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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41579 ***
+
+_The Evergreen Series_
+
+
+KIMIKO AND OTHER JAPANESE SKETCHES
+
+
+By LAFCADIO HEARN
+
+
+BOSTON AND NEW YORK
+HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
+The Riverside Press Cambridge
+1923
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1896, BY HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO.
+ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
+
+The Riverside Press
+CAMBRIDGE · MASSACHUSETTS
+PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note: Dialect spellings, contractions and inconsistencies
+have been retained as printed. Words printed in italics are noted with
+underscores; _italics_.
+
+
+
+
+KIMIKO
+
+      _Wasuraruru
+    Mi naran to omo
+      Kokoro koso
+    Wasuré nu yori mo
+      Omoi nari-keré._[1]
+
+          [1] "To wish to be forgotten by the beloved is a soul-task
+          harder far than trying not to forget."--_Poem by_ KIMIKO.
+
+
+I
+
+The name is on a paper-lantern at the entrance of a house in the Street
+of the Geisha.
+
+Seen at night the street is one of the queerest in the world. It is
+narrow as a gangway; and the dark shining wood-work of the house-fronts,
+all tightly closed,--each having a tiny sliding door with paper-panes
+that look just like frosted glass,--makes you think of first-class
+passenger-cabins. Really the buildings are several stories high;
+but you do not observe this at once--especially if there be no
+moon--because only the lower stories are illuminated up to their
+awnings, above which all is darkness. The illumination is made by lamps
+behind the narrow paper-paned doors, and by the paper-lanterns hanging
+outside--one at every door. You look down the street between two lines
+of these lanterns--lines converging far-off into one motionless bar of
+yellow light. Some of the lanterns are egg-shaped, some cylindrical;
+others four-sided or six-sided; and Japanese characters are beautifully
+written upon them. The street is very quiet--silent as a display of
+cabinet-work in some great exhibition after closing-time. This is
+because the inmates are mostly away--attending banquets and other
+festivities. Their life is of the night.
+
+The legend upon the first lantern to the left as you go south is
+"Kinoya: uchi O-Kata"; and that means The House of Gold wherein O-Kata
+dwells. The lantern to the right tells of the House of Nishimura, and
+of a girl Miyotsuru--which name signifies The Stork Magnificently
+Existing. Next upon the left comes the House of Kajita;--and in that
+house are Kohana, the Flower-Bud, and Hinako, whose face is pretty as
+the face of a doll. Opposite is the House Nagaye, wherein live Kimika
+and Kimiko.... And this luminous double litany of names is half-a-mile
+long.
+
+The inscription on the lantern of the last-named house reveals the
+relationship between Kimika and Kimiko--and yet something more; for
+Kimiko is styled "Ni-dai-me," an honorary untranslatable title which
+signifies that she is only Kimiko No. 2. Kimika is the teacher and
+mistress: she has educated two geisha, both named, or rather renamed by
+her, Kimiko; and this use of the same name twice is proof positive that
+the first Kimiko--"Ichi-dai-me"--must have been celebrated. The
+professional appellation borne by an unlucky or unsuccessful geisha is
+never given to her successor.
+
+If you should ever have good and sufficient reason to enter the
+house,--pushing open that lantern-slide of a door which sets a
+gong-bell ringing to announce visits,--you might be able to see
+Kimika, provided her little troupe be not engaged for the evening.
+You would find her a very intelligent person, and well worth talking
+to. She can tell, when she pleases, the most remarkable stories--real
+flesh-and-blood stories--true stories of human nature. For the Street
+of the Geisha is full of traditions--tragic, comic, melodramatic;--every
+house has its memories;--and Kimika knows them all. Some are very, very
+terrible; and some would make you laugh; and some would make you think.
+The story of the first Kimiko belongs to the last class. It is not one
+of the most extraordinary; but it is one of the least difficult for
+Western people to understand.
+
+
+II
+
+There is no more Ichi-dai-me Kimiko: she is only a remembrance. Kimika
+was quite young when she called that Kimiko her professional sister.
+
+"An exceedingly wonderful girl," is what Kimika says of Kimiko. To win
+any renown in her profession, a geisha must be pretty or very clever;
+and the famous ones are usually both--having been selected at a very
+early age by their trainers according to the promise of such qualities.
+Even the commoner class of singing-girls must have some charm in their
+best years--if only that _beauté du diable_ which inspired the Japanese
+proverb that even a devil is pretty at eighteen.[2] But Kimiko was much
+more than pretty. She was according to the Japanese ideal of beauty;
+and that standard is not reached by one woman in a hundred thousand.
+Also she was more than clever: she was accomplished. She composed very
+dainty poems--could arrange flowers exquisitely, perform tea-ceremonies
+faultlessly, embroider, make silk mosaic: in short, she was genteel.
+And her first public appearance made a flutter in the fast world of
+Kyoto. It was evident that she could make almost any conquest she
+pleased, and that fortune was before her.
+
+          [2] _Oni mo jiuhachi, azami no hana._ There is a similar
+          saying of a dragon: _ja mo hatachi_ ("even a dragon at
+          twenty").
+
+But it soon became evident, also, that she had been perfectly trained
+for her profession. She had been taught how to conduct herself under
+almost any possible circumstances; for what she could not have known
+Kimika knew everything about: the power of beauty, and the weakness of
+passion; the craft of promises and the worth of indifference; and all
+the folly and evil in the hearts of men. So Kimiko made few mistakes
+and shed few tears. By and by she proved to be, as Kimika
+wished--slightly dangerous. So a lamp is to night-fliers: otherwise
+some of them would put it out. The duty of the lamp is to make pleasant
+things visible: it has no malice. Kimiko had no malice, and was not too
+dangerous. Anxious parents discovered that she did not want to enter
+into respectable families, nor even to lend herself to any serious
+romances. But she was not particularly merciful to that class of youths
+who sign documents with their own blood, and ask a dancing-girl to cut
+off the extreme end of the little finger of her left hand as a pledge
+of eternal affection. She was mischievous enough with them to cure them
+of their folly. Some rich folks who offered her lands and houses on
+condition of owning her, body and soul, found her less merciful. One
+proved generous enough to purchase her freedom unconditionally, at a
+price which made Kimika a rich woman; and Kimiko was grateful--but she
+remained a geisha. She managed her rebuffs with too much tact to excite
+hate, and knew how to heal despairs in most cases. There were
+exceptions, of course. One old man, who thought life not worth living
+unless he could get Kimiko all to himself, invited her to a banquet one
+evening, and asked her to drink wine with him. But Kimika, accustomed
+to read faces, deftly substituted tea (which has precisely the same
+color) for Kimiko's wine, and so instinctively saved the girl's
+precious life--for only ten minutes later the soul of the silly host
+was on its way to the Meido alone, and doubtless greatly
+disappointed.... After that night Kimika watched over Kimiko as a wild
+cat guards her kitten.
+
+The kitten became a fashionable mania, a craze--a delirium--one of the
+great sights and sensations of the period. There is a foreign prince
+who remembers her name: he sent her a gift of diamonds which she never
+wore. Other presents in multitude she received from all who could
+afford the luxury of pleasing her; and to be in her good graces, even
+for a day, was the ambition of the "gilded youth." Nevertheless she
+allowed no one to imagine himself a special favorite, and refused to
+make any contracts for perpetual affection. To any protests on the
+subject she answered that she knew her place. Even respectable women
+spoke not unkindly of her--because her name never figured in any story
+of family unhappiness. She really kept her place. Time seemed to make
+her more charming. Other geisha grew into fame, but no one was even
+classed with her. Some manufacturers secured the sole right to use her
+photograph for a label; and that label made a fortune for the firm.
+
+
+But one day the startling news was abroad that Kimiko had at last shown
+a very soft heart. She had actually said good-bye to Kimika, and had
+gone away with somebody able to give her all the pretty dresses she
+could wish for--somebody eager to give her social position also, and to
+silence gossip about her naughty past--somebody willing to die for her
+ten times over, and already half-dead for love of her. Kimika said that
+a fool had tried to kill himself because of Kimiko, and that Kimiko had
+taken pity on him, and nursed him back to foolishness. Taiko Hideyoshi
+had said that there were only two things in this world which he
+feared--a fool and a dark night. Kimika had always been afraid of a
+fool; and a fool had taken Kimiko away. And she added, with not
+unselfish tears, that Kimiko would never come back to her: it was a
+case of love on both sides for the time of several existences.
+
+Nevertheless, Kimika was only half right. She was very shrewd indeed;
+but she had never been able to see into certain private chambers in the
+soul of Kimiko. If she could have seen, she would have screamed for
+astonishment.
+
+
+III
+
+Between Kimiko and other geisha there was a difference of gentle blood.
+Before she took a professional name, her name was Ai, which, written
+with the proper character, means love. Written with another character
+the same word-sound signifies grief. The story of Ai was a story of
+both grief and love.
+
+She had been nicely brought up. As a child she had been sent to a
+private school kept by an old samurai--where the little girls squatted
+on cushions before little writing-tables twelve inches high, and where
+the teachers taught without salary. In these days when teachers get
+better salaries than civil-service officials, the teaching is not
+nearly so honest or so pleasant as it used to be. A servant always
+accompanied the child to and from the school-house, carrying her books,
+her writing-box, her kneeling cushion, and her little table.
+
+Afterwards she attended an elementary public school. The first "modern"
+textbooks had just been issued--containing Japanese translations of
+English, German, and French stories about honor and duty and heroism,
+excellently chosen, and illustrated with tiny innocent pictures of
+Western people in costumes never of this world. Those dear pathetic
+little textbooks are now curiosities: they have long been superseded by
+pretentious compilations much less lovingly and sensibly edited. Ai
+learned well. Once a year, at examination time, a great official would
+visit the school, and talk to the children as if they were all his own,
+and stroke each silky head as he distributed the prizes. He is now a
+retired statesman, and has doubtless forgotten Ai;--and in the schools
+of today nobody caresses little girls, or gives them prizes.
+
+Then came those reconstructive changes by which families of rank were
+reduced to obscurity and poverty; and Ai had to leave school. Many
+great sorrows followed, till there remained to her only her mother and
+an infant sister. The mother and Ai could do little but weave; and by
+weaving alone they could not earn enough to live. House and lands
+first--then, article by article, all things not necessary to
+existence--heirlooms, trinkets, costly robes, crested lacquer-ware--passed
+cheaply to those whom misery makes rich, and whose wealth is called
+by the people _Namida no kane_--"the Money of Tears." Help from
+the living was scanty--for most of the samurai-families of kin were
+in like distress. But when there was nothing left to sell--not even
+Ai's little school-books--help was sought from the dead.
+
+For it was remembered that the father of Ai's father had been buried
+with his sword, the gift of a daimyo; and that the mountings of the
+weapon were of gold. So the grave was opened, and the grand hilt of
+curious workmanship exchanged for a common one, and the ornaments of
+the lacquered sheath removed. But the good blade was not taken, because
+the warrior might need it. Ai saw his face as he sat erect in the great
+red-clay urn which served in lieu of coffin to the samurai of high rank
+when buried by the ancient rite. His features were still recognizable
+after all those years of sepulture; and he seemed to nod a grim assent
+to what had been done as his sword was given back to him.
+
+At last the mother of Ai became too weak and ill to work at the loom;
+and the gold of the dead had been spent. Ai said: "Mother, I know there
+is but one thing now to do. Let me be sold to the dancing-girls." The
+mother wept, and made no reply. Ai did not weep, but went out alone.
+
+She remembered that in other days, when banquets were given in her
+father's house, and dancers served the wine, a free geisha named Kimika
+had often caressed her. She went straight to the house of Kimika. "I
+want you to buy me," said Ai;--"and I want a great deal of money."
+Kimika laughed, and petted her, and made her eat, and heard her
+story--which was bravely told, without one tear. "My child," said
+Kimika, "I cannot give you a great deal of money; for I have very
+little. But this I can do:--I can promise to support your mother. That
+will be better than to give her much money for you--because your
+mother, my child, has been a great lady, and therefore cannot know how
+to use money cunningly. Ask your honored mother to sign the
+bond--promising that you will stay with me till you are twenty-four
+years old, or until such time as you can pay me back. And what money I
+can now spare, take home with you as a free gift."
+
+Thus Ai became a geisha; and Kimika renamed her Kimiko, and kept the
+pledge to maintain the mother and the child-sister. The mother died
+before Kimiko became famous; the little sister was put to school.
+Afterwards those things already told came to pass.
+
+
+The young man who had wanted to die for love of a dancing-girl was
+worthy of better things. He was an only son; and his parents, wealthy
+and titled people, were willing to make any sacrifice for him--even
+that of accepting a geisha for daughter-in-law. Moreover, they were not
+altogether displeased with Kimiko, because of her sympathy for their
+boy.
+
+Before going away, Kimiko attended the wedding of her young sister,
+Umé, who had just finished school. She was good and pretty. Kimiko had
+made the match, and used her wicked knowledge of men in making it. She
+chose a very plain, honest, old-fashioned merchant--a man who could not
+have been bad, even if he tried. Umé did not question the wisdom of her
+sister's choice, which time proved fortunate.
+
+
+IV
+
+It was in the period of the fourth moon that Kimiko was carried away to
+the home prepared for her--a place in which to forget all the
+unpleasant realities of life--a sort of fairy-palace lost in the
+charmed repose of great shadowy silent high-walled gardens. Therein she
+might have felt as one reborn, by reason of good deeds, into the realm
+of Horai. But the spring passed, and the summer came--and Kimiko
+remained simply Kimiko. Three times she had contrived, for reasons
+unspoken, to put off the wedding-day.
+
+
+In the period of the eighth moon, Kimiko ceased to be playful, and told
+her reasons very gently but very firmly: "It is time that I should say
+what I have long delayed saying. For the sake of the mother who gave me
+life, and for the sake of my little sister, I have lived in hell. All
+that is past; but the scorch of the fire is upon me, and there is no
+power that can take it away. It is not for such as I to enter into an
+honored family--nor to bear you a son--nor to build up your house....
+Suffer me to speak; for in the knowing of wrong I am very, very much
+wiser than you.... Never shall I be your wife to become your shame. I
+am your companion only, your play-fellow, your guest of an hour--and
+this not for any gifts. When I shall be no longer with you--nay!
+certainly that day must come!--you will have clearer sight. I shall
+still be dear to you, but not in the same way as now--which is
+foolishness. You will remember these words out of my heart. Some true
+sweet lady will be chosen for you, to become the mother of your
+children. I shall see them; but the place of a wife I shall never take,
+and the joy of a mother I must never know. I am only your folly, my
+beloved--an illusion, a dream, a shadow flitting across your life.
+Somewhat more in later time I may become, but a wife to you
+never--neither in this existence nor in the next. Ask me again--and I
+go."
+
+
+In the period of the tenth moon, and without any reason imaginable,
+Kimiko disappeared--vanished--utterly ceased to exist.
+
+
+V
+
+Nobody knew when or how or whither she had gone. Even in the
+neighborhood of the home she had left, none had seen her pass. At first
+it seemed that she must soon return. Of all her beautiful and precious
+things--her robes, her ornaments, her presents: a fortune in
+themselves--she had taken nothing. But weeks passed without word or
+sign; and it was feared that something terrible had befallen her.
+Rivers were dragged, and wells were searched. Inquiries were made by
+telegraph and by letter. Trusted servants were sent to look for her.
+Rewards were offered for any news--especially a reward to Kimika, who
+was really attached to the girl, and would have been only too happy to
+find her without any reward at all. But the mystery remained a mystery.
+Application to the authorities would have been useless: the fugitive
+had done no wrong, broken no law; and the vast machinery of the
+imperial police-system was not to be set in motion by the passionate
+whim of a boy. Months grew into years; but neither Kimika, nor the
+little sister in Kyoto, nor any one of the thousands who had known
+and admired the beautiful dancer, ever saw Kimiko again.
+
+But what she had foretold came true;--for time dries all tears and
+quiets all longing; and even in Japan one does not really try to die
+twice for the same despair. The lover of Kimiko became wiser; and there
+was found for him a very sweet person for wife, who gave him a son. And
+other years passed; and there was happiness in the fairy-home where
+Kimiko had once been.
+
+There came to that home one morning, as if seeking alms, a traveling
+nun; and the child, hearing her Buddhist cry of "Ha--ï! ha--ï!" ran to
+the gate. And presently a house-servant, bringing out the customary
+gift of rice, wondered to see the nun caressing the child, and
+whispering to him. Then the little one cried to the servant, "Let me
+give!"--and the nun pleaded from under the veiling shadow of her great
+straw hat: "Honorably allow the child to give me." So the boy put the
+rice into the mendicant's bowl. Then she thanked him, and asked: "Now
+will you say again for me the little word which I prayed you to tell
+your honored father?" And the child lisped: "_Father, one whom you
+will never see again in this world, says that her heart is glad because
+she has seen your son._"
+
+The nun laughed softly, and caressed him again, and passed away
+swiftly; and the servant wondered more than ever, while the child ran
+to tell his father the words of the mendicant.
+
+But the father's eyes dimmed as he heard the words, and he wept over
+his boy. For he, and only he, knew who had been at the gate--and the
+sacrificial meaning of all that had been hidden.
+
+Now he thinks much, but tells his thought to no one.
+
+He knows that the space between sun and sun is less than the space
+between himself and the woman who loved him.
+
+He knows it were vain to ask in what remote city, in what fantastic
+riddle of narrow nameless streets, in what obscure little temple known
+only to the poorest poor, she waits for the darkness before the Dawn of
+the Immeasurable Light--when the Face of the Teacher will smile upon
+her--when the Voice of the Teacher will say to her, in tones of
+sweetness deeper than ever came from human lover's lips: "_O my
+daughter in the Law, thou hast practiced the perfect way; thou hast
+believed and understood the highest truth;--therefore come I now to
+meet and to welcome thee!_"
+
+
+
+
+THE NUN OF THE TEMPLE OF AMIDA
+
+
+I
+
+When O-Toyo's husband--a distant cousin, adopted into her family for
+love's sake--had been summoned by his lord to the capital, she did not
+feel anxious about the future. She felt sad only. It was the first time
+since their bridal that they had ever been separated. But she had her
+father and mother to keep her company, and, dearer than either,--though
+she would never have confessed it even to herself,--her little son.
+Besides, she always had plenty to do. There were many household duties
+to perform, and there was much clothing to be woven--both silk and
+cotton.
+
+Once daily at a fixed hour, she would set for the absent husband, in
+his favorite room, little repasts faultlessly served on dainty
+lacquered trays--miniature meals such as are offered to the ghosts of
+the ancestors, and to the gods.[3] These repasts were served at the
+east side of the room, and his kneeling-cushion placed before them. The
+reason they were served at the east side was because he had gone east.
+Before removing the food, she always lifted the cover of the little
+soup-bowl to see if there was vapor upon its lacquered inside surface.
+For it is said that if there be vapor on the inside of the lid covering
+food so offered, the absent beloved is well. But if there be none, he
+is dead--because that is a sign that his soul has returned by itself to
+seek nourishment. O-Toyo found the lacquer thickly beaded with vapor
+day by day.
+
+          [3] Such a repast, offered to the spirit of the absent one
+          loved, is called a _Kagé-zen_; lit., "Shadow-tray." The
+          word _zen_ is also used to signify the meal served on
+          the lacquered tray--which has feet, like a miniature table.
+          So that the term "Shadow-feast" would be a better translation
+          of _Kagé-zen_.
+
+The child was her constant delight. He was three years old, and fond of
+asking questions to which none but the gods knew the real answers. When
+he wanted to play, she laid aside her work to play with him. When he
+wanted to rest, she told him wonderful stories, or gave pretty pious
+answers to his questions about those things which no man can ever
+understand. At evening, when the little lamps had been lighted before
+the holy tablets and the images, she taught his lips to shape the words
+of filial prayer. When he had been laid to sleep, she brought her work
+near him, and watched the still sweetness of his face. Sometimes he
+would smile in his dreams; and she knew that Kwannon the divine was
+playing shadowy play with him, and she would murmur the Buddhist
+invocation to that Maid "who looketh forever down above the sound of
+prayer."
+
+
+Sometimes, in the season of very clear days, she would climb the
+mountain of Dakeyama, carrying her little boy on her back. Such a trip
+delighted him much, not only because of what his mother taught him to
+see, but also of what she taught him to hear. The sloping way was
+through groves and woods, and over grassed slopes, and around queer
+rocks; and there were flowers with stories in their hearts, and trees
+holding tree-spirits. Pigeons cried _korup-korup_; and doves sobbed
+_owao_, _owao_; and cicadæ wheezed and fluted and tinkled.
+
+All those who wait for absent dear ones make, if they can, a pilgrimage
+to the peak called Dakeyama. It is visible from any part of the city;
+and from its summit several provinces can be seen. At the very top is a
+stone of almost human height and shape, perpendicularly set up; and
+little pebbles are heaped before it and upon it. And near by there is a
+small Shinto shrine erected to the spirit of a princess of other
+days. For she mourned the absence of one she loved, and used to watch
+from this mountain for his coming until she pined away and was changed
+into a stone. The people therefore built the shrine; and lovers of the
+absent still pray there for the return of those dear to them; and each,
+after so praying, takes home one of the little pebbles heaped there.
+And when the beloved one returns, the pebble must be taken back to the
+pebble-pile upon the mountain-top, and other pebbles with it, for a
+thank-offering and commemoration.
+
+
+Always ere O-Toyo and her son could reach their home after such a day,
+the dusk would fall softly about them; for the way was long, and they
+had to both go and return by boat through the wilderness of rice-fields
+round the town--which is a slow manner of journeying. Sometimes stars
+and fireflies lighted them; sometimes also the moon--and O-Toyo would
+softly sing to her boy the Izumo child-song to the moon:
+
+    Nono-San,
+    Little Lady Moon,
+    How old are you?
+    "Thirteen days--
+    Thirteen and nine."
+    That is still young,
+    And the reason must be
+    For that bright red obi,
+    So nicely tied,[4]
+    And that nice white girdle
+    About your hips.
+    Will you give it to the horse?
+          "Oh, no, no!"
+    Will you give it to the cow?
+          "Oh, no, no!"[5]
+
+          [4] Because an obi or girdle of very bright color can be worn
+          only by children.
+
+          [5]
+
+          Nono-San,
+          _or_
+          _O-Tsuki-San_
+          Ikutsu?
+          "Jiu-san--
+          Kokonotsu."
+          Sore wa mada
+          Wakai yo,
+          Wakai ye mo
+          Dori
+          Akai iro no
+          Obi to,
+          Shiro iro no
+          Obi to
+          Koshi ni shanto
+          Musun de.
+          Uma ni yaru?
+            "Iyaiya!"
+          Ushi ni yaru?
+            "Iyaiya!"
+
+And up to the blue night would rise from all those wet leagues of
+labored field that great soft bubbling chorus which seems the very
+voice of the soil itself--the chant of the frogs. And O-Toyo would
+interpret its syllables to the child: _Mé kayui! mé kayui!_ "Mine
+eyes tickle; I want to sleep."
+
+All those were happy hours.
+
+
+II
+
+Then twice, within the time of three days, those masters of life and
+death whose ways belong to the eternal mysteries struck at her heart.
+First she was taught that the gentle husband for whom she had so often
+prayed never could return to her--having been returned unto that dust
+out of which all forms are borrowed. And in another little while she
+knew her boy slept so deep a sleep that the Chinese physician could not
+waken him. These things she learned only as shapes are learned in
+lightning flashes. Between and beyond the flashes was that absolute
+darkness which is the pity of the gods.
+
+It passed; and she rose to meet a foe whose name is Memory. Before all
+others she could keep her face, as in other days, sweet and smiling.
+But when alone with this visitant, she found herself less strong. She
+would arrange little toys and spread out little dresses on the matting,
+and look at them, and talk to them in whispers, and smile silently. But
+the smile would ever end in a burst of wild, loud weeping; and she
+would beat her head upon the floor, and ask foolish questions of the
+gods.
+
+
+One day she thought of a weird consolation--that rite the people name
+"Toritsu-banashi"--the evocation of the dead. Could she not call back
+her boy for one brief minute only? It would trouble the little soul;
+but would he not gladly bear a moment's pain for her dear sake? Surely!
+
+
+[To have the dead called back one must go to some priest--Buddhist or
+Shinto--who knows the rite of incantation. And the mortuary tablet,
+or ihai, of the dead must be brought to that priest.
+
+Then ceremonies of purification are performed; candles are lighted and
+incense is kindled before the ihai; and prayers or parts of sutras are
+recited; and offerings of flowers and of rice are made. But, in this
+case, the rice must not be cooked.
+
+And when everything has been made ready, the priest, taking in his left
+hand an instrument shaped like a bow, and striking it rapidly with his
+right, calls upon the name of the dead, and cries out the words,
+"Kitazo yo! kitazo yo! kitazo yo!" meaning, "I have come."[6] And, as
+he cries, the tone of his voice gradually changes until it becomes the
+very voice of the dead person--for the ghost enters into him.
+
+          [6] Whence the Izumo saying about one who too often
+          announces his coming: "Thy talk is like the talk of
+          necromancy!"--_Toritsubanashi no yona._
+
+Then the dead will answer questions quickly asked, but will cry
+continually: "Hasten, hasten! for this my coming back is painful, and I
+have but a little time to stay!" And having answered, the ghost passes;
+and the priest falls senseless upon his face.
+
+Now to call back the dead is not good. For by calling them back their
+condition is made worse. Returning to the underworld, they must take a
+place lower than that which they held before.
+
+To-day these rites are not allowed by law. They once consoled; but the
+law is a good law, and just--since there exist men willing to mock the
+divine which is in human hearts.]
+
+
+So it came to pass that O-Toyo found herself one night in a lonely
+little temple at the verge of the city--kneeling before the ihai of her
+boy, and hearing the rite of incantation. And presently, out of the
+lips of the officiant there came a voice she thought she knew,--a voice
+loved above all others,--but faint and very thin, like a sobbing of
+wind.
+
+And the thin voice cried to her:
+
+"Ask quickly, quickly, mother! Dark is the way and long; and I may not
+linger."
+
+Then tremblingly she questioned:
+
+"Why must I sorrow for my child? What is the justice of the gods?"
+
+And there was answer given:
+
+"O mother, do not mourn me thus! That I died was only that you might
+not die. For the year was a year of sickness and of sorrow--and it was
+given me to know that you were to die; and I obtained by prayer that I
+should take your place.[7]
+
+          [7] _Migawari_, "substitute," is the religious term.
+
+"O mother, never weep for me! It is not kindness to mourn for the dead.
+Over the River of Tears[8] their silent road is; and when mothers weep,
+the flood of that river rises, and the soul cannot pass, but must
+wander to and fro.
+
+          [8] "Namida-no-Kawa."
+
+"Therefore, I pray you, do not grieve, O mother mine! Only give me a
+little water sometimes."
+
+
+III
+
+From that hour she was not seen to weep. She performed, lightly and
+silently, as in former days, the gentle duties of a daughter.
+
+Seasons passed; and her father thought to find another husband for her.
+To the mother, he said:
+
+"If our daughter again have a son, it will be great joy for her, and
+for all of us."
+
+But the wiser mother made answer:
+
+"Unhappy she is not. It is impossible that she marry again. She has
+become as a little child, knowing nothing of trouble or sin."
+
+It was true that she had ceased to know real pain. She had begun to
+show a strange fondness for very small things. At first she had found
+her bed too large--perhaps through the sense of emptiness left by the
+loss of her child; then, day by day, other things seemed to grow too
+large--the dwelling itself, the familiar rooms, the alcove and its
+great flower-vases--even the household utensils. She wished to eat her
+rice with miniature chopsticks out of a very small bowl such as
+children use.
+
+In these things she was lovingly humored; and in other matters she was
+not fantastic. The old people consulted together about her constantly.
+At last the father said:
+
+"For our daughter to live with strangers might be painful. But as we
+are aged, we may soon have to leave her. Perhaps we could provide for
+her by making her a nun. We might build a little temple for her."
+
+Next day the mother asked O-Toyo:
+
+"Would you not like to become a holy nun, and to live in a very, very
+small temple, with a very small altar, and little images of the
+Buddhas? We should be always near you. If you wish this, we shall get a
+priest to teach you the sutras."
+
+O-Toyo wished it, and asked that an extremely small nun's dress be got
+for her. But the mother said:
+
+"Everything except the dress a good nun may have made small. But she
+must wear a large dress--that is the law of Buddha."
+
+So she was persuaded to wear the same dress as other nuns.
+
+
+IV
+
+They built for her a small An-dera, or Nun's-Temple, in an empty court
+where another and larger temple, called Amida-ji, had once stood. The
+An-dera was also called Amida-ji, and was dedicated to Amida-Nyorai
+and to other Buddhas. It was fitted up with a very small altar and with
+miniature altar furniture. There was a tiny copy of the sutras on a
+tiny reading-desk, and tiny screens and bells and kakemono. And she
+dwelt there long after her parents had passed away. People called her
+the Amida-ji no Bikuni--which means The Nun of the Temple of Amida.
+
+A little outside the gate there was a statue of Jizo. This Jizo was a
+special Jizo--the friend of sick children. There were nearly always
+offerings of small rice-cakes to be seen before him. These signified
+that some sick child was being prayed for; and the number of the
+rice-cakes signified the number of the years of the child. Most often
+there were but two or three cakes; rarely there were seven or ten. The
+Amida-ji no Bikuni took care of the statue, and supplied it with
+incense-offerings, and flowers from the temple garden; for there was a
+small garden behind the An-dera.
+
+After making her morning round with her alms-bowl, she would usually
+seat herself before a very small loom, to weave cloth much too narrow
+for serious use. But her webs were bought always by certain shopkeepers
+who knew her story; and they made her presents of very small cups, tiny
+flower-vases, and queer dwarf-trees for her garden.
+
+Her greatest pleasure was the companionship of children; and this she
+never lacked. Japanese child-life is mostly passed in temple courts;
+and many happy childhoods were spent in the court of the Amida-ji. All
+the mothers in that street liked to have their little ones play there,
+but cautioned them never to laugh at the Bikuni-San. "Sometimes her
+ways are strange," they would say; "but that is because she once had a
+little son, who died, and the pain became too great for her mother's
+heart. So you must be very good and respectful to her."
+
+Good they were, but not quite respectful in the reverential sense. They
+knew better than to be that. They called her "Bikuni-San" always, and
+saluted her nicely; but otherwise they treated her like one of
+themselves. They played games with her; and she gave them tea in
+extremely small cups, and made for them heaps of rice-cakes not much
+bigger than peas, and wove upon her loom cloth of cotton and cloth of
+silk for the robes of their dolls. So she became to them as a
+blood-sister.
+
+They played with her daily till they grew too big to play, and left the
+court of the temple of Amida to begin the bitter work of life, and to
+become the fathers and mothers of children whom they sent to play in
+their stead. These learned to love the Bikuni-San like their parents
+had done. And the Bikuni-San lived to play with the children of the
+children of the children of those who remembered when her temple was
+built.
+
+The people took good heed that she should not know want. There was
+always given to her more than she needed for herself. So she was able
+to be nearly as kind to the children as she wished, and to feed
+extravagantly certain small animals. Birds nested in her temple, and
+ate from her hand, and learned not to perch upon the heads of the
+Buddhas.
+
+
+Some days after her funeral, a crowd of children visited my house. A
+little girl of nine years spoke for them all:
+
+"Sir, we are asking for the sake of the Bikuni-San who is dead. A very
+large _haka_[9] has been set up for her. It is a nice haka. But we
+want to give her also a very, very small haka, because in the time she
+was with us she often said that she would like a very little haka. And
+the stone-cutter has promised to cut it for us, and to make it very
+pretty, if we can bring the money. Therefore perhaps you will honorably
+give something."
+
+          [9] Tombstone.
+
+"Assuredly," I said. "But now you will have nowhere to play."
+
+She answered, smiling:
+
+"We shall still play in the court of the temple of Amida. She is buried
+there. She will hear our playing, and be glad."
+
+
+
+
+HARU
+
+
+Haru was brought up, chiefly at home, in that old-fashioned way which
+produced one of the sweetest types of woman the world has ever seen.
+This domestic education cultivated simplicity of heart, natural grace
+of manner, obedience, and love of duty as they were never cultivated
+but in Japan. Its moral product was something too gentle and beautiful
+for any other than the old Japanese society: it was not the most
+judicious preparation for the much harsher life of the new--in which it
+still survives. The refined girl was trained for the condition of being
+theoretically at the mercy of her husband. She was taught never to show
+jealousy, or grief, or anger--even under circumstances compelling all
+three; she was expected to conquer the faults of her lord by pure
+sweetness. In short, she was required to be almost superhuman--to
+realize, at least in outward seeming, the ideal of perfect
+unselfishness. And this she could do with a husband of her own rank,
+delicate in discernment--able to divine her feelings, and never to
+wound them.
+
+Haru came of a much better family than her husband; and she was a
+little too good for him, because he could not really understand her.
+They had been married very young, had been poor at first, and then had
+gradually become well-off, because Haru's husband was a clever man of
+business. Sometimes she thought he had loved her most when they were
+less well-off; and a woman is seldom mistaken about such matters.
+
+She still made all his clothes; and he commended her needle-work. She
+waited upon his wants; aided him to dress and undress; made everything
+comfortable for him in their pretty home, bade him a charming farewell
+as he went to business in the morning, and welcomed him upon his
+return; received his friends exquisitely; managed his household matters
+with wonderful economy; and seldom asked any favors that cost money.
+Indeed she scarcely needed such favors; for he was never ungenerous,
+and liked to see her daintily dressed--looking like some beautiful
+silver moth robed in the folding of its own wings--and to take her to
+theatres and other places of amusement. She accompanied him to
+pleasure-resorts famed for the blossoming of cherry-trees in spring, or
+the shimmering of fireflies on summer nights, or the crimsoning of
+maples in autumn. And sometimes they would pass a day together at
+Maiko, by the sea, where the pines seem to sway like dancing girls; or
+an afternoon at Kiyomidzu, in the old, old summer-house, where
+everything is like a dream of five hundred years ago--and where there
+is a great shadowing of high woods, and a song of water leaping cold
+and clear from caverns, and always the plaint of flutes unseen, blown
+softly in the antique way--a tone-caress of peace and sadness blending,
+just as the gold light glooms into blue over a dying sun.
+
+Except for such small pleasures and excursions, Haru went out seldom.
+Her only living relatives, and also those of her husband, were far away
+in other provinces; and she had few visits to make. She liked to be at
+home, arranging flowers for the alcoves or for the gods, decorating the
+rooms, and feeding the tame gold-fish of the garden-pond, which would
+lift up their heads when they saw her coming.
+
+No child had yet brought new joy or sorrow into her life. She looked,
+in spite of her wife's coiffure, like a very young girl; and she was
+still simple as a child--notwithstanding that business capacity in
+small things which her husband so admired that he often condescended to
+ask her counsel in big things. Perhaps the heart then judged for him
+better than the pretty head; but, whether intuitive or not, her advice
+never proved wrong. She was happy enough with him for five
+years--during which time he showed himself as considerate as any young
+Japanese merchant could well be towards a wife of finer character than
+his own.
+
+Then his manner suddenly became cold--so suddenly that she felt assured
+the reason was not that which a childless wife might have reason to
+fear. Unable to discover the real cause, she tried to persuade herself
+that she had been remiss in her duties; examined her innocent
+conscience to no purpose; and tried very, very hard to please. But he
+remained unmoved. He spoke no unkind words--though she felt behind his
+silence the repressed tendency to utter them. A Japanese of the better
+class is not very apt to be unkind to his wife in words. It is thought
+to be vulgar and brutal. The educated man of normal disposition will
+even answer a wife's reproaches with gentle phrases. Common politeness,
+by the Japanese code, exacts this attitude from every manly man;
+moreover, it is the only safe one. A refined and sensitive woman will
+not long submit to coarse treatment; a spirited one may even kill
+herself because of something said in a moment of passion, and such a
+suicide disgraces the husband for the rest of his life. But there are
+slow cruelties worse than words, and safer--neglect or indifference,
+for example, of a sort to arouse jealousy. A Japanese wife has indeed
+been trained never to show jealousy; but the feeling is older than all
+training--old as love, and likely to live as long. Beneath her
+passionless mask the Japanese wife feels like her Western sister--just
+like that sister who prays and prays, even while delighting some
+evening assembly of beauty and fashion, for the coming of the hour
+which will set her free to relieve her pain alone.
+
+Haru had cause for jealousy; but she was too much of a child to guess
+the cause at once; and her servants too fond of her to suggest it. Her
+husband had been accustomed to pass his evenings in her company, either
+at home or elsewhere. But now, evening after evening, he went out by
+himself. The first time he had given her some business pretexts;
+afterwards he gave none, and did not even tell her when he expected to
+return. Latterly, also, he had been treating her with silent rudeness.
+He had become changed--"as if there was a goblin in his heart"--the
+servants said. As a matter of fact he had been deftly caught in a snare
+set for him. One whisper from a geisha had numbed his will; one smile
+blinded his eyes. She was far less pretty than his wife; but she was
+very skillful in the craft of spinning webs--webs of sensual delusion
+which entangle weak men, and always tighten more and more about them
+until the final hour of mockery and ruin. Haru did not know. She
+suspected no wrong till after her husband's strange conduct had become
+habitual--and even then only because she found that his money was
+passing into unknown hands. He had never told her where he passed his
+evenings. And she was afraid to ask, lest he should think her jealous.
+Instead of exposing her feelings in words, she treated him with such
+sweetness that a more intelligent husband would have divined all. But,
+except in business, he was dull. He continued to pass his evenings
+away; and as his conscience grew feebler, his absences lengthened. Haru
+had been taught that a good wife should always sit up and wait for her
+lord's return at night; and by so doing she suffered from nervousness,
+and from the feverish conditions that follow sleeplessness, and from
+the lonesomeness of her waiting after the servants, kindly dismissed at
+the usual hour, had left her with her thoughts. Once only, returning
+very late, her husband said to her: "I am sorry you should have sat up
+so late for me; do not wait like that again!" Then, fearing he might
+really have been pained on her account, she laughed pleasantly, and
+said: "I was not sleepy, and I am not tired; honorably please not to
+think about me." So he ceased to think about her--glad to take her at
+her word; and not long after that he stayed away for one whole night.
+The next night he did likewise, and a third night. After that third
+night's absence he failed even to return for the morning meal; and Haru
+knew the time had come when her duty as a wife obliged her to speak.
+
+She waited through all the morning hours, fearing for him, fearing for
+herself also; conscious at last of the wrong by which a woman's heart
+can be most deeply wounded. Her faithful servants had told her
+something; the rest she could guess. She was very ill, and did not know
+it. She knew only that she was angry--selfishly angry, because of the
+pain given her--cruel, probing, sickening pain. Midday came as she sat
+thinking how she could say least selfishly what it was now her duty to
+say,--the first words of reproach that would ever have passed her lips.
+Then her heart leaped with a shock that made everything blur and swim
+before her sight in a whirl of dizziness--because there was a sound of
+kuruma-wheels and the voice of a servant calling: "Honorable-return-is!"
+
+She struggled to the entrance to meet him, all her slender body
+a-tremble with fever and pain, and terror of betraying that pain. And
+the man was startled, because instead of greeting him with the
+accustomed smile, she caught the bosom of his silk robe in one
+quivering little hand--and looked into his face with eyes that seemed
+to search for some shred of a soul--and tried to speak, but could utter
+only the single word, "Anata?"[10] Almost in the same moment her weak
+grasp loosened, her eyes closed with a strange smile; and even before
+he could put out his arms to support her, she fell. He sought to lift
+her. But something in the delicate life had snapped. She was dead.
+
+          [10] "Thou?"
+
+There were astonishments, of course, and tears, and useless callings of
+her name, and much running for doctors. But she lay white and still and
+beautiful, all the pain and anger gone out of her face, and smiling as
+on her bridal day.
+
+Two physicians came from the public hospital--Japanese military
+surgeons. They asked straight, hard questions--questions that cut open
+the self of the man down to the core. Then they told him truth cold and
+sharp as edged steel--and left him with his dead.
+
+
+The people wondered he did not become a priest--fair evidence that his
+conscience had been awakened. By day he sits among his bales of Kyoto
+silks and Osaka figured goods--earnest and silent. His clerks think him
+a good master; he never speaks harshly. Often he works far into the
+night; and he has changed his dwelling-place. There are strangers in
+the pretty house where Haru lived; and the owner never visits it.
+Perhaps because he might see there one slender shadow, still arranging
+flowers, or bending with iris-grace above the goldfish in his pond. But
+wherever he rest, sometime in the silent hours he must see the same
+soundless presence near his pillow--sewing, smoothing, softly seeming
+to make beautiful the robes he once put on only to betray. And at other
+times--in the busiest moments of his busy life--the clamor of the great
+shop dies; the ideographs of his ledger dim and vanish; and a plaintive
+little voice, which the gods refuse to silence, utters into the
+solitude of his heart, like a question, the single word--"Anata?"
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Kimiko and Other Japanese Sketches, by 
+Lafcadio Hearn
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41579 ***