The Golden Hairpin

 In the lands of Sendai, lived Hasunuma, a Samurai and his wife. The Samurai and his wife had two beautiful daughters - the elder was Ko and the younger was Kei. 

Hasunuma had a friend called Saito. On the same day that Ko was born, Saito had a son called Konojo.

When Ko and Konojo were two weeks old, their parents promised each other to get their children married when they reached the appropriate age.

In mark of this agreement, Saito gave Hasunuma a golden hairpin. 

Unfortunately, immediately after this, Saito took his family and left Sendai.

Seventeen years later, O Ko San was a beautiful girl. The only girl as beautiful as Ko was her sister Kei. 

Ko had far too many suitors for her. 

However, Ko wanted none of the suitors. She knew that she had been betrothed to Konojo in her childhood. Though she had never seen him, she looked at the golden hairpin everyday and wanted to marry Konojo and no one else.

But as Saito and his family never came back to Sendai, Ko began to pine for Konojo and this made her very sick.

Ko died at the age of seventeen, pining for Konojo.

                                   

Ko’s mother was very sad and she placed the golden hairpin in Ko’s coffin. “I am sure that Konojo is dead and that is the reason that he has not come back.” Ko’s mother murmured to the coffin. “I hope this hairpin binds you and may your spirits meet.”

                                   

Two months after this, Konojo came back to the lands of Sendai. 

He found Hanusuma and told the Samurai about himself. “My father took us to Yedo. However, there he became very poor and subsequently he died. My mother died after that.” Konojo looked around the house apparently searching for Ko. “Since then I have been trying to earn money so that I can marry Ko.” Konojo nodded to himself. “Since I learned that I am betrothed to her, I have been faithful to her and I want no one else. This time I earned enough to come to Sendai. So I have come here to tell you about myself.”

Hanusuma and his family were shocked.

They told Konojo all that had happened. “We wanted to know whether you were also faithful to Ko. But since you did not write to us, we thought you were dead and that was why you did not come back. But we never told Ko about our suspicions.” They told him sadly. “Ko died because she longed for you and no one else.”

Sadly Hasunuma vaguely pointed out of the house. “Go to our family shrine and light a joss stick for Ko. That would please her spirit.”

Ko did as he was told.

That very evening, Hasunuma asked Konojo to stay in a small house in their garden, because he considered Konojo to be their adopted son. 

Konojo accepted this generous offer.

                                      

A few days later, Hasunuma, his wife and Kei went to the Higan, a religious ceremony to worship their ancestral tombs and the three of them left in palanquins. 

Konojo was at the gate and saw the three palanquins pass out of the home and stood respectfully to a side.

When the third palanquin passed him, something fell out of it. 

It was a beautiful hairpin. Konojo picked it up and thought that it belonged to O Kei San.

                                     

That night, there was a consistent knock on Konojo’s door.

“Who is it?” Konojo shouted, but there was no reply.

Thinking that he had imagined the knock, Konojo tried to go back to sleep.

A louder knock repeated this time.

Konojo opened the door and was stunned. 

A beautiful woman stood outside at the door.

“Who are you?”

“I am O Kei San, the sister of O Ko San.” She told him her eyes alight with emotion. “I have seen you for days, though you have never seen me. I love you. You must make love to me.”

Konojo shook his head hurriedly. “I cannot do that. I loved your sister. Your father has shown me kindness by letting me live here. I cannot engage in such scandalous behaviour and make love to you.”

“If you do not love me,” The woman warned Konojo. “I will tell my father that you brought me here by lying to me that you loved me. And I will tell my father that you insulted me after I came here.”

Konojo stared. He realized that Hanusuma would believe his daughter and not Konojo.

Realizing that he had no choice, he made love to the woman that night. 

For a month the woman came to Konojo at night and he made love to her and by this time, Konojo himself loved the woman deeply.

But Konojo was also worried. At the end of the month, he spoke to the woman. “I was betrothed to your sister, so your father will never accept marrying you to me,” Konojo told her. “Let us leave this place. My father had a faithful servant called Kinzo in Ishinomaki. Let us go there and please let us not tell your father about this.”

The woman nodded. “I am also tired of this secret love.” She smiled at him. “Let us go to Ishinomaki.”

They packed their bags and secretly left that night to Ishinomaki.

Kinzo received them well and was hospitable to his ex-master’s son and the beautiful woman with him.

                                 

A year passed by and the couple were very happy in the new place.

Finally, the woman told Konojo. “We have to go back to see my parents Konojo. They must be worried about us. We have not written to them since we left and they know nothing about us. Even if they were angry with what we did, I am sure within the past year their anger must have gone. Let us go back home.”

Konojo agreed immediately. 

They traveled and reached Sendai and outside the Samurai’s house, Konojo all but lost his nerve to talk to the Samurai.

The woman inside the palanquin handed over her hair pin to Konojo. “I think you should see my parents first, Konojo. If my parents are angry, please give them this hair pin. Seeing it, their anger will melt away.”

Konojo agreed and slowly opened the gate to the house and was about to tell the servant of the house to call the Samurai. 

That was when Hasunuma came out of the house and saw Konojo at the gate.

“Konojo San!” The Samurai said warmly. “Come in. Come in.”

Konojo was surprised with the behaviour of the Samurai, but said nothing.

The Samurai called him in and asked him how he was.

Unable to bear it, Konojo blurted out the truth. “I have come here to ask forgiveness for my sins.”

The Samurai did not understand. “What sin have you committed, my dear boy?”

Konojo tried to explain it all, but the Samurai was impatient. “You could not have gone away anywhere with O Kei San, Konojo. Kei has been lying severely sick for over a year. She cannot even move from her bed. We have barely been able to feed her one morsel of gruel.”

Konojo vaguely waved outside the house with trembling hands. “O Kei San is in the palanquin outside.”

The servant went outside and found that there was no palanquin or woman outside the house.

Konojo was stunned and handed over the hair pin to the Samurai. “This belonged to O Kei San. This is the proof that I brought her with me.”

The Samurai’s wife turned white when she saw the hair pin. “How could you have this hair pin, Konojo?” Her voice was a whisper. “I put this in O Ko San’s coffin.”

                                   

All the people were stunned when O Kei walked down the room, looking calm and perfectly well dressed.

“You were unwell!” The Samurai cried. “You could barely move…”

“I am not O Kei, I am the spirit of O Ko.” She studied Konojo. “I longed for Konojo for such a long time that my spirit could find no peace after death. I took over O Kei’s body, so that I could live for a year with Konojo. I now know that Konojo loves me as faithfully as I loved him.” The woman smiled. “My spirit now knows peace and I will leave O Kei’s body.” She nodded at the people in front of her. “You have to promise me to let Konojo marry O Kei. That way O Kei’s body would become strong and my spirit will know true peace.”

                                   

Saying this the body fainted and fell. 

The three people stared as some time later, O Kei woke up as if from a deep sleep. But she seemed confused. “I was sick and lying on the bed. I do not know how I am here or how I wore this costume.”

O Kei did not remember any of the events in the past one year or about the golden hair pin.

But a week later, Konojo married O Kei.

The golden hair pin was given to a shrine in Shiogama, where the crowds go to worship it.

Adapted from Japanese Folk Stories