The late Mr. Koidzumi Yakumo (Lafcadio Hearn) in his “Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan� (Vol. 1.) gives an extremely interesting example of shinjū, as follows:—
“There lived in ancient times a hatamoto called Fuji-eda Geki, a vassal of the Sh�gun. He had an income of five thousand koku of rice,—a great income in those days. But he fell in love with an inmate of the Yoshiwara named Ayaginu, and wished to marry her. When his master bade the vassal choose between his fortune and his passion, the lovers fled secretly to a farmer’s house, and there committed suicide together.
“The sad occurrence was commemorated in a popular song which ran:—
Kimi to neyaru ka, go-sen-goku toru ka?
Nan no go-sen-goku kimi to neyo?
Once more to rest beside her, or keep live thousand koku?
What care I for koku? Let me be with her!�
According to the T�to Ko-fun-shi (�都�墳志 = Record of ancient tombs in the Eastern Capital), the J�kan-ji (浄閑寺) temple of Minowa, Shitaya district, was the burial ground of the yūjo of the Yoshiwara. When the secret prostitutes of the City of Yedo were transported into the Yoshiwara, they were called baijo (賣女 = “sold women�). Originally the bodies of these women, and other secret prostitutes, were interred in the burial ground of this temple only, but later on it became the custom to bury their remains elsewhere, as also those of regular yūjo. The book goes on to say:—
“In these burial places are to be found many graves of yūjo who committed suicide with their paramours. On the tombstones are to be found engraved the descriptions of the swords with which they killed themselves, as well as their names and ages. There is something so weird and uncanny about these horribly pitiless records on the grey lichen-covered monuments that the blood of a sightseer runs cold and he becomes so nervous that he leaves the gloomy spot with the intention of never visiting it again.�[38]
Shin-Yoshiwara no Bodaiji.
(The Cemetery of the Shin-Yoshiwara.)
The J�kan-ji temple at Minowa, and the D�tetsu on[39] the bank (the Nihon-dzutsumi), were formerly the fixed burial places of the Yoshiwara yūjo who died during their terms of service and who had no person to take charge of their remains. Since the Restoration, however, the regulations of the prostitute quarters having been altered, the burial of a yūjo in these cemeteries is a rare occurrence.
The grave of the famous Taka-o of the Mi-ura-ya, and that of Usugumo, are both in the D�tetsu cemetery. The grave of Usugumo is known as neko-dzuka (the-mound-of-the cat). October the 20th, 1893, having fallen on the 233rd anniversary of the death of Taka-o, a grand religious service was held in this temple and was attended by large crowds of people belonging to the Yoshiwara.
On the grave of Taka-o is written:—