''Komachi Sōshi'' (小町草紙) is a Japanese ''

otogi-zōshi are a group of about 350 Japanese prose narratives written primarily in the Muromachi period (1392–1573). These illustrated short stories, which remain unattributed, together form one of the representative literary genres of the Japanese med ...

'' in one or two volumes, composed during the

Muromachi period The is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate (''Muromachi bakufu'' or ''Ashikaga bakufu''), which was officially established in 1338 by t ...

Date, genre and sources

''Komachi Sōshi'' was composed during the

. It is a work of the ''

'' genre. It is one of a large number of works that draw on the legends surrounding the poet

Ono no Komachi was a Japanese waka poet, one of the '' Rokkasen'' — the six best waka poets of the early Heian period. She was renowned for her unusual beauty, and ''Komachi'' is today a synonym for feminine beauty in Japan. She also counts among the ...

, a category that also includes '' Komachi Monogatari'', '' Komachi Uta-arasoi'', '' Kamiyo Komachi'' and '' Tamazukuri Monogatari''. It specifically draws on the ''dokuro-densetsu'' (髑髏伝説), legends about Komachi's skull being found in a grassy field.

Plot

Ono no Komachi, the great beauty and ''

waka Waka may refer to: Culture and language * Waka (canoe), a Polynesian word for canoe; especially, canoes of the Māori of New Zealand ** Waka ama, a Polynesian outrigger canoe ** Waka hourua, a Polynesian ocean-going canoe ** Waka taua, a Māori w ...

'' poet, has grown old and wretched. She prays to Kanzeon for salvation. She encounters

Ariwara no Narihira was a Japanese courtier and '' waka'' poet of the early Heian period. He was named one of both the Six Poetic Geniuses and the Thirty-Six Poetic Geniuses, and one of his poems was included in the ''Ogura Hyakunin Isshu'' collection. He i ...

, and the two discuss their romantic histories and how popular they had once been. Komachi abandons

the capital ''The Capital'' (also known as ''Capital Gazette'' as its online nameplate and informally), the Sunday edition is called ''The Sunday Capital'', is a daily newspaper published by Capital Gazette Communications in Annapolis, Maryland, to serve ...

when she is ridiculed for her decrepit appearance, and travels to the Tōkaidō and eventually to Mutsu Province. She composes poems at various famous sites ('' uta-makura''), but no one praises her poems as those of the great Komachi. Komachi eventually comes to grassy field of Tamazukuri-Ono in Mutsu, and there dies. Narihira, travelling north on a journey of poetry composition, realizes that he is following in Komachi's footsteps. He hears the first half of a ''waka'' floating in the wind: ''kure-goto ni aki-kaze fukeba asa na asa na''. Narihira completes the poem: ''ono to wa iwaji susuki no hitomura''. Suddenly, a beautiful women appears as if from nowhere. She asks if he is a person from the capital and could deliver a message to Narihira for her. She says that since Narihira's name (業平) is written with the same characters as the aphorism ''Gō o tairamuru'' (業を平むる), calling his name must surely cause one's bad karma to disintegrate. Narihira, thinking that this must surely have been the ghost of Komachi, digs through the long grass, but the woman is nowhere to be found, Narihira instead finding nothing but bones and pampas grass (''hitomura susuki''). Komachi and Narihira were avatars of and respectively.

Textual tradition

The

University of Tokyo , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project b ...

has in its holdings a single-volume manuscript copied in Tenmon 14 (1545), with the title ''Ono no Komachi Sōshi'' (小野ゝ小町双紙). The

Tenri Central Library Tenri Central Library (天理大学附属天理図書館 ''Tenri Daigaku Fuzoku Tenri Toshokan'') is the library of Tenri University. It has notably extensive collections in antiquarian material, including original manuscripts from 13th-century Jap ...

possesses a printed copy dating from roughly the

Genna was a coming after '' Keichō'' and before ''Kan'ei.'' This period spanned the years from July 1615 to February 1624. The reigning emperor was . Change of era * 1615 : The era name was changed to mark the enthronement of Go-Mizunuoo and bec ...

era (1615–1624), and

Waseda University , mottoeng = Independence of scholarship , established = 21 October 1882 , type = Private , endowment = , president = Aiji Tanaka , city = Shinjuku , state = Tokyo , country = Japan , students = 47,959 , undergrad = 39,382 , postgrad ...

and the Akagi Archive (赤木文庫 ''Akagi-bunko'') both possess a ''Tan'en-bon'' (丹縁本) dating from around the

Kan'ei was a after ''Genna'' and before ''Shōhō.'' This period spanned the years from February 1624 through December 1644. The reigning emperors and empress were , and .Titsingh, Isaac. (1834) ''Annales des empereurs du japon'', p. 411./ref> Chang ...

era (1624–1644). It was also included in the ''Otogi-Zōshi Nijūsan-pen'' (御伽草子二十三編).

References

Works cited

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Komachi Sōshi Otogi-zōshi Muromachi-period works Ono no Komachi Ariwara no Narihira