White Aster (孝女白菊の歌, Kōjo Shiragiku no Uta) is the title of an 1889 epic Japanese poem by Ochiai Naobumi, who was inspired by Chinese-language poems composed by Inoue Tetsujirō.
Contents
Story
The epic tells the story of White Aster, a maiden who was so named because she was found in a clump of white asters. She goes on a journey in search of her father, who has gone hunting and whose whereabouts are unclear. She is captured by robbers, but is rescued by her older brother, who had left home and became a priest. Subsequently, she attempts suicide by drowning as a result of a conflict that had her torn between her sense of obligation to the old man who had treated her so kindly and the last will of her mother, who wanted her to marry her brother (the two not being related by blood). Thereafter, she is reunited with her brother, and when the two return home together, they find that their father is already back, safe and sound.
History
Inoue Tetsujiro, the original writer, wrote that he graduated from Tokyo Imperial University in 1880 and wanted to study in Europe, but was unable to go. Suffering from smouldering discontent, he wrote many poems. He happened to compose a story of White Aster, and made it a long story of Chinese-language poems. Naofumi Ochiai rewrote it in new style Japanese language poems in 1888 and 1889 and published it in the Toyo Gakkai Zasshi (Oriental Association Journal). This was accepted in young people throughout Japan and it was translated into German by Karl Florenz in 1895 under the name Weissaster and into English by Arthur Lloyd under the name White Aster in 1898.
The response in Kumamoto
In September 1958, Shigeyoshi Matsumae established a monument to Shiragiku near Sugaru Falls, in Minamiaso, Kumamoto inspired by the view in Aso. This place has no special relation with Shiragiku. In 1951, Seishi Araki of Kumamoto wrote about Shiragiku in a book Legends of Aso. Mamoru Uchida and Seishi Araki were of the view that although this story of Shiragiku was a fiction, the monument and a temple which was said related to Shiragiku will serve as a tourist attraction. This story has become as one of the stories played by Satsuma biwa.