Tonase. By a wine-cup uncommon in the world I suppose you mean a wedding-present. These two swords are my husband’s heirloom; the sword was made by Masamune and the dirk by Namino-hira Yukiyasu. They are treasures that cannot be exchanged for house or life. I offer them as presents.
Recitative. Before she has done speaking, Oishi breaks out.
Oishi. Looking down upon us as ronin, you give us two swords of high value as wedding-presents, as much as to say that we may sell them when we are straitened in our means. They are not what we desire.
Tonase. What, then, do you wish?
Oishi. We wish placed on this stand the head of Master Kakogawa Honzo.
Tonase. What? and why?
Oishi. When our Lord Enya Hangwan, having a grudge against Kono Moronao, struck him with his sword in the Palace of Kamakura, it was solely because your husband Kakogawa Honzo who was present caught him from behind and stopped him that he was unable to accomplish his object and his enemy escaped with a slight wound while he himself was compelled to commit seppuku. Though he said nothing at the time, great was his mortification and how must he have hated Master Honzo for his interference! If you think that Rikiya, his servant, is such a man that he will calmly take to wife the daughter of this Kakogawa, I will permit the exchange of the wedding-cups when I have seen on this stand Master Honzo’s hoary head, or if you refuse, place on it any two other heads for the ceremony. Now, do you consent, or do you not?
Recitative. To these sharp words of reason the mother and daughter bow their heads and know not what to do.
A Voice Outside. I will give you Kakogawa Honzo’s head. Receive it.
Recitative. The