Twice ToldTokyo Asahi, 27 March 1928, as printed in Tsukuda's Masakado-kō seiden: the service at the Finance Ministry
- Language
- Japanese
- Reading
- transcribed from the page image
- Translation
- ours
- Retrieved
- 15 October 2026
Tsukuda Yojirō’s booklet (将門公正伝, “The true life of Lord Masakado”) was published by the office of Tsukudo Shrine in Tokyo in 1928. Its item 24 reprints a short newspaper item, with the credit 東京朝日昭和三年三月廿七日 at its end. We have not seen the Asahi itself; the text below is the booklet’s. The print has readings beside the characters, left out here, and uses the repeat mark 〱 as printed.
(二十四) 大藏省に於ける鎭魂祭 帝都の眞ん中、しかもいかめしいお役所で、昔ながらの怨靈鎭めの祭が行はれる、その話はかうだ、震災後大藏省では、どうしたものか病人が續出して、早速藏相、矢橋營繕管財局工務課長その他十數人が現職のまゝでなくなつて行く、數字には冷靜で遠慮なく各省豫算を天引する役人も、生命だけには神經過敏になつて、算盤をはじいた結果、どうも是は將門の怨靈のせいらしいと衆議が一致した、今の大藏省敷地は、元神田明神と淺草日輪寺のあつた所で、震災前までは、その中庭に平將門の首級を祭つてゐたが、震災後バラックを建てる時に、首塚を今の主計局の縁の下にたゝき込んで、毎日靴でキウ〱踏みつけて居た、これには怒るのももつとも、二十七日午後四時省内第二食堂を祭場とし、神田明神社司司祭の下におごそかな鎭魂祭を行ふことになり、更に來月十四日には、藤澤遊行寺の高野管長を招いて、日輪寺で法要を營み、大藏省役人一同『今後どうぞよろしく』と參拜のはずである。(東京朝日昭和三年三月廿七日)
Translation
(24) A service to calm a spirit at the Finance Ministry. In the middle of the capital, in a stern government office, a rite to soothe a vengeful spirit, of the old kind, is to be held. This is how it came about. After the earthquake, for some reason, people at the Ministry kept falling ill, and the minister Hayami, Yabashi, the head of the works section of the building and property bureau, and a dozen or so others have died while in post. Officials who coldly dock every ministry’s budget are touchy about their own lives; they worked it out on the abacus and agreed that this seemed to be caused by the vengeful spirit of Masakado. The Ministry’s site used to be where Kanda Myōjin and the Asakusa temple Nichirin-ji stood. Until the earthquake they honoured the head of Taira no Masakado in its courtyard, but when they put up barracks after the earthquake they drove the head mound under what is now the budget bureau’s veranda and ground it under their shoes every day with a squeak. No wonder he is angry.
At 4 p.m. on the 27th, in the Ministry’s second dining hall, a solemn calming rite is to be held under the priest of Kanda Myōjin. Then on the 14th of next month the head of Yugyō-ji at Fujisawa, Takano, will be invited to hold a Buddhist service at Nichirin-ji, and all the Ministry’s officials are expected to go and pay their respects in worship, saying “Please look after us from now on.” (Tokyo Asahi, 27 March 1928)
Notes
- The item names the dead only by office, except the minister and Yabashi. The article repeats only what the item says and names nobody beyond the minister.
- “Agreed that this seemed to be” renders 〜らしいと衆議が一致した: a consensus that it seemed to be so. The hedge is the item’s.
- The text says the barracks went up “after the earthquake” without a year; the National Tax College’s page puts the temporary building in 1924.
- The service is announced for the day of the paper’s date (the 27th, 4 p.m.), so the item is from the evening edition.
- The booklet prints a longer item right after it, headed 怖氣づいた將門の亡靈大法要會 and credited to the Hōchi shimbun of 15 March 1928; it goes on to describe the service of the 27th, so the credited date cannot cover all of it (see sources.md).