Given by the Friends of the Fitzwilliam with the aid of the MGC Purchase Grant Fund and the National Art Collections Fund.

A scene from an Iga revenge drama (Igagoe mono) that conflated the plots of two established plays (Igagoe Norikake Gappa and Igagoe docho sugoroku). The plot, based on a true story, involves the efforts of Wada Shizuma and his brother-in-law Karaki Masaemon, to pursue the villainous Matagoro, who has murdered Shizuma's father Yukie. Their pursuit takes them along the Tokaido Highway. In this act, Shizuma reaches the Fuji River barrier and with the help of Osode the tea-shop girl, heads towards Okazaki, with Masaemon close behind. Although Osode is betrothed to Matagoro (whom she has never seen), she falls in love with Shizuma, who passes himself off as Matagoro. They reach the house of her father, Yamada Kobei, whom Masaemon recognizes as his old fighting teacher. Not knowing that these men are his enemies, Kobei asks Masaemon to aid Matagoro (his daughter's betrothed). Masaemon pretends to agree. His distraught wife Otani, whom he has divorced in order to gain his master's permission to let him help Shizuma, arrives outside the house, and collapses in the snow. Not wanting distractions, Masaemon grabs the infant that she is carrying and dispatches Otani to a nearby shrine. Back at the house, the men find a note inside the child's amulet identifying him as Masaemon's son. To show his loyalty, Masaemon kills the child and asks Kobei where Matagoro's is hiding. But Kobei has already divined the men's identities. Realising that they are in his debt he knows that honour demands that he must break his bond with Matagoro so that their vendetta can be played out.

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