Over 400 years ago, the dance of Izumo no Okuni captivated all of the audience, which became KABUKI, and from that Japanese Dance was born. Whether you’ve seen it before or not,
we hope you find it interesting…
HIDARI JINGORO, a legendary sculptor in the Edo period, has been the subject of many works other than KABUKI and BUNRAKU（Japanese Puppet Show). This time, we’ll introduce a RAKUGO story in which JINGORO appears.
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｜JINGORO MONO
Rakugo stories with HIDARI JINGORO as the main character are called “JINGORO MONO,” and lots of plays in which he plays an active role remain. Many of these were adapted into RAKUGO from KODAN (Japanese Oral Narrative) and ROKYOKU (Japanese Musical Storytelling), and JINGORO is portrayed as a charming, human character. His skills are well-known, but his personal life is…he’s a big drinker, has a loose sense of money, and prefers play to work, but once he starts carving, his skills are top-notch, and the works he creates have a mysterious power. He was portrayed as a very talented man and was a very popular character.
In RAKUGO, he is portrayed as an even more appealing character, with an emphasis on playful spirit and compassion for those in weaker positions. There are many famous stories in the “Jingoro Mono (Jingoro series)”, such as “Tanuki no Koi (The Raccon Dog and the Carp)” and “Omiki Tokkuri (The Sacred Sake Bottle)”. This time, we’ll introduce the plots of “Take no Suisen ( The Bamboo Daffodil)”
｜Take no Suisen (The Bamboo Daffodil)
In Fushimi, HIDARI JINGORO carved a bamboo daffodil at the request of the Imperial Court, which earned him a reputation and led to him being awarded an official rank. When the wealthy MITSUI Family learned of this, they commissioned a statue of Daikokuten to be carved alongside the Ebisu statue they had just acquired, said to be sculpted by UNKEI. JINGORO took on the job for 100-ryo (about 10 to 15 million yen) and received a 30-ryo deposit. Eager to see the city of Edo, he set off on his journey, but made detours along the way, squandered his money and ended up penniless before arriving in Edo.
The scene is set at an inn just outside Edo.The innkeeper and his wife, seeing JINGORO’s ragged appearance, did not recognize him. As you know, JINGORO was penniless, but he stayed at the inn with the promise that he would pay the lodging fee upon departure. He ate fresh seafood, drank 1-sho (1.8 liters) of sake each morning, lunch, and dinner, totaling 3-sho a day, and spent the rest of his time holed up in his room lazing about. Even the innkeepers became suspicious of him, and when they asked him for his fee, they discovered he was penniless. Despite this, he remained calm. He cut some bamboo from a nearby bamboo grove, carves a daffodil bud and a bamboo tube, and told the innkeeper to leave it at the entrance with a “For Sale” sign on it.
Strangely, the next morning the daffodil bud that had been carved out of bamboo had bloomed.
Just then, a lord happened to pass by, noticed it, and sent his retainer to purchase it. As JINGORO had told, when the innkeeper told him the selling price was 200-ryo, the retainer became angry at the high price and left. However, the lord had knew that JINGORO had carved it, flew into a rage asking why it hadn’t been bought, so he hurried back to buy. The innkeeper, who had previously been insulted and beaten by the retainer, raised the selling price to 300-ryo, but he still bought it. When the innkeeper told JINGORO that the daffodils had been sold for 300 ryo, he accepted only 200-ryo and returned the remaining 100-ryo to the innkeeper, claiming it was the sales proceeds. He also gave him 50-ryo out of his 200-ryo as lodging fees and warned him not to judge people by their appearance.
As JINGORO was preparing to depart, the innkeeper asked him to carve more daffodil flowers from bamboo gathered throughout the post town. But JINGORO replied that he couldn’t do it, for making flowers bloom on bamboo would shorten its lifespan.
*Ebisu and Daikokuten are both members of the Seven Lucky Gods, the two major deities of prosperity and wealth.
*Unkei was a representative Japanese Buddhist sculptor who was active from the end of the Heian period to the beginning of the Kamakura period.
*Bamboo has a unique ecology in that it blooms en masse once every 60 to 120 years and then dies. After pouring all its energy into flowering, it withers.
Since the entire bamboo forest is connected by underground stems, both young and old bamboo die simultaneously.
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