#Weekly Short Short Note: The Temptation Ginkgo Oiran Edition

In the Genroku era of Edo, there was an Oiran in the Yoshiwara district behind Senso-ji Temple who was rumored to be the most beautiful of her time.

Her name was 'Ginkgo'.

It was said that she was the daughter of a daimyo family that had been abolished after being suspected of rebellion for delaying a report to the Shogun about castle construction, or perhaps she was the illegitimate child of the Shogun himself.

Rumors begat more rumors, and in hopes of catching a glimpse of her,

crowds of people flocked to Yoshiwara day after day.

Meanwhile, Ginkgo wore a look of sorrow, and would only sigh deeply as she gazed listlessly at the passing clouds.

The head of Nariwaya, her most loyal patron at the Yugiri-ro, grew worried and took Ginkgo out of Yoshiwara in a palanquin for a sightseeing excursion. Unlike when she was in Yoshiwara, Ginkgo's cheeks flushed slightly, and she began to shine as beautifully as a cherry blossom in bloom. It was when they approached Zenpuku-ji Temple that

Ginkgo looked up and said to the palanquin bearers,

'Please stop.'

'Sir, thank you very much,'

she said, and ran up the temple stairs.

The head of the house hurriedly followed her, but,

to his astonishment, Ginkgo had vanished into thin air. In the temple grounds, the great ginkgo tree known as the 'Staff Ginkgo,' said to have grown from the staff that Shinran Shonin planted in the ground, loomed over them with breathtaking intensity.

(The Staff Ginkgo is a male tree; Ginkgo was a female tree.)

Becoming one was already a destiny written in the red thread of fate. 'I will be with you forever.'

According to rumors in Edo, as the Temptation Ginkgo,

the Staff Ginkgo of Zenpuku-ji became famous.

Or so they say.😘

Taharaka-ni-san, I've gone over the character limit again.😅 I'm scolding myself for not being able to keep it short.😤