The fantastical Kiyomoto-based dance "Higaki" (literally "the Cypress Fence") was created by Ichikawa Ennosuke II and premiered in May 1949 at the Tôkyô Gekijô [casting]. It was a revival of an old Sakurada Jisuke I's dance, which was entitled "Momo Yogiku Iro no Yo no Naka", and it combined the Nô play "Higaki" with the spectacular resurection scene of "Kotsuyose no Iwafuji", where the scattered bones of a dead evil woman reassemble into a skeleton, before taking the form of a human being. The dance Tomimoto-based "Momo Yogiku Iro no Yo no Naka" was originally staged in the 11th lunar month of 1776 at the Ichimuraza, as part of the kaomise drama "Sugata no Hana Yuki no Kuronushi" [casting].

This eerie dance is about a beautiful princess, Komachi, who flees from Kyôto to Edo in search of a treasure. She disguises herself as a courtesan, but there encounters Shôshô, her lover from Kyôto. As they try to escape to safety, they encounter a mysterious old woman. In fact, Shôshô recognizes her as Higaki, the old woman that gave him a drink of water many, many years ago when he was on a secret mission. She says that Shôshô was so beautiful that she fell in love with him and has come all this way hoping to see him. Higaki is anxious to get rid of Komachi so that she can have Shôshô to herself and excitedly goes to draw water for him, copying that scene of long ago when she first fell in love with him. But in fact, she is the ghost of the old woman and in her true form, reveals the torments of hell that she is suffering for her passion.

Source: Earphone Guide website

"Though drawn from the Nô play "Higaki", which focuses on the obsessive love of an old woman, elements from the legend of the renowned Heian poetess Ono no Komachi have been added to make the work more exciting." (Sasaguchi Rei)

The old woman Higaki