English Title: Snow and Roses / The Tower of Otena
Japanese Title: 雪と薔薇 / オテナの塔
Romanized Title: Yuki to Bara / Otena no Tou

Troupe: Snow
Year: 1956
Performances: Takarazuka Grand Theater, 02/01 - 02/27; Tokyo Takarazuka Theater, 03/16 - 04/08
Shinjin Kouen Performances: n/a

Snow and Roses:

Based On: Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales
Author/Director: Takagi Shirou
Composer: Nakamoto Kiyozumi, Nakai Mitsuharu
Choreographer: Kondou Reiko
Conductor (Takarazuka):
Conductor (Tokyo): Nakamoto Kiyozumi

The Tower of Otena:

Based On:
Author: Kitamura Hisao
Director: Hirai Shouichirou
Composer: Oda Hajime, Sakai Kyou, Totoki Kazuo, Kawasaki Tsuneo, Fukuda Randou
Choreographer: Yasumoto Shinji, Tamada Yuuzou, Sakamoto Harue
Conductor (Takarazuka):
Conductor (Tokyo):

Available on DVD: No
Available on Blu-Ray: No
DVD Scene/Music Cuts: n/a

Snow and Roses
Role	Cast
Narrator	Akashi Teruko
The Evil One	Miyoshi Sakuko
Kay	Kouzuki Sachiko
Gerda	Murasaki Sumire
Mother	Mizuhara Setsuko
Snow Queen	Tsukushi Mari
Bandit Girl	Mitaka Keiko
Singer	Ookura Tamako
The Tower of Otena
Role	Cast
Kazamatsuri Rokudayu, administrative official in Ezo	Miyoshi Sakuko
Kamui, Otena of a tribe of Ainu	Katsuragi Yutaka
Utaya, Ainu	Wakamiya Tokiko
Rushibe, Ainu	Takada Kazumi
Ojika, later Yonakimaru, son of Kamui	Mizuhara Setsuko
Yuzomeni, a nun	Mitaka Keiko
Kozaemon, village leader	Midori Yachiyo
Sawa, Kozaemon's wife	Kusama Yoshie
Gonji, subordinate of Rokudayu	Kiyokawa Hayami
Hachirou, Ojika's page	Yamadori Akemi
Kogenta, Ojika's son, Kozaemon's adopted son	Akashi Teruko
Miyuki, Kozaemon's daughter, Kogenta's fiancee	Onoe Sakura
Saburoji, Rokudayu's son	Tatsuki Noboru
Chidori, Rokudayu's daughter	Kouzuki Sachiko
Rokkaku Ukyonosuke, resident of Kyoto	Ozono Chiharu
Utae, Utaya's daughter	Tsukushi Mari
Singer	Ookura Tamako

Other Cast: ??

WARNING!! MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!!

CONTENT WARNING(S):
Add warnings here, or write "None".

(From English-language program.)



One day, when he is in a good humor, the Evil One makes a looking-glass which has this peculiarity, that everything vanishes into next to nothing, but what is no good or is foul to look upon, stands right out and becomes still worse. In this mirror, handsome men become ugly and their faces are so distorted that no one can recognize them. The Evil One flies up to heaven to make fun of the angels. However, the mirror is lit by God's sacred light and, with a big sound, it is smashed into millions and billions of pieces. These pieces fly about the world and whenever they get into people's eyes there they stay and people see things all distorted.

Meanwhile, in a little town in a northern country there lived a little brother and his sister with their beautiful mother who loves and keeps roses. He is called Kay and the sister Gerda. One day, Kay gets something in his eye. It is one of those bits of glass which had sprung from the magic mirror. Then his character suddenly changes to be rough and ruthless despite his mother's deep grief. One snowy day, Kay, while playing together with his friends, takes a sledge which is driven by a strange driver. The driver drives a good distance and slides quicker and quicker into the next street and out of the town gates. The driver, by and by, is found out to be the Snow Queen. She brings him to her palace on the lake.

The mother frantically sets out to search for Kay through the thick snowflakes. While searching for her child, she is attacked by bandits and is about to be killed but is rescued by a bandit girl. Taught by the girl, the mother goes to a forest towards which Kay was taken. In the forest, she meets with a witch who wants her beautiful hair in exchange for her own white hair as a price of teaching her where Kay has been taken. The mother consents to the offer. She is taught the way leading to the lake in which the Snow Queen's Palace is situated. On the shore of the lake, the mother meets another witch from whom she gets a magic cane necessary to wade through the water and to whom she consents to give her eyes as requested.

Guided by the magic cane, the mother goes through the ice in the lake and reaches the Snow Queen's Palace. In the palace, Kay is a captive of the Snow Queen. The mother embraces Kay and her tears roll down along Kay's shoulder to his breast. At this, he gradually recovers from his trance and recognizes his mother when suddenly the palace crumbles to pieces. The mother's love has won. The piece of glass is washed out from his eye by his tears when Kay weeps against the breast of his mother. The spell is broken. The mother's former eyes and hair became as they were.

---

Avaricious and malicious by nature, Rokudayu Kazamatsuri, a Japanese administrative official in Ezo (the present Hokkaido), and his subordinates outrageously carry out a sudden raid against a tribe of wealthy Ainu headed by Kamui as their Otena (chief of tribe). The Japanese raiders ransack all the houses of the community and set fire to them. Realizing, amid the massacre, that the end is near, the dying Kamui asks one of his tribesman, Utaya by name, to hand over to his son, Ojika, a scroll which shows the location of the "Tower of Otena" or his treasury containing an enormous amount of treasures. Utaya consents. Rushibe, one of the tribesmen, overhears the conversation and tries to rob the scroll from Utaya. While the two are fighting for the scroll, it is torn in two, one part remaining in Utaya's hand and the other in Rushibe's. Giving Utaya a fatal kick, Rushibe rushes away with the stolen half of the scroll....

Ojika, the son of Kamui, takes a great resolve to wreck his vengeance upon Rokudayu. He deserts his baby boy who is now an encumbrance. The baby is found by a nun called Yuzomeni. The nun commits the foundling to the care of a village master, Kozaemon and his wife, Sawa, who decide to bring up the boy together with their daughter Miyuki. They christen him Kogenta. After seeing his son well cared for, Ojika, now called Yonakimaru, attacks Rokudayu at the latter's residence but is caught by a trap door and is arrested. However, while being sent to Kyoto, the then capitol of Japan, under a heavy guard, Yonakimaru can escape through the help of Hachiro, formerly his page who happened to hear of Yonakimaru's apprehension. Killing Sakon Rokkaku, one of the guards, Yonakimaru disappears no one knows where. Hachiro sets out to search for Rushibe....

Seventeen years have elapsed. Kogenta, the son of Yonakimaru, has grown up to be a manly youth while Miyuki, Kozaemon's daughter, a beautiful lass. Now in love with each other, they are betrothed. However, fate becomes to have them involved in the affair centering around the "Tower of Otena." During his inspection tour one day, Rokudayu, now local governor, happens to see Kogenta and thinks that the youth must be the son of Yokanimaru as he is the very image of his father. Being aware of the pressing danger, Kozaemon lets Kogenta set out on a trip. But the village master is arrested by Gonji, the subordinate of Rokudayu, on a charge of letting Kogenta flee.

A party of pursuers sent by Rokudayu catches up with Kogenta in a mountain. During an ensuing fight Kogenta takes shelter in a cave where he meets with a strange man who is none other than Yonakimaru. The youth has now found out that Yonakimaru is his real father. Yonakimaru tells his son about Rokudayu's raid against the Ainu, of the massacre and pillage, of the secret of the "Tower of Otena," and other things. The conversation between the father and the son is overheard by Saburoji, the son of Rokudayu, who happened on the scene in search of Yonakimaru. Kogenta and Saburoji are about to fight but Saburoji, who is apart from his father in nature, tells Kogenta that Kozaemon was arrested but that he will exert his strenuous efforts in protecting the village master. The two young men promise to help each other.....

Sawa and Miyuki visit Rokudayu's to ask for the release of Kozaemon. The mother and daughter fortunately meet Saburoji who introduces them to his sister Chidori, also gentle in nature apart from her father. Saburoji tries to make Sawa and Miyuki see the prisoner but Ukyonosuke Rokkaku, a resident of Kyoto, whose father Sakon was killed by Yonakimaru 17 years ago, had arrested Yonakimaru and proposes to Rokudayu to free Kozaemon in exchange for Yonakimaru. Rokudayu consents to the offer. Despite a suggestion by Rokudayu to celebrate the apprehension of Yonakimaru, their enemy of long standing, Ukyonosuke departs immediately for Ezo, leaving words that he is going to investigate the case of massacre of Kamui and his tribesmen 17 years ago. His words greatly surprise the local governor. Rokudayu releases Kozaemon but attempts to arrest him again together with Sawa and Miyuki this time. Then Saburoji asks his father to permit him to marry Miyuki. Being an indulgent father, Rokudayu consents. Upon hearing this Kogenta, who has been hiding in the garden, seeking for a chance to rescue Kozaemon, is about to jump out, but Yuzomeni, who has also happened on the scene, stops him. Then the nun begs Rokudayu to reform for the sake of his son and daguhter. Surprised by her unexpected appearance, Saburoji unconsciously utters, "Oh, mother!" His words quite astonishes Chidori who was once told by their father that their mother has been dead for long. Now she realizes that the nun is no other than her mother.

Yonakimaru, who is kept in a dungeon, is rescued by "an unknown man dressed in black." After the two left the palace, Kogenta secretly comes to the dungeon and is found by the guards. With the subordinates of Rokudayu following at his heels, Kogenta flees and is rescued by Utae, a traveling entertainer. Utae tells Kogenta that she is an Ainu girl, that she has been searching for Kamui's son Ojika, to hand over to him a scroll which was entrusted to her by her mother who died long ago, and that her father Utaya was killed by Rushibe who has the other half of the scroll. Then, Kogenta, in surprise, reveals to her that his father is Ojika. However, the Ainu girl does not believe him and flees from him to protect the scroll.

Now alone on the seashore, Kogenta thinks of Miyuki when Rushibe unexpectedly appears. Seemingly bereft of reason, he puts the scroll in front of Kogenta and prays God to lead him to the "Tower of Otena." Noticing Kogenta standing there, Rushibe sees a hallucination of Ojika and, struck with terror, he falls into the foaming sea. Just at this moment, Ukyonosuke who returned from his inspection trip to Ezo, happens to arrive on the scene. He persuades Kogenta, who is indifferent to worldly gain, to search for the "Tower of Otena" to obtain the treasures not for himself but for the good of the general public. He further tells him about a juvenile song which was often sung by his wife who was born in Ezo. And from the riddle hidden in the verse of the song, Kogenta gets a gimmick and dips Rushibe's scroll into the water and finds Japanese characters appearing on the paper. Thus, they find the location of the tower―on an uninhabited island seven ri northwest of Noto Cape.

Ukyonosuke immediately departs to inform Yonakimaru while Kogenta sets out for Noto County. However, their conversation was overheard by Gonji. He also leaves the place at once to return to Rokudayu. In the meantime, Miyuki, who was secretly taken from her house by an "unknown man in black clothes" just after Saburoji revealed his intention to marry her, has been living with Yuzomeni and Yonakimaru at the nun's hut near Kyoto. Ukyonosuke's courier visits the hut. Yonakimaru follows after Ukyonosuke who has already left for Noto Cape. Accompanied by many followers, Rokudayu departs for Noto. Miyuki, Yuzomeni and Chidori set out for the northern country. And without being noticed by anyone, the "unknown man in black clothes" is also on his way for Noto County.

At the Cape of Noto, the "unknown man in black clothes" unsuccessfully tries to hamper Rokudayu and his party from sailing out to sea. With Saburoji who suddenly appeared on the scene, the local governor and his followers sail to the uninhabited island on which the "Tower of Otena" is erected. Kogenta, together with Utae and Hachiro whom he met by chance in Noto County, reaches the uninhabited island. In the tower, the three find enormous amount of treasures. However, Rokudayu who has arrived on the scene tries to rob them. Severe fighting ensues between Kogenta and Rokudayu's party. Subduing Rokudayu's subordinates, Kogenta is about to kill the local governor. At this, Saburoji offers to be killed on behalf of his father.

Then, for the first time, Rokudayu realizes his heinous crime and apologizes from the bottom of his heart. Yonakimaru, who has also arrived on the island with Ukyonosuke, Yuzomeni, Miyuki and Chidori, orders Kogenta not to kill Saburoji―the "man in black clothes." He also permits Rokudayu and asks Ukyonosuke to utilize Otena's treasures for the welfare of the general public. Suggesting Kogenta and Miyuki return to Kozaemon, Yonakimaru reveals his intention to go back to Ezo. Saburoji, Utae and Hachiro wish to follow him. Rokudayu asks Yuzomeni to live with Chidori while Ukyonosuke orders Rokudayu to stay on the island forever. Leaving Rokudayu alone on the island, the people depart for their respective destinations to start life anew.


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