[Thank goodness she isn’t trying to send him to slumber. A good bedtime story this is not.]
As fun as that would make the tale in an entirely different way… No, our darling courtesan took the name of her own volition.
The childhood name her mother gave her was Otoboshi. “The witty little star”.
[Thankfully, she had introduced him to the concept already of characters in names meaning something, with her paulownia.]
And perhaps that wit saved her. The bandits passed the girls to a woman who specialized in selling young flesh to the nation’s brothels, and though the elder sister was lost to the trade and eventually met a fate most unremarkable for a prostitute, Otoboshi was sold to a fine institution of high repute in the pleasure district of Sakai, a flourishing port town. From a young age she was taught the ways of service and temptation, and, having proven herself a good study and a potential beauty, she was taught fine arts and literature, fashion and poetry, and all manner of skills that might delight a discerning man. After her maidenhood was auctioned she climbed the ranks of the district in popularity, and soon enough she became a top-class courtesan who sailors, merchants, and samurai all competed to buy for the night.
And yet… What a pitiable fate! What joy or satisfaction could be gleaned from clawing to the top if what you climb is a pile of rubbish and greed and clumsy lust? Otoboshi cursed the turn in fortune that had turned her from the proud daughter of an honorable warrior to a glittering jewel that could be bought each night, and she abandoned her name to instead be called Hell, so that each man who asked for her time or cried out her name would be reminded of what awaited him for his sins, and she devoted herself in her own time to praying that the sins of her past life that must have earned her rebirth into her current misfortune would somehow be cleansed. That she might die and earn safe passage to the Pure Land.
[There’s a pause, finally, a thoughtful hum, and then-]
Now, around this time… there was a very curious monk named Ikkyu who happened to frequent Sakai.
no subject
[Thank goodness she isn’t trying to send him to slumber. A good bedtime story this is not.]
As fun as that would make the tale in an entirely different way… No, our darling courtesan took the name of her own volition.
The childhood name her mother gave her was Otoboshi. “The witty little star”.
[Thankfully, she had introduced him to the concept already of characters in names meaning something, with her paulownia.]
And perhaps that wit saved her. The bandits passed the girls to a woman who specialized in selling young flesh to the nation’s brothels, and though the elder sister was lost to the trade and eventually met a fate most unremarkable for a prostitute, Otoboshi was sold to a fine institution of high repute in the pleasure district of Sakai, a flourishing port town. From a young age she was taught the ways of service and temptation, and, having proven herself a good study and a potential beauty, she was taught fine arts and literature, fashion and poetry, and all manner of skills that might delight a discerning man. After her maidenhood was auctioned she climbed the ranks of the district in popularity, and soon enough she became a top-class courtesan who sailors, merchants, and samurai all competed to buy for the night.
And yet… What a pitiable fate! What joy or satisfaction could be gleaned from clawing to the top if what you climb is a pile of rubbish and greed and clumsy lust? Otoboshi cursed the turn in fortune that had turned her from the proud daughter of an honorable warrior to a glittering jewel that could be bought each night, and she abandoned her name to instead be called Hell, so that each man who asked for her time or cried out her name would be reminded of what awaited him for his sins, and she devoted herself in her own time to praying that the sins of her past life that must have earned her rebirth into her current misfortune would somehow be cleansed. That she might die and earn safe passage to the Pure Land.
[There’s a pause, finally, a thoughtful hum, and then-]
Now, around this time… there was a very curious monk named Ikkyu who happened to frequent Sakai.
What do you know about monks… ?