maker, he asked where the mistress was, but as this was an awkward subject in the household none of the servants ventured to answer. Frowning, Osan’s husband told him, “She’s dead.”
“That’s strange,” the peddler went on, “I’ve seen someone who looks very much like her, in fact, someone who doesn’t differ from her one particle. And with her is the living image of your young man. They are near Kirito in Tango.”
When the peddler had departed, Osan’s husband sent someone to check up on what he had heard. Learning that Osan and Mōemon were indeed alive, he gathered together a good number of his own people, who went and arrested them. There was no room for mercy in view of their crime. When the judicial inquiry was duly concluded, the lovers, together with a maidservant named Tama who had earlier been their go-between, were paraded as an example before the crowds along the way to Awataguchi, where they died like dewdrops falling from a blade of grass. Thus they met their end on the morning of September 22, with, it should be remarked, a touching acquiescence in their fate. Their story spread everywhere, and today the name of Osan still brings to mind her beautiful figure, clothed in the pale orange slip which she wore to her execution.[1]
- ↑ Those condemned to death were allowed to wear only an undergarment to the execution.
