Hachi no ki (鉢木)

Hachi no ki is one of the Noh plays. It is based on the legend of Tokiyori HOJO's pilgrimage, which was widely disseminated during Kamakura and Muromachi periods. It is said to have been composed by Kanami and Zeami but the fact is unknown. It was especially popular in the Edo period as it praises Bushido (the way of the samurai).
Also, there are restaurants of this name as it means 'simplicity but utmost hospitality.'

A traveling monk asks for lodging for one snowy night at the house of Genzaemon Tsuneyo SANO, a poor old samurai who lives in Sano (present day Kamisano-machi, Takasaki City, Gunma Prefecture). Tsuneyo serves boiled rice mixed with millet and offers utmost hospitality by cutting and burning the potted plant that Tsuneyo has been taking great care of, saying that there is no firewood. Tsuneyo says to the monk that Tsuneyo has fallen into poverty due to embezzlement of his family but is willing to rush to Kamakura and fight for his life in case of an emergency.

Thereafter, there is conscription in Kamakura, and Tsuneyo rushes there, too. Then he notices that the monk was in fact the former regent Tokiyori HOJO. Tokiyori expresses his gratitude to Tsuneyo, praises that Tsuneyo had given no false words, and provides him with Onsho (reward grants).

[Original Japanese]