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diff --git a/8128-h/8128-h.htm b/8128-h/8128-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..82b2551 --- /dev/null +++ b/8128-h/8128-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,6208 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" +"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of In Ghostly Japan, by Lafcadio Hearn</title> +<link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> +<style type="text/css"> + +body { margin-left: 20%; + margin-right: 20%; + text-align: justify; } + +h1, h2, h3, h4, h5 {text-align: center; font-style: normal; font-weight: +normal; line-height: 1.5; margin-top: .5em; margin-bottom: .5em;} + +h1 {font-size: 300%; + margin-top: 0.6em; + margin-bottom: 0.6em; + letter-spacing: 0.12em; + word-spacing: 0.2em; + text-indent: 0em;} +h2 {font-size: 150%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} +h3 {font-size: 130%; margin-top: 1em;} +h4 {font-size: 120%;} +h5 {font-size: 110%;} + +.no-break {page-break-before: avoid;} /* for epubs */ + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always; margin-top: 4em;} + +hr {width: 80%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} + +p {text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: 0.25em; + margin-bottom: 0.25em; } + +.p2 {margin-top: 2em;} + +p.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: 90%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +p.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +p.center {text-align: center; + text-indent: 0em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +p.footnote {font-size: 90%; + text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +sup { vertical-align: top; font-size: 0.6em; } + +div.fig { display:block; + margin:0 auto; + text-align:center; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em;} + +p.caption {font-weight: bold; + text-align: center; } + +a:link {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:visited {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:hover {color:red} + +</style> + +</head> + +<body> + +<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold;'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of In Ghostly Japan, by Lafcadio Hearn</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online +at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you +are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the +country where you are located before using this eBook. +</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: In Ghostly Japan</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Lafcadio Hearn</div> +<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0'>Release Date: June 16, 2003 [eBook #8128]<br /> +[Most recently updated: February 3, 2021]</div> +<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> +<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Liz Warren</div> +<div style='margin-top:2em;margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN GHOSTLY JAPAN ***</div> + +<div class="fig" style="width:55%;"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" style="width:100%;" alt="[Illustration]" /> +</div> + +<h1>In Ghostly Japan</h1> + +<h2 class="no-break">by Lafcadio Hearn</h2> + +<hr /> + +<h2>Contents</h2> + +<table summary="" style=""> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap01">FRAGMENT</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap02">FURISODÉ</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap03">INCENSE</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap04">A STORY OF DIVINATION</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap05">SILKWORMS</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap06">A PASSIONAL KARMA</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap07">FOOTPRINTS OF THE BUDDHA</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap08">ULULATION</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap09">BITS OF POETRY</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap10">JAPANESE BUDDHIST PROVERBS</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap11">SUGGESTION</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap12">INGWA-BANASHI</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap13">STORY OF A TENGU</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap14">AT YAIDZU</a></td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<h2>List of Illustrations</h2> + +<table summary="" style=""> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#illus01">The Mountain of Skulls</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#illus02">The Magical Incense</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#illus03">The Peony Lantern</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#illus04">The Lights of the Dead</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#illus05">S’rîpâda-tracing at Dentsu-In, Koishikawa, Tōkyō</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#illus06">Shō-Ekō-Hō-Kwan</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#illus07">Square and Triangle</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#illus08">Jizō</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#illus09">Emma Dai-ō</a></td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus01"></a> +<a href="images/fig01.jpg"> +<img src="images/fig01.jpg" width="319" height="500" alt="Illustration:" /></a> +<p class="caption">The Mountain of Skulls</p> +</div> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap01"></a>Fragment</h2> + +<p> +And it was at the hour of sunset that they came to the foot of the mountain. +There was in that place no sign of life,—neither token of water, nor +trace of plant, nor shadow of flying bird,—nothing but desolation rising +to desolation. And the summit was lost in heaven. +</p> + +<p> +Then the Bodhisattva said to his young companion:—“What you have +asked to see will be shown to you. But the place of the Vision is far; and the +way is rude. Follow after me, and do not fear: strength will be given +you.” +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +Twilight gloomed about them as they climbed. There was no beaten path, nor any +mark of former human visitation; and the way was over an endless heaping of +tumbled fragments that rolled or turned beneath the foot. Sometimes a mass +dislodged would clatter down with hollow echoings;—sometimes the +substance trodden would burst like an empty shell….Stars pointed and thrilled; +and the darkness deepened. +</p> + +<p> +“Do not fear, my son,” said the Bodhisattva, guiding: “danger +there is none, though the way be grim.” +</p> + +<p> +Under the stars they climbed,—fast, fast,—mounting by help of power +superhuman. High zones of mist they passed; and they saw below them, ever +widening as they climbed, a soundless flood of cloud, like the tide of a milky +sea. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +Hour after hour they climbed;—and forms invisible yielded to their tread +with dull soft crashings;—and faint cold fires lighted and died at every +breaking. +</p> + +<p> +And once the pilgrim-youth laid hand on a something smooth that was not +stone,—and lifted it,—and dimly saw the cheekless gibe of death. +</p> + +<p> +“Linger not thus, my son!” urged the voice of the +teacher;—“the summit that we must gain is very far away!” +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +On through the dark they climbed,—and felt continually beneath them the +soft strange breakings,—and saw the icy fires worm and die,—till +the rim of the night turned grey, and the stars began to fail, and the east +began to bloom. +</p> + +<p> +Yet still they climbed,—fast, fast,—mounting by help of power +superhuman. About them now was frigidness of death,—and silence +tremendous….A gold flame kindled in the east. +</p> + +<p> +Then first to the pilgrim’s gaze the steeps revealed their +nakedness;—and a trembling seized him,—and a ghastly fear. For +there was not any ground,—neither beneath him nor about him nor above +him,—but a heaping only, monstrous and measureless, of skulls and +fragments of skulls and dust of bone,—with a shimmer of shed teeth strown +through the drift of it, like the shimmer of scrags of shell in the wrack of a +tide. +</p> + +<p> +“Do not fear, my son!” cried the voice of the +Bodhisattva;—“only the strong of heart can win to the place of the +Vision!” +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +Behind them the world had vanished. Nothing remained but the clouds beneath, +and the sky above, and the heaping of skulls between,—up-slanting out of +sight. +</p> + +<p> +Then the sun climbed with the climbers; and there was no warmth in the light of +him, but coldness sharp as a sword. And the horror of stupendous height, and +the nightmare of stupendous depth, and the terror of silence, ever grew and +grew, and weighed upon the pilgrim, and held his feet,—so that suddenly +all power departed from him, and he moaned like a sleeper in dreams. +</p> + +<p> +“Hasten, hasten, my son!” cried the Bodhisattva: “the day is +brief, and the summit is very far away.” +</p> + +<p> +But the pilgrim shrieked,—“I fear! I fear unspeakably!—and +the power has departed from me!” +</p> + +<p> +“The power will return, my son,” made answer the Bodhisattva…. +“Look now below you and above you and about you, and tell me what you +see.” +</p> + +<p> +“I cannot,” cried the pilgrim, trembling and clinging; “I +dare not look beneath! Before me and about me there is nothing but skulls of +men.” +</p> + +<p> +“And yet, my son,” said the Bodhisattva, laughing +softly,—“and yet you do not know of what this mountain is +made.” +</p> + +<p> +The other, shuddering, repeated:—“I fear!—unutterably I + fear!…there is nothing but skulls of men!” +</p> + +<p> +“A mountain of skulls it is,” responded the Bodhisattva. “But +know, my son, that all of them ARE YOUR OWN! Each has at some time been the +nest of your dreams and delusions and desires. Not even one of them is the +skull of any other being. All,—all without exception,—have been +yours, in the billions of your former lives.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap02"></a>Furisodé</h2> + +<p> +Recently, while passing through a little street tenanted chiefly by dealers in +old wares, I noticed a <i>furisodé</i>, or long-sleeved robe, of the rich +purple tint called <i>murasaki</i>, hanging before one of the shops. It was a +robe such as might have been worn by a lady of rank in the time of the +Tokugawa. I stopped to look at the five crests upon it; and in the same moment +there came to my recollection this legend of a similar robe said to have once +caused the destruction of Yedo. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +Nearly two hundred and fifty years ago, the daughter of a rich merchant of the +city of the Shōguns, while attending some temple-festival, perceived in the +crowd a young samurai of remarkable beauty, and immediately fell in love with +him. Unhappily for her, he disappeared in the press before she could learn +through her attendants who he was or whence he had come. But his image remained +vivid in her memory,—even to the least detail of his costume. The holiday +attire then worn by samurai youths was scarcely less brilliant than that of +young girls; and the upper dress of this handsome stranger had seemed +wonderfully beautiful to the enamoured maiden. She fancied that by wearing a +robe of like quality and color, bearing the same crest, she might be able to +attract his notice on some future occasion. +</p> + +<p> +Accordingly she had such a robe made, with very long sleeves, according to the +fashion of the period; and she prized it greatly. She wore it whenever she went +out; and when at home she would suspend it in her room, and try to imagine the +form of her unknown beloved within it. Sometimes she would pass hours before +it,—dreaming and weeping by turns. And she would pray to the gods and the +Buddhas that she might win the young man’s affection,—often +repeating the invocation of the Nichiren sect: <i>Namu myō hō rengé kyō!</i> +</p> + +<p> +But she never saw the youth again; and she pined with longing for him, and +sickened, and died, and was buried. After her burial, the long-sleeved robe +that she had so much prized was given to the Buddhist temple of which her +family were parishioners. It is an old custom to thus dispose of the garments +of the dead. +</p> + +<p> +The priest was able to sell the robe at a good price; for it was a costly silk, +and bore no trace of the tears that had fallen upon it. It was bought by a girl +of about the same age as the dead lady. She wore it only one day. Then she fell +sick, and began to act strangely,—crying out that she was haunted by the +vision of a beautiful young man, and that for love of him she was going to die. +And within a little while she died; and the long-sleeved robe was a second +time presented to the temple. +</p> + +<p> +Again the priest sold it; and again it became the property of a young girl, who +wore it only once. Then she also sickened, and talked of a beautiful shadow, +and died, and was buried. And the robe was given a third time to the temple; +and the priest wondered and doubted. +</p> + +<p> +Nevertheless he ventured to sell the luckless garment once more. Once more it +was purchased by a girl and once more worn; and the wearer pined and died. And +the robe was given a fourth time to the temple. +</p> + +<p> +Then the priest felt sure that there was some evil influence at work; and he +told his acolytes to make a fire in the temple-court, and to burn the robe. +</p> + +<p> +So they made a fire, into which the robe was thrown. But as the silk began to +burn, there suddenly appeared upon it dazzling characters of flame,—the +characters of the invocation, <i>Namu myō hō rengé kyō;</i>—and these, +one by one, leaped like great sparks to the temple roof; and the temple took +fire. +</p> + +<p> +Embers from the burning temple presently dropped upon neighbouring roofs; and +the whole street was soon ablaze. Then a sea-wind, rising, blew destruction +into further streets; and the conflagration spread from street to street, and +from district into district, till nearly the whole of the city was consumed. +And this calamity, which occurred upon the eighteenth day of the first month of +the first year of Meiréki (1655), is still remembered in Tōkyō as the +<i>Furisodé-Kwaji</i>,—the Great Fire of the Long-sleeved Robe. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +According to a story-book called <i>Kibun-Daijin</i>, the name of the girl who caused +the robe to be made was O-Samé; and she was the daughter of Hikoyemon, a +wine-merchant of Hyakushō-machi, in the district of Azabu. Because of her +beauty she was also called Azabu-Komachi, or the Komachi of Azabu.<a href="#fn-2.1" name="fnref-2.1" id="fnref-2.1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> +The same book says that the temple of the tradition was a Nichiren temple +called Hon-myoji, in the district of Hongo; and that the crest upon the robe +was a <i>kikyō</i>-flower. But there are many different versions of the story; +and I distrust the <i>Kibun-Daijin</i> because it asserts that the beautiful +samurai was not really a man, but a transformed dragon, or water-serpent, that +used to inhabit the lake at Uyéno,—<i>Shinobazu-no-Iké</i>. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-2.1" id="fn-2.1"></a> <a href="#fnref-2.1">[1]</a> +After more than a thousand years, the name of Komachi, or Ono-no-Komachi, is +still celebrated in Japan. She was the most beautiful woman of her time, and so +great a poet that she could move heaven by her verses, and cause rain to fall +in time of drought. Many men loved her in vain; and many are said to have died +for love of her. But misfortunes visited her when her youth had passed; and, +after having been reduced to the uttermost want, she became a beggar, and died +at last upon the public highway, near Kyōto. As it was thought shameful to bury +her in the foul rags found upon her, some poor person gave a wornout +summer-robe (<i>katabira</i>) to wrap her body in; and she was interred near +Arashiyama at a spot still pointed out to travellers as the “Place of the +Katabira” (<i>Katabira-no-Tsuchi</i>). +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap03"></a>Incense</h2> + +<h3>I</h3> + +<p> +I see, rising out of darkness, a lotos in a vase. Most of the vase is +invisible, but I know that it is of bronze, and that its glimpsing handles are +bodies of dragons. Only the lotos is fully illuminated: three pure white +flowers, and five great leaves of gold and green,—gold above, green on +the upcurling under-surface,—an artificial lotos. It is bathed by a +slanting stream of sunshine,—the darkness beneath and beyond is the dusk +of a temple-chamber. I do not see the opening through which the radiance pours, +but I am aware that it is a small window shaped in the outline-form of a +temple-bell. +</p> + +<p> +The reason that I see the lotos—one memory of my first visit to a +Buddhist sanctuary—is that there has come to me an odor of incense. Often +when I smell incense, this vision defines; and usually thereafter other +sensations of my first day in Japan revive in swift succession with almost +painful acuteness. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +It is almost ubiquitous,—this perfume of incense. It makes one element of +the faint but complex and never-to-be-forgotten odor of the Far East. It haunts +the dwelling-house not less than the temple,—the home of the peasant not +less than the yashiki of the prince. Shintō shrines, indeed, are free from +it;—incense being an abomination to the elder gods. But wherever Buddhism +lives there is incense. In every house containing a Buddhist shrine or Buddhist +tablets, incense is burned at certain times; and in even the rudest country +solitudes you will find incense smouldering before wayside images,—little +stone figures of Fudō, Jizō, or Kwannon. Many experiences of +travel,—strange impressions of sound as well as of sight,—remain +associated in my own memory with that fragrance:—vast silent shadowed +avenues leading to weird old shrines;—mossed flights of worn steps +ascending to temples that moulder above the clouds;—joyous tumult of +festival nights;—sheeted funeral-trains gliding by in glimmer of +lanterns; murmur of household prayer in fishermen’s huts on far wild +coasts;—and visions of desolate little graves marked only by threads of +blue smoke ascending,—graves of pet animals or birds remembered by simple +hearts in the hour of prayer to Amida, the Lord of Immeasurable Light. +</p> + +<p> +But the odor of which I speak is that of cheap incense only,—the incense +in general use. There are many other kinds of incense; and the range of quality +is amazing. A bundle of common incense-rods—(they are about as thick as +an ordinary pencil-lead, and somewhat longer)—can be bought for a few +sen; while a bundle of better quality, presenting to inexperienced eyes only +some difference in color, may cost several yen, and be cheap at the price. +Still costlier sorts of incense,—veritable luxuries,—take the form +of lozenges, wafers, pastilles; and a small envelope of such material may be +worth four or five pounds-sterling. But the commercial and industrial +questions relating to Japanese incense represent the least interesting part of +a remarkably curious subject. +</p> + +<h3>II</h3> + +<p> +Curious indeed, but enormous by reason of it infinity of tradition and detail. +I am afraid even to think of the size of the volume that would be needed to +cover it…. Such a work would properly begin with some brief account of the +earliest knowledge and use of aromatics in Japan. I would next treat of the +records and legends of the first introduction of Buddhist incense from +Korea,—when King Shōmyō of Kudara, in 551 A. D., sent to the +island-empire a collection of sutras, an image of the Buddha, and one complete +set of furniture for a temple. Then something would have to be said about those +classifications of incense which were made during the tenth century, in the +periods of Engi and of Tenryaku,—and about the report of the ancient +state-councillor, Kimitaka-Sangi, who visited China in the latter part of the +thirteenth century, and transmitted to the Emperor Yomei the wisdom of the +Chinese concerning incense. Then mention should be made of the ancient incenses +still preserved in various Japanese temples, and of the famous fragments of +<i>ranjatai</i> (publicly exhibited at Nara in the tenth year of Meiji) which +furnished supplies to the three great captains, Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, and +Iyeyasu. After this should follow an outline of the history of mixed incenses +made in Japan,—with notes on the classifications devised by the luxurious +Takauji, and on the nomenclature established later by Ashikaga Yoshimasa, who +collected one hundred and thirty varieties of incense, and invented for the +more precious of them names recognized even to this day,—such as +“Blossom-Showering,” “Smoke-of-Fuji,” and +“Flower-of-the-Pure-Law.” Examples ought to be given likewise of +traditions attaching to historical incenses preserved in several princely +families, together with specimens of those hereditary recipes for +incense-making which have been transmitted from generation to generation +through hundreds of years, and are still called after their august +inventors,—as “the Method of Hina-Dainagon,” “the +Method of Sentō-In,” etc. Recipes also should be given of those strange +incenses made “<i>to imitate the perfume of the lotos, the smell of the +summer breeze, and the odor of the autumn wind</i>.” Some legends of the +great period of incense-luxury should be cited,—such as the story of Sué +Owari-no-Kami, who built for himself a palace of incense-woods, and set fire to +it on the night of his revolt, when the smoke of its burning perfumed the land +to a distance of twelve miles…. Of course the mere compilation of materials for +a history of mixed-incenses would entail the study of a host of documents, +treatises, and books,—particularly of such strange works as the +<i>Kun-Shū-Rui-Shō</i>, or “Incense-Collector’s +Classifying-Manual”;—containing the teachings of the Ten Schools of +the Art of Mixing Incense; directions as to the best seasons for +incense-making; and instructions about the “<i>different kinds of +fire</i>” to be used for burning incense—(one kind is called +“literary fire,” and another “military fire”); together +with rules for pressing the ashes of a censer into various artistic designs +corresponding to season and occasion…. A special chapter should certainly be +given to the incense-bags (<i>kusadama</i>) hung up in houses to drive away +goblins,—and to the smaller incense-bags formerly carried about the +person as a protection against evil spirits. Then a very large part of the work +would have to be devoted to the religious uses and legends of incense,—a +huge subject in itself. There would also have to be considered the curious +history of the old “incense-assemblies,” whose elaborate ceremonial +could be explained only by help of numerous diagrams. One chapter at least +would be required for the subject of the ancient importation of +incense-materials from India, China, Annam, Siam, Cambodia, Ceylon, Sumatra, +Java, Borneo, and various islands of the Malay archipelago,—places all +named in rare books about incense. And a final chapter should treat of the +romantic literature of incense,—the poems, stories, and dramas in which +incense-rites are mentioned; and especially those love-songs comparing the body +to incense, and passion to the eating flame:— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +Even as burns the perfume lending thy robe its fragance,<br /> +Smoulders my life away, consumed by the pain of longing! +</p> + +<p> +….The merest outline of the subject is terrifying! I shall attempt nothing more +than a few notes about the religious, the luxurious, and the ghostly uses of +incense. +</p> + +<h3>III</h3> + +<p> +The common incense everywhere burned by poor people before Buddhist icons is +called <i>an-soku-kō</i>. This is very cheap. Great quantities of it are burned +by pilgrims in the bronze censers set before the entrances of famous temples; +and in front of roadside images you may often see bundles of it. These are for +the use of pious wayfarers, who pause before every Buddhist image on their path +to repeat a brief prayer and, when possible, to set a few rods smouldering at +the feet of the statue. But in rich temples, and during great religious +ceremonies, much more expensive incense is used. Altogether three classes of +perfumes are employed in Buddhist rites: <i>kō</i>, or incense-proper, in many +varieties—(the word literally means only “fragrant +substance”);—<i>dzukō</i>, an odorous ointment; and <i>makkō</i>, a +fragrant powder. <i>Kō</i> is burned; <i>dzukō</i> is rubbed upon the hands of +the priest as an ointment of purification; and <i>makkō</i> is sprinkled about +the sanctuary. This <i>makkō</i> is said to be identical with the +sandalwood-powder so frequently mentioned in Buddhist texts. But it is only the +true incense which can be said to bear an important relation to the religious +service. +</p> + +<p> +“Incense,” declares the <i>Soshi-Ryaku</i>,<a href="#fn-3.1" name="fnref-3.1" id="fnref-3.1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> +“is the Messenger of Earnest Desire. When the rich Sudatta wished to +invite the Buddha to a repast, he made use of incense. He was wont to ascend to +the roof of his house on the eve of the day of the entertainment, and to remain +standing there all night, holding a censer of precious incense. And as often as +he did thus, the Buddha never failed to come on the following day at the exact +time desired.” +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-3.1" id="fn-3.1"></a> <a href="#fnref-3.1">[1]</a> +“Short [or Epitomized] History of Priests.” +</p> + +<p> +This text plainly implies that incense, as a burnt-offering, symbolizes the +pious desires of the faithful. But it symbolizes other things also; and it has +furnished many remarkable similes to Buddhist literature. Some of these, and +not the least interesting, occur in prayers, of which the following, from the +book called <i>Hōji-san</i><a href="#fn-3.2" name="fnref-3.2" id="fnref-3.2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> +is a striking example:— +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-3.2" id="fn-3.2"></a> <a href="#fnref-3.2">[2]</a> +“The Praise of Pious Observances.” +</p> + +<p> +—“<i>Let my body remain pure like a censer!—let my thought be +ever as a fire of wisdom, purely consuming the incense of sîla and of +dhyâna,</i><a href="#fn-3.3" name="fnref-3.3" id="fnref-3.3"><sup>[3]</sup></a> +<i>that so may I do homage to all the Buddhas in the Ten Directions of the +Past, the Present, and the Future!</i>” +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-3.3" id="fn-3.3"></a> <a href="#fnref-3.3">[3]</a> +By <i>sîla</i> is meant the observance of the rules of purity in act and +thought. <i>Dhyâna</i> (called by Japanese Buddhists <i>Zenjō</i>) is one of +the higher forms of meditation. +</p> + +<p> +Sometimes in Buddhist sermons the destruction of Karma by virtuous effort is +likened to the burning of incense by a pure flame,—sometimes, again, the +life of man is compared to the smoke of incense. In his “Hundred Writings +“(<i>Hyaku-tsū-kiri-kami</i>), the Shinshū priest Myōden says, quoting +from the Buddhist work <i>Kujikkajō</i>, or “Ninety Articles +“:— +</p> + +<p> +“In the burning of incense we see that so long as any incense remains, so +long does the burning continue, and the smoke mount skyward. Now the breath of +this body of ours,—this impermanent combination of Earth, Water, Air, and +Fire,—is like that smoke. And the changing of the incense into cold ashes +when the flame expires is an emblem of the changing of our bodies into ashes +when our funeral pyres have burnt themselves out.” +</p> + +<p> +He also tells us about that Incense-Paradise of which every believer ought to +be reminded by the perfume of earthly incense:—“In the +Thirty-Second Vow for the Attainment of the Paradise of Wondrous +Incense,” he says, “it is written: ‘<i>That Paradise is +formed of hundreds of thousands of different kinds of incense, and of +substances incalculably precious;—the beauty of it incomparably exceeds +anything in the heavens or in the sphere of man;—the fragrance of it +perfumes all the worlds of the Ten Directions of Space; and all who perceive +that odor practise Buddha-deeds.</i>’ In ancient times there were men of +superior wisdom and virtue who, by reason of their vow, obtained perception of +the odor; but we, who are born with inferior wisdom and virtue in these later +days, cannot obtain such perception. Nevertheless it will be well for us, when +we smell the incense kindled before the image of Amida, to imagine that its +odor is the wonderful fragrance of Paradise, and to repeat the <i>Nembutsu</i> +in gratitude for the mercy of the Buddha.” +</p> + +<h3>IV</h3> + +<p> +But the use of incense in Japan is not confined to religious rites and +ceremonies: indeed the costlier kinds of incense are manufactured chiefly for +social entertainments. Incense-burning has been an amusement of the aristocracy +ever since the thirteenth century. Probably you have heard of the Japanese +tea-ceremonies, and their curious Buddhist history; and I suppose that every +foreign collector of Japanese <i>bric-à-brac</i> knows something about the +luxury to which these ceremonies at one period attained,—a luxury well +attested by the quality of the beautiful utensils formerly employed in them. +But there were, and still are, incense-ceremonies much more elaborate and +costly than the tea-ceremonies,—and also much more interesting. Besides +music, embroidery, poetical composition and other branches of the old-fashioned +female education, the young lady of pre-Meiji days was expected to acquire +three especially polite accomplishments,—the art of arranging flowers, +(<i>ikébana</i>), the art of ceremonial tea-making (<i>cha-no-yu</i> or +<i>cha-no-e</i>),<a href="#fn-3.4" name="fnref-3.4" id="fnref-3.4"><sup>[4]</sup></a> +and the etiquette of incense-parties (<i>kō-kwai</i> or <i>kō-é</i>). +Incense-parties were invented before the time of the Ashikaga shōguns, and were +most in vogue during the peaceful period of the Tokugawa rule. With the fall of +the shōgunate they went out of fashion; but recently they have been to some +extent revived. It is not likely, however, that they will again become really +fashionable in the old sense,—partly because they represented rare forms +of social refinement that never can be revived, and partly because of their +costliness. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-3.4" id="fn-3.4"></a> <a href="#fnref-3.4">[4]</a> +Girls are still trained in the art of arranging flowers, and in the etiquette +of the dainty, though somewhat tedious, <i>cha-no-yu</i>. Buddhist priests have +long enjoyed a reputation as teachers of the latter. When the pupil has reached +a certain degree of proficiency, she is given a diploma or certificate. The tea +used in these ceremonies is a powdered tea of remarkable fragrance,—the +best qualities of which fetch very high prices. +</p> + +<p> +In translating <i>kō-kwai</i> as “incense-party,” I use the word +“party” in the meaning that it takes in such compounds as +“card-party,” “whist-party,” +“chess-party”;—for a <i>kō-kwai</i> is a meeting held only +with the object of playing a game,—a very curious game. There are several +kinds of incense-games; but in all of them the contest depends upon the ability +to remember and to name different kinds of incense by the perfume alone. That +variety of <i>kō-kwai</i> called <i>Jitchū-kō</i> +(“ten-burning-incense”) is generally conceded to be the most +amusing; and I shall try to tell you how it is played. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +The numeral “ten,” in the Japanese, or rather Chinese name of this +diversion, does not refer to ten kinds, but only to ten packages of incense; +for <i>Jitchū-kō</i>, besides being the most amusing, is the very simplest of +incense-games, and is played with only four kinds of incense. One kind must be +supplied by the guests invited to the party; and three are furnished by the +person who gives the entertainment. Each of the latter three supplies of +incense—usually prepared in packages containing one hundred wafers is +divided into four parts; and each part is put into a separate paper numbered or +marked so as to indicate the quality. Thus four packages are prepared of the +incense classed as No. 1, four of incense No. 2, and four of incense No. +3,—or twelve in all. But the incense given by the guests,—always +called “guest-incense”—is not divided: it is only put into a +wrapper marked with an abbreviation of the Chinese character signifying +“guest.” Accordingly we have a total of thirteen packages to start +with; but three are to be used in the preliminary sampling, or +“experimenting”—as the Japanese term it,—after the +following manner. +</p> + +<p> +We shall suppose the game to be arranged for a party of six,—though there +is no rule limiting the number of players. The six take their places in line, +or in a half-circle—if the room be small; but they do not sit close +together, for reasons which will presently appear. Then the host, or the person +appointed to act as incense-burner, prepares a package of the incense classed +as No 1, kindles it in a censer, and passes the censer to the guest occupying +the first seat,<a href="#fn-3.5" name="fnref-3.5" id="fnref-3.5"><sup>[5]</sup></a> +with the announcement—“This is incense No 1” The guest +receives the censer according to the graceful etiquette required in the +<i>kō-kwai</i>, inhales the perfume, and passes on the vessel to his neighbor, +who receives it in like manner and passes it to the third guest, who presents +it to the fourth,—and so on. When the censer has gone the round of the +party, it is returned to the incense-burner. One package of incense No. 2, and +one of No. 3, are similarly prepared, announced, and tested. But with the +“guest-incense” no experiment is made. The player should be able to +remember the different odors of the incenses tested; and he is expected to +identify the guest-incense at the proper time merely by the unfamiliar quality +of its fragrance. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-3.5" id="fn-3.5"></a> <a href="#fnref-3.5">[5]</a> +The places occupied by guests in a Japanese <i>zashiki</i>, or reception room +are numbered from the alcove of the apartment. The place of the most honored is +immediately before the alcove: this is the first seat, and the rest are +numbered from it, usually to the left. +</p> + +<p> +The original thirteen packages having thus by “experimenting” been +reduced to ten, each player is given one set of ten small tablets—usually +of gold-lacquer,—every set being differently ornamented. The backs only +of these tablets are decorated; and the decoration is nearly always a floral +design of some sort:—thus one set might be decorated with chrysanthemums +in gold, another with tufts of iris-plants, another with a spray of +plum-blossoms, etc. But the faces of the tablets bear numbers or marks; and +each set comprises three tablets numbered “1,” three numbered +“2,” three numbered “3,” and one marked with the +character signifying “guest.” After these tablet-sets have been +distributed, a box called the “tablet-box” is placed before the +first player; and all is ready for the real game. +</p> + +<p> +The incense-burner retires behind a little screen, shuffles the flat packages +like so many cards, takes the uppermost, prepares its contents in the censer, +and then, returning to the party, sends the censer upon its round. This time, +of course, he does not announce what kind of incense he has used. As the censer +passes from hand to hand, each player, after inhaling the fume, puts into the +tablet-box one tablet bearing that mark or number which he supposes to be the +mark or number of the incense he has smelled. If, for example, he thinks the +incense to be “guest-incense,” he drops into the box that one of +his tablets marked with the ideograph meaning “guest;” or if he +believes that he has inhaled the perfume of No. 2, he puts into the box a +tablet numbered “2.” When the round is over, tablet-box and censer +are both returned to the incense-burner. He takes the six tablets out of the +box, and wraps them up in the paper which contained the incense guessed about. +The tablets themselves keep the personal as well as the general +record,—since each player remembers the particular design upon his own +set. +</p> + +<p> +The remaining nine packages of incense are consumed and judged in the same way, +according to the chance order in which the shuffling has placed them. When all +the incense has been used, the tablets are taken out of their wrappings, the +record is officially put into writing, and the victor of the day is announced. +I here offer the translation of such a record: it will serve to explain, almost +at a glance, all the complications of the game. +</p> + +<p> +According to this record the player who used the tablets decorated with the +design called “Young Pine,” made but two mistakes; while the holder +of the “White-Lily” set made only one correct guess. But it is +quite a feat to make ten correct judgments in succession. The olfactory nerves +are apt to become somewhat numbed long before the game is concluded; and, +therefore it is customary during the <i>Kō-kwai</i> to rinse the mouth at +intervals with pure vinegar, by which operation the sensitivity is partially +restored. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +RECORD OF A KŌ-KWAI. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +Order in which the ten packages of incense were used:— +</p> + +<p class="center"> +1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10<br /> +No. No. — No. No. No. No. No. No. No.<br /> +III I “GUEST” II I III II I III II +</p> + +<p> +Names given to the six sets of tablets used, according to decorative designs on +the back:<br /> +“Gold Chrysanthemum” 1 3 1 2* Guest 1 2* 2 3* 3 3<br /> +“Young Bamboo” 3* 1* 1 2* 1* Guest 3 2 1 3 + 4<br /> +“Red Peony” Guest 1* 2 2* 3 1 3 2 3* 1 + 3<br /> +“White Lily” 1 3 1 3 2 2 1 3 Guest 2* + 1<br /> +“Young Pine” 3* 1* Guest* 3 1* 2 2* 1* 3* 2* + 8 (Winner)<br /> +“Cherry-Blossom-in-a-Mist” 1 3 Guest* 2* 1* 3* 1 + 2 3* 2* 6 +</p> + +<p> +Guesses recorded by numbers on the tablet; correct being marked * +</p> + +<p> +No. of correct guesses +</p> + +<p class="center"> +NAMES OF INCENSE USED. +</p> + +<p> +I. “Tasogare” (“Who-Is-there?” I. e. +“Evening-Dusk”).<br /> +II. “Baikwa” (“Plum Flower”).<br /> +III. “Wakakusa” (“Young Grass”).<br /> +IV. (“Guest Incense”) “Yamaji-no-Tsuyu” +(“Dew-on-the-Mountain-Path”). +</p> + +<p> +To the Japanese original of the foregoing record were appended the names of the +players, the date of the entertainment, and the name of the place where the +party was held. It is the custom In some families to enter all such records in +a book especially made for the purpose, and furnished with an index which +enables the <i>Kō-kwai</i> player to refer immediately to any interesting fact +belonging to the history of any past game. +</p> + +<p> +The reader will have noticed that the four kinds of incense used were +designated by very pretty names. The incense first mentioned, for example, is +called by the poets’ name for the gloaming,—<i>Tasogaré</i> (lit: +“Who is there?” or “ Who is it?”)—a word which in +this relation hints of the toilet-perfume that reveals some charming presence +to the lover waiting in the dusk. Perhaps some curiosity will be felt regarding +the composition of these incenses. I can give the Japanese recipes for two +sorts; but I have not been able to identify all of the materials named:— +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<i>Recipe for Yamaji-no-Tsuyu.</i> +</p> + +<pre> + Ingredients Proportions.<br /> + about +Jinkō (aloes-wood) 4 <i>mommé</i> (½ oz.) +Cōoji (cloves) 4 ” ” +Kunroku (olibanum) 4 ” ” +Hakkō (artemisia Schmidtiana) 4 ” ” +Jakō (musk) 1 <i>bu</i> (⅛ oz.) +Kōkō(?) 4 <i>mommé</i> (½ oz.) +</pre> + +<p> +<i>To 21 pastilles</i> +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<i>Recipe for Baikwa.</i> +</p> + +<pre> + Ingredients Proportions.<br /> + about +Jinkō (aloes) 20 <i>mommé</i> (2 1/2 oz.) +Chōji (cloves) 12 “ (1 1/2 oz.) +Kōkō(?) 8 1/3 “ (1 1/40 oz.) +Byakudan (sandal-wood) 4 “ (1/2 oz.) +Kanshō (spikenard) 2 <i>bu</i> (1/4 oz.) +Kwakkō (Bishop’s-wort?) 1 <i>bu</i> 2 <i>shu</i> (3/16 oz.) +Kunroku (olibanum) 3 ” 3 ” (15/22 oz.) +Shōmokkō (?) 2 ” (1/4 oz.) +Jakō (musk) 3 ” 2 <i>shu</i> (7/16 oz.) +Ryūnō (refined Borneo Camphor) 3 <i>shu</i> (3/8 oz.) +</pre> + +<p> +<i>To 50 pastilles</i> +</p> + +<p> +The incense used at a <i>Kō-kwai</i> ranges in value, according to the style of +the entertainment, from $2.50 to $30.00 per envelope of 100 wafers—wafers +usually not more than one-fourth of an inch in diameter. Sometimes an incense +is used worth even more than $30.00 per envelope: this contains +<i>ranjatai</i>, an aromatic of which the perfume is compared to that of +“musk mingled with orchid-flowers.” But there is some +incense,—never sold,—which is much more precious than +<i>ranjatai</i>,—incense valued less for its composition than for its +history: I mean the incense brought centuries ago from China or from India by +the Buddhist missionaries, and presented to princes or to other persons of high +rank. Several ancient Japanese temples also include such foreign incense among +their treasures. And very rarely a little of this priceless material is +contributed to an incense-party,—much as in Europe, on very extraordinary +occasions, some banquet is glorified by the production of a wine several +hundred years old. +</p> + +<p> +Like the tea-ceremonies, the <i>Kō-kwai</i> exact observance of a very complex +and ancient etiquette. But this subject could interest few readers; and I shall +only mention some of the rules regarding preparations and precautions. First of +all, it is required that the person invited to an incense-party shall attend +the same in as <i>odorless</i> a condition as possible: a lady, for instance, +must not use hair-oil, or put on any dress that has been kept in a perfumed +chest-of-drawers. Furthermore, the guest should prepare for the contest by +taking a prolonged hot bath, and should eat only the lightest and least odorous +kind of food before going to the rendezvous. It is forbidden to leave the room +during the game, or to open any door or window, or to indulge in needless +conversation. Finally I may observe that, while judging the incense, a player +is expected to take not less than three inhalations, or more than five. +</p> + +<p> +In this economical era, the <i>Kō-kwai</i> takes of necessity a much humbler +form than it assumed in the time of the great daimyō, of the princely abbots, +and of the military aristocracy. A full set of the utensils required for the +game can now be had for about $50.00; but the materials are of the poorest +kind. The old-fashioned sets were fantastically expensive. Some were worth +thousands of dollars. The incense-burner’s desk,—the writing-box, +paper-box, tablet-box, etc.,—the various stands or <i>dai</i>,—were +of the costliest gold-lacquer;—the pincers and other instruments were of +gold, curiously worked;—and the censer—whether of precious metal, +bronze, or porcelain,—was always a <i>chef-d’œuvre</i>, designed by +some artist of renown. +</p> + +<h3>V</h3> + +<p> +Although the original signification of incense in Buddhist ceremonies was +chiefly symbolical, there is good reason to suppose that various beliefs older +than Buddhism,—some, perhaps, peculiar to the race; others probably of +Chinese or Korean derivation,—began at an early period to influence the +popular use of incense in Japan. Incense is still burned in the presence of a +corpse with the idea that its fragrance shields both corpse and newly-parted +soul from malevolent demons; and by the peasants it is often burned also to +drive away goblins and the evil powers presiding over diseases. But formerly it +was used to summon spirits as well as to banish them. Allusions to its +employment in various weird rites may be found in some of the old dramas and +romances. One particular sort of incense, imported from China, was said to have +the power of calling up human spirits. This was the wizard-incense referred to +in such ancient love-songs as the following:— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“I have heard of the magical incense that summons the souls of the +absent:<br /> +Would I had some to burn, in the nights when I wait alone!” +</p> + +<p> +There is an interesting mention of this incense in the Chinese book, +<i>Shang-hai-king</i>. It was called <i>Fwan-hwan-hiang</i> (by Japanese +pronunciation, <i>Hangon-kō</i>), or “Spirit-Recalling-Incense;” +and it was made in Tso-Chau, or the District of the Ancestors, situated by the +Eastern Sea. To summon the ghost of any dead person—or even that of a +living person, according to some authorities,—it was only necessary to +kindle some of the incense, and to pronounce certain words, while keeping the +mind fixed upon the memory of that person. Then, in the smoke of the incense, +the remembered face and form would appear. +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus02"></a> +<a href="images/fig02.jpg"> +<img src="images/fig02.jpg" width="311" height="500" alt="Illustration:" /></a> +<p class="caption">The Magical Incense</p> +</div> + +<p> +In many old Japanese and Chinese books mention is made of a famous story about +this incense,—a story of the Chinese Emperor Wu, of the Han dynasty. When +the Emperor had lost his beautiful favorite, the Lady Li, he sorrowed so much +that fears were entertained for his reason. But all efforts made to divert his +mind from the thought of her proved unavailing. One day he ordered some +Spirit-Recalling-Incense to be procured, that he might summon her from the +dead. His counsellors prayed him to forego his purpose, declaring that the +vision could only intensify his grief. But he gave no heed to their advice, and +himself performed the rite,—kindling the incense, and keeping his mind +fixed upon the memory of the Lady Li. Presently, within the thick blue smoke +arising from the incense, the outline, of a feminine form became visible. It +defined, took tints of life, slowly became luminous, and the Emperor recognized +the form of his beloved At first the apparition was faint; but it soon became +distinct as a living person, and seemed with each moment to grow more +beautiful. The Emperor whispered to the vision, but received no answer. He +called aloud, and the presence made no sign. Then unable to control himself, he +approached the censer. But the instant that he touched the smoke, the phantom +trembled and vanished. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +Japanese artists are still occasionally inspired by the legends of the +Hangon-ho. Only last year, in Tōkyō, at an exhibition of new kakemono, I saw a +picture of a young wife kneeling before an alcove wherein the smoke of the +magical incense was shaping the shadow of the absent +husband.<a href="#fn-3.6" name="fnref-3.6" id="fnref-3.6"><sup>[6]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-3.6" id="fn-3.6"></a> <a href="#fnref-3.6">[6]</a> +Among the curious Tōkyō inventions of 1898 was a new variety of cigarettes +called <i>Hangon-sō</i>, or “Herb of Hangon,”—a name +suggesting that their smoke operated like the spirit-summoning incense. As a +matter of fact, the chemical action of the tobacco-smoke would define, upon a +paper fitted into the mouth-piece of each cigarette, the photographic image of +a dancing-girl. +</p> + +<p> +Although the power of making visible the forms of the dead has been claimed for +one sort of incense only, the burning of any kind of incense is supposed to +summon viewless spirits in multitude. These come to devour the smoke. They are +called <i>Jiki-kō-ki</i>, or “incense-eating goblins;” and they +belong to the fourteenth of the thirty-six classes of Gaki (<i>prêtas</i>) +recognized by Japanese Buddhism. They are the ghosts of men who anciently, for +the sake of gain, made or sold bad incense; and by the evil karma of that +action they now find themselves in the state of hunger-suffering spirits, and +compelled to seek their only food in the smoke of incense. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap04"></a>A Story of Divination</h2> + +<p> +I once knew a fortune-teller who really believed in the science that he +professed. He had learned, as a student of the old Chinese philosophy, to +believe in divination long before he thought of practising it. During his youth +he had been in the service of a wealthy daimyō, but subsequently, like +thousands of other samurai, found himself reduced to desperate straits by the +social and political changes of Meiji. It was then that he became a +fortune-teller,—an itinerant <i>uranaiya</i>,—travelling on foot +from town to town, and returning to his home rarely more than once a year with +the proceeds of his journey. As a fortune-teller he was tolerably +successful,—chiefly, I think, because of his perfect sincerity, and +because of a peculiar gentle manner that invited confidence. His system was the +old scholarly one: he used the book known to English readers as the +<i>Yî-King</i>,—also a set of ebony blocks which could be so arranged as +to form any of the Chinese hexagrams;—and he always began his divination +with an earnest prayer to the gods. +</p> + +<p> +The system itself he held to be infallible in the hands of a master. He +confessed that he had made some erroneous predictions; but he said that these +mistakes had been entirely due to his own miscomprehension of certain texts or +diagrams. To do him justice I must mention that in my own case—(he told +my fortune four times),—his predictions were fulfilled in such wise that +I became afraid of them. You may disbelieve in +fortune-telling,—intellectually scorn it; but something of inherited +superstitious tendency lurks within most of us; and a few strange experiences +can so appeal to that inheritance as to induce the most unreasoning hope or +fear of the good or bad luck promised you by some diviner. Really to see our +future would be a misery. Imagine the result of knowing that there must happen +to you, within the next two months, some terrible misfortune which you cannot +possibly provide against! +</p> + +<p> +He was already an old man when I first saw him in Izumo,—certainly more +than sixty years of age, but looking very much younger. Afterwards I met him in +Ōsaka, in Kyōto, and in Kobé. More than once I tried to persuade him to pass +the colder months of the winter-season under my roof,—for he possessed an +extraordinary knowledge of traditions, and could have been of inestimable +service to me in a literary way. But partly because the habit of wandering had +become with him a second nature, and partly because of a love of independence +as savage as a gipsy’s, I was never able to keep him with me for more +than two days at a time. +</p> + +<p> +Every year he used to come to Tōkyō,—usually in the latter part of +autumn. Then, for several weeks, he would flit about the city, from district to +district, and vanish again. But during these fugitive trips he never failed to +visit me; bringing welcome news of Izumo people and places,—bringing also +some queer little present, generally of a religious kind, from some famous +place of pilgrimage. On these occasions I could get a few hours’ chat +with him. Sometimes the talk was of strange things seen or heard during his +recent journey; sometimes it turned upon old legends or beliefs; sometimes it +was about fortune-telling. The last time we met he told me of an exact Chinese +science of divination which he regretted never having been able to learn. +</p> + +<p> +“Any one learned in that science,” he said, “would be able, +for example, not only to tell you the exact time at which any post or beam of +this house will yield to decay, but even to tell you the direction of the +breaking, and all its results. I can best explain what I mean by relating a +story. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +“The story is about the famous Chinese fortune-teller whom we call in +Japan Shōko Setsu, and it is written in the book <i>Baikwa-Shin-Eki</i>, which +is a book of divination. While still a very young man, Shōko Setsu obtained a +high position by reason of his learning and virtue; but he resigned it and went +into solitude that he might give his whole time to study. For years thereafter +he lived alone in a hut among the mountains; studying without a fire in winter, +and without a fan in summer; writing his thoughts upon the wall of his +room—for lack of paper;—and using only a tile for his pillow. +</p> + +<p> +“One day, in the period of greatest summer heat, he found himself +overcome by drowsiness; and he lay down to rest, with his tile under his head. +Scarcely had he fallen asleep when a rat ran across his face and woke him with +a start. Feeling angry, he seized his tile and flung it at the rat; but the rat +escaped unhurt, and the tile was broken. Shōko Setsu looked sorrowfully at the +fragments of his pillow, and reproached himself for his hastiness. Then +suddenly he perceived, upon the freshly exposed clay of the broken tile, some +Chinese characters—between the upper and lower surfaces. Thinking this +very strange, he picked up the pieces, and carefully examined them. He found +that along the line of fracture seventeen characters had been written within +the clay before the tile had been baked; and the characters read thus: +‘<i>In the Year of the Hare, in the fourth month, on the seventeenth day, +at the Hour of the Serpent, this tile, after serving as a pillow, will be +thrown at a rat and broken.</i>’ Now the prediction had really been +fulfilled at the Hour of the Serpent on the seventeenth day of the fourth month +of the Year of the Hare. Greatly astonished, Shōko Setsu once again looked at +the fragments, and discovered the seal and the name of the maker. At once he +left his hut, and, taking with him the pieces of the tile, hurried to the +neighboring town in search of the tilemaker. He found the tilemaker in the +course of the day, showed him the broken tile, and asked him about its history. +</p> + +<p> +“After having carefully examined the shards, the tilemaker said: +—‘This tile was made in my house; but the characters in the clay +were written by an old man—a fortune-teller,—who asked permission +to write upon the tile before it was baked.’ ‘Do you know where he +lives?’ asked Shōko Setsu. ‘He used to live,’ the tilemaker +answered, ‘not very far from here; and I can show you the way to the +house. But I do not know his name.’ +</p> + +<p> +“Having been guided to the house, Shōko Setsu presented himself at the +entrance, and asked for permission to speak to the old man. A serving-student +courteously invited him to enter, and ushered him into an apartment where +several young men were at study. As Shōko Setsu took his seat, all the youths +saluted him. Then the one who had first addressed him bowed and said: ‘We +are grieved to inform you that our master died a few days ago. But we have been +waiting for you, because he predicted that you would come to-day to this house, +at this very hour. Your name is Shōko Setsu. And our master told us to give you +a book which he believed would be of service to you. Here is the +book;—please to accept it.’ +</p> + +<p> +“Shōko Setsu was not less delighted than surprised; for the book was a +manuscript of the rarest and most precious kind,—containing all the +secrets of the science of divination. After having thanked the young men, and +properly expressed his regret for the death of their teacher, he went back to +his hut, and there immediately proceeded to test the worth of the book by +consulting its pages in regard to his own fortune. The book suggested to him +that on the south side of his dwelling, at a particular spot near one corner of +the hut, great luck awaited him. He dug at the place indicated, and found a jar +containing gold enough to make him a very wealthy man.” +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p> +My old acquaintance left this world as lonesomely as he had lived in it. Last +winter, while crossing a mountain-range, he was overtaken by a snowstorm, and +lost his way. Many days later he was found standing erect at the foot of a +pine, with his little pack strapped to his shoulders: a statue of +ice—arms folded and eyes closed as in meditation. Probably, while waiting +for the storm to pass, he had yielded to the drowsiness of cold, and the drift +had risen over him as he slept. Hearing of this strange death I remembered the +old Japanese saying,—<i>Uranaiya minouyé shiradzu:</i> “The +fortune-teller knows not his own fate.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap05"></a>Silkworms</h2> + +<h3>I</h3> + +<p> +I was puzzled by the phrase, “silkworm-moth eyebrow,” in an old +Japanese, or rather Chinese proverb:—<i>The silkworm-moth eyebrow of a +woman is the axe that cuts down the wisdom of man.</i> So I went to my friend +Niimi, who keeps silkworms, to ask for an explanation. +</p> + +<p> +“Is it possible,” he exclaimed, “that you never saw a +silkworm-moth? The silkworm-moth has very beautiful eyebrows.” +</p> + +<p> +“Eyebrows?” I queried, in astonishment. “Well, call them what +you like,” returned Niimi;—“the poets call them eyebrows…. +Wait a moment, and I will show you.” +</p> + +<p> +He left the guest-room, and presently returned with a white paper-fan, on which +a silkworm-moth was sleepily reposing. +</p> + +<p> +“We always reserve a few for breeding,” he said;—“this +one is just out of the cocoon. It cannot fly, of course: none of them can fly…. +Now look at the eyebrows.” +</p> + +<p> +I looked, and saw that the antennae, very short and feathery, were so arched +back over the two jewel-specks of eyes in the velvety head, as to give the +appearance of a really handsome pair of eyebrows. +</p> + +<p> +Then Niimi took me to see his worms. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +In Niimi’s neighborhood, where there are plenty of mulberrytrees, many +families keep silkworms;—the tending and feeding being mostly done by +women and children. The worms are kept in large oblong trays, elevated upon +light wooden stands about three feet high. It is curious to see hundreds of +caterpillars feeding all together in one tray, and to hear the soft papery +noise which they make while gnawing their mulberry-leaves. As they approach +maturity, the creatures need almost constant attention. At brief intervals some +expert visits each tray to inspect progress, picks up the plumpest feeders, and +decides, by gently rolling them between forefinger and thumb, which are ready +to spin. These are dropped into covered boxes, where they soon swathe +themselves out of sight in white floss. A few only of the best are suffered to +emerge from their silky sleep,—the selected breeders. They have beautiful +wings, but cannot use them. They have mouths, but do not eat. They only pair, +lay eggs, and die. For thousands of years their race has been so well-cared +for, that it can no longer take any care of itself. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +It was the evolutional lesson of this latter fact that chiefly occupied me +while Niimi and his younger brother (who feeds the worms) were kindly +explaining the methods of the industry. They told me curious things about +different breeds, and also about a wild variety of silkworm that cannot be +domesticated:—it spins splendid silk before turning into a vigorous moth +which can use its wings to some purpose. But I fear that I did not act like a +person who felt interested in the subject; for, even while I tried to listen, I +began to muse. +</p> + +<h3>II</h3> + +<p> +First of all, I found myself thinking about a delightful revery by M. Anatole +France, in which he says that if he had been the Demiurge, he would have put +youth at the end of life instead of at the beginning, and would have otherwise +so ordered matters that every human being should have three stages of +development, somewhat corresponding to those of the lepidoptera. Then it +occurred to me that this fantasy was in substance scarcely more than the +delicate modification of a most ancient doctrine, common to nearly all the +higher forms of religion. +</p> + +<p> +Western faiths especially teach that our life on earth is a larval state of +greedy helplessness, and that death is a pupa-sleep out of which we should +soar into everlasting light. They tell us that during its sentient existence, +the outer body should be thought of only as a kind of caterpillar, and +thereafter as a chrysalis;—and they aver that we lose or gain, according +to our behavior as larvæ, the power to develop wings under the mortal +wrapping. Also they tell us not to trouble ourselves about the fact that we see +no Psyché-imago detach itself from the broken cocoon: this lack of visual +evidence signifies nothing, because we have only the purblind vision of grubs. +Our eyes are but half-evolved. Do not whole scales of colors invisibly exist +above and below the limits of our retinal sensibility? Even so the +butterfly-man exists,—although, as a matter of course, we cannot see him. +</p> + +<p> +But what would become of this human imago in a state of perfect bliss? From the +evolutional point of view the question has interest; and its obvious answer was +suggested to me by the history of those silkworms,—which have been +domesticated for only a few thousand years. Consider the result of our +celestial domestication for—let us say—several millions of years: I +mean the final consequence, to the wishers, of being able to gratify every wish +at will. +</p> + +<p> +Those silkworms have all that they wish for,—even considerably more. +Their wants, though very simple, are fundamentally identical with the +necessities of mankind,—food, shelter, warmth, safety, and comfort. Our +endless social struggle is mainly for these things. Our dream of heaven is the +dream of obtaining them free of cost in pain; and the condition of those +silkworms is the realization, in a small way, of our imagined Paradise. (I am +not considering the fact that a vast majority of the worms are predestined to +torment and the second death; for my theme is of heaven, not of lost souls. I +am speaking of the elect—those worms preördained to salvation and +rebirth.) Probably they can feel only very weak sensations: they are certainly +incapable of prayer. But if they were able to pray, they could not ask for +anything more than they already receive from the youth who feeds and tends +them. He is their providence,—a god of whose existence they can be aware +in only the vaguest possible way, but just such a god as they require. And we +should foolishly deem ourselves fortunate to be equally well cared-for in +proportion to our more complex wants. Do not our common forms of prayer prove +our desire for like attention? Is not the assertion of our “need of +divine love” an involuntary confession that we wish to be treated like +silkworms,—to live without pain by the help of gods? Yet if the gods were +to treat us as we want, we should presently afford fresh evidence,—in the +way of what is called “the evidence from degeneration,”—that +the great evolutional law is far above the gods. +</p> + +<p> +An early stage of that degeneration would be represented by total incapacity to +help ourselves;—then we should begin to lose the use of our higher +sense-organs;—later on, the brain would shrink to a vanishing pin-point +of matter;—still later we should dwindle into mere amorphous sacs, mere +blind stomachs. Such would be the physical consequence of that kind of divine +love which we so lazily wish for. The longing for perpetual bliss in perpetual +peace might well seem a malevolent inspiration from the Lords of Death and +Darkness. All life that feels and thinks has been, and can continue to be, only +as the product of struggle and pain,—only as the outcome of endless +battle with the Powers of the Universe. And cosmic law is uncompromising. +Whatever organ ceases to know pain,—whatever faculty ceases to be used +under the stimulus of pain,—must also cease to exist. Let pain and its +effort be suspended, and life must shrink back, first into protoplasmic +shapelessness, thereafter into dust. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +Buddhism—which, in its own grand way, is a doctrine of +evolution—rationally proclaims its heaven but a higher stage of +development through pain, and teaches that even in paradise the cessation of +effort produces degradation. With equal reasonableness it declares that the +capacity for pain in the superhuman world increases always in proportion to the +capacity for pleasure. (There is little fault to be found with this teaching +from a scientific standpoint,—since we know that higher evolution must +involve an increase of sensitivity to pain.) In the Heavens of Desire, says the +<i>Shōbō-nen-jō-kyō</i>, the pain of death is so great that all the agonies of all the +hells united could equal but one-sixteenth part of such +pain.<a href="#fn-5.1" name="fnref-5.1" id="fnref-5.1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-5.1" id="fn-5.1"></a> <a href="#fnref-5.1">[1]</a> +This statement refers only to the Heavens of Sensuous Pleasure,—not to +the Paradise of Amida, nor to those heavens into which one enters by the +Apparitional Birth. But even in the highest and most immaterial zones of +being,—in the Heavens of Formlessness,—the cessation of effort and +of the pain of effort, involves the penalty of rebirth in a lower state of +existence. +</p> + +<p> +The foregoing comparison is unnecessarily strong; but the Buddhist teaching +about heaven is in substance eminently logical. The suppression of +pain—mental or physical,—in any conceivable state of sentient +existence, would necessarily involve the suppression also of +pleasure;—and certainly all progress, whether moral or material, depends +upon the power to meet and to master pain. In a silkworm-paradise such as our +mundane instincts lead us to desire, the seraph freed from the necessity of +toil, and able to satisfy his every want at will, would lose his wings at last, +and sink back to the condition of a grub…. +</p> + +<h3>III</h3> + +<p> +I told the substance of my revery to Niimi. He used to be a great reader of +Buddhist books. +</p> + +<p> +“Well,” he said, “I was reminded of a queer Buddhist story by +the proverb that you asked me to explain,—<i>The silkworm-moth eyebrow of +a woman is the axe that cuts down the wisdom of man.</i> According to our +doctrine, the saying would be as true of life in heaven as of life upon earth…. +This is the story:— +</p> + +<p> +“When Shaka<a href="#fn-5.2" name="fnref-5.2" id="fnref-5.2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> +dwelt in this world, one of his disciples, called Nanda, was bewitched by the +beauty of a woman; and Shaka desired to save him from the results of this +illusion. So he took Nanda to a wild place in the mountains where there were +apes, and showed him a very ugly female ape, and asked him: ‘Which is the +more beautiful, Nanda, —the woman that you love, or this female +ape?’ ‘Oh, Master!’ exclaimed Nanda, ‘how can a lovely +woman be compared with an ugly ape?’ ‘Perhaps you will presently +find reason to make the comparison yourself,’ answered the +Buddha;—and instantly by supernatural power he ascended with Nanda to the +<i>San-Jūsan-Ten</i>, which is the Second of the Six Heavens of Desire. There, +within a palace of jewels, Nanda saw a multitude of heavenly maidens +celebrating some festival with music and dance; and the beauty of the least +among them incomparably exceeded that of the fairest woman of earth. ‘O +Master,’ cried Nanda, ‘what wonderful festival is this?’ +‘Ask some of those people,’ responded Shaka. So Nanda questioned +one of the celestial maidens; and she said to him:—‘This festival +is to celebrate the good tidings that have been brought to us. There is now in +the human world, among the disciples of Shaka, a most excellent youth called +Nanda, who is soon to be reborn into this heaven, and to become our bridegroom, +because of his holy life. We wait for him with rejoicing.’ This reply +filled the heart of Nanda with delight. Then the Buddha asked him: ‘Is +there any one among these maidens, Nanda, equal in beauty to the woman with +whom you have been in love?’ ‘Nay, Master!’ answered Nanda; +‘even as that woman surpassed in beauty the female ape that we saw on the +mountain, so is she herself surpassed by even the least among these.’ +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-5.2" id="fn-5.2"></a> <a href="#fnref-5.2">[2]</a> +Sâkyamuni. +</p> + +<p> +“Then the Buddha immediately descended with Nanda to the depths of the +hells, and took him into a torture-chamber where myriads of men and women were +being boiled alive in great caldrons, and otherwise horribly tormented by +devils. Then Nanda found himself standing before a huge vessel which was filled +with molten metal;—and he feared and wondered because this vessel had as +yet no occupant. An idle devil sat beside it, yawning. ‘Master,’ +Nanda inquired of the Buddha, ‘for whom has this vessel been +prepared?’ ‘Ask the devil,’ answered Shaka. Nanda did so; and +the devil said to him: ‘There is a man called Nanda,—now one of +Shaka’s disciples,—about to be reborn into one of the heavens, on +account of his former good actions. But after having there indulged himself, he +is to be reborn in this hell; and his place will be in that pot. I am waiting +for him.’”<a href="#fn-5.3" name="fnref-5.3" id="fnref-5.3"><sup>[3]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-5.3" id="fn-5.3"></a> <a href="#fnref-5.3">[3]</a> +I give the story substantially as it was told to me; but I have not been able +to compare it with any published text. My friend says that he has seen two +Chinese versions,—one in the <i>Hongyō-kyō</i> (?), the other in the +<i>Zōichi-agon-kyō</i> (Ekôttarâgamas). In Mr. Henry Clarke Warren’s +<i>Buddhism in Translations</i> (the most interesting and valuable single +volume of its kind that I have ever seen), there is a Pali version of the +legend, which differs considerably from the above.—This Nanda, according +to Mr. Warren’s work, was a prince, and the younger half-brother of +Sâkyamuni. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap06"></a>A Passional Karma</h2> + +<p> +One of the never-failing attractions of the Tōkyō stage is the performance, by +the famous Kikugorō and his company, of the <i>Botan-Dōrō</i>, or +“Peony-Lantern.” This weird play, of which the scenes are laid in +the middle of the last century, is the dramatization of a romance by the +novelist Encho, written in colloquial Japanese, and purely Japanese in local +color, though inspired by a Chinese tale. I went to see the play; and Kikugorō +made me familiar with a new variety of the pleasure of fear. “Why not +give English readers the ghostly part of the story?”—asked a friend +who guides me betimes through the mazes of Eastern philosophy. “It would +serve to explain some popular ideas of the supernatural which Western people +know very little about. And I could help you with the translation.” +</p> + +<p> +I gladly accepted the suggestion; and we composed the following summary of the +more extraordinary portion of Enchō’s romance. Here and there we found it +necessary to condense the original narrative; and we tried to keep close to the +text only in the conversational passages,—some of which happen to possess +a particular quality of psychological interest. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p> +—<i>This is the story of the Ghosts in the Romance of the +Peony-Lantern:</i>— +</p> + +<h3>I</h3> + +<p> +There once lived in the district of Ushigomé, in Yedo, a +<i>hatamoto</i><a href="#fn-6.1" name="fnref-6.1" id="fnref-6.1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> +called Iijima Heizayémon, whose only daughter, Tsuyu, was beautiful as her +name, which signifies “Morning Dew.” Iijima took a second wife when +his daughter was about sixteen; and, finding that O-Tsuyu could not be happy +with her mother-in-law, he had a pretty villa built for the girl at Yanagijima, +as a separate residence, and gave her an excellent maidservant, called O-Yoné, +to wait upon her. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-6.1" id="fn-6.1"></a> <a href="#fnref-6.1">[1]</a> +The <i>hatamoto</i> were samurai forming the special military force of the +Shōgun. The name literally signifies “Banner-Supporters.” These +were the highest class of samurai,—not only as the immediate vassals of +the Shōgun, but as a military aristocracy. +</p> + +<p> +O-Tsuyu lived happily enough in her new home until one day when the family +physician, Yamamoto Shijō, paid her a visit in company with a young samurai +named Hagiwara Shinzaburō, who resided in the Nedzu quarter. Shinzaburō was an +unusually handsome lad, and very gentle; and the two young people fell in love +with each other at sight. Even before the brief visit was over, they +contrived,—unheard by the old doctor,—to pledge themselves to each +other for life. And, at parting, O-Tsuyu whispered to the +youth,—“<i>Remember! If you do not come to see me again, I shall +certainly die!</i>” +</p> + +<p> +Shinzaburō never forgot those words; and he was only too eager to see more of +O-Tsuyu. But etiquette forbade him to make the visit alone: he was obliged to +wait for some other chance to accompany the doctor, who had promised to take +him to the villa a second time. Unfortunately the old man did not keep this +promise. He had perceived the sudden affection of O-Tsuyu; and he feared that +her father would hold him responsible for any serious results. Iijima +Heizayémon had a reputation for cutting off heads. And the more Shijō thought +about the possible consequences of his introduction of Shinzaburō at the Iijima +villa, the more he became afraid. Therefore he purposely abstained from calling +upon his young friend. +</p> + +<p> +Months passed; and O-Tsuyu, little imagining the true cause of +Shinzaburō’s neglect, believed that her love had been scorned. Then she +pined away, and died. Soon afterwards, the faithful servant O-Yoné also died, +through grief at the loss of her mistress; and the two were buried side by side +in the cemetery of Shin-Banzui-In,—a temple which still stands in the +neighborhood of Dango-Zaka, where the famous chrysanthemum-shows are yearly +held. +</p> + +<h3>II</h3> + +<p> +Shinzaburō knew nothing of what had happened; but his disappointment and his +anxiety had resulted in a prolonged illness. He was slowly recovering, but +still very weak, when he unexpectedly received another visit from Yamamoto +Shijō. The old man made a number of plausible excuses for his apparent neglect. +Shinzaburō said to him:—“I have been sick ever since the beginning +of spring;—even now I cannot eat anything…. Was it not rather unkind of +you never to call? I thought that we were to make another visit together to the +house of the Lady Iijima; and I wanted to take to her some little present as a +return for our kind reception. Of course I could not go by myself.” +</p> + +<p> +Shijō gravely responded,—“I am very sorry to tell you that the +young lady is dead!” +</p> + +<p> +“Dead!” repeated Shinzaburō, turning white,—“did you +say that she is dead?” +</p> + +<p> +The doctor remained silent for a moment, as if collecting himself: then he +resumed, in the quick light tone of a man resolved not to take trouble +seriously:— +</p> + +<p> +“My great mistake was in having introduced you to her; for it seems that +she fell in love with you at once. I am afraid that you must have said +something to encourage this affection—when you were in that little room +together. At all events, I saw how she felt towards you; and then I became +uneasy,—fearing that her father might come to hear of the matter, and lay +the whole blame upon me. So—to be quite frank with you,—I decided +that it would be better not to call upon you; and I purposely stayed away for a +long time. But, only a few days ago, happening to visit Iijima’s house, I +heard, to my great surprise, that his daughter had died, and that her servant +O-Yoné had also died. Then, remembering all that had taken place, I knew that +the young lady must have died of love for you…. [<i>Laughing</i>] Ah, you are +really a sinful fellow! Yes, you are! [<i>Laughing</i>] Isn’t it a sin to +have been born so handsome that the girls die for love of you?<a href="#fn-6.2" name="fnref-6.2" id="fnref-6.2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> +[<i>Seriously</i>] Well, we must leave the dead to the dead. It is no use to +talk further about the matter;—all that you now can do for her is to +repeat the Nembutsu<a href="#fn-6.3" name="fnref-6.3" id="fnref-6.3"><sup>[3]</sup></a>…. +Good-bye.” +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-6.2" id="fn-6.2"></a> <a href="#fnref-6.2">[2]</a> +Perhaps this conversation may seem strange to the Western reader; but it is +true to life. The whole of the scene is characteristically Japanese. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-6.3" id="fn-6.3"></a> <a href="#fnref-6.3">[3]</a> +The invocation <i>Namu Amida Butsu!</i> (“Hail to the Buddha +Amitâbha!”),—repeated, as a prayer, for the sake of the dead. +</p> + +<p> +And the old man retired hastily,—anxious to avoid further converse about +the painful event for which he felt himself to have been unwittingly +responsible. +</p> + +<h3>III</h3> + +<p> +Shinzaburō long remained stupefied with grief by the news of O-Tsuyu’s +death. But as soon as he found himself again able to think clearly, he +inscribed the dead girl’s name upon a mortuary tablet, and placed the +tablet in the Buddhist shrine of his house, and set offerings before it, and +recited prayers. Every day thereafter he presented offerings, and repeated the +<i>Nembutsu;</i> and the memory of O-Tsuyu was never absent from his thought. +</p> + +<p> +Nothing occurred to change the monotony of his solitude before the time of the +Bon,—the great Festival of the Dead,—which begins upon the +thirteenth day of the seventh month. Then he decorated his house, and prepared +everything for the festival;—hanging out the lanterns that guide the +returning spirits, and setting the food of ghosts on the <i>shōryōdana</i>, or +Shelf of Souls. And on the first evening of the Bon, after sun-down, he kindled +a small lamp before the tablet of O-Tsuyu, and lighted the lanterns. +</p> + +<p> +The night was clear, with a great moon,—and windless, and very warm. +Shinzaburō sought the coolness of his veranda. Clad only in a light +summer-robe, he sat there thinking, dreaming, sorrowing;—sometimes +fanning himself; sometimes making a little smoke to drive the mosquitoes away. +Everything was quiet. It was a lonesome neighborhood, and there were few +passers-by. He could hear only the soft rushing of a neighboring stream, and +the shrilling of night-insects. +</p> + +<p> +But all at once this stillness was broken by a sound of women’s +<i>geta</i><a href="#fn-6.4" name="fnref-6.4" id="fnref-6.4"><sup>[4]</sup></a> +approaching—<i>kara-kon, kara-kon;</i>—and the sound drew nearer and +nearer, quickly, till it reached the live-hedge surrounding the garden. Then +Shinzaburö, feeling curious, stood on tiptoe, so as to look over the hedge; and +he saw two women passing. One, who was carrying a beautiful lantern decorated +with peony-flowers,<a href="#fn-6.5" name="fnref-6.5" id="fnref-6.5"><sup>[5]</sup></a> +appeared to be a servant;—the other was a slender girl of about +seventeen, wearing a long-sleeved robe embroidered with designs of +autumn-blossoms. Almost at the same instant both women turned their faces +toward Shinzaburō;—and to his utter astonishment, he recognized O-Tsuyu +and her servant O-Yoné. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-6.4" id="fn-6.4"></a> <a href="#fnref-6.4">[4]</a> +<i>Komageta</i> in the original. The geta is a wooden sandal, or clog, of which +there are many varieties,—some decidedly elegant. The <i>komageta</i>, or +“pony-geta” is so-called because of the sonorous hoof-like echo +which it makes on hard ground. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-6.5" id="fn-6.5"></a> <a href="#fnref-6.5">[5]</a> +The sort of lantern here referred to is no longer made; and its shape can best +be understood by a glance at the picture accompanying this story. It was +totally unlike the modern domestic band-lantern, painted with the owner’s +crest; but it was not altogether unlike some forms of lanterns still +manufactured for the Festival of the Dead, and called <i>Bon-dōrō</i>. The +flowers ornamenting it were not painted: they were artificial flowers of +crêpe-silk, and were attached to the top of the lantern. +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus03"></a> +<a href="images/fig03.jpg"> +<img src="images/fig03.jpg" width="325" height="500" alt="Illustration:" /></a> +<p class="caption">The Peony Lantern</p> +</div> + +<p> +They stopped immediately; and the girl cried out,—“Oh, how +strange!… Hagiwara Sama!” +</p> + +<p> +Shinzaburō simultaneously called to the maid:—“O-Yoné! Ah, you are +O-Yoné!—I remember you very well.” +</p> + +<p> +“Hagiwara Sama!” exclaimed O-Yoné in a tone of supreme amazement. +“Never could I have believed it possible!… Sir, we were told that you had +died.” +</p> + +<p> +“How extraordinary!” cried Shinzaburō. “Why, I was told that +both of you were dead!” +</p> + +<p> +“Ah, what a hateful story!” returned O-Yoné. “Why repeat such +unlucky words?… Who told you?” +</p> + +<p> +“Please to come in,” said Shinzaburō;—“here we can talk +better. The garden-gate is open.” +</p> + +<p> +So they entered, and exchanged greeting; and when Shinzaburō had made them +comfortable, he said:— +</p> + +<p> +“I trust that you will pardon my discourtesy in not having called upon +you for so long a time. But Shijō, the doctor, about a month ago, told me that +you had both died.” +</p> + +<p> +“So it was he who told you?” exclaimed O-Yoné. “It was very +wicked of him to say such a thing. Well, it was also Shijō who told us that +<i>you</i> were dead. I think that he wanted to deceive you,—which was +not a difficult thing to do, because you are so confiding and trustful. +Possibly my mistress betrayed her liking for you in some words which found +their way to her father’s ears; and, in that case, O-Kuni—the new +wife—might have planned to make the doctor tell you that we were dead, so +as to bring about a separation. Anyhow, when my mistress heard that you had +died, she wanted to cut off her hair immediately, and to become a nun. But I +was able to prevent her from cutting off her hair; and I persuaded her at last +to become a nun only in her heart. Afterwards her father wished her to marry a +certain young man; and she refused. Then there was a great deal of +trouble,—chiefly caused by O-Kuni;—and we went away from the villa, +and found a very small house in Yanaka-no-Sasaki. There we are now just barely +able to live, by doing a little private work…. My mistress has been constantly +repeating the <i>Nembutsu</i> for your sake. To-day, being the first day of the +Bon, we went to visit the temples; and we were on our way home—thus +late—when this strange meeting happened.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, how extraordinary!” cried Shinzaburō. “Can it be +true?-or is it only a dream? Here I, too, have been constantly reciting the +<i>Nembutsu</i> before a tablet with her name upon it! Look!” And he +showed them O-Tsuyu’s tablet in its place upon the Shelf of Souls. +</p> + +<p> +“We are more than grateful for your kind remembrance,” returned +O-Yoné, smiling…. “Now as for my mistress,”—she continued, +turning towards O-Tsuyu, who had all the while remained demure and silent, +half-hiding her face with her sleeve,—“as for my mistress, she +actually says that she would not mind being disowned by her father for the time +of seven existences,<a href="#fn-6.6" name="fnref-6.6" id="fnref-6.6"><sup>[6]</sup></a> +or even being killed by him, for your sake! Come! will you not allow her to +stay here to-night?” +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-6.6" id="fn-6.6"></a> <a href="#fnref-6.6">[6]</a> +“For the time of seven existences,”—that is to say, for the +time of seven successive lives. In Japanese drama and romance it is not +uncommon to represent a father as disowning his child “for the time of +seven lives.” Such a disowning is called <i>shichi-shō madé no mandō</i>, +a disinheritance for seven lives,—signifying that in six future lives +after the present the erring son or daughter will continue to feel the parental +displeasure. +</p> + +<p> +Shinzaburō turned pale for joy. He answered in a voice trembling with +emotion:— +</p> + +<p> +“Please remain; but do not speak loud—because there is a +troublesome fellow living close by,—a <i>ninsomi</i><a href="#fn-6.7" name="fnref-6.7" id="fnref-6.7"><sup>[7]</sup></a> +called Hakuōdō Yusai, who tells peoples fortunes by looking at their faces. He +is inclined to be curious; and it is better that he should not know.” +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-6.7" id="fn-6.7"></a> <a href="#fnref-6.7">[7]</a> +The profession is not yet extinct. The <i>ninsomi</i> uses a kind of magnifying +glass (or magnifying-mirror sometimes), called <i>tengankyō</i> or +<i>ninsomégané</i>. +</p> + +<p> +The two women remained that night in the house of the young samurai, and +returned to their own home a little before daybreak. And after that night they +came every nighht for seven nights,—whether the weather were foul or +fair,—always at the same hour. And Shinzaburō became more and more +attached to the girl; and the twain were fettered, each to each, by that bond +of illusion which is stronger than bands of iron. +</p> + +<h3>IV</h3> + +<p> +Now there was a man called Tomozō, who lived in a small cottage adjoining +Shinzaburō’s residence, Tomozō and his wife O-Miné were both employed by +Shinzaburō as servants. Both seemed to be devoted to their young master; and by +his help they were able to live in comparative comfort. +</p> + +<p> +One night, at a very late hour, Tomozō heard the voice of a woman in his +master’s apartment; and this made him uneasy. He feared that Shinzaburō, +being very gentle and affectionate, might be made the dupe of some cunning +wanton,—in which event the domestics would be the first to suffer. He +therefore resolved to watch; and on the following night he stole on tiptoe to +Shinzaburō’s dwelling, and looked through a chink in one of the sliding +shutters. By the glow of a night-lantern within the sleeping-room, he was able +to perceive that his master and a strange woman were talking together under the +mosquito-net. At first he could not see the woman distinctly. Her back was +turned to him;—he only observed that she was very slim, and that she +appeared to be very young,—judging from the fashion of her dress and +hair.<a href="#fn-6.8" name="fnref-6.8" id="fnref-6.8"><sup>[8]</sup></a> +Putting his ear to the chink, he could hear the conversation plainly. The woman +said:— +</p> + +<p> +“And if I should be disowned by my father, would you then let me come and +live with you?” +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-6.8" id="fn-6.8"></a> <a href="#fnref-6.8">[8]</a> +The color and form of the dress, and the style of wearing the hair, are by +Japanese custom regulated according to the age of the woman. +</p> + +<p> +Shinzaburō answered:— +</p> + +<p> +“Most assuredly I would—nay, I should be glad of the chance. But +there is no reason to fear that you will ever be disowned by your father; for +you are his only daughter, and he loves you very much. What I do fear is that +some day we shall be cruelly separated.” +</p> + +<p> +She responded softly:— +</p> + +<p> +“Never, never could I even think of accepting any other man for my +husband. Even if our secret were to become known, and my father were to kill me +for what I have done, still—after death itself—I could never cease +to think of you. And I am now quite sure that you yourself would not be able to +live very long without me.”… Then clinging closely to him, with her lips +at his neck, she caressed him; and he returned her caresses. +</p> + +<p> +Tomozō wondered as he listened,—because the language of the woman was not +the language of a common woman, but the language of a lady of rank.<a href="#fn-6.9" name="fnref-6.9" id="fnref-6.9"><sup>[9]</sup></a> +Then he determined at all hazards to get one glimpse of her face; and he crept +round the house, backwards and forwards, peering through every crack and chink. +And at last he was able to see;—but therewith an icy trembling seized +him; and the hair of his head stood up. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-6.9" id="fn-6.9"></a> <a href="#fnref-6.9">[9]</a> +The forms of speech used by the samurai, and other superior classes, differed +considerably from those of the popular idiom; but these differences could not +be effectively rendered into English. +</p> + +<p> +For the face was the face of a woman long dead,—and the fingers caressing +were fingers of naked bone,—and of the body below the waist there was not +anything: it melted off into thinnest trailing shadow. Where the eyes of the +lover deluded saw youth and grace and beauty, there appeared to the eyes of the +watcher horror only, and the emptiness of death. Simultaneously another +woman’s figure, and a weirder, rose up from within the chamber, and +swiftly made toward the watcher, as if discerning his presence. Then, in +uttermost terror, he fled to the dwelling of Hakuōdō Yusai, and, knocking +frantically at the doors, succeeded in arousing him. +</p> + +<h3>V</h3> + +<p> +Hakuōdō Yusai, the <i>ninsomi</i>, was a very old man; but in his time he had +travelled much, and he had heard and seen so many things that he could not be +easily surprised. Yet the story of the terrified Tomozō both alarmed and amazed +him. He had read in ancient Chinese books of love between the living and the +dead; but he had never believed it possible. Now, however, he felt convinced +that the statement of Tomozō was not a falsehood, and that something very +strange was really going on in the house of Hagiwara. Should the truth prove to +be what Tomozō imagined, then the young samurai was a doomed man. +</p> + +<p> +“If the woman be a ghost,”—said Yusai to the frightened +servant, “—if the woman be a ghost, your master must die very +soon,—unless something extraordinary can be done to save him. And if the +woman be a ghost, the signs of death will appear upon his face. For the spirit +of the living is <i>yōki</i>, and pure;—the spirit of the dead is +<i>inki</i>, and unclean: the one is Positive, the other Negative. He whose +bride is a ghost cannot live. Even though in his blood there existed the force +of a life of one hundred years, that force must quickly perish…. Still, I shall +do all that I can to save Hagiwara Sama. And in the meantime, Tomozō, say +nothing to any other person,—not even to your wife,—about this +matter. At sunrise I shall call upon your master.” +</p> + +<h3>VI</h3> + +<p> +When questioned next morning by Yusai, Shinzaburō at first attempted to deny +that any women had been visiting the house; but finding this artless policy of +no avail, and perceiving that the old man’s purpose was altogether +unselfish, he was finally persuaded to acknowledge what had really occurred, +and to give his reasons for wishing to keep the matter a secret. As for the +lady Iijima, he intended, he said, to make her his wife as soon as possible. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, madness!” cried Yusai,—losing all patience in the +intensity of his alarm. “Know, sir, that the people who have been coming +here, night after night, are dead! Some frightful delusion is upon you!… Why, +the simple fact that you long supposed O-Tsuyu to be dead, and repeated the +<i>Nembutsu</i> for her, and made offerings before her tablet, is itself the +proof!… The lips of the dead have touched you!—the hands of the dead have +caressed you!… Even at this moment I see in your face the signs of +death—and you will not believe!… Listen to me now, sir,—I beg of +you,—if you wish to save yourself: otherwise you have less than twenty +days to live. They told you—those people—that they were residing in +the district of Shitaya, in Yanaka-no-Sasaki. Did you ever visit them at that +place? No!—of course you did not! Then go to-day,—as soon as you +can,—to Yanaka-no-Sasaki, and try to find their home!…” +</p> + +<p> +And having uttered this counsel with the most vehement earnestness, Hakuōdō +Yusai abruptly took his departure. +</p> + +<p> +Shinzaburō, startled though not convinced, resolved after a moment’s +reflection to follow the advice of the <i>ninsomi</i>, and to go to Shitaya. It +was yet early in the morning when he reached the quarter of Yanaka-no-Sasaki, +and began his search for the dwelling of O-Tsuyu. He went through every street +and side-street, read all the names inscribed at the various entrances, and +made inquiries whenever an opportunity presented itself. But he could not find +anything resembling the little house mentioned by O-Yoné; and none of the +people whom he questioned knew of any house in the quarter inhabited by two +single women. Feeling at last certain that further research would be useless, +he turned homeward by the shortest way, which happened to lead through the +grounds of the temple Shin-Banzui-In. +</p> + +<p> +Suddenly his attention was attracted by two new tombs, placed side by side, at +the rear of the temple. One was a common tomb, such as might have been erected +for a person of humble rank: the other was a large and handsome monument; and +hanging before it was a beautiful peony-lantern, which had probably been left +there at the time of the Festival of the Dead. Shinzaburō remembered that the +peony-lantern carried by O-Yoné was exactly similar; and the coincidence +impressed him as strange. He looked again at the tombs; but the tombs explained +nothing. Neither bore any personal name,—only the Buddhist <i>kaimyō</i>, +or posthumous appellation. Then he determined to seek information at the +temple. An acolyte stated, in reply to his questions, that the large tomb had +been recently erected for the daughter of Iijima Heizayémon, the +<i>hatamoto</i> of Ushigomé; and that the small tomb next to it was that of her +servant O-Yoné, who had died of grief soon after the young lady’s +funeral. +</p> + +<p> +Immediately to Shinzaburö’s memory there recurred, with another and +sinister meaning, the words of O-Yoné:—“<i>We went away, and found +a very small house in Yanaka-no-Sasaki. There we are now just barely able to +live—by doing a little private work</i>….” Here was indeed the very +small house,—and in Yanaka-no-Sasaki. But the little <i>private +work…?</i> +</p> + +<p> +Terror-stricken, the samurai hastened with all speed to the house of Yusai, and +begged for his counsel and assistance. But Yusai declared himself unable to be +of any aid in such a case. All that he could do was to send Shinzaburō to the +high-priest Ryōseki, of Shin-Banzui-In, with a letter praying for immediate +religious help. +</p> + +<h3>VII</h3> + +<p> +The high-priest Ryōseki was a learned and a holy man. By spiritual vision he +was able to know the secret of any sorrow, and the nature of the karma that had +caused it. He heard unmoved the story of Shinzaburō, and said to him:— +</p> + +<p> +“A very great danger now threatens you, because of an error committed in +one of your former states of existence. The karma that binds you to the dead is +very strong; but if I tried to explain its character, you would not be able to +understand. I shall therefore tell you only this,—that the dead person +has no desire to injure you out of hate, feels no enmity towards you: she is +influenced, on the contrary, by the most passionate affection for you. Probably +the girl has been in love with you from a time long preceding your present +life,—from a time of not less than three or four past existences; and it +would seem that, although necessarily changing her form and condition at each +succeeding birth, she has not been able to cease from following after you. +Therefore it will not be an easy thing to escape from her influence…. But now I +am going to lend you this powerful <i>mamori</i>.<a href="#fn-6.10" name="fnref-6.10" id="fnref-6.10"><sup>[10]</sup></a> +It is a pure gold image of that Buddha called the Sea-Sounding +Tathâgata—<i>Kai-On-Nyōrai</i>,—because his preaching of the Law sounds +through the world like the sound of the sea. And this little image is +especially a +<i>shiryō-yoké</i>,<a href="#fn-6.11" name="fnref-6.11" id="fnref-6.11"><sup>[11]</sup></a>—which +protects the living from the dead. This you must wear, in its covering, next to +your body,—under the girdle…. Besides, I shall presently perform in the +temple, a <i>segaki</i>-service<a href="#fn-6.12" name="fnref-6.12" id="fnref-6.12"><sup>[12]</sup></a> +for the repose of the troubled spirit…. And here is a holy sutra, called +<i>Ubō-Darani-Kyō</i>, or “Treasure-Raining Sûtra”<a href="#fn-6.13" name="fnref-6.13" id="fnref-6.13"><sup>[13]</sup></a> +you must be careful to recite it every night in your house—without fail…. +Furthermore I shall give you this package of +<i>o-fuda</i>;<a href="#fn-6.14" name="fnref-6.14" id="fnref-6.14"><sup>[14]</sup></a>—you +must paste one of them over every opening of your house,—no matter how +small. If you do this, the power of the holy texts will prevent the dead from +entering. But—whatever may happen—do not fail to recite the +sutra.” +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-6.10" id="fn-6.10"></a> <a href="#fnref-6.10">[10]</a> +The Japanese word <i>mamori</i> has significations at least as numerous as +those attaching to our own term “amulet.” It would be impossible, +in a mere footnote, even to suggest the variety of Japanese religious objects +to which the name is given. In this instance, the <i>mamori</i> is a very small +image, probably enclosed in a miniature shrine of lacquer-work or metal, over +which a silk cover is drawn. Such little images were often worn by +<i>samurai</i> on the person. I was recently shown a miniature figure of +Kwannon, in an iron case, which had been carried by an officer through the +Satsuma war. He observed, with good reason, that it had probably saved his +life; for it had stopped a bullet of which the dent was plainly visible. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-6.11" id="fn-6.11"></a> <a href="#fnref-6.11">[11]</a> +From <i>shiryō</i>, a ghost, and <i>yokeru</i>, to exclude. The Japanese have, +two kinds of ghosts proper in their folk-lore: the spirits of the dead, +<i>shiryō</i>; and the spirits of the living, <i>ikiryō</i>. A house or a +person may be haunted by an <i>ikiryō</i> as well as by a <i>shiryō</i>. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-6.12" id="fn-6.12"></a> <a href="#fnref-6.12">[12]</a> +A special service,—accompanying offerings of food, etc., to those dead +having no living relatives or friends to care for them,—is thus termed. +In this case, however, the service would be of a particular and exceptional +kind. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-6.13" id="fn-6.13"></a> <a href="#fnref-6.13">[13]</a> +The name would be more correctly written <i>Ubō-Darani-Kyō</i>. It is the Japanese +pronunciation of the title of a very short sutra translated out of Sanscrit +into Chinese by the Indian priest Amoghavajra, probably during the eighth +century. The Chinese text contains transliterations of some mysterious Sanscrit +words,—apparently talismanic words,—like those to be seen in +Kern’s translation of the Saddharma-Pundarîka, ch. xxvi. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-6.14" id="fn-6.14"></a> <a href="#fnref-6.14">[14]</a> +<i>O-fuda</i> is the general name given to religious texts used as charms or +talismans. They are sometimes stamped or burned upon wood, but more commonly +written or printed upon narrow strips of paper. <i>O-fuda</i> are pasted above +house-entrances, on the walls of rooms, upon tablets placed in household +shrines, etc., etc. Some kinds are worn about the person;—others are made +into pellets, and swallowed as spiritual medicine. The text of the larger +<i>o-fuda</i> is often accompanied by curious pictures or symbolic +illustrations. +</p> + +<p> +Shinzaburō humbly thanked the high-priest; and then, taking with him the image, +the sutra, and the bundle of sacred texts, he made all haste to reach his home +before the hour of sunset. +</p> + +<h3>VIII</h3> + +<p> +With Yusai’s advice and help, Shinzaburō was able before dark to fix the +holy texts over all the apertures of his dwelling. Then the <i>ninsomi</i> +returned to his own house,—leaving the youth alone. +</p> + +<p> +Night came, warm and clear. Shinzaburō made fast the doors, bound the precious +amulet about his waist, entered his mosquito-net, and by the glow of a +night-lantern began to recite the <i>Ubō-Darani-Kyō</i>. For a long time he +chanted the words, comprehending little of their meaning;—then he tried +to obtain some rest. But his mind was still too much disturbed by the strange +events of the day. Midnight passed; and no sleep came to him. At last he heard +the boom of the great temple-bell of Dentsu-In announcing the eighth +hour.<a href="#fn-6.15" name="fnref-6.15" id="fnref-6.15"><sup>[15]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-6.15" id="fn-6.15"></a> <a href="#fnref-6.15">[15]</a> +According to the old Japanese way of counting time, this <i>yatsudoki</i> or +eighth hour was the same as our two o’clock in the morning. Each Japanese +hour was equal to two European hours, so that there were only six hours instead +of our twelve; and these six hours were counted backwards in the +order,—9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4. Thus the ninth hour corresponded to our midday, +or midnight; half-past nine to our one o’clock; eight to our two +o’clock. Two o’clock in the morning, also called “the Hour of +the Ox,” was the Japanese hour of ghosts and goblins. +</p> + +<p> +It ceased; and Shinzaburō suddenly heard the sound of <i>geta</i> approaching +from the old direction,—but this time more slowly: <i>karan-koron, +karan-koron!</i> At once a cold sweat broke over his forehead. Opening the +sutra hastily, with trembling hand, he began again to recite it aloud. The +steps came nearer and nearer,—reached the live hedge,—stopped! +Then, strange to say, Shinzaburō felt unable to remain under his mosquito-net: +something stronger even than his fear impelled him to look; and, instead of +continuing to recite the <i>Ubō-Darani-Kyō</i>, he foolishly approached the +shutters, and through a chink peered out into the night. Before the house he +saw O-Tsuyu standing, and O-Yoné with the peony-lantern; and both of them were +gazing at the Buddhist texts pasted above the entrance. Never before—not +even in what time she lived—had O-Tsuyu appeared so beautiful; and +Shinzaburō felt his heart drawn towards her with a power almost resistless. But +the terror of death and the terror of the unknown restrained; and there went on +within him such a struggle between his love and his fear that he became as one +suffering in the body the pains of the Shō-netsu hell.<a href="#fn-6.16" name="fnref-6.16" id="fnref-6.16"><sup>[16]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-6.16" id="fn-6.16"></a> <a href="#fnref-6.16">[16]</a> +<i>En-netsu</i> or <i>Shō-netsu</i> (Sanscrit “Tapana”) is the +sixth of the Eight Hot Hells of Japanese Buddhism. One day of life in this hell +is equal in duration to thousands (some say millions) of human years. +</p> + +<p> +Presently he heard the voice of the maid-servant, saying:— +</p> + +<p> +“My dear mistress, there is no way to enter. The heart of Hagiwara Sama +must have changed. For the promise that he made last night has been broken; and +the doors have been made fast to keep us out…. We cannot go in to-night…. It +will be wiser for you to make up your mind not to think any more about him, +because his feeling towards you has certainly changed. It is evident that he +does not want to see you. So it will be better not to give yourself any more +trouble for the sake of a man whose heart is so unkind.” +</p> + +<p> +But the girl answered, weeping:— +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, to think that this could happen after the pledges which we made to +each other!… Often I was told that the heart of a man changes as quickly as the +sky of autumn;—yet surely the heart of Hagiwara Sama cannot be so cruel +that he should really intend to exclude me in this way!… Dear Yone, please find +some means of taking me to him…. Unless you do, I will never, never go home +again.” +</p> + +<p> +Thus she continued to plead, veiling her face with her long sleeves,—and +very beautiful she looked, and very touching; but the fear of death was strong +upon her lover. +</p> + +<p> +O-Yoné at last made answer,—“My dear young lady, why will you +trouble your mind about a man who seems to be so cruel?… Well, let us see if +there be no way to enter at the back of the house: come with me!” +</p> + +<p> +And taking O-Tsuyu by the hand, she led her away toward the rear of the +dwelling; and there the two disappeared as suddenly as the light disappears +when the flame of a lamp is blown out. +</p> + +<h3>IX</h3> + +<p> +Night after night the shadows came at the Hour of the Ox; and nightly +Shinzaburō heard the weeping of O-Tsuyu. Yet he believed himself +saved,—little imagining that his doom had already been decided by the +character of his dependents. +</p> + +<p> +Tomozō had promised Yusai never to speak to any other person—not even to +O-Miné—of the strange events that were taking place. But Tomozō was not +long suffered by the haunters to rest in peace. Night after night O-Yoné +entered into his dwelling, and roused him from his sleep, and asked him to +remove the <i>o-fuda</i> placed over one very small window at the back of his +master’s house. And Tomozō, out of fear, as often promised her to take +away the <i>o-fuda</i> before the next sundown; but never by day could he make +up his mind to remove it,—believing that evil was intended to Shinzaburō. +At last, in a night of storm, O-Yoné startled him from slumber with a cry of +reproach, and stooped above his pillow, and said to him: “Have a care how +you trifle with us! If, by to-morrow night, you do not take away that text, you +shall learn how I can hate!” And she made her face so frightful as she +spoke that Tomozō nearly died of terror. +</p> + +<p> +O-Miné, the wife of Tomozō, had never till then known of these visits: even to +her husband they had seemed like bad dreams. But on this particular night it +chanced that, waking suddenly, she heard the voice of a woman talking to +Tomozō. Almost in the same moment the talk-ing ceased; and when O-Miné looked +about her, she saw, by the light of the night-lamp, only her +husband,—shuddering and white with fear. The stranger was gone; the doors +were fast: it seemed impossible that anybody could have entered. Nevertheless +the jealousy of the wife had been aroused; and she began to chide and to +question Tomozō in such a manner that he thought himself obliged to betray the +secret, and to explain the terrible dilemma in which he had been placed. +</p> + +<p> +Then the passion of O-Miné yielded to wonder and alarm; but she was a subtle +woman, and she devised immediately a plan to save her husband by the sacrifice +of her master. And she gave Tomozō a cunning counsel,—telling him to make +conditions with the dead. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +They came again on the following night at the Hour of the Ox; and O-Miné hid +herself on hearing the sound of their coming,—<i>karan-koron, +karan-koron!</i> But Tomozō went out to meet them in the dark, and even found +courage to say to them what his wife had told him to say:— +</p> + +<p> +“It is true that I deserve your blame;—but I had no wish to cause +you anger. The reason that the <i>o-fuda</i> has not been taken away is that my +wife and I are able to live only by the help of Hagiwara Sama, and that we +cannot expose him to any danger without bringing misfortune upon ourselves. But +if we could obtain the sum of a hundred <i>ryō</i> in gold, we should be able +to please you, because we should then need no help from anybody. Therefore if +you will give us a hundred <i>ryō</i>, I can take the <i>o-fuda</i> away +without being afraid of losing our only means of support.” +</p> + +<p> +When he had uttered these words, O-Yoné and O-Tsuyu looked at each other in +silence for a moment. Then O-Yoné said:— +</p> + +<p> +“Mistress, I told you that it was not right to trouble this man, +—as we have no just cause of ill will against him. But it is certainly +useless to fret yourself about Hagiwara Sama, because his heart has changed +towards you. Now once again, my dear young lady, let me beg you not to think +any more about him!” +</p> + +<p> +But O-Tsuyu, weeping, made answer:— +</p> + +<p> +“Dear Yone, whatever may happen, I cannot possibly keep myself from +thinking about him! You know that you can get a hundred <i>ryō</i> to have the +<i>o-fuda</i> taken off…. Only once more, I pray, dear Yone!—only once +more bring me face to face with Hagiwara Sama,—I beseech you!” And +hiding her face with her sleeve, she thus continued to plead. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh! why will you ask me to do these things?” responded O-Yoné. +“You know very well that I have no money. But since you will persist in +this whim of yours, in spite of all that I can say, I suppose that I must try +to find the money somehow, and to bring it here to-morrow night….” Then, +turning to the faithless Tomozō, she said:—“Tomozō, I must tell you +that Hagiwara Sama now wears upon his body a <i>mamori</i> called by the name +of <i>Kai-On-Nyōrai</i>, and that so long as he wears it we cannot approach +him. So you will have to get that <i>mamori</i> away from him, by some means or +other, as well as to remove the <i>o-fuda</i>.” +</p> + +<p> +Tomozō feebly made answer:— +</p> + +<p> +“That also I can do, if you will promise to bring me the hundred +<i>ryō</i>.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, mistress,” said O-Yoné, “you will wait,—will you +not,—until to-morrow night?” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, dear Yoné!” sobbed the other,—“have we to go back +to-night again without seeing Hagiwara Sama? Ah! it is cruel!” +</p> + +<p> +And the shadow of the mistress, weeping, was led away by the shadow of the +maid. +</p> + +<h3>X</h3> + +<p> +Another day went, and another night came, and the dead came with it. But this +time no lamentation was heard without the house of Hagiwara; for the faithless +servant found his reward at the Hour of the Ox, and removed the <i>o-fuda</i>. +Moreover he had been able, while his master was at the bath, to steal from its +case the golden <i>mamori</i>, and to substitute for it an image of copper; and +he had buried the <i>Kai-On-Nyōrai</i> in a desolate field. So the visitants +found nothing to oppose their entering. Veiling their faces with their sleeves +they rose and passed, like a streaming of vapor, into the little window from +over which the holy text had been torn away. But what happened thereafter +within the house Tomozō never knew. +</p> + +<p> +The sun was high before he ventured again to approach his master’s +dwelling, and to knock upon the sliding-doors. For the first time in years he +obtained no response; and the silence made him afraid. Repeatedly he called, +and received no answer. Then, aided by O-Miné, he succeeded in effecting an +entrance and making his way alone to the sleeping-room, where he called again +in vain. He rolled back the rumbling shutters to admit the light; but still +within the house there was no stir. At last he dared to lift a corner of the +mosquito-net. But no sooner had he looked beneath than he fled from the house, +with a cry of horror. +</p> + +<p> +Shinzaburō was dead—hideously dead;—and his face was the face of a +man who had died in the uttermost agony of fear;—and lying beside him in +the bed were the bones of a woman! And the bones of the arms, and the bones of +the hands, clung fast about his neck. +</p> + +<h3>XI</h3> + +<p> +Hakuōdō Yusai, the fortune-teller, went to view the corpse at the prayer of the +faithless Tomozō. The old man was terrified and astonished at the spectacle, +but looked about him with a keen eye. He soon perceived that the <i>o-fuda</i> +had been taken from the little window at the back of the house; and on +searching the body of Shinzaburō, he discovered that the golden <i>mamori</i> +had been taken from its wrapping, and a copper image of Fudō put in place of +it. He suspected Tomozō of the theft; but the whole occurrence was so very +extraordinary that he thought it prudent to consult with the priest Ryōseki +before taking further action. Therefore, after having made a careful +examination of the premises, he betook himself to the temple Shin-Banzui-In, as +quickly as his aged limbs could bear him. +</p> + +<p> +Ryōseki, without waiting to hear the purpose of the old man’s visit, at +once invited him into a private apartment. +</p> + +<p> +“You know that you are always welcome here,” said Ryōseki. +“Please seat yourself at ease…. Well, I am sorry to tell you that +Hagiwara Sama is dead.” +</p> + +<p> +Yusai wonderingly exclaimed:—“Yes, he is dead;—but how did +you learn of it?” +</p> + +<p> +The priest responded:— +</p> + +<p> +“Hagiwara Sama was suffering from the results of an evil karma; and his +attendant was a bad man. What happened to Hagiwara Sama was +unavoidable;—his destiny had been determined from a time long before his +last birth. It will be better for you not to let your mind be troubled by this +event.” +</p> + +<p> +Yusai said:— +</p> + +<p> +“I have heard that a priest of pure life may gain power to see into the +future for a hundred years; but truly this is the first time in my existence +that I have had proof of such power…. Still, there is another matter about +which I am very anxious….” +</p> + +<p> +“You mean,” interrupted Ryōseki, “the stealing of the holy +<i>mamori</i>, the <i>Kai-On-Nyōrai</i>. But you must not give yourself any +concern about that. The image has been buried in a field; and it will be found +there and returned to me during the eighth month of the coming year. So please +do not be anxious about it.” +</p> + +<p> +More and more amazed, the old <i>ninsomi</i> ventured to observe:— +</p> + +<p> +“I have studied the <i>In-Yō</i>,<a href="#fn-6.17" name="fnref-6.17" id="fnref-6.17"><sup>[17]</sup></a> +and the science of divination; and I make my living by telling peoples’ +fortunes;—but I cannot possibly understand how you know these +things.” +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-6.17" id="fn-6.17"></a> <a href="#fnref-6.17">[17]</a> +The Male and Female principles of the universe, the Active and Passive forces +of Nature. Yusai refers here to the old Chinese nature-philosophy,—better +known to Western readers by the name FENG-SHUI. +</p> + +<p> +Ryōseki answered gravely:— +</p> + +<p> +“Never mind how I happen to know them…. I now want to speak to you about +Hagiwara’s funeral. The House of Hagiwara has its own family-cemetery, of +course; but to bury him there would not be proper. He must be buried beside +O-Tsuyu, the Lady Iijima; for his karma-relation to her was a very deep one. +And it is but right that you should erect a tomb for him at your own cost, +because you have been indebted to him for many favors.” +</p> + +<p> +Thus it came to pass that Shinzaburō was buried beside O-Tsuyu, in the cemetery +of Shin-Banzui-In, in Yanaka-no-Sasaki. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +—<i>Here ends the story of the Ghosts in the Romance of the +Peony-Lantern.</i>— +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p> +My friend asked me whether the story had interested me; and I answered by +telling him that I wanted to go to the cemetery of Shin-Banzui-In,—so as +to realize more definitely the local color of the author’s studies. +</p> + +<p> +“I shall go with you at once,” he said. “But what did you +think of the personages?” +</p> + +<p> +“To Western thinking,” I made answer, “Shinzaburō is a +despicable creature. I have been mentally comparing him with the true lovers of +our old ballad-literature. They were only too glad to follow a dead sweetheart +into the grave; and nevertheless, being Christians, they believed that they had +only one human life to enjoy in this world. But Shinzaburō was a +Buddhist,—with a million lives behind him and a million lives before him; +and he was too selfish to give up even one miserable existence for the sake of +the girl that came back to him from the dead. Then he was even more cowardly +than selfish. Although a samurai by birth and training, he had to beg a priest +to save him from ghosts. In every way he proved himself contemptible; and +O-Tsuyu did quite right in choking him to death.” +</p> + +<p> +“From the Japanese point of view, likewise,” my friend responded, +“Shinzaburō is rather contemptible. But the use of this weak character +helped the author to develop incidents that could not otherwise, perhaps, have +been so effectively managed. To my thinking, the only attractive character in +the story is that of O-Yoné: type of the old-time loyal and loving +servant,—intelligent, shrewd, full of resource,—faithful not only +unto death, but beyond death…. Well, let us go to Shin-Banzui-In.” +</p> + +<p> +We found the temple uninteresting, and the cemetery an abomination of +desolation. Spaces once occupied by graves had been turned into potato-patches. +Between were tombs leaning at all angles out of the perpendicular, tablets made +illegible by scurf, empty pedestals, shattered water-tanks, and statues of +Buddhas without heads or hands. Recent rains had soaked the black +soil,—leaving here and there small pools of slime about which swarms of +tiny frogs were hopping. Everything—excepting the +potato-patches—seemed to have been neglected for years. In a shed just +within the gate, we observed a woman cooking; and my companion presumed to ask +her if she knew anything about the tombs described in the Romance of the +Peony-Lantern. +</p> + +<p> +“Ah! the tombs of O-Tsuyu and O-Yoné?” she responded, +smiling;—“you will find them near the end of the first row at the +back of the temple—next to the statue of Jizo.” +</p> + +<p> +Surprises of this kind I had met with elsewhere in Japan. +</p> + +<p> +We picked our way between the rain-pools and between the green ridges of young +potatoes,—whose roots were doubtless feeding on the sub-stance of many +another O-Tsuyu and O-Yoné;—and we reached at last two lichen-eaten tombs +of which the inscriptions seemed almost obliterated. Beside the larger tomb was +a statue of Jizo, with a broken nose. +</p> + +<p> +“The characters are not easy to make out,” said my +friend—“but wait!”…. He drew from his sleeve a sheet of soft +white paper, laid it over the inscription, and began to rub the paper with a +lump of clay. As he did so, the characters appeared in white on the blackened +surface. +</p> + +<p> +“<i>Eleventh day, third month—Rat, Elder Brother, Fire—Sixth +year of Horéki</i> [A. D. 1756].’… This would seem to be the grave of +some innkeeper of Nedzu, named Kichibei. Let us see what is on the other +monument.” +</p> + +<p> +With a fresh sheet of paper he presently brought out the text of a kaimyō, and +read,— +</p> + +<p> +“<i>En-myō-In, Hō-yō-I-tei-ken-shi, +Hō-ni’:—‘Nun-of-the-Law, Illustrious, Pure-of-heart-and-will, +Famed-in-the-Law,—inhabiting the +Mansion-of-the-Preaching-of-Wonder.</i>’…. The grave of some Buddhist +nun.” +</p> + +<p> +“What utter humbug!” I exclaimed. “That woman was only making +fun of us.” +</p> + +<p> +“Now,” my friend protested, “you are unjust to the, woman! +You came here because you wanted a sensation; and she tried her very best to +please you. You did not suppose that ghost-story was true, did you?” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap07"></a>Footprints of the Buddha</h2> + +<h3>I</h3> + +<p> +I was recently surprised to find, in Anderson’s catalogue of Japanese and +Chinese paintings in the British Museum, this remarkable +statement:—“It is to be noted that in Japan the figure of the +Buddha is never represented by the feet, or pedestal alone, as in the Amravati +remains, and many other Indian art-relics.” As a matter of fact the +representation is not even rare in Japan. It is to be found not only upon stone +monuments, but also in religious paintings,—especially certain kakemono +suspended in temples. These kakemono usually display the footprints upon a very +large scale, with a multitude of mystical symbols and characters. The +sculptures may be less common; but in Tōkyō alone there are a number of +<i>Butsu-soku-séki</i>, or “Buddha-foot stones,” which I have +seen,—and probably several which I have not seen. There is one at the +temple of Ekō-In, near Ryōgoku-bashi; one at the temple of Denbō-In, in +Koishikawa; one at the temple of Denbō-In, in Asakusa; and a beautiful example +at Zōjōji in Shiba. These are not cut out of a single block, but are composed +of fragments cemented into the irregular traditional shape, and capped with a +heavy slab of Nebukawa granite, on the polished surface of which the design is +engraved in lines about one-tenth of an inch in depth. I should judge the +average height of these pedestals to be about two feet four inches, and their +greatest diameter about three feet. Around the footprints there are carved (in +most of the examples) twelve little bunches of leaves and buds of the +<i>Bodai-jū</i> (“Bodhidruma”), or Bodhi-tree of Buddhist legend. +In all cases the footprint design is about the same; but the monuments are +different in quality and finish. That of Zōjōji,—with figures of +divinities cut in low relief on its sides,—is the most ornate and costly +of the four. The specimen at Ekō-In is very poor and plain. +</p> + +<p> +The first <i>Butsu-soku-séki</i> made in Japan was that erected at Tōdaiji, in Nara. +It was designed after a similar monument in China, said to be the faithful copy +of an Indian original. Concerning this Indian original, the following tradition +is given in an old Buddhist +book:<a href="#fn-7.1" name="fnref-7.1" id="fnref-7.1"><sup>[1]</sup></a>—“In +a temple of the province of Makada [<i>Maghada</i>] there is a great stone. The +Buddha once trod upon this stone; and the prints of the soles of his feet +remain upon its surface. The length of the impressions is one foot and eight +inches,<a href="#fn-7.2" name="fnref-7.2" id="fnref-7.2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> and +the width of them a little more than six inches. On the sole-part of each +footprint there is the impression of a wheel; and upon each of the prints of +the ten toes there is a flower-like design, which sometimes radiates light. +When the Buddha felt that the time of his Nirvâna was approaching, he went to +Kushina [<i>Kusinârâ</i>], and there stood upon that stone. He stood with his +face to the south. Then he said to his disciple Anan [<i>Ânanda</i>]: ‘In +this place I leave the impression of my feet, to remain for a last token. +Although a king of this country will try to destroy the impression, it can +never be entirely destroyed.’ And indeed it has not been destroyed unto +this day. Once a king who hated Buddhism caused the top of the stone to be +pared off, so as to remove the impression; but after the surface had been +removed, the footprints reappeared upon the stone.” +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-7.1" id="fn-7.1"></a> <a href="#fnref-7.1">[1]</a> +The Chinese title is pronounced by Japanese as <i>Sei-iki-ki</i>. +“Sei-iki”(the Country of the West) was the old Japanese name for +India; and thus the title might be rendered, “The Book about +India.” I suppose this is the work known to Western scholars as +<i>Si-yu-ki</i>. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-7.2" id="fn-7.2"></a> <a href="#fnref-7.2">[2]</a> +“One <i>shaku</i> and eight <i>sun</i>.” But the Japanese foot and +inch are considerably longer than the English. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +Concerning the virtue of the representation of the footprints of the Buddha, +there is sometimes quoted a text from the <i>Kwan-butsu-sanmai-kyō</i> +[“Buddha-dhyâna-samâdhi-sâgara-sûtra”], thus translated for +me:—“In that time Shaka [“Sâkyamuni”] lifted up his +foot…. When the Buddha lifted up his foot all could perceive upon the sole of +it the appearance of a wheel of a thousand spokes…. And Shaka said: +‘Whosoever beholds the sign upon the sole of my foot shall be purified +from all his faults. Even he who beholds the sign after my death shall be +delivered from all the evil results of all his errors.” Various other +texts of Japanese Buddhism affirm that whoever looks upon the footprints of the +Buddha “shall be freed from the bonds of error, and conducted upon the +Way of Enlightenment.” +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus05"></a> +<a href="images/fig05.jpg"> +<img src="images/fig05.jpg" width="500" height="388" alt="Illustration:" /></a> +<p class="caption">S’rîpâda-tracing at Dentsu-In, Koishikawa, Tōkyō</p> +</div> + +<p> +An outline of the footprints as engraved on one of the Japanese +pedestals<a href="#fn-7.3" name="fnref-7.3" id="fnref-7.3"><sup>[3]</sup></a> +should have some interest even for persons familiar with Indian sculptures of +the S’rîpâda. The double-page drawing, accompanying this paper, and +showing both footprints, has been made after the tracing at Dentsu-In, where +the footprints have the full legendary dimension, It will be observed that +there are only seven emblems: these are called in Japan the <i>Shichi-Sō</i>, +or “Seven Appearances.” I got some information about them from the +<i>Shō-Ekō-Hō-Kwan</i>,—a book used by the Jodo sect. This book also +contains rough woodcuts of the footprints; and one of them I reproduce here for +the purpose of calling attention to the curious form of the emblems upon the +toes. They are said to be modifications of the <i>manji</i>, or svastikâ, but I +doubt it. In the <i>Butsu-soku-séki</i>-tracings, the corresponding figures +suggest the “flower-like design” mentioned in the tradition of the +Maghada stone; while the symbols in the book-print suggest fire. Indeed their +outline so much resembles the conventional flamelet-design of Buddhist +decoration, that I cannot help thinking them originally intended to indicate +the traditional luminosity of the footprints. Moreover, there is a text in the +book called <i>Hō-Kai-Shidai</i> that lends support to this +supposition:—“The sole of the foot of the Buddha is +flat,—like the base of a toilet-stand…. Upon it are lines forming the +appearance of a wheel of a thousand spokes…. The toes are slender, round, long, +straight, graceful, <i>and somewhat luminous</i>.” +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-7.3" id="fn-7.3"></a> <a href="#fnref-7.3">[3]</a> +A monument at Nara exhibits the <i>S’rîpâda</i> in a form differing +considerably from the design upon the Tōkyō pedestals. +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus06"></a> +<a href="images/fig06.jpg"> +<img src="images/fig06.jpg" width="500" height="423" alt="Illustration:" /></a> +<p class="caption">Left: S’rîpâda showing the svastikâ (From the Bukkyō-Hyakkwa-Zensho)<br /> +Right: (From the Shō-Ekō-Hō-Kwan)</p> +</div> + +<p> +The explanation of the Seven Appearances which is given by the +<i>Shō-Ekō-Hō-Kwan</i> cannot be called satisfactory; but it is not without +interest in relation to Japanese popular Buddhism. The emblems are considered +in the following order:— +</p> + +<p> +I.—<i>The Svastikâ</i>. The figure upon each toe is said to be a modification of +the <i>manji</i>;<a href="#fn-7.4" name="fnref-7.4" id="fnref-7.4"><sup>[4]</sup></a> +and although I doubt whether this is always the case, I have observed that on +some of the large kakémono representing the footprints, the emblem really +<i>is</i> the svastikâ,—not a flamelet nor a flower-shape.<a href="#fn-7.5" name="fnref-7.5" id="fnref-7.5"><sup>[5]</sup></a> +The Japanese commentator explains the svastikâ as a symbol of +“everlasting bliss.” +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-7.4" id="fn-7.4"></a> <a href="#fnref-7.4">[4]</a> +Lit.: “The thousand-character” sign. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-7.5" id="fn-7.5"></a> <a href="#fnref-7.5">[5]</a> +On some monuments and drawings there is a sort of disk made by a single line +in spiral, on each toe,—together with the image of a small wheel. +</p> + +<p> +II.—<i>The Fish</i> (<i>Gyo</i>). The fish signifies freedom from all +restraints. As in the water a fish moves easily in any direction, so in the +Buddha-state the fully-emancipated knows no restraints or obstructions. +</p> + +<p> +III.—<i>The Diamond-Mace</i> (Jap. <i>Kongō-sho;</i>—Sansc. +“Vadjra”). Explained as signifying the divine force that +“strikes and breaks all the lusts (<i>bonnō</i>) of the world.” +</p> + +<p> +IV.—<i>The Conch-Shell</i> (Jap. “<i>Hora</i>”) or +<i>Trumpet</i>. Emblem of the preaching of the Law. The book +<i>Shin-zoku-butsu-ji-hen</i> calls it the symbol of the voice of the Buddha. +The <i>Dai-hi-kyō</i> calls it the token of the preaching and of the power of +the Mahayana doctrine. The <i>Dai-Nichi-Kyō</i> says:—” At the +sound of the blowing of the shell, all the heavenly deities are filled with +delight, and come to hear the Law.” +</p> + +<p> +V.—<i>The Flower-Vase</i> (Jap. “<i>Hanagamé</i>”). Emblem of +<i>murō</i>,—a mystical word which might be literally rendered as +“not-leaking,”—signifying that condition of supreme +intelligence triumphant over birth and death. +</p> + +<p> +VI.—<i>The Wheel-of-a-Thousand-Spokes</i> (Sansc. “Tchakra +“). This emblem, called in Japanese <i>Senfuku-rin-sō</i>, is curiously +explained by various quotations. The <i>Hokké-Monku</i> says:—“The +effect of a wheel is to crush something; and the effect of the Buddha’s +preaching is to crush all delusions, errors, doubts, and superstitions. +Therefore preaching the doctrine is called, ‘turning the +Wheel.’”… The <i>Sei-Ri-Ron</i> says: “Even as the common +wheel has its spokes and its hub, so in Buddhism there are many branches of the +<i>Hasshi Shōdo</i> (‘Eight-fold Path,’ or eight rules of +conduct).” +</p> + +<p> +VII.—<i>The Crown of Brahmâ</i>. Under the heel of the Buddha is the +Treasure-Crown (<i>Hō-Kwan</i>) of Brahmâ (<i>Bon-Ten-O</i>),—in symbol +of the Buddha’s supremacy above the gods. +</p> + +<p> +But I think that the inscriptions upon any of these <i>Butsu-soku-séki</i> will +be found of more significance than the above imperfect attempts at an +explanation of the emblems. The inscriptions upon the monument at Dentsu-In are +typical. On different sides of the structure,—near the top, and placed by +rule so as to face certain points of the compass,—there are engraved five +Sanscrit characters which are symbols of the Five Elemental Buddhas, together +with scriptural and commemorative texts. These latter have been translated for +me as follows:— +</p> + +<p> +The HO-KO-HON-NYO-KYO says:—“In that time, from beneath his feet, +the Buddha radiated a light having the appearance of a wheel of a thousand +spokes. And all who saw that radiance became strictly upright, and obtained the +Supreme Enlightenment.” +</p> + +<p> +The KWAN-BUTSU-SANMAI-KYO says:—“Whosoever looks upon the +footprints of the Buddha shall be freed from the results even of innumerable +thousands of imperfections.” +</p> + +<p> +The BUTSU-SETSU-MU-RYO-JU-KYO says:—“In the land that the Buddha +treads in journeying, there is not even one person in all the multitude of the +villages who is not benefited. Then throughout the world there is peace and +good will. The sun and the moon shine clear and bright. Wind and rain come only +at a suitable time. Calamity and pestilence cease. The country prospers; the +people are free from care. Weapons become useless. All men reverence religion, +and regulate their conduct in all matters with earnestness and modesty.” +</p> + +<p class="center"> +[Commemorative Text.] +</p> + +<p> +—The Fifth Month of the Eighteenth Year of Meiji, all the priests of this +temple made and set up this pedestal-stone, bearing the likeness of the +footprints of the Buddha, and placed the same within the main court of +Dentsu-In, in order that the seed of holy enlightenment might be sown for +future time, and for the sake of the advancement of Buddhism. +</p> + +<p> +T<small>AIJO</small>, priest,—being the sixty-sixth chief-priest by +succession of this temple,—has respectfully composed. +</p> + +<p> +J<small>UNYU</small>, the minor priest, has reverentially inscribed. +</p> + +<h3>II</h3> + +<p> +Strange facts crowd into memory as one contemplates those graven +footprints,—footprints giant-seeming, yet less so than the human +personality of which they remain the symbol. Twenty-four hundred years ago, out +of solitary meditation upon the pain and the mystery of being, the mind of an +Indian pilgrim brought forth the highest truth ever taught to men, and in an +era barren of science anticipated the uttermost knowledge of our present +evolutional philosophy regarding the secret unity of life, the endless +illusions of matter and of mind, and the birth and death of universes. He, by +pure reason,—and he alone before our time,—found answers of worth +to the questions of the Whence, the Whither, and the Why;—and he made +with these answers another and a nobler faith than the creed of his fathers. He +spoke, and returned to his dust; and the people worshipped the prints of his +dead feet, because of the love that he had taught them. Thereafter waxed and +waned the name of Alexander, and the power of Rome and the might of +Islam;—nations arose and vanished;—cities grew and were +not;—the children of another civilization, vaster than Romes, begirdled +the earth with conquest, and founded far-off empires, and came at last to rule +in the land of that pilgrim’s birth. And these, rich in the wisdom of +four and twenty centuries, wondered at the beauty of his message, and caused +all that he had said and done to be written down anew in languages unborn at +the time when he lived and taught. Still burn his footprints in the East; and +still the great West, marvelling, follows their gleam to seek the Supreme +Enlightenment. Even thus, of old, Milinda the king followed the way to the +house of Nagasena,—at first only to question, after the subtle method of +the Greeks; yet, later, to accept with noble reverence the nobler method of the +Master. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap08"></a>Ululation</h2> + +<p> +She is lean as a wolf, and very old,—the white bitch that guards my gate +at night. She played with most of the young men and women of the neighborhood +when they were boys and girls. I found her in charge of my present dwelling on +the day that I came to occupy it. She had guarded the place, I was told, for a +long succession of prior tenants—apparently with no better reason than +that she had been born in the woodshed at the back of the house. Whether well +or ill treated she had served all occupants faultlessly as a watch. The +question of food as wages had never seriously troubled her, because most of the +families of the street daily contributed to her support. +</p> + +<p> +She is gentle and silent,—silent at least by day; and in spite of her +gaunt ugliness, her pointed ears, and her somewhat unpleasant eyes, everybody +is fond of her. Children ride on her back, and tease her at will; but although +she has been known to make strange men feel uncomfortable, she never growls at +a child. The reward of her patient good-nature is the friendship of the +community. When the dog-killers come on their bi-annual round, the neighbors +look after her interests. Once she was on the very point of being officially +executed when the wife of the smith ran to the rescue, and pleaded successfully +with the policeman superintending the massacres. “Put somebody’s +name on the dog,” said the latter: “then it will be safe. Whose dog +is it?” That question proved hard to answer. The dog was +everybody’s and nobody’s—welcome everywhere but owned +nowhere. “But where does it stay?” asked the puzzled constable. +“It stays,” said the smith’s wife, “in the house of the +foreigner.” “Then let the foreigner’s name be put upon the +dog,” suggested the policeman. +</p> + +<p> +Accordingly I had my name painted on her back in big Japanese characters. But +the neighbors did not think that she was sufficiently safeguarded by a single +name. So the priest of Kobudera painted the name of the temple on her left +side, in beautiful Chinese text; and the smith put the name of his shop on her +right side; and the vegetable-seller put on her breast the ideographs for +“eight-hundred,”—which represent the customary abbreviation +of the word yaoya (vegetable-seller),—any yaoya being supposed to sell +eight hundred or more different things. Consequently she is now a very +curious-looking dog; but she is well protected by all that calligraphy. +</p> + +<p> +I have only one fault to find with her: she howls at night. Howling is one of +the few pathetic pleasures of her existence. At first I tried to frighten her +out of the habit; but finding that she refused to take me seriously, I +concluded to let her howl. It would have been monstrous to beat her. +</p> + +<p> +Yet I detest her howl. It always gives me a feeling of vague disquiet, like the +uneasiness that precedes the horror of nightmare. It makes me +afraid,—indefinably, superstitiously afraid. Perhaps what I am writing +will seem to you absurd; but you would not think it absurd if you once heard +her howl. She does not howl like the common street-dogs. She belongs to some +ruder Northern breed, much more wolfish, and retaining wild traits of a very +peculiar kind. +</p> + +<p> +And her howl is also peculiar. It is incomparably weirder than the howl of any +European dog; and I fancy that it is incomparably older. It may represent the +original primitive cry of her species,—totally unmodified by centuries of +domestication. It begins with a stifled moan, like the moan of a bad +dream,—mounts into a long, long wail, like a wailing of wind,—sinks +quavering into a chuckle,—rises again to a wail, very much higher and +wilder than before,—breaks suddenly into a kind of atrocious +laughter,—and finally sobs itself out in a plaint like the crying of a +little child. The ghastliness of the performance is chiefly—though not +entirely—in the goblin mockery of the laughing tones as contrasted with +the piteous agony of the wailing ones: an incongruity that makes you think of +madness. And I imagine a corresponding incongruity in the soul of the creature. +I know that she loves me,—that she would throw away her poor life for me +at an instant’s notice. I am sure that she would grieve if I were to die. +But she would not think about the matter like other dogs,—like a dog with +hanging ears, for example. She is too savagely close to Nature for that. Were +she to find herself alone with my corpse in some desolate place, she would +first mourn wildly for her friend; but, this duty performed, she would +proceed to ease her sorrow in the simplest way possible,—by eating +him,—by cracking his bones between those long wolf’s-teeth of hers. +And thereafter, with spotless conscience, she would sit down and utter to the +moon the funeral cry of her ancestors. +</p> + +<p> +It fills me, that cry, with a strange curiosity not less than with a strange +horror,—because of certain extraordinary vowellings in it which always +recur in the same order of sequence, and must represent particular forms of +animal speech,—particular ideas. The whole thing is a song,—a song +of emotions and thoughts not human, and therefore humanly unimaginable. But +other dogs know what it means, and make answer over the miles of the +night,—sometimes from so far away that only by straining my hearing to +the uttermost can I detect the faint response. The words—(if I may call +them words)—are very few; yet, to judge by their emotional effect, they +must signify a great deal. Possibly they mean things myriads of years +old,—things relating to odors, to exhalations, to influences and +effluences inapprehensible by duller human sense,—impulses also, impulses +without name, bestirred in ghosts of dogs by the light of great moons. +</p> + +<p> +Could we know the sensations of a dog,—the emotions and the ideas of a +dog, we might discover some strange correspondence between their character and +the character of that peculiar disquiet which the howl of the creature evokes. +But since the senses of a dog are totally unlike those of a man, we shall never +really know. And we can only surmise, in the vaguest way, the meaning of the +uneasiness in ourselves. Some notes in the long cry,—and the weirdest of +them,—oddly resemble those tones of the human voice that tell of agony +and terror. Again, we have reason to believe that the sound of the cry itself +became associated in human imagination, at some period enormously remote, with +particular impressions of fear. It is a remarkable fact that in almost all +countries (including Japan) the howling of dogs has been attributed to their +perception of things viewless to man, and awful,—especially gods and +ghosts;—and this unanimity of superstitious belief suggests that one +element of the disquiet inspired by the cry is the dread of the supernatural. +To-day we have ceased to be consciously afraid of the unseen;—knowing +that we ourselves are supernatural,—that even the physical man, with all +his life of sense, is more ghostly than any ghost of old imagining: but some +dim inheritance of the primitive fear still slumbers in our being, and wakens +perhaps, like an echo, to the sound of that wail in the night. +</p> + +<p> +Whatever thing invisible to human eyes the senses of a dog may at times +perceive, it can be nothing resembling our idea of a ghost. Most probably the +mysterious cause of start and whine is not anything <i>seen</i>. There is no +anatomical reason for supposing a dog to possess exceptional powers of vision. +But a dog’s organs of scent proclaim a faculty immeasurably superior to +the sense of smell in man. The old universal belief in the superhuman +perceptivities of the creature was a belief justified by fact; but the +perceptivities are not visual. Were the howl of a dog really—as once +supposed—an outcry of ghostly terror, the meaning might possibly be, +“<i>I smell Them!</i>”—but not, “<i>I see +Them!</i>” No evidence exists to support the fancy that a dog can see any +forms of being which a man cannot see. +</p> + +<p> +But the night-howl of the white creature in my close forces me to wonder +whether she does not <i>mentally</i> see something really +terrible,—something which we vainly try to keep out of moral +consciousness: the ghoulish law of life. Nay, there are times when her cry +seems to me not the mere cry of a dog, but the voice of the law +itself,—the very speech of that Nature so inexplicably called by poets +the loving, the merciful, the divine! Divine, perhaps, in some unknowable +ultimate way,—but certainly not merciful, and still more certainly not +loving. Only by eating each other do beings exist! Beautiful to the +poet’s vision our world may seem,—with its loves, its hopes, its +memories, its aspirations; but there is nothing beautiful in the fact that life +is fed by continual murder,—that the tenderest affection, the noblest +enthusiasm, the purest idealism, must be nourished by the eating of flesh and +the drinking of blood. All life, to sustain itself, must devour life. You may +imagine yourself divine if you please,—but you have to obey that law. Be, +if you will, a vegetarian: none the less you must eat forms that have feeling +and desire. Sterilize your food; and digestion stops. You cannot even drink +without swallowing life. Loathe the name as we may, we are cannibals;—all +being essentially is One; and whether we eat the flesh of a plant, a fish, a +reptile, a bird, a mammal, or a man, the ultimate fact is the same. And for all +life the end is the same: every creature, whether buried or burnt, is +devoured,—and not only once or twice,—nor a hundred, nor a +thousand, nor a myriad times! Consider the ground upon which we move, the soil +out of which we came;—think of the vanished billions that have risen from +it and crumbled back into its latency to feed what becomes our food! +Perpetually we eat the dust of our race,—<i>the substance of our ancient +selves</i>. +</p> + +<p> +But even so-called inanimate matter is self-devouring. Substance preys upon +substance. As in the droplet monad swallows monad, so in the vast of Space do +spheres consume each other. Stars give being to worlds and devour them; planets +assimilate their own moons. All is a ravening that never ends but to +recommence. And unto whomsoever thinks about these matters, the story of a +divine universe, made and ruled by paternal love, sounds less persuasive than +the Polynesian tale that the souls of the dead are devoured by the gods. +</p> + +<p> +Monstrous the law seems, because we have developed ideas and sentiments which +are opposed to this demoniac Nature,—much as voluntary movement is +opposed to the blind power of gravitation. But the possession of such ideas and +sentiments does but aggravate the atrocity of our situation, without lessening +in the least the gloom of the final problem. +</p> + +<p> +Anyhow the faith of the Far East meets that problem better than the faith of +the West. To the Buddhist the Cosmos is not divine at all—quite the +reverse. It is Karma;—it is the creation of thoughts and acts of +error;—it is not governed by any providence;—it is a ghastliness, a +nightmare. Likewise it is an illusion. It seems real only for the same reason +that the shapes and the pains of an evil dream seem real to the dreamer. Our +life upon earth is a state of sleep. Yet we do not sleep utterly. There are +gleams in our darkness,—faint auroral wakenings of Love and Pity and +Sympathy and Magnanimity: these are selfless and true;—these are eternal +and divine;—these are the Four Infinite Feelings in whose after-glow all +forms and illusions will vanish, like mists in the light of the sun. But, +except in so far as we wake to these feelings, we are dreamers +indeed,—moaning unaided in darkness,—tortured by shadowy horror. +All of us dream; none are fully awake; and many, who pass for the wise of the +world, know even less of the truth than my dog that howls in the night. +</p> + +<p> +Could she speak, my dog, I think that she might ask questions which no +philosopher would be able to answer. For I believe that she is tormented by the +pain of existence. Of course I do not mean that the riddle presents itself to +her as it does to us,—nor that she can have reached any abstract +conclusions by any mental processes like our own. The external world to her is +“a continuum of smells.” She thinks, compares, remembers, reasons +by smells. By smell she makes her estimates of character: all her judgments are +founded upon smells. Smelling thousands of things which we cannot smell at all, +she must comprehend them in a way of which we can form no idea. Whatever she +knows has been learned through mental operations of an utterly unimaginable +kind. But we may be tolerably sure that she thinks about most things in some +odor-relation to the experience of eating or to the intuitive dread of being +eaten. Certainly she knows a great deal more about the earth on which we tread +than would be good for us to know; and probably, if capable of speech, she +could tell us the strangest stories of air and water. Gifted, or afflicted, as +she is with such terribly penetrant power of sense, her notion of apparent +realities must be worse than sepulchral. Small wonder if she howl at the moon +that shines upon such a world! +</p> + +<p> +And yet she is more awake, in the Buddhist meaning, than many of us. She +possesses a rude moral code—inculcating loyalty, submission, gentleness, +gratitude, and maternal love; together with various minor rules of +conduct;—and this simple code she has always observed. By priests her +state is termed a state of darkness of mind, because she cannot learn all that +men should learn; but according to her light she has done well enough to merit +some better condition in her next rebirth. So think the people who know her. +When she dies they will give her an humble funeral, and have a sutra recited on +behalf of her spirit. The priest will let a grave be made for her somewhere in +the temple-garden, and will place over it a little sotoba bearing the +text,—<i>Nyo-zé chikushō hotsu Bodai-shin</i>:<a href="#fn-8.1" name="fnref-8.1" id="fnref-8.1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> +“Even within such as this animal, the Knowledge Supreme will unfold at +last.” +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-8.1" id="fn-8.1"></a> <a href="#fnref-8.1">[1]</a> +Lit., “the Bodhi-mind;”—that is to say, the Supreme +Enlightenment, the intelligence of Buddhahood itself. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap09"></a>Bits of Poetry</h2> + +<h3>I</h3> + +<p> +Among a people with whom poetry has been for centuries a universal fashion of +emotional utterance, we should naturally suppose the common ideal of life to be +a noble one. However poorly the upper classes of such a people might compare +with those of other nations, we could scarcely doubt that its lower classes +were morally and otherwise in advance of our own lower classes. And the +Japanese actually present us with such a social phenomenon. +</p> + +<p> +Poetry in Japan is universal as the air. It is felt by everybody. It is read by +everybody. It is composed by almost everybody,—irrespective of class and +condition. Nor is it thus ubiquitous in the mental atmosphere only: it is +everywhere to be heard by the ear, and <i>seen by the eye!</i> +</p> + +<p> +As for audible poetry, wherever there is working there is singing. The toil of +the fields and the labor of the streets are performed to the rhythm of chanted +verse; and song would seem to be an expression of the life of the people in +about the same sense that it is an expression of the life of cicadæ…. As for +visible poetry, it appears everywhere, written or graven,—in Chinese or +in Japanese characters,—as a form of decoration. In thousands and +thousands of dwellings, you might observe that the sliding-screens, separating +rooms or closing alcoves, have Chinese or Japanese decorative texts upon +them;—and these texts are poems. In houses of the better class there are +usually a number of <i>gaku</i>, or suspended tablets to be seen,—each +bearing, for all design, a beautifully written verse. But poems can be found +upon almost any kind of domestic utensil,—for example upon braziers, iron +kettles, vases, wooden trays, lacquer ware, porcelains, chopsticks of the finer +sort,—even toothpicks! Poems are painted upon shop-signs, panels, +screens, and fans. Poems are printed upon towels, draperies, curtains, +kerchiefs, silk-linings, and women’s crêpe-silk underwear. Poems are +stamped or worked upon letter-paper, envelopes, purses, mirror-cases, +travelling-bags. Poems are inlaid upon enamelled ware, cut upon bronzes, graven +upon metal pipes, embroidered upon tobacco-pouches. It were a hopeless effort +to enumerate a tithe of the articles decorated with poetical texts. Probably my +readers know of those social gatherings at which it is the custom to compose +verses, and to suspend the compositions to blossoming trees,—also of the +Tanabata festival in honor of certain astral gods, when poems inscribed on +strips of colored paper, and attached to thin bamboos, are to be seen even by +the roadside,—all fluttering in the wind like so many tiny flags…. +Perhaps you might find your way to some Japanese hamlet in which there are +neither trees nor flowers, but never to any hamlet in which there is no visible +poetry. You might wander,—as I have done,—into a settlement so poor +that you could not obtain there, for love or money, even a cup of real tea; but +I do not believe that you could discover a settlement in which there is nobody +capable of making a poem. +</p> + +<h3>II</h3> + +<p> +Recently while looking over a manuscript-collection of verses,—mostly +short poems of an emotional or descriptive character,—it occurred to me +that a selection from them might serve to illustrate certain Japanese qualities +of sentiment, as well as some little-known Japanese theories of artistic +expression,—and I ventured forthwith, upon this essay. The poems, which +had been collected for me by different persons at many different times and +places, were chiefly of the kind written on particular occasions, and cast into +forms more serried, if not also actually briefer, than anything in Western +prosody. Probably few of my readers are aware of two curious facts relating to +this order of composition. Both facts are exemplified in the history and in the +texts of my collection,—though I cannot hope, in my renderings, to +reproduce the original effect, whether of imagery or of feeling. +</p> + +<p> +The first curious fact is that, from very ancient times, the writing of short +poems has been practised in Japan even more as a moral duty than as a mere +literary art. The old ethical teaching was somewhat like this:—“Are +you very angry?—do not say anything unkind, but compose a poem. Is your +best-beloved dead?—do not yield to useless grief, but try to calm your +mind by making a poem. Are you troubled because you are about to die, leaving +so many things unfinished?—be brave, and write a poem on death! Whatever +injustice or misfortune disturbs you, put aside your resentment or your sorrow +as soon as possible, and write a few lines of sober and elegant verse for a +moral exercise.” Accordingly, in the old days, every form of trouble was +encountered with a poem. Bereavement, separation, disaster called forth verses +in lieu of plaints. The lady who preferred death to loss of honor, composed a +poem before piercing her throat The samurai sentenced to die by his own hand, +wrote a poem before performing <i>hara-kiri</i>. Even in this less romantic era +of Meiji, young people resolved upon suicide are wont to compose some verses +before quitting the world. Also it is still the good custom to write a poem in +time of ill-fortune. I have frequently known poems to be written under the most +trying circumstances of misery or suffering,—nay even upon a bed of +death;-and if the verses did not display any extraordinary talent, they at +least afforded extraordinary proof of self-mastery under pain…. Surely this +fact of composition as ethical practice has larger interest than all the +treatises ever written about the rules of Japanese prosody. +</p> + +<p> +The other curious fact is only a fact of aesthetic theory. The common +art-principle of the class of poems under present consideration is identical +with the common principle of Japanese pictorial illustration. By the use of a +few chosen words the composer of a short poem endeavors to do exactly what the +painter endeavors to do with a few strokes of the brush,—to evoke an +image or a mood,—to revive a sensation or an emotion. And the +accomplishment of this purpose,—by poet or by +picture-maker,—depends altogether upon capacity to <i>suggest</i>, and +only to suggest. A Japanese artist would be condemned for attempting +elaboration of detail in a sketch intended to recreate the memory of some +landscape seen through the blue haze of a spring morning, or under the great +blond light of an autumn after-noon. Not only would he be false to the +traditions of his art: he would necessarily defeat his own end thereby. In the +same way a poet would be condemned for attempting any <i>completeness</i> of +utterance in a very short poem: his object should be only to stir imagination +without satisfying it. So the term <i>ittakkiri</i>—meaning “all +gone,” or “entirely vanished,” in the sense of “all +told,”—is contemptuously applied to verses in which the verse-maker +has uttered his whole thought;—praise being reserved for compositions +that leave in the mind the thrilling of a something unsaid. Like the single +stroke of a temple-bell, the perfect short poem should set murmuring and +undulating, in the mind of the hearer, many a ghostly aftertone of long +duration. +</p> + +<h3>III</h3> + +<p> +But for the same reason that Japanese short poems may be said to resemble. +Japanese pictures, a full comprehension of them requires an intimate knowledge +of the life which they reflect. And this is especially true of the emotional +class of such poems,—a literal translation of which, in the majority of +cases, would signify almost nothing to the Western mind. Here, for example, is +a little verse, pathetic enough to Japanese comprehension:— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +Chōchō ni!..<br /> +Kyonen shishitaru<br /> +Tsuma koishi! +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Translated, this would appear to mean only,—“<i>Two butterflies!… +Last year my dear wife died!</i>” Unless you happen to know the pretty +Japanese symbolism of the butterfly in relation to happy marriage, and the old +custom of sending with the wedding-gift a large pair of paper-butterflies +(<i>ochō-mechō</i>), the verse might well seem to be less than commonplace. Or +take this recent composition, by a University student, which has been praised +by good judges:— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +Furusato ni<br /> +Fubo ari—mushi no<br /> +Koë-goë!<a href="#fn-9.1" name="fnref-9.1" id="fnref-9.1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +—“<i>In my native place the old folks [or, my parents] +are—clamor of insect-voices!</i>” +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-9.1" id="fn-9.1"></a> <a href="#fnref-9.1">[1]</a> +I must observe, however, that the praise was especially evoked by the use of +the term <i>koë-goë</i>—(literally meaning “voice after +voice” or a crying of many voices);—and the special value of the +syllables here can be appreciated only by a Japanese poet. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The poet here is a country-lad. In unfamiliar fields he listens to the great +autumn chorus of insects; and the sound revives for him the memory of his +far-off home and of his parents. But here is something incomparably more +touching,—though in literal translation probably more obscure,—than +either of the preceding specimens;— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +Mi ni shimiru<br /> +Kazé ya!<br /> +Shōji ni<br /> +Yubi no ato! +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +—“<i>Oh, body-piercing wind!—that work of little fingers in the +shōji!</i>”<a href="#fn-9.2" name="fnref-9.2" id="fnref-9.2"><sup>[2]</sup></a>…. +What does this mean? It means the sorrowing of a mother for her dead child. +<i>Shōji</i> is the name given to those light white-paper screens which in a +Japanese house serve both as windows and doors, admitting plenty of light, but +concealing, like frosted glass, the interior from outer observation, and +excluding the wind. Infants delight to break these by poking their fingers +through the soft paper: then the wind blows through the holes. In this case the +wind blows very cold indeed,—into the mother’s very +heart;—for it comes through the little holes that were made by the +fingers of her dead child. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-9.2" id="fn-9.2"></a> <a href="#fnref-9.2">[2]</a> +More literally:—“body-through-pierce wind—ah!—<i>shōji</i> +in the traces of [viz.: holes made by] fingers!” +</p> + +<p> +The impossibility of preserving the inner quality of such poems in a literal +rendering, will now be obvious. Whatever I attempt in this direction must of +necessity be <i>ittakkiri;</i>—for the unspoken has to be expressed; and +what the Japanese poet is able to say in seventeen or twenty-one syllables may +need in English more than double that number of words. But perhaps this fact +will lend additional interest to the following atoms of emotional +expression:— +</p> + +<p class="center"> +A MOTHER’S REMEMBRANCE +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +<i>Sweet and clear in the night, the voice of a boy at study,<br /> +Reading out of a book…. I also once had a boy!</i> +</p> + +<p class="center"> +A MEMORY IN SPRING +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +<i>She, who, departing hence, left to the flowers of the plum-tree,<br /> +Blooming beside our eaves, the charm of her youth and beauty,<br /> +And maiden pureness of heart, to quicken their flush and fragrance,—<br /> +Ah! where does she dwell to-day, our dear little vanished sister?</i> +</p> + +<p class="center"> +FANCIES OF ANOTHER FAITH +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +<i>(1) I sought in the place of graves the tomb of my vanished friend:<br /> +From ancient cedars above there rippled a wild doves cry.</i> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +<i>(2) Perhaps a freak of the wind-yet perhaps a sign of remembrance,—<br /> +This fall of a single leaf on the water I pour for the dead.</i> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +<i>(3)I whispered a prayer at the grave: a butterfly rose and fluttered—<br /> +Thy spirit, perhaps, dear friend!…</i> +</p> + +<p class="center"> +IN A CEMETERY AT NIGHT +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +<i>This light of the moon that plays on the water I pour for the dead,<br /> +Differs nothing at all from the moonlight of other years.</i> +</p> + +<p class="center"> +AFTER LONG ABSENCE +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +<i>The garden that once I loved, and even the hedge of the garden,—<br /> +All is changed and strange: the moonlight only is faithful;—<br /> +The moon alone remembers the charm of the time gone by!</i> +</p> + +<p class="center"> +MOONLIGHT ON THE SEA +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +<i>O vapory moon of spring!—would that one plunge into ocean<br /> +Could win me renewal of life as a part of thy light on the waters!</i> +</p> + +<p class="center"> +AFTER FAREWELL +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +<i>Whither now should! look?—where is the place of parting?<br /> +Boundaries all have vanished;—nothing tells of direction:<br /> +Only the waste of sea under the shining moon!</i> +</p> + +<p class="center"> +HAPPY POVERTY +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +<i>Wafted into my room, the scent of the flowers of the plum-tree<br /> +Changes my broken window into a source of delight.</i> +</p> + +<p class="center"> +AUTUMN FANCIES +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +<i>(1) Faded the clover now;—sere and withered the grasses:<br /> +What dreams the matsumushi</i><a href="#fn-9.3" name="fnref-9.3" id="fnref-9.3"><sup>[3]</sup></a> +<i>in the desolate autumn-fields?</i> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +<i>(2) Strangely sad, I thought, sounded the bell of evening;—<br /> +Haply that tone proclaimed the night in which autumn dies!</i> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +<i>(3) Viewing this autumn-moon, I dream of my native village<br /> +Under the same soft light,—and the shadows about my home.</i> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-9.3" id="fn-9.3"></a> <a href="#fnref-9.3">[3]</a> +A musical cricket—<i>calyptotryphus marmoratus</i>. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +IN TIME OF GRIEF, HEARING A SÉMI (CICADA) +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +<i>Only “I,” “I,”—the cry of the foolish semi!<br /> +Any one knows that the world is void as its cast-off shell.</i> +</p> + +<p class="center"> +ON THE CAST-OFF SHELL OF A SÉMI +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +<i>Only the pitiful husk!… O poor singer of summer,<br /> +Wherefore thus consume all thy body in song?</i> +</p> + +<p class="center"> +SUBLIMITY OF INTELLECTUAL POWER +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +<i>The mind that, undimmed, absorbs the foul and the pure together—<br /> +Call it rather a sea one thousand fathoms deep!</i><a href="#fn-9.4" name="fnref-9.4" id="fnref-9.4"><sup>[4]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-9.4" id="fn-9.4"></a> <a href="#fnref-9.4">[4]</a> +This is quite novel in its way,—a product of the University: the original +runs thus:— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +Nigoréru mo<br /> +Suméru mo tomo ni<br /> +Iruru koso<br /> +Chi-hiro no umi no<br /> +Kokoro nari-keré! +</p> + +<p class="center"> +SHINTŌ REVERY +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +<i>Mad waves devour The rocks: I ask myself in the darkness,<br /> +“Have I become a god?” Dim is The night and wild!</i> +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +“Have I become a god?”—that is to say, “Have I +died?—am I only a ghost in this desolation?” The dead, becoming +<i>kami</i> or gods, are thought to haunt wild solitudes by preference. +</p> + +<h3>IV</h3> + +<p> +The poems above rendered are more than pictorial: they suggest something of +emotion or sentiment. But there are thousands of pictorial poems that do not; +and these would seem mere insipidities to a reader ignorant of their true +purpose. When you learn that some exquisite text of gold means only, +“<i>Evening-sunlight on the wings of the +water-fowl</i>,”—or,”<i>Now in my garden the flowers bloom, +and the butterflies dance</i>,”—then your first interest in +decorative poetry is apt to wither away. Yet these little texts have a very +real merit of their own, and an intimate relation to Japanese aesthetic feeling +and experience. Like the pictures upon screens and fans and cups, they give +pleasure by recalling impressions of nature, by reviving happy incidents of +travel or pilgrimage, by evoking the memory of beautiful days. And when this +plain fact is fully understood, the persistent attachment of modern Japanese +poets—notwithstanding their University training—to the ancient +poetical methods, will be found reasonable enough. +</p> + +<p> +I need offer only a very few specimens of the purely pictorial poetry. The +following—mere thumb-nail sketches in verse—are of recent date. +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +LONESOMENESS<br /> +<br /> +Furu-dera ya:<br /> +Kané mono iwazu;<br /> +Sakura chiru. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +—“<i>Old temple: bell voiceless; cherry-flowers fall</i>.” +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +MORNING AWAKENING AFTER A NIGHT’S REST IN A TEMPLE<br /> +<br /> +Yamadera no<br /> +Shichō akéyuku:<br /> +Taki no oto. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +—“<i>In the mountain-temple the paper mosquito-curtain is lighted +by the dawn: sound of water-fall</i>.” +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +WINTER-SCENE<br /> +<br /> +Yuki no mura;<br /> +Niwatori naité;<br /> +Aké shiroshi. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“<i>Snow-village;—cocks crowing;—white dawn</i>.” +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +Let me conclude this gossip on poetry by citing from another group of +verses—also pictorial, in a certain sense, but chiefly remarkable for +ingenuity—two curiosities of impromptu. The first is old, and is +attributed to the famous poetess Chiyo. Having been challenged to make a poem +of seventeen syllables referring to a square, a triangle, and a circle, she is +said to have immediately responded,— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +Kaya no té wo<br /> +Hitotsu hazushité,<br /> +Tsuki-mi kana! +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +—“<i>Detaching one corner of the mosquito-net, lo! I behold the +moon!</i>” The top of the mosquito-net, suspended by cords at each of its +four corners, represents the square;—letting down the net at one corner +converts the square into a triangle;—and the moon represents the circle. +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus07"></a> +<a href="images/fig07.jpg"> +<img src="images/fig07.jpg" width="400" height="205" alt="Illustration:" /></a> +<p class="caption">Square Triangle</p> +</div> + +<p> +The other curiosity is a recent impromptu effort to portray, in one verse of +seventeen syllables, the last degree of devil-may-care-poverty,—perhaps +the brave misery of the wandering student;—and I very much doubt whether +the effort could be improved upon:— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +Nusundaru<br /> +Kagashi no kasa ni<br /> +Amé kyū nari. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +—“<i>Heavily pours the rain on the hat that I stole from the +scarecrow!</i>” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap10"></a>Japanese Buddhist Proverbs</h2> + +<p> +As representing that general quality of moral experience which remains almost +unaffected by social modifications of any sort, the proverbial sayings of a +people must always possess a special psychological interest for thinkers. In +this kind of folklore the oral and the written literature of Japan is rich to a +degree that would require a large book to exemplify. To the subject as a whole +no justice could be done within the limits of a single essay. But for certain +classes of proverbs and proverbial phrases something can be done within even a +few pages; and sayings related to Buddhism, either by allusion or derivation, +form a class which seems to me particularly worthy of study. Accordingly, with +the help of a Japanese friend, I have selected and translated the following +series of examples,—choosing the more simple and familiar where choice +was possible, and placing the originals in alphabetical order to facilitate +reference. Of course the selection is imperfectly representative; but it will +serve to illustrate certain effects of Buddhist teaching upon popular thought +and speech.<br /><br /> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +1.—<i>Akuji mi ni tomaru.</i><br /> +All evil done clings to the body.<a href="#fn-10.1" name="fnref-10.1" id="fnref-10.1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> +</p> +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.1" id="fn-10.1"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.1">[1]</a> +The consequence of any evil act or thought never,—so long as karma +endures,—will cease to act upon the existence of the person guilty of it. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +2.—<i>Atama soru yori kokoro wo soré.</i><br /> +Better to shave the heart than to shave the head.<a href="#fn-10.2" name="fnref-10.2" id="fnref-10.2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.2" id="fn-10.2"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.2">[2]</a> +Buddhist nuns and priests have their heads completely shaven. The proverb +signifies that it is better to correct the heart,—to conquer all vain +regrets and desires,—than to become a religious. In common parlance the +phrase “to shave the head” means to become a monk or a nun. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +3.—<i>Au wa wakaré no hajimé.</i><br /> +Meeting is only the beginning of separation.<a href="#fn-10.3" name="fnref-10.3" id="fnref-10.3"><sup>[3]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.3" id="fn-10.3"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.3">[3]</a> +Regret and desire are equally vain in this world of impermanency; for all joy +is the beginning of an experience that must have its pain. This proverb refers +directly to the sutra-text,—<i>Shōja hitsumetsu é-sha-jori</i>,—” +All that live must surely die; and all that meet will surely part.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +4.—<i>Banji wa yumé.</i><br /> +All things<a href="#fn-10.4" name="fnref-10.4" id="fnref-10.4"><sup>[4]</sup></a> +are merely dreams. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.4" id="fn-10.4"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.4">[4]</a> +Literally, “ten thousand things.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +5.—<i>Bonbu mo satoréba hotoké nari.</i><br /> +Even a common man by obtaining knowledge becomes a Buddha.<a href="#fn-10.5" name="fnref-10.5" id="fnref-10.5"><sup>[5]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.5" id="fn-10.5"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.5">[5]</a> +The only real differences of condition are differences in knowledge of the +highest truth. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +6.—<i>Bonnō kunō.</i><br /> +All lust is grief.<a href="#fn-10.6" name="fnref-10.6" id="fnref-10.6"><sup>[6]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.6" id="fn-10.6"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.6">[6]</a> +All sensual desire invariably brings sorrow. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +7—<i>Buppō to wara-ya no amé, dété kiké.</i><br /> +One must go outside to hear Buddhist doctrine or the sound of rain on a straw +roof.<a href="#fn-10.7" name="fnref-10.7" id="fnref-10.7"><sup>[7]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.7" id="fn-10.7"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.7">[7]</a> +There is an allusion here to the condition of the <i>shukké</i> (priest): +literally, “one who has left his house.” The proverb suggests that +the higher truths of Buddhism cannot be acquired by those who continue to live +in the world of follies and desires. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +8.—<i>Busshō en yori okoru.</i><br /> +Out of karma-relation even the divine nature itself grows.<a href="#fn-10.8" name="fnref-10.8" id="fnref-10.8"><sup>[8]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.8" id="fn-10.8"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.8">[8]</a> +There is good as well as bad karma. Whatever hap-piness we enjoy is not less a +consequence of the acts and thoughts of previous lives, than is any misfortune +that comes to us. Every good thought and act contributes to the evolution of +the Buddha-nature within each of us. Another proverb [No. 10],—<i>En naki +shujō wa doshi gatashi</i>,—further illustrates the meaning of this one. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +9.—<i>Enkō ga tsuki wo toran to suru ga gotoshi.</i><br /> +Like monkeys trying to snatch the moon’s reflection on water.<a href="#fn-10.9" name="fnref-10.9" id="fnref-10.9"><sup>[9]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.9" id="fn-10.9"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.9">[9]</a> +Allusion to a parable, said to have been related by the Buddha himself, about +some monkeys who found a well under a tree, and mistook for reality the image +of the moon in the water. They resolved to seize the bright apparition. One +monkey suspended himself by the tail from a branch overhanging the well, a +second monkey clung to the first, a third to the second, a fourth to the third, +and so on,—till the long chain of bodies had almost reached the water. +Suddenly the branch broke under the unaccustomed weight; and all the monkeys +were drowned. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +10.—<i>En naki shujō wa doshi gatashi.</i><br /> +To save folk having no karma-relation would be difficult indeed!<a href="#fn-10.10" name="fnref-10.10" id="fnref-10.10"><sup>[10]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.10" id="fn-10.10"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.10">[10]</a> +No karma-relation would mean an utter absence of merit as well as of demerit. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +11.—<i>Fujō seppō suru hōshi wa, birataké ni umaru.</i><br /> +The priest who preaches foul doctrine shall be reborn as a fungus. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +12.—<i>Gaki mo ninzu.</i><br /> +Even gaki (<i>prêtas</i>) can make a crowd.<a href="#fn-10.11" name="fnref-10.11" id="fnref-10.11"><sup>[11]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.11" id="fn-10.11"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.11">[11]</a> +Literally: “Even gaki are a multitude (or, +‘population’).” This is a popular saying used in a variety of +ways. The ordinary meaning is to the effect that no matter how poor or +miserable the individuals composing a multitude, they collectively represent a +respectable force. Jocosely the saying is sometimes used of a crowd of wretched +or tired-looking people,—sometimes of an assembly of weak boys desiring +to make some demonstration,—sometimes of a miserable-looking company of +soldiers.—Among the lowest classes of the people it is not uncommon to +call a deformed or greedy person a “gaki.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +13.—<i>Gaki no mé ni midzu miézu.</i><br /> +To the eyes of gaki water is viewless.<a href="#fn-10.12" name="fnref-10.12" id="fnref-10.12"><sup>[12]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.12" id="fn-10.12"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.12">[12]</a> +Some authorities state that those <i>prêtas</i> who suffer especially from +thirst, as a consequence of faults committed in former lives, are unable to see +water.—This proverb is used in speaking of persons too stupid or vicious +to perceive a moral truth. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +14.—<i>Goshō wa daiji.</i><br /> +The future life is the all-important thing.<a href="#fn-10.13" name="fnref-10.13" id="fnref-10.13"><sup>[13]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.13" id="fn-10.13"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.13">[13]</a> +The common people often use the curious expression “<i>gosho-daiji</i>” +as an equivalent for “extremely important.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +15.—<i>Gun-mō no tai-zō wo saguru ga gotoshi.</i><br /> +Like a lot of blind men feeling a great elephant.<a href="#fn-10.14" name="fnref-10.14" id="fnref-10.14"><sup>[14]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.14" id="fn-10.14"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.14">[14]</a> +Said of those who ignorantly criticise the doctrines of Buddhism.—The +proverb alludes to a celebrated fable in the <i>Avadânas</i>, about a number of +blind men who tried to decide the form of an elephant by feeling the animal. +One, feeling the leg, declared the elephant to be like a tree; another, feeling +the trunk only, declared the elephant to be like a serpent; a third, who felt +only the side, said that the elephant was like a wall; a fourth, grasping the +tail, said that the elephant was like a rope, etc. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +16.—<i>Gwai-men nyo-Bosatsu; nai shin nyo-Yasha.</i><br /> +In outward aspect a Bodhisattva; at innermost heart a +demon.<a href="#fn-10.15" name="fnref-10.15" id="fnref-10.15"><sup>[15]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.15" id="fn-10.15"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.15">[15]</a> +<i>Yasha</i> (Sanscrit <i>Yaksha</i>), a man-devouring demon. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +17.—<i>Hana wa né ni kaeru.</i><br /> +The flower goes back to its root.<a href="#fn-10.16" name="fnref-10.16" id="fnref-10.16"><sup>[16]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.16" id="fn-10.16"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.16">[16]</a> +This proverb is most often used in reference to death,—signifying that +all forms go back into the nothingness out of which they spring. But it may +also be used in relation to the law of cause-and-effect. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +18.—<i>Hibiki no koë ni ozuru ga gotoshi.</i><br /> +Even as the echo answers to the voice.<a href="#fn-10.17" name="fnref-10.17" id="fnref-10.17"><sup>[17]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.17" id="fn-10.17"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.17">[17]</a> +Referring to the doctrine of cause-and-effect. The philosophical beauty of the +comparison will be appreciated only if we bear in mind that even the +<i>tone</i> of the echo repeats the tone of the voice. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +19.—<i>Hito wo tasukéru ga shukhé no yuku.</i><br /> +The task of the priest is to save mankind. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +20.—<i>Hi wa kiyurédomo tō-shin wa kiyédzu.</i><br /> +Though the flame be put out, the wick remains.<a href="#fn-10.18" name="fnref-10.18" id="fnref-10.18"><sup>[18]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.18" id="fn-10.18"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.18">[18]</a> +Although the passions may be temporarily overcome, their sources remain. A +proverb of like meaning is, <i>Bonnō no inu oëdomo sarazu:</i> “Though +driven away, the Dog of Lust cannot be kept from coming back again.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +21.—<i>Hotoké mo motowa bonbu.</i><br /> +Even the Buddha was originally but a common man. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +22.—<i>Hotoké ni naru mo shami wo beru.</i><br /> +Even to become a Buddha one must first become a novice. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +23.—<i>Hotoké no kao mo sando.</i><br /> +Even a Buddha’s face,—only three times.<a href="#fn-10.19" name="fnref-10.19" id="fnref-10.19"><sup>[19]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.19" id="fn-10.19"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.19">[19]</a> +This is a short popular form of the longer proverb, <i>Hotoké no kao mo sando +nazuréba, hara wo tatsu:</i> “Stroke even the face of a Buddha three +times, and his anger will be roused.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +24.—<i>Hotoké tanondé Jigoku é yuku.</i><br /> +Praying to Buddha one goes to hell.<a href="#fn-10.20" name="fnref-10.20" id="fnref-10.20"><sup>[20]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.20" id="fn-10.20"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.20">[20]</a> +The popular saying, <i>Oni no Nembutsu</i>,—“a devil’s +praying,”—has a similar meaning. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +25.—<i>Hotoké tsukutté tamashii irédzu.</i><br /> +Making a Buddha without putting in the soul.<a href="#fn-10.21" name="fnref-10.21" id="fnref-10.21"><sup>[21]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.21" id="fn-10.21"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.21">[21]</a> +That is to say, making an image of the Buddha without giving it a soul. This +proverb is used in reference to the conduct of those who undertake to do some +work, and leave the most essential part of the work unfinished. It contains an +allusion to the curious ceremony called <i>Kai-gen</i>, or +“Eye-Opening.” This <i>Kai-gen</i> is a kind of consecration, by +virtue of which a newly-made image is supposed to become animated by the real +presence of the divinity represented. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +26.—<i>Ichi-ju no kagé, ichi-ga no nagaré, tashō no en.</i><br /> +Even [the experience of] a single shadow or a single flowing of water, is [made +by] the karma-relations of a former life.<a href="#fn-10.22" name="fnref-10.22" id="fnref-10.22"><sup>[22]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.22" id="fn-10.22"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.22">[22]</a> +Even so trifling an occurrence as that of resting with another person under the +shadow of a tree, or drinking from the same spring with another person, is +caused by the karma-relations of some previous existence. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +27.—<i>Ichi-mō shū-mō wo hiku.</i><br /> +One blind man leads many blind men.<a href="#fn-10.23" name="fnref-10.23" id="fnref-10.23"><sup>[23]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.23" id="fn-10.23"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.23">[23]</a> +From the Buddhist work <i>Dai-chi-dō-ron</i>.—The reader will find a +similar proverb in Rhys-David’s “<i>Buddhist Suttas</i>” +(Sacred Books of the East), p. 173,—together with a very curious parable, +cited in a footnote, which an Indian commentator gives in explanation. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +28.—<i>Ingwa na ko.</i><br /> +A karma-child.<a href="#fn-10.24" name="fnref-10.24" id="fnref-10.24"><sup>[24]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.24" id="fn-10.24"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.24">[24]</a> +A common saying among the lower classes in reference to an unfortunate or +crippled child. Here the word <i>ingwa</i> is used especially in the +retributive sense. It usually signifies evil karma; <i>kwahō</i> being the term +used in speaking of meritorious karma and its results. While an unfortunate +child is spoken of as “a child of <i>ingwa</i>,” a very lucky +person is called a “<i>kwahō-mono</i>,”—that is to say, an +instance, or example of <i>kwahō</i>. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +29.—<i>Ingwa wa, kuruma no wa.</i><br /> +Cause-and-effect is like a wheel.<a href="#fn-10.25" name="fnref-10.25" id="fnref-10.25"><sup>[25]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.25" id="fn-10.25"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.25">[25]</a> +The comparison of <i>karma</i> to the wheel of a wagon will be familiar to +students of Buddhism. The meaning of this proverb is identical with that of the +<i>Dhammapada</i> verse:—“If a man speaks or acts with an evil +thought, pain follows him as the wheel follows the foot of the ox that draws +the carriage.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +30.—<i>Innen ga fukai.</i><br /> +The karma-relation is deep.<a href="#fn-10.26" name="fnref-10.26" id="fnref-10.26"><sup>[26]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.26" id="fn-10.26"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.26">[26]</a> +A saying very commonly used in speaking of the attachment of lovers, or of the +unfortunate results of any close relation between two persons. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +31.—<i>Inochi wa fū-zen no tomoshibi.</i><br /> +Life is a lamp-flame before a wind.<a href="#fn-10.27" name="fnref-10.27" id="fnref-10.27"><sup>[27]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.27" id="fn-10.27"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.27">[27]</a> +Or, “like the flame of a lamp exposed to the wind.” A frequent +expression in Buddhist literature is “the Wind of Death.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +32.—<i>Issun no mushi ni mo, gobu no tamashii.</i><br /> +Even a worm an inch long has a soul half-an-inch long.<a href="#fn-10.28" name="fnref-10.28" id="fnref-10.28"><sup>[28]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.28" id="fn-10.28"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.28">[28]</a> +Literally, “has a soul of five <i>bu</i>,”—five <i>bu</i> +being equal to half of the Japanese inch. Buddhism forbids all taking of life, +and classes as <i>living</i> things (<i>Ujō</i>) all forms having sentiency. +The proverb, however,—as the use of the word “soul” +(<i>tamashii</i>) implies,—reflects popular belief rather than Buddhist +philosophy. It signifies that any life, however small or mean, is entitled to +mercy. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +33.—<i>Iwashi<a href="#fn-10.29" name="fnref-10.29" id="fnref-10.29"><sup>[29]</sup></a> +no atama mo shinjin kara.</i><br /> +Even the head of an <i>iwashi</i>, by virtue of faith, [will have power to +save, or heal]. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.29" id="fn-10.29"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.29">[29]</a> +The <i>iwashi</i> is a very small fish, much resembling a sardine. The proverb +implies that the object of worship signifies little, so long as the prayer is +made with perfect faith and pure intention. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +34.—<i>Jigō-jitoku.</i><a href="#fn-10.30" name="fnref-10.30" id="fnref-10.30"><sup>[30]</sup></a><br /> +The fruit of ones own deeds [in a previous state of existence]. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.30" id="fn-10.30"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.30">[30]</a> +Few popular Buddhist phrases are more often used than this. <i>Jigō</i> +signifies ones own acts or thoughts; <i>jitoku</i>, to bring upon +oneself,—nearly always in the sense of misfortune, when the word is used +in the Buddhist way. “Well, it is a matter of <i>Jigō-jitoku</i>,” +people will observe on seeing a man being taken to prison; meaning, “He +is reaping the consequence of his own faults.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +35.—<i>Jigoku dé hotoké.</i><br /> +Like meeting with a Buddha in hell.<a href="#fn-10.31" name="fnref-10.31" id="fnref-10.31"><sup>[31]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.31" id="fn-10.31"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.31">[31]</a> +Refers to the joy of meeting a good friend in time of misfortune. The above is +an abbreviation. The full proverb is, <i>Jigoku dé hotoké hotoke ni ōta yo +da</i>. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +36.—<i>Jigoku Gokuraku wa kokoro ni ari.</i><br /> +Hell and Heaven are in the hearts of men.<a href="#fn-10.32" name="fnref-10.32" id="fnref-10.32"><sup>[32]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.32" id="fn-10.32"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.32">[32]</a> +A proverb in perfect accord with the higher Buddhism. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +37.—<i>Jigoku mo sumika.</i><br /> +Even Hell itself is a dwelling-place.<a href="#fn-10.33" name="fnref-10.33" id="fnref-10.33"><sup>[33]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.33" id="fn-10.33"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.33">[33]</a> +Meaning that even those obliged to live in hell must learn to accommodate +themselves to the situation. One should always try to make the best of +circumstances. A proverb of kindred signification is, <i>Sumeba, Miyako:</i> +“Wheresoever ones home is, that is the Capital [or, imperial +City].” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +38.—<i>Jigoku ni mo shiru bito.</i><br /> +Even in hell old acquaintances are welcome. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +39.—<i>Kagé no katachi ni shitagau gotoshi.</i><br /> +Even as the shadow follows the shape.<a href="#fn-10.34" name="fnref-10.34" id="fnref-10.34"><sup>[34]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.34" id="fn-10.34"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.34">[34]</a> +Referring to the doctrine of cause-and-effect. Compare with verse 2 of the +<i>Dhammapada</i>. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +40.—<i>Kané wa Amida yori bikaru.</i><br /> +Money shines even more brightly than Amida.<a href="#fn-10.35" name="fnref-10.35" id="fnref-10.35"><sup>[35]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.35" id="fn-10.35"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.35">[35]</a> +Amitâbha, the Buddha of Immeasurable Light. His image in the temples is +usually gilded from head to foot.—There are many other ironical proverbs +about the power of wealth,—such as <i>Jigoku no sata mo kané shidai:</i> +“Even the Judgments of Hell may be influenced by money.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +41.—<i>Karu-toki no Jizō-gao; nasu-toki no Emma-gao.</i><br /> +Borrowing-time, the face of Jizō; repaying-time, the face of Emma.<a href="#fn-10.36" name="fnref-10.36" id="fnref-10.36"><sup>[36]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.36" id="fn-10.36"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.36">[36]</a> +Emma is the Chinese and Japanese Yama,—in Buddhism the Lord of Hell, and +the Judge of the Dead. The proverb is best explained by the accompanying +drawings, which will serve to give an idea of the commoner representations of +both divinities. +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus08"></a> +<a href="images/fig08.jpg"> +<img src="images/fig08.jpg" width="381" height="400" alt="Illustration:" /></a> +<p class="caption">Jizō</p> +</div> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus09"></a> +<a href="images/fig09.jpg"> +<img src="images/fig09.jpg" width="381" height="467" alt="Illustration:" /></a> +<p class="caption">Emma Dai-ō</p> +</div> + +<p class="noindent"> +42.—<i>Kiité Gokuraku, mité Jigoku.</i><br /> +Heard of only, it is Paradise; seen, it is Hell.<a href="#fn-10.37" name="fnref-10.37" id="fnref-10.37"><sup>[37]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.37" id="fn-10.37"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.37">[37]</a> +Rumor is never trustworthy. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +43.—<i>Kōji mon wo idézu: akuji sen ni wo hashiru.</i><br /> +Good actions go not outside of the gate: bad deeds travel a thousand <i>ri</i>. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +44.—<i>Kokoro no koma ni tadzuna wo yuru-suna.</i><br /> +Never let go the reins of the wild colt of the heart. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +45.—<i>Kokoro no oni ga mi wo séméru.</i><br /> +The body is tortured only by the demon of the heart.<a href="#fn-10.38" name="fnref-10.38" id="fnref-10.38"><sup>[38]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.38" id="fn-10.38"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.38">[38]</a> +Or “mind.” That is to say that we suffer only from the +consequences of our own faults.—The demon-torturer in the Buddhist hell +says to his victim:—“Blame not me!—I am only the creation of +your own deeds and thoughts: you made me for this!”—Compare with +No. 36. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +46.—<i>Kokoro no shi to wa naré; kokoro wo shi to sezaré.</i><br /> +Be the teacher of your heart: do not allow your heart to become your teacher. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +47.—<i>Kono yo wa kari no yado.</i><br /> +This world is only a resting-place.<a href="#fn-10.39" name="fnref-10.39" id="fnref-10.39"><sup>[39]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.39" id="fn-10.39"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.39">[39]</a> +“This world is but a travellers’ inn,” would be an almost +equally correct translation. <i>Yado</i> literally means a lodging, shelter, +inn; and the word is applied often to those wayside resting-houses at which +Japanese travellers halt during a journey. <i>Kari</i> signifies temporary, +transient, fleeting,—as in the common Buddhist saying, <i>Kono yo kari no +yo:</i> “This world is a fleeting world.” Even Heaven and Hell +represent to the Buddhist only halting places upon the journey to Nirvâna. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +48.—<i>Kori wo chiribamé; midzu ni égaku.</i><br /> +To inlay ice; to paint upon water.<a href="#fn-10.40" name="fnref-10.40" id="fnref-10.40"><sup>[40]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.40" id="fn-10.40"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.40">[40]</a> +Refers to the vanity of selfish effort for some merely temporary end. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +49.—<i>Korokoro to<br /> +Naku wa yamada no<br /> +Hototogisu,<br /> +Chichi nitéya aran,<br /> +Haha nitéya aran.</i><br /> +The bird that cries <i>korokoro</i> in the mountain rice-field I know to be a +<i>hototogisu;</i>—yet it may have been my father; it may have been my +mother.<a href="#fn-10.41" name="fnref-10.41" id="fnref-10.41"><sup>[41]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.41" id="fn-10.41"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.41">[41]</a> +This verse-proverb is cited in the Buddhist work <i>Wōjō Yōshū</i>, with the +following comment:—“Who knows whether the animal in the field, or +the bird in the mountain-wood, has not been either his father or his mother in +some former state of existence?”—The <i>hototogisu</i> is a kind +of cuckoo. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +50.—<i>Ko wa Sangai no kubikase.</i><br /> +A child is a neck-shackle for the Three States of +Existence.<a href="#fn-10.42" name="fnref-10.42" id="fnref-10.42"><sup>[42]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.42" id="fn-10.42"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.42">[42]</a> +That is to say, The love of parents for their child may impede their spiritual +progress—not only in this world, but through all their future states of +being,—just as a <i>kubikasé</i>, or Japanese cangue, impedes the +movements of the person upon whom it is placed. Parental affection, being the +strongest of earthly attachments, is particularly apt to cause those whom it +enslaves to commit wrongful acts in the hope of benefiting their +offspring.—The term Sangai here signifies the three worlds of Desire, +Form, and Formlessness,—all the states of existence below Nirvâna. But +the word is sometimes used to signify the Past, the Present, and the Future. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +51.—<i>Kuchi wa wazawai no kado.</i><br /> +The mouth is the front-gate of all misfortune.<a href="#fn-10.43" name="fnref-10.43" id="fnref-10.43"><sup>[43]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.43" id="fn-10.43"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.43">[43]</a> +That is to say, The chief cause of trouble is unguarded speech. The word Kado +means always the main entrance to a residence. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +52.—<i>Kwahō wa, nété maté.</i><br /> +If you wish for good luck, sleep and wait.<a href="#fn-10.44" name="fnref-10.44" id="fnref-10.44"><sup>[44]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.44" id="fn-10.44"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.44">[44]</a> +<i>Kwahō</i>, a purely Buddhist term, signifying good fortune as the result of +good actions in a previous life, has come to mean in common parlance good +fortune of any kind. The proverb is often used in a sense similar to that of +the English saying: “Watched pot never boils.” In a strictly +Buddhist sense it would mean, “Do not be too eager for the reward of good +deeds.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +53.—<i>Makanu tané wa haënu.</i><br /> +Nothing will grow, if the seed be not sown.<a href="#fn-10.45" name="fnref-10.45" id="fnref-10.45"><sup>[45]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.45" id="fn-10.45"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.45">[45]</a> +Do not expect harvest, unless you sow the seed. Without earnest effort no +merit can be gained. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +54.—<i>Matéba, kanrō no hiyori.</i><br /> +If you wait, ambrosial weather will come.<a href="#fn-10.46" name="fnref-10.46" id="fnref-10.46"><sup>[46]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.46" id="fn-10.46"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.46">[46]</a> +<i>Kanrō</i>, the sweet dew of Heaven, or <i>amrita</i>. All good things come +to him who waits. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +55.—<i>Meidō no michi ni Ō wa nashi.</i><br /> +There is no King on the Road of Death.<a href="#fn-10.47" name="fnref-10.47" id="fnref-10.47"><sup>[47]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.47" id="fn-10.47"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.47">[47]</a> +Literally, “on the Road of Meidō.” The <i>Meidō</i> is the Japanese +Hades,—the dark under-world to which all the dead must journey. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +56.—<i>Mekura hebi ni ojizu.</i><br /> +The blind man does not fear the snake.<a href="#fn-10.48" name="fnref-10.48" id="fnref-10.48"><sup>[48]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.48" id="fn-10.48"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.48">[48]</a> +The ignorant and the vicious, not understanding the law of cause-and-effect, +do not fear the certain results of their folly. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +57.—<i>Mitsuréba, hakuru.</i><br /> +Having waxed, wanes.<a href="#fn-10.49" name="fnref-10.49" id="fnref-10.49"><sup>[49]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.49" id="fn-10.49"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.49">[49]</a> +No sooner has the moon waxed full than it begins to wane. So the height of +prosperity is also the beginning of fortunes decline. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +58.—<i>Mon zen no kozō narawanu kyō wo yomu.</i><br /> +The shop-boy in front of the temple-gate repeats the sutra which he never +learned.<a href="#fn-10.50" name="fnref-10.50" id="fnref-10.50"><sup>[50]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.50" id="fn-10.50"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.50">[50]</a> +<i>Kozō</i> means “acolyte” as well as +“shop-boy,”“errand-boy,” or “apprentice;” +but in this case it refers to a boy employed in a shop situated near or before +the gate of a Buddhist temple. By constantly hearing the sutra chanted in the +temple, the boy learns to repeat the words. A proverb of kindred meaning is, +<i>Kangaku-In no suzumé wa, Mōgyū wo sayézuru:</i> “The sparrows of +Kangaku-In [an ancient seat of learning] chirp the Mōgyū,”—a +Chinese text formerly taught to young students. The teaching of either proverb +is excellently expressed by a third:—<i>Narau yori wa naréro:</i> +“Rather than study [an art], get accustomed to it,”—that is +to say, “keep constantly in contact with it.” Observation and +practice are even better than study. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +59.—<i>Mujō no kazé wa, toki erabazu.</i><br /> +The Wind of Impermanency does not choose a time.<a href="#fn-10.51" name="fnref-10.51" id="fnref-10.51"><sup>[51]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.51" id="fn-10.51"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.51">[51]</a> +Death and Change do not conform their ways to human expectation. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +60.—<i>Neko mo Busshō ari.</i><br /> +In even a cat the Buddha-nature exists.<a href="#fn-10.52" name="fnref-10.52" id="fnref-10.52"><sup>[52]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.52" id="fn-10.52"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.52">[52]</a> +Notwithstanding the legend that only the cat and the <i>mamushi</i> (a +poisonous viper) failed to weep for the death of the Buddha. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +61.—<i>Néta ma ga Gokuraku.</i><br /> +The interval of sleep is Paradise.<a href="#fn-10.53" name="fnref-10.53" id="fnref-10.53"><sup>[53]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.53" id="fn-10.53"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.53">[53]</a> +Only during sleep can we sometimes cease to know the sorrow and pain of this +world. (Compare with No. 83.) +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +62.—<i>Nijiu-go Bosatsu mo soré-soré no yaku.</i><br /> +Even each of the Twenty-five Bodhisattvas has his own particular duty to +perform. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +63.—<i>Nin mité, hō toké.</i><br /> +[First] see the person, [then] preach the doctrine.<a href="#fn-10.54" name="fnref-10.54" id="fnref-10.54"><sup>[54]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.54" id="fn-10.54"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.54">[54]</a> +The teaching of Buddhist doctrine should always be adapted to the intelligence +of the person to be instructed. There is another proverb of the same +kind,—<i>Ki ni yorité, hō wo toké:</i> “According to the +understanding [of the person to be taught], preach the Law.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +64.—<i>Ninshin ukégataku Buppoō aigatashi.</i><br /> +It is not easy to be born among men, and to meet with [the good fortune of +hearing the doctrine of] Buddhism.<a href="#fn-10.55" name="fnref-10.55" id="fnref-10.55"><sup>[55]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.55" id="fn-10.55"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.55">[55]</a> +Popular Buddhism teaches that to be born in the world of mankind, and +especially among a people professing Buddhism, is a very great privilege. +However miserable human existence, it is at least a state in which some +knowledge of divine truth may be obtained; whereas the beings in other and +lower conditions of life are relatively incapable of spiritual progress. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +65.—<i>Oni mo jiu-hachi.</i><br /> +Even a devil [is pretty] at eighteen.<a href="#fn-10.56" name="fnref-10.56" id="fnref-10.56"><sup>[56]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.56" id="fn-10.56"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.56">[56]</a> +There are many curious sayings and proverbs about the oni, or Buddhist +devil,—such as <i>Oni no mé ni mo namida</i>, “tears in even a +devil’s eyes;”—Oni no kakuran, “devil’s +cholera” (said of the unexpected sickness of some very strong and healthy +person), etc., etc.—The class of demons called <i>Oni</i>, properly +belong to the Buddhist hells, where they act as torturers and jailers. They are +not to be confounded with the <i>Ma, Yasha, Kijin</i>, and other classes of +evil spirits. In Buddhist art they are represented as beings of enormous +strength, with the heads of bulls and of horses. The bull-headed demons are +called <i>Go-zu;</i> the horse-headed <i>Mé-zu</i>. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +66.—<i>Oni mo mi, narétaru ga yoshi.</i><br /> +Even a devil, when you become accustomed to the sight of him, may prove a +pleasant acquaintance. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +67.—<i>Oni ni kanabō.</i><br /> +An iron club for a demon.<a href="#fn-10.57" name="fnref-10.57" id="fnref-10.57"><sup>[57]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.57" id="fn-10.57"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.57">[57]</a> +Meaning that great power should be given only to the strong. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +68.—<i>Oni no nyōbo ni kijin.</i><br /> +A devil takes a goblin to wife.<a href="#fn-10.58" name="fnref-10.58" id="fnref-10.58"><sup>[58]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.58" id="fn-10.58"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.58">[58]</a> +Meaning that a wicked man usually marries a wicked woman. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +69.—<i>Onna no ké ni wa dai-zō mo tsunagaru.</i><br /> +With one hair of a woman you can tether even a great elephant. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +70.—<i>Onna wa Sangai ni iyé nashi.</i><br /> +Women have no homes of their own in the Three States of Existence. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +71.—<i>Oya no ingwa ga ko ni mukuü.</i><br /> +The karma of the parents is visited upon the child.<a href="#fn-10.59" name="fnref-10.59" id="fnref-10.59"><sup>[59]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.59" id="fn-10.59"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.59">[59]</a> +Said of the parents of crippled or deformed children. But the popular idea +here expressed is not altogether in accord with the teachings of the higher +Buddhism. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +72.—<i>Rakkwa éda ni kaerazu.</i><br /> +The fallen blossom never returns to the branch.<a href="#fn-10.60" name="fnref-10.60" id="fnref-10.60"><sup>[60]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.60" id="fn-10.60"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.60">[60]</a> +That which has been done never can be undone: the past cannot be +recalled.—This proverb is an abbreviation of the longer Buddhist text: +<i>Rakkwa éda ni kaerazu; ha-kyō futatabi terasazu:</i> “The fallen +blossom never returns to the branch; the shattered mirror never again +reflects.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +73.—<i>Raku wa ku no tané; ku wa raku no tané.</i><br /> +Pleasure is the seed of pain; pain is the seed of pleasure. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +74.—<i>Rokudō wa, mé no maë.</i><br /> +The Six Roads are right before your eyes.<a href="#fn-10.61" name="fnref-10.61" id="fnref-10.61"><sup>[61]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.61" id="fn-10.61"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.61">[61]</a> +That is to say, Your future life depends upon your conduct in this life; and +you are thus free to choose for yourself the place of your next birth. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +75.—<i>Sangai mu-an.</i><br /> +There is no rest within the Three States of Existence. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +76.—<i>Sangai ni kaki nashi;—Rokudō ni hotori nashi.</i><br /> +There is no fence to the Three States of Existence;—there is no +neighborhood to the Six Roads.<a href="#fn-10.62" name="fnref-10.62" id="fnref-10.62"><sup>[62]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.62" id="fn-10.62"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.62">[62]</a> +Within the Three States (Sangai), or universes, of Desire, Form, and +Formlessness; and within the Six Worlds, or conditions of +being,—<i>Jigokudō</i> (Hell), <i>Gakidō</i> (Pretas), <i>Chikushōdō</i> +(Animal Life), <i>Shuradō</i> (World of Fighting and Slaughter), +<i>Ningendō</i> (Mankind), <i>Tenjōdō</i> (Heavenly Spirits)—all +existence is included. Beyond there is only Nirvâna. “There is no +fence,” “no neighborhood,”—that is to say, no limit +beyond which to escape,—no middle-path between any two of these states. +We shall be reborn into some one of them according to our karma.—Compare +with No. 74. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +77.—<i>Sangé ni wa sannen no tsumi mo hōrobu.</i><br /> +One confession effaces the sins of even three years. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +78.—<i>San nin yoréba, kugai.</i><br /> +Where even three persons come together, there is a world of pain.<a href="#fn-10.63" name="fnref-10.63" id="fnref-10.63"><sup>[63]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.63" id="fn-10.63"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.63">[63]</a> +<i>Kugai</i> (lit.: “bitter world”) is a term often used to +describe the life of a prostitute. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +79.—<i>San nin yoréba, Monjū no chié.</i><br /> +Where three persons come together, there is the wisdom of <i>Monjū</i>.<a href="#fn-10.64" name="fnref-10.64" id="fnref-10.64"><sup>[64]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.64" id="fn-10.64"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.64">[64]</a> +Monjū Bosatsu [<i>Mañdjus’ri Bodhisattva</i>] figures in Japanese +Buddhism as a special divinity of wisdom.—The proverb signifies that +three heads are better than one. A saying of like meaning is,<i> Hiza to mo +dankō:</i> “Consult even with your own knee;” that is to say, +Despise no advice, no matter how humble the source of it. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +80.—<i>Shaka ni sekkyō.</i><br /> +Preaching to Sâkyamuni. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +81.—<i>Shami kara chōrō.</i><br /> +To become an abbot one must begin as a novice. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +82.—<i>Shindaréba, koso ikitaré.</i><br /> +Only by reason of having died does one enter into life.<a href="#fn-10.65" name="fnref-10.65" id="fnref-10.65"><sup>[65]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.65" id="fn-10.65"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.65">[65]</a> +I never hear this singular proverb without being re-minded of a sentence in +Huxley’s famous essay, <i>On the Physical Basis of Life:</i>—“The +living protoplasm not only ultimately dies and is resolved into its mineral and +lifeless constituents, but is always dying, and, strange as the paradox may +sound, <i>could not live unless it died</i>.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +83.—<i>Shiranu ga, hotoké; minu ga, Gokuraku.</i><br /> +Not to know is to be a Buddha; not to see is Paradise. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +84.—<i>Shōbo ni kidoku nashi.</i><br /> +There is no miracle in true doctrine.<a href="#fn-10.66" name="fnref-10.66" id="fnref-10.66"><sup>[66]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.66" id="fn-10.66"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.66">[66]</a> +Nothing can happen except as a result of eternal and irrevocable law. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +85.—<i>Shō-chié wa Bodai no samatagé.</i><br /> +A little wisdom is a stumbling-block on the way to Buddhahood.<a href="#fn-10.67" name="fnref-10.67" id="fnref-10.67"><sup>[67]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.67" id="fn-10.67"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.67">[67]</a> +<i>Bodai</i> is the same word as the Sanscrit <i>Bodhi</i>, signifying the +supreme enlightenment,—the knowledge that leads to Buddhahood; but it is +often used by Japanese Buddhists in the sense of divine bliss, or the +Buddha-state itself. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +86.—<i>Shōshi no kukai hetori nashi.</i><br /> +There is no shore to the bitter Sea of Birth and Death.<a href="#fn-10.68" name="fnref-10.68" id="fnref-10.68"><sup>[68]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.68" id="fn-10.68"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.68">[68]</a> +Or, “the Pain-Sea of Life and Death.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +87.—<i>Sodé no furi-awasé mo tashō no en.</i><br /> +Even the touching of sleeves in passing is caused by some relation in a former +life. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +88.—<i>Sun zen; shaku ma.</i><br /> +An inch of virtue; a foot of demon.<a href="#fn-10.69" name="fnref-10.69" id="fnref-10.69"><sup>[69]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.69" id="fn-10.69"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.69">[69]</a> +<i>Ma</i> (Sanscrit, <i>Mârakâyikas</i>) is the name given to a particular +class of spirits who tempt men to evil. But in Japanese folklore the <i>Ma</i> +have a part much resembling that occupied in Western popular superstition by +goblins and fairies. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +89.—<i>Tanoshimi wa hanasimi no motoi.</i><br /> +All joy is the source of sorrow. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +90.—<i>Tondé hi ni iru natsu no mushi.</i><br /> +So the insects of summer fly to the flame.<a href="#fn-10.70" name="fnref-10.70" id="fnref-10.70"><sup>[70]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.70" id="fn-10.70"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.70">[70]</a> +Said especially in reference to the result of sensual indulgence. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +91.—<i>Tsuchi-botoké no midzu-asobi.</i><br /> +Clay-Buddha’s water-playing.<a href="#fn-10.71" name="fnref-10.71" id="fnref-10.71"><sup>[71]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.71" id="fn-10.71"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.71">[71]</a> +That is to say, “As dangerous as for a clay Buddha to play with +water.” Children often amuse themselves by making little Buddhist images +of mud, which melt into shapelessness, of course, if placed in water. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +92.—<i>Tsuki ni murakumo, hana ni kazé.</i><br /> +Cloud-wrack to the moon; wind to flowers.<a href="#fn-10.72" name="fnref-10.72" id="fnref-10.72"><sup>[72]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.72" id="fn-10.72"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.72">[72]</a> +The beauty of the moon is obscured by masses of clouds; the trees no sooner +blossom than their flowers are scattered by the wind. All beauty is evanescent. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +93.—<i>Tsuyu no inochi.</i><br /> +Human life is like the dew of morning. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +94.—<i>U-ki wa, kokoro ni ari.</i><br /> +Joy and sorrow exist only in the mind. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +95.—<i>Uri no tsuru ni nasubi wa naranu.</i><br /> +Egg-plants do not grow upon melon-vines. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +96.—<i>Uso mo hōben.</i><br /> +Even an untruth may serve as a device.<a href="#fn-10.73" name="fnref-10.73" id="fnref-10.73"><sup>[73]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.73" id="fn-10.73"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.73">[73]</a> +That is, a pious device for effecting conversion. Such a device is justified +especially by the famous parable of the third chapter of the <i>Saddharma +Pundarîka</i>. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +97.—<i>Waga ya no hotoké tattoshi.</i><br /> +My family ancestors were all excellent Buddhas.<a href="#fn-10.74" name="fnref-10.74" id="fnref-10.74"><sup>[74]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.74" id="fn-10.74"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.74">[74]</a> +Meaning that one most reveres the <i>hotoké</i>—the spirits of the dead +regarded as Buddhas—in one’s own household-shrine. There is an +ironical play upon the word <i>hotoké</i>, which may mean either a dead person +simply, or a Buddha. Perhaps the spirit of this proverb may be better explained +by the help of another: <i>Nigéta sakana ni chisai wa nai; shinda kodomo ni +warui ko wa nai</i>—“Fish that escaped was never small; child that +died was never bad.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +98.—<i>Yuki no haté wa, Nehan.</i><br /> +The end of snow is Nirvâna.<a href="#fn-10.75" name="fnref-10.75" id="fnref-10.75"><sup>[75]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.75" id="fn-10.75"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.75">[75]</a> +This curious saying is the only one in my collection containing the word <i>Nehan</i> +(Nirvâna), and is here inserted chiefly for that reason. The common people +seldom speak of <i>Nehan</i>, and have little knowledge of those profound +doctrines to which the term is related. The above phrase, as might be inferred, +is not a popular expression: it is rather an artistic and poetical reference to +the aspect of a landscape covered with snow to the horizon-line,—so that +beyond the snow-circle there is only the great void of the sky. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +99.—<i>Zen ni wa zen no mukui; aku ni wa aku no mukui.</i><br /> +Goodness [or, virtue] is the return for goodness; evil is the return for +evil.<a href="#fn-10.76" name="fnref-10.76" id="fnref-10.76"><sup>[76]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.76" id="fn-10.76"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.76">[76]</a> +Not so commonplace a proverb as might appear at first sight; for it refers +especially to the Buddhist belief that every kindness shown to us in this life +is a return of kindness done to others in a former life, and that every wrong +inflicted upon us is the reflex of some injustice which we committed in a +previous birth. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +100.—<i>Zensé no yakusoku-goto.</i><br /> +Promised [or, destined] from a former birth.<a href="#fn-10.77" name="fnref-10.77" id="fnref-10.77"><sup>[77]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.77" id="fn-10.77"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.77">[77]</a> +A very common saying,—often uttered as a comment upon the unhappiness of +separation, upon sudden misfortune, upon sudden death, etc. It is used +especially in relation to <i>shinjū</i>, or lovers’ suicide. Such suicide +is popularly thought to be a result of cruelty in some previous state of being, +or the consequence of having broken, in a former life, the mutual promise to +become husband and wife. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap11"></a>Suggestion</h2> + +<p> +I had the privilege of meeting him in Tōkyō, where he was making a brief stay +on his way to India;—and we took a long walk together, and talked of +Eastern religions, about which he knew incomparably more than I. Whatever I +could tell him concerning local beliefs, he would comment upon in the most +startling manner,—citing weird correspondences in some living cult of +India, Burmah, or Ceylon. Then, all of a sudden, he turned the conversation +into a totally unexpected direction. +</p> + +<p> +“I have been thinking,” he said, “about the constancy of the +relative proportion of the sexes, and wondering whether Buddhist doctrine +furnishes an explanation. For it seems to me that, under ordinary conditions of +karma, human rebirth would necessarily proceed by a regular alternation.” +</p> + +<p> +“Do you mean,” I asked, “that a man would be reborn as a +woman, and a woman as a man?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes,” he replied, “because desire is creative, and the +desire of either sex is towards the other.” +</p> + +<p> +“And how many men,” I said, “would want to be reborn as +women?” +</p> + +<p> +“Probably very few,” he answered. “But the doctrine that +desire is creative does not imply that the individual longing creates its own +satisfaction,—quite the contrary. The true teaching is that the result of +every selfish wish is in the nature of a penalty, and that what the wish +creates must prove—to higher knowledge at least—the folly of +wishing.” +</p> + +<p> +“There you are right,” I said; “but I do not yet understand +your theory.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well,” he continued, “if the physical conditions of human +rebirth are all determined by the karma of the will relating to physical +conditions, then sex would be determined by the will in relation to sex. Now +the will of either sex is towards the other. Above all things else, excepting +life, man desires woman, and woman man. Each individual, moreover, +independently of any personal relation, feels perpetually, you say, the +influence of some inborn feminine or masculine ideal, which you call ‘a +ghostly reflex of countless attachments in countless past lives.’ And the +insatiable desire represented by this ideal would of itself suffice to create +the masculine or the feminine body of the next existence.” +</p> + +<p> +“But most women,” I observed, “would like to be reborn as +men; and the accomplishment of that wish would scarcely be in the nature of a +penalty.” +</p> + +<p> +“Why not?” he returned. “The happiness or unhappiness of the +new existence would not be decided by sex alone: it would of necessity depend +upon many conditions in combination.” +</p> + +<p> +“Your theory is interesting,” I said;—“but I do not +know how far it could be made to accord with accepted doctrine…. And what of +the person able, through knowledge and practice of the higher law, to remain +superior to all weaknesses of sex?” +</p> + +<p> +“Such a one,” he replied, “would be reborn neither as man nor +as woman,—providing there were no pre-existent karma powerful enough to +check or to weaken the results of the self-conquest.” +</p> + +<p> +“Reborn in some one of the heavens?” I queried,—“by +the<br /> +Apparitional Birth?” +</p> + +<p> +“Not necessarily,” he said. “Such a one might be reborn in a +world of desire,—like this,—but neither as man only, nor as woman +only.” +</p> + +<p> +“Reborn, then, in what form?” I asked. +</p> + +<p> +“In that of a perfect being,” he responded. “A man or a woman +is scarcely more than half-a-being,—because in our present imperfect +state either sex can be evolved only at the cost of the other. In the mental +and the physical composition of every man, there is undeveloped woman; and in +the composition of every woman there is undeveloped man. But a being complete +would be both perfect man and perfect woman, possessing the highest faculties +of both sexes, with the weaknesses of neither. Some humanity higher than our +own,—in other worlds,—might be thus evolved.” +</p> + +<p> +“But you know,” I observed, “that there are Buddhist +texts,—in the <i>Saddharma Pundarîka</i>, for example, and in the +<i>Vinayas</i>,—which forbid….” +</p> + +<p> +“Those texts,” he interrupted, “refer to imperfect +beings—less than man and less than woman: they could not refer to the +condition that I have been supposing…. But, remember, I am not preaching a +doctrine;—I am only hazarding a theory.” +</p> + +<p> +“May I put your theory some day into print?” I asked. +</p> + +<p> +“Why, yes,” he made answer,—“if you believe it worth +thinking about.” +</p> + +<p> +And long afterwards I wrote it down thus, as fairly as I was able, from memory. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap12"></a>Ingwa-banashi<a href="#fn-12.1" name="fnref-12.1" id="fnref-12.1"><sup>[1]</sup></a></h2> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-12.1" id="fn-12.1"></a> <a href="#fnref-12.1">[1]</a> +Lit., “a tale of <i>ingwa</i>.” <i>Ingwa</i> is a Japanese Buddhist +term for evil karma, or the evil consequence of faults committed in a former +state of existence. Perhaps the curious title of the narrative is best +explained by the Buddhist teaching that the dead have power to injure the +living only in consequence of evil actions committed by their victims in some +former life. Both title and narrative may be found in the collection of weird +stories entitled <i>Hyaku-Monogatari</i>. +</p> + +<p> +The daimyō’s wife was dying, and knew that she was dying. She had not +been able to leave her bed since the early autumn of the tenth Bunsei. It was +now the fourth month of the twelfth Bunsei,—the year 1829 by Western +counting; and the cherry-trees were blossoming. She thought of the cherry-trees +in her garden, and of the gladness of spring. She thought of her children. She +thought of her husband’s various concubines,—especially the Lady +Yukiko, nineteen years old. +</p> + +<p> +“My dear wife,” said the daimyō, “you have suffered very much +for three long years. We have done all that we could to get you +well,—watching beside you night and day, praying for you, and often +fasting for your sake, But in spite of our loving care, and in spite of the +skill of our best physicians, it would now seen that the end of your life is +not far off. Probably we shall sorrow more than you will sorrow because of your +having to leave what the Buddha so truly termed ‘this burning-house of +the world. I shall order to be performed—no matter what the +cost—every religious rite that can serve you in regard to your next +rebirth; and all of us will pray without ceasing for you, that you may not have +to wander in the Black Space, but may quickly enter Paradise, and attain to +Buddha-hood.” +</p> + +<p> +He spoke with the utmost tenderness, pressing her the while. Then, with eyelids +closed, she answered him in a voice thin as the voice of in insect:— +</p> + +<p> +“I am grateful—most grateful—for your kind words…. Yes, it is +true, as you say, that I have been sick for three long years, and that I have +been treated with all possible care and affection…. Why, indeed, should I turn +away from the one true Path at the very moment of my death?… Perhaps to think +of worldly matters at such a time is not right;—but I have one last +request to make,—only one…. Call here to me the Lady Yukiko;—you +know that I love her like a sister. I want to speak to her about the affairs of +this household.” +</p> + +<p> +Yukiko came at the summons of the lord, and, in obedience to a sign from him, +knelt down beside the couch. The daimyō’s wife opened her eyes, and +looked at Yukiko, and spoke:—“Ah, here is Yukiko!… I am so pleased +to see you, Yukiko!… Come a little closer,—so that you can hear me well: +I am not able to speak loud…. Yukiko, I am going to die. I hope that you will +be faithful in all things to our dear lord;—for I want you to take my +place when I am gone…. I hope that you will always be loved by him,—yes, +even a hundred times more than I have been,—and that you will very soon +be promoted to a higher rank, and become his honored wife…. And I beg of you +always to cherish our dear lord: never allow another woman to rob you of his +affection…. This is what I wanted to say to you, dear Yukiko…. Have you been +able to understand?” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, my dear Lady,” protested Yukiko, “do not, I entreat you, +say such strange things to me! You well know that I am of poor and mean +condition:—how could I ever dare to aspire to become the wife of our +lord!” +</p> + +<p> +“Nay, nay!” returned the wife, huskily,—“this is not a +time for words of ceremony: let us speak only the truth to each other. After my +death, you will certainly be promoted to a higher place; and I now assure you +again that I wish you to become the wife of our lord—yes, I wish this, +Yukiko, even more than I wish to become a Buddha!… Ah, I had almost +forgotten!—I want you to do something for me, Yukiko. You know that in +the garden there is a <i>yaë-zakura</i>,<a href="#fn-12.2" name="fnref-12.2" id="fnref-12.2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> +which was brought here, the year before last, from Mount Yoshino in Yamato. I +have been told that it is now in full bloom;—and I wanted so much to see +it in flower! In a little while I shall be dead;—I must see that tree +before I die. Now I wish you to carry me into the garden—at once, +Yukiko,—so that I can see it…. Yes, upon your back, Yukiko;—take me +upon your back….” +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-12.2" id="fn-12.2"></a> <a href="#fnref-12.2">[2]</a> +<i>Yaë-zakura, yaë-no-sakura</i>, a variety of Japanese cherry-tree that bears +double-blossoms. +</p> + +<p> +While thus asking, her voice had gradually become clear and strong,—as if +the intensity of the wish had given her new force: then she suddenly burst into +tears. Yukiko knelt motionless, not knowing what to do; but the lord nodded +assent. +</p> + +<p> +“It is her last wish in this world,” he said. “She always +loved cherry-flowers; and I know that she wanted very much to see that +Yamato-tree in blossom. Come, my dear Yukiko, let her have her will.” +</p> + +<p> +As a nurse turns her back to a child, that the child may cling to it, Yukiko +offered her shoulders to the wife, and said:— +</p> + +<p> +“Lady, I am ready: please tell me how I best can help you.” +</p> + +<p> +“Why, this way!”—responded the dying woman, lifting herself +with an almost superhuman effort by clinging to Yukiko’s shoulders. But +as she stood erect, she quickly slipped her thin hands down over the shoulders, +under the robe, and clutched the breasts of the girl,, and burst into a wicked +laugh. +</p> + +<p> +“I have my wish!” she cried—“I have my wish for the +cherry-bloom,<a href="#fn-12.3" name="fnref-12.3" id="fnref-12.3"><sup>[3]</sup></a>—but +not the cherry-bloom of the garden!… I could not die before I got my wish. Now +I have it!—oh, what a delight!” +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-12.3" id="fn-12.3"></a> <a href="#fnref-12.3">[3]</a> +In Japanese poetry and proverbial phraseology, the physical beauty of a woman +is compared to the cherry-flower; while feminine moral beauty is compared to +the plum-flower. +</p> + +<p> +And with these words she fell forward upon the crouching girl, and died. +</p> + +<p> +The attendants at once attempted to lift the body from Yukiko’s +shoulders, and to lay it upon the bed. But—strange to say!—this +seemingly easy thing could not be done. The cold hands had attached themselves +in some unaccountable way to the breasts of the girl,—appeared to have +grown into the quick flesh. Yukiko became senseless with fear and pain. +</p> + +<p> +Physicians were called. They could not understand what had taken place. By no +ordinary methods could the hands of the dead woman be unfastened from the body +of her victim;—they so clung that any effort to remove them brought +blood. This was not because the fingers held: it was because the flesh of the +palms had united itself in some inexplicable manner to the flesh of the +breasts! +</p> + +<p> +At that time the most skilful physician in Yedo was a foreigner,—a Dutch +surgeon. It was decided to summon him. After a careful examination he said that +he could not understand the case, and that for the immediate relief of Yukiko +there was nothing to be done except to cut the hands from the corpse. He +declared that it would be dangerous to attempt to detach them from the breasts. +His advice was accepted; and the hands’ were amputated at the wrists. But +they remained clinging to the breasts; and there they soon darkened and dried +up,—like the hands of a person long dead. +</p> + +<p> +Yet this was only the beginning of the horror. +</p> + +<p> +Withered and bloodless though they seemed, those hands were not dead. At +intervals they would stir—stealthily, like great grey spiders. And +nightly thereafter,—beginning always at the Hour of the Ox,<a href="#fn-12.4" name="fnref-12.4" id="fnref-12.4"><sup>[4]</sup></a>—they +would clutch and compress and torture. Only at the Hour of the Tiger the pain +would cease. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-12.4" id="fn-12.4"></a> <a href="#fnref-12.4">[4]</a> +In ancient Japanese time, the Hour of the Ox was the special hour of ghosts. It +began at 2 A.M., and lasted until 4 A.M.—for the old Japanese hour was +double the length of the modern hour. The Hour of the Tiger began at 4 A.M. +</p> + +<p> +Yukiko cut off her hair, and became a mendicant-nun,—taking the religious +name of Dassetsu. She had an <i>ihai</i> (mortuary tablet) made, bearing the +<i>kaimyō</i> of her dead mistress,—“<i>Myō-Kō-In-Den Chizan-Ryō-Fu +Daishi</i>”;—and this she carried about with her in all her +wanderings; and every day before it she humbly besought the dead for pardon, +and performed a Buddhist service in order that the jealous spirit might find +rest. But the evil karma that had rendered such an affliction possible could +not soon be exhausted. Every night at the Hour of the Ox, the hands never +failed to torture her, during more than seventeen years,—according to the +testimony of those persons to whom she last told her story, when she stopped +for one evening at the house of Noguchi Dengozayémon, in the village of Tanaka +in the district of Kawachi in the province of Shimotsuké. This was in the third +year of Kōkwa (1846). Thereafter nothing more was ever heard of her. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap13"></a>Story of a Tengu<a href="#fn-13.1" name="fnref-13.1" id="fnref-13.1"><sup>[1]</sup></a></h2> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-13.1" id="fn-13.1"></a> <a href="#fnref-13.1">[1]</a> +This story may be found in the curious old Japanese book called +<i>Jikkun-Shō</i>. The same legend has furnished the subject of an interesting +<i>Nō</i>-play, called <i>Dai-É</i> (“The Great Assembly”).<br /> + In Japanese popular art, the Tengu are commonly represented either as +winged men with beak-shaped noses, or as birds of prey. There are different +kinds of Tengu; but all are supposed to be mountain-haunting spirits, capable +of assuming many forms, and occasionally appearing as crows, vultures, or +eagles. Buddhism appears to class the Tengu among the Mârakâyikas. +</p> + +<p> +In the days of the Emperor Go-Reizei, there was a holy priest living in the +temple of Saito, on the mountain called Hiyei-Zan, near Kyōto. One summer day +this good priest, after a visit to the city, was returning to his temple by way +of Kita-no-Ōji, when he saw some boys ill-treating a kite. They had caught the +bird in a snare, and were beating it with sticks. “Oh, the, poor +creature!” compassionately exclaimed the priest;—“why do you +torment it so, children?” One of the boys made answer:—“We +want to kill it to get the feathers.” Moved by pity, the priest persuaded +the boys to let him have the kite in exchange for a fan that he was carrying; +and he set the bird free. It had not been seriously hurt, and was able to fly +away. +</p> + +<p> +Happy at having performed this Buddhist act of merit, the priest then resumed +his walk. He had not proceeded very far when he saw a strange monk come out of +a bamboo-grove by the road-side, and hasten towards him. The monk respectfully +saluted him, and said:—“Sir, through your compassionate kindness +my life has been saved; and I now desire to express my gratitude in a fitting +manner.” Astonished at hearing himself thus addressed, the priest +replied:—“Really, I cannot remember to have ever seen you before: +please tell me who you are.” “It is not wonderful that you cannot +recognize me in this form,” returned the monk: “I am the kite that +those cruel boys were tormenting at Kita-no-Ōji. You saved my life; and there +is nothing in this world more precious than life. So I now wish to return your +kindness in some way or other. If there be anything that you would like to +have, or to know, or to see,—anything that I can do for you, in +short,—please to tell me; for as I happen to possess, in a small degree, +the Six Supernatural Powers, I am able to gratify almost any wish that you can +express.” On hearing these words, the priest knew that he was speaking +with a Tengu; and he frankly made answer:—“My friend, I have long +ceased to care for the things of this world: I am now seventy years of age; +neither fame nor pleasure has any attraction for me. I feel anxious only about +my future birth; but as that is a matter in which no one can help me, it were +useless to ask about it. Really, I can think of but one thing worth wishing +for. It has been my life-long regret that I was not in India in the time of the +Lord Buddha, and could not attend the great assembly on the holy mountain +Gridhrakûta. Never a day passes in which this regret does not come to me, in +the hour of morning or of evening prayer. Ah, my friend! if it were possible to +conquer Time and Space, like the Bodhisattvas, so that I could look upon that +marvellous assembly, how happy should I be!” +</p> + +<p> +“Why,” the Tengu exclaimed, “that pious wish of yours can +easily be satisfied. I perfectly well remember the assembly on the Vulture +Peak; and I can cause everything that happened there to reappear before you, +exactly as it occurred. It is our greatest delight to represent such holy +matters…. Come this way with me!” +</p> + +<p> +And the priest suffered himself to be led to a place among pines, on the slope +of a hill. “Now,” said the Tengu, “you have only to wait here +for awhile, with your eyes shut. Do not open them until you hear the voice of +the Buddha preaching the Law. Then you can look. But when you see the +appearance of the Buddha, you must not allow your devout feelings to influence +you in any way;—you must not bow down, nor pray, nor utter any such +exclamation as, ‘<i>Even so, Lord!</i>’ or ‘<i>O thou Blessed +One!</i>’ You must not speak at all. Should you make even the least sign +of reverence, something very unfortunate might happen to me.” The priest +gladly promised to follow these injunctions; and the Tengu hurried away as if +to prepare the spectacle. +</p> + +<p> +The day waned and passed, and the darkness came; but the old priest waited +patiently beneath a tree, keeping his eyes closed. At last a voice suddenly +resounded above him,—a wonderful voice, deep and clear like the pealing +of a mighty bell,—the voice of the Buddha Sâkyamuni proclaiming the +Perfect Way. Then the priest, opening his eyes in a great radiance, perceived +that all things had been changed: the place was indeed the Vulture +Peak,—the holy Indian mountain Gridhrakûta; and the time was the time of +the Sûtra of the Lotos of the Good Law. Now there were no pines about him, but +strange shining trees made of the Seven Precious Substances, with foliage and +fruit of gems;—and the ground was covered with Mandârava and Manjûshaka +flowers showered from heaven;—and the night was filled with fragrance and +splendour and the sweetness of the great Voice. And in mid-air, shining as a +moon above the world, the priest beheld the Blessed One seated upon the +Lion-throne, with Samantabhadra at his right hand, and Manjusri at his +left,—and before them assembled—immeasurably spreading into Space, +like a flood Of stars—the hosts of the Mahâsattvas and the Bodhisattvas +with their countless following: “gods, demons, Nâgas, goblins, men, and +beings not human.” Sâriputra he saw, and Kâsyapa, and Ânanda, with all +the disciples of the Tathâgata,—and the Kings of the Devas,—and the +Kings of the Four Directions, like pillars of fire,—and the great +Dragon-Kings,—and the Gandharvas and Garudas,—and the Gods of the +Sun and the Moon and the Wind,—and the shining myriads of Brahmâ’s +heaven. And incomparably further than even the measureless circling of the +glory of these, he saw—made visible by a single ray of light that shot +from the forehead of the Blessed One to pierce beyond uttermost Time—the +eighteen hundred thousand Buddha-fields of the Eastern Quarter with all their +habitants,—and the beings in each of the Six States of +Existence,—and even the shapes of the Buddhas extinct, that had entered +into Nirvâna. These, and all the gods, and all the demons, he saw bow down +before the Lion-throne; and he heard that multitude incalculable of beings +praising the Sûtra of the Lotos of the Good Law,—like the roar of a sea +before the Lord. Then forgetting utterly his pledge,—foolishly dreaming +that he stood in the very presence of the very Buddha,—he cast himself +down in worship with tears of love and thanksgiving; crying out with a loud +voice, “<i>O thou Blessed One!</i>”… +</p> + +<p> +Instantly with a shock as of earthquake the stupendous spectacle disappeared; +and the priest found himself alone in the dark, kneeling upon the grass of the +mountain-side. Then a sadness unspeakable fell upon him, because of the loss of +the vision, and because of the thoughtlessness that had caused him to break his +word. As he sorrowfully turned his steps homeward, the goblin-monk once more +appeared before him, and said to him in tones of reproach and +pain:—“Because you did not keep the promise which you made to me, +and heedlessly allowed your feelings to overcome you, the Gohotendó, who is the +Guardian of the Doctrine, swooped down suddenly from heaven upon us, and smote +us in great anger, crying out, ‘<i>How do ye dare thus to deceive a pious +person?</i>’ Then the other monks, whom I had assembled, all fled in fear. +As for myself, one of my wings has been broken,—so that now I cannot +fly.” And with these words the Tengu vanished forever. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap14"></a>At Yaidzu</h2> + +<h3>I</h3> + +<p> +Under a bright sun the old fishing-town of Yaidzu has a particular charm of +neutral color. Lizard-like it takes the grey tints of the rude grey coast on +which it rests,—curving along a little bay. It is sheltered from heavy +seas by an extraordinary rampart of boulders. This rampart, on the water-side, +is built in the form of terrace-steps;—the rounded stones of which it is +composed being kept in position by a sort of basket-work woven between rows of +stakes driven deeply into the ground,—a separate row of stakes sustaining +each of the grades. Looking landward from the top of the structure, your gaze +ranges over the whole town,—a broad space of grey-tiled roofs and +weather-worn grey timbers, with here and there a pine-grove marking the place +of a temple-court. Seaward, over leagues of water, there is a grand +view,—a jagged blue range of peaks crowding sharply into the horizon, +like prodigious amethysts,—and beyond them, to the left, the glorious +spectre of Fuji, towering enormously above everything. Between sea-wall and sea +there is no sand,—only a grey slope of stones, chiefly boulders; and +these roll with the surf so that it is ugly work trying to pass the breakers on +a rough day. If you once get struck by a stone-wave,—as I did several +times,—you will not soon forget the experience. +</p> + +<p> +At certain hours the greater part of this rough slope is occupied by ranks of +strange-looking craft,—fishing-boats of a form peculiar to the locality. +They are very large,—capable of carrying forty or fifty men +each;—and they have queer high prows, to which Buddhist or Shintō charms +(<i>mamori</i> or <i>shugo</i>) are usually attached. A common form of Shintō +written charm (<i>shugo</i>) is furnished for this purpose from the temple of +the Goddess of Fuji: the text reads:—<i>Fuji-san chōjō Sengen-gu dai-gyō +manzoku</i>,—meaning that the owner of the boat pledges himself, in case +of good-fortune at fishing, to perform great austerities in honor of the +divinity whose shrine is upon the summit of Fuji. +</p> + +<p> +In every coast-province of Japan,—and even at different +fishing-settlements of the same province,—the forms of boats and +fishing-implements are peculiar to the district or settlement. Indeed it will +sometimes be found that settlements, within a few miles of each other, +respectively manufacture nets or boats as dissimilar in type as might be the +inventions of races living thousands of miles apart. This amazing variety may +be in some degree due to respect for local tradition,—to the pious +conservatism that preserves ancestral teaching and custom unchanged through +hundreds of years: but it is better explained by the fact that different +communities practise different kinds of fishing; and the shapes of the nets or +the boats made, at any one place, are likely to prove, on investigation, the +inventions of a special experience. The big Yaidzu boats illustrate this fact. +They were devised according to the particular requirements of the +Yaidzu-fishing-industry, which supplies dried <i>katsuo</i> (bonito) to all +parts of the Empire; and it was necessary that they should be able to ride a +very rough sea. To get them in or out of the water is a heavy job; but the +whole village helps. A kind of slipway is improvised in a moment by laying flat +wooden frames on the slope in a line; and over these frames the flat-bottomed +vessels are hauled up or down by means of long ropes. You will see a hundred or +more persons thus engaged in moving a single boat,—men, women, and +children pulling together, in time to a curious melancholy chant. At the coming +of a typhoon, the boats are moved far back into the streets. There is plenty of +fun in helping at such work; and if you are a stranger, the fisher-folk will +perhaps reward your pains by showing you the wonders of their sea: crabs with +legs of astonishing length, balloon-fish that blow themselves up in the most +absurd manner, and various other creatures of shapes so extraordinary that you +can scarcely believe them natural without touching them. +</p> + +<p> +The big boats with holy texts at their prows are not the strangest objects on +the beach. Even more remarkable are the bait-baskets of split +bamboo,—baskets six feet high and eighteen feet round, with one small +hole in the dome-shaped top. Ranged along the sea-wall to dry, they might at +some distance be mistaken for habitations or huts of some sort. Then you see +great wooden anchors, shaped like ploughshares, and shod with metal; iron +anchors, with four flukes; prodigious wooden mallets, used for driving stakes; +and various other implements, still more unfamiliar, of which you cannot even +imagine the purpose. The indescribable antique queerness of everything gives +you that weird sensation of remoteness,—of the far away in time and +place,—which makes one doubt the reality of the visible. And the life of +Yaidzu is certainly the life of many centuries ago. The people, too, are the +people of Old Japan: frank and kindly as children—good +children,—honest to a fault, innocent of the further world, loyal to the +ancient traditions and the ancient gods. +</p> + +<h3>II</h3> + +<p> +I happened to be at Yaidzu during the three days of the <i>Bon</i> or Festival +of the Dead; and I hoped to see the beautiful farewell ceremony of the third +and last day. In many parts of Japan, the ghosts are furnished with miniature +ships for their voyage,—little models of junks or fishing-craft, each +containing offerings of food and water and kindled incense; also a tiny lantern +or lamp, if the ghost-ship be despatched at night. But at Yaidzu lanterns only +are set afloat; and I was told that they would be launched after dark. Midnight +being the customary hour elsewhere, I supposed that it was the hour of farewell +at Yaidzu also, and I rashly indulged in a nap after supper, expecting to wake +up in time for the spectacle. But by ten o’clock, when I went to the +beach again, all was over, and everybody had gone home. Over the water I saw +something like a long swarm of fire-flies,—the lanterns drifting out to +sea in procession; but they were already too far to be distinguished except as +points of colored light. I was much disappointed: I felt that I had lazily +missed an opportunity which might never again return,—for these old +Bon-customs are dying rapidly. But in another moment it occurred to me that I +could very well venture to swim out to the lights. They were moving slowly. I +dropped my robe on the beach, and plunged in. The sea was calm, and beautifully +phosphorescent. Every stroke kindled a stream of yellow fire. I swam fast, and +overtook the last of the lantern-fleet much sooner than I had hoped. I felt +that it would be unkind to interfere with the little embarcations, or to divert +them from their silent course: so I contented myself with keeping close to one +of them, and studying its details. +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus04"></a> +<a href="images/fig04.jpg"> +<img src="images/fig04.jpg" width="600" height="392" alt="Illustration:" /></a> +<p class="caption">The Lights of the Dead</p> +</div> + +<p> +The structure was very simple. The bottom was a piece of thick plank, perfectly +square, and measuring about ten inches across. Each one of its corners +supported a slender slick about sixteen inches high; and these four uprights, +united above by cross-pieces, sustained the paper sides. Upon the point of a +long nail, driven up through the centre of the bottom, was fixed a lighted +candle. The top was left open. The four sides presented five different +colors,—blue, yellow, red, white, and black; these five colors +respectively symbolizing Ether, Wind, Fire, Water, and Earth,—the five +Buddhist elements which are metaphysically identified with the Five Buddhas. +One of the paper-panes was red, one blue, one yellow; and the right half of the +fourth pane was black, while the left half, uncolored, represented white. No +<i>kaimyō</i> was written upon any of the transparencies. Inside the lantern +there was only the flickering candle. +</p> + +<p> +I watched those frail glowing shapes drifting through the night, and ever as +they drifted scattering, under impulse of wind and wave, more and more widely +apart. Each, with its quiver of color, seemed a life afraid,—trembling on +the blind current that was bearing it into the outer blackness…. Are not we +ourselves as lanterns launched upon a deeper and a dimmer sea, and ever +separating further and further one from another as we drift to the inevitable +dissolution? Soon the thought-light in each burns itself out: then the poor +frames, and all that is left of their once fair colors, must melt forever into +the colorless Void. +</p> + +<p> +Even in the moment of this musing I began to doubt whether I was really +alone,—to ask myself whether there might not be something more than a +mere shuddering of light in the thing that rocked beside me: some presence that +haunted the dying flame, and was watching the watcher. A faint cold thrill +passed over me,—perhaps some chill uprising from the +depths,—perhaps the creeping only of a ghostly fancy. Old superstitions +of the coast recurred to me,—old vague warnings of peril in the time of +the passage of Souls. I reflected that were any evil to befall me out there in +the night,—meddling, or seeming to meddle, with the lights of the +Dead,—I should myself furnish the subject of some future weird legend…. I +whispered the Buddhist formula of farewell—to the lights,—and made +speed for shore. +</p> + +<p> +As I touched the stones again, I was startled by seeing two white shadows +before me; but a kindly voice, asking if the water was cold, set me at ease. It +was the voice of my old landlord, Otokichi the fishseller, who had come to look +for me, accompanied by his wife. +</p> + +<p> +“Only pleasantly cool,” I made answer, as I threw on my robe to go +home with them. +</p> + +<p> +“Ah,” said the wife, “it is not good to go out there on the +night of the Bon!” +</p> + +<p> +“I did not go far,” I replied;—“I only wanted to look +at the lanterns.” +</p> + +<p> +“Even a Kappa gets drowned sometimes,”<a href="#fn-14.1" name="fnref-14.1" id="fnref-14.1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> +protested Otokichi. “There was a man of this village who swam home a +distance of seven ri, in bad weather, after his boat had been broken. But he +was drowned afterwards.” +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-14.1" id="fn-14.1"></a> <a href="#fnref-14.1">[1]</a> +This is a common proverb:—<i>Kappa mo oboré-shini</i>. The Kappa is a +water-goblin, haunting rivers especially. +</p> + +<p> +Seven <i>ri</i> means a trifle less than eighteen miles. I asked if any of the +young men now in the settlement could do as much. +</p> + +<p> +“Probably some might,” the old man replied. “There are many +strong swimmers. All swim here,—even the little children. But when +fisher-folk swim like that, it is only to save their lives.” +</p> + +<p> +“Or to make love,” the wife added,—“like the Hashima +girl.” +</p> + +<p> +“Who?” queried I. +</p> + +<p> +“A fisherman’s daughter,” said Otokichi. “She had a +lover in Ajiro, several <i>ri</i> distant; and she used to swim to him at +night, and swim back in the morning. He kept a light burning to guide her. But +one dark night the light was neglected—or blown out; and she lost her +way, and was drowned…. The story is famous in Idzu.” +</p> + +<p> +—“So,” I said to myself, “in the Far East, it is poor +Hero that does the swimming. And what, under such circumstances, would have +been the Western estimate of Leander?” +</p> + +<h3>III</h3> + +<p> +Usually about the time of the Bon, the sea gets rough; and I was not surprised +to find next morning that the surf was running high. All day it grew. By the +middle of the afternoon, the waves had become wonderful; and I sat on the +sea-wall, and watched them until sundown. +</p> + +<p> +It was a long slow rolling,—massive and formidable. Sometimes, just +before breaking, a towering swell would crack all its green length with a +tinkle as of shivering glass; then would fall and flatten with a peal that +shook the wall beneath me…. I thought of the great dead Russian general who +made his army to storm as a sea,—wave upon wave of steel,—thunder +following thunder…. There was yet scarcely any wind; but there must have been +wild weather elsewhere,—and the breakers were steadily heightening. Their +motion fascinated. How indescribably complex such motion is,—yet how +eternally new! Who could fully describe even five minutes of it? No mortal ever +saw two waves break in exactly the same way. +</p> + +<p> +And probably no mortal ever watched the ocean-roll or heard its thunder without +feeling serious. I have noticed that even animals,—horses and +cows,—become meditative in the presence of the sea: they stand and stare +and listen as if the sight and sound of that immensity made them forget all +else in the world. +</p> + +<p> +There is a folk-saying of the coast:—“<i>The Sea has a soul and +hears</i>.” And the meaning is thus explained: Never speak of your fear +when you feel afraid at sea;—if you say that you are afraid, the waves +will suddenly rise higher. Now this imagining seems to me absolutely natural. I +must confess that when I am either in the sea, or upon it, I cannot fully +persuade myself that it is not alive,—a conscious and a hostile power. +Reason, for the time being, avails nothing against this fancy. In order to be +able to think of the sea as a mere body of water, I must be upon some height +from whence its heaviest billowing appears but a lazy creeping of tiny ripples. +</p> + +<p> +But the primitive fancy may be roused even more strongly in darkness than by +daylight. How living seem the smoulderings and the flashings of the tide on +nights of phosphorescence!—how reptilian the subtle shifting of the tints +of its chilly flame! Dive into such a night-sea;—open your eyes in the +black-blue gloom, and watch the weird gush of lights that follow your every +motion: each luminous point, as seen through the flood, like the opening and +closing of an eye! At such a moment, one feels indeed as if enveloped by some +monstrous sentiency,—suspended within some vital substance that feels and +sees and wills alike in every part, an infinite soft cold Ghost. +</p> + +<h3>IV</h3> + +<p> +Long I lay awake that night, and listened to the thunder-rolls and crashings of +the mighty tide. Deeper than these distinct shocks of noise, and all the +storming of the nearer waves, was the bass of the further surf,—a +ceaseless abysmal muttering to which the building trembled,—a sound that +seemed to imagination like the sound of the trampling of infinite cavalry, the +massing of incalculable artillery,—some rushing, from the Sunrise, of +armies wide as the world. +</p> + +<p> +Then I found myself thinking of the vague terror with which I had listened, +when a child, to the voice of the sea;—and I remembered that in +after-years, on different coasts in different parts of the world, the sound of +surf had always revived the childish emotion. Certainly this emotion was older +than I by thousands of thousands of centuries,—the inherited sum of +numberless terrors ancestral. But presently there came to me the conviction +that fear of the sea alone could represent but one element of the multitudinous +awe awakened by its voice. For as I listened to that wild tide of the Suruga +coast, I could distinguish nearly every sound of fear known to man: not merely +noises of battle tremendous,—of interminable volleying,—of +immeasurable charging,—but the roaring of beasts, the crackling and +hissing of fire, the rumbling of earthquake, the thunder of ruin, and, above +all these, a clamor continual as of shrieks and smothered shoutings,—the +Voices that are said to be the voices of the drowned., Awfulness supreme of +tumult,—combining all imaginable echoings of fury and destruction and +despair! +</p> + +<p> +And to myself I said:—Is it wonderful that the voice of the sea should +make us serious? Consonantly to its multiple utterance must respond all waves +of immemorial fear that move in the vaster sea of soul-experience. Deep calleth +unto deep. The visible abyss calls to that abyss invisible of elder being whose +flood-flow made the ghosts of us. +</p> + +<p> +Wherefore there is surely more than a little truth in the ancient belief that +the speech of the dead is the roar of the sea. Truly the fear and the pain of +the dead past speak to us in that dim deep awe which the roar of the sea +awakens. +</p> + +<p> +But there are sounds that move us much more profoundly than the voice of the +sea can do, and in stranger ways,—sounds that also make us serious at +times, and very serious,—sounds of music. +</p> + +<p> +Great music is a psychical storm, agitating to unimaginable depth the mystery +of the past within us. Or we might say that it is a prodigious incantation, +every different instrument and voice making separate appeal to different +billions of prenatal memories. There are tones that call up all ghosts of youth +and joy and tenderness;—there are tones that evoke all phantom pain of +perished passion;—there are tones that resurrect all dead sensations of +majesty and might and glory,—all expired exultations,—all forgotten +magnanimities. Well may the influence of music seem inexplicable to the man who +idly dreams that his life began less than a hundred years ago! But the mystery +lightens for whomsoever learns that the substance of Self is older than the +sun. He finds that music is a Necromancy;—he feels that to every ripple +of melody, to every billow of harmony, there answers within him, out of the Sea +of Death and Birth, some eddying immeasurable of ancient pleasure and pain. +</p> + +<p> +Pleasure and pain: they commingle always in great music; and therefore it is +that music can move us more profoundly than the voice of ocean or than any +other voice can do. But in music’s larger utterance it is ever the sorrow +that makes the undertone,—the surf-mutter of the Sea of Soul…. Strange +to think how vast the sum of joy and woe that must have been experienced before +the sense of music could evolve in the brain of man! +</p> + +<p> +Somewhere it is said that human life is the music of the Gods,—that its +sobs and laughter, its songs and shrieks and orisons, its outcries of delight +and of despair, rise never to the hearing of the Immortals but as a perfect +harmony…. Wherefore they could not desire to hush the tones of pain: it would +spoil their music! The combination, without the agony-tones, would prove a +discord unendurable to ears divine. +</p> + +<p> +And in one way we ourselves are as Gods,—since it is only the sum of the +pains and the joys of past lives innumerable that makes for us, through memory +organic, the ecstasy of music. All the gladness and the grief of dead +generations come back to haunt us in countless forms of harmony and of melody. +Even so,—a million years after we shall have ceased to view the +sun,—will the gladness and the grief of our own lives pass with richer +music into other hearts—there to bestir, for one mysterious moment, some +deep and exquisite thrilling of voluptuous pain. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div style='display:block;margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN GHOSTLY JAPAN ***</div> +<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0;'>This file should be named 8128-h.htm or 8128-h.zip</div> +<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0;'>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in https://www.gutenberg.org/8/1/2/8128/</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will +be renamed. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. 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