Tasuke was a logger who lived at the foot of Mount Kaijinzan that killed his wife.[1]
Biography[]
At some point, while collecting wood in the forest while his wife was at home preparing dinner, Tasuke saw the master of the Hyakki Yagyō, Eredin Bréacc Glas. Consumed by her beauty, he started to follow her through the blizzard until she disappeared. He kept pushing through it until he could no longer fight the wind, and then returned home, telling his wife he got lost and dropped the wood, who was in tears from worry. He went back to the forest the next day, looking for the woman, returning again hours later with no wood or sight of her. On the way home, he found his wife had been following him and started accusing him of infidelity, and Tasuke, flying into a rage, killed her. The morning after, obsessed, he set out again and saw Eredin for a few seconds, hearing the words "red inn on the west track," "The Spring Bird", before she disappeared again for good. After his wife was buried at the cemetery on the mountain, a tengu began blocking the graveyard, "protecting" her grave for his sins.
A while later, he was approached by the witcher/ronin Geralt, who was looking for Eredin. Tasuke told him to kill the tengu and he would tell his story. After Geralt got a few more clues, some of which after he defeated the tengu and took his sword, he returned to the logger. Tasuke told the same story except said his wife went out for wood the second day, then said she died from the cold at their house, due to him forgetting the wood, contradicting his first story as she could have used the wood she supposedly grabbed. Geralt, after learning of The Spring Bird, beat up the man and condemned him before leaving for the mountain.[1]
Trivia[]
- In Japanese, the word tasuke translates to aid/assistance.