Namiki Gohê's drama "Keisei Kogane no Shachihoko" was premiered in the 12th lunar month of 1782, in Ôsaka at the Kado no Shibai [more details]. It included a michiyuki entitled "Michiyuki Oborozuki Utsutsu no Tamazusa".

The 2010 revival "Asahi-ni Kagayaku Kin no Shachihoko" was in 4 acts, divided into 8 scenes.

The play begins with an idyllic scene at Uji near Kyôto. As courtesans dressed as farm girls sing while gathering tea leaves, Oda Harukatsu, the handsome son of daimyô Oda, meets Kunihime ^[1], the beautiful daughter of the former Ashikaga Shôgun. The meeting has been arranged by the daimyô's chief retainer, Yamagata Dôkan, who is scheming to ruin the young Harukatsu. Dôkan orders his men Date Gorô and Ôgaki Yatôji to abduct Kunihime, suggesting that they enlist Kakinoki Kinsuke, the region's most renowned thief.

In the course of pursuing Kunihime along the highway between Uji and Kyôto, Yatôji is killed by an old woman who turns out to be Muraji, Kinsuke's mother. Muraji then kidnaps Kunihime and takes her to Mino province (in modern-day Gifu Prefecture). Kinsuke, meanwhile, dispatches Gorô and gains possession of a secret letter addressed to him from Dôkan. Once reading the letter, he tosses it aside, but it is picked up by Kôsaka Jinnai, another thief who is passing through the area.

Act II takes place in the great shoin room in the Nagoya Castle, the headquarters of daimyô Oda, where the head of the castle is Oda Harunaga. Knowing that the marriage of Kunihime and Harukatsu is endorsed by the Emperor, who hopes it will help maintain national peace, Kinsuke introduces himself to Harunaga as an imperial messenger by the name Nangû Tomoaki. He also demands the daimyô's family treasure, the Tôgasumi scroll, which contains the secrets of shinobi (the art of stealth).

Jinnai, however, is hot on Kinsuke's heels and to gain the Tôgasumi scroll, he also pretends to be an imperial messenger. He informs Harunaga that Kinsuke is not only an impostor but that he is keeping Kunihime captive in Mino and he produces Dôkan's letter to prove it, though in doing so, he also ends up exposing himself as a fake messenger. In anger, Kinsuke lashes out, but when Jinnai draws his sword, it brings forth terrifying lightning and thunder. While still in shock at the power of the sword he has carried since childhood, Jinnai is led inside to meet the master of the castle.

It is at this point in the play that the audience begins to realize that nothing is quite what it seems. Jinnai, it appears, is not a mere thief: He is Oda Haruhide's son, Harunaga. The widow of Oda Haruhide explains that Jinnai's sword is Ryûjinmaru, a magical weapon given to him by Haruhide as proof of his lineage. The man who has been posing as Harunaga is actually Yamagata Dôkan's son, who later becomes Narumi Haruyoshi, a retainer serving the Oda family after he kills his own father for his treachery. Now that the true Harunaga has come forth, Haruyoshi discloses that the Tôgasumi scroll is hidden somewhere in the roof at the top of the castle.

In a spectacular scene, Kinsuke rides a magnificent kite to the roof of Nagoya Castle where he finds the scroll hidden in the mouth of the shachihoko. Fortified by the scroll's power, Kinsuke is then seen riding away on the splendid gold shachihoko.

Act III, in which Muraji is killed by her own son, reveals even more convoluted relationships, the most significant of which is the discovery that Kinsuke and Jinnai were in fact brought up as brothers. As a dying plea, Muraji asks Jinnai (now Harunaga) to spare the life of Kinsuke, who goes into hiding only to emerge in Act IV in the guise of a sorcerer.

Using his newly acquired powers to attract a following, Kinsuke waits for the right time to revolt. He then commands the shachihoko to cause a tremendous flood in a nearby river. In this climactic scene, real water is used to enhance the onstage drama in which Narumi Haruyoshi, armed with the Ryûjinmaru sword, fights the gleaming shachihoko. When he finally stabs the violent creature in the eye and kills it, he also recovers the Tôgasumi scroll.

The play ends on the Narumi area tidal flats with Nagoya Castle in the distance. Kinsuke is found fighting the Oda and Ashikaga camps, but is stopped by Harunaga who tells him that in memory of Kinsuke's parents, a new set of gold shachihoko has been placed on Nagoya Castle's roof.

Summary originally written by Sasaguchi Rei and slightly edited by Shôriya Aragorô

[1] Princess Kuni.

The cover of the ezukushi banzuke for the staging of the drama "Keisei Kogane no Shachihoko" in the 1st lunar month of 1812 in Kyôto at the Kitagawa no Shibai