Anchin and Kiyohime Dojoji

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Anchin and Kiyohime 安珍・清姫伝説

The very short version:
The monk Anchin flees from the unwanted advances of the girl Kiyohime and hides under a huge bell in the Dojoji temple. She follows, turns into a dragon, and curls around the bell, melting it and killing bother herself and Anchin.


The detailed story is HERE:

Road to Kumano



天音山　道成寺 Temple Dojo-Ji
（てんのんざん　どうじょうじ） Doojooji

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Some photos of the Dragon


















MORE PHOTOS !

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Kiyohime : Hidakagawa
Painting by Kobayashi Kokei


©　www.tv-tokyo.co.jp



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quote
Musume Dojoji むすめどうじょうじ / 娘道成寺

This dance-drama is a Kabuki adaptation of the famous Nô play "Dôjôji". It has been performed for the first time in March 1753 in Edo at the Nakamuraza. The main role of the dance was played by the great star Nakamura Tomijûrô I. The performance's success was beyond expectation and it was extended for several months.

The drama starts in the precincts of Dôjôji Temple where your eyes are drawn to the great hanging bell. The priests of the temple are happy with this new bell, which has just recently been dedicated. There has not been a bell in the temple for a long, long time. The following story explains why:

According to legend the temple used to have a handsome priest named Anchin, with whom a young girl named Kiyo-hime fell in love. Since he was a priest, he tried to discourage her affection. But she could not forget him and continued to pursue him with great persistence. Finally after all these attempts had been thwarted, her passionate love for him turned into a deep hatred; and she turned into a fierce, fire-breathing serpent. The terrified priest ran to Dôjôji Temple and hid beneath its huge bell, which the abbot lowered over him. In frustration the serpent coiled itself around the bell and poured fire out from its mouth until the bell melted and the priest burned to death.

Since then no women have been allowed to enter the temple precincts on any account. For a long, long time the temple made do without a bell. But then, just recently, a new bell has been constructed and dedicated. Today a pretty, young girl appears and introduces herself as Hanako, a dancer traveling around the country. She says that she has heard of the new bell at Dôjôji Temple and come out of curiosity to see it. Although she is, at first, refused admittance, her disappointment is so great that it moves the priests' stern hearts. At last they accept her offer to dance in the bell's honor and allow her to enter the grounds.

First she dances with a hat, then with a hand towel, then with one after another. Before long her dancing arouses some strange feelings in the priests for every time she changes her kimono she emits an enigmatic aura. Remembering the story of Anchin and Kiyo-hime, the priests begin to drive her out of the temple. But she just gives them a sardonic smile and climbs atop the huge bell, revealing herself to be the spirit of Kiyo-hime.

Ichikawa Danjûrô IX plays the main role of the dance "(Kyôganoko) Kyoganoko Musume Dôjôji", in January 1896.

source : www.kabuki21.com / Watanabe Hisao

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source
http://www.shiga-miidera.or.jp/treasure/craft/03.htm
temple bell from Miidera with a
"Dragon Head" ryuuzu 龍頭 decoration



咲くからは 龍頭にとどけ 山桜
saku kara wa ryuuzu ni todoke yamazakura


if you are going to blossom
please reach the dragon head of the bell -
mountain cherry tree


Keishi 慶子 (けいし)
pen name of Nakamura Tomijuro the first



shodai Nakamura Tomijuuro 初代中村富十郎,
琴嶺舎 Kinreisha
1719 - August 3, 1786
Kabuki actor in Kyoto, mostly young female roles

He played this maiden of the Dojoji temple and wrote a haiku about it, showing his sincere with to impersonate the maiden well.

Tr. Gabi Greve
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. Bell, Temple Bell (kane) and related KIGO 　


Kabuki theater 歌舞伎 and related KIGO


Daruma Museum, Japan

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