“About two hundred and sixty years ago there lived a young man named Shirai Gompachi who was the son of a respectable samurai in the service of a daimy� in the central provinces. He had already won a name for his skill in the use of arms, but having had the misfortune to kill a young fellow-clansman in a quarrel over a dog, he was compelled to fly from his native place and seek refuge in Yedo. On arriving at Yedo he sought out Bandzui-in Ch�bei, the chief of the Otokodaté (Friendly Society of the Wardsmen of Yedo) and was hospitably entertained and protected by that famous wardsman. One day Gompachi went to the Yoshiwara for the first time in company with T�ken Gombei, Mamushi Jihei and other protegés of Ch�bei, and this visit was the cause of his undoing. While watching the gaily dressed courtesans promenading in the Naka-no-ch�, escorted by their male and female servants, Gompachi’s attention was drawn to a famous beauty who had recently made her début in the Yoshiwara.
“It was a case of mutual love at first sight, and from that time the handsome young man went daily to the Yoshiwara to visit Ko-Murasaki. As was usual with a frequenter of the quarter, Gompachi, being a r�nin and without any fixed employment, had no means of continuing his dissipation and at last when his stock of money ran out he commenced to resort to robbery and murder for the purpose of replenishing his purse.
“Blinded and infatuated by his love for Ko-Murasaki, he continued his wicked course of life and kept on slaying and robbing, but at length he killed a silk-dealer on the banks of Kumagaya and robbed the unfortunate man of three hundred ry� and this act subsequently led to his arrest and execution as a common felon at Suzugamori (“Bell Grove�) near Ōmori which was the execution ground in the days of the Tokugawa Government. When Gompachi was dead, Bandzui-in Ch�bei obtained the remains from the authorities and interred them in the burial ground of the Boron-ji Temple at Meguro. Ko-Murasaki, on the other hand, was redeemed by a certain wealthy man after her lover’s death, but on the very night of her redemption she escaped from her benefactor’s house and after spending the night somewhere she repaired the next morning to the temple where Gompachi lay buried.
“First she thanked the priest in charge for his kind consideration and care for the soul of the departed, made an offering of a bundle of costly incense-sticks and ten ry� to the temple, and placed five ry� in the hands of the priest asking him to expend the money in erecting a stone monument over Gompachi’s grave. After this she went out into the burial ground and offered prayers over the tomb of her loved one, and committed suicide by means of a dagger she had brought with her for the purpose. When the chief priest of the temple—Zuisen Osh�—heard what had happened he reported the sad event to Bandzui-in Ch�bei, and the latter soon came to the spot bringing with him the parents of the unfortunate girl.
“Unhappy in their lives, in death at least they were not divided, for the body of Ko-Murasaki was buried in the same grave as that of Gompachi.
“Beside the tomb was planted an orange-tree with two branches as a symbol that the two sleepers had entered into their eternal rest in perfect and mutual accord, and over the grave they erected a stone monument on which were engraved the respective crests of the couple—a sasarind�[58] in the case of Gompachi and a circle containing two (井) characters in the case of Ko-Murasaki. The names of the dead pair were also inscribed on the tombstone, and the words “Tomb of the Hiyoku� added. The monument remains to this day, and by it stands another bearing the following legend:—
“In the old days of Genroku, she pined for the beauty of her lover, who was as fair to look upon as the flowers; and now beneath the moss of this old tombstone all has perished of her save her name. Amid the changes of a fitful world, this tomb is decaying under the dew and rain; gradually crumbling beneath its own dust, its outline alone remains. Stranger! bestow an alms to preserve this stone, and we, sparing neither pain nor labour, will second you with all our hearts. Erecting it again, let us preserve it from decay for future generations, and let us write the following verse upon it:—“These two birds, beautiful as the cherry-blossoms, perished before their time, like flowers broken down by the wind before they have borne seed.�
While Gompachi was in prison the following letter was sent to him by Ko-Murasaki:—
“I am looking upon the rare flower which you sent to me only the other day, as if I were gazing upon your countenance. I am extremely distressed to learn that you find yourself placed in such an unpleasant position, and am inconsolable at the thought that your unhappy plight has been caused by myself. I hear it stated that there is a god even in the leaf of a flower and so I solemnly appeal to this deity to witness my unaltered faithfulness and constancy towards you, come what may.�
The above document is still in existence and is known as the “Hana-kish�� (“the Floral Vow�). It is often quoted to show how Ko-Murasaki loved her sweetheart and how faithful and true she was towards him in the day of adversity.