The Love of a Silver Fox: Folk Tales from Seki CIty Read online

  Part Four: KOHKICHI'S MASKS

  By December, Kohkichi had finished making the mask for Sayo. He waited for Sayo to come to his house. He waited and waited and waited, but she didn't come. So, finally, he took his masks and went to her house.

  "Hello? Is anyone home," he called.

  "Yes. What is it?" said Sayo's mother.

  "Is Sayo here?" Kohkichi asked. "I brought her a present."

  "Sayo?"

  "Yes. I made these masks for her," Kohkichi said. He showed her mother the two masks. One mask was his face and the other mask was Sayo's.

  When her mother saw it, she started to cry. "Is your name Kohkichi?" she asked him.

  "Yes. How do you know?"

  "Sayo told me. She was looking for flowers, but she fell in the river. She was there for a long time. When we found her, she was holding the flower in her hand. 'This flower is for Kohkichi,' she said. 'I'm going to marry him.' Two days later, she died."

  "Sayo died?" Kohkichi cried. He couldn't believe it. He loved her. "Please take these masks," he told Sayo's mother. Keep them together. They must never be separated."

  Then, he walked into the mountains and no one ever saw him again.

  That year, Kohkichi's masks were used for the Noh play at Kasuga Shrine. After that, if they were ever separated, they started to cry so no one ever separated them again.