Kanawa, The Iron Ring, by Motokiyo.
Story.—In the reign of Saga Tenno there was a
princess who loved unavailingly, and she became
so enraged with jealousy that she went to the shrine
of Kibune and prayed for seven days that she might
become a hannya. On the seventh day the god had
pity, and appeared to her and said, "If you wish
to become a hannya go to the Uji river and stay
twenty-five days in the water." And she returned
rejoicing to Kioto, and parted her hair into five
strands and painted her face and her body red, and
put an iron ring on her head with three candles in
it. And she took in her mouth a double fire-stick,
burning at both ends. And when she walked out
in the streets at night people thought her a devil.
From this it happens that when Japanese women
are jealous they sometimes go to a temple at night
wearing an iron ring (Kanawa) with candles in it.
Sometimes they use also a straw doll in the incantation.
Modus.—First comes Kiogen, the farce character,
and says he has had a god-dream, and that he will
tell it to the woman who is coming to pray.
Then comes the woman. Kiogen asks if she
comes every night. He tells her his dream, and
how she is to become a hannya by the use of Kanawa.
She goes. Her face changes en route. Enter the
faithless husband, who says he lives in Shimokio,
the Lower City, and has been having very bad
dreams. He goes to the priest Abē, who tells him
that a woman's jealousy is at the root of it, and that
his life is in danger that very night. The husband
confesses his infidelity. The priest starts a counter
exorcism, using a life-sized straw doll with the names
of both husband and wife put inside it. He uses
the triple takadana[2]
and five coloured "gohei,"
red, blue, yellow, black, white. Storm comes with
thunder and lightning. The woman appears.
She and the chorus sing, interrupting each other—
she complaining, the chorus interpreting her
thoughts. She approaches her husband's pillow
with the intention of killing him. But the power
of the exorcism prevails, and she vanishes into the
air.
