鑓の権三 (1986)

During the Genroku era, Osai, the wife of Ichinoshin Asaka, a samurai of the Matsue domain, hoped that her daughter would marry Gonzo Sasano. Gonzo was a page so skilled with a spear that he was known as “Gonzo the Spear,” but above all he was renowned for his good looks. Osai let slip that she was so taken with the younger Gonzo that she would like to take him as her own son-in-law. Osai’s husband, Ichinoshin, was the Matsue domain’s chief instructor in the tea ceremony and had spent a long time stationed in Edo accompanying the domain lord. Matsue was jubilant at the news that the lord had an heir. As part of the celebrations, it was decided that the “True Daisu,” the most profound tea ceremony procedure, would be held. With Ichinoshin, the chief instructor, away in Edo, the event could only be overseen by one of his pupils: Gonzo or Tomonojō Kawagishi. Gonzo visited the Asaka home in the middle of the night and pleaded with Osai to let him conduct the “True Daisu.” But he was wearing a sash bearing the crest of the rival Kawagishi family. From the sash, Osai deduced that Gonzo was intimate with Tomonojō Kawagishi’s younger sister. Mad with jealousy, Osai tore the sash from Gonzo and, carried away by the moment, undid her own sash as well. She threw both into the garden. As ill luck would have it, their rival Tomonojō Kawagishi was hiding in that very garden. He had sneaked in hoping to use his charms to secure from Osai the right to conduct the “True Daisu.” Gonzo had beaten him to it, and in frustration Tomonojō took the two sashes and spread word throughout the castle town that they were proof of an illicit affair between Gonzo and Osai. There was no longer any way for them to prove their innocence. Despairing, Gonzo and Osai fled the domain together. Ichinoshin, Osai’s husband, was stripped of his post as chief instructor because of his wife’s disgrace and returned to his home domain. To restore his family’s honor, he had to kill his wife and her lover, Gonzo, and carry out a vendetta against his wife’s lover. Ichinoshin set out with Jinbei, Osai’s elder brother. During their flight, Osai and Gonzo became lovers. They considered trying to escape together, but just as they had resigned themselves to the fact that they had no choice but to die, their pursuers found them. On Kyōbashi Bridge in Fushimi, Ichinoshin cut down Osai and Gonzo, completing the vendetta against his wife’s lover.