二月 稲荷の太鼓」
“February – The Inari Drums”
Before the Meiji Restoration, when people spoke of the Inari Festival on the first “Horse Day” of the second month, each neighborhood would always have at least one such site, often located within a private residence.
Near an Inari shrine on the estate of a certain bannerman named Miyauchi—who had a reputation as a wicked hatamoto—the children of the neighboring town would spend their days beating drums and playing about. But only in the daytime. At night, in the stillness, the spring breeze carried the fully blooming plum blossoms, which seemed to fall even without wind.
And in the branches of that plum tree was the figure of Ofuji, a teahouse girl of thirteen or fourteen, famed in Marimachi for her beauty, bound and tied.
The master of the estate, together with his disreputable companions, had abducted the girl and toyed with her as they pleased. Later, when the crime came to light, it was said that—owing to years of misconduct—he was being pressed by the authorities.
