Under the rule of the fifth shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, known in history as the "Genroku Period", the economy and culture have developed significantly, and the number of townspeople has gradually increased.
It is said that during this period, there was a bow and gun infantry group in the town of Yotsuya Zuomonden (a subordinate public servant imperial family), named Tamiya Andezomon.
Because Pingsu's eyesight is not good and it is inconvenient to work, he plans to let his only daughter Ah Yan recruit him, give up his position to his son-in-law, and retire to live a secluded life.
Unexpectedly, Ah Yan suffered from smallpox, and after recovering, his face was full of acne scars, and he also had a large spot on his right eye, and his hair shrank and became an ugly woman.
Ah Yan was twenty-one years old at the time.
Soon after, zuo weimen died of illness.
Colleagues want ah yan to recruit in order to inherit the status of the left guard, but for the above reasons, no one is willing to join the post.
There was a man named Youshi in Shimodani, who had always been able to speak eloquently and was extremely eloquent, and his colleagues consulted him.
He also said that as long as he gave more gift money, he would definitely find a son-in-law for Ah Yan.
Sure enough, the city did not renege on his word, and really found a son-in-law candidate, a ronin named Izuemon (Osaka, Hyogo) ronin.
Iwayamon was a beautiful man, thirty-one years old at the time.
Yuichi used clever words to persuade Yi Youweimen to take him to Ah Yan's house for a blind date.
But only Ah Yan's mother came out to deal with it, and there was no shadow of Ah Yan.
Ah Yan's mother pushed that her daughter was bedridden and could not see the guest.
In the samurai class of that era, the concept of marriage was different from that of modern people, and it only sought to be the right door and pass on the generations.
Yi Youweimen is also a ronin, and he is in great need of the support of thirty-three members of the Ayan family.
Thirty is twelve stones, one hundred and twenty buckets of rice.
One person supports five rice a day, one stone and eight buckets in the year, and three people support five stones and four buckets.
A total of seventeen stones and four buckets.
Therefore, although the Ayan family was a lower-ranking samurai family, at least they had the residence provided by the shogunate.
The land that the royal family visited was about 100 pings.
The two sides negotiated a family affair and decided to hold a wedding in August of that year, and the entry condition was fifteen taels.
It is not the Ah Yan family that pays fifteen taels to the Yi Right Guard Gate, but the Yi Right Guard Gate who pays fifteen two to the Ah Yan family.
Simply put, it was Izuemon who bought the "concentric position" of the Ayan family.
At that time, "Mendi" was a kind of shareholding, and many common people in the late shogunate period spent money to buy samurai identity, so the meaning of "entering the rich" in the samurai world was different from the "entry" of the merchant.
Although IyouEmon had heard the city mention it beforehand, saying that the bride was not a beautiful girl, but anyway, his purpose was not in the wife's appearance, but on the door, and he had already made psychological preparations.
But I didn't expect to see Ah Yan's true face on the wedding day, and I almost fainted.
Where in the world is there such an ugly woman? But there was no way, so I had to drink the happy wine hard.
After the marriage, the mother-in-law and Ah Yan were very kind to Yi Youweimen.
The mother-in-law is fine, but the obsession of the ugly daughter-in-law makes the beautiful man's life like a needle felt.
The following year, my mother-in-law passed away.
After the loss of lubricating oil in the family, Iwakimon became more and more unable to bear the courtesy and affection of the ugly woman.
At this time, there was a leader in the bow and arrow gun group, that is, the boss of Iwayomon, named Itō Kibei.
This person has a very poor discipline, frames his colleagues, is greedy for money and bribes, and is very annoying in the group.
He did not have a formal wife, but he had two young concubines, one of whom Wasa Hua became pregnant one day.
Xi Bingwei was in his early fifties, and now he didn't want to raise children, he was too cumbersome, and he planned to give the children in Ah Hua's belly to others.
However, giving it to others must cost a large amount of money.
Thinking about it, he thought of Iwayemon, because he remembered that Ie-Emon had said that he hated the ugly wife in the family.
So he summoned Iwayamon and said to him, "If you want Ah Hua and the child in your womb, I promise to take care of you for the rest of your life." ”
The two hit it off. Izuemon asked Kibei, "How can I break up with that monster in my house?" ”
"That's simple, I'll teach you a method." Xi Bingwei said his way.
Since this day, Iwakimon has often spent the night outside, squandering, and pawning clothes or furniture in the house without authorization.
Not long after, the life of Ah Yan's family was in a dilemma, and Ah Yan had to resign his only daughter.
One day, Xi BingWei sent people to Ah Yan's house and instructed Ah Yan to visit Xi Bing Wei's house at night.
Because Xi Bingwei was her husband's superior, Ah Yan did not dare not listen.
After she went to The Xibei family, the Xibei guard said to her, "Do you know what good things your husband and wife are doing outside?" Not only was he addicted to gambling, but he also ransomed a prostitute and spent all day in the prostitute's house. So far, I have protected him a few times, and if I continue like this, if I let Feng xing (the highest official in the group) know, not only will the Tamiya family lose the Door Ofi Lu, but you will also live on the street. Are you advising your husband? ”
Ah Yan was ashamed and angry after hearing this.
Although she was a low-level samurai, after all, she had received a martial arts education from birth, and she could not bear this shame.
When he returned home, he saw that the door was still deeply locked and there was no movement in the house, and it seemed that the husband and wife were planning to spend the night at the mistress's house again tonight.
The next day, Iwayamon returned.
He blamed Ah Yan for not being at home last night, preventing him from entering the door.
In fact, Yi Youweimen hid in The Hebei Guard's house last night, peeking through the paper door to spy on Ah Yan's reaction.
Ah Yan defended, saying that the group leader summoned last night, so he went to The Xibing Wei family.
Yi Right Guard Gate did not believe it, and even kicked and beat Ah Yan to the head.
Ah Yan went to The Xibing Wei family and cried, saying that he would complain directly to Fengxing.
Xi Bingwei hurriedly stopped him, and persuaded him with kind words: "As a daughter-in-law of a martial family, you should know that this is not good for you, and where is the daughter-in-law suing her husband?"
Well, you just get a divorce and go out and do things for two or three years, and then I'll help you find a good husband.
Of course, Izumon can't leave the Tamiya family because he bought a position in the Tamiya family, but you have to live a miserable life like this, what do you think? ”
It took a while for Xi Bingwei to persuade Ah Yan that the divorce condition was to return the clothes of the past Yi Right Guard Gate pawn to Ah Yan.
Those clothes, Iwemon did not pawn at all, they were secretly hidden in the homes of friends, of course, immediately realized the conditions for divorce.
In this way, the Yi Right Guard Gate successfully greeted Ah Hua.
Ah Yan was introduced by Xi Bingwei to a certain royal family to work as a sewing woman.
Although she still lingers on Iwakimon, it is easy to say that she does not have to be angry.
One day, a man came to ah yan, who was a merchant and peddler who used to sell tobacco when ah yan's father was still alive.
He said to Ah Yan, "Miss Ah Yan, do you know about The Right Guard's concubine Ah Hua when yi right guard enters the gate?" He's been making up a hoax to drive you away. ”
After hearing this, Ah Yan suddenly realized that his already ugly appearance was immediately transformed into a female ghost night fork, and the tobacco vendor was frightened and fled in a panic.
Ah Yan then ran out of the gate, and his whereabouts have been unknown ever since.
The following year, Ah Peanut gave birth to his daughter and named her Ah Yan, of course, this is the flesh and bones of Xi Bingwei.
Later, he had three children with Izumon.
The Tamiya family lived a smooth and steady life.
On the Obon Festival when the eldest daughter was fourteen years old, when the family was cooling in the courtyard, a woman suddenly appeared at the end of the narrow corridor, calling frequently:
"I right guard gate, I right guard gate, I right guard gate..."
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He called out three times and then disappeared.
In order to get rid of evil spirits, Iwayemon fired three empty bullets inside the house.
As a result, the three-year-old daughter at the time was so frightened by the gunshots that it was ineffective to ask a doctor to come to her rescue.
With this as a beginning, strange things happen in the Tamiya family one after another, and Izuemon often sees the shadow of a man next to Ah Hua, or wakes up in the middle of the night to find a strange man sleeping next to Ah Hua.
Otherwise, the son of the third in line saw his deceased sister in the courtyard and frequently asked his brother to carry her.
And this son also had a high fever because he saw his sister's ghost, and died a month later.
Next up was Ah Hua, who died inexplicably and suddenly.
The eldest man, the second in line, also died of cholera.
In other words, all the flesh and bones of Iwakimon have passed away.
Iwayamon had to let the eldest daughter Ah Yan recruit him.
One day a storm struck, thunder and lightning, and the wind blew away the roof of the Tamiya family.
Yi Right Guard went to the roof to repair, accidentally slipped on the ground, suffered a lumbar bone injury, could not move his whole body, and lay down for a few days before dying.
The Tamiya family was inherited by Akane's husband.
But when Ah Yan was twenty-five years old, he suddenly died of illness, and her husband and wife were also mad because strange things always happened in the house.
In this way, the shogunate took back the Tamiya family, and the Tamiya family was cut off.
And somehow, all the relevant personnel, including the Xibingwei family, were all sick and died of illness one after another due to the strangeness of the family.
Although no one witnessed ah yan's ghost, at most it was the figure of a woman who appeared at the end of the narrow corridor of Yi Youweimen's house, and the three calls, but the world was talking about it, thinking that this must be the end of Ah Yan's suicide.
Later, people built the "Yu iwa Inari Shrine" at the ruins of the Tamiya house to pay tribute to Ayan.
About a hundred years later, the seventy-one-year-old fourth generation Tsuruya Nanbei wrote "The Strange Tale of the Four Valleys of Tokaido", compiled the legend of Ayan into the story of "Tadatomizo", set Izuemon as a Ako Domain Langshi, and made Ayan an ugly woman for drinking poison, plus many social events of the time, which premiered in 1825 and was highly acclaimed.
Later, because this episode was so popular, it became an independent repertoire.
To this day, "Four Valleys of Strange Talk" is still one of the masterpieces of Kabuki drama, one of the masterpieces of Japanese strange talk, and the story of the most adapted movies.