Iragowa Hokokoma

This is a legend that has been passed down generation to generation from whence it was started in feudal Japan. There is action and romance; defeats and great victories; comedy and tragedy; and a female main character. This historical story was the first movie that was every produced by Japanese film studios. The production team that filmed the movie reenacted the events of this historical Japanese Hero tale without any rights or legal claims about the historical events they depicted. The movie was only selectively seen because very few cities in Japan in the 1920s had movie projectors. The Japanese culture responded negatively to the movie because they felt showing the story greatly undermined the Japanese heritage of story telling through banquets and parades. Several months after the movie came out a self claimed descendent of Iragowa came to media attention. Her name Derishedo Hokomowa (means “line of truth”). She was a 30 year single lady that lived in a town on the outskirts of Mushimoto, a central location in the historical events centered around Iragowa Hokokomas life. Derishedo was in a point of her life where she felt she had no meaning and needed a big turn of events in her favor. She heard about the movie from a friend and traveled a long distance to see it. When she arrived at the hut playing the movie she began to question herself. Why did she travel so far to see a movie about her relatives? As apprehensive as she was she felt ancestry walk her in and sit her down. The hut that was as big as a small hut; and was beginning to fill quite rapidly now as a person came in. The light dimmed, and the movie played. At the end a silence mulled over the audience. Derishedo got up and said “のはどのように起こった!”,everyone agreed with her, and mumbled in affirmation. As she was storming down the aisle out the theater she felt a pull on her arm. In one pull she was yanked into a ticket booth adjacent to the aisle and sat down underneath bright light.