Onmyōza Hyakumonogatari Story IX "Yoshitsune: Otherworldly Rencontre"

(Raise Kaikō begins at 17:00)

(Note: The second and third parts are mostly the same as the preface for Raise Kaikō that is included in the Garyō Tensei album booklet)

    Minamoto No Yoshitsune had joined the army of his older brother Minamoto No Yoritomo, whose objective was to overthrow the Tairas. Making good use of his prodigious tactician skills, Yoshitsune was overpowering the Tairas unopposed. Contrary to his military achievements however, due to the machinations of various generals and Yoritomo who slighted the behavior and youth of his brother, he ends up being killed as a traitor.
    Yoshitsune's wife Shizuka Gozen is also captured by Yoritomo, and although she manages to escape death, the child of Yoshitsune she was pregnant with is cruelly murdered by Yoritomo.

    Separated from Yoshitsune and her beloved child brutally murdered by Yoritomo, Shizuka Gozen blames herself for all that has happened. Down in the depths of despair, she gives up hope of ever seeing Yoshitsune alive. Now cherishing the hope for a rencontre with him in the next world, quietly and alone, she bids farewell to this life.

    Sweeping over the sadness of the people at the mercy of the currents of history, the tide of a new era will surge forward, recede, then surge forward again.
    As long as there are humans in the world, the coming and going of that tide will never cease.

陰陽座百物語　第玖話「義経～来世邂逅」

　打倒平氏を掲げる源頼朝の軍勢に加わった頼朝の弟源義経。天才的な戦術を駆使し、破竹の勢いで平氏を圧倒する義経だったが、その戦果とは裏腹にその言動と若さを疎んじる頼朝と諸将の謀略により、逆賊として命を奪われてしまう。
　義経の妻である静御前も頼朝に捕らえられ、一命こそ取り留めるも、その身に宿していた義経の子を頼朝によって惨殺されてしまう。

　義経と生き別れ、その愛子を頼朝に惨殺された静御前は、それを自らの罪と咎めた。絶望の淵で悲しみに暮れる静御前は生きて再び義経と巡り合う望みを絶ち、一人静かに来世で邂逅する望みを胸に抱きながら現世に別れを告げるのであった。

　時代の流れに翻弄された人々の悲しみを踏み越えて、新しい時代の流れは押し寄せ、そしてやがて引いて、また押し寄せる。
　此の世に人間のある限り、その満ち引きが絶えることはない