The Mysterious "Dancing Heads": The Story(ies) (Patreon)

Maikubi / 舞首 / Dancing Heads.

Okay, quite a while ago, I bought a book (Ehon Hyakumonogatari / Tōsan-jin Yawa (絵本百物語／桃山人夜話), originally published in 1841, with text attributed to Tōsan-jin and illustrations by Takehara Shunsensai). There are many, many wonderful illustrations in the book, but here is one image I was very curious about and had me wondering what was going on here? What's the story?

Turns out upon doing some digging, there are TWO entirely different stories in the same book.

The shorter version is the text accompanying the illustration that translates something like:

1)

"A quarrel arose among three gamblers over a contest. They were arrested by the authorities, and all were sentenced to death. Their bodies were cast into the sea, where the three heads gathered together in one place, breathing flames from their mouths and quarreling with one another without ceasing, day or night."

But then there is a long versions that is the text inside the artwork itself, and it goes like this:

2)

Around the middle of the thirteenth century, during the Kangen era, there were three notorious men named Kosanta, Matajū, and Akugorō, who served as hōmen under the Kamakura authorities.Note: Hōmen / 放免 is (and I didn't know this at all) a Kamakura period policing system where often former criminals or pardoned offenders would be employed as low-level agents or informants by the authorities. Anyway...

One day, during a festival at Manazuru-ga-saki, the three happened to meet. They had been drinking, and before long an argument broke out between them.

Akugorō was famous for his extraordinary strength. Kosanta and Matajū exchanged glances and secretly decided to join forces against him. But Akugorō realized what they were planning. In a single stroke, he cut Kosanta down, then turned on Matajū and tried to kill him as well.

Matajū fled into the mountains and hid.

Akugorō cut off Kosanta’s head and, carrying his bloodstained sword in one hand, went after Matajū.

Unable to remain hidden forever, Matajū finally came out and faced him. The two began fighting again. During the struggle, Akugorō suddenly stumbled over a stone and fell backward. Matajū seized his chance and slashed him from the shoulder down beneath the chest.

But Akugorō rose again. He shifted his sword into his left hand and attacked Matajū furiously.

Matajū threw away his own sword and grappled with him.

The two men wrestled violently, twisting and struggling together, until they lost their footing among the rocks and tumbled into the sea.

Even in the water, they did not stop.

Still clutching their swords, they struck at one another’s necks, each crying out as they tried to cut the other down. Soon their severed heads were fighting in the water.

Then, just as Matajū’s head seemed about to bite into Akugorō’s head, something even stranger happened.

Kosanta’s severed head, which Akugorō had been carrying at his waist, suddenly sprang free and leapt into the struggle. It bit into Akugorō’s head.

And so the three severed heads continued to fight among themselves, biting and attacking one another.

It was said that at night they breathed flames, and during the day the seawater itself appeared red with blood.

Because of this, the place came to be known as Tomoe-ga-fuchi — the Tomoe Pool, or Tomoe Abyss.

That is the whole story in a clean narrative form.

One thing I especially like about it is that the supernatural part comes very late. For most of the tale, it reads almost like a lurid medieval crime anecdote: three violent men, drinking, betrayal, pursuit, swordfight, wrestling, falling into the sea. Then suddenly—nope. The heads are still fighting.

And that is Mai-kubi."

Even the Japanese Wikipedia page mentions the discrepancy, the two differing tales.

Whether gamblers who got into a fight and go executed or low level, kind-of police officers who got into a fight and ended up in the water (still fighting), it's a pretty dramatic image. 🍀Okay, that is all...for a minute, that is. Hey, I almost got into a fight with an old man (different than Mr. Meanie), but instead of letting it go, I turned around and started talking to him and not only did we become friendly with each other, turns out his a distant relative of my father-in-law. By the end of the confrontation we were waving goodbye at each other and saying let's talk again soon and he kept repeating my name as not to forget it. Ha. Wew~. With all the bad news I keep waking up to, it was nice to make a little human connection. Speaking of human connection, I have a relatively new friend who owns a coffee shop and I told him I have yet to eat shaved ice this summer, so now suddenly I'm on my way there to remedy that with two other friends. Yay! It's really, really, really hot. XOXO, more in a bit!

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