to eerie music the set stops.
Notes
The reading is from the NDL page images (pid 970249; the rights label on the NDL record is public domain, internet). The readings printed beside the characters and the repetition marks are not reproduced; 〳〵 is kept where printed. In passage 2 the gap marked [ … ] is a stretch of the speech I skipped between Kihei’s first words and the line about the medicine.
The play writes the family name 民谷; the Yotsuya text and the shrine write 田宮. Both are read Tamiya.
Uncertain: in passage 1 the printed 家柄とこひ reads oddly; the sense is the family’s standing and we have marked the likely 家柄といひ. 見得 in passage 4 is a held pose, which the stage direction names. 血の道の薬 is a remedy for the complaints women suffer in connection with menstruation and childbirth; we render it “medicine for women’s complaints”. 廢人 we render “left incapacitated”; it can also mean “a ruined person”. 子故の闇から闇 is a stock phrase for a parent blinded by love for a child; our rendering follows the sense.