Kyota Ko's Blog - Posts Tagged "empathy"
A story of empathy seen in Japanese Noh theater
A Noh theater play is about a poor man who sacrifices his cute little Bonsai trees to fire to warm the house for a stranger who needed shelter in snowy winter.
In the play “Hachinoki,” Sano Tsuneyo is an unlucky samurai who had lost his territory to a relative who embezzled it. One snowy night, he invites a traveling monk to stay for a night at his house.
As he tells how he tumbled down the samurai hierarchy, he runs out of firewood. Worried his guest would be cold, Tsuneyo takes out his plum, cherry and pine Bonsai trees—his proud collection he had grown with care—and throws them into the fire.
He kept his now-rusty armor and spear in a corner of his house, waiting for the day the shogun summons him on the battlefield. The monk thanked him and left.
Spring came and all samurai, rich or poor, were summoned to fight for the shogun. A man in rusty armor with a rusty spear, appeared on a skinny horse, and joined the march. It was Tsuneyo.
Tsuneyo was called in front of the regent to the shogun, Hōjō Tokiyori. Tokiyori confessed he was the traveling monk Tsuneyo had helped on that snowy night.
“I visited you in disguise. I’m glad to see you keep to your promise you made that night.”
Tokiyori gave the territory Tsuneyo had lost, and as a bonus, bestowed three more plots of land named after the three Bonsai trees he gave up:
梅田 Umeda (Plum-fields)
桜井 Sakurai (Cherry-well)
松井田 Matsuida (Pine-well-fields)
I’d be touched by Tsuneyo’s actions, too 🥹.
——————
▶︎ Hi, I’m Kyota, the author of Amazon Best Sellers:
Folk Tales of Japan: 28 Japanese folk tales with cultural commentary
Underdogs of Japanese History: 11 tales of iconic characters who prevailed against the odds... or didn’t
Horror Tales of Japan: 21 Japanese folktales not to be read to children, coupled with (mostly) uplifting cultural commentary
Please check out my books on Amazon or from my profile page at ☺️: https://kyotako.myportfolio.com/
In the play “Hachinoki,” Sano Tsuneyo is an unlucky samurai who had lost his territory to a relative who embezzled it. One snowy night, he invites a traveling monk to stay for a night at his house.
As he tells how he tumbled down the samurai hierarchy, he runs out of firewood. Worried his guest would be cold, Tsuneyo takes out his plum, cherry and pine Bonsai trees—his proud collection he had grown with care—and throws them into the fire.
He kept his now-rusty armor and spear in a corner of his house, waiting for the day the shogun summons him on the battlefield. The monk thanked him and left.
Spring came and all samurai, rich or poor, were summoned to fight for the shogun. A man in rusty armor with a rusty spear, appeared on a skinny horse, and joined the march. It was Tsuneyo.
Tsuneyo was called in front of the regent to the shogun, Hōjō Tokiyori. Tokiyori confessed he was the traveling monk Tsuneyo had helped on that snowy night.
“I visited you in disguise. I’m glad to see you keep to your promise you made that night.”
Tokiyori gave the territory Tsuneyo had lost, and as a bonus, bestowed three more plots of land named after the three Bonsai trees he gave up:
梅田 Umeda (Plum-fields)
桜井 Sakurai (Cherry-well)
松井田 Matsuida (Pine-well-fields)
I’d be touched by Tsuneyo’s actions, too 🥹.
——————
▶︎ Hi, I’m Kyota, the author of Amazon Best Sellers:
Folk Tales of Japan: 28 Japanese folk tales with cultural commentary
Underdogs of Japanese History: 11 tales of iconic characters who prevailed against the odds... or didn’t
Horror Tales of Japan: 21 Japanese folktales not to be read to children, coupled with (mostly) uplifting cultural commentary
Please check out my books on Amazon or from my profile page at ☺️: https://kyotako.myportfolio.com/
