Stop In Your Tracks

Stop In Your Tracks ( Original title : Shidou Hougaku ) Story
One day, the arrogant master decides to go to a tea competition, but he hasn’t made any tea himself. He orders Taroukaja to go and borrow some tea from his uncle. He orders Taroukaja to not only borrow some tea, but also a tachi sword and a horse. After all, the master doesn’t actually have anything. Taroukaja somehow manages to borrow all three things, but the master gets angry and tells him he’s late, then takes Taroukaja’s horse and mounts it. The horse in this scene is not played by two people like in a kabuki performance, but rather is played by one person on all fours, so the horse is extremely small and audiences laugh when they first see it. However, after watching for a while, through the magic of kyogen they incredibly begin to look like a normal horse and its rider. However, this horse has a bad habit; it gets aggressive if someone coughs behind it. Taroukaja, angry at his tyrannical master, makes use of the horse’s bad habit (which his master’s uncle told him about), and makes his master fall from the horse which he then mounts himself. The master is upset about falling, but when he sees how good Taroukaja is at handling the horse, he suggests that Taroukaja try treating him as a servant and practice for when he has become successful in the future. Taroukaja begins practicing tentatively, but gradually gets carried away. As long as he doesn’t make the master angry again…
Fukata Hiroharu KYOUGEN YATTONAKAI
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