wataru

Updated: May 14, 2025

She promised to marry Morito after he had killed her husband, Wataru; to which end she engaged to ply Wataru with wine until he fell asleep. She would then wet his head, so that Morito, entering by an unfastened door and feeling for the damp hair, might consummate his purpose surely.

F. (Frank) Brinkley - A History of the Japanese People : From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era

Morito readily agreed, but Kesa, having dressed her own hair in male fashion and wet her head, lay down in her husband's place. *Generally spoken of as "Kesa Gozen," but the latter word signifies "lady." When Morito found that he had killed the object of his passionate affection, he hastened to confess his crime and invited Wataru to slay him.

F. (Frank) Brinkley - A History of the Japanese People : From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era

But Wataru, sympathizing with his remorse, proposed that they should both enter religion and pray for the rest of Kesa's spirit. It is related that one of the acts of penance performed by Mongaku the monastic name taken by Morito was to stand for twenty-one days under a waterfall in the depth of winter.

F. (Frank) Brinkley - A History of the Japanese People : From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era

Originally Endo Morito, an officer of the guards in Kyoto, he fell in love with his cousin, Kesa,* the wife of a comrade called Minamoto Wataru. His addresses being resolutely rejected, he swore that if Kesa remained obdurate, he would kill her mother. From this dilemma the brave woman determined that self-sacrifice offered the only effective exit.

F. (Frank) Brinkley - A History of the Japanese People : From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era