PRINCESS IKOMA AND TSUKIGE, A YOUNG HORSE

--An old folk tale in Saku--

We have many folk tales, and this is one that has been told for a long time among the people in this area.

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A long long time ago, this area, Komoro, Asashina, Mochizuki, and Kitamimaki, was a big pasture. People bred horses for the emperor and when young horses got strong enough, they took them all the way to Kyoto,the capital, through the Nakasendo trail. The pasture bred many good horses, and so horses from Mochizuki were famous in Kyoto.

One day, a baby daughter was born to the lord of the fief, and on the same day, a beautiful horse was born at the stable. The lord was very glad and named his daughter "Ikoma." It meant "vivid horse." The horse had white hair with bright brown spots, and people called him "Tsukige."

As they grew, Ikoma became a beautiful girl and Tsukige became a strong, beautiful horse. Ikoma often rode on Tsukige and ran around the pasture. They seemed to be so close and happy. Ikoma was so beautiful that her name was known in Kyoto. She was called to come to Kyoto and be one of the emperor's wives. Her father was very glad, but Tsukige would not eat any food and got sick. The people worried about him and asked a healer. His answer was that Tsukige was in love with Ikoma and he became sick because he heard she was leaving. Hearing this, Ikoma refused to go to Kyoto.

Her father got so angry that he said to Tsukige, "I'll give you my daughter if you run all around the pasture three times before the evening bell." Everyone thought it was impossible, but the horse started running. He ran and ran as fast as the wind. He ran so fast that he was almost finished! The lord got irritated with this and shouted, "Ring the bell right now!"

When the horse heard the bell, he stopped running. Desperate, he jumped down into the River Kakuma far below and died. Ikoma was so full of sorrow that she left home and became a nun to pray for Tsukige.

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More than twenty years ago some people worked to make a choral suite of this folk tale. A poet and a composer visited Mochizuki and were inspired with the tale and folk music . It was performed several times, but it has not been played for fifteen years.

Recently, the national government of Japan has demanded that small towns and villages be annexed by big cities. If they refused, the government threatened to cut off financial support to these small towns. As a result, many towns and villages disappeared in the last five or six years in Japan. Mochizuki Town is now a remote region of Saku City.

There are some people who worry about losing their community identity and the suite of the folk tale, which they helped create. They decided to sing the music themselves at last. They asked a professional singer and a pianist to help and started practicing last September. Many of them have no choir experience or can't read musical notes. But at last, they are going to have a concert on September 24th (a public holiday) in Mochizuki.