Sickle belly - Kamabara

The title of a Kyogen piece. Female Kyogen. Suddenly, Taro (Shite) is chased out by his wife, who has raised a stick with a sickle attached to it, as if a couple had kicked open the front door and run out into the street in a quarrel. When the arbitrator asks why, he is told that her husband has not done any work and has not gone to the mountains to get firewood today. With the arbitrator's intervention, Taro reluctantly heads to the mountains, but he becomes so disgusted with himself that he decides to die as a farmer's death to save face for his wife, and he devises various ways to die with the sickle like a farmer. However, his natural cowardice shows its face, and he is unable to die. His wife, hearing what is going on, rushes in and urges him to stop, saying, "If you die, I won't be alive either." Hearing this, Taro makes a complete turn and says, "If you are prepared to die after I die, why don't you die here and now in my place?", before being chased off by his angry wife once again. In the Izumi version, he pulls himself together, asks a passerby to give his wife a message to boil water for washing her feet, and heads off into the mountains. A husband chased by his miserable wife, who tells him to work, work, a man clinging to life when he can't die completely despite trying to do so; there is a sense of pathos behind the laughter.

[Mitsuo Yuya]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

狂言の曲名。女狂言。玄関を蹴(け)破って突然、夫婦喧嘩(げんか)が往来に飛び出したような勢いで、鎌(かま)を結び付けた棒を振り上げた妻に太郎（シテ）が追われて出てくる。仲裁人がわけを聞くと、夫がちっとも仕事をせず、今日も山へ薪(まき)をとりに行かないからだという。仲裁人のとりなしで太郎はしぶしぶ山に向かうが、そんな自分にほとほと嫌気がさし、女房への面当てにいっそ死んでやろうと、鎌で百姓らしい死に方をいろいろくふうする。が、生来の臆病(おくびょう)が顔を出し、なかなか死にきれない。聞きつけた妻が駆けつけ、「あなたが死んだら私も生きてはいない」と思いとどまるようにかきくどく。そのことばを聞いた太郎は一転「自分が死んだあとに死ぬ覚悟があるなら、いまここで自分の名代(みょうだい)に死んでくれぬか」といいだし、怒った妻にまたまた追われて退場。和泉(いずみ)流では、気を取り直し、通りがかりの者に洗足の湯を沸かしておくよう妻への伝言を頼み山に向かう。わわしい妻に働け働けと追いまくられる夫、死のうとして死にきれぬ男の生への執着、笑いの奥に男のペーソスが漂う。

［油谷光雄］

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