Fukakusa no Shosho (Major General) (深草少将)

FUKAKUSA no Shosho is a character who appears in a legend about ONO no Komachi, 'Coming-and-going in a Hundred Nights,' which was created by Noh authors such as Zeami during the Muromachi period. His residence was apparently located in the land of the present Gonjo-ji Temple (Fushimi Ward, Kyoto City).

By the pond in the Gonjo-ji Temple there is a 'path Shosho walked,' and tradition has it that if those who are in litigation walk the path, they will lose their cases. In addition, there is a stone tower for the consolation of FUKAKUSA no Shosho, along with one for ONO no Komachi. Zuishin-in Temple (Yamashina Ward, Kyoto City) has a Fumizuka (burial mound of drafts for commemoration) in which the letters written by FUKAKUSA no Shosho were buried. It is said that he loved ONO no Komachi, and she told him that if he kept visiting her for one hundred days, she would marry him, but on a snowy day, the ninety-ninth night, he froze to death under the snow.

[Original Japanese]