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Contes d'amour du Japon classique : résumé

« Amour et sortilège : contes classiques japonais » est une série de mangas en épisodes indépendants qui adapte des récits d'amour de la littérature japonaise classique, où la passion attire l'étrange : démons (oni), esprits de vivants, serpents, spectres vengeurs et voix divines. Les histoires sont tirées d'œuvres de l'époque de Heian comme les Contes d'Ise (Ise monogatari), le Dit du Genji, le Journal d'Izumi Shikibu et l'anthologie poétique Goshūi wakashū, du recueil de la fin de Heian Konjaku monogatari shū, ainsi que des Contes de pluie et de lune (Ugetsu monogatari) d'Ueda Akinari, écrits à l'époque d'Edo.

Des Contes d'Ise viennent « Akutagawa », où un homme enlève une dame de haut rang et la perd dans une remise, « Tsuki ya aranu », où il pense à une bien-aimée devenue inaccessible, et « Azusayumi », où un mari revient auprès de son épouse après trois ans d'attente. Du Dit du Genji, la série raconte l'adieu au Sanctuaire du Champ (Nonomiya), où Dame Rokujō choisit elle-même de mettre fin à sa liaison, et « Aoi », où son âme quitte son corps pour tourmenter Dame Aoi. Deux histoires sont consacrées à la poétesse Izumi Shikibu : son amour pour le frère de son amant défunt, et la légende selon laquelle le dieu de Kibune lui répondit par un poème.

Des Contes de pluie et de lune, on retrouve « Jasei no in », où le jeune Toyoo est aimé de Manago, une femme-serpent, « Asaji ga yado », où un homme rentré chez lui après sept ans trouve son épouse qui l'attend, et « Le Chaudron de Kibitsu », où une épouse trahie devient un spectre vengeur. S'y ajoute la légende du temple Dōjō-ji (Anchin et Kiyohime), où une femme trompée se change en immense serpent pour poursuivre un moine. Chaque épisode suit l'intrigue du texte original, et des articles explicatifs présentent le sens des poèmes, le contexte historique et les changements apportés par le manga.

Lire à partir de l’épisode 1 (gratuit)

Résumé de l’histoire

  1. Épisode 1She Asked 'What's That?' He Never Answered — The Tales of Ise: Akutagawa

    Dans le mangaEpisode 1 of the series. After years of longing, a man runs off into the night carrying the woman he loves on his back. Along the way she keeps asking, "What's that?" He never answers her last question. When a thunderstorm hits, he hides her in an old storehouse and stands guard at the door until morning. At dawn, she is gone. This is a thousand-year-old story of an elopement, and of one question that went unanswered.

  2. Épisode 2She Chose to End It. Then He Showed Up. — The Tale of Genji: The Sacred Tree (Farewell at Nonomiya)

    Dans le mangaLady Rokujō has decided to end her love affair herself by leaving for distant Ise. Then, just before she goes, Genji comes to see her. Through a bamboo blind they trade poems and talk until dawn. After that night she doesn't answer his letters begging her to stay, and she leaves the capital without looking back.

  3. Épisode 3I Fell for My Dead Lover's Brother — The Izumi Shikibu Diary

    Dans le mangaA year after losing the man she loved, Izumi Shikibu has shut herself away—until his younger brother, Prince Atsumichi, sends her a sprig of white orange blossoms. A reply in verse sparks a love that survives rumors and lonely nights, and leads to a carriage waiting for her on a snowy night. But in the shadows, someone else quietly leaves the house.

  4. Épisode 4I Lent Her My Umbrella. She Never Left. — The Lust of the White Serpent — Tales of Moonlight and Rain

    Dans le mangaEpisode 4 of the series. On a rainy day, a timid young man named Toyoo lends his old umbrella to Manago, a beautiful woman soaked to the skin. She loves him with all her heart, but she is not human. Toyoo keeps running from her, until someone dies because of him. Then he decides to end things with the one he loved, by his own hand.

  5. Épisode 5The Night I Remarried, My Husband Knocked — "The Catalpa Bow" from The Tales of Ise

    Dans le mangaHer husband left for the capital, and for three years The Wife Who Waited kept waiting. Finally she promises to marry The Faithful Suitor, the man who stood by her the whole time. That night, someone knocks at her door. It's The Returning Husband, home at last.

  6. Épisode 6Every Night, I Dream of Striking a Woman — The Tale of Genji: "Aoi" (Lady Rokujō)

    Dans le mangaEpisode 6 of the series. On festival day, proud Lady Rokujō goes unnoticed by her lover Genji, then is publicly humiliated by his wife's retainers. That summer, one spirit refuses to leave Genji's wife, Lady Aoi, and every time Lady Rokujō sleeps, she has the same dream.

  7. Épisode 7Gone Seven Years. Her Lamp Still Burned. — Tales of Moonlight and Rain: \"The House Amid the Thickets\"

    Dans le mangaA man leaves his wife, swearing he'll be home by autumn, and sets off for the capital to sell silk. One reason not to return piles on another until seven years have gone by. When he finally reaches his village, it's buried in grass, and only his house has a light in the window.

  8. Épisode 8One Night, She Was Suddenly Out of Reach — The Tales of Ise: "Is This Not the Moon?"

    Dans le mangaLast plum season, a man visited her every night, until one night she was suddenly moved somewhere he could never reach. A year later, on the same plum-scented night, he steps into her room once more.

  9. Épisode 942 Nights. Do Not Open the Door. — The Kibitsu Cauldron (Tales of Moonlight and Rain)

    Dans le mangaBefore the wedding, the shrine's sacred cauldron is struck for an omen, and it stays silent. Isora is deceived by her husband Shōtarō, and her devotion is trampled. For forty-two nights she waits outside the door where he hides.

  10. Épisode 10The Kind Lie That Turned Her Into a Serpent — Dōjōji: Anchin and Kiyohime

    Dans le mangaA widow guarding her home alone falls for a young monk passing through. He sidesteps her feelings with a gentle lie: "I'll stop by on my way back." Then he takes another road home. After waiting and waiting, she becomes a great serpent, chases him down, and coils around a temple bell. In the end, prayer sets both of them free: the one who lied and the one who hated.

  11. Épisode 11He Stopped Writing. The Dark Wrote Back. — Izumi Shikibu: Fireflies at Kifune

    Dans le mangaIzumi Shikibu, a poet still waiting for a lover who has stopped coming, leaves her waiting room one summer night and heads for a mountain stream in the hills north of the capital. Seeing her own soul in the fireflies that fill the dark, she composes a poem, and from deep in the darkness a voice answers. This is the story of a thousand-year-old love poem and a reply whose sender no one knows.