Hanai Oume

Japanese: 花井お梅 - はない・おうめ

Year of death: December 14, 1916
Year of birth: 1864
A Meiji-era geisha. Born in Sakura, Shimousa Province (Chiba Prefecture). Her real name was Mume. At the age of nine, she was adopted by Okada Tsunesaburo of Yoshikawa-cho, Nihonbashi, Edo, and became a geisha at Yanagibashi at the age of fifteen. After she became independent, she changed her name to Udagawaya Hideyoshi and had a fling with people. In 1887, she returned to her parents' home and opened a teahouse called Suigetsu-ro in Hamacho, Nihonbashi, under her father's name, but she had a disagreement with her father over business. When the head clerk, Yasugi Minekichi (real name Minezaburo), sided with her father in a plot to drive Oume out, she stabbed Minekichi to death on the banks of the Sumida River on June 9 of the same year. She was sentenced to life imprisonment. She was released from prison under a special pardon in 1902. She ran a sweet soup soup restaurant and other businesses, but later became a female actor and continued to act out her own history in plays. Kawatake Mokuami adapted it into a kabuki play titled "Geppei Kaoru Oboroya," and it was later featured in Kawaguchi Shotaro's "Meiji Ichidai Onna" and other plays.

(Mitsuo Sekii)

Source: Asahi Japanese Historical Biography: Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc. About Asahi Japanese Historical Biography

Japanese:

没年：大正5.12.14(1916)
生年：元治1(1864)
明治時代の芸者。下総国佐倉(千葉県)生まれ。本名ムメ。9歳のとき江戸日本橋吉川町の岡田常三郎の養女となり,15歳で柳橋の雛妓となった。一本立ちしてからは宇田川屋秀吉と改め,浮名を流した。明治20(1887)年実家にもどり,実父の名義で日本橋浜町に待合茶屋「酔月楼」を開業したが,実父と営業のことで意見が対立。番頭の八杉峰吉(本名峰三郎)が実父に加担してお梅追い出しをはかったことから,同年6月9日,隅田川河畔で峰吉を刺殺。無期徒刑の判決を受けた。同35年特赦により出獄。汁粉屋などを営んだが,女役者となり,芝居で自分の経歴を演じ続けた。河竹黙阿弥が「月梅薫朧夜」として歌舞伎化し,のち川口松太郎の『明治一代女』などにもとりあげられた。<参考文献>綿谷雪『近世悪女奇聞』

(関井光男)

出典　朝日日本歴史人物事典：（株）朝日新聞出版朝日日本歴史人物事典について　情報

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