A Japanese miscellany

Transcription

CORNELL
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LIBRARY
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FUND GIVEN IN 189I BY
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Cornell University Library
PS 1917.J3 1905
A,
Japanese miscellany.
3 1924 022 005 841
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Library
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tine
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http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924022005841
.srj.,*'*'.':
'm^m:
Oyama no,
O-KON San wa
St e Page 178
JAPANESE
MISCELLANY
A
By LAFCADIO HEARN
LECTURER ON ENGLISH LITERATURE
IN
THE
IMPERIAL UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO.—-AUTHOR
OF "EXOTICS AND RETROSPECTIVES." "IN
GHOSTLY JAPAN,"
"
SHADOWINGS," ETC.
I
LONDON
KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER &
Dryden House, 43 Gerrard Street
1905
CO., LTD.
Copyright, igoi,
By Little, Brown, and Company
ALl rights reserved
The Uhivbrsitt
Pbess, Caubsidqe, U.S.A.
TO
MRS. ELIZABETH BISLAND
WETMORE
Contents
STRANGE STORIES:
I.
—
Of a Promise Kept
S
Of a Promise Broken
iS
III.
Before the Supreme Court
29
IV.
The Story of Kwashin Koji
37
II.
V.
VI.
The Story of Umetsu Chubei
55
The Story of Kogi the Priest
6s
FOLKLORE GLEANINGS: —
I.
II.
in.
Dragon-flies {illustrated)
Songs of Japanese Children
STUDIES HERE
L
8i
Buddhist Names of Plants and Animals
{illustrated)
.
.
125
.
.
143
AND THERE: —
On a Bridge
235
The Case of O-Dai
243
in.
Beside the Sea {illustrated)
255
IV.
Drifting
269
Otokichi's Daruma {illustrated)
283
IL
V.
VI.
In
a Japanese Hospital
299
Illustrations
" Oyama no,
0-Kon San wa"
Frontispiece
Dragon-flies:—
Facing page
Plate 1
I.
II.
Plate
I.
II.
84
Shio-Tombo ("Salt" D.)
Mugiwara-Tombo (" Barley Straw''
)
2
8S
Kino-Tombo
Ko-Mugi-Tombo
Plate 3
86
Yurei-Tombo {"Ghost" D.) or Kuro-Tombo
("Black" D.)
Plate 4
I.
II.
87
Shojo-Tombo
Kan^-tsuk^-Tombo
(" Stained-wiih-Kane" D.)
88
Plate 5
Haguro-Tombo
Plate 6
I.
II.
89
S^ki-i-Shisha
("Red-Robed Messenger"
)
Aka-Tombo
The Feast of the Ghosts
Toy-Daruma
Otokichi's
Daruraa.
256
Page 287
Yuki-Daruma
289
1
290
II
292
III
296
Strange Stories
Of a Promise Kept
;
Of a Promise
"
T SHALL
Kept'
return in the early autumn," said
Akana Soyemon several hundred years
ago,
when bidding good-bye to his
brother by adoption, young Hasebe Samon. The
I
—
time was spring; and the place was the village
of Kato in the province of Harima.
an Izumo samurai
birthplace.
" Your
pier.
1
"
We
you
Perhaps
it
to promise to
particular day.
the exact day,
we should
But,
feel
if
we
hap-
could then prepare a feast of welcome
Related in the
One of
difficult for
upon any
know
his
of the Eight-
distant.
is
be
will therefore
return here
visit
:
Rising,^
were to
Akana was
and he wanted to
—
Izumo, — the Country
— very
Hasebe said
Cloud
;
UgHsu Monogatari.
the old poetical
Izumo, or Unshu.
s
names for the Province of
"
"
Japanese Miscellany
6
and we could watch
at the
gateway for your
coming."
"Why,
responded Akana, "I
for that,"
as
have been so much accustomed to travel that
can usually
me
beforehand
how
and
to reach a place;
I
long
it
can safely promise
say the day of the festival
" That
said
is
Hasebe
Suppose
;
How
come back
month ?
"
On
— " then
strode
we
the chrysanthemums will
can go together to look at
pleasant!
on
the
Akana,
.
.
..So you promise to
ninth
day of
the
ninth
day of the ninth month,"
the ninth
repeated
Choyo
?
the ninth day of the ninth month,"
be in bloom, and
them.
I
will take
to be here upon a particular day.
you
we
tell
smiling
away from the
province of Harima;
Then he
farewell.
village
— and
of
Hasebe
the mother of Haseb^ looked
Kato in the
Samon and
him with
after
tears in their eyes.
" Neither the Sun nor the Moon," says an old
Japanese proverb, "ever halt upon their journey."
Swiftly the
autumn came,
And
early
months went by
;
and the
— the season of chrysanthemums.
upon the morning of the ninth day of
Of
a Promise Kept
7
month Hasebe prepared to welcome his
adopted brother.
He made ready a feast of good
the ninth
bought wine, decorated the guest-room,
things,
and
the vases of the alcove with chrysan-
filled
themums
of
two
watching him, said
my
son,
Then
colors.
:
— " The
province of Izumo,
more than one hundred
is
mother,
his
ri
from
^
place; and the journey thence over the
tains
Would
Akana
!
will
to
wait
"
Hasebe
for
come
you take
be able to
not be better, before
it
trouble,
mother
and weary; and you cannot be
difficult
is
sure that
this
moun-
his
coming
made
promised to be here to-day
.?
answer
:
to-day.
all
this
" Nay,
"
— " Akana
he could not break
And if he were to see us beginning
make preparation after his arrival, he would
know that we had doubted his word and we
a promise
!
to
;
should be put to shame."
The day was
beautiful,
the sky
without
a
cloud, and the air so pure that the world
seemed
to be a thousand miles wider than usual.
In the
morning many
village
— some
travellers
watching each as
i
A
ri is
through
passed
the
them samurai and Hasebe,
he came, more than once im-
of
;
about equal to two and a half English miles.
Japanese Miscellany
8
agined that he saw
Akana approaching. But the
midday; and
temple-bells sounded the hour of
Akana
Through the afternoon
The
in vain.
did not appear.
also Hasebe watched and waited
sun set; and
there
still
was no sign of Akana.
Nevertheless Hasebe remained at the gate, gazing
down
Later his mother went to him,
the road.
and said
:
— " The
mind of
as our proverb declares
as
the
sky of
themum-flowers
Better
now
will
;
if
come."
—
as quickly
be fresh to-morrow.
in the
morning you can
" Rest well,
you wish."
mother," returned Hasebe
that he will
son,
But your chrysan-
still
and
watch again for Akana,
my
— may change
autumn.
to sleep
a man,
;
— " but
still
I
believe
Then the mother went
to
her own room and Hasebe lingered at the gate.
The night was pure as the day had been all
;
:
the sky throbbed with stars
of
The
;
and the white River
Heaven shimmered with unusual splendor.
village slept
by the
noise of
away barking
waited,
;
— the
a
little
silence
was broken only
brook, and
of peasants' dogs.
— waited
until
by the
far-
Hasebe
still
moon
sink
he saw the thin
behind the neighboring
hills.
Then
began to doubt and to
fear.
Just as he was
at last
he
about to re-enter the house, he perceived in the
Of
distance a
tall
and quickly
a Promise Kept
man
and
;
approaching,
in the
next
9
— very
moment
lightly
he recog-
nized Akana.
"
—"
Oh
1
!
" cried Hasebe, springing to meet
ing until
now
!
promise after
poor brother
for
... So you
all.
!
.
.
.
— come
in the
keep your
really did
But you must be
tired,
— everything
ready
in
;
He guided Akana
you."
honor
him
have been waiting for you from the morn-
is
to the place
of
guest-room, and hastened to trim
" Mother,"
the lights, which were burning low.
continued Hasebe, "felt a
ing,
awaken her
tired this even-
little
gesture of
will, brother," said
;
but
Akana shook
presently."
and made a
you
little
and she has already gone to bed
disapproval.
Hasebe
food and wine before the
;
and he
traveller.
I
shall
his head,
set
" As
warm
Akana
did
not touch the food or the wine, but remained
motionless and silent for a short time.
speaking in a whisper,
— as
—
ing the mother, he said
"
I
Now
I
must
came thus
late.
tell
if
fearful of
Then,
awaken-
:
you how
When
I
it
happened that
returned to Izumo
I
found that the people had almost forgotten the
kindness of our former ruler, the good
Lord
Enya, and were seeking the favor of the usurper
10
Japanese Miscellany
Tsunehisa,
who had
Tonda
Akana
But
Castle.
himself of
possessed
1
had to
my
visit
the
cousin,
though he had accepted service
Tanji,
under Tsunehisa, and was
living, as a retainer,
within the castle grounds.
He persuaded me
present myself before Tsunehisa:
in order to observe the character of the
whose
face
and of great courage
dier,
cruel.
I
found
I
He
had never seen.
I
he ordered
my
is
cunning and
After
was refused permission
to go.
from the
castle at night
stantly
watched
and
;
my
" Until to-day
derment
ri
;
promise.
!
— " the
from here
;
but
to-day
until
.
.
;
but
1
was con-
could find no
I
."
castle
more than
is
a hundred
"
!
;
" and no living
can travel on foot a hundred ri in one day.
felt that, if
could
riot
1
" exclaimed Haseb^ in bewil-
" Yes," returned Akana
1
me
pro-
I
then hoped to
I
escape
to fulfil
left
had promised to return to Harima
I
upon the ninth day of the ninth month
way
that
I
cousin to detain
— to keep me confined within the house.
tested that
ruler,
him know
let
could never enter into his service.
his presence
new
a skilled sol-
is
but he
;
necessary to
it
to
yielded chiefly
I
1
did not keep
think well of
my
me; and
promise,
1
man
But
you
remembered
Of
a Promise Kept
11
Tamayoku ichi nicht ni sen ri
woyuku [" The soul of a man can journey a thouthe ancient proverb,
sand ri in a day "]
to
keep
my
Fortunately
.
sword
— thus
;
come to you. ... Be good
With these words he stood
had been allowed
I
only was
able to
I
to our mother."
up, and in the
same
instant disappeared.
Then Hasebe knew
order to
self in
At
earliest
fulfil
that
Akana had
killed
dawn Hasebe Samon
set
out for the
Castle Tonda, in the province of Izumo.
ing Matsue, he there learned that,
Reach-
on the night of
the ninth day of the ninth month,
mon
him-
the promise.
Akana Soye-
had performed harakiri in the house of
Akana
Tanji, in the grounds of the castle.
Then
Hasebe went to the house of Akana Tanji, and
reproached Akana Tanji for the treachery done,
and slew him
in the
caped without hurt.
hisa
had heard the
midst of his family, and es-
And when
story,
Hasebe should not be pursued.
an unscrupulous and cruel
Tsunehisa could
others,
the Lord Tsune-
he gave commands that
man
respect the
For, although
himself, the
love of
Lord
truth
in
and could admire the friendship and the
courage of Hasebe Samon.
Of a Promise Broken
Of a Promise Broken
I
"
T
AM
not
wife
I
;
afraid
— " there
me
troubles
know who
"
My
dying
die,"
said
is
only
one thing that
now.
will take
the
to
my
wish that
1
I
could
place in this house."
dear one," answered the sorrowing hus-
my
band, " nobody shall ever take your place in
home.
I
will never,
never marry again."
At the time that he said
out of his heart
he was about to
"
On
;
he was speaking
this
for he loved the
woman whom
lose.
the faith of a samurai
>
" she questioned,
with a feeble smile.
"
On
the faith of a samurai," he responded,
—
stroking the pale thin face.
" Then,
me
my
be buried in the garden,
near those
*
dear one," she said, " you will
Izumo
plum-trees that
legend.
15
—
we
will
you not
planted
at
?
let
—
the
"
"
Japanese Miscellany
16
end?
further
but
wanted long ago to ask
I
thought, that
I
you were
if
to
this;
marry again,
you would not like to have my grave so near
you. Now you have promised that no other
woman
shall take
hesitate to speak
much
in
my place — so
of my wish. ...
;
to be buried in the garden
the garden
sometimes
should
I
and that
voice,
I
I
should
still
want so
think that
I
!
need not
I
hear your
be able to see the
flowers in the spring."
"
It
do not now speak of
that
we have
" / have,"
morning.
garden
burial
retumed
she
:
you
are not so
;
—"
will
I
shall die this
me
bury
said,
tomb
a beautiful
And
"Bell
" Yes
will
—
:
I
you
give
me
a
little bell ?
want you to put a
grims carry.
else that
have
there."
.?"
— such
You
of the
shall
;
"
the
in
?
— "under the shade
plum-trees that we planted — and you
coffin,
ill
hope."
lost all
... But you
"Yes," he
"
" But
be as you wish," he answered.
shall
shall
a
little
Shall
I
have
have the
you wish."
bell as
it
bell in
the
Buddhist
pil-
little
the
"
.?
little bell,
— and anything
"
Of
"
.
.
to
"My
me
dear one,
always.
Then she
Now
else," she said.
I
can die happy."
closed her eyes and died
she was dead
;
17
you have been very good
—
as easily
She looked beautiful
as a tired child falls asleep.
when
Broken
do not wish for anything
I
.
a Promise
and there was a smile upon
her face.
She was buried
in the garden,
of the trees that she loved
buried with her.
;
under the shade
and a small
Above the grave was
bell
was
erected a
handsome monument, decorated with the family
" Great Elder
and bearing the kaimyo
crest,
:
—
Luminous-Shadow-of-the-Plum-Flower-
Sister,
Chamber, dwelling in the Mansion of the Great
Sea of Compassion."
But, within a twelve-month after the death of
his wife, the relatives
began to
insist
that he should
still
a
;
children.
a samurai to marry.
will there
member
2
marry
again.
"
You
man," they said, " and an only
young
son and you have no
are
and friends of the samurai
be to
If
make
the ancestors
.?
you
It is
the duty of
die childless,
who
the offerings and to re-
Japanese Miscellany
l8
By many
such representations he was at
The
persuaded to marry again.
seventeen years old
love
her
dearly,
reproach of the
bride
last
was only
and he found that he could
;
notwithstanding
tomb
the
dumb
in the garden.
II
Nothing took place to disturb the happiness of
young wife until the seventh day after the
wedding,
when her husband was ordered to
the
—
undertake certain duties requiring his presence at
the castle
by
was obliged
a
way
night.
On
the
first
evening that he
to leave her alone, she felt
that
she could
afraid without
not
explain,
knowing why.
When
uneasy
in
— vaguely
she went
to bed she could not sleep.
There was a strange
^ an
indefinable heaviness
oppression in tht
like that
air,
which sometimes precedes the corning
of a storm.
About the Hour of the
in the night,
pilgrim's bell
Ox
she heard, outside
the clanging of a bell,— a Buddhist
;
— and
she wondered what pilgrim
could be passing through the samurai quarter at
such a time.
Presently, after a pause, the bell
—
"
Of
a Promise Broken
sounded much nearer.
Evidently the pilgrim was
approaching the house
from the
;
— but
why
where no road was
rear,
19
approaching
?
.
.
Sud-
.
denly the dogs began to whine and howl in an
way
unusual and horrible
upon her
;
— and
like the fear of dreams.
.
ing was certainly in the garden.
to get
up to waken a
that she could not
could not
near,
call.
came
.
.
rise,
— could
And
.
.
!
.
.
though every door stood
unmoved,
She
tried
not move,
more
still
how
!
a
Woman,
—
and every screen
in a grave-robe,
and
Eyeless she came,
bell.
because she had long been dead
— and her
;
down about
ened hair streamed
.
— and oh
room
fast,
— a Woman robed
carrying a pilgrim's
.
But she found
Then, lightly as a shadow
glided into the
steals, there
;
That ring-
.
and
nearer,
the clang of the bell
the dogs howled
.
servant.
came
a fear
.
her face
;
loos-
— and
she looked without eyes through the tangle of
it,
and spoke without a tongue
"
Not
you
stay
go
and you
;
going.
pieces
in this house,
!
If
1
Here
I
am
— not in
mistress
shall tell to
you
tell
:
—
this house shall
still.
You
shall
none the reason ofyour
HIM,
I will tear
you
into
Japanese Miscellany
20
The
So speaking, the haunter vanished.
became
dawn
Until the
senseless with fear.
bride
she
so remained.
Nevertheless, in the cheery light of day, she
doubted the reality of what she had seen and
The memory of the warning
heard.
still
weighed
upon her so heavily that she did not dare to
speak of the vision, either to her husband or to
any one
else
;
but she was almost able to persuade
herself that she
had only dreamed an ugly dream,
which had made her
On
ill.
the following night, however, she could
not doubt.
Hour
Again, at the
dogs began to howl and whine
resounded,
den
;
call
;
;
Ox, the
of the
— again the
— approaching slowly from
— again the
listener vainly strove to rise
— again the dead came
—
into the
bell
the gar-
and
room, and
hissed,
"
You
shall
go; and you shall
one why you must go !
to
HIM,
I will tear
you
If
to
tell
you even whisper
in pieces
!"
.
.
no
it
.
This time the haunter came close to the couch,
— and
it.
.
.
bent and
.
muttered
and
mowed
above
"
" "
Of
a Promise
Broken
21
Next morning, when the samurai returned from
young wife
the castle, his
him
fore
"
in supplication
:
prostrated herself be-
—
beseech you," she said, " to pardon
1
my
gratitude and
you
away at
ing
but
:
I
my
in-
great rudeness in thus address-
want to go home
;
—
I
want to go
once."
" Are
you not happy here ? " he asked, in sin" Has any one dared to be unkind
surprise.
cere
you during
to
"
absence
not that
is
It
my
?
— " she
answered, sobbing.
" Everybody here has been only too good to me.
.
I
.
.
But
I
cannot continue to be your wife
must go away.
"My
ment, "
.
—
.
dear," he exclaimed, in great astonishit
know
very painful to
is
had any cause for unhappiness
I
;
."
that
you have
in this house.
But
why you should want to
somebody has been very un-
cannot even imagine
go away
—
unless
kind to you.
you wish
.
.
.
Surely
for a divorce
you do not mean
She responded, trembling and weeping,
"
die
If
you do not
that
?
give
me
a divorce,
—
I
shall
!
He remained
for a
trying to think of
little
while
some cause
silent,
— vainly
for this amazing
Japanese Miscellany
22
Then, without betraying any emo-
declaration.
—
he made answer:
To send you back now
tion,
"
out any
fault
ful act.
If
your wish,
on your
you
will tell
— any
to your people, with-
would seem a shame-
part,
me
reason that will enable
explain matters honorably,
—
I
will not
I
house
our
me
of
to
a reason, a
divorce you,
must
me
can write you a
But unless you give
divorce.
good reason,
honor
a good reason for
be
— for
kept
the
above
reproach."
And
terror,
"
then she
felt
him everything,
told
—
Now
that
— she
me!
I
will
obliged to speak
— adding,
have
kill
let
me!
in
you know, she
.
.
little
believe in phantoms, the samurai
moment.
ural
explanation of
itself
to his mind.
"
My
the
and she
will kill
."
Although a brave man, and
startled for the
;
an agony of
inclined to
was more than
But a simple and natmatter soon presented
dear," he said, "
and
vous
;
you
foolish stories.
I
fear that
I
you are now very nersome one has been telUng
cannot give you a divorce
merely because you have had a bad dream in
house.
But
I
am
this
very sorry indeed that you
;
Of
a Promise
Broken
way
should have been suffering in such a
my
absence.
castle
;
To-night, also,
I
must be
but you shall not be alone.
two of the
and you
retainers to keep
will
good men
;
watch
be able to sleep
and they
2^
in
I
during
at
the
will order
your room
They
in peace.
are
will take all possible care of
you."
Then he spoke
to her so considerately and so
became almost ashamed of
affectionately that she
her terrors, and resolved to remain in the house.
Ill
The two retainers
were
big,
left in
charge of the young wife
—
experi-
children.
They
men,
brave, simple-hearted
enced guardians of
women and
told the bride pleasant stories to keep her cheerful.
She talked with them a long time, laughed
their
at
good-humored fun, and almost forgot
her fears.
When
at
last
she lay
down
to sleep,
the men-at-arms took their places in a corner of
the room, behind a screen, and began a
go,^ — speaking
not be disturbed.
1
A game
plicated.
game of
only in whispers, that she might
She
slept like
resembling draughts, but
an infant.
much more com-
!
Japanese Miscellany
24
But again
moan
with a
...
It
there
— for she
of terror,
was already
She started up
near,
— only a
growing, — a
was no
stir,
;
awoke
she
heard the
and was coming
she screamed
;
Ox
Hour of the
at the
— but
bell
nearer.
in the
room
silence as of death,
She
silence thickening.
a silence
rushed to the men-at-arms
checker-table,
:
they sat before their
— motionless, — each
:
staring at the
She shrieked to them:
other with fixed eyes.
she shook them
—
they remained as
if
frozen.
.
.
.
Afterwards they said that they had heard the
bell,
— heard
felt
her try to shake them into
and
that, nevertheless,
move
From
or speak.
;
they had not been able to
the same
had ceased to hear or to see
seized
— even
wakefulness —
also the cry of the bride,
:
moment
they
a black sleep had
upon them.
Entering his bridal-chamber at dawn, the samurai
beheld,
headless
by the
body of
of blood.
Still
light of
his
young
a
dying lamp, the
wife, lying in a pool
squatting before their unfinished
game, the two retainers
slept.
At
their master's
cry they sprang up, and stupidly stared at the
horror on the floor.
.
.
.
;
Of
a Promise Broken
The head was nowhere
wound showed
hideous
off,
but torn
A
off.
to be seen;
that
it
had not been cut
chamber to an angle of the outer
The
three
men
— and the
of blood led from the
trail
the storm-doors appeared to
apart.
2$
gallery,
where
have been riven
followed that
the
trail into
— over reaches of
— over spaces of
sand, — along the bank of an
bordered pond,
— under heavy shadowings of cedar and bamboo.
garden,
grass,
iris-
And
suddenly, at a turn, they found themselves
face to face with a nightmare-thing that chippered
like a bat
:
a
bell, in
woman,
the figure of the long-buried
erect before her
tomb,
—
one hand clutching
in
the other the dripping head.
moment the
three stood
.
.
.
For a
numbed. Then one of the
men-at-arms, uttering a Buddhist invocation, drew,
and struck
down upon
at the shape.
the
soil,
grave-rags, bones, and
Instantly
— an
hair
clanking out of the ruin.
empty
;
— and the
But the
hand, though parted from the wrist,
— and
— and
its
fingers
tore,
still
crumbled
it
of
scattering
bell rolled
fleshless right
still
writhed
gripped at the bleeding head,
and mangled,
—
as the claws of the
yellow crab cling fast to a fallen
*
fruit.
.
.
.
26
Japanese Miscellany
["That
who had
—
if
the
"
is
is
a wicked story,"
related
taken at
all
it.
I
said to the friend
" The vengeance of the dead
— should
have been taken upon
man."
Men
think so," he
not the
way
He was
right.]
that a
made
woman
" But that
answer.
feels.
.
.
."
Before the
Supreme Court
THE
great Buddhist priest,
Mongaku Shonin,
says in his book Kyo-gyo Shin-shd
"
Many
of those gods
whom
worship are unjust gods [jajin]
:
who
obtain favors
favors
cause
exemplified
from those gods,
misfortune."
by
a story
the people
who
And even
to prayer, usually find at a later
in
revere
persons
answer
day that such
This truth
recorded
—
therefore such
gods are not worshipped by persons
the Three Precious Things.^
:
in
is
the
well
book
Nihon-Rei-Ihi.
During the time of the Emperor Shomu
lived in the district called
ince
1
of Sanuki, a
Sambo
Yamadagori, in the prov-
man named
(Ratnatraya) ,
there
Fushiki no Shin.
— the Buddha,
the Doctrine, and
the Priesthood.
2
He reigned during the second quarter of the eighth
century.
29
—
;
Japanese Miscellany
30
He had but one child, a daughter called Kinume.'
Kinume was a fine-looking girl, and very strong
had reached her eighteenth
but, shortly after she
year, a dangerous sickness began to prevail in that
part of the country, and she
was attacked by
made
parents and friends then
Her
it.
on
offerings
her behalf to a certain Pest-God, and performed
austerities
great
beseeching
him
in
honor of the Pest-God,
to save her.
After having lain in a stupor for several days,
came
the sick girl one evening
to herself,
and told
her parents a dream that she had dreamed.
She
had dreamed that the Pest-God appeared to her,
and said
me
ping
me
you.
the
so devoutly, that
But
life
know
as
— " Your people
:
I
some other
of
?
"
same
God said,
wish to save
who
Do you
happen to
has the same
name
"I remember," answered Kinume,
is
a
girl
touching the sleeper
;
him
;
air
whose name
is
" Point her out to me," the
as mine."
she rose into the
1
really
person.
of any other girl
yours
I
cannot do so except by giving you
" that in Utarigori there
the
have been praying to
so earnestly for you, and have been worship-
with
" Golden Plum-Flower.'
— and
at the
touch
and, in less than a
;
two were
second, the
in front of the
the other Kinume, in Utarigori.
31
house of
was night;
It
but the family had not yet gone to bed, and the
daughter was washing something in the
Icitchen.
"That is the, girl," said Kinume of Yamadagori.
The Pest- God took out of a scarlet bag at his
girdle a long sharp instrument
shaped
like a chisel
and, entering the house, he drove the sharp in-
strument into the forehead of Kinume of Utarigori.
Then Kinume
floor in great
gori awoke,
of
sank to the
Utarigori
agony; and Kinume of Yamada-
and
related the dream.
Immediately after having related
she again
into a stupor.
fell
it,
however,
For three days she
remained without knowledge of the world
her parents began to despair of
and
;
her recovery.
Then once more she opened her eyes, and spoke.
But almost in the same moment she rose from
her bed,
looked wildly about
the
rushed out of the house, exclaiming:
not
my home
!
room, and
— "This
— you are not my parents
!
"
.
is
.
.
Something strange had happened.
Kinume
of
Utarigori
had died
been stricken by the Pest-God.
rowed greatly; and the
after
having
Her parents
priests of
sor-
their parish-
—
Japanese Miscellany
32
temple performed a Buddhist service for her
her body was burned in a
Then her
spirit
field
and
;
outside the village.
descended to the Meido, the world
of the dead, and was
summoned
to the tribunal
of Emma-Dai-O, — the King and Judge of
Souls.
But no sooner had the Judge cast eyes upon her
than he exclaimed
:
— " This
girl is
the Utarigori-
Kinume: she ought not to have been brought
Send her back
here so soon!
once to the
at
Shaba-world,^ and fetch me the other Kinume,
"
Then the spirit of Kin-
the Yamadagori girl
ume
!
made moan
of Utarigori
and complained, saying
:
before King
— " Great
Emma,
Lord,
it
is
more than three days since I died and by this
time my body must have been burned; and, if
;
you now send me back
shall
I
do
and smoke
to the Shaba-world,
My body has
}
;
—
I
shall
what
been changed into ashes
"
!
have no body "
be anxious," the terrible King answered
;
Do
not
I
am
—"
going to give you the body of Kinume of Yamadagori,
me
— for her
ing of your
1
spirit
You need
at once.
body
:
you
must be brought hereto
not fret about the burnwill find the
The Shaba-world (Sahaloka),
signifies the
istence.
world of
men,— the
in
body of the
common
region of
parlance,
human
ex-
"
Kinume very much
other
had he
ume
And
better."
when
finished speaking
33
scarcely
the spirit of Kin-
of Utarigori revived in the
body of Kinume
of Yamadagori.
Now when
saw
gori
Kinume of Yamada-
the parents of
up and run away,
their sick girl spring
exclaiming, " This
not
is
my home
!
"
— they im-
agined her to be out of her mind, and they ran
much
too
out — " Kinume,
— wait for a moment,
calling
her,
after
you going
?
ill
where are
:
child
to run like that
!
"
you
!
from them, and ran on without stopping,
she
came
and found the old people
home
:
!
until
to Utarigori, and to the house of the
family of the dead Kinume.
crying
are
But she escaped
;
There she entered,
and she saluted them,
— " Oh,
how
...
well with you, dear parents
Is
it
pleasant to
be
again at
?
They
did not recognize
mad
;
but the mother spoke to her kindly, ask-
ing:
— "Where
"
From
answer.
am
I
have come," Kinume made
your own
turned to you from the dead.
another body, mother."
had happened
;
and thought her
have you come from, child?"
the Meido
"I
her,
And
child,
But
Kinume,
I
have
she related
all
re-
now
that
and the old people wondered ex-
;
M
Japanese Miscellany
ceedingly, yet did
know what
not
Presently the parents of
came
also
daughter
to
the
to
believe.
Kinume of Yamadagori
house,
looking
for
their
and then the two fathers and the two
;
mothers consulted together, and made the
girl re-
peat her story, and questioned her over and over
But she replied to every question
again.
a
way that the truth of
At
doubted.
Kinume,
last
after
which her
in
such
her statements could not be
the mother of the Yamadagori
having related the strange dream
sick daughter
parents of the
had dreamed, said to the
Utarigori
Kinume:
— "We
satisfied that the spirit of this girl is
are
the spirit of
know that her body is the
body of our child and we think that both families ought to have a share in her.
So we would
your
child.
But you
;
ask you to agree that she be considered hence-
forward the daughter of both families."
To
this
proposal the Utarigori parents joyfully consented
and
it
is
recorded that in after-time
Kinume
in-
herited the property of both households.
" This story," says the Japanese author of the
Buhhyo Hyakhwa Zensho, " may be found on the
left side of the twelfth sheet of the first volume
of the Nihon-Rei-Iki."
The Story
of
Kwashin
Koji
The Story
Kwashin KojT
of
DURING the period of Tensho
in
one of the northern
an old
Kwashin
Koji.
his living
there Hved,
districts
of Kyoto,
man whom the people called
He wore a long white beard, and
was always dressed
made
'
like a
by
Shinto priest
;
but he
exhibiting Buddhist pictures
and by preaching Buddhist doctrine.
Every
fine
day he used to go to the grounds of the temple
Gion, and there suspend to some tree a large
kakemono on which were
ments of the various
hells.
so wonderfully painted that
in
it
1
seemed to be
real
;
depicted the punish-
This
all
kakdmono was
things represented
and the old
Related in the curious old
man would
book Yaso-Kidan.
The period of Tensho lasted from IS 73 to 1591
D.). The death of the great captain, Oda Nobunaga,
2
(a.
who
figures in this story, occurred in 1582.
37
Japanese Miscellany
^8
discourse to the people crowding to see
them the Law of Cause and
explain to
pointing out with a Buddhist staff
he always carried, each
and
it,
—
Effect,
which
[ifjôt],
detail of the different tor-
ments, and exhorting everybody to follow the
teachings of the Buddha.
Multitudes assembled
man
to look at the picture and to hear the old
preach about
it
;
and sometimes the mat which
he spread before him, to receive contributions,
was covered out
thrown upon
of sight
by the heaping of
Oda Nobunaga was
at that
time ruler of Kyoto
and of the surrounding provinces.
retainers,
coins
it.
named Arakawa, during a
One
of his
visit
to the
temple of Gion, happened to see the picture being displayed there
about
ested
it
;
and he afterwards talked
Nobunaga was
the palace.
at
Kwashin Koji to come
to
inter-
by Arakawa's description, and sent orders
at
once to the palace,
and to bring the picture with him.
When Nobunaga saw
the
kakemono he was
not able to conceal his surprise at the vividness of
the
work
:
the
demons and the
actually appeared to
move
tortured spirits
before his eyes; and
he heard voices crying out of the picture
;
and
the blood there represented seemed to be really
The Story
flowing,
— so
Kwashln Koji
of
39
that he could not help putting out
his finger to feel
if
the painting was wet.
But
was not stained,— for the paper proved
More and more astonished,
to be perfectly dry.
Nobunaga asked who had made the wonderful
the finger
picture.
painted
Kwashin Koji answered that
it
by the famous Oguri Sotan,
he had performed the
rite
had been
^
—
after
of self-purification
every day for a hundred days, and practised
great
austerities,
and made earnest prayer for
Kwannon
inspiration to the divine
of Kiyomidzu
Temple.
Observing Nobunaga's evident
whether he would " offer
But the old
great lord.
" This painting
possess ; and
showing
it
I
is
am
it
man
boldly answered
:
—
if
should deprive myself
1
of the only means which
I
make a little money by
Were I now to present
able to
to the people.
However,
up," as a gift to the
the only object of value that
this picture to the lord,
ing.
desire to possess
Arakawa then asked Kwashin Koji
the kakemono,
1
have to make
my
liv-
the lord be greatly desirous to
artist
who flourislied
in the early part of the fifteenth century.
He became a
1
Oguri Sotan was a great religious
Buddhist priest in the
later
years of his
life.
Japanese Miscellany
40
possess
it,
let
him pay me
money
1
for
it
With
hundred ryo of gold.
sum
tlie
of one
amount
that
of
should be able to eng-age in some profit-
able business.
Otherwise,
I
must refuse to give
up the picture."
Nobunaga
reply
;
did not seem to be pleased at this
and he remained
Arakawa
silent.
pres-
ently whispered something in the ear of the lord,
who nodded
assent
and Kwashin Koji was then
;
money.
dismissed, with a small present of
But when the old
man
secretly followed him,
get
the picture
came
;
left
the palace,
— hoping for
for Kwashin Koji happened to take a road
turn, he
:
beyond the town.
he reached a certain lonesome spot
foot of the
him
The chance
by foul means.
leading directly to the heights
When
Arakawa
a chance to
hills,
was
at the
where the road made a sudden
seized
— " Why were
by Arakawa, who
you
so greedy as to ask a
hundred ryo of gold for that picture
a hundred ryo of gold,
I
said to
am now
?
Instead of
going to give
you one piece of iron three feet long." Then
Arakawa drew his sword, and killed the old
man, and took the picture.
The Story
Kwashin Koji
of
41
The next day Arakawa presented the kakestill wrapped up as Kwashin Koji had
mono
—
wrapped
before leaving the palace
it
Nobunaga,
who
But,
with.
naga and
when
to be
it
was
it
his retainer
was no
there
ordered
— to
hung up
unrolled, both
Oda
forth-
Nobu-
were astounded to find that
picture at
all
— nothing but a blank
Arakawa could not explain how the
surface.
original painting
been guilty
had disappeared
— whether
deceiving his master,
be punished.
and as he had
;
willingly or unwillingly
it
was decided
— of
that he should
Accordingly he was sentenced to
remain in confinement for a considerable time.
Scarcely had
Arakawa completed
his
term of
imprisonment, when news was brought to him
that
Kwashin Koji was exhibiting the famous
ture in the
could hardly believe his ears
inspired
tion
might be
the
him with
able, in
;
but the informa-
a vague hope that
some way
So he quickly assembled some
lowers, and hurried to the temple
peached
it
gone away.
he
or other, to secure
kakemono, and thereby redeem
fault.
pic-
Arakawa
grounds of Kitano Temple.
;
his
recent
of his fol-
but
when he
he was told that Kwashin Koji had
—
Japanese Miscellany
42
Several days later,
kawa
to Arapic-
Kiyomidzu Temple, and preaching about
ture at
Arakawa made
an immense crowd.
to
it
word was brought
Kwashin Koji was exhibiting the
that
haste to
Kiyomidzu
all
but he arrived there only in
;
time to see the crowd disperse,
— for
Kwashin
Koji had again disappeared.
At
one day Arakawa unexpectedly caught
last
Kwashin Koji
sight of
The
captured him.
in a
old
wine-shop, and there
man
humoredly on finding himself
"
I
a
little
will
go with you; but
wine."
objection
the
To
only laughed goodseized,
and said:
please wait until
this request
I
drink
Arakawa made no
and Kwashin Koji thereupon drank, to
;
amazement of the bystanders, twelve bowls
After drinking the twelfth he declared
of wine.
himself satisfied
be bound
;
and Arakawa ordered him to
with a rope, and taken to Nobunaga's
residence.
In the court of the palace
examined
at
once by the
sternly reprimanded.
said to
him
:
— "It
is
Kwashin Koji was
Chief Officer, and
Finally the Chief Officer
evident that
you have been
deluding people by magical practices
ished.
;
and for
you deserve to be heavily punHowever, if you will now respectfully
this offence alone
;
The Story
up
offer
43
Lord Nobunaga, we
that picture to the
time overlook your
shall this
we
Kwashin Koji
of
Otherwise
fault.
upon you a very severe
shall certainly inflict
punishment."
At
this
menace Kwashin Koji laughed
wildered way, and exclaimed
— "It
:
is
have been guilty of deluding people."
turning to Arakawa, he cried out
the deceiver
giving
in
him
You wanted
!
that picture
order to steal
it.
Surely,
it,
you
you have been
act
?
You
picture that
now have
you stole the
mind about giving
any such
As luck would
!
me
;
but
if
a blank
events.
The
And
you changed your
picture,
it
all
only a copy.
is
to Lord
devised a plan to keep
you gave
by
me
you wished, what would
stole the picture, at
I
are
able to plead in excuse for such an
after
you
as
Then,
tried to kill
did not succeed in killing
you had succeeded,
who
— " You
there be
if
thing as crime, that was a crime
have
I
to flatter the lord
and you
;
:
a be-
in
not
it
kakemono
Nobunaga; and
for yourself.
to Lord
So
Nobunaga
and, in order to conceal your secret act and purpose,
you pretended
substituting a blank
that
I
had deceived you by
kakemono
Where the real picture now
You probably do."
is,
for the real one.
I
do not know.
Japanese Miscellany
44
At these words Arakawa became so angry that
he rushed towards the prisoner, and would have
him but
struck
And
this
for the interference of the guards.
sudden outburst of anger caused the
Chief Officer to suspect that Arakawa was not
He
altogether innocent.
ordered Kwashin Koji to
be taken to prison for the time being
proceeded
then
Now Arakawa
on
to
question
;
Arakawa
and he
closely.
was naturally slow of speech
;
and
occasion, being greatly excited, he could
this
scarcely speak at
all
and he stammered, and
;
contradicted himself, and betrayed every sign of
Then the Chief Officer ordered that Arakawa should be beaten with a stick until he told
the truth.
But it was not possible for him even
guilt.
to
seem
a
bamboo
to
the truth.
tell
until
and he lay as
So he was beaten with
his senses
if
departed from him,
dead.
Kwashin Kofi was
told
in
what had happened to Arakawa
But
after a little while
" Listen
!
the prison about
;
and he laughed.
he said to the
jailer:
—
That fellow Arakawa really behaved
like a rascal
;
and
1
purposely brought this pun-
ishment upon him, in order to correct his
inclinations.
But
now
please say to the
evil
Chief
The Story
Kwashin Koji
of
4?
Officer that
Arakawa must have been ignorant
the truth,
and that
of
explain the whole
shall
I
matter satisfactorily."
Then Kwashin
Koji was
the Chief Officer, to
declaration
:
whom
— "In any
must be a ghost
there
ing a will of
its
own,
he made the following
picture of real excellence
and such a
;
may
it
life,
hav-
or even from
many
There are
owner.
rightful
picture,
refuse to be separated
from the person who gave
its
again taken before
stories to
prove that really great pictures have souls.
well
known
It
is
some sparrows, painted upon a
[fusuma] by Hogen Yenshin, once
that
sliding-screen
flew away, leaving blank the spaces which they
had occupied upon the surface.
known
that
a
kakemono, used
Now,
to
Also
upon
painted
horse,
go out
well
it
is
a
certain
at night to eat grass.
in this present case,
believe the truth to
I
be that, inasmuch as the Lord Nobunaga never
became the
rightful
owner of
picture voluntarily vanished
it
was
give
unrolled in his presence.
me
the price that
dred ryo of gold,
—
I
I
blank
paper.
first
kakemono, the
when
you will
the paper
But
asked,
if
— one
hun-
think that the painting
will then reappear, of its
now
my
from
At
own
all
accord,
upon
events, let
the
us try!
Japanese Miscellany
46
There
is
nothing to
risk,
does not reappear,
—
since, if the picture
at
shall
I
once return the
money."
On
hearing of these strange assertions, Nobu-
naga ordered the hundred ryo to be paid, and
came
person to observe the
in
mono was
then unrolled before him
amazement of
with
all
;
and, to the
present, the painting reappeared,
all
But the colors seemed to
details.
its
have faded a
The kake-
result.
little
;
and the
figures of the souls
and the demons did not look
really alive, as be-
Perceiving this difference, the lord asked
fore.
Kwashin Koji to explain the reason of
it;
and
Kwashin
of
the
Koji
you
painting, as
painting beyond
painting, as
replied
first
.
.
.
saw
you now
How
— " The
all price.
what you paid for
gold.
:
could
hearing this answer,
see
it,
all
it,
was the value of a
But the value of the
represents exactly
it,
— one
it
value
hundred ryo of
present felt that
be worse than useless to oppose the old
further.
He was immediately set
Arakawa was
also liberated, as
expiated his fault
had undergone.
On
be otherwise ?"
it
would
man any
at liberty
;
and
he had more than
by the punishment which he
The Story
Now Arakawa
of
Kwashin Koji
47
had a younger brother named
Buichi,
—
naga.
Buichi was furiously angry because Ara-
also a retainer in the service of
Nobu-
kawa had been beaten and imprisoned; and he
resolved to
kill
Kwashin
no sooner found himself again
went
straight to a wine-shop,
Buichi rushed after
down, and cut
him
Kwashin Koji
Koji.
at liberty
than he
and called for wine.
into the shop, struck
him
Then, taking the
off his head.
hundred ryo that had been paid to the old man,
Buichi wrapped up the head and the gold together
in
a cloth, and hurried
home
to
show them
to
But when he unfastened the cloth he
Arakawa.
found, instead of the head, only an empty wine-
gourd, and only a lump of
gold.
.
.
And
.
filth
instead of the
the bewilderment of the brothers
was presently increased by the information
the headless
shop,
that
body had disappeared from the wine-
— none could say how or when.
Nothing more was heard
until about a
month
later,
was found one evening
of
Kwashin Koji
when a drunken man
asleep in the
gateway of
Lord Nobunaga's palace, and snoring so loud that
every snore sounded like the rumbling of distant
thunder.
A
retainer discovered that the drunk-
Japanese Miscellany
48
was Kwashin Koji. For this insolent offence,
the old fellow was at once seized and thrown into
But he did not awake and in the
the prison.
ard
;
prison he continued to sleep without interruption
and ten nights,
for ten days
—
all
the while snor-
ing so that the sound could be heard to a great
distance.
About
his
this time, the
Lord Nobunaga came to
death through the treachery of one of his
Akechi
captains,
usurped
who
Mitsuhide,
thereupon
But Mitsuhide's power endured
rule.
only for a period of twelve days.
Now when
Mitsuhide became master of Kyoto,
he was told of the case of Kwashin Koji
and
;
he ordered that the prisoner should be brought
before
Accordingly
him.
summoned
Kwashin Koji was
into the presence of the
new
lord
;
but
Mitsuhide spoke to him kindly, treated him as a
guest,
and commanded that a good dinner should
be served to him.
Mitsuhide said to
are very fond of
you drink
answered
1
:
at,
—
When
the old
I
eaten,
that
:
;
a single sitting.?"
"
man had
— "I have heard you
wine — how much wine can
him
do not
stop drinking only
Kwashin Koji
really
know how much
when
I
feel
;
intoxication
—
;
The Story
Then
coming on."
cup
'
Kwashin Koji
of
the lord set a great wine-
before Kwashin Koji, and told a servant to
man
the cup as often as the old
fill
49
And
wished.
Kwashin Koji emptied the great cup ten times
succession,
and asked for more
made answer
All present
were astounded by
Kwashin
not yet
satisfied,
Kwashin
Koji, "
I
Sir
was exhausted.
little
of
"
this drinking-feat
my
In
;
— and
1
shall
He pointed
to a large
upon which were painted the
and everybody looked
one of the views the
away on the
;
Be therefore so good
art.
Eight Beautiful Views of the Lake of
Hakhei)
replied
satisfied
your august kindness,
as to observe that screen."
eight-folding screen
"Are you
Koji,
" Well, yes,"
am somewhat
in return for
display a
.?
in
but the servant
that the wine-vessel
and the lord asked
now,
;
artist
lake, a mart
Omi
at the
{6miscreen.
had represented, far
rowing a boat,
— the
boat occupying, upon the surface of the screen,
a space of less than an inch in length.
Kwashin
The term " bowl " would better indicate the kind of
which the story-teller refers. Some of the socalled cups, used on festival occasions, were very large,
1
vessel to
shallow lacquered basins capable of holding considerably
more than
a quart.
To empty one
draught, was considered to be
4
no
of the largest size, at a
small feat.
;
Japanese Miscellany
5^0
waved his hand in the direction of the
boat and all saw the boat suddenly turn, and beKoji then
;
move toward the foreground
gin to
It
grew rapidly
larger
and larger
as
of the picture.
it
approached
and presently the features of the boatman be-
came
clearly distinguishable.
nearer,
— always
becoming
Still
larger,
the boat
—
until
peared to be only a short distance away.
all
drew
it
ap-
And,
of a sudden, the water of the lake seemed to
overflow,
— out of the
room
picture into the
;
—
and the room was flooded; and the spectators
girded up their robes in haste, as the water rose
above
knees.
their
In
the
same moment the
boat appeared to glide out of the screen,
fishing-boat
;
— and the creaking of the
could be heard.
Still
the flood in the
tinued to rise, until the spectators
up to
their girdles in water.
close
up to Kwashin Koji
climbed into
it
;
—a
real
single oar
room con-
were standing
Then the boat came
;
and Kwashin Koji
and the boatman turned about,
and began to row away very
swiftly.
boat receded, the water in the
room began to lower
rapidly,
No
— seeming
And, as the
to ebb back into the screen.
sooner had the boat passed the apparent fore-
ground of the picture than the room was dry
again!
But
still
the painted vessel appeared to
—
The Story
of
Kwashin Koji
glide over the painted water,
into the distance,
till
at
last
And then
it
it
—
retreating further
and ever growing smaller,
dwindled to a dot
disappeared altogether
Koji disappeared with
seen in Japan.
51
it.
in the offing.
;
He was
and Kwashin
never again
The Story
of
Umetsu Chubei
The Story
UMETSU
of
CHUBEI was
great
was
Umetsu Chubei'
of
young samurai
in the service of the
Judayu, whose
The houses
He
courage.
Lord Tomura
stood upon a lofty
castle
the neighborhood of Yokote,
Dewa.
a
and
strength
in the
hill
in
province of
of the lord's retainers
town at the base of the hill.
Umetsu was one of those selected
formed
a small
duty
watches
;
— the
beginning
first
ending at midnight
;
midnight and ending
for night-
There were two night-
at the castle-gates.
the
at
sunset
and
second beginning
at
at sunrise.
Once, when Umetsu happened to be on the
second watch, he met with a strange adventure.
While ascending the
place
at the last
1
hill at
midnight, to take his
on guard, he perceived a woman standing
upper turn of the winding road lead-
Related in the Buhkyo-Hjiakkwa-Zensho.
55
Japanese Miscellany
5^6
She appeared to have a child
ing to the castle.
in
her arms, and to be waiting for somebody.
the most extraordinary circumstances could
Only
woman
account for the presence of a
lonesome place
remembered
at so late
that goblins
an hour
;
that
in
and Umetsu
were wont to assume
feminine shapes after dark, in order to deceive
He
and destroy men.
woman
the seeming
human
and when
being;
towards him, as
pass her
much
to
if
surprised to do so
"Good
Sir
trouble,
and
form:
him was
will
a
he intended to
speak,
But he was too
when
said, in a
the
woman
called
very sweet voice
Umdtsu, to-night
I
really
he saw her hasten
by without a word.
him by name, and
this
therefore doubted whether
before
am
I
in
:
—
great
have a most painful duty to per-
you not kindly help
baby for one
little
me by
moment.?"
holding
And
she
held out the child to him.
Umetsu
did not
recognize the
woman, who
appeared to be very young: he suspected the
charm of the strange
natural
snare,
voice, suspected a super-
suspected
everything
was naturally kind; and he
felt
;
that
— but
it
he
would
be unmanly to repress a kindly impulse through
fear of goblins.
Without replying, he took the
Umetsu Chubei
" Please hold
child.
the
woman
"
while."
"
:
I
will
I
hill
so
come back,"
1
shall
return
hold
it,"
woman
immediately the
leaving the
till
it
5^7
he answered
and
little
and
;
turned from him, and,
road, sprang soundlessly
lightly
said
a very
in
down
he could
so quickly that
She was out of
scarcely believe his eyes.
the
sight
few seconds.
in a
Umetsu then
looked at the
first
child.
It
was
very small, and appeared to have been just born.
It
was very
cry at
still
Suddenly
looked at
seemed to be growing
it
Why
had
it
did not
he
and
;
had
it
imagined
He
larger.
was the same
it
not even moved.
that
was growing
it
?
In another
felt
... No:
again.
it
small creature
larger
hands; and
in his
all.
moment he knew why;
The
a chill strike through him.
not growing larger
... At
first it
;
but
—
not weigh
tripled
less
I
was growing
—
than
its
he
was
heavier.
weight had gradually
Now
quadrupled.
fifty
was getting heavier and
dred pounds
child
had seemed to weigh only seven
or eight pounds: then
doubled
it
— and
pounds
;
heavier.
— a hundred and
it
— and
fifty
could
still
it
... A hun!
— two hun-
!
Japanese Miscellany
S8
dred!
.
deluded,
.
knew
Umetsu
.
—
had
he
that
— that
any mortal woman,
the
was not
child
But he had made a promise; and a
human.
So he kept
samurai was bound by his promise.
the infant in his arms
heavier and heavier
and
;
.
.
.
continued to grow
it
two hundred and
— three hundred — four hundred pounds
!
What was going
ine
to
to
let
the child
Five hundred!
go while
—
five
hundred pounds!
groaned
afraid,
All
—
;
Namu Amida
Amida Butsu !
Even
"
.
.
and not
as
fifty!
still
.
.
six
the weight
Butsu
Butsu
.
—
began to
muscles
his
— and
..." Namu Amida
"
.
his strength lasted.
hundred and
quiver with the strain
increased.
fifty
!
happen he could not imag-
but he resolved not to be
;
been
that he had not been speaking with
!
!
"
he
— Namu
he uttered the holy
invocation for the third time, the weight passed
away from him with a shock; and he stood
empty hands,
for the child had
—
stupefied, with
unaccountably disappeared.
same
instant he
But almost in the
saw the mysterious
woman
turning as quickly as she had gone.
ing
she came to him;
that she
was very
fair
;
and he then
— but
Still
first
re-
pant-
saw
her brow dripped
with sweat; and her sleeves were bound back
Umetsu Chubei
with tasuhi-cords, as
$9
she had been working
if
hard.
"Kind
1
am
my
"you do
said,
me
proved to be very
that,
by
my own
be able to save her:
the help
power
alone,
— therefore
I
laid in
that
had not yet been born
you
1
the
felt
first
and
;
the child become so heavy that
of being able to bear the weight
great,
you
much
dead, and the family wept for her.
—-and
Ujigami
is
ity of a parish
district,
And
prayer,
title
given to
district.
and assisting
All
tlie
— for
despaired
longer,
—
to be
Then you
Namu Amida
the third time that
the
or
child
the time
in
same moment the mother seemed
three times repeated the
or
sought for
And when you
the Gates of Birth were closed.
1
soon
I
might not
1
becoming heavier
child
and heavier, the danger was very
Butsu!
and
your hands was the
that
in that
But the
for aid.
difficult;
of your strength and courage.
the child that
felt
not
you have done me.
Ujiho found herself in the pains of
and prayed to
childbirth,
saw
great a service
the Ujigami'^ of this place; and to-night
one of
labor
Umetsu," she
Sir
know how
you
uttered
tutelary Shinto divin-
persons living in that parish
in the
maintenance of the temple
[mtya) of the deity, are called Ujiko.
Japanese Miscellany
60
it
power of the Lord Buddha came to our
and the Gates of Birth were opened,
the
aid,
.
And for that which you have done you
To a brave samurai no
fitly rewarded.
be more
serviceable
than strength
.
shall
.
be
can
gift
therefore,
:
not only to you, but likewise to your children
and to your children's
strength
children, great
be given."
shall
And, with
promise, the divinity
this
disap-
peared.
Umetsu
his
way
the
At sunrise, on being
castle.
from duty, he proceeded
relieved
wash
wondering greatly, resumed
Chiibei,
to
his
and
face
morning prayer.
hands before
usual
as
making
to
his
But when he began to wring
the towel which had
served him, he
was
sur-
prised
to feel the tough material snap asunder
in
hands.
the
his
separated
parted
—
He attempted
portions
like so
;
and
much wet
to
twist together
again
paper.
wring the four thicknesses; and the
the same.
jects of
the
He
stuff
tried to
result
was
Presently, after handling various ob-
bronze and of iron which yielded to his
touch like clay, he understood that he had
into full possession of the great strength
come
prom-
Umetsu Chubei
ised,
61
and that he would have to be careful thence-
forward when touching things,
crumble in his
On
lest
they should
fingers.
returning home, he
made
inquiry as to
whether any child had been born in the
ment during the
night.
Then he
settle-
learned that
a birth had actually taken place at the very
hour of
his
adventure,
stances had been
and that
the circum-
exactly as related to
him by
the Ujigami.
The
children of
father's strength.
all
Umetsu ChiJbei
remarkably powerful
in the province of
story was written.
inherited their
Several of his descendants
Dewa
men
— were
at the
time
still
—
living
when
this
The Story
of Kogi the Priest
The Story
of
Kogi the
Priest'
NEARLY one thousand years ago there lived
priest
in the
famous temple
Otsu
in the province of
named
^
Kogi.
He was
painted, with almost equal
called Miidera, at
Omi,
a great
skill,
a learned
He
artist.
pictures of the
Buddhas, pictures of beautiful scenery, and
tures of animals or birds;
Whenever the weather was
duty permitted, he would go
paint fishes.
religious
pic-
but he liked best to
Biwa, and hire fishermen to catch
fair,
to
fish for
and
Lake
him,
without injuring them in any way, so that he
swam
about
After having
made
could paint them afterwards as they
in a large vessel of water.
1
From
the collection entitled Ugetsu Monogatari.
The town of Otsu stands on the shore of the great
and the temple
usually called Lake Biwa;
Lake of Omi,
Miidera is situated upon a hill overlooking the water.
Miidera was founded in the seventh century, but has been
2
—
several times rebuilt
—
:
the present structure dates back to
the latter part of the seventeenth century.
S
65
;
Japanese Miscellany
66
would
and fed them
of them,
pictures
set
them
free again,
became so famous that people
all
dream.
drawings of
his
but was
life,
fish
made from
into a doze, and
memory
of a
swimming, Kogi had
memory
fallen
had dreamed that he was playing
with the fishes under the water.
he was
was not drawn
the
For one day, as he sat by the lake-side
to watch the fishes
the
from
travelled
But the most won-
great distances to see them.
derful of
he
back
His pictures of fish at last
to the lake himself.
from
like pets,
— taking them
of the
After he awoke,
dream remained so
able to paint
it
;
and
clear that
this painting,
which
he hung up in the alcove of his own room in the
temple, he called " Dream-Carp."
Kogi could never be persuaded to
his pictures of fish.
his
He was
drawings of landscapes, of
kill
or to eat
And
fish.
his paintings
their offers of
money
One summer Kogi
he lost
sell
a picture of
any one who was cruel enough to
wanted to buy
illness
any of
birds, or of flowers
but he said that he would not
living fish to
sell
willing to part with
all
as
the persons
were
who
all fish- eaters,
could not tempt him.
fell
sick;
and
after a
week's
power of speech and movement,
Kogi the
so that he seemed to
67
Priest
But
be dead.
after
his
funeral service had been performed, his disciples
some warmth
discovered
in the
body, and decided
to postpone the burial for awhile, and to keep
watch by the seeming corpse.
In the afternoon
of the same day he suddenly revived, and questioned the watchers, asking
How long have
"
"
three
days,"
We thought that
morning your
this
remained without knowledge
?
More than
"
—
"
of the world
answer.
I
:
an
made
acolyte
you were dead
and
;
friends and parishioners assem-
We
bled in the temple for your funeral service.
performed the service; but afterwards, finding
your body was not altogether
that
off
the burial; and
we
did so."
now we
Kogi nodded approvingly
"
I
put
then he said
—
:
no Suke, where the young
—
—
drinking wine),
and
are having a feast at the present
(they are eating fish and
say to them
begs that
feast,
we
want some one of you to go immediately
to the house of Taira
men
:
cold,
are very glad that
:
—
you
and to
'
Our
will
call
moment
master has revived
;
and he
be so good as to leave your
upon him without
cause he has a wonderful story to
tell
delay, be-
you.'
.
.
.
"
Japanese Miscellany
68
At the same time "
what Suke and
— continued Kogi — " observe
brothers are doing; — see
his
whether they are not feasting as
Then an
I
say."
acolyte went at once to the house of
Taira no
Suke, and was surprised to find that
Suke and
his brother Juro, with their attendant,
Kamori, were having a
feast, just as
But, on receiving the
said.
immediately
left their fish
to the temple.
message,
Kogi had
three
all
and wine, and hastened
Kogi, lying
upon the couch
to
which he had been removed, received them with
a smile of welcome;
and, after
some
pleasant
words had been exchanged, he said to Suke
"
Now,
my
tions that
kindly
tell
I
friend, please reply to
am going to ask you. First
me whether you did not buy
to-day from the fisherman Bunshi."
" Why, yes," replied Suke
" but
—
you know
.
:
—
some quesof
all,
a fish
how
did
"
" Please wait a
moment,"
said the priest.
.
.
.
" That fisherman Bunshi to-day entered your gate,
with a
fish three feet
long in his basket
it was
you and Juro
and Kamori was
:
early in the afternoon, just after
had begun a game of go;
—
watching the game, and eating a peach
he not
>
— was
"
Kogi the Priest
"That
true," exclaimed
is
69
Suke and Kamori
together, with increasing surprise.
"
And when Kamori saw
that big fish," pro-
ceeded Kogi, " he agreed to buy
it
at
once
;
and,
besides paying the price of the fish, he also gave
Bunshi some peaches,
and looked
by your
your
in a dish,
Then the cook was
wine.
at the fish,
have said
.
.
Did not
.
happened
in
You
me
now
I
;
I
— you
But
was
ber only that
;
I
" but
we
are
very
Please
tell
us
story," said the priest.
I
at all
felt
yourselves attended
thought that
dangerously
weak and very
I
.
.
.
ill
remem-
I
:
hot,
and that
air to cool
got up from
great effort, and went out,
stick.
my
did not think, three days
wanted to go out into the
with a
just as
you should know what
my
for
dead
to be
I
for
it
are aware that almost everybody believed
ago, that
And
happen
all this
our house to-day..
funeral service.
I
and then,
;
learned these matters."
" Well,
"
it
and prepared
it
Suke
astonished that
how you
and he came
?
" Yes," responded
much
;
and admired
order, he sliced
feast.
and three cups of
called
my
— supporting
Perhaps this
may
myself.
bed, with a
myself
have been
imagination; but you will presently be able to
Japanese Miscellany
70
judge the truth for yourselves
relate everything exactly as
pen.
... As soon
into the bright air,
as
I
basket in which
on and on
till
feel quite light,
away from
reached the lake
I
have a swim.
and jumped
in,
and very
sickness
mer.
.
around
a great
clothes,
— but
me
and
;
—
swimmer
I
felt
and
before
!
.
I
my
only telling you
.
While
.
of mine,
skill
no matter how good
man may, become, he
Just then, a very big fish lifted
its
never can
man, saying
!
'
The
:
—
'
me
with the
That wish of yours
satisfied: please
fish
fish can.
head above the
surface in front of me, and spoke to
can very easily be
was
suddenly envious of their
enjoy himself under the water as a
voice of a
I
perceived
I
swimming below me and
reflecting that,
a
am
1
listen
new
beautiful fishes
moment
;
swim very
could
I
— although
think that
at this
happiness,
a
skilfully,
dream
wondering
many
find that
to
You
.
a foolish
felt
my
had always been a very poor swim-
1
.
I
oif
and began to swim about
was astonished
fast
took
I
wandered
1
and the water
;
looked so beautiful and blue that
desire to
—
the net or the
has been confined.
it
going to
got outside of the house,
1
began to
light as a bird flying
am
I
:
appeared to hap-
it
then went
wait there a
down, out of
Kogi the Priest
sight
and
;
came
I waited.
After a few minutes there
from the bottom of the lake,
riding
—
up,
on the back of the same big
— a man
to me,
me
:
—
'1
had spoken
fish that
wearing the headdress and the
ceremonial robes of a prince
to
71
come
to
man
and the
;
you with
the Dragon-King,
who knows
enjoy for a
time the condition of a
little
As you have saved the
said
from
a message
of your desire to
lives of
many
fish.
and
fish,
have always shown compassion to living creatures, the
God now
bestows upon you the
of the Golden Carp, so that
you
attire
be able to
will
enjoy the pleasures of the Water- World.
you must be very
any food prepared from
nice
may
fish,
be the smell of
it
— no
;
With
or to hurt your
went below and vanished
had become covered with
gold;
—
I
saw
that
had
I
in the
in
any way.'
—
his fish
deep water.
my
I
I
whole body
scales that
fins;
how
caught by the
body
looked at myself, and saw that
or
you must
messenger and
these words, the
But
fish,
matter
— and
also take great care not to get
fishermen,
any
careful not to eat
shone
like
found that
I
had actually been changed into a Golden Carp.
Then
I
pleased.
knew
that
I
could
swim wherever
I
;
Japanese Miscellany
72
" Thereafter
away, and
me
seemed to
it
many
visited
that
swam
I
[Here,
beautiful places.
some
in the original narrative, are introdiiced
Famous Attractions
" Omi-Hakkei."] Some-
vtrses describing the Eight
of the Lake of Omi,
times
1
was
—
only to look
satisfied
at the sunlight
dancing over the blue water, or to admire the
beautiful reflection of
surfaces sheltered
and
hills
Chikubushima —
water like a red wall.
.
.
faces
and
startled
I
Sometimes
.
—
either
1
would
I
could see the
by
'hear the voices of people passing
would
I
sleep
on the water
by the sound of approaching
until
At
oars.
night there were beautiful moonlight-views
I
still
remem-
reflected in the
approach the shore so closely that
sometimes
upon
an island
ber especially the coast of
Okitsushima or
trees
from the wind. ...
;
but
was frightened more than once by the approach-
ing torchfires
When
far
of the
fishing-boats
the weather was bad,
down, — even
this
in the
I
Katase.
—
— and play
at
after
wandering pleasure,
very hungry; and
hood
But
of
would go below,
a thousand feet,
the bottom of the lake.
days of
I
I
two or
three
began to
feel
returned to this neighbor-
hope of finding something to
eat.
Just at that time the fisherman Bunshi happened
Kogi the Priest
to be fishing
he had
and
I
approached the hook which
down
into the water.
upon
it
let
fish-food
;
remembered
in the
swam away,
— 'In any event
— am a
taining
1
fish
tense that
1
swam back
if
1
;
little
I
could not
eat
food conBuddha.'
disciple of the
my
while
my-
saying to
must not
hunger became so
the temptation
resist
again to the hook, thinking,
—
in-
and
;
'
1
Even
Bunshi should catch me, he would not hurt
me;
— he
is
my
old friend.'
1
was not
the bait from the hook;
loosen
and
;
1
for
my
at a
Immediately after
gulp.
in his line,
What
are
able to
and the pleas-
swallowed the whole thing
ant smell of the food was too
patience
'
to smell.
same moment the warning of
:
Yet after a
There was some
was good
that
the Dragon-King, and
self
73
did so, Bunshi pulled
I
and caught me.
you doing
much
I
cried out to
him,
— you hurt me — but
!
?
'
he did not seem to hear me, and he quickly put
a string through
into
his
When
basket,
my
jaws.
and took
to
your house.
the basket was opened there,
and Juro playing go
Kamori watching you
All of
Then he threw me
me
you
to look at
presently
in
I
saw you
the south room, and
— eating a peach the
came out upon
me; and you were
while.
the veranda
delighted to see
'
Japanese Miscellany
74
such a big
could
:
—
the priest
fish.
'
I
called out to
I
am
not a fish
me
please let
!
—
!
I
you
am
loud as
as
Kogi
my
go back to
I
— Kogi
!
temple
But you clapped your hands for gladness, and
my
paid no attention to
me
carried
sharp knife was lying.
me down,
How
can you
ciple of the
same
instant
!
felt
1
!
me
kill
his
:
hand he
!
help
'
am
a disin the
knife dividing
I
—
But
I
!
!
:
me
—a
suddenly awoke, and
in the temple."
the priest had thus finished his story,
it;
and Suke said to
— "I now remember noticing that the jaws
of the fish were
looking at
Now
terribly
hand he
left
his right
so cruelly
the brothers wondered at
him
his
screamed to him
1
— help
— and then
found myself here
When
— and
Buddha
frightful pain
With
and with
took up that knife,
'
me down
and threw
upon a cutting-board, where a
violently
pressed
Then your cook
words.
into the kitchen,
I
it
;
moving
but
we
all
the time that
we were
did not hear any voice.
.
.
.
must send a servant to the house with
orders to throw the remainder of that fish into
the lake."
Kogi soon recovered from his
to paint
many more
pictures.
illness,
It is
and
lived
related that,
Kogi the Priest
7S
long after his death, some of his fish-pictures once
happened to
fall into
the lake, and that the figures
of the fish immediately detached themselves
the silk or the paper
painted, and
from
upon which they had been
swam away!
Folklore Gleanings
Dragon-flies
Dragon-flies
1
ONE
of the old names of Japan
shima,
meaning
"
The
is
Akitsuof
Island
the
Dragon-fly," and written with the character representing a dragon-fly,
now
— which
insect,
tombo, was anciently called ahitsu.
Perhaps this name Akitsushima, " Island of the
called
Dragon-fly,"
still
older
was phonetically suggested by a
name
for Japan, also pronounced Akit-
sushima, but written with
difiêrent
characters,
and signifying " The Land of Rich Harvests."
However
the
this
may
be, there
is
a tradition that
Emperor Jimmu, some twenty-six hundred
years ago, ascended a mountain to gaze over the
province of Yamato, and observed to those
who
accompanied him that the configuration of the
land was like a dragon-fly licking
its tail.
Because
of this august observation the province of Ya6
81
Japanese Miscellany
82
mato came
to
known
be
name was
tended to the whole
And
island.
Land of the
the
as
Dragon-fly; and eventually the
ex-
the Dragon-fly
remains an emblem of the Empire even to this
day.
a literal sense,
In
called the
Japan well deserves to be
Land of the Dragon-fly
poetically declared,
it is
;
Probably no other country
neuroptera-fancier."
of either temperate zone possesses so
of
dragon-flies;
and
tropics can produce
ously beautiful than
I
many
any
some
more
dragon-flies
country-folk
was
color
in
Shidzuoka.
call a
that
It
—
like the petals of
deep purple.
but the
The long
— even
The head and thorax were
to
flower.
as a darning-needle,
was decorated with dotted
The
;
some marvellous
The purple body, slender
the
captured
I
was what the
narrow wings, velvety purple, seemed
touch
ever saw
I
" black dragon-fly "
really a rich
curi-
of the Japanese species.
was a Japanese Calepteryx, which
summer
kinds
doubt whether even the
The most wonderful dragon-fly
last
Rein
for, as
" a true Eldorado to the
lines
of dead gold.
vivid gold-green
;
but
eyes were pure globes of burnished gold.
legs
were fringed on the inner side with
in-
describably delicate spines, set at right angles to
Dragon-flies
83
So
the limb, like the teeth of a fairy-comb.
exquisite
was the creature
that
morse for having disturbed
it,
a kind of re-
felt
1
—
felt
as
if
I
had
been meddling with something belonging to the
gods;
which
— and
it
quickly returned
1
had been reposing.
kind of dragon-fly
borhood of a
Yaidzu.
clear
said to
it
on
to the shrub
This particular
.
.
haunt only the neigh-
stream near the town of
however, but one of
is,
It
is
.
many
lovely
varieties.
But the more exquisite dragon-flies are
quently seen
;
and they seldom figure
— and
literature;
1
can attempt to interest
reader only in the poetry and
dragon-flies.
1
in the old-fashioned
little
that
ject,
Japanese
way
— with
the
help of quaint
— mostly
and the
books and of
relates to the
species.
But before treating of dragon-fly
will
;
have been able to learn upon the sub-
long-forgotten drawings,
commoner
my
the folklore of
propose to discourse of dragon-
flies
I
infre-
Japanese
in
literature,
it
be necessary to say something regarding
dragon-fly nomenclature.
profess to
Old Japanese books
name about fifty kinds and
;
the Chufu-
—
Japanese Miscellany
84
Zusetsu
actually
nearly that
contains colored
number of
volumes several
insects
it
of
in these
resembling dragon-flies are
improperly classed with dragon-flies
than one case
pictures
But
dragon-flies.
would seem that
;
and
more
in
names
different
have been given to the male and female of the
same
species.
On the
other hand
I
find as
many
as four different varieties of dragon-fly bearing
same folk-name
the
I
And
!
in
view of these facts
venture to think that the following
found
I.
complete
sufficiently
— Mugiwara-tombo
its
body somewhat resembles
of
all
— This
is
will
be
tombo),
simply,
(or
" Barley -straw Dragon-fly,"
barley-straw.
list
:
— so
in
called because
shape and color a
perhaps the most
the dragon-flies, and the
first
to
common
make its
appearance.
II.
— Shiohara-tombo, or Shio-tombo, —"
fish
Dragon-fly,"
called
or
" Salt
because the end of
had been dipped
in salt.
its
Dragon-fly,"
tail
looks as
Shiokara
is
the
given to a preparation of fish preserved in
III.
is
not
Salt-
— so
if
salt.
— Kino-tombo, " Yellow Dragon-fly." —
all
it
name
It
yellow, but reddish, with yellow stripes
and bands.
Plate
I.
11.
1
SHro-TOMBo ("So/r' D.)
MUGEWARA-TOMBO (." Bar/ej)
Straw ")
Plate
I.
11.
2
KiNO-TOMBO
Ko-MuGi-To«BO
——
Dragon-flies
— Ao-tombo.
IV.
green
;
and two
8^
Ao means
either
blue
different kinds of dragon-fly,
one green, and one metallic-blue,
—
are called
or
—
by
name.
this
— " Shining Loins."
Koshiaki-tombo,
V.
insect usually so called
VI.
— Tono
Dragon-fly."
are called
by
The
black and yellow.
—
" August - Lord
Sama - tombo,
Many different kinds of dragon-fly
-
this
their beautiful
is
name,
The name Koshiaki, or
colors.
"Shining Loins,"
is
— probably on account of
likewise
given to several
varieties.
VII.
— Ko-mugi-tombo, " Wheat-straw Dragon-
— Somewhat smaller than the " Barley-straw
fly."
dragon-fly."
VIII.
— Tsumaguro -tombo, " Black
(or
— Several kinds
-skirted
" black-hemmed ") Dragon-fly."
of dragon-flies are thus called, because the edges
of the wings are black or dark-red.
IX.
the
— Kuro-tombo,
"Black Dragon-fly."
word kuro means
black,
it is
either
not surprising to find this
both to deep red and to deep purple
X.
As
dark in color or
name
given
insects.
Karahasa-tombo, " Umbrella Dragon-fly."
The body of
this creature is said to resemble,
both
in form and color, a closed umbrella of the kind
—
Japanese Miscellany
86
known
harakasa, made of
as
bamboo
split
covered with thick oil-paper.
" Butterfly Dragon-fly."
Cho-tombo,
XI.
—
—
Several varieties of dragon-fly are thus called,
apparently because of wing-markings
of
moths or
is
butterflies.
— Shojo-tombo.
XII.
A
bright-red dragon-fly
so named, simply because of
zoological
its
tint.
—
In the
mythology of China and Japan, the
Shojo figures as a being
more than animal,
—
less
than human, but
appearance resembling
in
boy with long crimson
a stout
—
like those
crimson hair
it
was
dye could be extracted.
is
From
this
The Shojo was supposed
to be very fond of sake;
the creature
hair.
alleged that a wonderful red
commonly
and
in
Japanese
art
represented as dancing
about a saAe-vessel.
Haguro-tombo, " Black -winged Dragon-
XIII.
fly."
— Oni -yamma,
XIV.
This
is
flies.
the largest of
It
body being
is
rather
"
all
Demon
Dragon-fly."
the Japanese dragon-
unpleasantly colored;
the
black, with bright yellow bands and
stripes.
XV.
called
— Ki-yamma, " Goblin Dragon-fly." Also
Ki-Emma, — " Emma," or" Yemma," being
Plate
3
YuREi-TOMBO
(" Ghost" D.y or
KURO-TOMBO
(" Black " D.)
Plate
I.
II.
4
ShojO-Tomeo
Kane-tsuke-To«b6
f" StaineJ-'with-Kani" D.)
Dragon-flies
name
the
87
of the King of Death and Judge of
Souls.
XVI.
— Shoryd-tombo, " The Dragon-fly of the
Ancestral Spirits."
This appellation, as well as
— Shorai-tombo, or
— would appear, so
another of kindred meaning,
" Dragon-fly of the Dead,"
as
I
far
could learn, to be given to
many
kinds of
dragon-fly.
— Yurd-tombo, — " Ghost Dragon-fly."
Various
by
name, — which
XVII.
creatures are called
1
this
thought especially appropriate in the case of one
beautiful Calepteryx,
ting
whose soundless black
flit-
might well be mistaken for the motion of a
shadow,
— the
shadow of a
dragon-fly.
this appellation for the black insect
Indeed
must have been
intended to suggest the primitive idea of shadow
as ghost.
XVIII.
tombo.
— Kane-tsuhe
Either
name
-
tombo,
or
0-haguro
-
refers to the preparation
formerly used to blacken the teeth of married
women, and might be freely rendered as " Toothblackening Dragon-fly."
ble tooth-blackening "
)
0-haguro
or Kane,
(" honora-
were, the terms
by which the tooth-staining infusion was comKane wo tsukeru signified to
monly known.
apply, or, more literally, to wear the stuff thus
:
Japanese Miscellany
88
tombo might be
inter-
ATflwe-stained Dragon-fly."
The
the appellation Kane-tsuhe
"the
preted as
wings of the insect are -half-black, and look as
if
Another
they had been partly dipped in ink.
and equally picturesque name for the creature
is
Koya. " the Dyer."
XIX.
— Ta-no-Kami-tombo,
God
the
of
Rice-fields."
" Dragon-fly
of
This appellation has
been given to an insect variegated with red and
yellow.
XX.
— Yanagi-joro, " The Lady of the Weep-
ing-willow."
A
beautiful,
for the Yanagi-joro
tree.
find that
I
is
name;
but ghostly
the Spirit of the Willow-
two very graceful
species of
dragon-fly are thus called.
XXl.^Seki-i-Shisha, "Red-robed Messenger."
XXII.
— Yamma-tombo.
of doublet
;
yamma
The name
and tombo any sort of dragon-fly.
name
in
is
a sort
signifying a large dragon-fly,
This
for a black-and-green insect, called
is
the
Onjo
Izumo.
— Kuruma-yamma, " Wagon
— probably so-named from the
XXIII.
fly."
appendages of the
Dragondisk-like
tail.
XXIV. —Aka-tombo, " Red Dragon-fly."
name
is
now
given to various species;
The
but the
Plate
5
Haguro-Tomb5
Plate
I.
U.
6
SeKI-I-SHISHA (" Red-Robed Messenger ">
Aka-Tombo
Dragon-flies
insect
especially
the old poets
referred
to
89
Aka-tombo by
as
a small dragon-fly, which
is
is
often
seen in flocks.
XXV.
— Tosumi-tombo, " Lamp-wick Dragon-
A
fly."
very small creature,
cause of
resemblance of
the
pith-wick
slender
— thus
used
the
in
named
body
its
to
bethe
old-fashioned
Japanese lamp.
XXVI.
— Mono-sasU-tombo,
Dragon-fly."
The form of
This also
its
is
" Foot-measure
a very small insect.
body, with the ten joint-mark-
ings, suggested this
name
;
— the
ordinary Jap-
made
of bamboo,
anese foot-measure,
usually
being very
and divided into only ten
narrow,
sun, or inches.
— Beni-tombo.
XXVII.
This
to a beautiful pink dragon-fly,
color.
Beni
Japanese
is
is
the
name given
on account of
its
a kind of rouge, with which the
girl tints
her lips and cheeks on certain
occasions.
XXWUl— Mehura-tombo, " Blind Dragon-fly."
The
creature thus called
dashes
its
large
body
objects in a
room
posed to be
sightless.
is
in so
that
it
not blind
at all
;
but
it
clumsy a way against
was
at
one time sup-
XWX. — Ka-tombo, "Mosquito
Dragon-fly,"
—
—
90
Japanese Miscellany
— perhaps
in the
same sense
American
as the
term " mosquito-hawic."
Kuro-yama-tombo, "Black Mountain-
XXX.
—
so called to distinguish it from
Yama-tombo, or " Mountain Dragon-fly,"
Dragon-fly,"
the
which
is
mostly green.
— Ko-yama-tombd, "
Dragon-fly," — the name of a small
XXXI.
Mountain-
Little
bling the
XXXII.
Yama-tombo
in
form and
— Tsukete-dan.
insect resem-
color.
The word dan is a
woven stuff's; and
general term for variegated
the
name tsukete-dan might be
freely rendered
as " The Wearer of the Many-Colored Robe."
I
believe
name
that
the foregoing
in
requiring further explanation
list
Shorai-tombo, or Sbdryo-tombo, in
its
of " the Dragon-fly of the Dead."
equally
weird
the only
the
is
name
meaning
Unlike the
name Yurei-tombo,
or
" Ghost
Dragon-fly," the term Shorai-tombo does not refer to the appearance of
the insect, but to the
strange belief that certain dragon-flies are ridden
by the dead,
— used
morning of the
as
winged
thirteenth
steeds.
to the
From
the
midnight of
the fifteenth day of the old seventh month,
the
time of
the
Festival
of
the
Bon,
— the
Dragon-flies
91
dragon-flies are said to carry the
the August Spirits of the
any
to molest
flies
who
then
Therefore
during
Buddhist " All-Souls." children are forbidden
revisit
this
former homes.
their
Hotoke-Sama,
Ancestors,
may
that
dragon-flies,
—
especially dragon-
then happen to enter the family
This supposed relation of dragon -flies
dwelling.
to the supernatural world helps to explain an old
folk saying,
still
current in
who
effect that the child
never
belief
image
"obtain
that
is
knowledge."
provinces, to the
Another
dragon-flies
certain
Kwannon-Sama
of
— because
some
catches dragon -flies will
curious
" carry the
(Avalokitesvara),"
the markings upon the backs of the
insects bear
some
faint
resemblance to the form
of a Buddhist icon.
II
Different kinds of dragon-fly show themselves
and the more beautiful spe-
at diff'erent periods
cies,
;
with few exceptions, are the
latest to appear.
All Japanese dragon-flies have been grouped by
old writers into four
classes,
predominant color of each
Green
(or
Blue),
Black
according to the
variety,
(or
— the Yellow,
Dark), and Red
:
!
Japanese Miscellany
92
Dragon-flies.
It
said that the yellow-mariied
is
insects are the earliest to
blue,
and black
appear
varieties first
that the green,
;
show themselves
in
the Period of Greatest Heat; and that the red
kinds are the
come and
to
last
the last to go,
vanishing only with the close of autumn.
—
In a
vague and general way, these statements can be
accepted as results of observation.
the dragon-fly
ture of
autumn
indeed one of
:
Akitsu-mushi,
signifies "
the appellation
is
until the
autumn
Nevertheless,
popularly spoken of as a crea-
is
its
autumn
many names,
And
insect."
really appropriate
;
for
it is
not
that dragon-flies appear in such
multitude as to compel attention.
For the poet,
however, the true dragon-fly of autumn
is
the red
dragon-fly
Aki no ki no
Aka-tombo ni
Sadamarinu.
That the autumn season has begun
[appearance of
is
decided by the
red dragon-fly.
tie']
Onoga mi
ni
wo sonienuku
Tombo kana
Aki
O
[ the
the dragon-fly
color
!
— he
of] autumn
I
has dyed his
own body with
;
!
Dragon-flies
Aki no
Someta
93
no
hi
iro nari
Aka-tombo
Dyed he
dragon-fly
with the color of autumn days
is
— O the red
I
" Spring," says a Japanese poet, "
Autumn
is
the Season
of the Eyes
;
— meaning
that in spring the blossoming of the
trees
the Season of the Ears,"
and the magic of morning haze make dethe eyes, and that in
light for
are
is
But he goes on to say that
autumn
thought
Spring
recall
is
and
faces,
doctrine
the
the period of
so
of
to
Buddhist
impermanency*
promise and of hope
autumn, the time of remembrance and of
And
of
plain-
evoke the memory of vanished years
vanished
of
Those
ears
insects.
pleasure
this
toned with melancholy.
is
tive voices
and
autumn the
charmed by the music of countless
regret.
the coming of autumn's special insect, the
— voiceless
the season
soundless
dragon-fly,
of voices,
— only
change.
Everywhere you
see a silent play of
—
of color continually
fairy
lightnings,
intercrossing,
like
in
makes weirder the
flashes
a
weaving of
aspects of
interminable
!
Japanese Miscellany
94
Thus
enchantment over the face of the land.
an old poet describes
it
:
—
Kurenai no
Kagero hashiru,
Tombo kana
Like a fleeting of crimson gossamer-threads, the flashing
of the dragon-flies.
Ill
For more than
ten centuries the Japanese have
been making verses about dragon-flies
subject
younger poets of
poem about
this
The
to-day.
a dragon-fly
composed, fourteen
ago,
and the
;
remains a favorite one even with the
is
oldest
said to
hundred
and
extant
have been
forty years
by the Emperor Yuriaku. One day while
Emperor was hunting, say the ancient
came and
bit his
arm.
There-
with a dragon-fly pounced upon
that
gadfly,
records, a gadfly
and
devoured
manded
it.
Then
his ministers to
the
Emperor
make an ode
of that dragon-fly.
But as they hesitated
to begin, he himself
composed a poem
of the insect, ending with the words,
—
com-
in praise
how
in praise
"
:
Dragon-flies
95
" Even a creeping insect
Waits upon tlie Great Lord
Thy form it will bear,
O Yamato, land of the dragon-fly
And
1
honor of the loyal dragon-fly, the place
in
was
of the incident
Akitsuno, or the Moor
called
of the Dragon-fly.
The poem
is
attributed to the
written in the
poetry "
poems on
but the later
;
are mostly
Emperor Yuriaku
called naga-uta, or " long-
form
composed
in
the
dragon-flies
briefer
forms of
There are three brief forms,
Japanese verse.
—
the ancient tanha, consisting of thirty-one syllables
;
the popular dodoitsu, consisting of twenty-
and the hohhu, consisting of only
six syllables;
The
seventeen.
poems
are
poems upon the
strange to say
tanha.
The
vast
hokku.
in
!
majority of
subject
— but
friend
dragon-fly
There are scarcely any
in
dodoitsu,
very few in the
who
collected
the verses quoted in this essay, and
for
and
—
classical
me
all
many hun-
dreds more, declares that he read through fifty-
two
the
volumes
Imperial
of
thirty-one-syllable
Library before
he
poetry in
succeeded
in
finding a single composition about dragon-flies;
,
Japanese Miscellany
96
and eventually,
was
poems
after
poetical
syllable
that
further research, he
in tanha.
The reason
old
much
discover only about a dozen such
able to
must be sought
for this
poetry
in
composed according to
is
have been fixed
the
Japanese thirty-one-
conventions.
hundreds of
for
rules
years.
These rules require that almost every subject
treated shall
be considered in some relation to
And
one of the seasons.
this
should be done in
accordance with certain laws of grouping,
— long-
established conventions of association, recognized
both in painting and in poetry: for example,
should be mentioned, or por-
nightingale
the
trayed, together with the plum-tree
the sparrow,
;
with the bamboo; the cuckoo, with the
frogs, with rain
bat,
;
with the willow-tree.
knows something about
it
moon;
the butterfly, with flowers
so happens that
;
the
Every Japanese child
these regulations.
no such
relations
Now,
have been
clearly fixed for the dragon-fly in tanka-ôtixy
— though
the
in pictures
we
often see
it
perched on
edge of a water-bucket, or upon an ear
of ripened
rice.
Moreover,
in the
classification
of subject-groupings for poetry, the dragon-fly
is
not placed
among mushi
(" insects "
— by
—
Dragon-flies
97
which word the poet nearly always means a
some
musical insect of
sort)
,
the horse, cat, dog,
toise,
snake, frog,
Thus the
among
but
a term of very wide signification
for
;
zo,
monkey, crow, sparrow,
— almost
all
—
includes
it
tor-
fauna, in short.
tanka-poems about dragon-
rarity of
why
flies
may
flies
be almost ignored in dodoitsu?
But
be explained.
should dragon-
Probably
for the reason that this form of verse
is
The
devoted to the subject of love.
usually
voiceless
dragon-fly can suggest to the love-poet no such
by the
fancies as those inspired
especially
by those
lingers
the
Out
in
memory
me,
I
find only seven relating, directly
in the
poems on
as
numerous
in
the early autumn.
are
few
that the
7
as
and not one
limited to seventeen
dragon-flies are almost
are the dragon-flies
restraints
rule about
—
form hokku
— the
either as to
;
is in twenty -six-syllable verse.
of the seven
syllables
tryst.
dragon-fly poems col-
or indirectly, to the subject of love
But
—
whose music
some evening
of
of several hundred
lected for
singing-insects,
night-crickets
For
placed
in this
upon the composer,
theme or method.
hokku,
poem
— not
shall
at all
be a
themselves
measure there
little
Almost the only
a rigid one,
—
word-picture,
is
Japanese Miscellany
98
that
seen or
felt,
— that
that
1
am
it
of something
some exnumber of the
shall appeal to
The
perience of sense.
poems
memory
revive the
shall
it
greater
going to quote certainly
fulfil
this requirement: the reader will find that they
pictures,
really
are
— tiny
manner of the Ukiyo-ye
color-prints
school.
any of the following could be
in
the
Indeed almost
delightfully imaged,
with a few touches of the brush, by some Japanese master
:
—
Picture-poems about Dragon-flies
Ine
no ho no
Tombo
tomari
Tarenikeri.
An
upon
ear of rice has bent because a dragon-fly perched
it.
Tombo no
fida ni tsuitari
Wasure-guwa.
See the dragon-fly resting on the handle of the forgotten
mattock .1
*
left
this
The
kuiva
is
shaped
like
a hoe, but is a much heavier tool. When
flat upon the ground, as suggested in
with the heavy blade resting
little
word-picture, the handle remains almost perpendicular.
!!
!
Dragon-flies
99
Tombo no
Kaide yukikeri
Sute waraji.
Dragon-flies have gone to sniff at a pair of cast-off
sandals of straw.
Sode
ni
tsuku
—
Sumi ka ?
obana
Kane-tombo
Is
it
an ink-stain upon a sleeve?
black dragon-fly resting
Hi
ni
— no:
it
is
only the
upon the obana.^
wa naname
Sekiya no yari ni
Tombo kana
See the dragon-fly perching
on the blade of the spear
leaning against the rampart-wall
I
Tombo no
Kusa
ni undeya,
Ushi no tsuno
O dragon-fly how have you wearied of the
you should thus perch upon the horn of a cow
!
grass that
I
^
Obana
is
called susuki,
another name for the beautiful flowering grass usually
to botanists as Euiaria Japonica.
and known
! !
!
!
100
!!
Japanese Miscellany
Kaki-dake no
—
Ippon nagaki
Tombo kana
One
of the bamboo-stakes in that fence seems to be
higher than the others
upon
— but
no
there
!
is
a dragon-fly
it
Kaki-dake to
Tombo
to utsuru
Shoji kana
The shadow of the bamboo-fence, with a dragon-fly
upon it, is thrown upon my paper-window
rest
at
I
Tsurigane ni
Hito-toki yasumi
Tombo kana
See
I
the dragon-fly
is
resting awhile
upon the temple-
bell
O WO motte
Kane
ni muka'dru,
—
Tombo kana
Only with
his tail he thinks to
the great temple-bell,—
O
silly
oppose
dragon-fly
1
[the weight of'\
!
!
!
!
101
Dragon-flies
Naki-hito no
Shirushi no take ni
Tombo kana
Lo
I
a dragon-fly rests
upon the bamboo
that
marks the
grave
Itte wa kite
Tombo taezu
Fune no
About the ropes of the ship the
tsuna.
dragon-flies cease not to
come and go.
Tombo ya
Fune wa nagarete
Todomarazu.
The dragon-fly
down
ceases not to
flit
about the vessel drifting
the stream.
Tombo ya
Hobashira ate
ni
Toku yuku.
O
the dragon-fly
ventures far
!
— keeping an
eye
upon
the mast, he
I
Tombo ya
Hi no kage dekite,
Nami no
Poor dragon-fly
!
ue.
— now that the
scured, he wanders over the waves.
sun has become ob-
!
102
!
!
!
!
Japanese Miscellany
Wata-tori no
Kasa ya tombo no
Hitotsu-zutsu.
Look
is
at the
bamboo-hats of the cotton-pickers
a dragon-fly perched
on each of them
I
— there
!
Nagare-yuku
Awa ni yume miru
Tombo kana
Lo
!
the dragon-fly dreams a dream above the flowing
of the foam-bubbles
Uki-kusa no
Hana
ni
asobu ya,
Aka-tombo
See the red dragon-fly sporting about the blossoms of
the water-weed
Tombo no
Hitoshio akashi
Fuchi no ue.
Much more
red seems the red dragon-fly
when hovering
above the pool.
Tsuri-beta
Sao
ni kite
no
neru
Tombo kana
See
I
the dragon-fly settles
the unskilful angler
I
down
to sleep on the rod of
!!
—
Dragon-flies
105
Tombo no
Ha-ura
ni sabishi,
Aki-shigure.
Lonesomely
leaf
— Ah
I
clings the dragon-fly to the underside of the
the autumn-rains
1
Tombo no
To
bakari tsuku
Kara-e kana
Only ten dragon-flies
spray
—
clinging to the
all
same withered
I
Yosogoto no
Naruko
ni nigeru,
Tombo kana
Poor dragon-fly
1
scared away
never was intended for you
by
the clapper i that
I
Ao-zora ya,
Ka hodo mure-tobu
Aka-tombo.
High
looks
^
in the azure
like a
Naruko.
sky the gathering of red dragon-flies
swarming of mosquitoes.
This clapper, used
crops, consists of a
number
tened to a rope extended across the
the rope
is pulled,
to frighten
away
birds from
the
of pieces of bamboo, or hard wood, fas-
the pieces of
field
wood
or g:arden.
rattle loudly.
When
the end of
!
; ;!
Japanese Miscellany
104
Furu-haka ya
Aka-tombo tobu
Kare shikimi.
Old tomb
!
— [ob/^] a
flitting
witliered [offerings of] shikimi
of red dragon-flies ;
i
[before the grave]
Sabishisa
Tombo
1
— some
!
wo
tobu nari
Haka no
ue.
Desolation —dragon-flies flitting above the graves
1
Tombo
I
tonde,
Koto-naki mura no
Hi go nari.
and the noon-sun is shining,
where nothing eventful ever happens.
Dragon-flies are flitting,
above the
village
YQzuki hi
Usuki tombo no
Ha-kage kana
O the thin
of sunset
' It
is
shadow of the
the custom to set sprays of shikimi in
the graves of Buddhist dead.
cally
dragon-fly's wings in the light
1
known as
This shikimi
Illicium religiosum.
is
a
bamboo vases before
Icind of anise, botani-
!!
!
Dragon-flies
lo^
Tombo no
Kabe wo kakayuru
Nishi-hi kana
O that
sunlight
from the West, and the dragon-fly
cling-
ing to the wall
Tombo
toru
Iri-hi ni tori
no
Metsuki kana
O the
expression of that cock's eyes in the sunset-light
— trying to catch a dragon-fly
!
Tombo no
Mo ya
iri-hi
no
Issekai.
Dance,
your world of the
dragon-flies, in
Nama-kabe
setting sun
!
ni
Yii-hi sasunari
Aka-tombo.
To
the freshly-plastered wall a red dragon-fly clings in
the light of the setting-sun .1
is
1 This is a tiny color-study.
supposed to be a warm grey.
The
tint of
the freshly-plastered wall
!
Japanese Miscellany
106
Deru
Iri-hi
tsuki to
no
ai
ya
—
Aka-tombo.
In the
of the
time between the setting of the sun and the rising
moon
— red
dragon-flies.
Yu-kage ya,
Nagare
ni hitasu
Tombo no
The dragon-fly
at
o
dusk dips her
tail
into the running
stream.
IV
The foregoing compositions are by old authors
mostly few modern hokku on the subject have
The
the same naive quality of picturesqueness.
:
older poets
seem to have watched the ways of
the dragon-fly with a patience and a freshness of
curiosity
impossible
They made
liarities,
to
verses about
— even
this
all
its
habits
and pecu-
about such matters as the queer
propensity of the creature to return
in succession to
generation.
busier
many
times
any spot once chosen for a perch.
Sometimes they praised the beauty of
its
wings,
Dragon-flies
107
and compared them to the wings of devas or
Buddhist angels; sometimes they celebrated the
imponderable grace of
its
and lightness of
stillness
times they jested
about
— the ghostly
hovering,
its
motion
its
waspish appearance
and some-
;
of anger, or about the goblin oddity of
They
change the direction of
play of
its
its
in
its stare.
which
it
can
course, or reverse the
wings with the sudden turn that sug-
modern Japanese word
gested the
sault,
way
noticed the wonderful
— tombogaeri
('
for a somer-
'dragon -fly -turning ")}
the dazzling rapidity of
its
—
flight
In
invisible but
as a needle-gleam of darting color
— they found
a similitude for impermanency.
But they per-
ceived
was
that
lightning
this
flight
of short
duration, and that the dragon-fly seldom travels
unless pursued, preferring to
far,
spot
day long.
all
Some thought
to record in verse that at sunset
flock towards the glow,
flies
when
flit
it
all
about one
worth while
the dragon-
and that they
rise
the sun sinks below the horizon,
high in
air
—
they hoped to obtain from the altitudes
as
one
1
is
if
last
sight of the vanishing splendor.
They
"
Tombogaifi wo utsu, " to throw a dragon-fly-turning
the Japanese expression corresponding with our phrase,
"to turn
a somersault."
!
108
Japanese Miscellany
remarked that the dragon-fly cares nothing for
flowers,
and
rather than
apt to light
is
what pleasure
of a fence or
could find in resting on the
it
upon the horn of a cow.
marvelled at
sticks
its
or stones,
its
to see
it
when
stupidity
—
as
danger as away from
with
upon stakes or stones
upon blossoms; and they wondered
with
often flying toward the
But they sympathized
it.
burst through the meshes.
sitions, will
Also they
attacked
struggles in the spider's net,
ing examples, selected
rail
and rejoiced
The
follow-
from hundreds of compo-
serve to suggest the wide range of
these curious studies:
—
Dragon-flies and Sunshine
Tombo
ya,
Hi no sasu katae
Tate-yuku
O
dragon-fly
!
ever towards the sun
Hiatari
you
rise
and soar
I
no
Dote ya hinemosu
Tombo
Over the
and
fro.
sunlit
bank,
all
tobu.
day long, the dragon-flies flit to
!
!
!!
!
!
109
Dragon-flies
Go-roku shaku
Onoga kumoi no
Tombo kana
Poor dragon-fly
!
— the
[blue] space of five or six feet
[above him] he thinks to be his
own sky
Tombo no
Muki wo soroeru
Nishi-hi kana
Ah, the sunset-glow
Now
!
all
the
dragon-flies are
shooting in the same direction.
Tombo ya
Sora e hanarete
Kurekakari,
Dusk approaches
:
see
!
the
dragon-flies
have
risen
toward the sky
Hoshi hitotsu
Miru made asobu
Tombo kana
O
dragon-fly
appears
I
!
you continue
to sport until the
first star
! !
!
110
Japanese Miscellany
Flight of Dragon-flies
To yama ya,
Tombo tsui-yuki,
Tsui-kaeru.
Quickly the dragon-fly starts for the distant mountain,
but as quickly returns.
Yukiote,
Dochiramo soreru
Tombo kana
Meeting
glance
in flight,
how
wonderfully do the dragon-flies
away from each other
Narabu ka to
wa soreru
Tombo kana
Mlete
Lo the dragon-flies
away from each other.
I
that
Mentioned
seemed to
in
fly in line all scatter
Love-Songs
KagerS no
Kage tomo ware wa
Nari ni keri
Aruka nakika no
Kimi ga nasake
ni.
!
!
! !
!
111
Dragon-flies
Even as the shadow of a dragon-fly 1
have become, by
1
reason of the slightness of your love.
Obotsu kana
Yume ka ?
utsusu ka
?
Kagero no
Honomeku
yori
Hakanakarishi
O my
doubt
!
Is it
than even the dim
a
dream or a
flitting of
mo
wa
reality
a dragon-fly
?
— more fugitive
2
!
Tombo ya
Mi wo
Naki
Happy dragon-fly
!
mo kogasazu,
mo sezu
— never self-consumed by longing,—
never even uttering a cry
!
Strangeness and Beauty
Tombo no
Kao wa okata
Medama kana
O
eyes
the face of the dragon-fly
I
— almost
nothing but
I
» The word kagiro here means " dragon-fly." There is another word
kagero meaning "gossamer." Though written alilte in Romaji, these
two terms are represented in Japanese by very different characters.
2 The thought suggested is,
"Can it be true that we were ever
—
united,
"
even for a moment?
!!
!
!
Japanese Miscellany
112
Koe naki wo,
Tombo munen
ni
Miyuru kana
O dragon-fly! you appear
you have no voice
Semi
ni
to be always angry because
makenu
Hagoromo
mocliishi,
Tombo kana
O
dragon-fly
I
the celestial raiment
wise inferior to that of the cicada
i
you possess
is
no-
!
Lightness of Dragon-flies
Tsubame
yori
Tombo wa mono mo
Ugokasazu.
More
lightly even than the
swallow does the dragon-fly
touch things without moving them.
Tombo
ya,
Tori no fumarenu
Eda no
*
saki
Literally " feather-robe " (hagoromo)
supposed to be
inhabitants of the Buddhist
wearer to soar through space
beautiful insect to such a fairy
to the raiment
;
;
— this
is
the
name given
—
worn by the "Sky-People"
angelic
heaven.
The hagoromo enables its
and the poet compares the wings of the
robe.
!
!
!
!!
!
Dragon-flies
O
dragon-fly,
you perch on
113
the tip of the spray where
never a bird can tread
Stupidity of
Dragon -flies
Utsu-tsue no
Saki ni tomarishi,
Tombo kana
O
dragon-fly
with which one
!
you
light
upon the end of
you down
the very stick
tries to strike
Tachi-kaeru
Tombo tomaru
Tsubute kana
See!
that
the dragon-fly returns to perch
was thrown
at
upon the pebble
it
Dragon-flies and Spiders
Kumonosu no
Atari ni asobu
Tombo kana
Ah! the poor
web
I
dragon-fly, sporting beside the spider's
!
!!
!
Japanese Miscellany
114
Sasagami no
Ami no hazurete,
Tombo kana
Good
dragon-fly
net of the spider
— he has extricated himself from the
!
I
Kumo
mo
gaki
Yaburu kihoi ya,
Oni -tombo
his
Through even the spider's fence he has force to burst
way
O the demon-dragon-fly
!
—
!
Heedless of Flowers
Tombo ya
Hana-no
ni
mo me wa
Hosorasezu.
Ah, the dragon-fly! even
half-shuts his eyes
in
the flower-field he never
i
!
Tombo ya
ni wa yorade,
Hana
Ishi
O
upon
*
the dragon-fly
a stone
!
no
ue.
— heedless
of the flowers, he Ughts
I
Alluding to the fact that one half-closes one's eyes,
shadow them, and so
beautiful
object.
to see
— Perhaps
more
distinctly,
— when
the rendering, "never
— In
order to
looking at some
makes
his eyes
narrower," would better express the exact sense of the original.
!
!
!
11^
Dragon-flies
Tombo ya
Hana naki kui
ni
Sumi-narai.
Ah, the dragon-fly
content to dwell upon a flowerless
!
stake
Neta ushi no
Tsuno
ni hararenu,
Yamma
O
dragon-fly
great
the sleeping
ox
I
will
kana
you never
leave the
horn of
?
Kui no saki
Nanika ajiwo
Tombo kana ?
dragon-fly
I
that fence-stake
?
Of
course
what can you be tasting on the top of
tliese
compositions
appeal to sesthetic sentiment
curious, for the
most
:
make
but slight
they are merely
But they help us to
part.
understand something of the soul of the elder
Japan.
The people who could
find delight, cen-
tury after century, in watching the ways of
sects,
and
in
making such
must have comprehended,
verses about
better
simple pleasure of existence.
in-
them,
than we, the
They could
not,
Japanese Miscellany
116
indeed, describe the magic of nature as our great
Western poets have done; but they could
the beauty of the world without
of
they could have seen the dragon-fly as
we
can see
much
after the
and happy children.
inquisitive
elfish
sorrow, and
manner
rejoice in that beauty,
If
its
it,
—
if
head with
compound
eyes,
microscope,
they could have looked
jewelled ocelli,
its
its
its
at that
marvellous
astonishing mouth, under the
— how
much more
extraordinary
would the creature have seemed to them
And
feel
though wise enough to have
yet,
fresh naive pleasure in natural observation
colors the
work of
these quaint
not so very
much
to the real
wonder of the
poets,
!
.
.
.
lost that
which
we
are
wiser than they were in regard
insect.
We
are able
only to estimate more accurately the immensity
of our ignorance concerning
it.
Can we
ever
hope for a Natural History with colored plates
that will
show
us
how
the world appears to the
faceted eyes of a dragon-fly
Catching
?
dragon-flies has been for hundreds of
years a favorite amusement of Japanese children.
!
!
Dragon-flies
It
117
begins with the hot season, and lasts during the
greater part of the autumn.
poems about
the
little
bankments, and
dirty
To-day, just as
down em-
and scratch and
—
quagmires, —
themselves most fearfully,
—
old
in other cen-
they tumble
:
into ditches,
fall
thorns or mud-holes or
heat,
many
recklessness of
excitement of the chase leads them
sorts of trouble
all
There are
— describing the
hunters.
turies, the
into
it,
heedless of
heedless even of the dinner-hour
Meshi-doki
of
heedless
—
:
mo
Modori wasuret^,
Tombo-tsuri
Even
at the
return home,
hour of the noon-day meal they forget to
— the
children catching dragon-flies
I
Hadaka-go no
Tombo
tsuri-keri
Hiru no
The naked
road-crossing,
child has been
— heedless
tsuji
catching dragon-flies at the
of the noon-sun!
But the most celebrated poem
amusement
is
in relation to this
of a touching character.
It
was
!
118
Japanese Miscellany
by the famous female
written
Kaga, after the death of her
Tombo-tsuri
poet,
little
Chiyo of
boy:
—
—
!
Kyo wa doko made
Itta
yara
" Catching dragon-flies
...
I
I
wonder where he has
gone to-day "
!
The
verse
is
intended to suggest, not to express,
She sees children
the emotion of the mother.
running after dragon-flies, and thinks of her
dead boy who
used to join in the sport,
own
— and
so finds herself wondering, in presence of the
Mystery, what has become of the
infinite
soul.
Whither has
play does
it
now
it
gone
—
?
find delight
in
little
what shadowy
?
Dragon-flies are captured sometimes with nets,
sometimes by means of bamboo rods smeared
at
the end with birdlime,
striking
them down with
The use of
approved
to injure
— by
;
it
sometimes even by
a light stick or switch.
a switch, however,
for the insect
unnecessarily
is
is
reason, perhaps, of
is
not
commonly
thereby maimed, and
thought to be unlucky,
its
supposed relation to
Dragon-flies
A
the dead.
fly-catching
provinces
—
very successful method of dragon-
—
is
practised
chiefly
in
One end
fastened to the insect's
tail,
of a long thread
way
in a particular
on her wings
circling
thread; and a male
By moving
the
the female can be kept
at
is
is
and the other end
of the thread to a flexible rod.
rod
Western
the
to use a captured female dragon-
as a decoy.
fly
119
the full length of the
soon
As soon
attracted.
as he clings to the female, a slight jerk
of the
rod will bring both insects into the angler's hand.
With
a single female for lure,
it
is
easy to cap-
ture eight or ten males in succession.
During these dragon-fly hunts the
usually sing
little
proach.
There are
and they
differ
song of
many
such dragon-fly songs
the traditional
^
;
An Izumo
according to province.
this class
children
songs, inviting the insect to ap-
contains a curious allusion to
conquest of Korea
in
the third
century by the armies of the Empress Jingo;
—
the male dragon-fly being thus addressed:
" Thou, the male, King of Korea, art not
ashamed
1
372.
to flee
from
the
Queen of
the
East?"
Cited in Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan; vol.
II.,
p.
!
120
Japanese Miscellany
Tokyo to-day
In
usually sing the
the
dragon-fly hunters
little
following: —
Tombo! tombo!
O-tomari
!
—
Ashita no ichi
ni,
Shiokara kote,
Neburasho
Dragon-fly
row
lick
at the
it
I
dragon-fly
market
I
will
I
honorably wait
I
— to-mor-
buy some shiokara and
let
you
I
Children also find amusement in catching the
popular names; but
is
usually called in
taiho-mushi, or " drum-insect," because
forelegs in the
its
moves
A
most
— and
and
fly
this
it,
moves
water somewhat as a
extraordinary
ince of Kii.
end of
it
Tokyo
man
arms while playing upon a drum.
his
dragon-flies
hair,
many
This larva has
larva of the dragon-fly.
is
device
for
catching
used by the children of the prov-
They
get a long hair,
— a woman's
attach a very small pebble to each
so as to form a miniature "bolas";
they sling high into the
air.
A
dragon-
pounces upon the passing object; but the
Dragon-flies
moment
his
him
that he seizes
it,
121
the hair twists round
body, and the weight of the pebbles brings
to
the
method of
ground.
I
wonder
bolassing dragon-flies
where outside of Japan.
is
whether
this
known any-
Buddhist
Names
of Plants
and Animals
Names
Buddhist
of Plants
and Animals
$
AT
one time
I
hoped to compile a glossary of
the Buddhist
names given
animals and plants
lect material for
little
about the real
and
I
one,
is
diiferent;
began to
may
I
and
from the
of fishermen
could
;
and
that
insects,
Such names must be
birds.
learned, of course,
observe
and the difference appears
even in the names given to certain plants,
reptiles, fishes,
col-
knew very
Japan the folk-
that in almost every province of
speech
I
then
such an under-
difficulties of
To mention only
taking.
;
But
the work.
to Japanese
of peasants and
lips
which
1
wished to do
never be well done except through the
patient labors of a folklore society.
And now
1
find that, instead
of being able to prepare the
glossary intended,
I
must content myself with
few general notes upon the
125
subject.
a
;
Japanese Miscellany
126
But perhaps these notes
taking for which
I
—
nor the means
scholarship
a suggestive
relics
of an under-
possessed neither the requisite
—
will
have
future explorers
worth to
at least
this
in
unfamiliar region of Far-Eastern folklore.
*
* *
The name Buddha appears
in the appellations
Marubushukan, or
of several trees and plants.
" Round-Fingers-of-Buddha,"
kind of lemon-tree,
— so
markable shape of
its fruit.
cus
is
is
called
called Bussoge, or "
the
name
of a
from the very
The Chinese
re-
hibis-
Buddha's mulberry "
and a variety of rock-moss
is
popularly
known
by the picturesque names of Hotoke-no-tsume
and Bukkosd.
Buddha."
— which
A
—
hoih. signifying "Finger-nails of
kind of
Chinese characters,
tato "
;
yam
is
called
signifies
" Buddha's-hand po-
and a variety of clover
name Hotoke-no-ia,
Names
Tsuhune-imo,
appellation, as written with the proper
is
honored by the
or " Buddha's-throne."
of Bodhisattvas and of other Buddhist
divinities are also to
be found in the appellations
of plants and animals.
The name of Kwannon
(Avalokitesvara) appears in the term
Kwannon-
:
Buddhist Names
chihu, or "
Bamboo
different plants are
of
Kwannon "
known,
127
and several
;
in different provinces,
by the name Kwannon-so, or " Herb of Kwannon." The name of Fugen (Samantabhadra)
has been given to a variety of cherry-tree,
Fugen-âkura, or " Fugen's cherry-tree."
name
— the
The
of Dai-Mokukenren (Mahamaudgalytyana),
— shortened
by popular usage
figures both in the
common
into
Mokuren,
appellation of the
Ficus pumila, known as Mokuren, and
the Magnolia conspicua,
—
in that of
HakuThe name of
Japanese Buddhism as Bonusually called
mokuren, or " White-Mokuren."
— known to
— appears the
Brahma,
ten,
in
upland
rice,
designation of a kind of
Bonten-mai.
The memory of Bo-
dai-Daruma (Bodhidharma)
is
preserved in the
popular appellation of the Aster spatufolium,
called
Daruma-gihu, or " Daruma's chrysanthe-
mum,"
—
as well as in the
name
of the
swamp-
cabbage, Daruma-so, or " Daruma's plant."
fishes also
have been named after
this patriarch
the Priacanthus Niphonius, which
is
called
ruma-dai, or " Daruma's sea-bream "
Synanceia erosa, popularly known
kasago, — "kasago"
of the
Two
;
as
Da-
and the
Darumaname
being properly the
fish scientifically called sebastes
inermis.
Japanese Miscellany
128
More curious than any of
is the popular name
the above terms,
ever,
weevil,
Kokuô,
appellation of
how-
for a species of grain-
— " Kokuzo " being the Japanese
the great Bodhisattva AkSsapra-
tishthita.
The term Bosatsu (Bodhisattva) also appears
some plant-names. A variety of rose is
known as the Bosatsu-ibara, or " Thorny-Rose
in
of
and
Bodhisattva";
the
a
kind of
The term Rakan (Arhat) forms a
oak,"
is
the popular
name
Thuya dolo-
of the
Rahan-sbo, or "Arhat's Pine,"
brata.
common
appellation of the
phylla; and the
"
("
the
or " Arhat's
maki " being the Japanese name for
the umbrella-pine.
I
is
Podocarpus macro-
name Rakan-maki,
the podocarpus chinensis)
which
prefix to
Rahan-haku, or " Arhat's
several plant-names.
And
cannot find the
several provinces
it
is
Bosatsu.
called
mahi
rice
scientific
been given to
of a tree, of
name,
is
called in
Rakan, or " the Arhat," because
curiously resembles
images of Arhats
— has
the fruit
set
up
in
shape the rude stone
in temple-gardens.
Kukai, or Kobodaishi, the great Japanese patriarch of the Shingon
sect, also
has a place in this
-
Buddhist Names
Kobo-mtigi, or "
nomenclature.
daishi,"
common name
a
is
rocephala
for
129
Wheat of Kobothe Car ex mac-
and a variety of chestnut
;
Kobodaishi - kawaû -no-huri,
called
is
— " The Chestnut
that Kobodaishi did not eat."
Many names
to
of plants or living creatures refer
Buddhist customs, legends,
The word bdû, "
word " bonze
")
are
known,
the
name
— has
No
plant-names.
priest "
or
rites,
— (the
beliefs.
origin of our
been attached to several
than three different herbs
less
in different parts of the country,
of Boûgusa, or " Priest-grass."
the dialect of Chikuzen a kind of turtle
Umi-boû, or "Priest of the Sea,"
by the way,
is
—a
also given to a mythical
by
In
called
name,
marine
monster, often represented in Japanese picturebooks.
The name of
the
famous Bo-tree of
Buddhist tradition has been given in Japan, not
only to the
Ficus religiosa,
miqueliana,
Tilia
(Bodhidruma)
.
The
but also
popularly
the spring-equinox, the festival
or
festival of
of the
" Further Shore," has furnished
the
Bodaiju
called
great Buddhist
to
Higan,
names
for
blossom about that time, — the
two
plants which
Higan-iahura or " Higan cherry-tree " (Prunus
9
"
Japanese Miscellany
1^0
miqueliana), and the Higan-bana, or "Flower
of
What we term
Higan" {Lycoris radiata).
Zu\udama,
" Job's Tears " are in Japan called
or Buddhist rosary-beads; and a kind of dove
is
known
— as
— probably
because of its markings
Zu\uhake-hato , or " Rosary-bearing
the
The Allium
Dove."
victoriale
is
ninniku, or " Hermit's garlic "
the Buddhist term for hermit)
lar
Japanese
name
for
the
Keman-so, or " Keman-htrh,"
called
Gyoja-
(" gyoja " being
;
and the popu-
Bleeding-heart
— an
is
appellation
probably due to the resemblance of the flower
to the
Keman, or
decoration, placed
head of the statue of
Buddha.
water-arum has the most curious of
Buddhist appellations
len-so
literally
all
such
Japanese name, Koku-
its
:
upon the
Perhaps the
the
signifies
" Small-sitting-in-
Dhylna-meditation-plant.
—
The word Sennin,
commonly translated as
"Genius" or "Fairy," but originally meaning
Rishi,
—a
being
who
has acquired supernatural
power and unlimited
practices,
A
or
— occasionally
variety of Clematis
"Fairy-weed";
life
by force of
ascetic
appears in plant-names.
is
known
as Sennin-so,
and a kind of cactus has
Buddhist Names
131
received the grotesque appellation of Sennin-sho,
"Sennin's-Palm,"
or
being referred
The
— the
palm of the hand
to.
term Yaksha, signifying a man-
Sanscrit
devouring demon, appears in several plant-names
under
of the
Japanese form,
its
Aldus firma
" Yaksha's- joint
"
bushi, or
is
— Yasha.
known by
The cone
picturesquely called Yasha-
is
;
name
the curious
and a water-plant
of Yasha-bishahu,
or " Yaksha's Ladle."
Very many Japanese
birds, fishes,
and
of
vegetables,
word Oni, a Buddhist term
as a prefix the
"demon"
speech we
names
have attached to them
insects,
or "devil,"
—
for
just as in English folk-
have such names for plants and insects
" Devil's-apron, " " Devil-wood," " Devil'sfingers," " Devil's-horse," and " Devil's-damingas
needle."
the
The
equally
tiger-lily
fantastic
A
"Devil-lily."
ûiudama,
or
bur-marigold
is
known in Japan by
name of Oni-yuri, or
is
species of coix
" Devil's
called
called
is
rosary-beads."
Oni-bari,
Oni-
The
"Devil's
or
needle"; and a water-weed, injurious to lotoscultivation,
is
popularly termed the
or " Demon-lotos."
This prefix of
Oni-basu,
Oni
is
prob-
—
Japanese Miscellany
1)2
ably attached to hundreds of folk-names of flora
and fauna
:
seventy-one
them
have myself collected no
I
examples.
than
less
few
Nevertheless,
of
are interesting.
The word Kijin, or Kishin, signifying a kind
of goblin recognized
by Japanese Buddhism,
of needle-grass
lin-weed."
known
is
is
— for
example, a sort
as Kishin-so, or " Gob-
similarly used as a prefix
;
word
Kijo, another Buddhist
signi-
fying a kind of female goblin, appears in the
common name
of
" Goblin-orchid."
an
orchid,
Also there
sometimes figures
in
Pardanthus cUnensis, for
Japan
meaning
Kisen,
or goblin,
plant-names:
instance,
is
devilish
the
called in
"Goblin-fan."
worthy of remark that these
or
—
a prefix, Ki,
demon
abbreviation of a term for
which
— Kijoran,
is
It
names
is
are
given to vegetables or to animals, not merely
because of some ugly or extraordinary shape,
but even because of remarkable
is
called
lark," because
it
happens to be a
than the
common
of dragon-fly
size.
Oni-hibari, or "
species of lark
field-lark
;
much
Thus a
Demon-
larger bird
and a very large kind
same reason
Oni-yamma, or "Demon-dragonfly."
is
designated for the
Buddhist Names
Many
Buddhist names, both of creatures and
A
of plants, are ghostly.
hopper
1)3
is
horse";—
pretty green
grass-
Hotohe-uma, or " the Buddha-
called
head
the
of
the
insect
curiously
But
resembling the head of a horse in shape.
the
word hotoke
person,
—
also
means the
spirit
good persons being supposed by
all
popular faith to become Buddhas
;
— and the
meaning of the name Hotohe-uma
of the Dead."
Now
is
real
"The Horse
during the great three-days'
the
Dead
in
believed that
many
spirits revisit their
Festival of
is
of a dead
the seventh month,
it
homes,
or their former friends, either with the help of
insects or actually in the
name
form of
used as a horse by the shadowy
Again,
we
find the
word
sboryo,
The
insects.
of this grasshopper really implies that
visitors.
is
it
.
.
.
— a general term
for the spirits of ancestors worshipped according
to Buddhist
rite,
— coupled
name
with the
of a
dragon-fly: Shoryo-yamma, "the Dragon-fly of
the Ancestral Spirits."
Shorai-tombo, or " Ghost
Dragon-fly," and Ki-yamma, a term of similar
meaning, are names likewise intended to suggest
the relation of the insect to the invisible world.
Equally weird
cricket
is
is
known
the
in
name by which
the
dialect of
the mole-
Kyoto,
—a
—
Japanese Miscellany
134
name probably
suggested
by the
creature's under-
Shbrai-mushi, or "Ghost-insect."
ground
life,
Among
appellations of plants
one
finds also such
terms as Yurei-dake, or " Ghost -bamboo," and
the latter
Yurei-bana, or " Ghost-flower,"
—
name being
of delicate
Some
not inappropriately given to a species
mushroom.
of the Buddhist names, although highly
interesting in themselves, could not be understood
by the Western reader without the help of
rial illustration,
picto-
because they have reference to the
furniture of temples, or to particular articles used
Such, for example,
in Buddhist religious service.
is
the
name
(Sanscrit,
shaped
known
of a tree popularly
yadjra)
much
as
Sanko-
— the term " Sanko "
—
signifying a
matsu, or " Sanko-pine "
;
brass object,
like the classic representation of a
thunderbolt, with prongs at either end,
priests use in certain rites as a
natural power.
Such
also
is
— which
symbol of super-
the
name Hossugai,
or " Hossu-shtW" given to the beautiful glass-
sponge, Hyalonema Sieboldii, because of
semblance to the " hossu,"
its
re-
— a brush or duster of
long white hair used in Buddhist religious service.
And
such, again,
is
the excellent
name
of a
little
Buddhist Names
Koromo-semi, or " Priest's-robe
insect called the
form and
cicada," because the general
the
when
creature,
suggest
really
" koromo."
13?
with
resting
the
figure
of
color of
wings,
closed
a priest
in
But unless you had seen the
and the kind of " koromo " thus referred
his
insect,
you
to,
could not appreciate the graphic worth of the
appellation.
Very remarkable Buddhist names have been
given to some species of birds.
known to
which
is
ornithologists as
called
Eurystomus
Bupposo, because
the sound of the
There
a bird,
orientalis,
cry resembles
its
word Bupposo.
is
This word
is
a
Japanese equivalent for the Sanscrit term Triratna
or Ratnatraya,
lable
Bu
" Three Jewels "
;
— the
syl-
standing for Butsu, " the Buddha "
po, for ho, "the
hood."
—
The
Law"
bird
is
;
and
also
so, for
called
"the
;
Priest-
Sambocho, or
"the Sambd-bvcd ";
— the word " Sambo" being
a
of Triratna.
literal translation
of which
is
called
do not know the
I
the Jihishincho,
Mind-Bird,"
— because
its
Another
bird,
scientific appellation,
or " Compassionatecall
resembles
the
utterance of the phrase Jihi-sUn, " Compassionate Mind,"
which forms one of the
epithets of
Japanese Miscellany
136
my
" This bird,"
the Buddha.
informant writes,
only in the neighborhood of Nikko, where
lives
in the
summer
out,
O thou
'
it
is
heard continually crying
!
—O
thou
!'"... Almost equally
common Buddhist name for the
Mind
Compassionate
interesting
may be
Compassionate Mind
the
hototogisu (Cticulus poliocephalus)
,
a species of
cuckoo much celebrated by Japanese poets.
called
Mujo-dori,
" the
or
name would
nency."
This
derived
from the
appear to be
not
bird's note,
which
interpreted as " Horizon kaketaka
?"
"
is
the
sacred
picture
popularly
is
— meaning,
" Has the horizon yet been suspended
" honzon
It is
Imperma-
Bird of
?
(The
"
displayed
in
temples upon the eighth day of the fourth month,
—
its
a
little
before the time at which the bird
annual
appearance.)
probable that the
tion, " Bird of
Death "
;
—
seems to
It
name was
meaning of death
meaning
is
me more
given in the significa-
for the
also the
makes
word mujo has
as change;
and
that the hototogisu
spirit- world.
It is
is
supposed to come from the
also called
Tama-muha'e-dori,
or the " Ghost-welcoming Bird," because
said to
on
meet and to greet the
their
this
strongly suggested by the strange fact
spirits
it
is
of the dead
journey over the Mountain of Shid^ to
Buddhist Names
There are
River of Souls.
the
137
many
ghostly
legends and fancies about the hototogisu
weird folklore sufficiently explains
this
bird
is
known
in the provinces
the
than
less
names!
fifty-two different
The uguisu, a
by no
and
;
why
variety of nightingale, and the
sweetest-voiced of
Japanese singers, does not
all
appear to have any popular Buddhist
said to be
its
flute-like call
the
word Hohhekyo, which
is
is
name
;
but
an utterance of
the popular
name
for the Saddharma-Pundarika-Sutra, — the grand
scripture of the Nichiren or
Hokke
And
sect.
Buddhist piety asserts that the bird passes
its
life
in chanting the praise of the SQtra of the Lotos of
the
Good Law.
So
that the uguisu
snowy
relation to
"
Bonno"
is
desire, lust, passion
why
it
The
Buddhism
is
the
heron, to which the extraordinary appella-
tion of Bonno-sagi, or
given.
really re-
Another bird which
garded as a Buddhist bird.
seems to have some
is
;
" Bonno-htro-a,"
has been
a Buddhist
term for worldly
am
not able to say
and
appears in the
I
name
of the bird.
difficulty of guessing at the origin of these
Buddhist names cannot even be imagined without
the help of examples.
The
literal
meaning, in
Japanese Miscellany
138
many
cases, serves
only to mislead investigation.
For instance, the hammer-headed shark
on
parts of the
Kyushu
by the
coast
Priest."
invocation, "
tion to the
pious of
Namu Amida
sects as
the
Butsu
Buddha Amitibha
many
is
!)
known
" Nembutstiname of the
nary appellation, Nemhutsu-bo, or
The word Nembutsu
is
extraordi-
"
!
—
(Saluta-
—uttered by the
a prayer, and especially as
The grim suggestiveness
name Nembuisu-bo reminded me that the
a prayer for the dead.
of the
modem
Littre,
French word for shark
is,
according to
only a corruption of "Requiem,"
Dutertre in 166 7) that for the
a shark there
was nothing
chant his requiem.
But
ing that the Buddhist
1
for
the
is
was wrong
which the
tition
(1
monster,
peculiar
real
implied
meaning
"
T
name
— Shumohu-iame,
The word
priest strikes a
of the
may
The
proved by another Buddhist
same
a
imagin-
in
name Nembutsu-bo
" Shumoku-shaxk."
signifies
caught by
to be done except to
something of the same kind.
of the term
man
— the
by P^re
appellation originally implying (as stated
"-shaped
"
or
"
Shumoku
mallet
gong during the
Nembutsu and of other
with
repe-
prayers.
observe that the same kind of mallet
is
used to sound a gong during the chanting of the
Buddhist Names
Nembutsu,
in
139
some pious houseliolds, before the
It was this
use of the mallet
family shrine.)
and gong, during the
tion, that
repetition of
suggested the term
an alternate name for
" Mallet-shark
Nembutsu-bo
but
"The
;
"
is
the
the invoca-
Nembutsu-bo
as
Shumohu-âme, or
— and
the true signification of
"
The Nembutsu-Priest,"
not
Priest with the Mallet."
Songs
of
Japanese Children
Songs
Japanese Children
of
UNDER
the
influence
of
twenty-seven
thousand public schools the old folkliterature of Japan, the unwritten litera-
ture of song and tradition,
of
memory.
Even within
is
rapidly passing out
my own
recollection
one variety of
this oral literature, partly corre-
sponding to our
own
literature of the nursery, has
been greatly affected by the new order of things.
When
I
first
came
to Japan the children were
singing the old songs which they had been taught
by
their
grandfathers
and grandmothers,
home-teaching being usually
parents.
But to-day the
little
left
— the
to the grand-
folk, at play in the
streets or in the temple-courts, are singing
songs learned in the class-room,
— songs
music written according to the Western
and the far
now
more
new
set to
scale
;
—
interesting pre-Meiji songs are
but seldom heard.
143
Japanese Miscellany
144
As
yet,
gotten,
—
however, they are not entirely forpartly because
separably connected with
suddenly superseded,
still
alive
some
organ-playing
— partly
who
I
are in-
that cannot be
because there are
never
schoolmasters,
hear the children repeat the
But
them
of
games
millions of delightful grandfathers
grandmothers
and
many
studied
and who
ditties
under
like
to
of long ago.
suppose that after these charming old peo-
ple have been gathered to their ancestors,
most of
the songs which they taught will cease to be sung.
Happily the Japanese folklorists have been exerting themselves to preserve such unwritten literature
;
and their labors have enabled
me
to attempt
the present paper.
Out
of a great
number of the old-time
child-
songs and nonsense-verses, carefully copied and
translated for
me,
I
have endeavored to make a
fairly representative selection,
examples under six
order
I.
II.
:
—
— grouping
subject-titles, in the
— Songs of Weather and Sky.
— Songs about Animals.
— Miscellaneous Play-Songs.
— Narrative Songs.
111.
IV.
all
the
following
V.
— Battledoor and
—
very loose, especially as re-
classification is
gards the third group
fied
Ball Songs.
Lullabies.
VI.
The
14^
by the strangely
;
but
think that
I
it is
indefinite character of
justi-
many
compositions.
Of
course the plain English renderings can give
an idea of the Japanese verses only as flowers
pressed and dried between the leaves of a
book
can represent the living blossoms in their natural
The queer rhythm of
environment.
less lines,
—
—
and
bird-warblings,
curious
the
rhyme-
the naivete of the Japanese words, the
airs,
little
dilTicult
to
sweet
the
memorize
as
freshness
of
many child-voices chanting in unison these help
make the true charm of the original song, and
:
to
all
are equally irreproducible.
A
good deal of the
these cullings
find
;
exotic
but the
may
be discovered in
reader will occasionally
something to remind him of familiar nursery-
rhymes.
Children,
feel in nearly the
and sing of
all
the world over, think and
same way on
like experiences.
certain subjects,
almost every
In
country they sing about the sun and the moon,
about wind and
rain,
about flowers and
10
— about birds and
and brooks —
trees
;
beasts,
—
—
also about
!!!! !
146
Japanese Miscellany
such daily household duties as drawing water,
making
that,
fire,
cooking and washing.
even within
these
limits,
Yet
the
1
believe
diiTerences
between Japanese child -literature and other childliterature will
be found more interesting than the
resemblances.
I
SONGS OF WEATHER AND SKY
(Tokyo Sunset-song.)
Yu-yake
Ko-yake
Ashita
wa
tenki ni nare.
Evening-burning
Little
Weather, be
!
burning
fair
(Kite-flying song
to-morrow
i
!
— Province of Iga.)
Tengu San,
Kaze okure
Kaze ga nakera
Zdni okure
' This little song is still sung by the
children
whenever a beautiful sunset occurs.
In
my
neighborhood
!!! !
,
147
Tengu San [Lord Mountam-Sfiirit]
Please to give me some wind
If there be no wind,
Please give some money i
I
!
— Province of Tosa.)
(Rain-song
Ame, ame, furl-yame
O-tera no
mae no
Kaki no ki no moto de
Kiji
Rain, rain
I
no ko ga nakuzo
stop falling
in front of the temple, the
(Snow-song
!
— At the foot
young
is
1
In
Tokyo
the
little
crying
chira-chira
Kumo wa
Snow
is
— Province of Iga.)
Yuki wa
hai-darake
fluttering,
The clouds
of the kaki-irtt
of the pheasant
— chira-chira!
are full of ashes
kite-flyers usually sing,
^
!
—
Kaz6 no kami wa
Yowai na
1
("
Ah
!
the
God
of the
Wind
is
weak to-day
I
")
In
Izumo they sing,
Daisen no yama kara
O-Kaze
Koi yo
fuete
1
1
("Come, August- Wind, and blow from the mountain Daisen ")
2 White ashes of wood are referred to.
1
I
!!
148
!!
!
;
Japanese Miscellany
(Province oflûmo.)
Yuki ya
Konko ya
Arare ya
Konko ya
Omae no sedo de
Dango mo nieru,
Azuki mo nieru,
Yamado wa modoru,
Akago wa hoeru,
Shakushi wa miezu,
Yare isogashiya na
Snow-grains
I
hail-grains
!
— In your kitchen dumplings
are boiling; beans too are boiling; the
ing
;
baby is squalling
and worry
the
a flurry
;
the ladle
is
huntsman
missing
Hitori-boshi de
Sen mo, man
star,
Mr. Star
mo
deru monja.
I
a single star to rise alone
Sung when
the
first stars
!
denu monja;
is
not right
Even a thousand, even ten thousand should
'
return-
— Province oflga.)
— Hoshi San, Hoshi San
— Mr.
is
— O what
I
(Star-song
For
1
rise
together
begin to twinkle after sundown.
!
i
!
:
!
:
(
Moon-song
— Province of Shinano
.)
O-Tsuki Sama,
Kwannon-do
orit^,
Mamma agare
— Mamma wa iya-iya
Ammo nara mitsu kuryo
— O Lady Moon,
Come down from
And
— Rice
But
over the Temple of Kwannon,
help yourself to
if
some
boiled rice
!
do not like rice.
you have ammochi^ let me have three
?
no
!
1
I
{Promnce of Kit.)
— O-Tsuki Sama,
—
— Sorya mada wakai
ikutsu
?
Jiu-san hitotsu.
•.
Waka-bune e notte,
Kara made watare
— Lady Moon, how old are you
— Thirteen and one.
— That
young
?
is still
In the Ship of
Youth embarking-,
Cross over the sea to China
•
I
Rice-cakes stuffed with a mixture of sugrar and bean-flour.
149
!!
1^0
!!
Japanese Miscellany
(Province of Tosa.)
— O-Tsuki Sama
Momo-iro
— Dare ga
— Ama ga
— Ama no kuchi wo
iuta
?
iuta.
Hikisake
— O Lady Moon, your face the color of a peach —
said so — A nun said
— Pinch and fear the mouth
is
Who
of that nun
so.
?
!
^
I
(Province ofSuwo.)
O-Tsuki Sama,
O-Tsuki Sama,
Moshi
Neko
moshi
!
to
!
—
nezumi
ga,
Issho-daru sagete,
Fuji-no-yama
wo
Ima koeta
O
1
A
Lady
Lady
say
I
cat
I
Moon
Moon
say
and
!
I
a rat,
Carrying a one-sho barrel [of sak^],
The Mountain of Fuji
Just
1
now
crossed over
Sung when a cloud passes over
are playful goblins, of course,
— such
the
!
i
Moon.
The
cat
and the
rat
as figure In children's picture-
1^1
II
SONGS ABOUT ANIMALS
Of
about insects and
child-songs
and
beasts,
the
number
^
reptiles, birds
surprising,
is
— almost
every Japanese village having one or two songs
of
its
own
belonging to this
The
class.
great
majority are brief compositions of from two to
eight lines.
lish
Some
of the better ones recall Eng-
nursery- rhymes on
nursery-rhymes, for
— such
kindred topics,
example,
as,
" Bat,
bat,
—
" Lady-bird, lady-bird,
come under my hat "
"
"
fly
away home
Cuckoo, cuckoo, what
do you do ? "
"A pie sat on a pear-tree,"
!
!
—
etc.
etc.,
—
Very probably several of the
fol-
lowing selections are older than most of our
nursery-rhymes.
Variants of nearly
all
exist in
multitude.
1 See also, for a small collection of Izurao songs relating
to natural history, the chapter " In a Japanese Garden," in
my
Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan.
The purpose
books.
of the
song
is
to
make
the
Moon
peep out
again.
An Izumo moon-song, more
found
in
my Kohoro,
pp. 75-76.
interesting than
any of
these, will be
!
!!
—
!
!
Japanese Miscellany
1^2
(Dove-song
— Tokyo.)
Hato
Poppo
Mame
" Poppo,"
says the
ga
dove,—"
(Crow-song
tabetai.^
I
want to
eat
some beans."
— Tokyo.)
Karasu
Karasu
Kanzaburd
Oya no on wo
O
crow
I
O
crow
I
wasurena yo
Kanzaburo
goodness of your parents
— never
'^
I
forget the
I
(Owl-song
— Tokyo.)
Gorosuke-hoko
Muda-boko
Gorosuk^'s service, useless service
*
or
I
ktUtai.
Is a very common form of masculine proper name,
here probably given to the bird merely for the sake of the sound.
2
ICanzaburo
—
The song was no doubt suggested by the old proverb, Karasu ni bampo
no kb ari " The filial duty of feeding one's parents is known even to
:
the crow."
It is
selves, are fed
by
themsong when they
said that the old crows, unable to forage for
their offspring.
see the crows flying
home
— Children sing
at sundown.
this
!
!
;
!
1??
(Bird-song — Province of he.)
Suzume wa, Chu-Chu-Chuzaburo
Karasu wa, Ka-Ka-Kanzaburo!
Tombi wa, Toyama no
kanetataki
Ichi nichi tataite
;
—
Kome issho
Awa issho
—
As for the sparrow,
Chu-Chu-Chuzaburo,
Ka-Ka-Kanzaburo
As for the crow,
the Bell-ringer of Toyama:
As for the kite,i
—
—
All
day he taps
his bell,
one sho!^
Millet, one sho!
[Crj>ing\ Rice,
The personal names Kanzaburo, Chuzaburo,
common names of men. No
and Gorosuke, are
doubt that the sparrow's sharp cry, resembling the
sound chu,
suggested the use of the
first
Chijzaburo in the foregoing nursery-rhyme
name
;
and
the crow was probably called Kanzaburo because
caw sounds
its
like the syllable
Ka}
But there
Another version reads, " Tobi wa, To-T6-T6zabur6."
'
Chuzaburo and Kanzaburo,
like
^
1
cry,
One
sho
is
equal to
a
real
may observe also that the crow is
Kawa! kawa ! ("River! river!"),
I
popularly said to
— meaning, "Let
us go to the river " The sound of the cawing
sembles the sound of the word Kawa.
!
Tozaburo,
name.
about a quart and a half.
is
really re-
!
1^4
is
"
!
Japanese Miscellany
name
a curious legend about the
the owl,
— Gorosuke.
A
given to
long time ago, in the
house of some great samurai, there was a retainer
This Gorosuk^ was naturally
Gorosuke.
called
dull; and
the very
first
time that a duty of
importance was confided to him, he made such
a blunder that serious mischief resulted.
There-
fore everybody laughed at him, and put
him
shame
;
and
took the form of the
spirit
bears his
name
;
Then
he killed himself.
at last
and
little
to
his
owl which now
night long this owl cries
all
out, in a tone of utter despair,
—
" Gorosuk^'s service
Useless service
(Hare-song
!
— Tokyo.)
" Usagi, usagi,
Nani
wo
mite'
haneru
?
"
" Jiu-go-ya no O-Tsuki
Sama
Mite haneru
Hyoi!
Hyoil"
—"Hare,
I
"
hare
I
wliat
do you
see
that
— " Seeing the Lady-Moon of the
— Hjioi!
jump ? "
jump
makes you
fifteenth night,
hj/oi.'"^
At the words " hyoi
I
hyoi
I
"
all
the singers
jump
together.
I
!
:
!
{sparrow-song
1^5
— Tskyo.)
Suzume no atsumari
Chi-'i, chi-'i
Dare
— pappa!
ni atattemo
Okoruna yo
Okorunara hajime kara
Yoran ga
yoi.
Hear the gathering of the sparrows
pappa
!'^
— Be not
so
pens to touch you
come
at
all,
I
I
— cW-«,
angry with everybody
M-i,
who
—
hap-
Better in the beginning not to have
than to get angry thus
(Song about
the white heron
— Province of he.)
Shirosagi, shirosagi,
Naze kubi ga nagai
?
— Hidarute
— Hidarukya
— Ta ucha, doro ga tsuku.
— Doro ga tsukya, harae.
— Haraya,
nagai.
ta ute.
itai.
— White-heron, white-heron why your neck so
— Because of hunger became long. — you are
— should get muddy
the
hungry, go and
— you get muddy, you can
the
were to
is
I
long?
till
till
•
Cbi-i
is
the sparrow
wings.
If
it
;
rice-field.
rice-field.
I
if I
If
an onomatope invented to describe the angry chirping of
pappa signifies the sound of the quiclc flapping of its
g
1%
! !
Japanese Miscellany
brush the
hurt
;:
!
!
!
me
mud
off.
—
If
should brush myself,
I
it
would
1
(Toad-song
— Province of Tosa.)
Hiki-San, Hiki San, dete gonse
Denya mogusa sueru-zo
Toad, toad,
out
I
come out of your
you a moxa
hole
I
If
you don't come
shall give
— Province of lûmo.)
(Kite-son
Tobi
tobi
!
maute mise
!
Ashita no ban
Karasu
ni,
ni kakushite,
Nezumi yarn
Kite
I
kite
!
let
me
see
ing, without letting the
(Bat-song
you dance
crows see
it, I
!
To-morrow evenyou a rat
shall give
I
— Province of ûmo.)
Komori, koi
!
sake nomasho
Sake ga nakya, taru furasho.
Bat,
come
hither,
and you
there be no sake [ready],
I
will
will
drink
some sake!
barrel.
{Firefly-song— Province ofjûmo.)
Hotaru koi midzu nomasho
Achi no midzu
wa
If
pour out some from the
nigai zo
!
!
!!
!
;
!!!
wa amai
Kochi no midzu
Amai ho
Firefly,
come
Come,
is
and you
bitter
;
(Firefly-song
have water to drink
the water is sweet
shall
— here
way, to the sweet side
fly this
zo
e tonde koi
hither,
Yonder the water
1^7
I
I
I
— Province of he.)
Hotaru, koi
Tsuchi-mushi, koi
Onoga
hikari de
Jo mottekoi
Firefly,
come
hither
Earth-insect,^
come
By your own
light
Bring
me
(
a letter
I
I
Tokyo.)
O-wata, koi
koi
!
Mame kuwasho
O-mamma
ga iyanara,
Toto kuwasho
Come
to eat.
here, o-wata
If
there be
! ^
come
no boiled
here
rice,
will give
I
!
then
I
will give
you beans
you some
fish.
'
Tsuchi-musbi,
in this little song;
2
fly
The name
having a
cotton.
it
"earth-insect" or " earth-worm "
probably means " glow-worm."
literally, is
" o-wata
''
fluffy white
(honorable cotton)
protuberance on
is
;
but
given to a small purplish
its tail,
resembling a
tuft of
!
!
;
;
Japanese Miscellany
1?8
(Butterflji-song.)
Chocho! chocho!
Na no ha ni tomare
Na no ha ga iyenara,
Te
Butterfly
do not
I
ni
butterfly
like the na-ksi,
1
tomare
light
upon the na-\s3.i
my hand
perch upon
1
1
If
you
I
(Tokj/o Song.)
Chocho, tombo mo,
Tori no uchi,
Yama
sagzuru no wa,
Matsumushi,
Suzumushi,
Kutsuwamushi,
O-choko choi no chol!
The
and the dragon-fly, too, at the house of
The Pinein the mountains
the Bell-Insect, the Bridle-bit-Insect all together,—
butterfly,
the bird.
Insect,
Oh, the twittering
I
O-choko choi no choi !
(Sung by children chasing
Achi e yuku
Yemma
^
The name na
is
dragon-flies.)
to,
ga niramu
given to several different Itinds of vegetables
but the Japanese turnip is probably here referred
sung
in
nearly
all
parts of Japan.
to.
— This
song
is
!
!
!
!
!
Kochi e kuru
1^9
to,
Yurushite yaru zo.
—
you
I
If
you go that way,i Yemma [or Emma] will glare
if you come this way, I promise to forgive you
—
CDragon-flji-song
at
I
— Tokyo.')
Shio ya
Kane ya
Yamma
Salt Dragon-fly
I
— Black
kaese
^
!
Dragon-fly
I
— give
us back
the Big Dragon-fly
(Snail-song
— Tokyo.)
Maimaitsubura
O-yuya no mae ni
Kenkwa ga aru kara
Tsuno
snail
I
there
is
dase, yari dase
a fight in front of the bath-house
put out your horns, put out your spears
'
Yama, King
'
This song
will
:
so
!
of Death.
is
very
old.
Some account
of the insects referred to
be found in the preceding paper on dragon-flies
I
)
!
!
Japanese Miscellany
160
(Frog-song
— Tokyo.
Kaeru ga
Naku kara kaero
Since the frogs are crying,
I
shall take leave.^
— Province of Shinano.)
(Snail-song
Tsubu, tsubu,
yama
e yuke.
— Orya iya da — ware yuke
!
Kyonen no haru
mo
ittareba,
Karasu to mosu kurodori ga,
Achi e
tsLitsuki
tsun-mawashi,
Kochi e tsutsuki tsun-mawashi
Ni-do to yukumai ano
—
1
spring of
pecked
me
do
!
if
last year,
me
—
go to the mountain
I ? not
When I went there in the
you want to
!
I
tliat is called "crow"
me over on one side, and then pecked
me over on the other side. Not twice
the black bird
and turned
again and turned
I
e
—
River-snail, river-snail,
Go yourself
1
yama
;
go to that mountain
(Song about
!
the cicada called Tsukti-tsuku-hoshi ^
— Province
of Cbikuiên.)
Tsuku-tsuku-bo-San na,
Nanyu naku ka
?
—
1 In this little song there Is a play on the word kaeru, which, as
pronounced, might mean either "to return" or "frog." Kaero is a
future form of the verb.
2
See
article "
curious insect.
SSmi "
In
my Shadowings,
for
some account
of this
;
;
!
;
l6l
Oya ga nai ka?
Ko ga nai ka ?
— Oya mo gozaru,
Ko mo gozaru
Oitoshi tonogo wo
Mottar^ba,
Takajo
ni torarete
Kyo nanuka.
Nanuka to omoeba
—
Shijiu-ku nichi
Shijiu-ku nichi no
Zeni-kane
wo
Doshite tsukotana
Yokaro ka
Takai
?
kome
kote,
tsumu
Fune
ni
Yasui
kome
Fune
ni
kote,
tsumu.
Fune wa, doko fune
?
Osaka-bune.
Osaka-bune koso
Ne ga
yokere.
— Tsuku-tsuku-bo-San, wherefore do you cry
— have you no children — Parents
Have
?
you no parents ?
children also
I
have
away from me by
11
?
;
but
my good
a falconer
;
I
have,
husband was snatched
and to-day
is
the seventh day
162
Japanese Miscellany
Nay
since his death.
it
is
—
thought
I
already the forty-ninth
i
!
—
it was the seventh day,
What will be the best way
— Buying dear
— buying cheap
to freight a ship.
— As for the ship, where from — an Osaka ship.
— Ah the cost of an Osaka ship indeed very high
money
to spend the
rice,
to freight a ship
of the forty-ninth day
?
rice,
;
is it
It is
?
is
I
!
Ill
MISCELLANEOUS PLAY-SONGS
Of
play-songs,
— songs
to be sung with vari-
ous out-door or in-door games,
very great
of
:
my own
two hundred
stories
;
collection
Some
pieces.
others, of
dialogues
that class which the French
merate,
or randonnee
classify.
And some
so very queer,
by Western
— so
:
;
—
tiie
number
includes
is
upwards
take the form of
others
call
belong to
chanson enu-
a few are impossible to
of the most remarkable are
utterly unlike anything
children,
—
that
any
sung
translation
them would remain, even with the
aid
of
of
a
multitude of notes, unintelligible to readers unfamiliar with Japanese
life.
But
I
think that
the following series of examples will sufficiently
» There is a reference here to the Buddhist services
for the dead
held on the seventh and forty-ninth days after interment.
!
Songs
!
of Japanese Children
serve to indicate the oddity
this category of
1
!!
!
163
and_ the variety of
child-songs.
(Sung
to
a crying child.)
Naki-mushi! ke-mushi!
Hasande suterS
Cry-Insect
1
— Hairy
pair of chop-sticks
'
(Sung
to
we
-Insect
will
I
[«'.
e.,
Caterpillar']
— with a
throw you out of doors
1
a child afraid of being away from home.)
Inoru
inoru
!
Inagasaki ni oni ga iru
Ato miriya
ja
ga
iru
!
—
wants to go home
On the
Wants to go home
going-home way^ a demon is waiting; and if you look
behind you will see a dragon
!
!
!
(Dance-song.)
Renge no hana
hiraita,
Hiraita, hiraita
Hiraita to
omotara
Yatokosa to tsubonda
1
Alluding to the Japanese method of catching and removing a
centipede, caterpillar, or other unpleasant visitor, with a pair of iron
chop-sticks, or fire-tongs.
2
There
is
a play upon words here not possible to render
in Engflish.
;
164
!!
!
Japanese Miscellany
—
—
The Lotos-flower has opened, has opened, has opened
Even as
1
thought that
has closed up again
it
had opened,
—
lo
yatohosa !
I
!
it
^
I
{Play-song.)
Umeboshi-San
To
iu hito
wa,
Ashi kara kao
Shiwa-yotte
!
made
—
Shiwa-yotte
Are wa
sui,
wa
Kore
sui,
—
Sui, sui, sui
The person called Mr. Pickled-Plum
wrinkled all over
from feet to face,
sour, sour, sour
sour on this side
—
—
wrinkled all over
Sour on that side
is
I
I
I
!
{Play-song.)
Chinkan-chinkara
Kajiya no ko
Hadaka de
tobidasu,
Furoya no ko
This Song of the Lotos
'
form a
As
circle, or
all
run in together,
.
.
.
sung by a company of children who
holding hands, and facing inwards.
is slowly widened
but at the word
closing up the round with a simultaneous
is
dancing-round,
the song begins the circle
yatohosa
^
—
all
;
pull.
' This appears to be a fragment of some "enumerative song,"
which different trades and occupations are referred to.
in
!
,
"
Clink
clank
!
16^
— the child of the blacksmith
— the child of the bath house
!
I
Jumping out naked
I
(Plaji-song.)
" Kaji-don
Kaji-don
"
!
Hi hitotsu goshare
" Hi wa nai, nai ya
!
!
Ano yama koete,
Kono yama koete,
Hi
"
wa
Sir
koko, koko
Smith
I
Sir
Please give us a
" Fire
I
ni aru
Smith
!
I
little fire."
have none, none at
all.
Crossing over that mountain
Crossing over this mountain,
Fire then
you
will find here." i
(Dance-song.)
Naka
no, naka
no
Kobotoke wa,
Naze mata kaganda 1
Oya no
hi ni
Ebi tabete.
1
This song
finger-play,
Thumbkittf dance
used.
sung
is
— not
in
accompaniment
altogether unlike
1"
— but much more
to
an ingenious and
difficult
our nursery-game of "Dance,
complicated; both hands being
;!!
166
Japanese Miscellany
Sore de mata
Kaganda.
— The
the
little
little Buddha inthemididle [of the dancing-circle],
why does he remain thus
Buddha in the middle,
always bent?
—
— On the anniversary
he ate shrimps
:
i
of his parents' death,
therefore he remains thus always bent.
(Another version.)
Mawari, mawari no
Kobotoke wa,
Naze
se
Oya no
ga hikui ?
hi ni
Toto kutte,
Sore de se ga
Hikui so na.
— The Buddha
Buddha
the
low? — Having eaten
little
the
little
in
in the
middle of the dancing-round,
middle,
fish
— why
upon
the
is
his stature thus
anniversary of
his
parents' death, therefrom his stature remains low.
(Centipede-dance
— Province of Kii.)
Yurasu ya mukade
Atama wa cha-usu
O wa hiko-hiko yo
1
On the anniversary
of a parent's death,
and during the Festival of
any kind.
the Dead, no good Buddhist should eat fish of
!
— shivery-shaky The head
— the
goes hiko-hiko [wiggle-
The centipede moves
a rice-mortar;
like
!
(Dance-song
Jizo-San
Omag
— Iûmo
Jizo-San
!
to kunde,
Matsu-ba
ni irete,
Makkuri-kaSta
Jizo-San,
well,
spills
Jizo-San
.)
no mizu-wo
Dondo
it
is
!
tail
1
waggle]
your
167
^
!
plentifully
1
round and round we
drawing the water of
stir it
with pine-leaves, until
over.
(Hand-flay song.)
Ichi ga. saita,
M ga
saita,
San ga
Shi ga
saita,
Go ga
saita,
This Centipede-Dance
'
line,
saita,
is
performed by a number of children
— each grasping: the girdle of the one before him
holds in his hand some object shaped
the centipede's head.
too
^
heavy
This
The
lilce
real tea-mortar
;
in
while the leader
a tea-mortar, to represent
would probably prove much
for the sport.
is
usually sung by
little
girls.
The singers
at first stand
face to face, in couples, holding hands as they sing.
At the words
" mahhuri-haita," they tarn about, without loosing the
come back to back.
clasp, so as to
!
" "
!
"
Japanese Miscellany
168
Rohu ga
saita,
Shichi ga
saita,
Hachi ga
saita,
/^Mtnabachi ga saita,
Tokage ga
One
right
stings
stings
—
I
—
!
three stings
!
— two
[left
stings
!
[left
hand upon the
hand upon
left]
[undermost right hand brought up and
five stings
stings
upon the
[here one child lays his right hand
I
hand of a playfellow]
the right]
saita
—
[same mancEuvre by the other player]
I
seven
whose hand
WASP stings
stings
I
— the BEE
i
stings
[retaliation]
— the lizard
bites
!
[a
(Game-song.')
Koko wa doko no
lioso-miclii ja
?
" Tenjin-San no hoso-michi ja."
" Ciiotto toshite kudanshanse
"
Goyo no
nai
mono
!
tosliimasenu."
" Tenjin-San e gwan-kakete,
Ofuda osame ni mairimasu."
Omae no uchi wa doko jaina ?
" Hakone no o-seki degozarimas."
"
" Sonnara toyare, toyare
1
Hachi, as pronounced,
may mean
six
— the
very hard
pinch.]
"
on]
—
[here the one
!
uppermost pinches the other's hand]
is
I
—four
laid
either " eight" or " bee."
!
!
!
169
Yuki wa yoi-yoi
wa kowai
Kaeri
"
!
—
"This narrow road, where does
it go?"
"This narrow
" I pray you, allow
Road of the God Tenjin."
me to pass for a moment." " No one must pass who has
no business to pass." —"Having made a vow to the God
road
is
—
the
—
—
I want to pass to present an ofuda."'^
"Where is
" My house is at the barrier = of Hakon^."
your house ? "
"Pass, then pass! Going-, all will be well for you;
but coming back you will have reason to be afraid."
Tenjin,
—
—
I
(
Game-song
— Iiumo
.)
" Kona ko yoi ko da
Doko no ko da
"
.?
" Tonya Hachibei no otomusume."
" Nanto yoi ko da
Kiyo na ko da
Kiyo
ni sodatete
Kita
hodo
Oya
ni jikkwan,
Ko
ni
ni
go kwan,
Semete O-Baba
ni
Shijiu-go kwan."
'
2
Ofuda, a holy
Hakoni no
Hakon6, where
on paper, or stamped upon wood.
There used to be a military guard-house at
travellers had to give an account of themselves
text, either written
seki.
all
before proceeding further.
"""
:
Japanese Miscellany
170
" Shijiu-go
Nani
" Yasui
Fune
kwan no o-kane wo
?
ni suru
kome
kote,
ni tsumi
Fune wa shirokane,
Ro wa kogane.
Saasa ose-ose
Miyako made."
" Miyako modori ni
Nani morota
?
" Ichi-ni kogai,
Ni-ni kagami,
San-ni sarasa no
Obi morota."
" Kukete kudasare,
O-Baba San
!
Kukyo — kukyo,
To omoedomo,
"
Obi
ni michikashi,
Tasuki
"
ni nagashi."
Yamada
Kane no o
—
"
"
She
This child
is
I
no
ni."
a fine child
!
— whose child
is
she ? "
—
the youngest daughter of Hachibei, the wholesale
merchant."
child
is
Yakuslii
—
"
O
what a
fine
child
I
O
what a clever
Because she has been so well brought up,
I
shall
"
!
" "
171
give to the parents ten kwan,^ and to the child five kwan,
and to the grandmamma not less than forty-five kwan."
" With so much money as forty-five kwan, what will you
—
do ? "
boat
—
is
"
Cheap
of silver
;
rice
will
I
the oar
buy, and load
is
of gold.
.
it
on
The
a boat.
Saasa !
.
['
Hearty
— row hard we get to the Capital " — " What
you brought us on your return from the
Capital " —
a hair-pin of
Secondly,
a mirror.
Thirdly, a
of sarasa." — " Please sew
grandmamma." — " Though thought to sew
— though
thought to sew
too short for
too
— "Then
long for a
up
now
I
till
']
I
presents have
" Firstly,
?
tortoise-shell.
girdle
^
it,
it,
I
a girdle
is
it, it
I
tasuki'^-coxA."
will offer
I
it is
;
as
it
a bell-rope for the bell of [the temple of] Yakushi* at
Yamada."
(Game-song.')
" Kozo, kozo
Ko hitori goshare
Dono ko ga hoshikera ?
" Ano ko ga hoshii wa."
!
"
"
1
Nani soete yashinau
One kwan was
?
equal to a thousanci copper-cash in old times.
—
Tlie value of the present given to the grandmother reminds one of the
fact that, in a
usually
left to
2
Sarasa
3
Tasuki,
is
Japanese family, the early training of the children
is
the grandparents, and especially to the grandmother.
a kind of calico, or chintz.
a cord used
to tie baclt the long sleeves of the
Japanese
robe, during worl<ing-hours.
Japanese form of the name Bhaishagyaraga. {BhaYal<ushi, or
signifies "The Medical King.")
and
Yakuihi-Nforai, is a very popular Buddhist divinity in Japan,
is especially prayed to as a healing Buddha.
* Yakushi is the
ishagyaraga
literally
—
"
!
Japanese Miscellany
172
" Tai soete yashinau."
" Sore
wa hone ga
" Sonnara
tai
atte ikenu."
ga hone nara,
Ika soete yashinau."
" Sore
wa mushi no
dai-doku."
" Sonnara Tono-San no nikai de
Mosen
shiite tenarai
sashozo."
" Te ga yogorete ikenu."
" Sonnara Tono-San no nikai de
Mosen
shiite sato
" Sonnara yaruzo
mochi."
!
—
" Acolyte, acolyte, please give me one child "
" Which
"That child 1 want to
do you wish to have?"
"With what kind of food will you feed the
have."
child?"—" With te-fish I will feed the child."
« That
child
will
—
not do, —there are too
there are too
with
—
many bones
stomach of the
lord, upstairs,
I
— "That
—
many
bones."
in te'-fish,
— "That would
child." — "Then,
cuttle-fish."
I
I
be
in
—
— " Then, as
will feed the child
very bad for the
the house
of the
spread a rug, and teach the child to
will
not do: it would make the child's
Then in the house of the lord, upstairs,
I will spread a rug, and give sugar-cakes to the child."
" Very well, I will let you have the child."
write."
hands dirty."
will
"
—
(New-Year Song.)
Senzo ya
!
O-fune ya
manzo
gichiri ko,
!!
!
!
173
Gichiri, gichiri, kogeba,
O-Ebisu ka
Daikoku ka ?
?
Kocha f uku no kami
A
thousand ships
1
thousand
ten
August [Treasure-] Ship coming,
as they
row
!
Is it
the
God
—
Ebisu
?
ships
I
Hear the
gichiri, gichiri, gichiri,
is it
the
— Hither come the Gods of Good Fortune.
God
Dailcoku
?
(Old Tokyo Songs of the Bon-Festival.)
I
Bon no jiu-roku
nichi
A-sobasenu oya wa,
Ki-ESutsu, Kana-Butsu,
Ishi-Botoke
Ishi-Botoke
The parents who
will
not
let
their children play
wooden Buddhas,
— they
metal
are
Buddhas of stone, Buddhas of stone
U
Bon, Bon, Bon no
Jiu-roku nichi,
O-Emma Sama
Macro to
Zuzu no
ye
shitara,
ga
on the
— they are
Buddhas, — they are
sixteenth day of the [month of the] Bon-Festival,
kirete.
"
"
!!
!
!
Japanese Miscellany
174
Hanao ga
"
kirete,
Namu Shaka
Nyorai
Te de ogamu,
Te de ogamu
we go to
If
on the
[visit the
temple of^ the August
the praying beads
having been broken, and the thong of
Namu Shaka Nyorai!'^
the sandal having been burst,
cry]
,
Lord Emma.i
sixteenth day of the Bon, Bon, Bon, the string of
— and pray with
[we
hands joined, and pray with hands
joined.
Ill
"
O-Bon ga
kita kara
Kamiyute okure."
" Shimada ga yoi ka ?
Karako ga yoi ka ?
" Shimada mo iya yo
mo
Karako
iya
yo
O-Edo de hayaru
O-sage-gami
"
my
1
Now
hair."
!
that the Bon-festival has
come, please to dress
— " Will the Shimada-style'
Yama, the King of Death.
His festival
is
suit
you
?
— or
will
held on the i6th day of
the 7th month, after the three days' Festival of the Dead.
— usually
called the Bon.
2 " Hail to the Tathagata,
the
It is
'
members
believed to be a bad
The
Sakyamunil "
of certain Buddhist sects, on
omen
for the
— an invocation uttered, by
occasions of distress. —
all
thong of one's sandal
to break.
SAfmarfa-style is the fashion in which a bride's hair is dressed.
!
!
; ;
!! :
the Karako
i
style suit
you ? "
— " No,
hair dressed in the Shimada-sty\e,
in the
now
Karako
style.
nor
will
I
will
I
17^
not have
have
it
The honorable sage -garni ^
my
dressed
style
is
the fashion in the noble city of Yedo."
IV
Ichi
no maru koete,
Ni no maru koete,
San no maru
saki
ye
Hori-ido hotte,
Hori wa, hori-ido
wa kogane
Tsurube
Kogane no
Tombo
saki
ye
ga tomatte
tombo
tombo
Tobanakya bane wo
Yare, sore
Sore, sore
Kirigirisu
Kiriko ga toro,
Kiriko ga toro
Kiriko ga toro wa,
Donata no saiku
^
The Karakowage was an old-fashioned
name implies, of Chinese origin
ably as the
;
?
style of coiffure,
the
literal
— prob-
meaning
of the
term being "Chinese-child-coiffure."
2
The term sagi-gami means
ladies
wore
their hair thus.
loose-flowing hair.
Anciently noble
!
!
Japanese Miscellany
176
O-Akashi Sama no
O-te zaiku,
O-te zaiku
third line of fortification
The well-bucket
is
dug a
of gold.
bucket a dragon-fly alighted.
dragon-fly
—O
!
If
it
does not
the A/nAo-lanterns ["
— cross—
and a
line of fortification i,
Crossing the innermost
ing the second line of fortification,
well, a
On
Oh
fly, its
—O
—
at the
moat
end of the
well.
the top of the golden
!
that dragon-fly
wings
shall
!
be cut
the kiriko-hntems
that
off.2
— who
made the kiriko-hnterns ? Our august Lord Akashi made
them with his own august hand, with his own august
hand.
Nagai, nagai,
Ryogoku-bashi nagai
Nagai Ryogoku-bashi
Suzumi
ni detara,
O-ko-sama-gata ga
Yakata no fune de,
Hikuya, kataruya,
Yare omoshiroya,
1
The
lines of defence about
a Japanese castle are counted from
within outwards.
2
—
There is here an untranslatable play of words,
the term kiriwhich is the name of a cricket, being used for the verb Mri, to
girisu,
cut.
'
This
is
given to a kind of four-sided or polygonal lantern.
!
!
—
!
!!
177
Yare omoshiroya
Bon-odori
—
Long, long,
the Ryogoku bridge is long. Had you
gone there to get cool, on the long Ryogoku bridge, oh
to see the honorable children in the pleasure-boats, and to
hear the musicians, and the reciters
how pleasant it was,
how pleasant!
and the festival dance, too,
the BonOdori
!
!
—
—
—
I
VI
Yanagi no shita no
wa
Oshidori-Sama
Asahi ni terarete,
O-iro ga kuroi
;
O-iro ga kurokirya
Ganguri-gasa o-sashi.
Ganguri-gasa iya yo
Ganguri-gasa iya yo
O-Edo de hayaru
Ja-no-me-gasa,
Ja-no-me-gasa
Under the willow-tree
Sir Mandarin-duck
Being shone upon by the morning sun,
His honorable color
If
is
dark.
the honorable complexion be dark,
12
!
!
178
Japanese Miscellany
Spread a ganguri-umbrelh..^
A ganguri-umhreM
A ganguri-umhrelh
Now
in the
I
will
1
will
not have
!
not have
honorable city of Yedo,
is
fashionable
The Serpent' s-Eye-umbrella,''
The Serpent's-Eye-umbrella.
VII
Konata no yashiki
Kirei
na yashiki,
Oku
no
wa
—
ma de samisen,
ma de odori wo,
Daidoko ma demo
Naka no
Fue taiko
This residence of yours
f ue
!
is
a
taiko
fine
residence,
— with
a
samisen playing in the best back-room, and dancing going
on in the middle-room, and even
drum, a flute and drum
in the kitchen a flute
and
!
(
Tokyd play-song.)
Oyama no,
Oyama no
"
1
Ganguri-gasa.
I
do not know what kind of umbrella was thus
called.
*
A
paper umbrella painted black,
Inches from the top, so that
ring with the black space which
pent's eye.
all
but a band some four or five
when the umbrella
it
is
opened, this white
encloses, resembles in form a ser-
—
"
179
O-Kon San wa
Doko ittaka ?
" Tonari e
O-imo
tabeni ikimashita."
" O-okashii
6-okashii
!
—
" 0-Kon San of Gyama
where
"She went next door, to eat some
very, very strange
how very, very
!
—
(
"
!
has she
gone?"
potatoes."
strange "
—
—" How
^
!
Tohyo play-song.)
Muko no yama no
Sumotori-bana wa
Enyaraya to hikeba,
O-te-te ga kireru,
—
O-te-te no kireta
O-kusuri nai ka
Aka no mo
Shiroi
no
?
aru,
mo
aru.
Onaji-ku nareba
Akai no
ni
sho yo
When [with a cry of'\ Enyaraya ! we
yonder mountain, our hands get torn.
>
2
!
pull the violets ^ of
-Is
there
no medi-
This song belongs to a game of hide-and-seek, played by girls.
" wrestler's-flower,"
so called because of a game
—
Literally, the
played with violet-flowers.
heads of
Two
their flowers together,
tions until one of
them breaks.
children each take a violet, twist the
and
pull the stalks in opposite direc-
The player whose violet breaks
first is
!
180
Japanese Miscellany
cine for the torn
white.
—
If
the
hand?
Red medicine there
two medicines
is,
and
are equally good, then
I
also
shall
certainly take the red.
(Dialogue Song
— Prcmince of Iûmo.)
"
Muko no yama no
Kawazu ga naku ga
Nashite naku ka
Samute naku ka ?
.?
Himoji
te
naku-ka
Himojikya
?
ta tsukure."
" Ta tsukuriya kitanai."
" Kitanakya arag."
" Arauya tsumetai."
"
Tsumetakya
atare."
" Atarya atsui."
" Atsukya shizare."
" Shizara nomi ga ku."
"
Nomi ga kuya
" Korosha kawai
"
Kawaikya
korose."
"
!
daitene."
" Daitenerya nomi ga kii."
" Nomi ga kQya korose."
.
.
.
&c., &c.
Perhaps the reader will be reminded of our " wishing-bone "
but in the Japanese ptay the flowers are supposed to represent
the loser.
sport
;
wrestlers.
—
" The frogs of yonder mountain
cry
Is it
?
they cry?
dirty
for cold that they cry
If
you
work, to
wash."— "It
are hungry,
it
the rice-field."
—"
If
do they
for hunger that
Is it
it
— "It
is
be dirty work,
wash."—"
If it be cold, warm
too hot by the fire."
be too hot, go further away."
"If we go further
cold, to
is
yourselves by the
"If
till
the rice-field."
till
Why
cry.
?
l8l
fire."
—
"It
—
is
—
" If the fleas bite you, kill
away, the fleas will bite us."
" If
them."
" It is too pitiful to kill the poor things."
you pity them so much, embrace them, and sleep with
—
them." — "If we
embrace the
they will bite us."
— "If
fleas
—
and sleep with them,
kill them,"
the fleas bite you,
&c., &c.
By
far the strangest thing in this part of
collection
a
is
my
kind of metaphysical dialogue,
chanted by children as a play-song
It
!
probably
survives
from the period when the teaching of
children
was
priesthood,
chiefly
and
intrusted
to
the
Buddhist
when almost every Buddhist
temple was also a school, or had some kind of
a school attached to
There
it.
is
nothing very
remarkable about the composition
only the choice of subject
ject for
a play-song,
— an
itself:
it
is
astonishing sub-
— that makes the thing seem
strange to a Western mind.
This subject
is
the infinity of Jizo Bosatsu (the
Bodhisattva Kshitigarbha)
may
,
whose smiling images
be seen by almost every roadside, and in
!
182
Japanese Miscellany
countless
roads,
Buddhist cemeteries.
and
still
find, instead of
in a row,
tical
more
Often
at
often in graveyards,
cross-
you
will
a single statue of Jizo, six images
— each
figure bearing a different
emblem.
mys-
These Six Jizo, or Rohu-Ji^d,
symbolize the teaching that Jizo Bosatsu,
self-
multiplied, at once exercises his saving pity in
the Six Spheres of Sentient Existence,
all
— that
is
to say throughout the entire Universe of Forms.
But, according to the higher Buddhism, " there
is
no being besides Buddha, and no Buddha besides
being."
All
the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas
all
mind
is
but
of Existence
is
;
:
he also
find these conceptions
play -song
many
is
all
substance,
all life,
Jizo of the Six States
not only a multiple manifestation
of the Absolute
To
—
One
One. And
are veritably but
somewhat
is
the Absolute.
embodied
startling;
things quite as startling to be
met with
:
—
{Province of Mutsu.)
ni
Roku-Jizo
Nezumi ni atama wo kajirarete,
Nezumi koso Jizo da
Nezumi Jizo dara,
—
—
.
.
but there are
the old popular literature of Buddhism
Hashi no shita
.
in a child's
in
—
!
!
Nanishini neko ni torarebena
183
?
— Neko koso Jlzo yo
— Neko wa Jizo dara,
Nanishini inu ni torarebena
— Inu koso Jizo yo
— Inu wa Jizo dara,
?
!
Nanishini okami ni torar^b^na
— Okami koso Jizo yo
— Okami Jizo
?
!
dara,
Nanishini hi ni makarebena
— Hi koso Jizo yo
— Hi wa Jizo
?
dara,
Nanishini mizu ni kesarebena
— Mizu koso Jizo yo
— Mizu wa Jizo
?
!
dara,
Nanishini hito ni nomarebena
— Hito koso Jizo yo
— Hito wa Jizo
?
!
dara,
ogamub&a ?
Hon no Jizo wa Roku- Jizo.
Nanishini Jizo
—
—
The heads of the Six Jizo under the bridge have been
But that rat itself is really Jizo.
gnawed by some rat.
If the rat be Jizo, how comes it that the rat is caught by a
The cat itself is really Jizo,
If the cat be Jizo,
cat?
how does it happen that the cat is worried by a dog ?
If the dog be Jizo, how
Truly the dog itself is also Jizo.
The wolf
explain the fact that it is captured by a wolf?
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
;
184
:
Japanese Miscellany
—
—
certainly Jizo.
If the wolf be Jizo, why should it
be overcome by fire?
The fire indeed is also Jizo.
If
the fire be Jizo, why should it be extinguished by water ?
The water also is really Jizo.
If the water be Jizo, how
explain the fact that it is drunk by mankind?
Mankind
itself is
—
—
is really Jizo.
— mankind be
— The true Jizo
If
pray to Jizo
?
of Existence
(lit.,
—
Jizo,
is
why
should mankind
the Jizo of the Six States
" the iruejiôis the Six-Jiô").
IV
NARRATIVE-SONGS
{Province ofChbshi.)
Ora ga
tonari
Omi no
no Semmatsu wa,
ikusa ni tanomarete,
mo mada konai,
mo mada konai,
Ichi-nen tatte
Ni-nen
tatte
San-nen
tattara kubi
ga
kita.
As for my neighbor Semmatsu,
Having been engaged for the war in Omi,
Though one year passed, still he did not come back;
Though two years passed, still he did not come back
When three years had passed, his head came back.i
{Province oflûmo.)
Muko no yama
Sam
*
Cut
off,
ni
ga sambiki tomatte
we must suppose.
;
;
saru
wa mono
shirazu
Ato no saru
mo mono
shirazu
Mae no
Naka no ko-zaru yo mono
18^
shitte.
Gozare tomodachi, hana-mi
ni
yuko ya
?
Hana wa doko bana ?
Jizo no mae no sakura-bana.
Hito-eda oreba, patto chiru
Futa-eda oreba, patto chiru
Mi-dda ga saki
ni hi
;
ga kurete,
Dochi no koya e yado toroka
?
Higashi no koya e yado toroka
?
no koya e yado toroka
?
iVlinami
Tonosan no koya e yado totte,
Tatami wa mijikashi, yo wa nagashi.
Akazuki okite sora mitara
Gikko no bakko no kiisengo.
Funedomo saragte ho wo kaketsu.
Hokakebune no tsuri-mono wa,
Shiro-ori, aka-ori, aka-ji
no
Majitta tsuba-katana.
dwell.
The first
The last monkey also knows
nothing. But the midmost little monkey knows everyCome, friends, let us go to see the flowers.
thing well.
Before the statue
Flowers.' where are the flowers?
of Jizo the cherry-flowers are blooming. As I break one
In
yonder mountain three monkeys
monkey knows
—
—
nothing.
—
;
186
Japanese Miscellany
branch, the cherry-flowers
fall
can break a third, the darkness comes.
shall
find lodging
I
dye-house
house
?
dawn,
mats
if
I
hoisting the
sails.
;
hilts
Before
In
the dye-house of the
in
and the night long.
sky ...
The
1
what dye-house
take lodging in the eastern
I
find short,
I
—
break a
I
scattering.
take lodging in the southern
see the
cloth and red
variegated
Shall
?
I
— Lodging
{lord}, the
at
Shall
?
As
scattering.
fall
second branch the cherry-flowers
.1,
dye-
Tono-Sama
Awaking
—
cleaning out the ships,
of this sailing-ship are of white
sails
the rigging
is
of red silk cord
from the
of swords .2
{Province of Iûmo.)
Yare haratatsu
!
— tatsu naraba
Suzuri to fude to o-te ni motte,
Omou
koto
wo
kaki-oite,
Murasaki-ga e mi
wo
nageta.
Shita kara zako ga tsutsuku yara,
Ue kara karasu ga tsutsuku yara.
wa doko yukita ?
Mori-ki no shita e mugi maki ni.
Tsutsuita karasu
Nan-goku, nan-goku maite kita
Ni-sen-goku maite
?
kita.
—
1 Here is a line of wliich I could not obtain a translation,
gikko no
bakko no kiisengo. Perhaps the text is corrupt.
2 This is not quite literal
but it is certainly the original meaning of
the description.
There are a great many songs of the same kind.
Might not the Iclnd be described as an imperfect form of randonnie,
a randonnee in the first stage of evolution ?
;
—
—
;
;
Songs
wa
Ni-sen-goku no no
ni
Tera no mae de ko
wo
Juji
no koromo
e chi
Ame-tare-mizu de
unda.
ga
tsuite,
aratte,
Koro no
hi de abutte
Koro no
hi
ga
187
taraide,
Abura-hi de abutte
Abura-hi ga taraide,
Kudo no
Kudo no
hi de abutte;
hi
ga
taraide,
Kotatsu no hi de abutte.
What you are angry ? Ah if you be angry, taking
inkstone and writing-brush in your honorable hand, think
of wliat you wish to write and to leave behind you i
!
!
I
When you have
your body into the Purple River
[Murasaki-gawa\ small fishes will nibble it from below;
crows will pick it from above.
The crow that picked,
where is it gone ?
It has gone under a forest-tree, to sow
cast
—
—
wheat.
sown ?
— How many kohu,^ how many koku have been
— Two thousand koku have been sown. — By reason
of the sowing of
two thousand koku, a child is born in
The upper robe of the chief priest
front of the temple.
—
having been sprinkled with blood, he washed
water, and dried
it
by the
fire
of a censer.
censer being insufficient, he dried
it
of oil being insufficient, he dried
it
^
Alluding to the custom of writing a
by
by the
letter to
before suicide.
'
One hohu
is
fire
equal to about 5.13 busheis.
it
The
of
oil.
fire
in rain-
fire in
the
The
fire
of a cook-
explain one's motives,
;
188
!!
Japanese Miscellany
ing-range.
he dried
it
The fire of the cooking-range being
by the fire of a kotatsu.^
insufficient,
{Province of he.)
Neko ga Kuwana e mairutote
Kuwana no michi de hi ga kiete,
Toboshitemo, toboshitemo, toboraide.
Chaya no en
eto koshikakete,
— Mizu wo
okurenka
— Mizu wo yaru no wa yasui kedo,
ippai
?
Tsurube no soke ga nukemashita.
— Yare, yare
O-cha wo
!
kitsui ane-san ja
ippuku okurenka
?
— O-cha wo yaru no wa yasui kedo,
Chagama no soko ga nukemashita.
— Yare, yare
!
kitsui ane-san ja
Tabako wo ippuku okurenka
?
— Tabako yaru no wa yasui kedo,
Kiseru no kubi ga nukemashita.
*
A
kotatsu is a square structure
;
the sides and top being formed
wooden bars and the lower part containing a metal
;
pan, in which a charcoal
fire is lighted.
Over
by
warmingstructure heavy
brasier, or
this
thrown and a number of persons can keep themselves warm
by sitting round the kotatsu with their knees under the quilts. The size
of the kotatsu varies from about one foot to two feet square. Dictionaries absurdly describe the thing as " a kind of hearth." It is not a
quilts are
hearth
;
;
but in Western Japan
of the hearth with us,
evenings.
it
— for the
occupies a place in the
home
family assemble about
it
like that
of
winter
"
— Yare, yare
ane-san
— fu — mi — yo — itsu — mu — nana —
ya — kono —
kitsui
!
Hi
189
ja
.
!
.
.
to !
A
cat set out for
On
Kuwana.
Though
went out.
light
the road to
Kuwana
her
she tried and tried to rehght
it,
she could not.
Then, having seated herself on the veranda
" One cup of water will you
of a tea-house, she asked
not kindly give me.'"
" It would be very easy to give
—
you water
but the bottom of the well-bucket has been
" Oh
oh how harshly speaks this Elder
Then will you not kindly give me a cup of tea?
;
taken out."
i
Sister
—
"
!
To
—
:
—
give
bottom of the
!
!
you some
tea were an easy matter
been taken out."
—
"
but the
;
Oh
oh
you not let
of tobacco ?"
" To give you some
tobacco were an easy matter; but the bowl of the pipe has
" Oh
fallen off "
oh what a merciless Elder Sister "
One
two
three
six
four
Jive
seven
tea-kettle has
how merciless this
me have one pipeful
—
—
— —
Elder Sister
!
!
Then
—
!
!
— — — —
eight —nine — ten
course the cat, in the foregoing narration,
—a
a goblin-cat,
is
this disguise
is
house servant,
" Elder Sister "
vant of an inn
san, is
'
is
power to assume
cat having
She
divers shapes.
^
—
^
!
Of
!
!
will
travels in
human form
;
but
penetrated by the eye of the tea-
who
is still
addressed
answers her as goblins are
the
;
title
of courtesy
by which the maid-ser-
but the form Nesan, a contraction of Ane-
more frequently used.
The numbers here
the song.
refer to a
game played
to the
accompaniment of
190
Japanese Miscellany
...
answered.
If
any goblin or ghost ask you
for a bucket or other vessel,
fuse directly
;
it is
better not to re-
but you must be careful to knock
the bottom out of the vessel asked for before
yielding
it
might be
— otherwise
up,
the
consequences
fatal.
me
This reminds
sometimes made
fairy-tales
of
a superficial
criticism
regard to those European
in
which recount the wooing of beautiful
maidens by frogs or
birds,
and the intermarriage
of diiferent species of animals.
It
has been said
that the monstrous absurdity of such stories unfits
them
for the perusal of children, and, further-
more, deprives them of
most of these
all*
artistic merit.
fairy-tales can be traced
Oriental sources
;
and to the Oriental mind there
nothing absurd in the idea of marriage be-
is
tween human and non-human beings,
is
But
back to
believed that
shapes at
One
rary
will.
conditions.
Far-Eastern
1
The
since
it
many animals can assume human
To Far-Eastern faith all life is
and the forms that enclose
;
—
it
but tempo-
Without some knowledge of
beliefs,^
the real
beliefs are older
charm of the old
than Buddhism; but Buddhism
gave them considerable recognition.
One
of the questions
191
Japanese fairy-tales cannot be understood.
any event they should be read
when
illustrated
in translation
by Japanese
lustrations will explain
much
In
only
The
artists.
il-
that the bare text
leaves in mystery.
In
the
next song
we have
the
story
of a
serpent assuming the
shape of a certain man's
Stories of
serpent-women and dragon-
daughter.
women abound
in
Japanese
literature.
Probably
both this song and the preceding one were inspired
by the memory of some old romance or
drama
:
—
(Prcmnce of Sinnano.)
Muko no ozawa
ni ja
ga
tatte,
—
Hachiman-Choja no oto-musume.
Yoku mo tattari takundari,
Te ni wa nihon no tama wo mochi,
Ashi ni wa kogane no kutsu wo haki,
A yobe,
Yama
ko yobe,
to iinagara,
kure no kure
ittareba,
Kusakari tonogo ni yukiatte,
— Obi wo kudasare, tonogo-sama.
formerly to be asked of any one desiring to enter the
Buddliist Order, according to the Vinaya texts, was this:
— " Are you
a human being?"
:
192
!
Japanese Miscellany
— Obi mo kasa mo yasui koto,
Ore no nyobo
Asa
wa
ni
naru-naraba
okite kami-yute.
— Hana no saku made nete machi yo
From
swamp beyond
the
likeness of the
Well did
in its
there rose up a serpent, in the
youngest daughter of the wealthy Hachiman.
assume that form,
it
slcilfully
gold,
it
traversed mountains and
while:— "Call
there!
— Call
a grass-cutter, and say to
me
"
him
— "To
fields,
—
its feet
shoes of
crying out the
Then did
here!"
:
Holding
standing.
hands two gems, and wearing upon
" Fair
it
meet
husband, deign to
give you [he answered] both a
be easily done, if you become my
Then every morning, early rising, I will arrange
wife.
Wait then [sbe said],
your hair."
patiently wait until
give
a girdle
and a hat
girdle
!
will
—
—
the season of the blooming of flowers."
V
BATTLEDOOR-SONGS AND
BALL-SONGS
In the
are
time of the New- Year holidays the
made
beautiful
streets
by groups of young
girls
playing at battledoor-and-shuttlecock, or at vari-
ous games of hand-ball.
It
were
difficult
to
imagine anything more charming than some of
these
little
maids
in their long-sleeved
and many-
holiday-costume:
colored
only the most radi-
of moths or butterflies might serve for a
ant
Very
comparison.
skilful are the
portraying the grace and
in
\9}
them; and every year
with
new
artists
of
delight
us
artists
colored prints of bevies of ball-players
— (showing
of
pictures
these
Tokyo
the daintiness
the fashions of the season) ,
some fairy-damsel with
smiling face and
shining eyes, and
— or
upturned
flower-lips
half-parted, as she watches, battledoor in hand,
the feathery missile in
ity
may
its
Yet the
course.
much more
real-
lovely than the
And, oh! what wonderful battledoors
picture.
are
be
often
sometimes to be seen!
back with
— cushioned
the
at
silk
mosaic-work, making the dream
of a landscape, a garden, a princess of ancient
days!
Yet the charm
ies,
in
their
is
not visual only
play, sing
;
— these
fair-
songs of strange
little
rhythm and melody, very sweet
to hear,
and
(for
the Western listener) impossible to remember.
Many
of these
structed that the
line
little
songs are so con-
first syllable
of each successive
queer
or phrase corresponds with the
first
syllable
of a numeral noting the ordinal place of the
13
;
;
Japanese Miscellany
194
line
Most commonly the Japanese
or phrase.
numerals are used:
— hitotsu,
yotsu, itsutsu, mutsu,
notsu,
'
and
But
to.
mitsu,
futatsu,
nanatsu, yatsu, kohoin
Chinese numerals are used
various examples the
—
ichi,
go, roku, shichi, hachi, ku, jiu.
ni, san,
And
shi,
sundry
in
compositions the two sets of numerals are mixed
With
together.
the
utterance
of each line or
phrase the shuttlecock or the ball ought to be
The term cho ("even number")
struck once.
seems usually to signify ten strokes;— but
meaning
is
this
not always evident.
(
Tokyo Battledoor-song.)
Hiton
kina,
Futari kina,
Mitt yukina,
Kotte yukina
Itsu kite
Afezukashi
Nana
yakushi,
Koho no ma de
To yo!
Come, one
entering,
go
I
I
come, two
— Whenever
I
— After
!
come
seeing,
go
!
— After
to see you, your face
is
;
!
!
gloomy.
— Seven
for Yakushi
i
!
— There
you are
195
I
— ten
with the stroke of nine
(Kyoto Battledoor-song.)
Hit on kin a,
Futax'i kina,
MM yukita,
Kotte yukina
Hsu
kite
mitemo
Nanako obi wo
yakuruma ni shimete.
Kohono yo de
Come, one
after
entering,
I
yo
—
—
After seeing, departed
Come, two
Whenever I come to see you, you
!
go
Wheels."
;
!
put on your TâmiJo
" Eight
itcho
^-girdle,
With
this
tying
it
in the
mode
ninth stroke, one
called
cho
is
completed.
{Kyoto Battledoor-song.)
Hitomi,
Futamt,
M/yakashi,
ybmego,
Itsuya.
^
2
no
Yakushi-NySrai (Bhaisbagyaraga) the Healing Buddha.
Nanako is the name given to a liind of heavy twilled sillt with
wavy
,
lustre.
>
;
!
;
;
Japanese Miscellany
196
Musashi,
Nanayz no
Yatsushi,
—
Kokono ya
To!
— two glances — the August Lights
— the Daughter-in-Law — the Chequerthe shop] Itsuya — the dandy
game [sold
of
the shop Nanaya — Nine there are — And ten
One
the
[of
eye-glance
Gods]
1
I
I
I
at
[-clerk]
!
!
I
{Battledoor-song
I
— Province ofShtnano.)
Hi-yara Hikobe
Nakane no O-Toyo
Sando-me
ni
makete,
Abekobe chinchikurin,
Chinchikurin no chinchikurin
Hitoko nifutago,
A/j'watasu yomego,
Itsu kite
w/temo/
Ncmako no obi wo
Ya no ji ni shimete,
Kono ya wo toru.
—
0-Toyo of Nakan^;
There goes one, Hikob^
upside-down now, chinchikurin !
I
times defeated
^
for
The
syllable
m«, the
;
—
mi
of
mitimo
first syllable of
— three
—
chin-
is here considered to be an equivalent
mutsu, " six.'*
! !!
!!!
!
!
chikurin!
and chincbikurin!
bride seen far
away
on her Nanako-obi
the character Ya}-
;
197
—
— one
whenever
I
(taffeta girdle),
"
!
;
child and twins;
go to see her, she puts
tying it in the form of
— and so she passes before
this house.
Sometimes the names of ten celebrated temples,
or the
names of
purpose,
—
names
same enumerative
ten divinities, or even the
of the months, are used for the
as in the following
(
Ichi ni Ichibata
examples
Tokyo Ball-song.)
:
—
''
O-Yakushi Sama yo
Ni-niwa Nihon no Nikko-Sama yo
Kompira-Sama yo
wa Shinano no Zenkoji-Sama yo
Itsutsu Enoshima Benten-Sama yo
Roku-ni Rokkakudo no Kwannon-Sama yo
San-ni Sanuki no
!
Shi-ni
Nanatsu Nana-ura no Tenjin-Sama
yo]!
Yatsu Yawata no Hachiman-Sama yo
Kokonotsu Koya no Kobo-Sama yo
To
de tokoro no Ujigami-Sama yo
Kaketa gwan nara tokaneba naranu
The first time for the August Lord Yakushi of Ichibata;
The second, for the Lord Deity of Nikko in Japan
1
The Hiragana
tying the girdle
is
character " ya "
still
in fashion,
is
here referred
and
to.
is still called
—This way of
the " Ya-no-ji
manner.
2
Variants of this composition seem to be
part of Japan,
known
In
almost every
—
;; ; ;
198
;;
;
;
;
Japanese Miscellany
The third, for the Lord Korapira of Sanuki
The fourth, for the Lord Buddha of Zenkoji in Shinano
The fifth, for the deity Benten of Enoshima;
The sixth, for the deity Kwannon of the Rokkakudo;
The seventh, for the August Lord Tenjin, of Nana-ura;
The eighth, for the August Lord Hachiman, of Yawataj
The ninth, for the Lord Kobodaishi of Koya
The tenth, for the tutelary Gods of this place.
The vow that has been made must always be kept
I
{Kyoto Battledoor-song.)
Shogwatsu,
—
Kadomatsu
Nigwatsu,
—
Hatsu-uma
Sangwatsu,
—
Sekku
Shigwatsu,
—
O-Shaka
Gogwatsu,
—
Nobori
Rokugwatsu,
Tenn5
Shichigwatsu,
—
Tanabata
Hachigwatsu,
—
Hassaku
;! ;
;
;
199
—
Kugwatsu,
Kiku-tsuki
—
Jiugwatsu,
Ebisu-ko
Shimotsuki
Shiwasu
Kokono yo de
Itcho yo
—
Month, Gate-Pinetree ^ -Second Month, First
Third Month, Girls' Festival;"
Fourth Month, the August SSkyamuni *
Fifth Month,
Flags;" Sixth Month, Festival of the tutelar God;^
Seventh Month, Festival of the Weaver '
Eighth Month,
Festival of the First Day;
Ninth Month, the Month of
Tenth Month, Festival of Ebisu '
Chrysanthemums
The Frost Month;
The Last Month;
Nine strokes
given
now one cbo is now completed.
First
;
—
—
Day-of-tIie-Horse;2
;
;
;
—
The Kadomatsu,
—
—
—
—
—
—
;
—
—
is planted before the main enday of the new year.
2 This is the great festival of the Rice-God
the term Hatsu-uma,
or " First Horse-Day," signifies only seventh day, each day of the old
month being named after one of the twelve Signs of the Zodiac.
'
or "Gate-Pine,"
trance of a tiouse on the
first
;
3
Also called the Festival of Dolls.
*
The Birthday
of the
Buddha
is
—
celebrated on the eighth day of the
fourth month.
s
This
is
the Boys' Festival.
Mobori are
flags, bearing symbolic
designs, and are hoisted in celebration of the birth of a son.
In
Tokyo
paper or cotton figures of carp-fish are used in lieu of nobori.
* Tcnno is the name usually given to the guardian-deity of a city ot
district.
'
8
The Weaver
is the
Star Vega.
Patron-God of Labor.
;
200
;
;;
;
;
;;
;
Japanese Miscellany
{Ball-song
— Province of Shinano.)
Daikoku-Sama, to
Ichi-ni,
Ni-ni, nikkori
wa,
iu hito
—
wo f unmaHte
tawara
warote
San-ni, sakazuki itadaite
Yotsu de, yo no naka yoi yo ni
no waku yo
Itsutsu de, izumi
Mutsu,
mubyo
Nanatsu, nanigoto nai
Yatsu de,
wo
yasliiki
Kokonotsu, ko-kura
To
[Praying
as he treads
ni
sokusai ni
yo
ni
tairagete
wo
oshitatete
de, tokkuri osamatta.
—
— secondly, as he laughs
the person called Daikoku-Sama,
to']
upon the
rice-bales,
firstly,
—
taking the
— fourthly, — [we
him] that
that the springs may
the world may prosper, —
that the people may be free from
purely flow, —
may
sickness and calamity, — seventhly, that
— eighthly, that our house may be victorious war] —
ninthly, that treasure-houses maybe
— tenthly,that
with pleasant countenance,
thirdly,
respectfully in hand,
sake-c\x^
beseech
all
fifthly,
sixthly,
all
cease,
all evils
[in
,
erected,
universal peace
This
formed
last is
may
continue to prevail.
a curious example of a prayer trans-
into a ball-song.
Excepting the
first
four
lines the text is almost,
word-for-word, the text
of an old samurai-prayer,
— the household prayer
; ;!
;!
which every warrior repeated
daily.
.
.
201
.
Some
of the following, on the other hand, are
more than nonsense- verses
:
{Battledoor-song
—
little
— Province of Echizen^
Hiya!
Fu ya!
O-Koma San
Tabako no
Kemuri wa,
Johattsan
— two struck
— Johattsan.i
One struck
tobacco
I
(Battledoor-song
I
0-Koma San
I
Smoke of
— Province"of SUnano.)
Ichigwatsu
Nigwatsu
Sangwatsu,
Sakura
Yanagi no
Shita de,
'
San (" Mr. JohachI "),
the popular drama entitled " O-Koma-Saiza."
Johattsan, familiar abbreviation of JohachI
The song alludes to
O-Koma, the heroine
of this play, is a beautiful girl
unhappy end through the
father's house.
who comes
to
an
rascality of JohachI, a trusted servant in her
JohachI appears on the stage,
in various
the drama, squatting before a hibacbi, and smoking furiously.
scenes of
!
!
202
Japanese Miscellany
Kesh5
Shite;
—
To
Yo!
The
first
the second month the third month,
Under the willow-tree, malcing my toilet
month
cherry-flowers
!
;
;
— there goes ten
(Battledoor-song
— Province ofShinano.)
Hiya!
Hikobe
Hagetaka,
Jirobe
?
Jirobe no
Atama wa,
Naze hageta
?
Oyaga
Jakende,
Hi e kubeta.
One
for Hikob^
for Jirobf s head
1
How
did
— how did
it
being cruel, put his head in the
you get bald, Jirobe ? As
become bald ? His parents,
fire.
{Kjioto Ball-song.)
Hi, fu, mi, yo,
Yomo no
keshiki
wo
—
Ham to nagamete
Ume ni uguisu
;
203
—
" Ho-Ho-H6keky6 " to saezuru.
Asu wa Gion no
Niken chaya
de,
Koto ya samisen
Hayashi tenten
Temari-uta,
" Uta no
Chiyo go
Nakayama "
ni go-jiu de
— roku — roku,
—
—
Chiyo
Chiyo hachi — hachi —
Chiyo roku
shichi
shichi
shichi,
hachi,
Chiyo ku
ni ku-jiu de
Chotto hyaku
tsuita.
One, two, three, four
!
—
in
each of the four directions
gazing, everywhere the signs of spring are seen.
On
the
Tomorrow in the two tea-houses of Gion-street, with accomting-ting
paniment of koto and samisen
will be sung
the hand-ball songs, and the song called " Uta no Nakayama."
Thus making fifty and five chj/o.^
Chijio, six
plum-tree the nightingale
sings
Ho-Ho-HokSkjid?-
—
.
.
six
.
.
— six
!
!
Chij/o,
seven
— seven — seven
.
!
—
—
.
Chiyo, eight
^ With regard to the cry of the uguisu, see the preceding paper on
Buddhist nomenclature.
' Chiyo is here the same as cho, meaning the even number, or full
ten.
!
!
204
eigfht
!
;
;
;!
Japanese Miscellany
— eight
Chiyo, nine and ninety
!
now
I
.
.
.
Even so
a hundred have been struck
(City of Shidûoka.')
Uguisu ya uguisu ya
Tama-tama miyako e noboru
!
Ume
no ko-eda
toki,
ni hirune shite,
O-Chiyo ni nani-nani kisete yaru ?
Uwagi wa kon-kon-kon-chirimen,
wa chin-chin-chirimen
wo kisete yattareba
Shitagi
Sore
Michi de korobu ka
Tono-San ga
Omma
^
?
—
te
totara, o-jigi
kitaraba,
waki
ni
wo
wo
;
—
tsuku ka
?
seyo
yore
kodomo wo kamo-nayo
Kamoto soshi de butareruzo
Mazu, mazu ikkwan okashimoshita
Te-narai
— O Nightingale, Nightingale
to the capital, sleeping
will
you
give
!
by day on
0-Chiyo to wear
?
when some time you go
a plum-tree bough, what
— An upper dress of dark-
blue, dark-blue, dark-blue cripe-silk; an under-dress of rare,
So dressed, when I send her out,
warn her not to stumble, or to dirty her hands. " If
a Lord passes on the road, [/ shall say to her,] make the
rare, rare cr?pe-silk.
I
shall
honorable reverence.
If
an honorable horse approaches,
keep well to one side of the road.
'
Omma
is
Do
not vex the children
a corruption of 0-uma, " honorable horse."
—
; ; ;;;;;
;
on
their
way to
—
if you vex them, you
the writing-school
be beaten with copy-books."
Now, now I
you one kwan [ i. e., I have struck the ball one
;
—
will certainly
have
lent
20?
hundred times
!
]
^
[Province ofEchiên.)
Hitotsu, hiita
Ko
Futatsu,
mame,
ni shita
mame
mame,
f unda
Fukureta
Kirei
Itsutsu,
itta
—
mame
mame,
na
—
mame
Tsubureta
Mitsu, miso-mame,
Yotsu, yotta
—
—
mame
mame",
—
mame
Hara-kitta
Mutsu, murota mame,
—
mame
Tokushita
Nanatsu, natta mame,
Saya-tsuki
Yatsu, yatta
mame
mame,
Son-shita
—
mame
Kokonotsu, kota mame,
Zeni-dashita
mame
The ancient kwan was worth looo cash,
same as that of the dollar
therefore about the
—
— or
mon.
Its
of loo cents.
value
was
;
206
——
;;
;
; ;;
;
—
Japanese Miscellany
To de tottamame,
Nushito-shita
mame.
— for ground peas, —
One
made
the peas
into flour
— for trampled peas,
the peas which were crushed;
Three, — the peas made into miso-suxa, —
fermented peas
Four, — the selected peas, —
Two,
the beautiful peas
— for parched peas,
Five,
the belly-cut peas
Six,
— for peas given to
us,
—
the peas which
we
the peas in the
pod
gained
Seven,
— for growing peas, —
Eight,
— the peas given away, —
the peas that are lost
Nine,
— the peas which we paid for,—
the money-bought peas
And
Ten,
— for the peas that we took,
the stolen peas
The
interest of the
the ball-songs
—
is
I
next selection
scheme of the composition
is
A
"
;
all
The
not unlike that of
our celebrated nursery-game, "
with an
— best of
of quite another kind.
I
love
my
love
and the narration can be extended
or varied indefinitely according to the imaginative wit of the players
:
—
;
!
(
First
TokpS Hand-hall Song.)
Player: —
O-Kan
— Kan — Kan —
Kaga-Sama
yashiki
ja,
O-Kesa kometsuku,
Konuka ga ochiru.
— Nantote ochiru
?
Sasa! shicUku-dake I
Sasa! hachihii-dake f
— Muko no muko no
Koshi-zukuri no
Shirakabe-zukuri no
Akai-noren no kakatta,
O-Hime-Sama made
O-watashi
—
Mosu-sii-su no su I
Second Player:
—
Uketotta! uketotta!
Uketotta
Daiji
no o-mari wo uketotta 1
Aa! uketotta!
Cho
ya, hana
ya to
O-sodatemoshite
O-kaeshimoshite
207
; :
208
Japanese Miscellany
Konya no ban kara
Kami mo irazumi,
Suzuri
mo
irazumi
Hari sambon,
—
Kinu-ito mi-suji
ni,
—
Omma ga sambiki, —
O-kago ga sancho.
NorikaH-hik'kag,
Muko no muko no
Koshi-zukuri no
Kaki no noren no
Sama mad^
?
O-watashi
—
Mosu-su-suno su!
—
First Player:
In the residence of
maid O-K&a is cleaning
what sound does it faH ?
dahe!
—sasa!
the Lord of
—
hacbiku-dake
princess dwelling far, far
1
of
— —
Ka
Ka
Kaga, the
and the rice-bran falls. With
With the sound of Sasa ! shichiku-
rice,
.'^
.
away ,2
.
.
Now
— in the
to the maiden-
house with the
These words are all names of bamboo. The sasa is a small variety
bamboo the shichiku-daki is a black bamboo and the hachiku:
;
a purplish bamboo. But in this song the words are used only
as onomatopes. The syllables sasa represent the creaking of the great
dake
is
wooden
mallet,
when
lifted
by the
feet of the rice-pounder
;
and the
syllables shicMku-dake, hachiku-daki are Intended to imitate the noise
and the
dull thud of the blow.
" in front of in front " ) might better be rendered by our colloquial phrase, " at the back of beyond."
of the mallet falling,
2
Muko no muko
(lit.,
lattice-work
,
— in the
house with the white
house with the red curtains hung up,
worshipfully this
ball pas-s-s-ss
IHere the ball
catches
it,
and
:
—
I
in the
do now most
!
thrown
is
sings
—
209
walls, —
to
another girl, who
J
Second Player; —
have caught
I
precious
like
for
it
Ah
!
I
have caught
it
!
I
have received the
have received
it
!
a blossom, even so tenderly shall
it
be honorably cared
ball.
1
I
and by this night
;
[To return
it]
shall
it
Like a butterfly,
worshipfully be returned.
neither paper nor inkstone will be needed,!
— but three needles, and three hnesof silken
thread,''
— and
three honorable horses, and three honorable palanquins.
.
.
Changing horses, and again changing horses, [I myself
= who dwells far,
shall carry this ball] to the Lady
far away from here,
in the building with the lattice-work,
in the building with the persimmon-colored curtains hung
up. To her I now do worshipfully [this ball] pas-s-s-ss
—
I
VI
LULLABIES
A
PARTICULAR psychological
interest attaches to
the literature of the lullaby, independently of
'
Because the
ing a
2
°
letter of
ball will not be returned
merely by a messenger bear-
thanks.
Because it will be respectfully enclosed in a silken wrapper or bag.
Here the real name of the girl, to whom the ball Is next to be
thrown,
may
14
be mentioned.
210
Japanese Miscellany
country or race.
Being the natural utterance of
mother-love, the lullaby
may
be said to express
the most ancient form of tender experience
in
;
and
almost every time and place the essential char-
acter of this variety of folk-song has
by
affected
social
changes of any
sort.
been
little
Whether
narrative or jingle, sense or nonsense, the verses
usually contain
some
reference to those familiar
things in which the child-mind discovers cause
for
wonder
moon and
:
horses or cows, trees or flowers, the
the stars, birds or butterflies, sights of
the street or garden.
Often the lullaby repre-
sents the reiteration of one
term of
caress, alter-
nated with promises of reward for docility, and
hints of danger as a result of fretfulness.
promises
commonly
refer to
The
food or toys; and
by
by some bogey or goblin having
the threatened penalties are not to be inflicted
the mother, but
power
to
punish naughty children.
To
such
general rules the Japanese lullabies do not offer
any remarkable exceptions; but they abound
queer
fancies,
and
have a
distinctly
in
Oriental
quality.
Perhaps the European reader will be startled by
the apparition of the syllables nenne and nenneho
;
!
Songs
2H
at the beginning of these little songs
for
;
many
of the French berceuses also begin with the sylnene,
lables
having
nearly the
(The
sound.
in
dialects
is
mothers
in
southern France;
northern equivalent.^)
real
same
French word nene, — pronounced
some
nenna and nono, —
commonly used by
etymological
dodo being the
But of course there
relation
between the
nene and the Japanese nenne.
phrase, nenneko,
is
is
no
French
The Japanese
compounded with a
of the verb neru, signifying to sleep
;
syllable
a syllable
word nenne or nennet, meaning baby and
" Sleep, babythe word ko, meaning child.
"
child
is the real meaning of the expression.
of the
;
!
(Province of he.)
Nenne, nenne -to
Neru-ko wa kawai
Okite-naku-ko wa
Tsura-nikui.
Sleep,
child;
»
little
one, sleep
— ugly the
See, for examples,
en France
:
!
Sweet
is
the face of the sleeping
face of the wakeful child that cries
M.
Tiersot's Hisloire de la
pp. 136-137, el seq.
I
Chanson Populaire
!
212
!
!
!
Japanese Miscellany
(
Prcmnce of Iûmo. )
Nenneko, nenneko, nenneko ya
Netara o-kaka e tsurete ina
kama
Okitara gagama ga totte
Sleep, sleep,
O
sleep,
my
child!
go home to fetch your mother
Gagama^ will catch and bite you
1
you sleep I will
you stay awake the
If
If
I
{Kyoto Lullaby.)
Netaka? nenandaka?
Makura
ni toSba,
Makura mono
Neta to
Gone
to sleep
?
iuta,
iuta.
— not yet sleeping
?
When
I
questioned
the pillow, the pillow spoke words: "Already asleep,"
so
it
—
said.
{Province of Musashi.)
Nenneko! nenneko!
Nenneko yo
Oraga akabo wa
Itsu dekita
*
term
This
is
IS
?
an Izumo name for some kind of Goblin.
tlie ancient word Gogome,
not a corruption of
to certain ptiantoms of the primitive Shinto cult,
the Underworld.
I
wonder
if tlie
— a name given
— the Ugly Women of
:
;
!!
21?
San-gwatsu, sakura no
Saku
toki ni
Dori de o-kao ga
Sakura-iro.
sleep,
Sleep,
made ?
sleep,
my
child
When was my baby
I
in the
time of the blooming
Therefore the color of the honorable
of cherry-flowers.
face of
my
month,
In the third
child is the color of the cherry-blossom.
{Province ofSanuki.)
Nennen, nennen,
Nennen yo
!
—
Nenneshita ko ni
Haneita to hane to
Nenne-sen ko
Han^
Sleep,
does not
sleep,
ni
.
.
.
—
For the little one who goes to
For the child who
and shuttlecock
sleep, sleep
sleep, a battledoor
bakari.
!
!
only a shuttlecock
{Province of Shinano.)
Nennen -yo!
Korokoro yo
Nennen-Koyama ^ no
Perhaps the name Nennen-Koyama might be translated, " The
Land of Nod." The Kiji, a beautiful green pheasant, often
hence the proverb, Kiji mo
betrays itself to the hunter by its cry
^
Hills of the
;
—
!
214
;
!
!
Japanese Miscellany
Kiji
no ko wa,
Nakuto o-taka
ni
Torareru yo
Sleep
I
of Nennen
happily sleep
—
if it
cries
The young of the
!
it is
sure to be taken
hiji in
by
the
Hill
the hawk.
Achira muitemo
yama yama
yama yama.
Kochira muitemo
Yama no naka
Shii
Sleep, sleep,
see only
ga aru
?
ya donguri kaya no mi.
one, sleep
little
mountains.
mountains.
there be?
ni nani
I
!
I
way
turn that
turn this way; but
I
;
see
but
I
only
In the midst of those mountains what can
There are s/j«i-nuts and acorns and seeds of
kaya?
Nenneko
se,
nenneko
se
Nenne no omori wa doko
Yama wo
nakaûba utari
wa
koete sato, e
shimai
:
"
If
the Kiji did not cry,
shot."
*
^
The s*«-tree is a variety of
The kaya is a liind of yew.
e itta
live-oalc.
?
itta.
it
would not be
;
!
Sato no miyage ni nani morota
2\$
?
Denden-taiko ni furi-tsuzumi,
Okiagarikoboshi ni inu-iiariko.
Sleep,
little
one, sleep
Where
!
is
the sleep-nurse, the
Over the hills to her own village-home.
When she comes back, what presents will she bring you ?
A round drum to beat and a hand-drum i to shake; an
okiagarikoboshi 1^ and a paper dog.
girl-nurse
gone
?
(Province of he.)
Nenne sanse yo
Kyo wa ni-jiu-go niclii
Asu wa kono ko no
Miya-mairi.
Miya
Do
e mairaba
iute
ogamu ?
Kono ko
Mame
Sleep,
child
I
sleep
To-morrow morning
!
ichi-dai
na yo
ni.
To-day
is
this child will
When
the twenty-fifth day.
make
his first visit to
go with him to the
temple, what shall I pray for ? I will pray that through
all his life this child may be healthy and strong.
the [Shinto] parish-temple.
^
The round shallow drum
is called
I
a dendem-taiko.
The tsuûmi
a hand-drum of a very peculiar shape. Of course the toy-drums
here referred to are considerably smaller than the real instrument.
is
2 The okiagarikoboshi is a little figure of a wrestler which is so
weighted as to assume an erect posture, no matter how thrown down.
!
216
!
:
—
Japanese Miscellany
{Province of Musashi.)
Nenneko, nenneko,
Nenneko yo
Oraga akabo no
Neta rusu
ni,
Azuki
wo
Kome
toide,
Aka no
Toto
yonagete,
mamma e
soete,
Aka no
ii-ko ni
Kureru-zo
one
While my baby sleeps I
then addwash some red beans and clean some rice
ing some fish to the red rice, I will serve it up to this best
Sleep, sleep, sleep, little
!
will
of
little
;
babies.
{Province of Echiên.)
Uchi no kono ko no
Makura no moyo,
Ume
ni uguisu,
Matsu
Umd
ni tsuru
ni naretdmo,
Sakura
wa
iyaya;
Onaji hana demo,
Chiri yasui.
—
! !
The designs upon the pillow
217
of this child of the house
are nightingales and plum-trees, storks and pines.
used to the plum-tree-design
but
;
Though
cherry-flower design.
beauty to the plum-tree,
[Matsui
its
:
I
am
would not have the
I
the cherry-tree be equal in
blossoms too
easily fall.i
Province of Iûmo.)
Nenneko, nenneko nenneko ya
Kono ko
nashite naku-yara
ga
O-chichi
taranuka
taranuka
1
— o-mama
ga
.'
Itna ni ototsan
Ame
?
no otono no o-kaeri
ni
ya, o-kwashi ya, hii-hii ya,
Gara-gara, nagureba fuito tatsu
Okiagarikoboshi
!
—
Sleep, sleep, sleep,
tinue to cry
?
-
Is
little
one
honorable rice deficient?
from the
*
Presently
great Lord's palace,
Therefore the design
be a happy symbol.
is
unlucky.
is
gested by this composition
flower design
;
does the child con-
ame
;
will
I
It is
?
—
is
the
father returns
be given you, and
Some local
— In this connection
for children's clothing
when
sugthought to
bit of folklore is
— usually the cherry-flower
held to be unlucky.
may observe
is
that the lotos-
never to be seen
in patterns
and even pictures of the flower are scarcely
ever suspended in a room.
The reason
symbolic flower of Buddhism,
borne as an emblem
Why
I
the honorable milk deficient
is
is
that the lotos, being the
sculptured upon tombstones, and
in funeral processions.
is
218
—
; !
!! ;
Japanese Miscellany
also cake,
and
and a
a hii-hii likewise,
rattle as well,
and an
okiagarikohoshi that will stand up immediately after being
thrown down.
{Shidpwha
Citv.)
Yoi-ko da
San-ko da
Mame
Mame
O-ko
na ko da
!
de sodateta
ja
mono
Neruto n^rimochi
Kureteyaru
;
Damaruto dango wo
Kureteyaru
Nakuto nagamochi
Showaseru zo
Okoruto okorimushi
ni
Kureteyaru.
Good
For
it
will give
you
if
I
will give
you hush.
you
If
carry a nagamochi [quilt-chest].
give
*
you to
The
a healthy child
it
is!
a child that has been nourished with peas.
Kneaded rice-cakes
I
— what
child, genteel child,
is
if you sleep.
Dumplings
you cry 1 will make you
If you get angry I will
the Anger-Insect .^
chief interest of this composition is the curiously alliterative
structure of the phrases.
There are several queer plays upon words,
Mame, as pronounced, may mean
either " peas " or
**
healthy." In the
!
!
219
{Province of Suruga.)
Bo ya wa
da
iiko
!
Nenneshina
Kono ko no kawaisa
—
Kagiri nai,
Yama
de no ki no kazu,
Kaya no kazu,
Ten e nobotte
Hoshi no kazu,
Numadzu
e kudareba
—
Senbon matsu,
Senbon-matsubara,
Ko-matsubara,
Matsuba no kazu yori
Mada kawai
Oh
My
I
how good
a child this
love of this child
is
—
as the
boy
— as
number of
— as the thousands of
is
!
Sleep,
pines of the
child
I
—
the stars in the sky above,
the pines of
Numadzu below,
the myriad great pines of the pine-forest,
little
my
number of the
the number of the fruits
incalculable as the
trees in the mountain-forest,
of the kaya,
!
— as
young pine-wood more
:
than the leaves of those pine-trees,
is
my
—
as
the myriad
incalculable even
love of this
little
one
same way " okori " mi^ht mean
Ohorimushi properly
name
of
angry " or " ague."
and is the popular
cause chills and fever.
either " to be
signifies the "ague-insect,"
a large moth, believed
to
!
220
!
!
!
;
Japanese Miscellany
{Lullaby sung to the child of a Daimyo.
— Province
of
1
Iûmo.)
O-nenne, o-nenne, o-nenne ya
wa
Yoi ni
Asama wa
tokara gyoshin nari.
tokara omezamete,
Omezame no
ohobi ni nani, nani
wo
O-chichi no debana
O -chichi no
?
agemashozo,
debana ga o-iya nara,
Niwatori-keawase o-me ni kakyo
Niwatori-keawase o-iya nara,
O-kwashi wa takusan o-agarika
Augustly
sleep
!
rest,
what honorable
ening?
augustly rest
I
Soon
this evening augustly
Early at daybreak, at the august awakening, what,
gift shall
be presented
Flower of honorable milk
august awakbe presented. If
at the
shall
the flower of honorable milk be augustly disliked, then the
fighting of the cocks will
fighting of
be honorably displayed.
If
the
the cocks be augustly disliked, then will not
honorable cake be augustly accepted?
{Tokyo.)
Nennen yd
Korokoro yo
Nennen-Koyama no
Usagi wa,
Obtained from dictation at Matsue, Izumo.
The original interest
of this piece lies in the curious and reaiiy untranslatable honoritics.
'
Naze
221
o-mimi ga
ni
O-nagai ne
?
Okkasan no
O-naka
ni,
Ita toki ni,
Biwa no mi,
Sasa no mi,
Tabemashit^
;
—
Sore de o-mimi ga
^
O-nagai yo
Sleep,
little
one
!
— pleasantly
of the hare of the
When
sleep
— Why
!
are the ears
Nennen so honorably long
of
Hill
!
womb, she
small bamboo
he was in his mother's honorable
fruits of the loquat, the seeds of the
fore his honorable ears are thus honorably long
:
there-
I
(Province of Setlsu.)
Nenne
!
Koro
Temma no
An Izumo
Tclii
ichi
Daikon
soroete,
Fune
Fune
tsumu.
ni
yo
-
!
!
ni tsundara
version of this lullaby will be found in Glimpses
familiar japan,
—
p. 609.
The Izumo
There are several Tokyo versions.
version
is
more
?
ate the
of Un-
interesting.
—
;
!
222
!
Japanese Miscellany
Doko-made
ikiyaru
?
Namba no
Kizu ya
Hashi no
shita.
Hashi no shita ni
wa
O-kame ga iyaru
O-kame toritaya,
Take hoshiya
Take ga hoshikerya,
Takeya
e ikiyare
;
Take wa nandemo
Gozarimasu
Sleep, child
Temma
!
!
— The
Fair-time
is
!
coming.
Oh
I
the fair of
ends of the radishes having been evenly
is loaded.
Having been laden, where
go ?
Under the Bridge of Kizu, and under the
Under those bridges live many honBridge of Namba.
orable tortoises. Honorable tortoises 1 want to catch
I want a bamboo-pole.
If you wish for a bamboo-pole,
go to the bamboo-shop. In that bamboo-shop all kinds of
trimmed, the ship
will the ship
—
—
I
—
bamboos
augustly exist.
(
Tokyo.)
O-Tsuki Sama, ikutsu ?
Jiu-san, nanatsu.
Mada toshi waka y^
Ano ko wo unde,
Kono ko wo unde,
—
!
—
!;
Dard
dakasho
ni
223
?
O-Man ni dakasho.
O-Man doko itta ?
Abura-kae, cha-kae.
Aburaya no mae de
Subite koronde
Abura
issho koboshita.
Sono abura doshita
Taro-Don no
Jiro-Don no inu
Mina namete
to,
shimatta.
Sono inu doshita
Taiko
?
inu to,
?
ni hatte,
Achi no ho demo,
Don-doko-don
!
Kochi no ho demo,
Don-doko-don
Tataita-to-sa
Lady Moon, how old
That
is still
young.
whom
ing born, to
O-Man
— She
it
shall
are
— That
shall
you?
buy
seven.
oil
;
— Where
is
—
?
To
O-Man gone ?
the child be given to carry
be given to carry.
has gone to
— Thirteen,
child being born, this child be-
she has gone to
buy
tea.
—
Slipping and falling, in front of the oil-shop, one whole
sho
1
One
of
sho
oil
is
a
she
spilled.
little
— What was
more than a quart and a
done with that
half.
oil
?
—
!
!
!
224
Japanese Miscellany
The dog of Master Taro, and the dog of Masier Jiro, licked
it all up.
Their skins
What was done with those dogs ?
were stretched and made into drums. There you can hear
[the drum] even now,
don-doko-don! Here you can hear
[the drum] even now,
don-doko-don! So they beat the
drums
—
—
—
—
{Province of Gifu.)
Nenne ya
korokoro ya
!
Nenne no umareta
Sono
hi ni
wa,
Akai
o-mamma
Toto
soete,
ni
Toto-sama no o-hashi de
Agdmashoka
?
Toto-sama no o-hashi wa
Toto kusai.
Haha-sama no o-hashi de
Agemashoka
?
Haha-sama no o-hashi wa
Chichi kusai.
Ane-sama no o-hashi de
Agemasho.
Nennen! korokoro
Nenne-sho
Sleep,
day
I
little
will give
one
!
happily sleep
you red
rice
I
On your
cooked with
fish.
next birthShall
I
then
!
;
;! !
—
!
225
—
you with the honorable chopsticks of your father?
The honorable chopsticks of father smell of fish.
Shall I
feed you with the honorable chopsticks of your mother ?
Mother's honorable chopsticks smell of milk.
Then I
shall feed you with the honorable chopsticks of your elder
sister.
Sleep
pleasantly go to sleep
feed
—
—
—
I
I
{Province of Settsu.)
,
Nenneko, sann^ko, sakaya no ko
Sakaya wo iyanara yome
Yome no dogu
ni yaro.
wa, nani-nani zo
?
Tansu, nagamochi, hitsu, todana
Ryukyu-zutsumi ga rokka aru
Furoshiki-zutsumi
wa kazu
shirezu
Sorehodo koshirae yaru-kara-nya,
Issh5 sararete
modoruna yo
— Sorya mata okkasan doyoku na
Sengoku tsundaru fune saemo,
Kaze ga kawareba modoru mono
Sleep, sleep,
my
child,— child of the saU-&&2Xtr\
If
you do not Hke this sj^^'-house, I will send you away as a
What are the bridal-gifts that will be given ? A
bride.
tansu (chest of drawers), a nagamochi (quilt-chest), one
Of Ryukyu ^
hitsu (clothes-chest), one todana (cupboard).
goods the packages are
1
six
;
— as for the presents wrapped
Ryhuyu is the Japanese name of the Loochoo Islands. Various
and other fabrics, made in the Loochoo islands, are greatly
textile
prized in Japan.
IS
!
226
Japanese. Miscellany
mfuroshiki} their number cannot be told. So much having been done for you, when you are given as a bride,
remember that if you be divorced, you must never in your
come back to this house
Ah, mother that is too
cruel of you
Even the ship that is freighted with a
thousand koku of rice returns to port if the fair wind
life
I
—
I
I
changes.
(Tokyo Lullaby.)
Senjo zashiki no
Karakami sodachi
Botchama
mo
yoi ko ni
Naru toki wa,
Jimen wo fuyashite,
Kura
tatete,
Kura no tonari
Matsu
ni
uete,
Matsu no tonari
Take
ni
uete,
Take no
tonari ni
Ume
Ume
no ko-eda
Suzu
sagete,
uet^,
—
ni
Sono suzu chara-chara
Naru toki wa,
^
Small presents are usually wrapped
silk before
handkerchief,
is
in
a square piece of cotton or
and this wrapper, much resembling a large
called n/urosbiku
being sent
;
:
!
227
Botchama
mo
sazo-sazo
Ureshikaro
[Big and beautiful] as the
sand-mat room,
— so
Sir
a thou-
sliding-screens of
Baby-boy
growing
is
When
I
he
becomes a good boy likewise, then I will make larger the
grounds about our dwelling, and there build for him a
Next to the treasure-house
treasure-house.
pine-trees.
Next to the pine-trees
Next to the bamboos
I
When
boy,
those
little
bells
how happy you
shall
be hung
sound cbara-ciara
be
will
bamboos.
To
will plant plum-trees.
branches of those plum-trees
—O
{City of Hakata.)
?
O-tera no nikai de mitsu tabeta.
Sono
o-tera
wa
dare ga tateta
?
Hachiman-Choja no oto-musume.
Oto ga yome-iri suru
toki
nya
Nangai-teramachi shara-shara
to,
Mijikai-teramachi shara-shara
to.
Shara-shara setta no o ga kireta
— Anesan,
kurenkana
— Tatete yaro kota yarokendo
tatete
Hari
mo
nakareba,
.'
ito
mo
nai,
— Hari wa hariya de kote-yaru,
Ito
wa
itoya de kote-yaru.
the
little
I
Kinkan, mikan, nambo tabeta
plant
will
I
will plant
I
Sir
little
bells.
Baby-
228
—
"
!
;
!;
Japanese Miscellany
— Hari wa hariya no
wa
Ito
itoya
— Anesan,
— Sore wa
kusare-bari,
no kusare-ito
setta ni chi
chi ja nai
ga
!
tsuita
— beni
Osaka beni koso iro yokere
Iro no yoi hodo ne ga takai.
ja
mono
;
— Citrons, oranges, — how many did you eat
— Upstairs in the honorable temple ate three.
— As for that honorable temple,^ by whom
?
I
built
was
it
?
By the youngest daughter of the wealthy Hachiman.
the day when that youngest daughter went out to be
On
married,
Down
the long Street-of-Temples she walked
shara-
shara,
Down
the short Street-of-Temples she walked
shara
— shara-
:
Then was broken a thong of the sandals i
that
sounded
shara-shara.
you not kjndly mend
would mend for you
" Elder sister, will
"
The thong
I
it ?
But I have neither a needle nor thread."
" A needle from the needle-shop I will buy for you
Thread from the threadshop
"
Ah,
I
This thread of the thread-shop
" Elder Sister
1
The
will
buy
this needle of the needle-shop
setta is
a
!
there
light,
is
is
is
for you."
a rotten needle
I
rotten thread."
blood upon
my
sandals
"
I
but very strong sandat. of which the leather
sole is strengthened with plates of thin metal.
:
" That
not blood,
is
The rouge
Very
it is
only bmi (rouge).i
Osaka has indeed a
of
fine color
— therefore the price
fine is the color,
And now, by way
229
of conclusion,
let
is dear.''
me
that in preparing this rather lengthy paper
I
state
could
new
only hope to furnish the reader with a
experience,
— an
experience
of passing, for the
first
somewhat
like that
time, through Japanese
streets.
The
general
first
must
street
vague
be,
impression of a Japanese
most
for
than strange.
have senses of superlative
even more
you happen to
people,
Unless
delicacy,
— unless
you
possess a visual faculty like that of Pierre Loti,
example,
for
and
— you
can remember very
understand almost nothing, of
looked
while
at
passing through
little,
what you
that
street.
you will find yourself surprised and
you will feel, without knowing why,
Nevertheless
pleased
the
;
—
sensation of the
elfish
and the odd,
— the
charm of the unexpected.
Well, in
perhaps
attention
*
Bint
Is
all
less
;
the child-songs which
I
have quoted,
than half-a-dozen fairly arrested your
and of the
rest
used chiefly to color the
you probably remem-
lips.
:
2^0
Japanese Miscellany
ber scarcely
through the
anything.
series,
But
if
you have read
even hastily and superficially,
you should have obtained a general
impression,
or vague sensation, not unlike the sensation that
follows upon the
first
vision of Japanese streets
— dim surmise of another and inscrutable humanity,
— another
race-soul,
strangely alluring, yet
forever alien to your own.
Studies Here and There
On
a Bridge
On
MY
old kurumaya, Heishichi, was taking
to a
of
We
came
famous temple
and
;
bridge, so that
a moment.
in tiie
1
1
me
neighborhood
Kumamoto.
to a humped and venerable
over the Shirakawa
on the
a Bridge
bridge
told Heishichi to halt
could enjoy the view for
Under the summer sky, and steeped
in a flood of sunshine electrically white, the colors
of the land seemed
almost unreally beautiful.
Below us the shallow
river laughed
over
its
and gurgled
bed of grey stones, overshadowed by ver-
dure of a hundred
tints.
Before us the reddish-
white road alternately vanished and re-appeared
as
it
wound away, through grove
or
hamlet,
toward the high blue ring of peaks encircling the
vast Plain of Higo.
—a
far
only the
Behind us lay Kumamoto,
bluish confusion of
fine
grey
lines
of
myriad roofs
its
castle
.
.
Seen from within, Kumamoto
235
is
—
showing
sharp against the green of further wooded
.
;
hills.
a shabby
""
2^6
Japanese Miscellany
place
it is
"
;
but seen as
beheld
I
that
it
a fairy-city, built out of mist
summer
day,
and dreams.
.
.
.
" Twenty-two years ago," said Heishichi, wiping his forehead
—
I
—"
no, twenty -three years ago,
stood here, and saw the city burn."
" At night
?
"
queried.
1
" No," said the old man, "it was in the after-
noon
— a wet day.
.
.
They were fighting and
;
.
the city was on fire."
"
Who
"
The
were fighting
We
the Satsuma men.
and
?
were fighting with
soldiers in the castle
sat in
dug holes
them, to escape the
suma men had cannons on
in the
balls.
ground
The
Sat-
the hill; and the
were shooting at them over
The whole city was burned."
But how did you happen to be here
soldiers in the castle
our heads.
"
.'
"1 ran away.
by myself.
all
brother's
farm
I
I
ran as far as this bridge,
thought that
— about
I
could get to
—
my
seven miles from here.
But they stopped me."
" Who stopped you ?
" Satsuma men,
1 don't
—
As
I
got to the bridge
I
know who they were.
saw
thought they were peasants
three peasants
— leaning over
—
I
the
On
men
railing:
a Bridge
wearing big straw hats and straw
rain-cloaks and straw sandals.
politely
I
saw
'
You
spoke to them
I
and one of them turned
;
and said to me,
he said
237
stay here
head round,
his
!
That was
'
Then
the others did not say anything.
:
that they were not
peasants
and
;
all
I
was
afraid."
How
"
peasants
you know
did
"
long swords hidden under their
— very
rain -cloaks,
down
them,— just
if
spoke.
railing for
How
I
:
stood
beside
knew
that they
left,
would
a long time."
long
"
?
I
.
—
it
must have been
saw the city burning.
men spoke
to
me
All that
or looked
they kept their eyes upon the water.
heard a horse
1
coming
came.
I
do not know exactly
me
I
by the third post to the
did.
while none of the
Then
river.
the bridge,
I
a long time.
at
They were
swords.
moved from there. None of them
And we four stood leaning over the
me
"
the
into
there,
and did as they
"
long
They leaned over
men.
tall
looking
kill
they were not
?
"They had
very
that
at a
.
."
trot,
;
and
I
— looking
saw a cavalry
all
officer
about him as he
238
Japanese Miscellany
" From the city
"Yes,
three
"
?
— along that road behind you.
men watched him from
straw hats
;
.
.
The
.
under their big
but they did not turn their heads
;
—
down into the river.
moment that the horse got on the bridge,
three men turned and leaped
and one
they pretended to be looking
But, the
the
;
caught the horse's bridle
;
—
and another gripped the
—
arm and the third cut oflf his head
all
."
in a moment.
" The officer's head ? "
"Yes
he did not even have time to shout
before his head was off. ...
never saw any-
officer's
;
.
.
—
I
thing done so
Not one of the three
quickly.
men
uttered a word."
" And then ? "
" Then they pitched the body over the railing
into the river
— hard
;
;
and one of them struck the horse,
and the horse ran away. ..."
" Back to the town
"No — the
"
?
horse was driven straight out over
the bridge, into the country.
not thrown into the river
men
all
kept
it
— under
:
.
.
.
The head was
one of the Satsuma
his straw cloak.
.
.
.
Then
of us leaned over the railing, as before,—
looking down.
My
knees were shaking.
The
"
"
On
three samurai
:
a Bridge
239
not speak a single word.
did
could not even hear them breathing.
afraid to look
down
at their faces
into the river.
.
that
felt sick
I
;
.
— and
1
—
my
I
was
kept looking
I
After a
.
— and
heard another horse,
;
1
while
little
heart
I
jumped so
looked up, and saw a
cavalry -soldier coming along the road, riding very
No
fast.
then —
in
one
stirred
one
second —
body was thrown
away
driven
were
he was on the bridge
till
head was
his
into the river,
— exactly
as
before.
Then
killed like that.
off
!
The
and the horse
Three
the samurai
men
left
the
bridge."
" Did you go with them
"
No
they
:
?
immediately
left
killed
the third man,
them;
— and
— taking
after
having
the heads with
they paid no attention to me.
I
stayed on the bridge, afraid to move, until they
were very far away.
burning town;
was
told
—
I
Then
I
ran back to the
ran quick, quick!
that the Satsuma troops were
There
I
retreating.
Soon afterwards, the army came from Tokyo;
and 1 was given some work I carried straw san:
dals for the soldiers."
"
Who were
the bridge
?
the
men
that
you saw
killed
on
"
240
"
Japanese Miscellany
don't
I
know."
" Did you never try to find out ?
" No," said Heishichi, again mopping his forehead " I said nothing about the matter until many
:
years after the war."
" But
why
?
"
I
Heishichi gave
in a pitying
"Because
persisted.
me
one astonished look, smiled
way, and answered,
it
would
have been wrong;
would have been ungrateful."
I
felt
properly rebuked.
And we resumed our
—
journey.
—
it
The Case
of
0-Dai
" Honor thy father and thy mother."
— Deut. v.
i6.
" Hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the
law of thy mother."
— Proverbs
i.
8.
The Case
0-Dai
of
I
0-DAI
pushed aside the lamplet and the
incense -cup and the water vessel
Buddha-shelf, and opened the
before which they had
were the
—
ihai, the
five in all;
hisattva
been placed.
mortuary
on the
little
shrine
Within
tablets of her people,
and a gilded figure of the Bod-
Kwannon
stood smiling behind them.
The ihai of the grandparents occupied the
side
;
those of the parents the right
them was a smaller
tablet,
of a child-brother with
and
quarrel, to laugh
of
many
and between
bearing the kaimyo
whom
and cry,
she used to play
in other
and hap-
Also the shrine contained a mahe-
pier years.
mono, or
;
left
scroll,
inscribed with the spirit-names
ancestors.
her infancy,
Before that shrine, from
O-Dai had been wont
243
to pray.
244
Japanese Miscellany
The
and the
tablets
scroll signified
time — very much
her faith in former
more
more
to
—
than remembrance of a father's affection and a
mother's caress;
of
the
who had
elders
— more
ever-loving,
than any remembrance
ever-smiling
ever-patient,
fostered her babyhood, carried
her pickaback to every temple-festival, invented
her pleasures, consoled her small sorrows, and
— more
soothed her fretfulness with song;
memory
the
than
of the laughter and the tears, the
cooing and the calling and the running of the
dear and mischievous
all
little
brother
;
— more than
the traditions of the ancestors.
For those objects
signified the actual viewless
— the
presence of the
lost,
sympathy and
tenderness,
haunting of invisible
— the
gladness
and
the grief of the dead in the joy and the sorrow
When,
of the living.
in other time, at
evening
dusk, she was wont to kindle the lamplet before
them,
astir
how
often had she seen the tiny flame
with a motion not
Yet the thai
pious fancy.
is
own!
even more than a token to
Strange
possibilities
tion, transubstantiation,
as
its
belong to
temporary body for the
spirit
of transmutait.
It
serves
between death
The Case of 0-Dai
24?
and birth:
each fibre of
wood
with a viewless life-potential.
will
lives
may
of the ghost
through power of
By
blood.
incense-penetrated
its
quicken
love,
Sometimes,
it.
changes to
it
flesh
of the ihai, the
may
to bless
By
the dead servant
wed her
may come
after love or loyalty has
^personality vanishes
;
O-Dai ought
Maybe
— even
of the ihai,
back from the dust
from
wrought
Then,
ruin.
its
will,
the
— the body again becomes,
to\outward seeming, only a
this
betrothed,
By power
son.
of his rest to save his lord
jll
help
maid consumed upon the funeral
return to
him with a
dmbered.
and
help of the ihai the buried mother
returns to suckle her babe in the dark.
pyre
The
tablet.
to have
she did
;
known and
for
she
re-
wept as
she took the tablets and the scroll out of the
shrine,
and dropped them from a window
the river below.
into
She did not dare to look after
them, as the current whirled them away.
II
O-Dai had done
this
by order of two English
missionary-women who, by various
acts of
seem-
246
Japanese Miscellany
persuaded her to become a
ing kindness, had
always commanded
away their ancestral tablets.)
These missionary -women
the first ever seen
(Converts are
Christian.
to
bury or to
in
the
cast
province
— had
—
promised O-Dai, their
only convert, an allowance of thrtt j>en a month,
as assistant,
By
— because she could
more than two yen a month; and
able to earn
out of that
sum
she had to pay a rent of twenty-
five sen for the use of the
house,
belonging
goods.
read and write.
her hands she had never been
the toil of
to
upper floor of a
a dealer
in
little
second-hand
Thither, after the death of her parents,
she had taken her loom, and the ancestral tablets.
She had been obliged to work very hard indeed
in order to
But with three yen a month
live.
she could live very well
women had
that
the
a
room
people
;
and the missionary-
for her.
would
She did not think
mind her change of
religion.
As a matter of fact they did not much care.
They did not know anything about Christianity,
and did not want to know: they only laughed
at the girl for
being so foolish as to follow the
ways of the foreign women.
her as a dupe, and
They regarded
mocked her without
malice.
The Case
And they
continued
humoredly enough,
0-Dai
of
to
laugh
at
247
good-
her,
day when she was
until the
Then
seen to throw the tablets into the river.
They judged
they stopped laughing.
in
without discussing
itself,
judgment
was
voiceless.
They
O-Dai.
the
and
unanimous,
instantaneous,
act
Their
motives.
its
no word of reproach to
said
They merely ignored her
existence.
The moral resentment of a Japanese community
is
the kind that quickly burns
be cold.
silent
In the case of
and heavy
one uttered
instinctive.
it.
But
like
O-Dai
altogether
universal
the
Human
society,
in
may
It
was cold and
it
a thickening of
was
It
out.
itself
No
ice.
spontaneous,
might
feeling
speech: —
have been thus translated into
"
— not
not always a hot resentment,
most eastern
this
East,
has been held together from immemorial time
by
virtue of that cult
which exacts the gratitude
of the present to the past, the reverence of the
living for the dead, the aifection of the descend-
ant
for the
world
parent,
ancestor.
Far beyond the visible
extends the duty of
of the servant
to
the
the
child
master,
to
the
of the
—
248
Japanese Miscellany
Therefore do the dead
subject to the sovereign.
communal
preside in the family council, in the
assembly, in the high seats of judgment, in the
governing of
cities,
in the ruling of the land.
" Against the Virtue
against the
Filial Piety,
— against
—
—
her
the Ancestors,
and gratitude and reverence and duty,
faith
all
Supreme of
religion of
against the total moral experience of
O-Dai has sinned
race,
the sin that cannot be forgiven.
Therefore shall the people account her a creature
impure,
—
Eta,
—
less
less
the street
deserving of fellowship than the
worthy of kindness than the dog
in
or the cat upon the roof; since even
these, according to their feebler light, observe the
common
"
law of duty and
O-Dai has
affection.
refused to her dead the
word of
thankfulness, the whisper of love, the reverence
of a daughter.
Therefore,
now and
living shall refuse to her the
the
common
forever, the
word of
greeting,
salutation, the kindly answer.
" O-Dai has mocked the
memory of the father
memory of the mother whose
breasts she sucked, the memory of the elders who
cherished her childhood, the memory of the little
one who called her Sister, She has mocked at
who
begot her, the
The Case
love: therefore
of
love shall
all
0-Dai
249
be denied her,
all
offices of affection.
"To
the spirit
of the father
to the spirit of the
who
mother who bore
begot her,
O-Dai
her,
has refused the shadow of a roof, and the vapor
of food, and the offering of water.
Even so to
her shall be denied the shelter of a roof, and the
and the cup of refreshment.
gift of food,
"
And even
as she cast out the dead, the living
shall cast her out.
the way,
— as
As a
carcass shall she be in
the small carrion that none will
turn to look upon, that none will bury, that none
will pity, that
the
Gods and
shall
be,
nance
enter
—
none
the
will
as a Shojihi-Gaki,
in refuse-heaps.
;
— yet
the solitary
speak for in prayer to
Buddhas.
suste-
Alive into hell shall she
shall her hell
hell,
As a Gaki^ she
— seeking
remain the single
hell,
the hell Kodoku, that spheres
the spirit accurst in solitude of
fire.
.
.
."
Ill
Unexpectedly the missionary-women informed
O-Dai that she would have to take care of
herself.
1
Preta,
Perhaps she had done her best; but
25'0
Japanese Miscellany
them
she certainly had not been to
of any use
whatever, and they required a capable assistant.
Moreover they were going away for some time,
and could not take her with them.
Surely she
could not have been so foolish as to think that
they were going to give her three yen per month
merely for being a Christian
O-Dai
cried;
!
.
.
.
and they advised
her to be
brave, and to walk in the paths of virtue.
said that she could not find
told her that
no
She
employment: they
industrious and honest person
need ever want for work in
Then, in desperate
terror,
this
busy world.
she told them truths
which they could not understand, and
cally refused to believe.
energeti-
She spoke of a danger
imminent; and they answered her with
all
harshness of which they were capable,
believ-
—
the
ing that she had confessed herself utterly de-
they were wrong.
There was
praved.
In this
no atom
of vice in the girl: an amiable
weak-
ness and a childish trustfulness were the worst
Really she needed help,
of her faults.
it
quickly,
— needed
it
terribly.
— needed
But they could
money; and
commit sin if she
understand only that she wanted
that she
had threatened to
did not get
it.
They owed her nothing,
as she
The Case
had always been paid
in
of
0-Dai
advance
;
2^1
and they imag-
ined excellent reasons for denying her further aid
of any sort.
So they put her
Already she
into the street.
had sold her loom.
She had nothing more to
except the single robe upon her back, and
sell
a few pair of useless tabi, or
cleft
stockings,
which the missionary-women had obliged her
buy, because they thought that
to
modest for a young
(They had
feet.
girl to
it
was im-
be seen with naked
also obliged her to twist
her
hair into a hideous back-knot, because the Jap-
anese style of wearing the hair seemed to
them
ungodly.)
What becomes
of the Japanese
convicted of offending against
Of
have
.
.
publicly
?
What
.
course, had she been strong,
filled
girl
piety
English girl publicly convicted
becomes of the
of unchastity.?
filial
O-Dai might
her sleeves with stones, and thrown
herself into the river,
— which
would have been
an excellent thing to do under the circumstances.
Or
she might have cut her throat,
more
and
— which
is
respectable, as the act requires both nerve
skill.
But, like most converts of her class,
25'2
Japanese Miscellany
O-Dai was weak:
the courage of the race had
She wanted
failed in her.
to see the sun;
still
and she was not of the sturdy type able to
Even
wrestle with the earth for that privilege.
after
fully abjuring
her errors, there was
left
but one road for her to travel.
person
Said the
O-Dai
"
at a third
My
ness.
business
is
who
is
body of
—
this business
known
to have
no
woman
can
done the thing
you have done. If I were to take you into
and the
house, no visitors would come
that
my
;
make
people would probably
fore to Osaka, where
shall
the
the
an exceedingly shameful busi-
But even into
be received
who bought
of the price prayed for:
be sent
money.
.
trouble.
are not
and the house
;
.
you
in
There-
known, you
Osaka
will
pay
"
So vanished forever O-Dai,
furnace of a city's
lust.
.
.
.
— flung
into the
Perhaps she existed
only to furnish one example of facts that every
foreign missionary ought to try to understand.
Beside the Sea
Beside the Sea
I
THE
Buddhist priests had announced that
a Segahi-strvkt,
in
behalf
of
the
all
drowned folk of Yaidzu, would be held
on the shore
two
at
o'clock in the afternoon.
—
is an ancient place
(it
under the name of " Yakidzu,"
Yaidzu
chronicles of
Japan)
— and
;
is
in
mentioned,
the
oldest
thousands of
for
years the fishers of Yaidzu have been regularly
paying their
toll
of
life
And
to the great deep.
the announcement of the priests reminded
me
something very much older than Buddhism,
the fancy that the
spirits
with
forever.
the
belief,
souls.
waters
the
.
.
sea off
of the
of
—
drowned move
According to
this
Yaidzu must be thick with
.
Early in the afternoon
observe preparations
;
and
went to the shore to
I
1
found a multitude of
people already there assembled.
255
It
was a burn-
2^6
Japanese Miscellany
ing July day
— not a speck of cloud
visible
and
;
the coarse shingle of the slope, under the blaze of
sun,
was radiating heat
tints of bronze, did
on the scorching
was
like slag just
But those
a furnace.
at ebb,
and
fisher-folk,
mind
not
stones,
gentle,
raked from
tanned to
the sun
and waited.
— moving
:
all
they sat
The
sea
in slow, long,
lazy ripples.
Upon
of rude
the beach there had been erected a kind
altar,
about four feet high
had been placed an immense
tablet,
let
of unpainted wood,
;
and on
ihai, or
this
mortuary
— the back of the tab-
being turned to the sea.
The
ihai bore, in
large Chinese characters, the inscription, Sangai-
Ban-Rei-I,
—
signifying, " Resting-place [or, seat]
of the myriad [innumerable]
States of Existence."
been
set before this tablet,
cooked
piled
is
rice
;
rice-cakes
upon a fresh
of the Three
spirits
Various food -offerings had
— including a bowl
eggplants
of
;
and,
lotos leaf, a quantity of
what
;
called hyahu-mi-no-onjiki.
It
is
;
pears
really a
ture of rice and sliced eggplant, though the
mix-
name
implies one hundred different kinds of nourish-
ment.
In the
bowl of boiled
rice tiny sticks
were
fixed, with cuttings of colored paper attached to
o
O
O
(-
<
Beside the Sea
them.
2^7
also observed candles, a censer,
I
some
bundles of incense-rods, a vessel of water, and a
bamboo cups
containing sprays of the
sacred plant shihimi}
Beside the water-vessel
pair of
there had been laid a bunch of misohagi,^ with
which to sprinkle water upon the food -offerings,
according to the prescriptions of the
To
bamboo had been
bamboos had been planted
a freshly-cut
other
right
rite.
each of the four posts supporting the
and
left
of the structure
boo was fastened a
little
;
attached;
and
in the beach, to
and to every bam-
banner inscribed with
The banners of
Chinese characters.
altar
the
bamboos
at the four corners of the altar bore the names
and
;
Jikoku Tenno,
Tamon Tenno, guardian of
and Komoku Tenno, guardian of the
guardian of the East
the North
— Zocho
Four Deva Kings,
attributes of the
Tenno, guardian of the West;
;
South.
In front of the altar straw-mattings
laid,
had been
so as to cover a space of beach about thirty
feet long
by
fifteen
wide
;
and above
this
matted
space awnings of blue cotton had been rigged up,
to shelter the priests
1
lllidum religiosum.
2
A
kind of bush-clover.
17
from the sun.
I
squatted
2^8
Japanese Miscellany
down
make a rough
awhile under the awnings to
drawing (afterwards corrected and elaborated by
a Japanese friend) of the
The
when
the priests
;
made
There
their appearance.
in vestments of great cere-
bells,
books, stools, reading-stands, and
other necessary furniture.
places under
their
spectators
standing
one of the
priests,
facing the altar
Priests
the
blue
awning; the
chief
Only
officiant,
—
sat
the others, with their acolytes,
;
form two
and acolytes
the sun.
outside, in
— the
seated themselves to right and
as to
the appointed
at
and they were accompanied by acolytes
carrying
took
offerings.
must have been nearly three o'clock
it
were seven of them,
mony
and the
was not held
service
time:
altar
left
of him,
— so
ranks, facing each other.
II
After some preliminary rearrangement of
offerings
upon the
incense-rods, the
altar,
the
and the kindling of some
ceremony proper began with a
Buddhist hymn, or g^thS, which was chanted to
the accompaniment
*
of
hydshigi^ and of
bells.
Hyoshigi are small blocks of hard wood, which are
used, either for signalling or for musical purposes,
by
strik-
Beside the Sea
There were two
bell
;
bells,
and a small
charge of a
slowly
the
;
little
bell
boy.
little bell
—a
2^9
deep-sounding
large
—
of very sweet tone,
The
in
big bell was tapped
was sounded rapidly
and
;
the hyoshigi rattled almost like a pair of castanets.
And
the effect of the gttht as chanted by
all
the officiants in unison, with this extraordinary
instrumentation,
strange
:
—
was not
impressive
less
than
Bihu Bihuni
Hosshin hoji
Ikhijo-jiki,
Fusejippo,
Kyu-jin hoku,
Shuhen hohai,
Mijin setchu
Sho-u hokudo,
Issai
gaki ;
Senbo kyumetsu,
Sansen chishu,
Naishi hoya,
Sho-hijin to,
Shorai shushi.
.
.
.
ing them quickly together so as to produce a succession of
sharp dry sounds.
—
260
Japanese Miscellany
This brief sonorous metre seemed to
me
partic-
ularly well adapted for invocatory or incantatory
chanting; and the githt of the segaki-strvice.
was indeed a
—
veritable incantation,
lowing free translation will
make
as the fol-
manifest
—
:
"
We, Bhikshus and Bhikunis, devoutly presenting this
do offer the same to all, without exception, of the Pretas dwelUng in the Ten Directions of Space,
vessel of pure food,
in the
surrounding Dharma-worlds, and in every part of
— not excepting the
atom of dust within
And
to the
of those long dead and
unto the Lord-Spirits of mounpassed away, — and
— Hither deign
and
and of waste
and
therefore to approach and to
ye goblins — we
smallest
the Earth,
a temple.
also
spirits
likewise
tain
river
places.
soil,
gather,
all
!
now, out of our pity and compassion, desire to give you
food. We wish that each and all of you may enjoy this
our food-gift. And moreover we shall pray, doing homage
to all the Buddhas and to all the Heavenly Ones who dwell
within the Zones of Formlessness, that you, and that all
may be
beings having desire,
ment.
We shall
pray that
all
enabled to obtain content-
of you,
by
virtue of the utter-
ance of the dhlranis, and by the enjoyment of this foodoffering,
may
find the higher knowledge,
and be freed from
every pain, and soon obtain rebirth in the Zone Celestial,
there to
know
Directions,
and
every
bliss,
finding
moving
within yourselves the Bodhi-Mind
Enlightenment
backward
you
!
!
free
!
— follow
the
Ten
— Awaken
the
Way
of
Turn ye no more
I
I
Let such
among
Way vow each to lead up the rest,
—Also we beseech you now to watch
as first obtain the
and so become
!
all
delight.
Buddhahood
linger on the path
Rise to
— neither
freely in
everywhere
Beside the Sea
over us and to guard
even
now
you,
— that
by night and by
us,
261
day.
And help us
upon
to obtain our desire in bestowing this food
the merit produced
extended to
all
by
this action
may be
beings dwelling within the Dharma-worlds,
and that the power of this merit may help to spread the
Truth through all those Dharma-worlds, and help all beings
therein to find the Supreme EnUghtenment, and to obtain
all wisdom.
And we now pray that all your acts hereafter
—
may
serve to gain for
Buddhahood.
And
you the merit
thus
we
you to
you quickly become
that will help
desire that
Buddhas."
Then began
the most curious part of the ser-
vice,
— namely, the sprinkling
tion
of the food-offerings,
and the presenta-
with
recitation
This portion of the
talismanic Sanscrit words.
rite
was
require
brief
much
but to recount
;
space,
of the officiant
of
composed of
certain dhtranis, or magical verses,
would
all its details
— every utterance or gesture
being
made according
to
rule.
For example, the hands and fingers of the priest,
during the recital of any dhMm, must be held in
a position prescribed for that particular dharani.
But the principal incidents of
First of all
recited,
is
complicated
Directions
of
seven times, the Dh^ranl
summon
of Invitation, to
officiant
this
about as follows:
ritual are
Space.
the spirits from the
During
must hold out
his
its
Ten
recitation the
right
hand, with
!
262
Japanese Miscellany
the tip of the middle finger touching the tip
of
the thumb, and the rest of the fingers extended.
Then
weird
with a different,
recited,
is
the
gesture,
of the Gates of
Se-Kanro
Dh^rani
Next
Hell.
verse, or
but equally
Breaking
the
repeated
is
the
Dharani of the Bestowal of
— by virtue
the Amrita,
of
of which
it
is
supposed
that the food-offerings are transformed, for the
sake of the ghosts, into heavenly nectar and
brosia.
And
thereafter
an invocation to the Five Tathagatas
—
:
—
Hosho NySrai,
hereby besought to
from the karma of all desire, and to fill
"Salutation to
relieve [the Pretas]
them with
am-
chanted, three times,
is
bliss
"Salutation
Myo-Shikishin-Nyorai,
to
— besought
take away from them every imperfection of form
"Salutation to Kanro-0-Nyorai,
their bodies
and
their minds,
to
I
—
besought to purify
and to give them peace of
heart!
"Salutation
to
Kobaku-Shin-Nyorai,
— besought
favor them with the delight of excellent taste
"Salutation to Rifui-Nyorai,
from all their fears, and to
"
of Hungry Spirits
to
I
— besought
deliver
to free them
them out of the World
I
The book Bongyo Segaki-Monben says
"When
the
officiants
:
—
have thus recited the
names of the Five Tath^gatas, then, by the grace of
the
power of those Buddhas,
all
the Pretas shall be
—
Beside the Sea
liberated
from the karma of
shall experience
their
immeasurable
263
former
—
bliss,
errors,
—
shall
re-
ceive excellent features and complete bodies,
shall
be rid of
all
their terrors,
— and,
after hav-
ing partaken of the food-offerings which have
been changed for them into amrita of delightful
taste, shall
soon be reborn into the Pure Land
[Jodo]."
After the invocation of the Five Tath^gatas,
other verses are recited
;
and during
(There
is
of
altar,
they must not be
under a willow-tree, a peach-tree, or a
pomegranate-tree.)
am
recita-
a mysterious regulation that, after hav-
ing been taken from the
placed
this
one by one.
tion the food-offerings are removed,
Last of
all is'recited
Dismissal, seven times,
— the
the DhJr-
priest
each
time snapping his fingers as a signal to the ghosts
that they are free to return.
This
is
called the
Hakken, or Sending -Away.
Ill
The
sea
though
the
it
town
never ebbs far on this steep coast,
often rises tremendously, breaking into
;
and
its
gentler
moods
are not to be
—
264
Japanese Miscellany
By way
trusted.
iZ»a/-stand
of precaution the posts of the
had been driven deeply
The event proved
into the beach.
that this precaution had not
been taken in vain
;
for the
rite
began, owing to
the delay of the priests, only with the turn of the
Even while the gSth^ was being chanted,
tide.
the sea roughened and darkened; and then,
as
if
the outer deep responded,
— the thunder-roll
of a great breaker suddenly smothered the voices
of the singers and the clanging of the
another heavy surge
then another;
boomed along
and during the
bells.
Soon
the shore,
reciting
—
of the
dhSranis the service could be heard only in the
intervals of wave-bursts,
— while the foam sheeted
up the slope, whirling and hissing even to within
a few paces of the
And
again
1
.
.
.
found myself thinking of the old
belief in
some dim
the sea.
In that
peared to
altar.
relation
between the dead and
moment the primitive fancy apme much more reasonable and more
humane than
the ghastly doctrine of a Preta-
world, with
thirty-six orders of hideous misery,
—
.
.
its
.
its
swarms of goblins hungering and burning!
Nay, the poor dead
thus deformed and
!
— why should they be
doomed by human judgment ?
;
Beside the Sea
26^
Wiser and kindlier to dream of them
as
mingling
— or quickening
with flood and wind and cloud,
— or flushing
— or
with the
— or thinly humming
the heart of the flower,
the cheek
of the
cicadas in
fruit,
shrilling
forest-solitudes,
in
summer-
dusk with the gathering of the gnats. ...
not believe,
—
1
do not wish to believe
Ghosts break up,
ghosts
soul-dust at the touch of death,
I
in
I
do
hungry
suppose, into
— though
their
atoms, doubtless, thereafter recombine with other
dust for the
I
making of other
ghosts.
.
.
.
Still,
cannot convince myself that even the grosser
substance of vanished being ever completely dies,
however dissolved or
gale,
leaf,
—
—
tossed
scattered,
floating in the mists,
flickering
on some
in
the
desolate
—
fleeting in the
— shuddering
light
of
coast
waters,
in,
in the
— or
a thunder
of surf, to whiten and writhe in the clatter of
shingle.
.
.
.
As the ceremony ended, a fisherman mounted
lightly to the top
and
there,
of one of the awning-posts
gymnastically poised,
shower down upon
the
small rice-cakes, which the
for,
he began to
crowd a quantity of very
young
with shouts of laughter.
folks scrambled
After the uncanny
266
Japanese Miscellany
solemnity of that
was almost
natural,
the outburst of merriment
rite,
startling; but
found
I
also very
it
and pleasant, and human.
Meanwhile
the seven priests departed in many-colored procession,
—
their acolytes trudging wearily behind
them, under much weight of stands and
and
bells.
Soon the assembly
scattered,
ated
;
— then the
— and
all
the
the awnings, the mattings
altar,
;
stools
and appropri-
rice-cakes having been distributed
were removed
—
in a surprisingly short
time
every trace of the strange ceremony had disappeared.
...
I
the
me;
looked about
upon the beach.
.
.
—
I
was alone
There was no sound but
.
sound of the returning tide: a muttering
enormous, appalling,
inable, that
had
—
as of
been at
immeasurable pain.
.
.
.
some
peace,
Life
innom-
awakened to
Drifting
Drifting
$
A
TYPHOON
sat
I
on
the sea-wall in a great wind to look at
the
Southeast
gloom, except the
tawny
sea,
A
in.
Amano
was
their
the slope, to spring
were already
yards
away they
and
earthquake,
thunder
foam
Jinsuke
black-blue
which had a strange and
hundred
crumbled over with
and sent
all
Enormous surges
color.
towering
and old
breakers;
beside me.
sat
was coming; and
leaping
and sheeting up
our
After
at
faces.
each
long crash, the sound of the shingle retreating
was exactly
like the roar of a railway train
full speed.
I
me
"
said,
afraid;
I
swam
told
Amano
it
at
made
and he smiled.
for
two nights and two days," he
" in a sea worse than
years old at the time.
I
Jinsuke that
this.
Out
was the only man saved.
269
I
was nineteen
of a crew of eight,
270
Japanese Miscellany
—
"Our
ship was called the Fuhuju Maru;^
owned by Mayeda Jingoro, of this town.
the crew but one were Yaidzu men.
The
she was
All of
captain was Saito
Kichiyemon,
than sixty years of age:
Koshi,
— the
just
street
another old
man on
who
in the
lived
there
Araya
The Terao
was Saito
J6-no-
in
There was
Then
quarter.
forty -two
there
years old: his
was a man
Otokichi was
Then
folk hved in Araya.
and
Heikichi, thirty years old;
called
from Suo, but had
Matsushiro; — he
came
Washino
settled in Yaidzu.
another of
Jo-no-Koshi,
in
behind us.
Minosuke, a lad of sixteen, was also
with us.
there
man more
board, called Nito Shoshichi,
was Terao Kankichi,
brother
—a
he lived
the crew:
he
lived
and was only twenty-one.
was the youngest on
board, — excepting
I
Terao
Minosuke.
"We
sailed
from Yaidzu on the morning
the tenth day of the seventh
Gwannen,'^
Sanuki.
1
2
— the Year of
On
Period
is
the Ape,
of
of
Manyen
— bound
for
the night of the eleventh, in the
The word Fukuju
That
month
signifies
to say the
first,
Manyen,— 1860-1861
" Fortunate Longevity."
or coronation-year, of the
Drifting
Kishu
the
we were caught by
offing,
A
southeast.
As
ship capsized.
blowing fearfully
was so dark
but
that
it
the time;
at
plank, and put
could see only a few feet
1
under me.
it
the ship was gone.
man
Matsushiro,
was no sign of the
down
moment
water were
the Terao brothers and
—
swimming.
all
We
There
they probably went
rest:
with the ship.
in the
that
find
In another
me
Near
Washino Otokichi and
the
was
It
and the night
was lucky enough to
I
caught
I
and jumped.
out,
from
midnight, the
her going over,
felt
I
a typhoon
before
little
a plank, and threw
away;
271
five
kept calling to
we went up and down with
each other as
great seas; and
I
the
found that every one except
Terao Kankichi had a plank or a timber of some
sort.
1
cried to Kankichi
have children, and
am
I
:
—
'
Elder brother,
very
young; —
let
you
—
me
He shouted back
In
keep away from
this sea a plank is dangerous
you may get hurt
Before
timber, Jinyo
black
mouncould answer him, a wave like a
give
you
!
plank
this
'
:
!
!
'
—
—
!
'
1
tain burst
when
1
over
us.
came up
I
was a long time under
again, there
;
and
was no sign of
The younger men were still swimming; but they had been swept away to the
Kankichi.
"
272
left
;
Japanese Miscellany
me
of
;
—
I
could not see them
to each other.
— the
others called to
come
this
go
to
ous;
way,
them
current
But
'
I
knew
So
tide
1
'
they
— keep
!
me,
called to
still
kocchi e koi
! '^
— and
afraid to answer.
with the
.
voices
their
far
Kocchi e koi !
" After a
became
I
call to
koi!
e
little
.
.
was so dark
at the
rain kept
I
guessed
they went by,
;
a great pull.
how
"
By
Come this way
sea.
I
and
I
rain.
man
black
the pull
to direct myself.
not been for the rain, no
1
— high
them from breaking much;
long in such a
e
one could see the waves
that
moment
shadows, — each with
them
you
.
time the calling ceased
heard only the sea and the wind and the
of
—
each time
away.
The drowned
.
.
'
when they want company: Kocchi
koi! — kocchi
only
me
back
called
But they did not seem to understand
1
sounded more and more
It
that
would be very danger-
Keep with the
'
—
Jinyo! Jinyo!
'
!
was taken under.
I
,
like that
shouted
every time that a wave struck
for
— and
this
—
me:
way
in their direction
sideways,
to
—
we
:
keep with the waves
tried to
I
The
— had
it
could have lived
And hour
after
hour the
—
;
Drifting
21}
wind became worse, and the swells grew higher
— and
prayed for help to Jizo-Sama of
I
that
all
lights
night.
the
in
.
.
— yes,
Lights?
.
kind, that shine like candles.
"At dawn
green
wind was
if
.
terrible.
Rain and spray made a fog
there had been land in sight
— very
hungry
;
drifting
could have
I
afloat.
1
felt
and the pain of the
All that
under the wind and the rain
land.
was going: under
from
east
did not
1
day
thought
I
was
all
hunger passed
;
but
the night
koi!
.
the
18
.
but the rain
still
that
—
Then
must go under.
voices calling
.
1
tell
The pain of
weak,
so weak
;
black.
felt
1
me, —
before —
'
and there
west.
and
poured,
;
know where
sky one could not
that
" After dark the wind lulled
of
But
went up and down with the great waves,
was no sign of
1
muddy
and the
;
and there was no horizon.
;
hunger soon became hard to bear.
1
—a
like hills
done nothing except try to keep
hungry,
large
.
the sea looked ugly,
over the water
even
.
and the waves were
;
were
the
many:
water, but not
Ogawa
there
:
And,
just
'
as
KoccU
all at
once,
Fukuju Maru,
I
they had
koi
e
I
!
the
heard the
called
me
— kocchi
e
saw the four men
— not
swimming, but
!
;
274
Japanese Miscellany
standing by me,
— Terao
Kankichi, and
Terao
Minosuke, and Washino Otokichi, and the
and the boy Minosuke
—
Here
'
me
All looked at
Matsushiro.
have to
1
man
with angry faces
cried out, as in reproach
the helm
fix
!
suke, do nothing but sleep
:
and you, Jin-
;
Then Terao Kan-
'
— the one to whom had
the
plank — bent over me with a kakemono
— Jinyo
-unrolled
hands, and
and
here
have a
of Amida Buddha —
kichi
offered
1
in his
half
see!
the
made me
Buddha
repeated the prayer in great fear,
— Namu
afraid
I
I
:
strangely,
looked
in
— namu
stung through
I
had
eboshi.
It is
a
that
Amida Butsu ! ^
a pain, like the pain of
my
thighs and hips
;
and
I
rolled off the plank into the sea.
.
.
You never saw
jelly-fish
a Shinto priest
In
fire,
found
The
caused by a great katsuo-no-
had been
pain
way
a
at the figure of
Amida Butsu !
the same moment
that
'
indeed you must repeat the Nembutsu!'
He spoke
and
:
picture
I
Now
said
it,
shaped
;
a katsuo-no-eboshi ?
like the eboshi, or cap, of
and we
call
it
the katsuo-no-
eboshi because the katsuo-fish [bonito] feed upon
1
This invocation, signifying " Salutation to
AraitSbha,"
is
commonly repeated
tlie
Buddha
as a prayer for the dead.
!
;;
Drifting
When
it.
body
is
many
expect to catch
fishermen
clear like glass
anywhere, the
appears
thing
that
27?
The
katsuo.
but underneath there
;
is
a kind of purple fringe, and long purple strings
and when those strings touch you, the pain
very great, and
pain revived
a long time.
lasts for
me
if
;
.
.
had not been stung
I
never have awakened.
I
That
.
I
is
might
got on the plank again,
and prayed to Jizo-Sama of Ogawa, and to Kom-
pira-Sama
;
and
was able to keep awake
I
until
morning.
" Before daylight the rain stopped, and the sky
began to clear
dawn
I
;
for
could see some
I
got drowsy again
and
;
A
by a blow on the head.
struck me.
The sun was
(I
brown
do not know
that there
me, and
I
by
bird flew
its
face,
name)
in sight.
saw mountains.
I
;
I
—a
and
be nine or ten ri distant.
hope of getting to shore.
again,
—
terribly
hungry
I
I
thought
did not recognize
—seemed
made up
— though
I
coast-bird
looked behind
the shapes of them: they were blue,
to paddle towards them,
had
Presently a
gentle.
my
real
must be land
was awakened
I
large sea-bird
rising behind clouds
and the waves had become
small
At
stars.
was
I
to
my
mind
had
little
feeling
hungry
276
"
Japanese Miscellany
I
paddled towards the mountains, hour after
Once more
hour.
wards evening
mountains, that
knew
that
the shore.
1
was approaching them; but
me
sailing towards
swam
plank, and
of
chance
sail
so glad that
me
!
boat
man
called
;
:
—
— we
lowered
new
swam on
little
so
:
:
'
shouted.
1
and
;
dis-
did get
I
then
setting
;
and
got no
1
despaired.
1
and
deck,
Don't try to swim
!
don't
!
are going to send a boat
at the
same time
strength seemed to
fast.
could
dropped the
I
could.
I
1
at a great
man came on
;
and
come
to
'
1
felt
1
me
;
Then the junk dropped a
and as the boat came towards me, a
out
:
—
'Is
anybody
there
have you dropped anything
'I
that, unless
me
I
She was
minute she had passed be-
The sun was
yourself
saw the
I
saw
as fast as
sudden a
a
shouted to
—
last
In another
yond me.
tire
I
could see nobody on deck
I
answer.
All
but
;
1
days to reach
big junk.
two cho of her
within about
But
my
was
It
—a
she would pass
faster,
tance.
me two
had almost ceased to hope when
1
caught sight of a ship,
swim
I
tell,
would take
it
and once again
;
day
paddled.
Tofrom the look of the
All
could
1
asleep
fell
1
a sea-bird struck me.
?
'
I
had nothing but a plank.' ...
else
answered
In
—
?
:
—
the same
Drifting
my
instant all
gone
strength was
me
boat pulling
in the
277
felt
I
:
up; but
men
the
could neither
I
speak nor move, and everything became dark.
" After a time
1
heard the voices again,
men
of the
voices
of
Jinyo!' — and
'Jinyo!
1
is
it
only a dream
said
— and
'
—
:
saw
1
Oi !
'
:
Then
was frightened.
somebody shook me, and
!
— the
—
Fuhuju Maru
the
that
oi
!
^
was
I
lying in the junk, under a hanging lantern (for
was night)
it
stranger,
kindly.
me
he fed
1
swered
I
heard
:
'
Try
—
'
to
will
some one
I
1
I
if
When
As we should
Hey
say, "
!
—
:
you
again
rice
it
was
man
an-
sleep
'
Give him
let
;
first.'
him
eat
and twice
— soft-boiled
at a time.
much
better
man, who had brought me the
questioned me.
1
:
slept
felt
1
must
else
was given
— one small cupful
morning
you
tell
die.'
that night
— you
;
then
:
When
rice
very
said,
up, but could not
sit
Not now
him say
" In the
old
he
little,'
asked for more; but the old
much, he
rice
an old man, a
himself, out of the cup.
nothing more until
more
to eat a
wanted to
I
empty
me
beside
was kneeling, with a cup of boiled
hand.
in his
— and
;
rice,
;
and the
came and
he heard about the
hey
!
"
— to
loss of
call attention.
;
278
Japanese Miscellany
our ship, and the time that
had been
I
me
that
days,
your
had
I
more than twenty-five ri?
planic,'
you would
he
said,
wanted to offer
I
Ogawa,
at
to Jizo-Sama of
Ogawa
that
prayed for help.
" The kind old
man was
the owner, of the junk.
it
.
ter
You write
.
for
'
good to me.
cloth,
when
clothes for
I
to the
it
to the temple
Yaidzu; for
I
was
it
had most often
the captain, and also
She was a Banshu
ship,
in Kishu.
the name, Kn-ki, with the charac-
— so
demon,'
Demons. ...
Perhaps
up.
and was bound for the port of Kuki,
.
after
thanked him, but
I
of Jizo-Sama of
We went
some day
it
temple of Kompira-Sama.'
answered that
'
and picked
like to present
told
two nights and
drifted, in those
'
in the
He
water, he expressed great pity for me.
All the
that
men
means the Nine
it
of the ship were very
was naked, except for a loinI
came on board and they found
;
me.
One
gave
me
an under-robe,
and another an upper-robe, and another a girdle
—
several gave
me
of them together
towels and sandals
made up
me, amounting to between
I
That
is
a gift of
six
;
— and
money
and seven ryo.
to say, about sixty-three English miles.
all
for
;;
Drifting
"
When we
though
it
we
He
down.
report of
little
few days'
rest
place,
I
got
the governor of the district,
him
my
me
told
nice
after a
called
me, and heard
for
name
and
;
Then
strong again.
the Jito, as
—a
— the captain took me
reached Kuki
has a queer
good inn
to a
279
in those days,
story,
that he
and had
it
— sent
written
would have to send
the matter to the Jito of the
a
Yaidzu
district, after
which he would find means to send
me home.
But the BanshQ captain,
saved me,
ship,
oflfered to
and also to
and there was
take
act as
me home
who had
own
in his
messenger for the Jito
much argument between
the two.
At that time we had no telegraph and no post
and to send a special messenger {hikyaku), from
Kuki to Yaidzu,^ would have cost
But, on the other hand, there were particu-
ryo.
lar
laws and customs about such matters,
very different from those of to-day.
came
a Yaidzu ship
Arasha; and a
was
at
woman
of Kuki,
Kuki
;
The
who happened
Yaidzu captain that
The Yaidzu
Kuki.
is
I
came
to
me home
in
ship then
and the Jito decided to send
distance
— laws
Meanwhile
to the neighboring port of
to be at Arasha, told the
1
at least fifty
more than one hundred and
fifty miles.
280
Japanese Miscellany
— giving
charge of the Yaidzu captain,
him
a
written order.
" Altogether,
time of the
it
was about a month from the
We
turned to Yaidzu.
night
;
and
Fuhuju Maru when
loss of the
I
did not go
my
have frightened
news of the
I
reached the harbor at
home
at once
:
would
it
Although no certain
people.
our ship had then been
loss of
re-
re-
ceived at Yaidzu, several things belonging to her
had been picked up by
fishing-craft
and
;
typhoon had come very suddenly, with a
sea,
it
was generally believed
Maru had gone down, and
been drowned.
.
.
.
None
...
ever heard of again.
the house of a friend
word
to
me.
for
"
my
.
.
;
and
that
that
I
in the
;
morning
I
all
I
go to the temple of Kom-
who have
been saved from
And
1
often
temple of Jizo-Sama of Ogawa.
to the
come with me
show you
sent
and they came
.
Once every year
will
men were
went that night to
shipwreck go there to give thanks.
you
Fukuju
of us had
all
of the other
parents and brother
pira in Sanuki:
go
the
as the
terrible
that plank."
there to-morrow,
I
If
will
Otokichi's
Daruma
Daruma
Otokichi's
I
THE young
folks are delighted, because last
night a heavy
fall
of
snow made
what the Japanese poets so
" a silver world."
call
Really these poets have
.
.
.
for us
prettily
been guilty of no extravagance in their charming
praises of winter.
ful,
—
For
in
Japan winter
fantastically beautiful.
is
beauti-
no mel-
bestirs
It
ancholy imaginings about " the death of nature,"
— inasmuch as
during
nature remains most visibly alive
even the
Period
of
Greatest
Cold.
It
does not afflict the aesthetic eye with the spectacle
of
"skeleton-woods,"
— for
And
consist of evergreens.
softly
the
woods
the snow,
upon the needles of the
largely
— heaping
pines, or forcing
the bamboos to display their bending grace under
its
momentary weight,
— never
suggests to Far-
Eastern poet the dismal fancy of a winding-sheet.
Indeed the singular charm of Japanese winter
made by
this
snow, — lumping
283
itself into
is
grotes-
;
284
Japanese Miscellany
queries unimaginable above the constant verdure
of woods and gardens.
morning
Tliis
my two
students, Alci
and Niimi,
have been amusing themselves and the children
by making a Yuki-Daruma; and I have been
amusing myself by watching them. The rules
for
making a
You
simple.
Yuki-Daruma
first
between three and four
sible,
— which
of Daruma.
ball,
head
is
are
ancient
and
compose a huge snowball,
feet in diameter,
if
to represent the squatting
—
pos-
body
Then you make a smaller snow-
about two feet in diameter, to represent his
;
other,
and you put
this smaller ball
— packing snow around
both, so
as to fix
them
on top of the
the under-parts of
in place.
Two
round
lumps of charcoal serve to make eyes for Daruma
and some irregular fragments of the same materiaj
will suffice to indicate his
nose and mouth. Finally,
you must scoop out a hollow
in the great belly of
him, to represent a navel, and stick a lighted
candle inside.
The warmth
ally enlarges the opening.
But
or
1
.
of the candle gradu.
.
forgot to explain the term Yuki-Daruma,
Snow-Daruma.
"
Daruma "
is
an abbreviation
of the name Bodai-Daruma, — Japanese rendering
Daruma
Otokichi's
of the Sanscrit " Bodhidharma."
Bodhidharma
285
And who was
?
Bodhidharma, or Bodhitara, was the twentyeighth patriarch of Buddhism, by succession from
He went
the great Ktsyapa.
dhist
missionary in the
dynasty [520
A. D.J
;
and
the great Zen (Dhydna)
in
sect,
China
as a
Bud-
year of the
Ryo
to
first
China he founded
— whose doctrine
is
called "
The Doctrine of Thought transmitted by
Thought": that is to say, transmitted without
words, either written or spoken.
Bunyiu Nanjio,
dhist Sects
:
in his
— "Besides
the doctrines of the
all
MahlySna and HinaySna,
line
Says Professor
History of the Twelve Bud-
there
one
is
distinct
of transmission of a secret doctrine, which
not subject to any utterance at
this doctrine,
one
is
all.
is
According to
to see the so-called
key to the
thought of Buddha, or the nature of Buddha,
directly
the
by
his
own
Zen doctrine
is
thought."
curious.
The
When
tradition of
the
Buddha
was preaching upon the Vulture Peak, there suddenly appeared before him the great Brahma, who
presented a gold-colored flower to the
Blessed
One, and therewith besought him to preach the
Law.
The
Blessed
One
accepted the heavenly
;
286
Japanese Miscellany
flower, and held
Then the
it
in his hand, but spolce
great assembly
of the Blessed One.
wondered
But the venerable KSsyapa
And the Blessed One said to the
smiled.
Kasyapa:
— "I
no word.
at the silence
venerable
have the wonderful thought of
Nirvana, the Eye of the True Law, which
shall
give you."
... So by thought
was transmitted
doctrine
and thereafter by thought alone
it
visited
writers
Japan
to
Ananda
was transmitted
Bodhidharma, who communicated
little
it
to patriarch even to the time of
cessor, the second
By some
now
KSsyapa; and by
to
thought alone KSsyapa transmitted
from patriarch
I
alone the
it
to his suc-
Chinese patriarch of the
is
it
said
that
sect.
Bodhidharma
but this statement appears to have
;
foundation.
At
was not introduced
all
into
events, the
Zen doctrine
Japan before the eighth
century.
Now
many
of the
most famous
is
legends about
Daruma, the
the story that he once remained
for nine years in uninterrupted meditation, during
which time
of
him
are
Certainly
But the
his legs fell off.
made without
Daruma
artists
Wherefore images
legs.
has large claims to respect.
and the toymakers of the Far East
have never allowed these claims to interfere with
!
288
Japanese Miscellany
the indulgence of their sense of humor,
of his legs.
has been
For centuries
made
origi-
this
loss
legendary mishap
the subject of comical drawings
and comical carvings
ese children have
tain
—
no doubt, by the story of the
nally bestirred,
;
and generations of Japan-
amused themselves with a
cer-
toy-image of Daruma so contrived
however the
little
figure be
thrown down,
that,
it
will
always bob up again into a squatting posture.
This
("
still
popular toy, called Ohiagari-kobosU
The Getting-up
Little Priest ")
may
have been
originally modelled, or remodelled, after a Chinese
made upon the same principle, and called PuhTau-Ung (" The Not-falling-down Old Man").
Mention is made of the Ohiagari-KobosU in a
Japanese play called Manju-Kui, known to have
toy
been composed
earlier
But the
in the fourteenth century.
forms of the toy do not seem to have been
representations of
Daruma.
a children's-song,
dating from the seventeenth
There
century, which proves that the
is,
however,
Daruma-toy was
popular more than two hundred years ago
Hi ni ! fu ni !
Fundan Daruma ga
Ahai lukin kaburi sunmaita
:
—
Daruma
Otokichi's
["Once!
Daruma
little
twice!
heedlessly
song
it
.
.
sits
Ever
.
289
the
up again
!
red-hooded
"]
From
this
would seem that the form of the
toy has not been much changed since the seventeenth century
;
Daruma
—
still
wears
his
hood, and
him except his face.
Besides the Snow-Daruma already described,
is still
painted red
all
of
and the toy-Daruma (usually made of papiermJche), there are countless comical varieties of
Daruma:
figures
moulded or carved
in
almost
every kind of material, and ranging in size from
the tiny metal
signed for a
Daruma,
half-an-inch
long, de-
pouch -clasp, to the big wooden
Daruma, two or three
feet high,
which the Japan-
ese tobacconist has adopted for a shop-sign.
.
Thus profanely does popular
holy
art deride the
legend of the nine years' meditation.
TOY-DARUMA
19
.
.
290
Japanese Miscellany
II
Now
me
that
Yuki-Daruma
of a very peculiar
my
in
garden reminds
Daruma which
I
discov-
ered several years ago, at a certain fishing-village
on the
eastern coast where
summer.
a good
1
There was no hotel
man
shop, used to
called
Otokichi,
passed a happy
in the place
who
kept a
;
but
fish-
me occupy the upper part of his
me with fish cooked in a wonder-
let
house, and fed
ful variety of ways.
One morning
he called
me
into his shop to
show me a very fine hdbo. ... I wonder if you
ever saw anything resembling a hob5.
It looks
;
Daruma
Otokichi's
so
much
like a
gigantic butterfly or moth, that
you must examine
is
It
—a
fish,
arranged
fins
make
closely to
it
not an insect, but a
has four
291
sure that
it
sort of gurnard.
like pairs of wings,
—
the upper pair dark, with bright spots of sky-
blue
;
the lower pair deep red.
have legs
which
"
good to
"He!"
eat
?
"
1
seems
It
— slender
butterfly,
runs about quickly.
it
Is it
a
like
.
.
also to
upon
legs
.
asked.
answered Otokichi
:
—"
this shall
be
prepared for the Honorable Dinner."
[To any question asked of him,
— even a ques— Otokichi
tion requiring answer in the negative,
would begin
his reply with the exclamation
(" Yes"), — uttered
and good-will
forget
in such a tone of
make
wandered back
1
at things.
On
into the shop, looking
one side were rows of shelves
supporting boxes of dried
edible
fish,
and packages of
seaweed, and bundles of straw sandals,
and gourds for holding sake, and
onade!
On
bottles of
the opposite side, high up,
ceived
the kamidana, — the
and
noticed,
I
sympathy
the hearer immediately
the tribulations of existence.]
all
Then
as to
He
Shelf of the
I
lemper-
Gods
under the kamidana, a smaller
292
Japanese Miscellany
shelf occupied
by a red image of Daruma.
dently the image was not
offerings
in
front
of
it.
a toy:
I
Evi-
there were
was not
surprised
Daruma accepted as a household divinity,
because
knew that in many parts of Japan
to find
—
I
prayers were addressed to him on behalf of chil-
dren attacked by smallpox.
startled
by the
peculiar
But
aspect
Daruma, which had only one
eye,
I
of
was rather
Otokichi's
— a large and
formidable eye that seemed to glare through the
dusk of the shop
It
was the
right eye,
The socket of
the
like the
eye of a great owl.
and was made of glazed paper.
left
eye was a white void.
—
"
Otokichi's
Therefore
called to Otokichi
1
" Otokichi San
the
eye of
left
Daruma
—
!
:
293
—
did the children
"
Daruma Sama
knock out
?
" He, he! " sympathetically chuckled Otokichi,
—
a superb
— " he never had
lifting
hatsuo to the cutting-bench,
a left eye."
Was he made that way ? "
"He!" responded Otokichi,
"
asked.
I
—
as he swept his
long knife soundlessly through the argent body,
— "the
folk
When
I
got that Daruma, he had no eyes at
all.
made
I
after a
the right eye for
day of great
"But why
I
make only
here
year,
him both eyes?"
looks so unhappy with only
" He, he I " replied Otokichi,
mat of
—
skilfully rang-
pink-and -silver flesh upon a
glass
another day of
shall
last
fishing."
!
ing the slices of
little
him
Darumas.
not have given
queried; — "he
one eye
blind
rods,'
great
— " when
good
fortune,
we have
then
Then
I
walked about the
streets of the village,
peeping into the houses and shops; and
covered various other
1
he
be given the other eye."
Such a
little
glass
mat
is
Darumas
called
I
dis-
in different stages
sudarl
294
Japanese Miscellany
of development,
— some
without eyes, some with
only one, and some with two.
Izumo
that in
it
was
remembered
I
especially Hotei,
— who
bellied
God
tically
rewarded for his favors.
of Comfort,
— the big-
used to be prac-
As soon
as the
worshipper found reason for gratitude. Hotel's
recumbent image was put upon a
soft cushion;
and for each additional grace bestowed the god
would be given an additional cushion.
occurred to
me
that
more than two eyes
:
Daruma
But
would change him
three
upon
inquiry, that
when
into
...
Daruma has
the sort of goblin called Mitsume-Koio.
learned,
it
could not be given
a
I
been presented with a pair of eyes, and with sundry small offerings, he
is
for an eyeless successor.
put
away
The
to
blind
make room
Daruma can
be expected to do wonderful things, because he
has to work for his eyes.
There are
Japan,
big
— so
book
to
many
many
describe
that the people
gods
my own
it
most
little
deities in
would need a very
them; and
who worship
are, for the
Indeed
such funny
that
I
these
have found
queer
little
part, pathetically honest.
experience would almost justify
the belief that the
more
artless
the god, the
Daruma
Otokichi's
— though
more honest the man,
my
reader to
make any
295
do not want
I
hasty deductions.
I
do
not wish to imply, for example, that the superlative point of
honesty might begin
Only
ishing point of the god.
venture
:
— Faith
— belongs
this
in
this
at
the van-
much
very small gods,
1
would
— toy-gods,
to that simplicity of heart which, in
wicked world, makes the nearest possible
approach to pure goodness.
On
evening
the
Otokichi
brought
the cost of
before
me
his
bill,
two months' good
amount proved
the
left
I
village,
— representing
cheer;
— and the
Of
to be unreasonably small.
course a present was expected, according to the
kindly Japanese custom;
fact
into
honest.
the
consideration,
The
least that
appreciation of
many
but, even taking
1
was absurdly
bill
could do to show
things
because perfectly natural and
dignified,
my
was to double the
payment requested; and Otokichi's
properly
that
at
satisfaction,
the
was something
same time
beautiful
to
see.
I
was up and dressed by
half-past three the
next morning, in order to take an early expresstrain; but even at that ghostly hour I found
296
a
Japanese Miscellany
warm
my
direction
gaze
still
glowing.
was burning
and almost
in the
Daruma was
TWO
involuntarily
the household
of
lamps were
a light
swallowed the
I
eyes!
.
.
final
same
to serve
bowl of
wandered
gods,
Then
I
instant
straight
I
warm
in
the
whose tiny
noticed that
also in front of
looking
.
downstairs, and
brown daughter ready
little
me. ... As
tea,
me
breakfast awaiting
Otokichi's
Daruma;
perceived that
at
me
— with
In a Japanese Hospital
31
I
.
.
less
The
.
patient of
last
than four years old,
the evening,
—
is
received
—a
boy
by nurses
and surgeons with smiles and gentle
flatteries,
which he does not
... He
both
and
afraid
at
all
angry
at finding himself in
—
him
;
— and he sang for
not the theatre
is
— doctors
:
to
is
—
some
was being
that he
the way, forgetting the pain of his
this
angry
especially
an hospital to-night
indiscreet person assured
taken to the theatre
respond.
arm
joy on
— and
;
There are doctors here
!
that hurt people.
... He
lets
himself
be stripped, and bears the examination without
wincing
upon a
;
but
when
certain
low
told that he
table,
he utters a very emphatic fya P.
rience
1
inherited
from
lie
down
electric
lamp,
must
under an
.
.
The expe-
his ancestors has assured
"No!"
299
Japanese Miscellany
300
him that to lie down in the presence of a possible
enemy is not good and by the same ghostly
wisdom he has divined that the smile of the sur;
..."
geon was intended to deceive.
be so nice upon the table
a
young nurse
" lya
!
wary by
So they
two
— " see
;
" repeats the
—
him
lift
man
— and,
ing stock,
most
—
— made only more
.
.
.
— two surgeons and
— bear him to the
Then he shouts
comes of good
for he
his
fight-
to the general alarm, battles
valiantly, in spite of that
broken arm.
But
upon
eyes
a white wet cloth descends
and mouth,
"
!
deftly,
with the red cloth.
small cry of war,
!
the pretty red cloth
upon him
lay hands
will
it
this appeal to esthetic sentiment.
nurses,
table
lo
little
But
" — coaxingly observes
!
— and
he cannot cry,
his
— and there
— and the
is
a strange sweet smell in his nostrils,
voices and the lights have floated very, very far
away,
— and
wavy
darkness.
for a
moment
last
cloth
is
is
.
.
sinking, sinking, sinking into
.
The
slight
:
then
all
motion
stops.
.
.
.
Now
removed; and the face reappears
the anger and pain gone out of
little
limbs relax
—
;
the breast heaves quickly, in the
of the lungs against the paralyzing
fight
anassthetic
he
it.
the
—
all
So smile the
gods that watch the sleep of the dead.
.
.
.
Quickly the ends of
the
301
bone
fractured
brought into place with a
clear
snap;
are
— ban-
dages and cotton and plaster-of-Paris, and yet
more bandages,
hands
Then
;
the patient,
rapidly
are
— the face
and
insensible,
still
blanket and taken away.
and
entrance
Nothing
is
exit
:
applied
.
.
.
— the
ing of
face
will,
commonplace
stifling
as
wrapped
half.
seen for the
first
of the cry, the sudden numb-
the subsequent pallid calm of the
darksome
in
in a
between
details of the in-
— so simulated tragedy as to
wandering
is
Interval,
twelve minutes and a
time; and the really painless
cident
by expert
hands are sponged.
little
ways.
set
little
imagination
... A
single
wicked blow would have produced exactly the
same
less
and smiling
results of silence
rest.
times in the countless ages of the past
have done so
;
—
Count-
must
it
times passion must
countless
have discerned, in the sudden passionless beauty
of the stricken, the eternal consequence of the
act.
.
.
.
Till the heavens be no
more they
not awake, nor he roused out of their
" Till the heavens
— perhaps
Thereafter
same.
.
.
be no
.
:
more"
yet
— but
never
shall
sleep.
after
again
?
the
Japanese Miscellany
302
But
I
felt
that
I
had been
more than
startled
touched by that sudden suppression of the personality,
the
thereby
made
Self,
— because
manifest.
thought,
senses,
— the
brain, with
countless
its
;
— the whole
life
mystery
moment,
one
In
—
voice, motion,
pleasure and pain and
all
had ceased to be
the
chemical, —
under the vapor of a
will,
of
memory,
of the budding
machinery of
the
little
possible priceless inheritance
from
delicate
— had
generations,
been
and
stilled
And
stopped as by the very touch of death.
there remained, to
all
outward seeming, only the
form, the simulacrum,
—a
doll of plastic flesh,
with the faint unconscious smile of an icon.
.
.
.
The faces of the little stone Buddhas, who
dream by roadsides or above the graves, have
the soft
charm of Japanese
They
infancy.
semble the faces of children asleep
;
— and
re-
you
must have seen Japanese children asleep to know
the curious beauty of the immature features,
the vague sweetness of the lines of lids and
In
the art of the
lips.
Buddhist image-maker, the
peace of the divine condition
the
—
same shadowy smile
the slumber of the child.
that
is
suggested by
makes
beautiful
303
II
The memory
of icons naturally evoked
remem-
brance of those powers which icons do but symbolize;
and presently
that, to the vision of a
a
human
which
I
life
had
I
found myself thinking
God, the
would appear much
just witnessed,
entire course of
like the incident
— a coming, a crying
and struggling, and a sudden vanishing of personality under the resistless anaesthetic of death.
(1
am
not speaking of a cosmic divinity, to
whom
the interval between the kindling and the extinction of a sun
would seem
the flash of a
firefly in
anthropomorphic God.)
seems to us
as brief as
the night:
I
mean an
According to Herbert
Spencer, the tiny consciousness of a gnat can
dis-
tinguish intervals of time representing something
between
the
ten-thousandth
thousandth part of a second.
mentally superior to
man
as
and
the
fifteen-
For a being as
man
to the gnat,
would not the time of a generation appear but an
instant
Would such
?
existence at
ing,— a
and
all,
a being perceive our
human
except as a budding and a wither-
ceaseless swift succession of apparitions
disparitions,
mentation
—
a
mere phenomenon of
fer-
peculiar to the surface of a cooling
—
304
Japanese Miscellany
planet
Of
?
nomenon
course, were he to study that phe-
somewhat
in detail,
ments under the
lens,
as
we study
fer-
he would not see the smile
of the babe change instantaneously to the laughter
of the skull
;
— but
I
fancy that whatever might
psychologically happen, between the
rosy flesh and the
first
smile of
grin of bone, would
last dull
remain for him as indistinguishable as the gnat's
ten
or fifteen thousand wing-beats per second
remain for
us.
I
God
doubt whether the
of a
system, or even of a single world, could sympathize with
our emotions any more than we our-
selves can sympathize with the life that thrills in
a droplet of putrid water.
But what
sight of a
is
this
human
.
.
.
creature that, in the
God, might seem to
rise
from
merely to weep and laugh one moment
light, ere
crumbling back to clay again
?
earth
in the
A form
evolved, in the course of a hundred million years,
from out some shapeless speck of primordial
slime.
But
this
knowledge of the evolution no-
wise illuminates the secret of the
life in itself,
—
the secret of the sentiency struggling against destruction through
all
those million centuries,
ever contriving and building, to baffle death,
more
—
:
30^
and more astounding complexities of substance,
more and yet more marvellous
mind,
— and able
at last to
complexities of
prolong the term of
being from the primal duration of an instant
its
to the possible
The sentiency
is
human
age of a hundred years.
Thought
the riddle of riddles.
has been proved a compounding of sensation.
But the simplest sensation perceptible
compound
most
;
a
or the result of a compounding,
perhaps the shock of a fusion,
blending
itself
is
— the
— and the mystery of
inscrutable, the
life
flash of a
remains the
most tremendous, the most
appalling of enigmas.
From
the terror of that mystery our fathers
sought to save their world by uttering the black
"On pain of sword and fire, on
decree
:
—
peril of the
NOT think!
—
Everlasting Death, — THOU
SHALT
"
But the elder wisdom of the East proclaimed
to think, O child of the Abyss, upon
" Fear not
the
Depth that gave
thee birth !
Divining that
Formless out of which thou hast come, into
know
which thou must dissolve again, thou shall
thy Being timeless,
20
and
infinitely
One !
.
."
.

A Japanese miscellany

Transcription

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