The story of Okiku and the Nine Plates is one of the most famous in Japanese folklore, and continues to resonate with audiences today. There are multiple versions. In two common ones, the beautiful servant Okiku refuses to become mistress to a powerful man. He then breaks or hides one of ten precious delft plates, and tricks Okiku into believing she had done it. Losing a plate would normally be punishable by death. The man then offers her a choice; if she will sleep with him, he will not have her put to death. Virtuous Okiku still refuses. She gets drowned in a well as punishment.
In the more romantic version, which was written during the Meiji period and has clear western influences, Okiku breaks the plate herself to test the love of her fiancé. He spares her the death penalty, believing she had broken his family’s heirloom by accident. Then she reveals she did it on purpose, to test him. Enraged, he throws her down a well.
Both stories finish with Okiku becoming a ghost, forever counting the nine remaining plates. Perhaps she is still searching, perhaps she is punishing those who murdered her.
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