The eleventh Taka-o was redeemed by Sakakibara-Shikibu-Tayū, daimy� of Takata, Echigo province, who enjoyed an income of 150,000 koku of rice per annum. With the retirement of this lord she accompanied him to his clan headquarters (Takata): after his death she became a nun and died at the age of thirty and odd years.
Hana-�gi.
The Yedo-Kwagai-Enkahushi says that the brothel-keeper named Ōgi-ya Uyemon was a pupil of Kat� Chiin, well versed in the composition of Japanese poems, and favourably known by his literary name of Bokuka (墨河 = “Inky River�). Among the inmates of this gentle poetaster’s house was a yūjo named Hana-�gi who was very popular at that time. About the 6th year of Kwansei (1794) she escaped from the Yoshiwara and lived with a man with whom she had contracted intimate relations, but she was soon detected and brought back to her master’s house. She then refused, on the plea of illness, to act as a yūjo any more and no persuasion had any effect upon her.
Finally the master of the house composed a poem to the effect that:—
“Notwithstanding the careful attention given to the plum-tree by its care-taker in order that its flowers may not be injured the wind increases in violence.�
and showed it to her. Hana-�gi, bursting into tears, and touched by the kindness of her master, instantly composed another poem which read:—
“The plum-blossoms that tightly closed themselves in order not to be shaken by a merciless wind may be found in bloom next Spring.�
From this time she changed her mind and her popularity returned. The Kinsei Shogwadan says that Hana-�gi, a yūjo of the Ōgi-ya, Yoshiwara, not only had poetical tastes and was well versed in the art of penmanship but was a most filial and dutiful daughter towards her aged mother. Though her literary accomplishments were well-known and recognized, her filial piety was not so widely known, and the author of the Kinsei Shogwadan says “filial piety ought to be prized above all other things. It is a rare quality among women who sell their bodies for prostitution.� In the case of Hana-�gi, her filial piety having been noised abroad until her fame reached even to far away lands, a Chinese scholar, named Hikosei, who visited Nagasaki on board a trading-ship, happening to hear about her sent her a letter of eulogy written in the style of a Chinese poem. The composition, which was characterized by beautiful and imaginative thought, may be freely translated as follows:—
“You, who are the leading courtesan of a superior house of pleasure, are richly gifted by Heaven with a hundred various graceful accomplishment most excellent in woman. I, being a stranger and sojourner from a far-off land, must sail away without beholding your charms, but I shall long for you while tossed upon the bosom of the boundless sea. There is in Yedo a famous courtesan, named Hana-�gi, who not only is of unsurpassed beauty, but is well versed in literature. This lady has an aged mother at home whom she adores, and to whom she blindly devotes herself as a filial child is bound to do. I have sojourned in Nagasaki for a decade and have known many women at once beautiful and possessed of poetic tastes, but never have I heard of a courtesan accomplished in literature and likewise distinguished for her filial piety.
“Having heard your story—Hana-�gi—I wish to personally visit you, but this being impossible I compose a poem and send it to you.�