Takasago (play)

[1] During the play a singer chants, "From Takasago, sailing over the bay, sailing over the bay, the moon goes out with the tide, past the silhouette of Awaji Island, far over the sea to Naruo, arriving at Suminoe, arriving at Suminoe",[note 1] referencing several places in what are now Hyōgo and Osaka Prefectures.

An elderly couple arrive and begin to sweep the area under the pine bower.

The priest says that all relationships, indeed all life, falls short of the ideal expressed in the poem.

At this point, the old couple reveal that they are the spirits of the Takasago and Sumioe pines, and they set sail across the bay in a small boat.

A pair of trees called Jō (尉 "old man") and Uba (姥 "old woman") – a Japanese form of Darby and Joan – bearing the legend, "We kami reside in these trees to show the world the way of marital virtue"[note 2] stand within the shrine.