This feature was published in conjunction with A Story of Floating Weeds at ADoS 2025
KEIAN TAIHEIKI
A sign on the stage announces Keian Taiheiki, or The Keian Uprising, as Kihachi appears in the role of a ronin in revolt against the shogunate in the mid-1600s, but any Japanese audience in the 1930s would immediately recognize the setting. The hard-drinking Chuya Marubashi stumbles around outside Edo Castle’s stone walls after a long night of revelry as a ruse to measure the depth of the moat for a future assault when he’s beset by a barking dog. The scene ends before the arrival of Matsudaira Nobutsuna, a shogunate official who has grown suspicious of the armed, loitering drunkard. In the second act of what survives of this 1870 play, Marubashi reveals the rebel plans to his father-in-law who betrays him, sealing the hero’s fate.
GOEMON
The 16th century outlaw akin to England’s Robin Hood (only fiercer, and real), Goemon Ishikawa is referenced more than once and his likeness adorns the wall of the acting troupe’s dressing room. Some stories claim that in addition to stealing from the rich to give to the poor, Goemon tried and failed to assassinate a feudal lord after which he and his young son were sentenced to die by boiling cauldron, earning him immortality as the namesake goemonburo, a round tub heated by a wood fire. In saving the boy by holding him over his head, Goemon only boosted his folk hero status. He was a frequent character in kabuki theater, most famously the protagonist in Sanmon Gosan no Kiri (The Golden Gate and the Paulownia Crest), first staged in 1778 in its complete iteration as a day-long performance of five acts.
BENKEI
Musashibo Benkei, depicted prominently on the dressing room walls in the headwear of the Yamabushi sect of ascetic monks, is central to the oft-produced Kanjincho (1840) and one of kabuki’s most beloved characters. Built like a grizzly bear and exceedingly loyal, Benkei was a warrior-monk in the 12th century who grew increasingly mythical down the ages. Benkei supposedly amassed a collection of 999 swords from samurai he’d vanquished but was defeated by the thousandth sword, wielded by Minamoto no Yoshitune, another historical figure turned kabuki favorite to whom Benkei then pledged his everlasting allegiance. Benkei later died, shot full of arrows while protecting his master.
KONJIKI YASHA
The cap worn by Shinkichi, Kihachi’s son, comes from Koyo Ozaki’s Konjiki Yasha (The Golden Demon), which was serialized in a major Japanese newspaper from 1897 to 1902. Considered the author’s masterpiece, it tells of the orphaned Kan’ichi Hazama who, after being jilted by the beautiful Miya Shigisawa, becomes a ruthless loan shark. The story’s most famous scene depicts Kan’ichi kicking Miya for choosing a wealthy suitor over him. A cautionary tale of the emptiness that comes from valuing possessions over human connections, it has seen several film adaptations, one of which was produced at Ozu’s home studio in 1932.
NOZAKI-MURA
Nozaki-mura, or Nozaki Village, is announced with an onstage banner after the scene in which Otaka convinces Otoki she should flirt with Shinkichi. We don’t see any of the play performed in the film, but the surviving parts of 1780’s Shinpan Utazaimon, originally written for puppet theater, tell of Hisamatsu returning home to marry Omitsu, a girl from the country he has known all his life even as his heart belongs to Osome whom he has been secretly seeing in the city. When Osome shows up as preparations are made for the wedding, Omitsu sees their love and makes the heroic sacrifice of becoming a nun.
MOMOTARO
Kihachi’s wish to happen upon a lucky peach refers to the Japanese fairy tale that has been around in some form or another since the late 14th century. Momotaro was born to an elderly childless couple who become fertile after eating a peach found floating down a river on laundry day. The boy impresses from an early age when he’s able to cut down a tree by himself using only a knife. As an adolescent, he bests a band of marauders from Onigashima (Island of Ogres) with the help of a dog, a monkey, and a pheasant. In the 19th century, Momotaro’s origins were modified to make him more suitable as a children’s story, which had him miraculously emerge from the found fruit. Three decades before the oblique reference in Ozu’s film, Momotaro had been coopted as a national hero in Japan’s war against Russia in Manchuria. He remains a ubiquitous cultural touchstone today.
DARUMA
In addition to lingering shots of various Shinto altars affixed near the ceilings in homes and businesses, Ozu stops twice to show us a daruma at Otsune’s place. These hollow, rotund amulets are modeled on Bodhidharma, the founder of Zen Buddhism in Japan, and are sold with their eyes unpainted. The daruma’s recipient makes a wish, fills in one eye, and when the wish comes true, paints in the other eye. Like the maneki-neko, the beckoning cat figurine serving as Tomibo’s coin bank in the film, a daruma is displayed to invite success. At New Year’s some Shinto temples host bonfires for burning darumas that have fulfilled their purpose.