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diff --git a/old/8128-8.txt b/old/8128-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b9f0ac1 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/8128-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4890 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of In Ghostly Japan, by Lafcadio Hearn +#5 in our series by Lafcadio Hearn + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: In Ghostly Japan + +Author: Lafcadio Hearn + +Release Date: May, 2005 [EBook #8128] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on June 16, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN GHOSTLY JAPAN *** + + + + +Produced by Liz Warren + + + + +In Ghostly Japan + + +Fragment + +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. + +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." + + +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. + +"Do not fear, my son," said the Bodhisattva, guiding: "danger +there is none, though the way be grim." + +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. + + +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. + +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. + +"Linger not thus, my son!" urged the voice of the teacher;--"the +summit that we must gain is very far away!" + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"Do not fear, my son!" cried the voice of the Bodhisattva;--"only +the strong of heart can win to the place of the Vision!" + + +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. + +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. + +"Hasten, hasten, my son!" cried the Bodhisattva: "the day is +brief, and the summit is very far away." + +But the pilgrim shrieked,--"I fear! I fear unspeakably!--and the +power has departed from me!" + +"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." + +"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." + +"And yet, my son," said the Bodhisattva, laughing softly,--"and +yet you do not know of what this mountain is made." + +The other, shuddering, repeated:--"I fear!--unutterably I + fear!...there is nothing but skulls of men!" + +"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." + + +FURISODE + +Recently, while passing through a little street tenanted chiefly +by dealers in old wares, I noticed a furisode, or long-sleeved +robe, of the rich purple tint called murasaki, 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. + + +Nearly two hundred and fifty years ago, the daughter of a rich +merchant of the city of the Shoguns, 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. + +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: +Namu myo ho rengé kyo! + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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, Namu myo +ho rengé kyo;--and these, one by one, leaped like great sparks to +the temple roof; and the temple took fire. + +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 Meireki (1655), is still +remembered in Tokyo as the Furisode-Kwaji,--the Great Fire of the +Long-sleeved Robe. + + +According to a story-book called Kibun-Daijin, the name of the girl +who caused the robe to be made was O-Same; and she was the daughter +of Hikoyemon, a wine-merchant of Hyakusho-machi, in the district of +Azabu. Because of her beauty she was also called Azabu-Komachi, or +the Komachi of Azabu.(1) 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 kikyo-flower. But +there are many different versions of the story; and I distrust the +Kibun-Daijin 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 Uyeno,--Shinobazu-no-Ike. + +1 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 Kyoto. As it was thought +shameful to bury her in the foul rags found upon her, some poor +person gave a wornout summer-robe (katabira) 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" (Katabira-no-Tsuchi). + + +Incense + +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. + +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. + + +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. Shinto 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 Fudo, Jizo, 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. + +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. + + +II + +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 fron +Korea,--when King Shomyo 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 ranjatai (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 fol-low 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 Sento-In," etc. Recipes also should be given of those strange +incenses made "to imitate the perfume of the lotos, the smell of +the summer breeze, and the odor of the autumn wind." Some legends +of the great period of incense-luxury should be cited,--such as +the story of Sue 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 Kun-Shu-Rui-Sho, 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 "different kinds +of fire" 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 (kusadama) +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:-- + +Even as burns the perfume lending thy robe its fragance, +Smoulders my life away, consumed by the pain of longing! + +....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. + + +III + +The common incense everywhere burned by poor people before +Buddhist icons is called an-soku-ko. 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: ko, or incense-proper, in many +varieties--(the word literally means only "fragrant substance"); +--dzuko, an odorous ointment; and makko, a fragrant powder. Ko is +burned; dzuko is rubbed upon the hands of the priest as an +ointment of purification; and makko is sprinkled about the +sanctuary. This makko 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. + +"Incense," declares the Soshi-Ryaku,(1) "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." + +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 Hoji-san (2) is a striking example:-- + +--"Let my body remain pure like a censer!--let my thought be ever +as a fire of wisdom, purely consuming the incense of sila and of +dhyana, (3) that so may I do homage to all the Buddhas in the Ten +Directions of the Past, the Present, and the Future!" + +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 "(Hyaku-tsu-kiri- +kami), the Shinshu priest Myoden says, quoting from the Buddhist +work Kujikkajo, or "Ninety Articles ":-- + +"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." + +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: '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.' 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 Nembutsu in gratitude +for the mercy of the Buddha." + +1 "Short [or Epitomized] History of Priests." +2 "The Praise of Pious Observances." +3 By sila is meant the observance of the rules of purity +in act and thought. Dhyana (called by Japanese Buddhists Zenjo) +is one of the higher forms of meditation. + + +IV + +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 bric-a'-brac 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, (ikebana), the art of ceremonial +tea-making (cha-no-yu or cha-no-e),(1) and the etiquette of +incense-parties (ko-kwai or ko-e). Incense-parties were invented +before the time of the Ashikaga shoguns, and were most in vogue +during the peaceful period of the Tokugawa rule. With the fall of +the shogunate 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. + +In translating ko-kwai 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 ko-kwai 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 +ko-kwai called Jitchu-ko ("ten-burning-incense") is generally +conceded to be the most amusing; and I shall try to tell you how +it is played. + + +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 Jitchu-ko, 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. + +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, (2) with the announcement--"This is +incense No 1" The guest receives the censer according to the +graceful etiquette required in the ko-kwai, 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. + +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. + +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. + +The remaining nine packages of incense art 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. + +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 Ko-kwai to rinse the mouth at +intervals with pure vinegar, by which operation the sensitivity +is partially restored. + + RECORD OF A KO-KWAI. + + Order in which the ten packages of incense were +used:-- + 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 +Names given +to the six No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. +No. +tablets used, III I GUEST II I III II I III +II +according to +decorative +designs on the +back: Guesses recorded by nos. on tablet; correct + being marked * + No. of correct + + guesses + +"Gold +Chrysanthemum" 1 3 1 2* Guest 1 2* 2 3* +3 3 + +"Young Bamboo" 3* 1* 1 2* 1* Guest 3 2 1 +3 4 + +"Red Peony" Guest 1* 2 2* 3 1 3 2 3* +1 3 + +"White Lily" 1 3 1 3 2 2 1 3 Guest +2* 1 + +"Young Pine" 3* 1* Guest* 3 1* 2 2* 1* 3* +2* 8 (Winner) + +"Cherry-Blossom +-in-a-Mist" 1 3 Guest* 2* 1* 3* 1 2 3* +2* 6 + +NAMES OF INCENSE USED. + +I. "Tasogare" ("Who-Is-there?" I. e. "Evening-Dusk"). +II. "Baikwa" ("Plum Flower"). +III. "Wakakusa" ("Young Grass"). +IV. ("Guest Incense") "Yamaji-no-Tsuyu" +("Dew-on-the-Mountain-Path"). 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 Ko-kwai player to refer immediately to any +interesting fact belonging to the history of any past game. + +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,--Tasogare (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:-- + +Recipe for Yamaji-no-Tsuyu. + + Ingredients Proportions. + about +Jinko (aloes-wood) 4 momme (1/2 oz.) +Choji (cloves) 4 " " +Kunroku (olibanum) 4 " " +Hakko (artemisia Schmidtiana) 4 " " +Jako (musk) 1 bu (1/8 oz.) +Koko(?) 4 momme (1/2 oz.) + +To 21 pastilles + + +Recipe for Baikwa. + + Ingredients Proportions. + about +Jinko (aloes) 20 momme (2 1/2 oz.) +Choji (cloves) 12 " (1 1/2 oz.) +Koko(?) 8 1/3 " (1 1/40 oz.) +Byakudan (sandal-wood) 4 " (1/2 oz.) +Kansho (spikenard) 2 bu (1/4 oz.) +Kwakko (Bishop's-wort?) 1 bu 2 sbu (3/16 oz.) +Kunroku (olibanum) 3 " 3 " (15/22 oz.) +Shomokko (?) 2 " (1/4 oz.) +Jako (musk) 3 " 2 sbu (7/16 oz.) +Ryuno (refined Borneo Camphor) 3 sbu (3/8 oz.) + +To 50 pastilles + + +The incense used at a Ko-kwai 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 ranjatai, 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 ranjatai,--incense valued less for its com- +position 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. + +Like the tea-ceremonies, the Ko-kwai 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 _odorless_ 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. + + +In this economical era, the Ko-kwai takes of necessity a much +humbler form than it assumed in the time of the great daimyo, 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 dai,-- +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 +chef-d'oeuvre, designed by some artist of renown. + +1 Girls are still trained in the art of arranging flowers, and in +the etiquette of the dainty, though somewhat tedious, cha-no-yu. +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. + +2 The places occupied by guests in a Japanese zashiki, 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. + + +V + +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:-- + +"I have heard of the magical incense that summons the souls +of the absent: +Would I had some to burn, in the nights when I wait alone!" + +There is an interesting mention of this incense in the Chinese +book, Shang-hai-king. It was called Fwan-hwan-hiang (by Japanese +pronunciation, Hangon-ko), 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. + +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. + +Japanese artists are still occasionally inspired by the legends +of the Hangon-ho. Only last year, in Tokyo, 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.(1) + +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 Jiki- +ko-ki, or "incense-eating goblins;" and they belong to the +fourteenth of the thirty-six classes of Gaki (pretas) 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. + +1 Among the curious Tokyo inventions of 1898 was a new variety of +cigarettes called Hangon-so, 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. + + + +A Story of Divination + +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 daimyo, 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 uranaiya,--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 Yi-King,--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. + +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! + +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 Osaka, in Kyoto, and in Kobe. +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. + +Every year he used to come to Tokyo,--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. + +"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. + + +"The story is about the famous Chinese fortune-teller whom we +call in Japan Shoko Setsu, and it is written in the book Baikwa- +Shin-Eki, which is a book of divination. While still a very young +man, Shoko 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. + +"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. Shoko 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: '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.' 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, Shoko 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. + +"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 Shoko 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.' + +"Having been guided to the house, Shoko 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 Shoko 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 Shoko +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.' + +"Shoko 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." + +*** + +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,--Uranaiya minouye +shiradzu: "The fortune-teller knows not his own fate." + + + +Silkworms + +I was puzzled by the phrase, "silkworm-moth eyebrow," in an old +Japanese, or rather Chinese proverb:--The silkworm-moth eyebrow +of a woman is the axe that cuts down the wisdom of man. So I went +to my friend Niimi, who keeps silkworms, to ask for an +explanation. + +"Is it possible," he exclaimed, "that you never saw a silkworm- +moth? The silkworm-moth has very beautiful eyebrows." + +"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." + +He left the guest-room, and presently returned with a white +paper-fan, on which a silkworm-moth was sleepily reposing. + +"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." + +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 eye- +brows. + +Then Niimi took me to see his worms. + +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. + +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. + +II + +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. + +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 larvae, the power to develop wings under the mortal +wrapping. Also they tell us not to trouble ourselves about the +fact that we see no Psyche-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. + +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. + +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 preordained 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. + +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. + +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 Shobo-nen-jo-kyo, 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.(1) + +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.... + + +(1) 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. + + +III + +I told the substance of my revery to Niimi. He used to be a great +reader of Buddhist books. + +"Well," he said, "I was reminded of a queer Buddhist story by the +proverb that you asked me to explain,--The silkworm-moth eyebrow +of a woman is the axe that cuts down the wisdom of man. According +to our doctrine, the saying would be as true of life in heaven as +of life upon earth.... This is the story:--"When Shaka (1) 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 San-Jusan-Ten, +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.' + +"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.'" (2) + +(1) Sakyamuni. + +(2) 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 +Hongyo-kyo (?), the other in the Zoichi-agon-kyo (Ekottaragamas). +In Mr. Henry Clarke Warren's Buddhism in Translations (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 +Sakyamuni. + + +A Passional Karma + +One of the never-failing attractions of the Tokyo stage is the +performance, by the famous Kikugoro and his company, of the +Botan-Doro, 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 Kikugoro +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." + +I gladly accepted the suggestion; and we composed the following +summary of the more extraordinary portion of Encho'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. + +*** + +--This is the story of the Ghosts in the Romance of the Peony- +Lantern:-- + +I + +There once lived in the district of Ushigome, in Yedo, a hatamoto +(1) called Iijima Heizayemon, 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-Yone, +to wait upon her. + +O-Tsuyu lived happily enough in her new home until one day when +the family physician, Yamamoto Shijo, paid her a visit in company +with a young samurai named Hagiwara Shinzaburo, who resided in +the Nedzu quarter. Shinzaburo 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,--"Remember! If you do not come to see me again, I shall +certainly die!" + +Shinzaburo 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 +Heizayemon had a reputation for cutting off heads. And the more +Shijo thought about the possible consequences of his introduction +of Shinzaburo at the Iijima villa, the more he became afraid. +Therefore he purposely abstained from calling upon his young +friend. + +Months passed; and O-Tsuyu, little imagining the true cause of +Shinzaburo's neglect, believed that her love had been scorned. +Then she pined away, and died. Soon afterwards, the faithful +servant O-Yone 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. + +(1) The hatamoto were samurai forming the special military force +of the Shogun. The name literally signifies "Banner-Supporters." +These were the highest class of samurai,--not only as the +immediate vassals of the Shogun, but as a military aristocracy. + + +II + +Shinzaburo 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 Shijo. The old +man made a number of plausible excuses for his apparent neglect. +Shinzaburo 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." + +Shijo gravely responded,--"I am very sorry to tell you that the +young lady is dead!" + +"Dead!" repeated Shinzaburo, turning white,--"did you say that +she is dead?" + +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:-- + +"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-Yone had also died. Then, remembering all +that had taken place, I knew that the young lady must have died +of love for you.... [Laughing] Ah, you are really a sinful +fellow! Yes, you are! [Laughing] Isn't it a sin to have been born +so handsome that the girls die for love of you? (1) [Seriously] +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 (2).... Good-bye." + +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. + +(1) Perhaps this conversation may seem strange to the Western +reader; but it is true to life. The whole of the scene is +characteristically Japanese. +(2) The invocation Namu Amida Butsu! ("Hail to the Buddha +Amitabha!"),--repeated, as a prayer, for the sake of the dead. + + + +III + +Shinzaburo 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 Nembutsu; +and the memory of O-Tsuyu was never absent from his thought. + +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 shoryodana, or Shelf of Souls. +And on the first evening of the Ban, after sun-down, he kindled a +small lamp before the tablet of O-Tsuyu, and lighted the +lanterns. + +The night was clear, with a great moon,--and windless, and very +warm. Shinzaburo 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. + +But all at once this stillness was broken by a sound of women's +geta (1) approaching--kara-kon, kara-kon;--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,(2) 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 Shinzaburo;--and to +his utter astonishment, he recognized O-Tsuyu and her servant O- +Yone. + +They stopped immediately; and the girl cried out,--"Oh, how +strange!... Hagiwara Sama!" + +Shinzaburo simultaneously called to the maid:--"O-Yone! Ah, you +are O-Yone!--I remember you very well." + +"Hagiwara Sama!" exclaimed O-Yone in a tone of supreme amazement. +"Never could I have believed it possible!... Sir, we were told +that you had died." + +"How extraordinary!" cried Shinzaburo. "Why, I was told that both +of you were dead!" + +"Ah, what a hateful story!" returned O-Yone. "Why repeat such +unlucky words?... Who told you?" + +"Please to come in," said Shinzaburo;--"here we can talk better. +The garden-gate is open." + +So they entered, and exchanged greeting; and when Shinzaburo had +made them comfortable, he said:-- + +"I trust that you will pardon my discourtesy in not having called +upon you for so long a time. But Shijo, the doctor, about a month +ago, told me that you had both died." + +"So it was he who told you?" exclaimed O-Yone. "It was very +wicked of him to say such a thing. Well, it was also Shijo who +told us that you 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 Nembutsu 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." + +"Oh, how extraordinary!" cried Shinzaburo. "Can it be true?-or is +it only a dream? Here I, too, have been constantly reciting the +Nembutsu 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. + +"We are more than grateful for your kind remembrance," returned +O-Yone, 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,(3) or +even being killed by him, for your sake! Come! will you not allow +her to stay here to-night?" + +Shinzaburo turned pale for joy. He answered in a voice trembling +with emotion:--"Please remain; but do not speak loud--because +there is a troublesome fellow living close by,--a ninsomi (4) +called Hakuodo 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." + +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 Shinzaburo 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. + +1 Komageta in the original. The geta is a wooden sandal, or clog, +of which there are many varieties,--some decidedly elegant. The +komageta, or "pony-geta" is so-called because of the sonorous +hoof-like echo which it makes on hard ground. + +2 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 Bon-doro. The flowers +ornamenting it were not painted: they were artificial flowers of +crepe-silk, and were attached to the top of the lantern. + +3 "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 shichi-sho +made no mando, 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. + +4 The profession is not yet extinct. The ninsomi uses a kind of +magnifying glass (or magnifying-mirror sometimes), called +tengankyo or ninsomegane. + + +IV + +Now there was a man called Tomozo, who lived in a small cottage +adjoining Shinzaburo's residence, Tomozo and his wife O-Mine were +both employed by Shinzaburo as servants. Both seemed to be +devoted to their young master; and by his help they were able to +live in comparative comfort. + +One night, at a very late hour, Tomozo heard the voice of a woman +in his master's apartment; and this made him uneasy. He feared +that Shinzaburo, 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 +Shinzaburo'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.(1) Putting his ear to the chink, he could hear the +conversation plainly. The woman said:-- + +"And if I should be disowned by my father, would you then let me +come and live with you?" + +Shinzaburo answered:-- + +"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." + +She responded softly:-- + +"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. + +Tomozo 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.(2) 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. + +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 +Hakuodo Yusai, and, knocking frantically at the doors, succeeded +in arousing him. + +1 The color and form of the dress, and the style of wearing the +hair, are by Japanese custom regulated accord-big to the age of +the woman. + +2 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. + +V + +Hakuodo Yusai, the ninsomi, 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 Tomozo 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 Tomozo 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 Tomozo imagined, then +the young samurai was a doomed man. + +"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 yoki, and pure;--the spirit +of the dead is inki, 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, Tomozo, say +nothing to any other person,--not even to your wife,--about this +matter. At sunrise I shall call upon your master." + +When questioned next morning by Yusai, Shinzaburo 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. + +"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 Nembutsu 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!..." + +And having uttered this counsel with the most vehement +earnestness, Hakuodo Yusai abruptly took his departure. + + +Shinzaburo, startled though not convinced, resolved after a +moment's reflection to follow the advice of the ninsomi, 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-Yone; 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. + +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. Shinzaburo remembered +that the peony-lantern carried by O-Yone 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 kaimyo, 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 Heizayemon, the +hatamoto of Ushigome; and that the small tomb next to it was that +of her servant O-Yone, who had died of grief soon after the young +lady's funeral. + +Immediately to Shinzaburö's memory there recurred, with another +and sinister meaning, the words of O-Yone:--"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...." +Here was indeed the very small house,--and in Yanaka-no-Sasaki. +But the little private work...? + +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 Shinzaburo to the high-priest Ryoseki, of +Shin-Banzui-In, with a letter praying for immediate religious +help. + + +VII + +The high-priest Ryoseki 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 Shinzaburo, and said to him:-- + +"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 +mamoni.(1) It is a pure gold image of that Buddha called the Sea- +Sounding Tathagata--Kai-On-Nyorai,--because his preaching of the +Law sounds through the world like the sound of the sea. And this +little image is especially a shiryo-yoke,(2)--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 segaki-service(3) for the repose of the +troubled spirit.... And here is a holy sutra, called Ubo-Darani- +Kyo, or "Treasure-Raining Sutra"(4) you must be careful to recite +it every night in your house--without fail.... Furthermore I +shall give you this package of o-fuda(5);--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." + +Shinzaburo 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. + +1 The Japanese word mamori 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 mamori 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 samurai 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. + +2 From shiryo, a ghost, and yokeru, to exclude. The Japanese +have, two kinds of ghosts proper in their folk-lore: the spirits +of the dead, shiryo; and the spirits of the living, ikiryo. A +house or a person may be haunted by an ikiryo as well as by a +shiryo. + +3 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. + +4 The name would be more correctly written Ubo-Darani-Kyo. 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-Pundarika, ch. xxvi. + +5 O-fuda 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. O-fuda 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 o- +fuda is often accompanied by curious pictures or symbolic +illustrations. + +VIII + +With Yusai's advice and help, Shinzaburo was able before dark to +fix the holy texts over all the apertures of his dwelling. Then +the ninsomi returned to his own house,--leaving the youth alone. +Night came, warm and clear. Shinzaburo 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 Ubo- +Darani-Kyo. 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.(1) + +It ceased; and Shinzaburo suddenly heard the sound of geta +approaching from the old direction,--but this time more slowly: +karan-koron, karan-koron! 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, +Shinzaburo 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 Ubo-Darani-Kyo, he foolishly +approached the shutters, and through a chink peered out into the +night. Before the house he saw O-Tsuyu standing, and O-Yone 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 Shinzaburo +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 Sho-netsu hell.(2) + +Presently he heard the voice of the maid-servant, saying:-- + +"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." + +But the girl answered, weeping:-- + +"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." + +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. + +O-Yone 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!" + +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. + +1 According to the old Japanese way of counting time, this +yatsudoki 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. + +2 En-netsu or Sho-netsu (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. + + +IX + +Night after night the shadows came at the Hour of the Ox; and +nightly Shinzaburo 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. + + +Tomozo had promised Yusai never to speak to any other person--not +even to O-Mine--of the strange events that were taking place. But +Tomozo was not long suffered by the haunters to rest in peace. +Night after night O-Yone entered into his dwelling, and roused +him from his sleep, and asked him to remove the o-fuda placed +over one very small window at the back of his master's house. And +Tomozo, out of fear, as often promised her to take away the o- +fuda before the next sundown; but never by day could he make up +his mind to remove it,--believing that evil was intended to +Shinzaburo. At last, in a night of storm, O-Yone 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 Tomozo nearly died of terror. + +O-Mine, the wife of Tomozo, 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 Tomozo. Almost in the same +moment the talk-ing ceased; and when O-Mine 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 Tomozo 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. + +Then the passion of O-Mine 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 +Tomozo a cunning counsel,--telling him to make conditions with +the dead. + +They came again on the following night at the Hour of the Ox; and +O-Mine hid herself on hearing the sound of their coming,--karan- +koron, karan-koron! But Tomozo went out to meet them in the dark, +and even found courage to say to them what his wife had told him +to say:-- + +"It is true that I deserve your blame;--but I had no wish to +cause you anger. The reason that the o-fuda 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 ryo 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 ryo, I can take the o- +fuda away without being afraid of losing our only means of +support." + +When he had uttered these words, O-Yone and O-Tsuyu looked at +each other in silence for a moment. Then O-Yoné said:-- + +"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!" + +But O-Tsuyu, weeping, made answer:-- + +"Dear Yone, whatever may happen, I cannot possibly keep myself +from thinking about him! You know that you can get a hundred ryo +to have the o-fuda 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. + +"Oh! why will you ask me to do these things?" responded O-Yone. +"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 +Tomozo, she said:--"Tomozo, I must tell you that Hagiwara Sama +now wears upon his body a mamoni called by the name of Kai-On- +Nyorai, and that so long as he wears it we cannot approach him. +So you will have to get that mamori away from him, by some means +or other, as well as to remove the o-fuda." + +Tomozo feebly made answer:-- + +"That also I can do, if you will promise to bring me the hundred +ryo." + +"Well, mistress," said O-Yone, "you will wait,--will you not,-- +until to-morrow night?" + +"Oh, dear Yone!" sobbed the other,--"have we to go back to-night +again without seeing Hagiwara Sama? Ah! it is cruel!" + +And the shadow of the mistress, weeping, was led away by the +shadow of the maid. + + +x + +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 o-fuda. Moreover he had been able, +while his master was at the bath, to steal from its case the +golden mamori, and to substitute for it an image of copper; and +he had buried the Kai-On-Nyorai 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 +Tomozo never knew. + +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-Mine, 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. + +Shinzaburo 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. + + +Xl + +Hakuodo Yusai, the fortune-teller, went to view the corpse at the +prayer of the faithless Tomozo. The old man was terrified and +astonished at the spectacle, but looked about him with a keen +eye. He soon perceived that the o-fuda had been taken from the +little window at the back of the house; and on searching the body +of Shinzaburo, he discovered that the golden mamori had been +taken from its wrapping, and a copper image of Fudo put in place +of it. He suspected Tomozo of the theft; but the whole occurrence +was so very extraordinary that he thought it prudent to consult +with the priest Ryoseki 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. + +Ryoseki, without waiting to hear the purpose of the old man's +visit, at once invited him into a private apartment. + +"You know that you are always welcome here," said Ryoseki. +"Please seat yourself at ease.... Well, I am sorry to tell you +that Hagiwara Sama is dead." + +Yusai wonderingly exclaimed:--"Yes, he is dead;--but how did you +learn of it?" + +The priest responded:-- + +"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." + +Yusai said:-- + +"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...." + +"You mean," interrupted Ryoseki, "the stealing of the holy +mamori, the Kai-On-Nyorai. 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." + +More and more amazed, the old ninsomi ventured to observe:-- + +"I have studied the In-Yo,(1) and the science of divination; and +I make my living by telling peoples' fortunes;--but I cannot +possibly understand how you know these things." + +Ryoseki answered gravely:-- + +"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." + +Thus it came to pass that Shinzaburo was buried beside O-Tsuyu, +in the cemetery of Shin-Banzui-In, in Yanaka-no-Sasaki. + +--Here ends the story of the Ghosts in the Romance of the Peony- +Lantern.-- + +1 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. + +*** + +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. + +"I shall go with you at once," he said. "But what did you think +of the personages?" + +"To Western thinking," I made answer, "Shinzaburo 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 Shinzaburo 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." + +"From the Japanese point of view, likewise," my friend responded, +"Shinzaburo 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-Yone: 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." + + +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. + +"Ah! the tombs of O-Tsuyu and O-Yone?" 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." + +Surprises of this kind I had met with elsewhere in Japan. + +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-Yone;--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. + +"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. + +"Eleventh day, third month--Rat, Elder Brother, Fire--Sixth year +of Horeki [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." + +With a fresh sheet of paper he presently brought out the text of +a kaimyo, and read,-- + +"En-myo-In, Ho-yo-I-tei-ken-shi, Ho-ni':--'Nun-of-the-Law, +Illustrious, Pure-of-heart-and-will, Famed-in-the-Law,-- +inhabiting the Mansion-of-the-Preaching-of-Wonder.'.... The grave +of some Buddhist nun." + +"What utter humbug!" I exclaimed. "That woman was only making fun +of us." + +"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?" + + +Footprints of the Buddha + + +I + +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 +Tokyo alone there are a number of Butsu-soku-seki, or "Buddha- +foot stones," which I have seen,--and probably several which I +have not seen. There is one at the temple of Eko-In, near +Ryogoku-bashi; one at the temple of Denbo-In, in Koishikawa; one +at the temple of Denbo-In, in Asakusa; and a beautiful example at +Zojoji 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 Bodai-ju ("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 Zojoji,--with figures of divinities cut in low relief on its +sides,--is the most ornate and costly of the four. The specimen +at Eko-In is very poor and plain. + +The first Butsu-soku-seki made in Japan was that erected at +Todaiji, 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(1):--"In a temple of the province of +Makada [Maghada] 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,(2) 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 Nirvana was +approaching, he went to Kushina [Kusinara], and there stood upon +that stone. He stood with his face to the south. Then he said to +his disciple Anan [Ananda]: '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." + +Concerning the virtue of the representation of the footprints of +the Buddha, there is sometimes quoted a text from the Kwan-butsu- +sanmai-kyo ["Buddha-dhyana-samadhi-sagara-sutra"], thus +translated for me:--"In that time Shaka ["Sakyamuni"] 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." + +An outline of the footprints as engraved on one of the Japanese +pedestals(3) should have some interest even for persons familiar +with Indian sculptures of the S'ripada. The double-page drawing, +accompanying this paper [Fig.1], 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 Shichi-So, +or "Seven Appearances." I got some information about them from +the Sho-Eko-Ho-Kwan,--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 manji, or svastika, but I doubt it. In the +Butsu-soku-seki-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 Ho-Kai- +Shidai 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, +and somewhat luminous." [Fig. 3] + +The explanation of the Seven Appearances which is given by the +Sho-Eko-Ho-Kwan cannot be called satisfactory; but it is not +without interest in relation to Japanese popular Buddhism. The +emblems are considered in the following order:-- + +I.--The Svastika. The figure upon each toe is said to be a +modification of the manji (4); and although I doubt whether this +is always the case, I have observed that on some of the large +kakemono representing the footprints, the emblem really is the +svastika,--not a flamelet nor a flower-shape.(5) The Japanese +commentator explains the svastika as a symbol of "everlasting +bliss." +II.--The Fish (Gyo). 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. +III.--The Diamond-Mace (Jap. Kongo-sho;--Sansc. "Vadjra"). +Explained as signifying the divine force that "strikes and breaks +all the lusts (bonno) of the world." +IV.--The Conch-Shell (Jap. "Hora ") or Trumpet. Emblem of the +preaching of the Law. The book Shin-zoku-butsu-ji-hen calls it +the symbol of the voice of the Buddha. The Dai-hi-kyo calls it +the token of the preaching and of the power of the Mahayana +doctrine. The Dai-Nichi-Kyo says:--" At the sound of the blowing +of the shell, all the heavenly deities are filled with delight, +and come to hear the Law." +V.--The Flower-Vase (Jap. "Hanagame"). Emblem of muro,--a +mystical word which might be literally rendered as "not- +leaking,"--signifying that condition of supreme intelligence +triumphant over birth and death. +VI.--The Wheel-of-a-Thousand-Spokes (Sansc. "Tchakra "). This +emblem, called in Japanese Senfuku-rin-so, is curiously explained +by various quotations. The Hokke-Monku 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 Sei-Ri-Ron says: "Even as the common +wheel has its spokes and its hub, so in Buddhism there are many +branches of the Hasshi Shodo ('Eight-fold Path,' or eight rules +of conduct)." +VII.--The Crown of Brahma. Under the heel of the Buddha is the +Treasure-Crown (Ho-Kwan) of Brahma (Bon-Ten-O),--in symbol of the +Buddha's supremacy above the gods. + +But I think that the inscriptions upon any of these Butsu-soku- +seki 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:-- + +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." + +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." + +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." + +[Commemorative Text.] + +--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. + +TAIJO, priest,--being the sixty-sixth chief-priest by succession +of this temple,--has respectfully composed. + +JUNYU, the minor priest, has reverentially inscribed. + + +1 The Chinese title is pronounced by Japanese as Sei-iki-ki. +"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 +Si-yu-ki. + +2 "One shaku and eight sun." But the Japanese foot and inch are +considerably longer than the English. + +3 A monument at Nara exhibits the S'ripada in a form differing +considerably from the design upon the Tokyo pedestals. + +4 Lit.: "The thousand-character" sign. + +5 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. + + +II + +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 foot- +prints 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. + + +Ululation + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 ex- +ample. 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 per- +formed, 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. + +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. + + +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. + + +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 _seen_. 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 smell Them!"-- but not, "I see +Them!" No evidence exists to support the fancy that a dog can see +any forms of being which a man cannot see. + +But the night-howl of the white creature in my close forces me to +wonder whether she does not _mentally_ 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,--_the substance of our ancient selves_. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + +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! + +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,--Nyo-ze chikusho hotsu Bodai-shin (1): "Even within such as +this animal, the Knowledge Supreme will unfold at last." + +1 Lit., "the Bodhi-mind;"--that is to say, the Supreme +Enlightenment, the intelligence of Buddhahood itself. + + +Bits of Poetry + +I + +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. + +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 _seen by the eye_! + +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 cicadae.... 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 gaku, 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 crepe-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 frees,-- +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. + + +II + +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. + +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 hara-kiri. 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. + + +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 suggest, 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 completeness of utterance +in a very short poem: his object should be only to stir +imagination without satisfying it. So the term ittakkiri--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. + + +III + +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:-- + +ChochO ni!.. +Kyonen shishitaru +Tsuma koishi! + +Translated, this would appear to mean only,--"Two butterflies!... +Last year my dear wife died!" 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 (ocho-mecho), 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:-- + +Furusato ni +Fubo ari--mushi no +Koe-goe! (1) + +--"In my native place the old folks [or, my parents] are--clamor +of insect-voices!" + +1 I must observe, however, that the praise was especially evoked +by the use of the term koe-goe--(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. + + +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;-- + +Mi ni shimiru +Kaze ya I +Shoji ni +Yubi no ato! + +--"Oh, body-piercing wind!--that work of little fingers in the +shoji!" (2).... What does this mean? It means the sorrowing of a +mother for her dead child. Shoji 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. + +2 More literally:--"body-through-pierce wind--ah! +--shoji in the traces of [viz.: holes made by] fingers!" + + +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 ittakkiri;--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:-- + +A MOTHER'S REMEMBRANCE +Sweet and clear in the night, the voice of a boy at study, +Reading out of a book.... I also once had a boy! + +A MEMORY IN SPRING +She, who, departing hence, left to the flowers of the plum-tree, +Blooming beside our eaves, the charm of her youth and beauty, +And maiden pureness of heart, to quicken their flush and +fragrance,-- +Ah! where does she dwell to-day, our dear little vanished sister? + +FANCIES OF ANOTHER FAITH +(1) I sought in the place of graves the tomb of my vanished +friend: +From ancient cedars above there rippled a wild doves cry. + +(2) Perhaps a freak of the wind-yet perhaps a sign of +remembrance,-- +This fall of a single leaf on the water I pour for the dead. + +(3)I whispered a prayer at the grave: a butterfly rose and +fluttered-- +Thy spirit, perhaps, dear friend!... + +IN A CEMETERY AT NIGHT +This light of the moon that plays on the water I pour for the +dead, +Differs nothing at all from the moonlight of other years. + +AFTER LONG ABSENCE +The garden that once I loved, and even the hedge of the garden,-- +All is changed and strange: the moonlight only is faithful;-- +The moon along remembers the charm of the time gone by! + +MOONLIGHT ON THE SEA +O vapory moon of spring!--would that one plunge into ocean +Could win me renewal of life as a part of thy light on the +waters! + +AFTER FAREWELL +Whither now should! look?--where is the place of parting? +Boundaries all have vanished;--nothing tells of direction: +Only the waste of sea under the shining moon! + +HAPPY POVERTY +Wafted into my room, the scent of the flowers of the plum-tree +Changes my broken window into a source of delight. + +AUTUMN FANCIES + +(1) Faded the clover now;--sere and withered the grasses: +What dreams the matsumushi(1) in the desolate autumn-fields? + +(2) Strangely sad, I thought, sounded the bell of evening;-- +Haply that tone proclaimed the night in which autumn dies! + +(3)Viewing this autumn-moon, I dream of my native village +Under the same soft light,--and the shadows about my home. + +1 A musical cricket--calyptotryphus marmoratus. + + +IN TIME OF GRIEF, HEARING A SEMI (CICADA) +Only "I," "I,"--the cry of the foolish semi! +Any one knows that the world is void as its cast-off shell. + +ON THE CAST-OFF SHELL OF A SEMI +Only the pitiful husk!... O poor singer of summer, +Wherefore thus consume all thy body in song? + +SUBLIMITY OF INTELLECTUAL POWER +The mind that, undimmed, absorbs the foul and the pure together-- +Call it rather a sea one thousand fathoms deep!(2) + +2. This is quite novel in its way,--a product of the University: +the original runs thus:-- + +Nigoréru mo +Sumęru mo tomo ni +Iruru koso +Chi-hiro no umi no +Kokoro nari-kere! + +SHINTO REVERY + +Mad waves devour The rocks: I ask myself in the darkness, +"Have I become a god?" Dim is The night and wild! + +"Have I become a god?"--that is to say, "Have I died?--am I only +a ghost in this desolation?" The dead, becoming kami or gods, are +thought to haunt wild solitudes by preference. + + +IV + +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, "Evening- +sunlight on the wings of the water-fowl,"--or,"Now in my garden +the flowers bloom, and the butterflies dance,"--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. + +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. + +LONESOMENESS +Furu-dera ya: +Kane mono iwazu; +Sakura chiru. +--"Old temple: bell voiceless; cherry-flowers fall." + +MORNING AWAKENING AFTER A NIGHT'S REST IN A TEMPLE +Yamadera no +Shicho akeyuku: +Taki no oto. +--"In the mountain-temple the paper mosquito-curtain is lighted +by the dawn: sound of water-fall." + +WINTER-SCENE +Yuki no mura; +Niwatori naite; +Ake shiroshi. + "Snow-village;--cocks crowing;--white dawn." + +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,-- + +Kaya no te wo +Hitotsu hazushite, +Tsuki-mi kana! +--"Detaching one corner of the mosquito-net, lo! I behold the +moon!" 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. + +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:-- + +Nusundaru +Kagashi no kasa ni +Ame kyu nari. +--"Heavily pours the rain on the hat that I stole from the +scarecrow!" + + + +Japanese Buddhist Proverbs + + +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. + +1.--Akuji mi ni tomaru. +All evil done clings to the body.* + +*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. + +2.--Atama soru yori kokoro wo sore. +Better to shave the heart than to shave the head.* + +*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. + +3.--Au wa wakare no hajime. +Meeting is only the beginning of separation.* + +*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,--Shoja bitsumetsu e-sha-jori,--" All that live must surely +die; and all that meet will surely part." + +4.--Banji wa yume. +All things* are merely dreams. + +*Literally, "ten thousand things." + +5.--Bonbu mo satoreba hotoke nari. +Even a common man by obtaining knowledge becomes a Buddha.* + +*The only real differences of condition are differences In +knowledge of the highest truth. + +6.--Bonno kuno. +All lust is grief.* + +*All sensual desire invariably brings sorrow. + +7--Buppo to wara-ya no ame, dete kike. +One must go outside to hear Buddhist doctrine or the sound of +rain on a straw roof.* + +*There is an allusion here to the condition of the sbuhhl +(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. + +8.--Bussho en yori okoru. +Out of karma-relation even the divine nature itself grows.* + + +*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],--En naki shujo wa +doshi gatashi,--further illustrates the meaning of this one. + +9.--Enko ga tsuki wo toran to suru ga gotoshi. +Like monkeys trying to snatch the moon's reflection on water.* + +*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. + +10.--En naki shujo wa doshi gatashi. +To save folk having no karma-relation would be difficult indeed!* + +*No karma-relation would mean an utter absence of merit as well +as of demerit. + +11.--Fujo seppo suru hoshi wa, biratake ni umaru. +The priest who preaches foul doctrine shall be reborn as a +fungus. + +12.--Gaki mo ninzu. +Even gaki (pretas) can make a crowd.* + +*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." + +13.--Gaki no me ni midzu miezu. +To the eyes of gaki water is viewless.* + +*Some authorities state that those pretas 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. + +14.--Gosho wa daiji. +The future life is the all-important thing.* + +*The common people often use the curious expression "gosho-daiji" +as an equivalent for "extremely important." + +15.--Gun-mo no tai-zo wo saguru ga gotoshi. +Like a lot of blind men feeling a great elephant.* + +*Said of those who ignorantly criticise the doctrines of +Buddhism.--The proverb alludes to a celebrated fable in the +Avadanas, 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. + +16.--Gwai-men nyo-Bosatsu; nai shin nyo-Yasha. +In outward aspect a Bodhisattva; at innermost heart a demon.* + +*Yasha (Sanscrit Yaksha), a man-devouring demon. + +17.--Hana wa ne ni kaeru. +The flower goes back to its root. + +*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. + +18.--Hibiki no koe ni ozuru ga gotoshi. +Even as the echo answers to the voice.* + +*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 tone of the echo repeats the tone of the +voice. + +19.--Hito wo tasukéru ga sbukhé no yuku. +The task of the priest is to save mankind. + +20.--Hi wa kiyuredomo to-shin wa kiyedzu. +Though the flame be put out, the wick remains.* + +*Although the passions may be temporarily overcome, their sources +remain. A proverb of like meaning is, Bonno no inn o?4omo sara u: +"Though driven away, the Dog of Lust cannot be kept from coming +back again." + +21.--Hotoke mo motowa bonbu. +Even the Buddha was originally but a common man. + +22.--Hotoke ni naru mo shami wo beru. +Even to become a Buddha one must first become a novice. + +23.--Hotoke no kao mo sando. +Even a Buddha's face,--only three times.* + +*This is a short popular form of the longer proverb, Hotoke no +kao mo sando nazureba, hara wo tatsu: "Stroke even the face of a +Buddha three times, and his anger will be roused." + +24.--Hotoke tanonde Jigoku e yuku. +Praying to Buddha one goes to hell.* + +*The popular saying, Oni no Nembutsu,--"a devil's praying,"--has +a similar meaning. + +25.--Hotoke tsukutte tamashii iredzu. +Making a Buddha without putting in the soul.* + +*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 Kai-gen, or "Eye-Opening." This Kai-gen 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. + +26. Ichi-ju no kage, ichi-ga no nagare, tasho no en. +Even [the experience of] a single shadow or a single flowing of +water, is [made by] the karma-relations of a former life.* + +*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. + +27. Ichi-mo shu-mo wo hiku. +One blind man leads many blind men.* + +*From the Buddhist work Dai-chi-do-ron.--The reader will find a +similar proverb in Rhys-David's "Buddhist Suttas" (Sacred Books +of the East), p. 173,--together with a very curious parable, +cited in a footnote, which an Indian commentator gives in +explanation. + +28.--Ingwa na ko. +A karma-child.* + +*A common saying among the lower classes in reference to an +unfortunate or crippled child. Here the word ingwa is used +especially in the retributive sense. It usually signifies evil +karma; kwaho being the term used in speaking of meritorious karma +and its results. While an unfortunate child is spoken of as "a +child of ingwa," a very lucky person is called a "kwaho-mono,"-- +that is to say, an instance, or example of kwaho. + +29.--Ingwa wa, kuruma no wa. +Cause-and-effect is like a wheel.* + +*The comparison of karma to the wheel of a wagon will be familiar +to students of Buddhism. The meaning of this proverb is identical +with that of the Dhammapada 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." + +30.--Innen ga fukai. +The karma-relation is deep.* + +*A saying very commonly used in speaking of the attachment of +lovers, or of the unfortunate results of any close relation +between two persons. + +31.--Inochi wa fu-zen no tomoshibi. +Life is a lamp-flame before a wind.* + +*Or, "like the flame of a lamp exposed to the wind." A frequent +expression in Buddhist literature is "the Wind of Death." + +32.--Issun no mushi ni mo, gobu no tamashii. +Even a worm an inch long has a soul half-an-inch long.* + +*Literally, "has a soul of five bu,"--five bu being equal to half +of the Japanese inch. Buddhism forbids all taking of life, and +classes as living things (Ujo) all forms having sentiency. The +proverb, however,--as the use of the word "soul" (tamashii) +implies,--reflects popular belief rather than Buddhist +philosophy. It signifies that any life, however small or mean, is +entitled to mercy. + +33.--Iwashi* no atama mo shinjin kara. +Even the head of an iwashi, by virtue of faith, [will have power +to save, or heal]. + +*The iwashi 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. + +34.--Jigo-jitoku.* +The fruit of ones own deeds [in a previous state of existence]. + +*Few popular Buddhist phrases are more often used than this. Jigo +signifies ones own acts or thoughts; jitoku, 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 Jigo- +jitoku," people will observe on seeing a man being taken to +prison; meaning, "He is reaping the consequence of his own +faults." + +35.--Jigoku de hotoke. +Like meeting with a Buddha in hell.* + +*Refers to the joy of meeting a good friend in time of +misfortune. The above is an abbreviation. The full proverb is, +Jigoku de hotoke ni ota yo da. + +36.--Jigoku Gokuraku wa kokoro ni ari. +Hell and Heaven are in the hearts of men.* + +*A proverb in perfect accord with the higher Buddhism. + +37.--Jigoku mo sumika. +Even Hell itself is a dwelling-place.* + +*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, Sumeba, My'ako: "Wheresoever ones home is, that +is the Capital [or, imperial City]." + +38.--Jigoku ni mo shirts bito. +Even in hell old acquaintances are welcome. + +39.--Kagé no katachi ni shitagau gotoshi. +Even as the shadow follows the shape.* + +*Referring to the doctrine of cause-and-effect. Compare with +verse 2 of the Dhammapada. + +40.--Kane wa Amida yori bikaru. +Money shines even more brightly than Amida.* + +*Amitabha, 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 +Jigoku no sata mo kane shidai: "Even the Judgments of Hell may be +influenced by money." + + +41.--Karu-toki no Jizo-gao; nasu-toki no Emma-gao. +Borrowing-time, the face of Jizö; repaying-time, the face of +Emma.* [Figs. 2 & 3] + +*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. + +42.--Kiite Gokuraku, mite Jigoku. +Heard of only, it is Paradise; seen, it is Hell.* + +*Rumor is never trustworthy. + +43.--Koji mon wo idezu: akuji sen ni wo hashiru. +Good actions go not outside of the gate: bad deeds travel a +thousand ri. + +44.--Kokoro no koma ni tadzuna wo yuru-suna. +Never let go the reins of the wild colt of the heart. + +45.--Kokoro no oni ga mi wo semeru. +The body is tortured only by the demon of the heart.* + +*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. + + +46.--Kokoro no shi to wa nare; kokoro wo shi to sezare. +Be the teacher of your heart: do not allow your heart to become +your teacher. + +47.--Kono yo wa kari no yado. +This world is only a resting-place.* + +*"This world is but a travellers' inn," would be an almost +equally correct translation. Yado 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. Kari signifies temporary, transient, fleeting,--as in +the common Buddhist saying, Kono yo kari no yo: "This world is a +fleeting world." Even Heaven and Hell represent to the Buddhist +only halting places upon the journey to Nirvana. + +48.--Kori wo chiribame; midzu ni égaku. +To inlay ice; to paint upon water.* + +*Refers to the vanity of selfish effort for some merely temporary +end. + +49.--Korokoro to +Naku wa yamada no +Hototogisu, +Chichi niteya aran, +Haha niteya aran. + +The bird that cries korokoro in the mountain rice-field I know to +be a hototogisu;--yet it may have been my father; it may have +been my mother.* + +*This verse-proverb is cited in the Buddhist work Wojo Yosbu, +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 +hototogisu is a kind of cuckoo. + +50.--Ko wa Sangai no kubikase. +A child is a neck-shackle for the Three States of Existence.* + +*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 kubikasi, 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 Nirvana. But the word is sometimes used to signify the +Past, the Present, and the Future. + +51.--Kuchi wa wazawai no kado. +The mouth is the front-gate of all misfortune.* + +*That is to say, The chief cause of trouble is unguarded speech. +The word Kado means always the main entrance to a residence. + +52.--Kwaho wa, nete mate. +If you wish for good luck, sleep and wait.* + +*Kwaho, 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." + +53.--Makanu tane wa haenu. +Nothing will grow, if the seed be not sown.* + +*Do not expect harvest, unless you sow the seed. Without earnest +effort no merit can be gained. + +54.--Mateba, kanro no hiyori. +If you wait, ambrosial weather will come.* + +*Kanro, the sweet dew of Heaven, or amrita. All good things come +to him who waits. + +55.--Meido no michi ni O wa nashi. +There is no King on the Road of Death.* + +*Literally, "on the Road of Meido." The MeldS is the Japanese +Hades,--the dark under-world to which all the dead must journey. + +56.--Mekura hebi ni ojizu. +The blind man does not fear the snake.* + +*The ignorant and the vicious, not understanding the law of +cause-and-effect, do not fear the certain results of their folly. + +57.--Mitsureba, hakuru. +Having waxed, wanes.* + +*No sooner has the moon waxed full than it begins to wane. So the +height of prosperity is also the beginning of fortunes decline. + +58.--Mon zen no kozo narawanu kyo wo yomu. +The shop-boy in front of the temple-gate repeats the sutra which +he never learned. + +*Kozo 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, +Kangaku-In no suzume wa, Mogyu wo sayezuru: "The sparrows of +Kangaku-In [an ancient seat of learning] chirp the Mogyu,"--a +Chinese text formerly taught to young students. The teaching of +either proverb is excellently expressed by a third:--Narau yori +wa narero: "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. + +59.--Mujo no kaze wa, toki erabazu. +The Wind of Impermanency does not choose a time.* + +*Death and Change do not conform their ways to human expectation. + +60.--Neko mo Bussho ari. +In even a cat the Buddha-nature exists.* + +*Notwithstanding the legend that only the cat and the mamushi (a +poisonous viper) failed to weep for the death of the Buddha. + +61.--Neta ma ga Gokuraku. +The interval of sleep is Paradise.* + +*Only during sleep can we sometimes cease to know the sorrow and +pain of this world. (Compare with No. 83.) + +62.--Nijiu-go Bosatsu mo sore-sore no yaku. +Even each of the Twenty-five Bodhisattvas has his own particular +duty to perform. + +63.--Nin mite, no toke. +[First] see the person, [then] preach the doctrine.* + +*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,--Ki ni yorite, ho wo toke: "According +to the understanding [of the person to be taught], preach the +Law." + +64.--Ninshin ukegataku Buppo aigatashi. +It is not easy to be born among men, and to meet with [the good +fortune of hearing the doctrine of] Buddhism.* + +*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. + +65.--Oni mo jiu-hachi. +Even a devil [is pretty] at eighteen.* + +*There are many curious sayings and proverbs about the oni, or +Buddhist devil,--such as Oni no me ni mo namida, "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 Oni, properly belong to +the Buddhist hells, where they act as torturers and jailers. They +are not to be confounded with the Ma, Yasha, Kijin, 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 Go-zu; the horse-headed +Me-zu. + +66.--Oni mo mi, naretaru ga yoshi. +Even a devil, when you become accustomed to the sight of him, may +prove a pleasant acquaintance. + +67.--Oni ni kanabo. +An iron club for a demon.* + +*Meaning that great power should be given only to the strong. + +68.--Oni no nyobo ni kijin. +A devil takes a goblin to wife.* + +*Meaning that a wicked man usually marries a wicked +woman. + +69.--Onna no ke ni wa dai-zo mo tsunagaru. +With one hair of a woman you can tether even a great elephant. + +70.--Onna wa Sangai ni iye nashi. +Women have no homes of their own in the Three States of +Existence. + +71.--Oya no ingwa ga ko ni mukuu. +The karma of the parents is visited upon the child.* + +*Said of the parents of crippled or deformed children. But the +popular idea here expressed is not altogether in acco~l with the +teachings of the higher Buddhism. + +72.--Rakkwa eda ni kaerazu. +The fallen blossom never returns to the branch.* + +*That which has been done never can be undone: the past cannot be +recalled.--This proverb is an abbreviation of the longer Buddhist +text: Rakkwa eda ni kaerazu; ha-kyo futatabi terasazu: "The +fallen blossom never returns to the branch; the shattered mirror +never again reflects." + +73.--Raku wa ku no tane; ku wa raku no tane. +Pleasure is the seed of pain; pain is the seed of pleasure. + +74.--Rokudo wa, me no mae. +The Six Roads are right before your eyes.* + +*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. + +75.--Sangai mu-an. +There is no rest within the Three States of Existence. + +76.--Sangai ni kaki nashi;--Rokudo ni hotori nashi. +There is no fence to the Three States of Existence;--there is no +neighborhood to the Six Roads.* + +*Within the Three States (Sangai), or universes, of Desire, Form, +and Formlessness; and within the Six Worlds, or conditions of +being,--Jigokudo (Hell), Gakido (Pretas), Chikushodo (Animal +Life), Shurado (World of Fighting and Slaughter), Ningendo +(Mankind), Tenjodo (Heavenly Spirits)--all existence is included. +Beyond there is only Nirvana. "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. + +77.--Sange ni wa sannen no tsumi mo horobu. +One confession effaces the sins of even three years. + +78.--San nin yoreba, kugai. +Where even three persons come together, there is a world of +pain.* + +*Kugai (lit.: "bitter world") is a term often used to describe +the life of a prostitute. + +79.--San nin yoreba, Monju no chie. +Where three persons come together, there is the wisdom of Monju.* + +*Monju Bosatsu [Mandjus'ri Bodhisattva] 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, Hiza to mo danko: "Consult even with your own knee;" that is +to say, Despise no advice, no matter how humble the source of it. + +80.--Shaka ni sekkyo. +Preaching to Sakyamuni. + +81.--Shami kara choro. +To become an abbot one must begin as a novice. + +82.--Shindareba, koso ikitare. +Only by reason of having died does one enter into life.* + +*I never hear this singular proverb without being re-minded of a +sentence in Huxley's famous essay, On the Physical Basis of +Life:--"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, could not +live unless it died." + + +83.--Shiranu ga, hotoke; minu ga, Gokuraku. +Not to know is to be a Buddha; not to see is Paradise. + +84.--Shobo ni kidoku nashi. +There is no miracle in true doctrine.* + +*Nothing can happen except as a result of eternal and irrevocable +law. + +85.--Sho-chie wa Bodai no samatage. +A little wisdom is a stumbling-block on the way to Buddhahood.* + +*Bodai is the same word as the Sanscrit Bodhi, 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. + +86.--Shoshi no kukai hetori nashi. +There is no shore to the bitter Sea of Birth and Death.* + +*Or, "the Pain-Sea of Life and Death." + +87.--Sode no furi-awase mo tasho no en. +Even the touching of sleeves in passing is caused by some +relation in a former life. + +88.--Sun zen; shaku ma. +An inch of virtue; a foot of demon.* + +*Ma (Sanscrit, Marakayikas) is the name given to a particular +class of spirits who tempt men to evil. But in Japanese folklore +the Ma have a part much resembling that occupied in Western +popular superstition by goblins and fairies. + +89.--Tanoshimi wa hanasimi no motoi. +All joy is the source of sorrow. + +90.--Tonde hi ni iru natsu no mushi. +So the insects of summer fly to the flame.* + +*Said especially in reference to the result of sensual +indulgence. + +91.--Tsuchi-botoke no midzu-asobi. +Clay-Buddha's water-playing.* + +*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. + +92.--Tsuki ni murakumo, hana ni kaze. +Cloud-wrack to the moon; wind to flowers.* + +*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. + +93.--Tsuyu no inochi. +Human life is like the dew of morning. + +94.--U-ki wa, kokoro ni ari. +Joy and sorrow exist only in the mind. + +95.--Uri no tsuru ni nasubi wa naranu. +Egg-plants do not grow upon melon-vines. + +96.--Uso mo hoben. +Even an untruth may serve as a device.* + +*That is, a pious device for effecting conversion. Such a device +is justified especially by the famous parable of the third +chapter of the Saddharma Pundarika. + +97.--Waga ya no hotoke tattoshi. +My family ancestors were all excellent Buddhas.* + +*Meaning that one most reveres the hotoke--the spirits of the +dead regarded as Buddhas--in one's own household-shrine. There is +an ironical play upon the word hotoke, 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: Nigeta +sakana ni chisai wa nai; shinda kodomo ni warui ko wa nai--"Fish +that escaped was never small; child that died was never bad." + +98.--Yuki no hate wa, Nehan. +The end of snow is Nirvana.* + +*This curious saying is the only one in my collection containing +the word Nehan (Nirvana), and is here inserted chiefly for that +reason. The common people seldom speak of Nehan, 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. + +99.--Zen ni wa zen no mukui; aku ni wa aku no mukui. +Goodness [or, virtue] is the return for goodness; evil is the +return for evil.* + +*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. + +100.--Zense no yakusoku-goto. +Promised [or, destined] from a former birth.* + +*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 shinju, 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. + + + +SUGGESTION + + +I had the privilege of meeting him in Tokyo, 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. + +"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." + +"Do you mean," I asked, "that a man would be reborn as a woman, +and a woman as a man?" + +"Yes," he replied, "because desire is creative, and the desire of +either sex is towards the other." + +"And how many men," I said, "would want to be reborn as women?" + +"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." + +"There you are right," I said; "but I do not yet understand your +theory." + +"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." + +"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." + +"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." + +"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?" + +"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." + +"Reborn in some one of the heavens?" I queried,--"by the +Apparitional Birth?" + +"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." + +"Reborn, then, in what form?" I asked. + +"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." + +"But you know," I observed, "that there are Buddhist texts,--in +the Saddharma Pundarika, for example, and in the Vinayas,--which +forbid...." + +"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." + +"May I put your theory some day into print?" I asked. + +"Why, yes," he made answer,--"if you believe it worth thinking +about." + + +And long afterwards I wrote it down thus, as fairly as I was +able, from memory. + + + +Ingwa-banashi(1) + + +The daimyo'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. + +"My dear wife," said the daimyo, "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 nay quickly enter +Paradise, and attain to Buddha-hood." + +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:-- + +"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." + +Yukiko came at the summons of the lord, and, in obedience to a +sign from him, knelt down beside the couch. The daimyo'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?" + +"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!" + +"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 +yae-zakura,(2) 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...." + +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. + +"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." + +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:-- + +"Lady, I am ready: please tell me how I best can help you." + +"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. + +"I have my wish!" she cried-"I have my wish for the cherry- +bloom,(3)--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!" + +And with these words she fell forward upon the crouching girl, +and died. + + +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. + +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! + +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. + +Yet this was only the beginning of the horror. + +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,(4)--they would clutch and compress and torture. Only at +the Hour of the Tiger the pain would cease. + +Yukiko cut off her hair, and became a mendicant-nun,--taking the +religious name of Dassetsu. She had an ibai (mortuary tablet) +made, bearing the kaimyo of her dead mistress,--"Myo-Ko-In-Den +Chizan-Ryo-Fu Daishi";--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 Dengozayemon, in the village of Tanaka in the district of +Kawachi in the province of Shimotsuke. This was in the third year +of Kokwa (1846). Thereafter nothing more was ever heard of her. + +1 Lit., "a tale of ingwa." Ingwa 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 Hyaku-Monogatari. + +2 Yae-zakura, yaë-no-sakura, a variety of Japanese cherry-tree +that bears double-blossoms. + +3 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. + +4 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. + + + +Story of a Tengu (1) + + +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 Kyoto. One summer day this good priest, after a visit to the +city, was returning to his temple by way of Kita-no-Oji, 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. + +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-Oji. +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 Gridhrakuta. 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!" + +"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!" + +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, 'Even so, Lord!' or 'O thou Blessed One!' 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. + + +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 Sakyamuni 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 Gridhrakuta; and the time was the time +of the Sutra 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 Mandarava and Manjushaka 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 Mahasattvas and the Bodhisattvas with their +countless following: "gods, demons, Nagas, goblins, men, and +beings not human." Sariputra he saw, and Kasyapa, and Ananda, +with all the disciples of the Tathagata,--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 Brahma'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 Nirvana. 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 Sutra 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, "O thou Blessed One!"... + +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, 'How do ye dare thus to deceive a pious person?' 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. + +1 This story may be found in the curious old Japanese book called +Jikkun-Sho. The same legend has furnished the subject of an +interesting No-play, called Dai-E ("The Great Assembly"). + +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 Marakayikas. + + + +At Yaidzu + +I + +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. + +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 Shinto charms (mamori or shugo) are +usually attached. A common form of Shinto written charm (shugo) +is furnished for this purpose from the temple of the Goddess of +Fuji: the text reads:--Fuji-san chojo Sengen-gu dai-gyo manzoku, +--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. + + +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 katsuo +(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. + +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. + + +II + +I happened to be at Yaidzu during the three days of the Bon 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. + +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 +kaimyo was written upon any of the transparencies. Inside the +lantern there was only the flickering candle. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"Only pleasantly cool," I made answer, as I threw on my robe to +go home with them. + +"Ah," said the wife, "it is not good to go out there on the night +of the Bon!" + +"I did not go far," I replied;--"I only wanted to look at the +lanterns." + +"Even a Kappa gets drowned sometimes,"(1) 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." + +Seven ri means a trifle less than eighteen miles. I asked if any +of the young men now in the settlement could do as much. + +"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." + +"Or to make love," the wife added,--"like the Hashima girl." + +"Who?" queried I. + +"A fisherman's daughter," said Otokichi. "She had a lover in +Ajiro, several ri 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." + + +--"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?" + +1 This is a common proverb:--Kappa mo obore-shini. The Kappa is a +water-goblin, haunting rivers especially. + + +III + +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. + +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. + +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. + +There is a folk-saying of the coast:--"The Sea has a soul and +hears." 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. + +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. + + +IV + +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. + +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! + +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. + +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. + + +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. + +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. + +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! + + +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. + +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. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of In Ghostly Japan, by Lafcadio Hearn + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN GHOSTLY JAPAN *** + +This file should be named 8128-8.txt or 8128-8.zip + +Produced by Liz Warren + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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