Musume Dôjôji

Another of the multitudinous versions of Dojoji; the famous Noh play, so old it's authorship is unknown (the earliest written version dating from 1040A.D.). There is a stairway to heaven showered with flower petals, telling us the afterlife is involved in the telling of this tale. In a flashback, men work on a new bell for the temple, and a lady flirts with one of them. He ignores her and the bell shatters, crashing everyone to the ground. In the present, a man sits until a lady approaches him and offers a cherry blossom branch. He considers the proposition, but when someone spies the two of them, he turns away. Spurned, she prays at the foot of a Nyoirin Kannon statue while he sits alone in darkness. The sun sparks his return to the kiln, where workers throw in material for making another bell. Once it's built, the men celebrate until he dances off to discover her dead in front of the statue. A Buddhist priest and young monks sing a song to celebrate the new bell, but when they strike it - it does not sound. The man appears to strike the bell, then everyone falls to the ground and flower petals rain down onto the stairway to heaven. The lady reappears at the Goddess statue, then at the Bell. The Priest and young monks watch as she sings a mournful song and then they sing accompaniment as she does her dance. When her dance is done, she disappears up the stairway. The Bell is struck and all fall to the ground. The Man is left standing to recall her, the history of the bell, and the whole sordid never-ending tale.