II NAOTAKA RETURNS A FAMOUSE TEA-CADDY
井伊直孝が有名な茶入を返す
Ii Kamon-kami Naotaka, lord of the castle of Hikone , bought for a thousand pieces of gold from Matsukura Nagato-no-kami Ktsuie, lord of the castle of Shimabara , a rear Tea-caddy called Matsukura Katatsuki.
近江彦根藩城主井伊掃部守直孝は、島原藩主松倉長門守勝家から千両で希少品「松倉肩衝」と言う茶入を購入しました。
Some time afterwards the Shimabara rebellion took place and Katsuie was condemned to death and his fief confiscated, so that his family was ruined and his wife and several daughters were reduced to great straits and had to go and live in a hovel in a back street in Edo.
その後たびたび島原の乱が起き、勝家はその責任で死刑となりお家は取潰しとなりました。家族も破滅、妻と姉妹達は困窮し江戸へ逃れ片隅のあばら家で生活をしていました。
When Naotaka heard of their ill fortune he at once sent and returned this valuable Tea-caddy, which the lady soon sold to the Maeda house for another thousand pieces of gold so that she and her family were able to live in comfort the rest of their live.
その窮状を聞いた直孝はとりあえず手に入れた茶入を返すことにしました。受け取った妻はそれをすぐ前田家へ千両にて売却して家族は普通の生活を取り戻す事が出来ました。
She must indeed have felt, as the proverb says, like a blind turtle that finds a floating plank.
彼女は思ったでしょう、格言のごとく、首を引っ込めた亀は波に漂う板のごとし。
And the real worth of Tea utensils, which have in themselves no intrinsic value, is best brought out by such use.
茶道具の本当の価値とは、所有している価値や額ではなく、それをどのように使うかであると言うことです。