But the Dragon Lady was upon the bell of Dōjōji, and she lashed it furiously with her tail till dawn. She did not sigh, nor cry, nor call upon her love. From noh and kabuki to folktale and film, the story has been retold through the eyes of temple priests, innocent bystanders, fashionable guests and … The monk Anchin was young in years but old in scholarship. The monk Anchin was young in years but old in holiness; he kept his body under by fastings and watchings and long prayers. Then lightly she sprang to the top of the great bronze bell of Dōjōji, and with her sharp teeth she bit through the ropes that held it, so that the bell came to the ground and the monk was a prisoner. Now, some time later, it is the spirit of that maiden who returns to destroy the new bell. The origins of the popular Noh play “Dōjōji” lie in the tragic love story of Anchin and Kiyohime.

She had told him her name, and he murmured it in his sleep. Sengoku used the bell as an alarm signal in battles and took it back to Kyōto. In the silence there could be heard the rustle of her green skirt upon the green grass. In the tree-tops the Wise Birds of Buddha sang for him no more, only from the thicket was heard the cry of the Hototogisu, the bird lovelorn and forsaken. All the night long the frogs sang by the Marshy Mere and the wind sighed in the sedges.

He dwelt with a score of holy men in a monastery of the mountains, where he learned the mystic “Way of the Gods.” He was bound to his order by the strictest vows, but was content, rejoicing in the shade of the great pine trees and the sound of the running water of the streams. the love that I love. From noh and kabuki to folktale and film, the story has been retold through the eyes of temple priests, innocent bystanders, fashionable guests and by the wise sage voices of traditional song. She came, gliding in and out of the bulrush and the sedge. The Bell Of Dojoji THE BELL OF DŌJŌJI . His heart was hot within him; his eyes burned and his soul longed after the lady of the green and golden robe. Film stars Ichikawa Raizō and Wakao Ayako, as well as Kabuki actor Nakamura Kanzaburo XVIII, have all visited the bell with a strange destiny to pray for the success of performances. The Great Books of the Good Law sufficed him no longer; no more was he acquainted with the blessedness of divine meditations.

Every day for many hours he read the Great Books of the Good Law and never wearied, and hard characters were not hard to him. All the night long the frogs sang by the Marshy Mere and the wind sighed in the sedges. The moonlight was on her hands and her long sleeves. His trouble would not leave him. She stood still for a little space and smiled. But what about the young girl herself, transformed by rage into something unrecognisable?

Her robe was green and gold, interwoven; golden were her sandals. So Anchin fasted and prayed, he scourged his body, and hour after hour he did penance in the ice-cold water of the torrent. And the Wise Birds called and twittered from branch to branch of the tall trees, the birds that are beloved of Buddha. His countenance was white as ivory and as smooth; his eyes were deep as a brown pool in autumn; his smile was that of a Buddha; his voice was like an angel’s. As for her, her feet never touched the ground, and she spread her green sleeves like wings. The bell was lifted by the monks' prayers, but the woman transformed herself in a monstrous serpent and disappeared into the Hidaka River. He was acquainted with the blessedness of sublime meditations. He cast himself down and crept beneath it, and so deemed himself sheltered and secure.

Evening Bell of Dojoji (Dojoji no bansho), no.

Then came Kiohimé, the Merciless Lady, and the moonlight shone upon her long sleeves. The monk Anchin was young in years but old in scholarship. For over a millennium the story of the bell and the demoness of Dojoji has inspired an epic sweep of art forms.