"I am Tsuruya Nanboku the Fourth." "The story that I wrote, Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan, is finally coming to an end." "That is cruel, Iemon-dono." "Final Act" "I'm sorry, but did a hawk fly past this area recently?" "The hawk is here right now." "If the hawk belongs to you, please take it back." "Sorry for bothering you." "Even if I bring it back, it is starting to get dark and I might lose my way." "How could it be dark?" "Look, the moon is very large." "It is the Tanabata tonight." "Is that so... the Tanabata is tonight?" "If it is okay, would you like to rest here even though there is nothing proper to serve you with?" "You are a respected Samurai..." "Doing that to a weak woman like me..." "I am a Ronin now, and I am alone." "What happened to your wife?" "A lot happened, and I have been bereaved from her." "You are very beautiful." "Please do not joke about this." "Can I have the honor of knowing your name?" "Tamiya lemon." "And what is your name?" "Yes, my name is..." "Even if the flow of the stream splits as it flows quickly over rocks, they will eventually join up together at the end." "Tamiya, where are you?" "Have you found the hawk?" "An abandoned house?" "Why is there a light shining from there?" "Over rocks... 岩(Iwa) means rock." "Your name is..." "It is Iwa." "Oiwa..." "That is cruel, Iemon-dono." "Let us visit hell together." "I have come here for you, Tamiya!" "lemon!" "Are you okay?" "Get a grip of yourself." "Haha-ue!" "My child..." "Damn, I cannot let that curse kill me." "Namo Amida Namo Amida Namo Amida." "The six o' clock bell rung." "It is easy for lemon to catch a fever at this time." "Dreams..." "Is that just a Tanabata dream?" "O-Oiwa!" "That child is..." "I will take care of him." "In return..." "In return, enter Nirvana, Oiwa." "Damn!" "I married Oume just to gain the trust of the House of Itou, which was favored by the House of Kira, in preparation for revenge." "I am a man of justice." "The one who killed Oume and Itou Kihei was you, Oiwa." "It's all because of your curse!" "I..." "I did nothing wrong!" "Damn!" "Damn!" "Damn!" "Damn!" "Damn!" "Oi, Tamiya!" "Get ahold of yourself!" "You have completely fallen under the control of the curse." "Choubei, what do you want to tell me?" "I no longer wish to serve under you." "What are you doing?" "There was a hole made by a rat." "I will no longer recognize you as my Danna." "I came to tell you that." "Is that so..." "Genshirou-dono." "Where is that child?" "lemon is currenly outside." "Okuma." "I heard that after you separated from me, you defected to serve under the House of Kira." "It is as you have heard." "I am obviously serving under Asano Takumi-No-Kami-sama, yet you..." "It does not matter since we have already divorced." "Oyaji-dono." "lemon, I have heard the rumors." "Did you really kill Oiwa?" "The ones I killed were Itou Kihei and his granddaughter, Oume." "Why did you kill both of them?" "That is..." "That is due to the curse of Oiwa." "lemon." "I disown you." "I understand." "My child." "Do not be bothered by that Genshirou." "His days are numbered." "Damn!" "Damn it!" "lemon!" "Haha-ue!" "Chichi-ue!" "Namo Amida." "Choubei!" "Osode's elder sister, Oiwa, and their Chichi-ue, Yotsuya Samon's, revenge upon you shall be carried out by me, Satou Yomoshichi." "What are you saying?" "Get lost, Yomoshichi!" "You bastard..." "Yomoshichi..." "This is what was shown at the Nakamuraza in the 8th Bunsei." "The ending to Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan." "Indeed, in the early script I wrote, even though how lemon ended up had already been written, whether Oiwa entered Nirvana or not was never known." "In the following year, the 9th Bunsei, at Osaka, the story was renamed Irohagana Yotsuya Kaidan and was once again staged." "This version changed the ending to show Oiwa entering Nirvana at the end of the play." "Later in the year that I, Tsuruya Nanboku the Fourth, died, the 12th Bunsei, after the performance of the Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan ended, me, my son, my son-in-law, and the eleven people involved in the performance" "left this world one by one for the next world within a span of five years." "Then who is the "me" that is narrating this now?" "Regarding this, it will be explained later." "After I died, Yotsuya Kaidan continues to draw in a full crowd every time it is on stage." "However, among the actors and other staff involved, there are a large number of injuries." "Eventually it came to be said that if you do not pray at the Oiwa Inari in Yotsuya before a performance, then you will be cursed." "This story, having so many uncertainties, is probably one of the reasons why so many actors were easily injured." "Yotsuya Kaidan is not just a play." "It is also a popular Koudan material." "Ichiryuusai Teizan the 7th commonly staged Yotsuya Kaidan before war broke out." "The Chouchin, which has Yose written on it, fell off even though no wind was present, and other such strange occurrences took place." "He died in agony on the 41st year of Showa." "It was said that before he died, he was muttering "Oiwa-sama."" "When the era of movies arrived," "Yotsuya Kaidan was adapted into a movie several times." "During the 13th year of Showa, on the 2nd day of filming Kaidan Oiwa Yakusha, the director suddenly died." "They had no choice but to change to a new director." "After that, the actor's faces started to swell or they injured their legs." "And so, the fact that filming Yotsuya Kaidan will invite some form of curse was established." "Is the curse still present right now?" "Around ten years ago, the Yotsuya Kaidan that was staged at Shibuya received high acclaims." "However, the production crew committed suicide by jumping off a building after the performance." "It has been 180 years since I wrote the play." "Such a long time has passed since then." "Has the curse of Oiwa persisted on until now?" "I, Tsuruya Nanboku, will accompany the curse of Yotsuya Kaidan." "Even after death, I will continue to live on forever in another manner." "During the 12th year of Taisho, I paid a visit to the house of the novelist Akutagawa Ryuunosuke." "As I have said earlier, the Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan that I wrote was based on several well known legends." "Oiwa was tortured by smallpox, betrayed by her husband and eventually turned into a vengeful ghost." "Oiwa, who was the model of a virtuous woman." "There are many other variants that exist about this supernatural story about a woman named Oiwa." "Even though Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan is said to be based on a real incident, no matter if it is the story itself or the characteristic possessed by Oiwa," "lemon and the other characters were all created by me and exist solely in the play." "Even if there is a curse, it should not be caused by the person named Oiwa that really existed." "The curse that persisted until now, occurred when the Yotsuya Kaidan was retold to others." "The Yotsuya Kaidan was retold several times." "Could it be that the story itself yearns to be retold?" "To take it a step further, could it be that the curse of Oiwa persists on because the viewers want it to?" "Yes..." "Ever since the 8th year of Bunsei," "Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan did not just stay as a story, and neither did it stay as something that was created by man." "It has become the curse itself." "Fear has evolved into a real curse, and that is the true nature of the curse." "You bastard..." "Yomoshichi..." "The enemy lemon has been slain by me!" "Oiwa-sama." "lemon has already been punished." "With this, should not your anger be appeased?" "Oiwa-sama, I am sorry." "Even though this is just a story," "I have laid such a horrible fate on you." "Please do not curse any more people." "If you want to curse someone, just lay your curse on me, Nanboku." "I will say it once again." "The story behind the Yotsuya Kaidan is cursed because the audience wants it to be." "And now, you have seen everything about this story."