一月 凍る水責: “January: Freezing Water Torture”
The cold that chills the young skin, the inn of the demon
On the sixth day of the first month of the second year of Kyōhō, a courtesan employed by the brothel Yamato-ya in Shinagawa-juku killed herself. Her parents were gravely ill, and because she needed money for medicine, she repeatedly sought an advance, but was refused. On a year-end night, two ryō were stolen from the purse of a guest returning from Kawasaki Daishi, and suspicion fell within the brothel. She was forced to confess the whereabouts of the money and was tortured from New Year’s Eve night into New Year’s morning. Though her ropes were removed the first night, from the second day onward the torture continued every night. As a filial daughter, she held firmly to a single answer: “I do not know.” On the night of the sixth, at the age of nineteen, she bit through her own tongue and died. When officials investigated, everything became clear from the note she had left. Even if the theft itself were treated as a crime, it became evident that the treatment she had suffered was gravely unjust in light of her filial devotion. The responsible officials were punished and dismissed.
