Taki no Shiraito

Hanayagi Shotarô as Taki no Shiraito and Nakamura Kichiemon II as Murakoshi Kinya

The plot

We are in 1890. Taki no Shiraito works as an entertainer in a troupe of travelling funfair and she is famous for her beauty and for her artistry in controlling streams of water into shapes and patterns. While the troupe takes part in the annual Kanazawa festival near the Asano River, she falls in love with Kinya Murakoshi, a young carriage driver who, when his parents died, had to give up his law studies and go to work to earn his life. Taki no Shiraito, real name Mizushima Tomo, promises to help him and offers him money so that he can resume his studies. At the end of the festival, they separate and Kinya takes the train to Tokyo.

Two years pass with Tomo sending money to Kinya who studies hard. But the spectators are dwindling and the fairground is experiencing difficulties. Tomo must resolve to financially help the members of the troupe, Minami the knife thrower and his wife Ogin, then Shinzo and Nadeshiko, the young couple who must flee the usurer Gozo Iwabuchi. She can no longer send anything to Kinya who is considering returning to work.

In desperation, she goes to the loan shark Gozo Iwabuchi. He rapes her before loaning her 300 yen. While crossing a park to return home, Tomo is attacked by thieves and robbed of those 300 yen so dearly paid. One of them drops a knife and Tomo realizes that it is identical to Minami's knives. She understands that the two men conspired to cheat her. Mad with anger, she returns to the usurer and in the ensuing fight, she accidentally kills him with Minami's knife. Panicked, Tomo flees to Tokyo to find Kinya but he is absent when she arrives in his room. She entrusts her landlady with the stolen money and is arrested before she can see her lover again.

In Kanazawa, the prosecutor unsuccessfully interrogates the two murder suspects, Minami who owns the murder weapon and Tomo who fled with blood on her clothes. The investigation drags on and in the population, the case involving Taki no Shiraito, the famous water magician, is causing a stir. And soon the news arrives that a new and brilliant prosecutor comes from Tokyo to take over the investigation.

The new prosecutor is none other than Kinya. Tomo, who has not seen him for three years, is happy to see that he has brilliantly succeeded and that her efforts have not been in vain. Kinya, in despair, realizes that he must judge his benefactress and that his own success is due to the money stolen from the murder victim. He doesn't know what to do and Tomo implores him to let her sacrifice herself and not reveal anything of their connection. During the trial, Tomo, questioned by Kinya, confesses to the murder and then commits suicide. Some time later, Kinya shoots himself in the head on the banks of the Asano River, where the lovers had sworn to help each other.

The actor

Hanayagi Shotarô (1894-1965) played mostly female roles in Shinpa movement plays and played also in several movies.