Yoneichi

A Kyogen piece title. Zatsu Kyogen. On New Year's Eve, a man goes to a house where he has been staying to give his year-end greetings and receives rice for the New Year and a kosode as a gift for his wife. As he returns home carrying a sack of rice and wearing a kosode, he looks like he is accompanied by a young woman of some descent, and some young men pass by and call out to him. The man replies with a witty "Daughter of Tawara Touta, Lady Yoneichi's Lady is returning home," in reference to the burden on his back. The young men press him, saying that as a famous beauty, they would love to have a drink from her. The troubled man chases them away with a stick, but the sack of rice wrapped in the kosode is revealed to be the young man's, and the young men leave in dismay. The man, left alone on stage, suddenly lifts the rice sack high into the air and proudly declares that although it may not interest the others, it is an important item to him, as the piece ends. This is a heartwarming and poetic work that depicts the earnest New Year's Eve scene of ordinary people in the Middle Ages.

[Mitsuo Yuya]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

狂言の曲名。雑(ざつ)狂言。大晦日(おおみそか)、世話になっている家に歳暮の挨拶(あいさつ)に行った男が、年越しの米と妻への土産(みやげ)に小袖(こそで)をもらう。米俵を背負いそれに小袖を羽織って帰る姿が、いかにも由緒ありげな娘を連れているように見え、通りかかった若者たちが声をかける。男が背の荷物にちなんで「俵藤太(たわらとうた)のお娘御(むすめご)、米市御寮人のお里帰り」としゃれて答えると、若者たちは有名な美少女ならぜひとも盃(さかずき)を頂きたいものだと迫る。困った男は棒を振り回して追い散らすが、小袖に包まれたのが米俵とばれてしまい、若者たちは拍子抜けして帰ってしまう。一人舞台に残された男、やおら米俵を高々と担ぎ上げ、お前たちには興味なくても自分にはたいせつな年取り物だと誇らしげにいって終曲。中世庶民の切実な年越し風景をほのぼのと描き、詩情を残す作品である。

［油谷光雄］

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