Tales of Old Japan - Maybe You Like It

The peasants, having heard this degree with all humility, left the
Court-house. Then the following punishments were awarded to the officers
of the castle, who, by rejecting the petition of the peasants in the
first instance, had brought trouble upon their lord:—
"Dismissed from their office, the resident councillors at Yedo and at
the castle-town.
"Banished from the province, four district governors, and three bailiffs,
and nineteen petty officers.
"Dismissed from office, three metsukés, or censors, and seven
magistrates.
"Condemned to hara-kiri, one district governor and one Yedo bailiff.
"The severity of this sentence is owing to the injustice of the officials in
raising new and unprecedented taxes, and bringing affliction upon the
people, and in refusing to receive the petitions of the peasants, without
consulting their lord, thus driving them to appeal to the Shogun in person.
In their avarice they looked not to the future, but laid too heavy a
burden on the peasants, so that they made an appeal to a higher power,
endangering the honour of their lord's house. For this bad government
the various officials are to be punished as above."
In this wise was justice carried out at the palace at Yedo and at the
Court-house at home. But in the history of the world, from the dark ages
down to the present time, there are few instances of one man laying
down his life for the many, as Sôgorô did: noble and peasant praise him
alike.
As month after month passed away, towards the fourth year of the
period Shôhô, the wife of my lord Kôtsuké no Suké, being with child,
was seized with violent pains; and retainers were sent to all the different
temples and shrines to pray by proxy, but all to no purpose: she continued
to suffer as before. Towards the end of the seventh month of the
year, there appeared, every night, a preternatural light above the lady's
chamber; this was accompanied by hideous sounds as of many people
laughing fiendishly, and sometimes by piteous wailings, as though myriads
of persons were lamenting. The profound distress caused by this added
to her sufferings; so her own privy councillor, an old man, took his
place in the adjoining chamber, and kept watch. All of a sudden, he
heard a noise as if a number of people were walking on the boards of the
roof of my lady's room; then there was a sound of men and women
weeping; and when, thunderstruck, the councillor was wondering what
it could all be, there came a wild burst of laughter, and all was silent.
Early the following morning, the old women who had charge of my
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