It is thought that this rarely performed play portrayed a foolish man called Tanba no Jotaro who becomes possessed by the spirit of a girl who died of a broken heart. The spirit forces him to act out a frenzy of jealousy in aragoto style. The Snake Willow mentioned in the title refers to a tree at the foot of Mount Koya that was blessed by the Buddhist saint Kukai and said to represent a thousand year bond between men and women. Legend says that the tree was born from a snake ñ snakes were thought to carry the jealousy of women who had been abandoned by their husbands in order to become monks on the male-only Mount Koya. The play was revived in 1947 by Ichikawa Sansho in a script by Kawajiri Seitan.