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diff --git a/old/kkoro10.txt b/old/kkoro10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..92a2cdb --- /dev/null +++ b/old/kkoro10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9099 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Kokoro, by Lafcadio Hearn +#9 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: Kokoro + Japanese Inner Life Hints + +Author: Lafcadio Hearn + +Release Date: September, 2005 [EBook #8882] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on August 20, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KOKORO *** + + + + +Produced by Liz Warren. + + + + +THE papers composing this volume treat of the inner rather than +of the outer life of Japan,--for which reason they have been +grouped under the title Kokoro (heart). Written with the above +character, this word signifies also mind, in the emotional sense; +spirit; courage; resolve; sentiment; affection; and inner +meaning,--just as we say in English, "the heart of things." + +KOBE September 15, 1895. + + +CONTENTS + +I. AT A RAILWAY STATION +II. THE GENIUS Of JAPANESE CIVILIZATION +III. A STREET SINGER +IV. FROM A TRAVELING DIARY +V. THE NUN OF THE TEMPLE OF AMIDA +VI. AFTER THE WAR +VII. HARU +VIII. A GLIMPSE OF TENDENCIES +IX. BY FORCE OF KARMA +X. A CONSERVATIVE +XI. IN THE TWILIGHT OF THE GODS +XII. THE IDEA OF PRE-EXISTENCE +XIII. IN CHOLERA-TIME +XIV. SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT ANCESTOR-WORSHIP +XV. KIMIKO +APPENDIX. THREE POPULAR BALLADS + + + +KOKORO + +I + +AT A RAILWAY STATION + +Seventh day of the sixth Month;-- +twenty-sixth of Meiji. + +Yesterday a telegram from Fukuoka announced that a desperate +criminal captured there would be brought for trial to Kumamoto +to-day, on the train due at noon. A Kumamoto policeman had gone +to Fukuoka to take the prisoner in charge. + +Four years ago a strong thief entered some house by night in the +Street of the Wrestlers, terrified and bound the inmates, and +carried away a number of valuable things. Tracked skillfully by +the police, he was captured within twenty-four hours,--even +before he could dispose of his plunder. But as he was being taken +to the police station he burst his bonds, snatched the sword of +his captor, killed him, and escaped. Nothing more was heard of +him until last week. + +Then a Kumamoto detective, happening to visit the Fukuoka prison, +saw among the toilers a face that had been four years +photographed upon his brain. "Who is that man?" he asked the +guard. "A thief," was the reply,--"registered here as Kusabe." +The detective walked up to the prisoner and said:-- + +"Kusabe is not your name. Nomura Teichi, you are needed in +Kumamoto for murder." The felon confessed all. + + +I went with a great throng of people to witness the arrival at +the station. I expected to hear and see anger; I even feared +possibilities of violence. The murdered officer had been much +liked; his relatives would certainly be among the spectators; and +a Kumamoto crowd is not very gentle. I also thought to find many +police on duty. My anticipations were wrong. + +The train halted in the usual scene of hurry and noise,--scurry +and clatter of passengers wearing geta,--screaming of boys +wanting to sell Japanese newspapers and Kumamoto lemonade. +Outside the barrier we waited for nearly five minutes. Then, +pushed through the wicket by a police-sergeant, the prisoner +appeared,--a large wild-looking man, with head bowed down, and +arms fastened behind his back. Prisoner and guard both halted in +front of the wicket; and the people pressed forward to see--but +in silence. Then the officer called out,-- + +"Sugihara San! Sugihara O-Kibi! is she present?" + +A slight small woman standing near me, with a child on her back, +answered, "Hai!" and advanced through the press. This was the +widow of the murdered man; the child she carried was his son. At +a wave of the officer's hand the crowd fell back, so as to leave +a clear space about the prisoner and his escort. In that space +the woman with the child stood facing the murderer. The hush was +of death. + +Not to the woman at all, but to the child only, did the officer +then speak. He spoke low, but so clearly that I could catch every +syllable:-- + +"Little one, this is the man who killed your father four years +ago. You had not yet been born; you were in your mother's womb. +That you have no father to love you now is the doing of this man. +Look at him--[here the officer, putting a hand to the prisoner's +chin, sternly forced him to lift his eyes]--look well at him, +little boy! Do not be afraid. It is painful; but it is your duty. +Look at him!" + +Over the mother's shoulder the boy gazed with eyes widely open, +as in fear; then he began to sob; then tears came; but steadily +and obediently he still looked--looked--looked--straight into the +cringing face. + +The crowd seemed to have stopped breathing. + +I saw the prisoner's features distort; I saw him suddenly dash +himself down upon his knees despite his fetters, and beat his +face into the dust, crying out the while in a passion of hoarse +remorse that made one's heart shake:-- + +"Pardon! pardon! pardon me, little one! That I did--not for hate +was it done, but in mad fear only, in my desire to escape. Very, +very wicked have I been; great unspeakable wrong have I done you! +But now for my sin I go to die. I wish to die; I am glad to die! +Therefore, O little one, be pitiful!--forgive me!" + +The child still cried silently. The officer raised the shaking +criminal; the dumb crowd parted left and right to let them by. +Then, quite suddenly, the whole multitude began to sob. And as +the bronzed guardian passed, I saw what I had never seen before, +--what few men ever see,--what I shall probably never see again, +--the tears of a Japanese policeman. + +The crowd ebbed, and left me musing on the strange morality of +the spectacle. Here was justice unswerving yet compassionate,-- +forcing knowledge of a crime by the pathetic witness of its +simplest result. Here was desperate remorse, praying only for +pardon before death. And here was a populace--perhaps the most +dangerous in the Empire when angered--comprehending all, touched +by all, satisfied with the contrition and the shame, and filled, +not with wrath, but only with the great sorrow of the +sin,--through simple deep experience of the difficulties of life +and the weaknesses of human nature. + +But the most significant, because the most Oriental, fact of the +episode was that the appeal to remorse had been made through the +criminal's sense of fatherhood,--that potential love of children +which is so large a part of the soul of every Japanese. + +There is a story that the most famous of all Japanese robbers, +Ishikawa Goemon, once by night entering a house to kill and +steal, was charmed by the smile of a baby which reached out hands +to him, and that he remained playing with the little creature +until all chance of carrying out his purpose was lost. + +It is not hard to believe this story. Every year the police +records tell of compassion shown to children by professional +criminals. Some months ago a terrible murder case was reported in +the local papers,--the slaughter of a household by robbers. Seven +persons had been literally hewn to pieces while asleep; but the +police discovered a little boy quite unharmed, crying alone in a +pool of blood; and they found evidence unmistakable that the men +who slew must have taken great care not to hurt the child. + + + +II + + +THE GENIUS OF JAPANESE CIVILIZATION + +I + +Without losing a single ship or a single battle, Japan has broken +down the power of China, made a new Korea, enlarged her own +territory, and changed the whole political face of the East. +Astonishing as this has seemed politically, it is much more +astonishing psychologically; for it represents the result of a +vast play of capacities with which the race had never been +credited abroad,--capacities of a very high order. The +psychologist knows that the so-called "adoption of Western +civilization" within a time of thirty years cannot mean the +addition to the Japanese brain of any organs or powers previously +absent from it. He knows that it cannot mean any sudden change in +the mental or moral character of the race. Such changes are not +made in a generation. Transmitted civilization works much more +slowly, requiring even hundreds of years to produce certain +permanent psychological results. + +It is in this light that Japan appears the most extraordinary +country in the world; and the most wonderful thing in the whole +episode of her "Occidentalization" is that the race brain could +bear so heavy a shock. Nevertheless, though the fact be unique in +human history, what does it really mean? Nothing more than +rearrangement of a part of the pre-existing machinery of thought. +Even that, for thousands of brave young minds, was death. The +adoption of Western civilization was not nearly such an easy +matter as un-thinking persons imagined. And it is quite evident +that the mental readjustments, effected at a cost which remains +to be told, have given good results only along directions in +which the race had always shown capacities of special kinds. +Thus, the appliances of Western industrial invention have worked +admirably in Japanese hands,--have produced excellent results in +those crafts at which the nation had been skillful, in other and +quainter ways, for ages. There has been no transformation, + +--nothing more than the turning of old abilities into new and +larger channels. The scientific professions tell the same story. +For certain forms of science, such as medicine, surgery (there +are no better surgeons in the world than the +Japanese), chemistry, microscopy, the Japanese genius is +naturally adapted; and in all these it has done work already +heard of round the world. In war and statecraft it has shown +wonderful power; but throughout their history the Japanese have +been characterized by great military and political capacity. +Nothing remarkable has been done, however, in directions foreign +to the national genius. In the study, for example, of Western +music, Western art, Western literature, time would seem to have +been simply wasted(1). These things make appeal extraordinary to +emotional life with us; they make no such appeal to Japanese +emotional life. Every serious thinker knows that emotional +transformation of the individual through education is impossible. +To imagine that the emotional character of an Oriental race could +be transformed in the short space of thirty years, by the contact +of Occidental ideas, is absurd. Emotional life, which is older +than intellectual life, and deeper, can no more be altered +suddenly by a change of milieu than the surface of a mirror can +be changed by passing reflections. All that Japan has been able +to do so miraculously well has been done without any +self-transformation; and those who imagine her emotionally closer +to us to-day than she may have been thirty years ago ignore facts +of science which admit of no argument. + +Sympathy is limited by comprehension. We may sympathize to the +same degree that we understand. One may imagine that he +sympathizes with a Japanese or a Chinese; but the sympathy can +never be real to more than a small extent outside of the simplest +phases of common emotional life,--those phases in which child and +man are at one. The more complex feelings of the Oriental have +been composed by combinations of experiences, ancestral and +individual, which have had no really precise correspondence in +Western life, and which we can therefore not fully know. For +converse reasons, the. Japanese cannot, even though they would, +give Europeans their best sympathy. + +But while it remains impossible for the man of the West to +discern the true color of Japanese life, either intellectual or +emotional (since the one is woven into the other), it is equally +impossible for him to escape the conviction that, compared with +his own, it is very small. It is dainty; it holds delicate +potentialities of rarest interest and value; but it is otherwise +so small that Western life, by contrast with it, seems almost +supernatural. For we must judge visible and measurable +manifestations. So judging, what a contrast between the emotional +and intellectual worlds of West and East! Far less striking that +between the frail wooden streets of the Japanese capital and the +tremendous solidity of a thoroughfare in Paris or London. When +one compares the utterances which West and East have given to +their dreams, their aspirations, their sensations,--a Gothic +cathedral with a Shinto temple, an opera by Verdi or a trilogy by +Wagner with a performance of geisha, a European epic with a +Japanese poem,--how incalculable the difference in emotional +volume, in imaginative power, in artistic synthesis! True, our +music is an essentially modern art; but in looking back through +all our past the difference in creative force is scarcely less +marked,--not surely in the period of Roman magnificence, of +marble amphitheatres and of aqueducts spanning provinces, nor in +the Greek period of the divine in sculpture and of the supreme in +literature. + + +And this leads to the subject of another wonderful fact in the +sudden development of Japanese power. Where are the outward +material signs of that immense new force she has been showing +both in productivity and in war? Nowhere! That which we miss in +her emotional and intellectual life is missing also from her +industrial and commercial life,--largeness! The land remains what +it was before; its face has scarcely been modified by all the +changes of Meiji. The miniature railways and telegraph poles, the +bridges and tunnels, might almost escape notice in the ancient +green of the landscapes. In all the cities, with the exception of +the open ports and their little foreign settlements, there exists +hardly a street vista suggesting the teaching of Western ideas. +You might journey two hundred miles through the interior of the +country, looking in vain for large manifestations of the new +civilization. In no place do you find commerce exhibiting its +ambition in gigantic warehouses, or industry expanding its +machinery under acres of roofing. A Japanese city is still, as it +was ten centuries ago, little more than a wilderness of wooden +sheds,--picturesque, indeed, as paper lanterns are, but scarcely +less frail. And there is no great stir and noise anywhere,--no +heavy traffic, no booming and rumbling, no furious haste. In +Tokyo itself you may enjoy, if you wish, the peace of a country +village. This want of visible or audible signs of the new-found +force which is now menacing the markets of the West and changing +the maps of the far East gives one a queer, I might even say a +weird feeling. It is almost the sensation received when, after +climbing through miles of silence to reach some Shinto shrine, +you find voidness only and solitude,--an elfish, empty little +wooden structure, mouldering in shadows a thousand years old. The +strength of Japan, like the strength of her ancient faith, needs +little material display: both exist where the deepest real power +of any great people exists,--in the Race Ghost. + +(1) In one limited sense, Western art has influenced Japanese. +literature and drama; but the character of the influence proves +the racial difference to which I refer. European plays have been +reshaped for the Japanese stage, and European novels rewritten +for Japanese readers. But a literal version is rarely attempted; +for the original incidents, thoughts, and emotions would be +unintelligible to the average reader or playgoer. Plots are +adopted; sentiments and incidents are totally transformed. "The +New Magdalen" becomes a Japanese girl who married an Eta. Victor +Hugo's _Les Miserables_ becomes a tale of the Japanese civil war; +and Enjolras a Japanese student. There have been a few rare +exceptions, including the marked success of a literal translation +of the _Sorrows of Werther_. + + + +II + +As I muse, the remembrance of a great city comes back to me,--a +city walled up to the sky and roaring like the sea. The memory of +that roar returns first; then the vision defines: a chasm, which +is a street, between mountains, which are houses. I am tired, +because I have walked many miles between those precipices of +masonry, and have trodden no earth,--only slabs of rock,--and +have heard nothing but thunder of tumult. Deep below those huge +pavements I know there is a cavernous world tremendous: systems +underlying systems of ways contrived for water and steam and +fire. On either hand tower facades pierced by scores of tiers of +windows,--cliffs of architecture shutting out the sun. Above, the +pale blue streak of sky is cut by a maze of spidery lines,--an +infinite cobweb of electric wires. In that block on the right +there dwell nine thousand souls; the tenants of the edifice +facing it pay the annual rent of a million dollars. Seven +millions scarcely covered the cost of those bulks overshadowing +the square beyond,--and there are miles of such. Stairways of +steel and cement, of brass and stone, with costliest balustrades, +ascend through the decades and double-decades of stories; but no +foot treads them. By water-power, by steam, by electricity, men +go up and down; the heights are too dizzy, the distances too +great, for the use of the limbs. My friend who pays rent of five +thousand dollars for his rooms in the fourteenth story of a +monstrosity not far off has never trodden his stairway. I am +walking for curiosity alone; with a serious purpose I should not +walk: the spaces are too broad, the time is too precious, for +such slow exertion,--men travel from district to district, from +house to office, by steam. Heights are too great for the voice to +traverse; orders are given and obeyed by machinery. By +electricity far-away doors are opened; with one touch a hundred +rooms are lighted or heated. + +And all this enormity is hard, grim, dumb; it is the enormity of +mathematical power applied to utilitarian ends of solidity and +durability. These leagues of palaces, of warehouses, of business +structures, of buildings describable and indescribable, are not +beautiful, but sinister. One feels depressed by the mere +sensation of the enormous life which created them, life without +sympathy; of their prodigious manifestation of power, power +with-out pity. They are the architectural utterance of the new +industrial age. And there is no halt in the thunder of wheels, in +the storming of hoofs and of human feet. To ask a question, one +must shout into the ear of the questioned; to see, to understand, +to move in that high-pressure medium, needs experience. The +unaccustomed feels the sensation of being in a panic, in a +tempest, in a cyclone. Yet all this is order. + +The monster streets leap rivers, span sea-ways, with bridges of +stone, bridges of steel. Far as the eye can reach, a bewilderment +of masts, a web-work of rigging, conceals the shores, which are +cliffs of masonry. Trees in a forest stand less thickly, branches +in a forest mingle less closely, than the masts and spars of that +immeasurable maze. Yet all is order. + + + +III + +Generally speaking, we construct for endurance, the Japanese for +impermanency. Few things for common use are made in Japan with a +view to durability. The straw sandals worn out and replaced at +each stage of a journey, the robe consisting of a few simple +widths loosely stitched together for wearing, and unstitched +again for washing, the fresh chopsticks served to each new guest +at a hotel, the light shoji frames serving at once for windows +and walls, and repapered twice a year; the mattings renewed every +autumn,--all these are but random examples of countless small +things in daily life that illustrate the national contentment +with impermanency. + +What is the story of a common Japanese dwelling? Leaving my home +in the morning, I observe, as I pass the corner of the next +street crossing mine, some men setting up bamboo poles on a +vacant lot there. Returning after five hours' absence, I find on +the same lot the skeleton of a two-story house. Next forenoon I +see that the walls are nearly finished already,--mud and wattles. +By sundown the roof has been completely tiled. On the following +morning I observe that the mattings have been put down, and the +inside plastering has been finished. In five days the house is +completed. This, of course, is a cheap building; a fine one would +take much longer to put up and finish. But Japanese cities are +for the most part composed of such common buildings. They are as +cheap as they are simple. + +I cannot now remember where I first met with the observation that +the curve of the Chinese roof might preserve the memory of the +nomad tent. The idea haunted me long after I had ungratefully +forgotten the book in which I found it; and when I first saw, in +Izumo, the singular structure of the old Shinto temples, with +queer cross-projections at their gable-ends and upon their +roof-ridges, the suggestion of the forgotten essayist about the +possible origin of much less ancient forms returned to me with +great force. But there is much in Japan besides primitive +architectural traditions to indicate a nomadic ancestry for the +race. Always and everywhere there is a total absence of what we +would call solidity; and the characteristics of impermanence seem +to mark almost everything in the exterior life of the people, +except, indeed, the immemorial costume of the peasant and the +shape of the implements of his toil. Not to dwell upon the fact +that even during the comparatively brief period of her written +history Japan has had more than sixty capitals, of which the +greater number have completely disappeared, it may be broadly +stated that every Japanese city is rebuilt within the time of a +generation. Some temples and a few colossal fortresses offer +exceptions; but, as a general rule, the Japanese city changes its +substance, if not its form, in the lifetime of a man. Fires, +earth-quakes, and many other causes partly account for this; the +chief reason, however, is that houses are not built to last. The +common people have no ancestral homes. The dearest spot to all +is, not the place of birth, but the place of burial; and there is +little that is permanent save the resting-places of the dead and +the sites of the ancient shrines. + +The land itself is a land of impermanence. Rivers shift their +courses, coasts their outline, plains their level; volcanic peaks +heighten or crumble; valleys are blocked by lava-floods or +landslides; lakes appear and disappear. Even the matchless shape +of Fuji, that snowy miracle which has been the inspiration of +artists for centuries, is said to have been slightly changed +since my advent to the country; and not a few other mountains +have in the same short time taken totally new forms. Only the +general lines of the land, the general aspects of its nature, the +general character of the seasons, remain fixed. Even the very +beauty of the landscapes is largely illusive,--a beauty of +shifting colors and moving mists. Only he to whom those +landscapes are familiar can know bow their mountain vapors make +mockery of real changes which have been, and ghostly predictions +of other changes yet to be, in the history of the archipelago. + +The gods, indeed, remain,--haunt their homes upon the hills, +diffuse a soft religious awe through the twilight of their +groves, perhaps because they are without form and substance. +Their shrines seldom pass utterly into oblivion, like the +dwellings of men. But every Shinto temple is necessarily rebuilt +at more or less brief intervals; and the holiest,--the shrine of +Ise,--in obedience to immemorial custom, must be demolished every +twenty years, and its timbers cut into thousands of tiny charms, +which are distributed to pilgrims. + + +From Aryan India, through China, came Buddhism, with its vast +doctrine of impermanency. The builders of the first Buddhist +temples in Japan--architects of another race--built well: witness +the Chinese structures at Kamakura that have survived so many +centuries, while of the great city which once surrounded them not +a trace remains. But the psychical influence of Buddhism could in +no land impel minds to the love of material stability. The +teaching that the universe is an illusion; that life is but one +momentary halt upon an infinite journey; that all attachment to +persons, to places, or to things must be fraught with sorrow; +that only through suppression of every desire--even the desire of +Nirvana itself--can humanity reach the eternal peace, certainly +harmonized with the older racial feeling. Though the people never +much occupied themselves with the profounder philosophy of the +foreign faith, its doctrine of impermanency must, in course of +time, have profoundly influenced national character. It explained +and consoled; it imparted new capacity to bear all things +bravely; it strengthened that patience which is a trait of the +race. Even in Japanese art--developed, if not actually created, +under Buddhist influence--the doctrine of impermanency has left +its traces. Buddhism taught that nature was a dream, an illusion, +a phantasmagoria; but it also taught men how to seize the +fleeting impressions of that dream, and how to interpret them in +relation to the highest truth. And they learned well. In the +flushed splendor of the blossom-bursts of spring, in the coming +and the going of the cicada, in the dying crimson of autumn +foliage, in the ghostly beauty of snow, in the delusive motion of +wave or cloud, they saw old parables of perpetual meaning. Even +their calamities--fire, flood, earthquake, pestilence-- +interpreted to them unceasingly the doctrine of the eternal +Vanishing. + +_All things which exist in Time must perish. The forests, the +mountains,--all things thus exist. In Time are born all things +having desire._ + +_The Sun and Moon, Sakra himself with all the multitude of his +attendants, will all, without exception, perish; there is not one +that will endure._ + +_In the beginning things were fixed; in the end again they +separate: different combinations cause other substance; for in +nature there is no uniform and constant principle._ + +_All component things must grow old; impermanent are all +component things. Even unto a grain of sesamum seed there is no +such thing as a compound which is permanent. All are transient; +all have the inherent quality of dissolution._ + +_All component things, without exception, are impermanent, +unstable, despicable, sure to depart, disintegrating; all are +temporary as a mirage, as a phantom, or as foam.... Even as all +earthen vessels made by the potter end in being broken, so end +the lives of men._ + +_And a belief in matter itself is unmentionable and +inexpressible,--it is neither a thing nor no-thing: and this is +known even by children and ignorant persons._ + + + +IV + +Now it is worth while to inquire if there be not some +compensatory value attaching to this impermanency and this +smallness in the national life. + + +Nothing is more characteristic of that life than its extreme +fluidity. The Japanese population represents a medium whose +particles are in perpetual circulation. The motion is in itself +peculiar. It is larger and more eccentric than the motion of +Occidental populations, though feebler between points. It is also +much more natural,--so natural that it could not exist in Western +civilization. The relative mobility of a European population and +the Japanese population might be expressed by a comparison +between certain high velocities of vibration and certain low +ones. But the high velocities would represent, in such a +comparison, the consequence of artificial force applied; the +slower vibrations would not. And this difference of kind would +mean more than surface indications could announce. In one sense, +Americans may be right in thinking themselves great travelers. In +another, they are certainly wrong; the man of the people in +America cannot compare, as a traveler, with the man of the people +in Japan And of course, in considering relative mobility of +populations, one must consider chiefly the great masses, the +workers,--not merely the small class of wealth. In their own +country, the Japanese are the greatest travelers of any civilized +people. They are the greatest travelers because, even in a land +composed mainly of mountain chains, they recognize no obstacles +to travel. The Japanese who travels most is not the man who needs +railways or steamers to carry him. + +Now, with us, the common worker is incomparably less free than +the common worker in Japan. He is less free because of the more +complicated mechanism of Occidental societies, whose forces tend +to agglomeration and solid integration. He is less free because +the social and industrial machinery on which he must depend +reshapes him to its own particular requirements, and always so as +to evolve some special and artificial capacity at the cost of +other inherent capacity. He is less free because he must live at +a standard making it impossible for him to win financial +independence by mere thrift. To achieve any such independence, he +must possess exceptional character and exceptional faculties +greater than those of thousands of exceptional competitors +equally eager to escape from the same thralldom. In brief, then, +he is less independent because the special character of his +civilization numbs his natural power to live without the help of +machinery or large capital. To live thus artificially means to +lose, sooner or later, the power of independent movement. Before +a Western man can move he has many things to consider. Before a +Japanese moves he has nothing to consider. He simply leaves the +place he dislikes, and goes to the place he wishes, without any +trouble. There is nothing to prevent him. Poverty is not an +obstacle, but a stimulus. Impedimenta he has none, or only such +as he can dispose of in a few minutes. Distances have no +significance for him. Nature has given him perfect feet that can +spring him over fifty miles a day without pain; a stomach whose +chemistry can extract ample nourishment from food on which no +European could live; and a constitution that scorns heat, cold, +and damp alike, because still unimpaired by unhealthy clothing, +by superfluous comforts, by the habit of seeking warmth from +grates and stoves, and by the habit of wearing leather shoes. + +It seems to me that the character of our footgear signifies more +than is commonly supposed. The footgear represents in itself a +check upon individual freedom. It signifies this even in +costliness; but in form it signifies infinitely more. It has +distorted the Western foot out of the original shape, and +rendered it incapable of the work for which it was evolved. The +physical results are not limited to the foot. Whatever acts as a +check, directly or indirectly, upon the organs of locomotion must +extend its effects to the whole physical constitution. Does the +evil stop even there? Perhaps we submit to conventions the most +absurd of any existing in any civilization because we have too +long submitted to the tyranny of shoemakers. There may be defects +in our politics, in our social ethics, in our religious system, +more or less related to the habit of wearing leather shoes. +Submission to the cramping of the body must certainly aid in +developing submission to the cramping of the mind. + +The Japanese man of the people--the skilled laborer able to +underbid without effort any Western artisan in the same line of +industry--remains happily independent of both shoemakers and +tailors. His feet are good to look at, his body is healthy, and +his heart is free. If he desire to travel a thousand miles, he +can get ready for his journey in five minutes. His whole outfit +need not cost seventy-five cents; and all his baggage can be put +into a handkerchief. On ten dollars he can travel for a year +without work, or he can travel simply on his ability to work, or +he can travel as a pilgrim. You may reply that any savage can do +the same thing. Yes, but any civilized man cannot; and the +Japanese has been a highly civilized man for at least a thousand +years. Hence his present capacity to threaten Western +manufacturers. + +We have been too much accustomed to associate this kind of +independent mobility with the life of our own beggars and tramps, +to have any just conception of its intrinsic meaning. We have +thought of it also in connection with unpleasant +things,--uncleanliness and bad smells. But, as Professor +Chamberlain has well said, "a Japanese crowd is the sweetest in +the world" Your Japanese tramp takes his hot bath daily, if he +has a fraction of a cent to pay for it, or his cold bath, if he +has not. In his little bundle there are combs, toothpicks, +razors, toothbrushes. He never allows himself to become +unpleasant Reaching his destination, he can transform himself +into a visitor of very nice manners, and faultless though simple +attire(1). + +Ability to live without furniture, without impedimenta, with the +least possible amount of neat clothing, shows more than the +advantage held by this Japanese race in the struggle of life; it +shows also the real character of some weaknesses in our own +civilization. It forces reflection upon the useless multiplicity +of our daily wants. We must have meat and bread and butter; glass +windows and fire; hats, white shirts, and woolen underwear; boots +and shoes; trunks, bags, and boxes; bedsteads, mattresses, +sheets, and blankets: all of which a Japanese can do without, and +is really better off without. Think for a moment how important an +article of Occidental attire is the single costly item of white +shirts! Yet even the linen shirt, the so-called "badge of a +gentleman," is in itself a useless garment. It gives neither +warmth nor comfort. It represents in our fashions the survival of +something once a luxurious class distinction, but to-day +meaningless and useless as the buttons sewn on the outside of +coat-sleeves. + +(1) Critics have tried to make fun of Sir Edwin Arnold's +remark that a Japanese crowd smells like a geranium-flower. Yet +the simile is exact! The perfume called jako, when sparingly +used, might easily be taken for the odor of a musk-geranium. In +almost any Japanese assembly including women a slight perfume of +jako is discernible; for the robes worn have been laid in drawers +containing a few grains of jako. Except for this delicate scent, +a Japanese crowd is absolutely odorless. + + +V + +The absence of any huge signs of the really huge things that +Japan has done bears witness to the very peculiar way in which +her civilization has been working. It cannot forever so work; but +it has so worked thus far with amazing success. Japan is +producing without capital, in our large sense of the word. She +has become industrial without becoming essentially mechanical and +artificial The vast rice crop is raised upon millions of tiny, +tiny farms; the silk crop, in millions of small poor homes, the +tea crop, on countless little patches of soil. If you visit Kyoto +to order something from one of the greatest porcelain makers in +the world, one whose products are known better in London and in +Paris than even in Japan, you will find the factory to be a +wooden cottage in which no American farmer would live. The +greatest maker of cloisonne vases, who may ask you two hundred +dollars for something five inches high, produces his miracles +behind a two-story frame dwelling containing perhaps six small +rooms. The best girdles of silk made in Japan, and famous +throughout the Empire, are woven in a house that cost scarcely +five hundred dollars to build. The work is, of course, +hand-woven. But the factories weaving by machinery--and weaving +so well as to ruin foreign industries of far vaster capacity--are +hardly more imposing, with very few exceptions. Long, light, low +one-story or two-story sheds they are, about as costly to erect +as a row of wooden stables with us. Yet sheds like these turn out +silks that sell all round the world. Sometimes only by inquiry, +or by the humming of the machinery, can you distinguish a factory +from an old yashiki, or an old-fashioned Japanese school +building,--unless indeed you can read the Chinese characters over +the garden gate. Some big brick factories and breweries exist; +but they are very few, and even when close to the foreign +settlements they seem incongruities in the landscape. + +Our own architectural monstrosities and our Babels of machinery +have been brought into existence by vast integrations of +industrial capital. But such integrations do not exist in the Far +East; indeed, the capital to make them does not exist. And +supposing that in the course of a few generations there should +form in Japan corresponding combinations of money power, it is +not easy to suppose correspondences in architectural +construction. Even two-story edifices of brick have given bad +results in the leading commercial centre; and earthquakes seem to +condemn Japan to perpetual simplicity in building. The very land +revolts against the imposition of Western architecture, and +occasionally even opposes the new course of traffic by. pushing +railroad lines out of level and out of shape. + +Not industry alone still remains thus unintegrated; government +itself exhibits a like condition. Nothing is fixed except the +Throne. Perpetual change is identical with state policy. +Ministers, governors, superintendents, inspectors, all high civil +and military officials, are shifted at irregular and surprisingly +short intervals, and hosts of smaller officials scatter each time +with the whirl. The province in which I passed the first +twelvemonth of my residence in Japan has had four different +governors in five years. During my stay at Kumamoto, and before +the war had begun, the military command of that important post +was three times changed. The government college had in three +years three directors. In educational circles, especially, the +rapidity of such changes has been phenomenal There have been five +different ministers of education in my own time, and more than +five different educational policies The twenty-six thousand +public schools are so related in their management to the local +assemblies that, even were no other influences at work, constant +change would be inevitable because of the changes in the +assemblies. Directors and teachers keep circling from post to +post; there are men little more than thirty years old who have +taught in almost every province of the country. That any +educational system could have produced any great results under +these conditions seems nothing short of miraculous. + +We are accustomed to think that some degree of stability is +necessary to all real progress, all great development. But Japan +has given proof irrefutable that enormous development is possible +without any stability at all. The explanation is in the race +character,--a race character in more ways than one the very +opposite of our own. Uniformly mobile, and thus uniformly +impressionable, the nation has moved unitedly in the direction of +great ends, submitting the whole volume of its forty millions to +be moulded by the ideas of its rulers, even as sand or as water +is shaped by wind. And this submissiveness to reshaping belongs +to the old conditions of its soul life,--old conditions of rare +unselfishness and perfect faith. The relative absence from the +national character of egotistical individualism has been the +saving of an empire; has enabled a great people to preserve its +independence against prodigious odds. Wherefore Japan may well be +grateful to her two great religions, the creators and the +preservers of her moral power to Shinto, which taught the +individual to think of his Emperor and of his country before +thinking either of his own family or of himself; and to Buddhism, +which trained him to master regret, to endure pain, and to accept +as eternal law the vanishing of things loved and the tyranny of +things hated. + + +To-day there is visible a tendency to hardening,--a danger of +changes leading to the integration of just such an officialism as +that which has proved the curse and the weakness of China. The +moral results of the new education have not been worthy of the +material results. The charge of want of "individuality," in the +accepted sense of pure selfishness, will scarcely be made against +the Japanese of the next century. Even the compositions of +students already reflect the new conception of intellectual +strength only as a weapon of offense, and the new sentiment of +aggressive egotism. "Impermanency," writes one, with a fading +memory of Buddhism in his mind, "is the nature of our life. We +see often persons who were rich yesterday, and are poor to-day. +This is the result of human competition, according to the law of +evolution. We are exposed to that competition. We must fight each +other, even if we are not inclined to do so. With what sword +shall we fight? With the sword of knowledge, forged by +education." + +Well, there are two forms of the cultivation of Self. One leads +to the exceptional development of the qualities which are noble, +and the other signifies something about which the less said the +better. But it is not the former which the New Japan is now +beginning to study. I confess to being one of those who believe +that the human heart, even in the history of a race, may be worth +infinitely more than the human intellect, and that it will sooner +or later prove itself infinitely better able to answer all the +cruel enigmas of the Sphinx of Life. I still believe that the old +Japanese were nearer to the solution of those enigmas than are +we, just because they recognized moral beauty as greater than +intellectual beauty. And, by way of conclusion, I may venture to +quote from an article on education by Ferdinand Brunetiere:-- + +"All our educational measures will prove vain, if there be no +effort to force into the mind, and to deeply impress upon it, the +sense of those fine words of Lamennais: '_Human society is based +upon mutual giving, or upon the sacrifice of man for man, or of +each man for all other men; and sacrifice is the very essence of +all true society._' It is this that we have been unlearning for +nearly a century; and if we have to put ourselves to school +afresh, it will be in order that we may learn it again. Without +such knowledge there can be no society and no education,--not, at +least, if the object of education be to form man for society. +Individualism is to-day the enemy of education, as it is also the +enemy of social order. It has not been so always; but it has so +become. It will not be so forever; but it is so now. And without +striving to destroy it-which would mean to fall from one extreme +into another--we must recognize that, no matter what we wish to +do for the family, for society, for education, and for the +country, it is against individualism that the work will have to +be done." + + + +III + +A STREET SINGER + +A woman carrying a samisen, and accompanied by a little boy seven +or eight years old, came to my house to sing. She wore the dress +of a peasant, and a blue towel tied round her head. She was ugly; +and her natural ugliness had been increased by a cruel attack of +smallpox. The child carried a bundle of printed ballads. + +Neighbors then began to crowd into my front yard,--mostly young +mothers and nurse girls with babies on their backs, but old women +and men likewise--the inkyo of the vicinity. Also the +jinrikisha-men came from their stand at the next street-corner; +and presently there was no more room within the gate. + + +The woman sat down on my doorstep, tuned her samisen, played a +bar of accompaniment,--and a spell descended upon the people; and +they stared at each other in smiling amazement. + +For out of those ugly disfigured lips there gushed and rippled a +miracle of a voice--young, deep, unutterably touching in its +penetrating sweetness. "Woman or wood-fairy?" queried a +bystander. Woman only,--but a very, very great artist. The way +she handled her instrument might have astounded the most skillful +geisha; but no such voice had ever been heard from any geisha, +and no such song. She sang as only a peasant can sing,--with +vocal rhythms learned, perhaps, from the cicada and the wild +nightingales,--and with fractions and semi-fractions and +demi-semi-fractions of tones never written down in the musical +language of the West. + +And as she sang, those who listened began to weep silently. I did +not distinguish the words; but I felt the sorrow and the +sweetness and the patience of the life of Japan pass with her +voice into my heart,--plaintively seeking for something never +there. A tenderness invisible seemed to gather and quiver about +us; and sensations of places and of times forgotten came softly +back, mingled with feelings ghostlier,--feelings not of any place +or time in living memory. + +Then I saw that the singer was blind. + + +When the song was finished, we coaxed the woman into the house, +and questioned her. Once she had been fairly well to do, and had +learned the samisen when a girl. The little boy was her son. Her +husband was paralyzed. Her eyes had been destroyed by smallpox. +But she was strong, and able to walk great distances. When the +child became tired, she would carry him on her back. She could +support the little one, as well as the bed-ridden husband, +because whenever she sang the people cried, and gave her coppers +and food.... Such was her story. We gave her some money and a +meal; and she went away, guided by her boy. + + +I bought a copy of the ballad, which was about a recent double +suicide: "_The sorrowful ditty of Tamayone and Takejiro,-- +composed by Tabenaka Yone of Number Fourteen of the Fourth Ward +of Nippon-bashi in the South District of the City of Osaka_." It +had evidently been printed from a wooden block; and there were +two little pictures. One showed a girl and boy sorrowing +together. The other--a sort of tail-piece--represented a writing- +stand, a dying lamp, an open letter, incense burning in a cup, +and a vase containing shikimi,--that sacred plant used in the +Buddhist ceremony of making offerings to the dead. The queer +cursive text, looking like shorthand written perpendicularly, +yielded to translation only lines like these:-- + +"In the First Ward of Nichi-Hommachi, in far-famed Osaka-- +_O the sorrow of this tale of shinju!_ + +"Tamayone, aged nineteen,--to see her was to love her, for +Takejiro, the young workman. + +"For the time of two lives they exchange mutual vows-- +_O the sorrow of loving a courtesan!_ + +"On their arms they tattoo a Raindragon, and the character +'Bamboo'--thinking never of the troubles of life.... + +"But he cannot pay the fifty-five yen for her freedom-- +_O the anguish of Takejiro's heart!_ + +"Both then vow to pass away together, since never in this world +can they become husband and wife.... + +"Trusting to her comrades for incense and for flowers-- +_O the pity of their passing like the dew!_ + +"Tamayone takes the wine-cup filled with water only, in which +those about to die pledge each other.... + +"_O the tumult of the lovers' suicide!--O the pity of their lives +thrown away!_" + +In short, there was nothing very unusual in the story, and +nothing at all remarkable in the verse. All the wonder of the +performance had been in the voice of the woman. But long after +the singer had gone that voice seemed still to stay,--making +within me a sense of sweetness and of sadness so strange that I +could not but try to explain to myself the secret of those +magical tones. + +And I thought that which is hereafter set down:-- + + +All song, all melody, all music, means only some evolution of the +primitive natural utterance of feeling,--of that untaught speech +of sorrow, joy, or passion, whose words are tones. Even as other +tongues vary, so varies this language of tone combinations. +Wherefore melodies which move us deeply have no significance to +Japanese ears; and melodies that touch us not at all make +powerful appeal to the emotion of a race whose soul-life differs +from our own as blue differs from yellow....Still, what is the +reason of the deeper feelings evoked in me--an alien--by this +Oriental chant that I could never even learn,--by this common +song of a blind woman of the people? Surely that in the voice of +the singer there were qualities able to make appeal to something +larger than the sum of the experience of one race,--to something +wide as human life, and ancient as the knowledge of good and +evil. + + +One summer evening, twenty-five years ago, in a London park, I +heard a girl say "Good-night" to somebody passing by. Nothing but +those two little words,--"Good-night." Who she was I do not know: +I never even saw her face; and I never heard that voice again. +But still, after the passing of one hundred seasons, the memory +of her "Good-night" brings a double thrill incomprehensible of +pleasure and pain,--pain and pleasure, doubtless, not of me, not +of my own existence, but of pre-existences and dead suns. + +For that which makes the charm of a voice thus heard but once +cannot be of this life. It is of lives innumerable and forgotten. +Certainly there never have been two voices having precisely the +same quality. But in the utterance of affection there is a +tenderness of timbre common to the myriad million voices of all +humanity. Inherited memory makes familiar to even the newly-born +the meaning of tins tone of caress. Inherited, no doubt, +likewise, our knowledge of the tones of sympathy, of grief, of +pity. And so the chant of a blind woman in this city of the Far +East may revive in even a Western mind emotion deeper than +individual being,--vague dumb pathos of forgotten sorrows,--dim +loving impulses of generations unremembered. The dead die never +utterly. They sleep in the darkest cells of tired hearts and busy +brains,--to be startled at rarest moments only by the echo of +some voice that recalls their past. + + + +IV + + +FROM A TRAVELING DIARY + +I + +OSAKA-KYOTO RAILWAY. +April 15, 1895. + +Feeling drowsy in a public conveyance, and not being able to lie +down, a Japanese woman will lift her long sleeve before her face +era she begins to nod. In this second-class railway-carriage +there are now three women asleep in a row, all with faces +screened by the left sleeve, and all swaying together with the +rocking of the train, like lotos-flowers in a soft current. (This +use of the left sleeve is either fortuitous or instinctive; +probably instinctive, as the right hand serves best to cling to +strap or seat in case of shock.) The spectacle is at once pretty +and funny, but especially pretty, as exemplifying that grace with +which a refined Japanese woman does everything,--always in the +daintiest and least selfish way possible. It is pathetic, too, +for the attitude is also that of sorrow, and sometimes of weary +prayer. All because of the trained sense of duty to show only +one's happiest face to the world. + +Which fact reminds me of an experience. + +A male servant long in my house seemed to me the happiest of +mortals. He laughed invariably when spoken to, looked always +delighted while at work, appeared to know nothing of the small +troubles of life. But one day I peeped at him when he thought +himself quite alone, and his relaxed face startled me. It was not +the face I had known. Hard lines of pain and anger appeared in +it, making it seem twenty years older. I coughed gently to +announce my presence. At once the face smoothed, softened, +lighted up as by a miracle of rejuvenation. Miracle, indeed, of +perpetual unselfish self-control. + + +II + +Kyoto, April 16. + +The wooden shutters before my little room in the hotel are pushed +away; and the morning sun immediately paints upon my shoji, +across squares of gold light, the perfect sharp shadow of a +little peach-tree. No mortal artist--not even a Japanese--could +surpass that silhouette! Limned in dark blue against the yellow +glow, the marvelous image even shows stronger or fainter tones +according to the varying distance of the unseen branches outside. +it sets me thinking about the possible influence on Japanese art +of the use of paper for house-lighting purposes. + +By night a Japanese house with only its shoji closed looks like a +great paper-sided lantern,--a magic-lantern making moving shadows +within, instead of without itself. By day the shadows on the +shoji are from outside only; but they may be very wonderful at +the first rising of the sun, if his beams are leveled, as in this +instance, across a space of quaint garden. + +There is certainly nothing absurd in that old Greek story which +finds the origin of art in the first untaught attempt to trace +upon some wall the outline of a lover's shadow. Very possibly all +sense of art, as well as all sense of the supernatural, had its +simple beginnings in the study of shadows. But shadows on shoji +are so remarkable as to suggest explanation of certain Japanese +faculties of drawing by no means primitive, but developed beyond +all parallel, and otherwise difficult to account for. Of course, +the quality of Japanese paper, which takes shadows better than +any frosted glass, must be considered, and also the character of +the shadows themselves. Western vegetation, for example, could +scarcely furnish silhouettes so gracious as those of Japanese +garden-trees, all trained by centuries of caressing care to look +as lovely as Nature allows. + +I wish the paper of my shoji could have been, like a photographic +plate, sensitive to that first delicious impression cast by a +level sun. I am already regretting distortions: the beautiful +silhouette has begun to lengthen. + + +III + +Kyoto, April l6. + +Of all peculiarly beautiful things in Japan, the most beautiful +are the approaches to high places of worship or of rest,--the +Ways that go to Nowhere and the Steps that lead to Nothing. + +Certainly, their special charm is the charm of the adventitious, +--the effect of man's handiwork in union with Nature's finest +moods of light and form and color,--a charm which vanishes on +rainy days; but it is none the less wonderful because fitful. + +Perhaps the ascent begins with a sloping paved avenue, half a +mile long, lined with giant trees. Stone monsters guard the way +at regular intervals. Then you come to some great flight of steps +ascending through green gloom to a terrace umbraged by older and +vaster trees; and other steps from thence lead to other terraces, +all in shadow. And you climb and climb and climb, till at last, +beyond a gray torii, the goal appears: a small, void, colorless +wooden shrine,--a Shinto miya. The shock of emptiness thus +received, in the high silence and the shadows, after all the +sublimity of the long approach, is very ghostliness itself. + +Of similar Buddhist experiences whole multitudes wait for those +who care to seek them. I might suggest, for example, a visit to +the grounds of Higashi Otani, which are in the city of Kyoto. A +grand avenue leads to the court of a temple, and from the court a +flight of steps fully fifty feet wide--massy, mossed, and +magnificently balustraded--leads to a walled terrace. The scene +makes one think of the approach to some Italian pleasure-garden +of Decameron days. But, reaching the terrace, you find only a +gate, opening--into a cemetery! Did the Buddhist +landscape-gardener wish to tell us that all pomp and power and +beauty lead only to such silence at last? + + +IV + +KYOTO, April 10-20. + +I have passed the greater part of three days in the national +Exhibition,--time barely sufficient to discern the general +character and significance of the display. It is essentially +industrial, but nearly all delightful, notwithstanding, because +of the wondrous application of art to all varieties of +production. Foreign merchants and keener observers than I find in +it other and sinister meaning,--the most formidable menace to +Occidental trade and industry ever made by the Orient. "Compared +with England," wrote a correspondent of the London Times, "it is +farthings for pennies throughout.... The story of the Japanese +invasion of Lancashire is older than that of the invasion of +Korea and China. It has been a conquest of peace,--a painless +process of depletion which is virtually achieved.... The Kyoto +display is proof of a further immense development of industrial +enterprise.... A country where laborers' hire is three shillings +a week, with all other domestic charges in proportion, +must--other things being equal--kill competitors whose expenses +are quadruple the Japanese scale." Certainly the industrial +jiujutsu promises unexpected results. + +The price of admission to the Exhibition is a significant matter +also. Only five sen! Yet even at this figure an immense sum is +likely to be realized,--so great is the swarm of visitors. +Multitudes of peasants are pouring daily into the +city,--pedestrians mostly, just as for a pilgrimage. And a +pilgrimage for myriads the journey really is, because of the +inauguration festival of the greatest of Shinshu temples. + +The art department proper I thought much inferior to that of the +Tokyo Exhibition of 1890. Fine things there were, but few. +Evidence, perhaps, of the eagerness with which the nation is +turning all its energies and talents in directions where money is +to be made; for in those larger departments where art is combined +with industry,--such as ceramics, enamels, inlaid work, +embroideries,--no finer and costlier work could ever have been +shown. Indeed, the high value of certain articles on display +suggested a reply to a Japanese friend who observed, +thoughtfully, "If China adopts Western industrial methods, she +will be able to underbid us in all the markets of the world." + +"Perhaps in cheap production," I made answer. "But there is no +reason why Japan should depend wholly upon cheapness of +production. I think she may rely more securely upon her +superiority in art and good taste. The art-genius of a people may +have a special value against which all competition by cheap labor +is vain. Among Western nations, France offers an example. Her +wealth is not due to her ability to underbid her neighbors. Her +goods are the dearest in the world: she deals in things of luxury +and beauty. But they sell in all civilized countries because they +are the best of their kind. Why should not Japan become the +France of the Further East?" + + +The weakest part of the art display is that devoted to +oil-painting,--oil-painting in the European manner. No reason +exists why the Japanese should not be able to paint wonderfully +in oil by following their own particular methods of artistic +expression. But their attempts to follow Western methods have +even risen to mediocrity only in studies requiring very realistic +treatment. Ideal work in oil, according to Western canons of art, +is still out of their reach. Perhaps they may yet discover for +themselves a new gateway to the beautiful, even through +oil-painting, by adaptation of the method to the particular needs +of the race-genius; but there is yet no sign of such a tendency. + +A canvas representing a perfectly naked woman looking at herself +in a very large mirror created a disagreeable impression. The +Japanese press had been requesting the removal of the piece, and +uttering comments not flattering to Western art ideas. +Nevertheless the canvas was by a Japanese painter. It was a daub; +but it had been boldly priced at three thousand dollars. + +I stood near the painting for a while to observe its effect upon +the people,--peasants by a huge majority They would stare at it, +laugh scornfully, utter some contemptuous phrase, and turn away +to examine the kakemono, which were really far more worthy of +notice though offered at prices ranging only from ten to fifty +yen. The comments were chiefly leveled at "foreign" ideas of good +taste (the figure having been painted with a European head). None +seemed to consider the thing as a Japanese work. Had it +represented a Japanese woman, I doubt whether the crowd would +have even tolerated its existence. + +Now all this scorn for the picture itself was just. There was +nothing ideal in the work. It was simply the representation of a +naked woman doing what no woman could like to be seen doing. And +a picture of a mere naked woman, however well executed, is never +art if art means idealism. The realism of the thing was its +offensiveness. Ideal nakedness may be divine,--the most godly of +all human dreams of the superhuman. But a naked person is not +divine at all. Ideal nudity needs no girdle, because the charm is +of lines too beautiful to be veiled or broken. The living real +human body has no such divine geometry. Question: Is an artist +justified in creating nakedness for its own sake, unless he can +divest that nakedness of every trace of the real and personal? + +There is a Buddhist text which truly declares that he alone is +wise who can see things without their individuality. And it is +this Buddhist way of seeing which makes the greatness of the true +Japanese art. + + +V + +These thoughts came:-- + +That nudity which is divine, which is the abstract of beauty +absolute, gives to the beholder a shock of astonishment and +delight,--not unmixed with melancholy. Very few works of art give +this, because very few approach perfection. But there are marbles +and gems which give it, and certain fine studies of them, such as +the engravings published by the Society of Dilettanti. The longer +one looks, the more the wonder grows, since there appears no +line, or part of a line, whose beauty does not surpass all +remembrance. So the secret of such art was long thought +supernatural; and, in very truth, the sense of beauty it +communicates is more than human,--is superhuman, in the meaning +of that which is outside of existing life,--is therefore +supernatural as any sensation known to man can be. + +What is the shock? + +It resembles strangely, and is certainly akin to, that psychical +shock which comes with the first experience of love. Plato +explained the shock of beauty as being the Soul's sudden +half-remembrance of the World of Divine Ideas. "They who see here +any image or resemblance of the things which are there receive a +shock like a thunderbolt, and are, after a manner, taken out of +themselves." Schopenhauer explained, the shock of first love as +the Willpower of the Soul of the Race. The positive psychology of +Spencer declares in our own day that the most powerful of human +passions, when it makes its first appearance, is absolutely +antecedent to all individual experience. Thus do ancient thought +and modern--metaphysics and science--accord in recognizing that +the first deep sensation of human beauty known to the individual +is not individual at all. + +Must not the same truth hold of that shock which supreme art +gives? The human ideal expressed in such art appeals surely to +the experience of all that Past enshrined in the emotional life +of the beholder,--to something inherited from innumerable +ancestors. + +Innumerable indeed! + +Allowing three generations to a century, and presupposing no +consanguineous marriages, a French mathematician estimates that +each existing individual of his nation would have in his veins +the blood of twenty millions of contemporaries of the year 1000. +Or calculating from the first year of our own era, the ancestry +of a man of to-day would represent a total of eighteen +quintillions. Yet what are twenty centuries to the time of the +life of man! + +Well, the emotion of beauty, like all of our emotions, is +certainly the inherited product of unimaginably countless +experiences in an immeasurable past. In every aesthetic sensation +is the stirring of trillions of trillions of ghostly memories +buried in the magical soil of the brain. And each man carries +within him an ideal of beauty which is but an infinite composite +of dead perceptions of form, color, grace, once dear to look +upon. It is dormant, this ideal,--potential in essence,--cannot +be evoked at will before the imagination; but it may light up +electrically at any perception by the living outer senses of some +vague affinity. Then is felt that weird, sad, delicious thrill, +which accompanies the sudden backward-flowing of the tides of +life and time; then are the sensations of a million years and of +myriad generations summed into the emotional feeling of a moment. + +Now, the artists of one civilization only--the Greeks--were able +to perform the miracle of disengaging the Race-Ideal of beauty +from their own souls, and fixing its wavering out-line in jewel +and stone. Nudity, they made divine; and they still compel us to +feel its divinity almost as they felt it themselves. Perhaps they +could do this because, as Emerson suggested, they possessed +all-perfect senses. Certainly it was not because they were as +beautiful as their own statues. No man and no woman could be +that. This only is sure,--that they discerned and clearly fixed +their ideal,--composite of countless million remembrances of dead +grace in eyes and eyelids, throat and cheek, mouth and chin, body +and limbs. + + +The Greek marble itself gives proof that there is no absolute +individuality,--that the mind is as much a composite of souls as +the body is of cells. + + +VI + +Kyoto, April 21. + +The noblest examples of religious architecture in the whole +empire have just been completed; and the great City of Temples is +now enriched by two constructions probably never surpassed in all +the ten centuries of its existence. One is the gift of the +Imperial Government; the other, the gift of the common people. + +The government's gift is the Dai-Kioku-Den,--erected to +commemorate the great festival of Kwammu Tenno, fifty-first +emperor of Japan, and founder of the Sacred City. To the Spirit +of this Emperor the Dai-Kioku-Den is dedicated: it is thus a +Shinto temple, and the most superb of all Shinto temples. +Nevertheless, it is not Shinto architecture, but a facsimile of +the original palace of Kwammu Tenno upon the original scale. The +effect upon national sentiment of this magnificent deviation from +conventional forms, and the profound poetry of the reverential +feeling which suggested it, can be fully comprehended only by +those who know that Japan is still practically ruled by the dead. +Much more than beautiful are the edifices of the Dai-Kioku-Den. +Even in this most archaic of Japan cities they startle; they tell +to the sky in every tilted line of their horned roofs the tale of +another and more fantastic age. The most eccentrically striking +parts of the whole are the two-storied and five-towered +gates,--veritable Chinese dreams, one would say. In color the +construction is not less oddly attractive than in form,--and this +especially because of the fine use made of antique green tiles in +the polychromatic roofing. Surely the august Spirit of Kwammu +Tenno might well rejoice in this charming evocation of the past +by architectural necromancy! + +But the gift of the people to Kyoto is still grander. It is +represented by the glorious Higashi Hongwanji,--or eastern +Hongwan temple (Shinshu). Western readers may form some idea of +its character from the simple statement that it cost eight +millions of dollars and required seventeen years to build. In +mere dimension it is largely exceeded by other Japanese buildings +of cheaper construction; but anybody familiar with the Buddhist +temple architecture of Japan can readily perceive the difficulty +of building a temple one hundred and, twenty-seven feet high, one +hundred and ninety-two feet deep, and more than two hundred feet +long. Because of its peculiar form, and especially because of the +vast sweeping lines of its roof, the Hongwanji looks even far +larger than it is,--looks mountainous. But in any country it +would be deemed a wonderful structure. There are beams forty-two +feet long and four feet thick; and there are pillars nine feet in +circumference. One may guess the character of the interior +decoration from the statement that the mere painting of the +lotos-flowers on the screens behind the main altar coat ten +thousand dollars. Nearly all this wonderful work was done with +the money contributed in coppers by hard-working peasants. And +yet there are people who think that Buddhism is dying! + +More than one hundred thousand peasants came to see the grand +inauguration. They seated themselves by myriads on matting laid +down by the acre in the great court. I saw them waiting thus at +three in the afternoon. The court was a living sea. Yet all that +host was to wait till seven o'clock for the beginning of the +ceremony, without refreshment, in the hot sun. I saw at one +corner of the court a band of about twenty young girls,--all in +white, and wearing peculiar white caps,--and I asked who they +were. A bystander replied: "As all these people must wait here +many hours, it is to be feared that some may become ill. +Therefore professional nurses have been stationed here to take +care of any who may be sick. There are likewise stretchers in +waiting, and carriers. And there are many physicians." + +I admired the patience and the faith. But those peasants might +well love the magnificent temple,--their own creation in very +truth, both directly and indirectly. For no small part of the +actual labor of building was done for love only; and the mighty +beams for the roof had been hauled to Kyoto from far-away +mountain-slopes, with cables made of the hair of Buddhist wives +and daughters. One such cable, preserved in the temple, is more +than three hundred and sixty feet long, and nearly three inches +in diameter. + + +To me the lesson of those two magnificent monuments of national +religious sentiment suggested the certain future increase in +ethical power and value of that sentiment, concomitantly with the +increase of national prosperity. Temporary poverty is the real +explanation of the apparent temporary decline of Buddhism. But an +era of great wealth is beginning. Some outward forms of Buddhism +must perish; some superstitions of Shinto must die. The vital +truths and recognitions will expand, strengthen, take only deeper +root in the heart of the race, and potently prepare it for the +trials of that larger and harsher life upon which it has to +enter. + + + +VII + +Kobe, April 23. + +I have been visiting the exhibition of fishes and of fisheries +which is at Hyogo, in a garden by the sea. Waraku-en is its name, +which signifies, "The Garden of the Pleasure of Peace." It is +laid out like a landscape garden of old time, and deserves its +name. Over its verge you behold the great bay, and fishermen in +boats, and the white far-gliding of sails splendid with light, +and beyond all, shutting out the horizon, a lofty beautiful +massing of peaks mauve-colored by distance. + +I saw ponds of curious shapes, filled with clear sea-water, in +which fish of beautiful colors were swimming. I went to the +aquarium where stranger kinds of fishes swam behind glass--fishes +shaped like toy-kites, and fishes shaped like sword-blades, and +fishes that seemed to turn themselves inside out, and funny, +pretty fishes of butterfly-colors, that move like dancing-girls, +waving sleeve-shaped fins. + +I saw models of all manner of boats and nets and hooks and +fish-traps and torch-baskets for night-fishing. I saw pictures of +every kind of fishing, and both models and pictures of men +killing whales. One picture was terrible,--the death agony of a +whale caught in a giant net, and the leaping of boats in a +turmoil of red foam, and one naked man on the monstrous back--a +single figure against the sky--striking with a great steel, and +the fountain-gush of blood responding to the stroke.... Beside me +I heard a Japanese father and mother explain the picture to their +little boy; and the mother said:-- + +"When the whale is going to die, it speaks; it cries to the Lord +Buddha for help,--_Namu Amida Butsu!_" + +I went to another part of the garden where there were tame deer, +and a "golden bear" in a cage, and peafowl in an aviary, and an +ape. The people fed the deer and the bear with cakes, and tried +to coax the peacock to open its tail, and grievously tormented +the ape. I sat down to rest on the veranda of a pleasure-house +near, the aviary, and the Japanese folk who had been looking at +the picture of whale-fishing found their way to the same veranda; +and presently I heard the little boy say:-- + +"Father, there is an old, old fisherman in his boat. Why does he +not go to the Palace of the Dragon-King of the Sea, like +Urashima?" + +The father answered: "Urashima caught a turtle which was not +really a turtle, but the Daughter of the Dragon-King. So he, was +rewarded for his kindness. But that old fisherman has not caught +any turtle, and even if he had caught one, he is much too old to +marry. Therefore he will not go to the Palace." + +Then the boy looked at the flowers, and the fountains, and the +sunned sea with its white sails, and the mauve-colored mountains +be-yond all, and exclaimed:-- + +"Father, do you think there is any place more beautiful than this +in the whole world?" + +The father smiled deliciously, and seemed about to answer, but +before he could speak the child cried out, and leaped, and +clapped his little hands for delight, because the peacock had +suddenly outspread the splendor of its tail. And all hastened to +the aviary. So I never heard the reply to that pretty question. + +But afterwards I thought that it might have been answered thus:-- + + +"My boy, very beautiful this is. But the world is full of beauty; +and there may be gardens more beautiful than this. + +"But the fairest of gardens is not in our world. It is the Garden +of Amida, in the Paradise of the West. + +"And whosoever does no wrong what time he lives may after death +dwell in that Garden. + +"There the divine Kujaku, bird of heaven, sings of the Seven +Steps and the Five Powers, spreading its tail as a sun. + +"There lakes of jewel-water are, and in them lotos-flowers of a +loveliness for which there is not any name. And from those +flowers proceed continually rays of rainbow-light, and spirits of +Buddhas newly-born. + +"And the water, murmuring among the lotos-buds, speaks to the +souls in them of Infinite Memory and Infinite Vision, and of the +Four Infinite Feelings. + +"And in that place there is no difference between gods and men, +save that under the splendor of Amida even the gods must bend; +and all sing the hymn of praise beginning, '_O Thou of +Immeasurable Light!_' + +"But the Voice of the River Celestial chants forever, like the +chanting of thousands in unison: '_Even this is not high; there +is still a Higher! This is not real; this is not Peace!_'" + + + +V + +THE NUN OF THE TEMPLE OF AMIDA + +When O-Toyo's husband--a distant cousin, adopted into her family +for love's sake--had been summoned by his lord to the capital, +she did not feel anxious about the future. She felt sad only. It +was the firs time since their bridal that they had ever been +separated. But she had her father and mother to keep her company, +and, dearer than either,--though she would never have confessed +it even to herself,--her little son. Besides, she always had +plenty to do. There were many household duties to perform, and +there was much clothing to be woven--both silk and cotton. + +Once daily at a fixed hour, she would set for the absent husband, +in his favorite room, little repasts faultlessly served on dainty +lacquered trays,-miniature meals such as are offered to the +ghosts of the ancestors, and to the gods(1). These repasts were +served at the east side of the room, and his kneeling-cushion +placed before them. The reason they were served at the east side, +was because he had gone east. Before removing the food, she +always lifted the cover of the little soup-bowl to see if there +was vapor upon its lacquered inside surface. For it is said that +if there be vapor on the inside of the lid covering food so +offered, the absent beloved is well. But if there be none, he is +dead,--because that is a sign that his soul has returned by +itself to seek nourishment. O-Toyo found the lacquer thickly +beaded with vapor day by day. + +The child was her constant delight. He was three years old, and +fond of asking questions to which none but the gods know the real +answers. When he wanted to play, she laid aside her work to play +with him. When he wanted to rest, she told him wonderful stories, +or gave pretty pious answers to his questions about those things +which no man can ever understand. At evening, when the little +lamps had been lighted before the holy tablets and the images, +she taught his lips to shape the words of filial prayer. When he +had been laid to sleep, she brought her work near him, and +watched the still sweetness of his face. Sometimes he would smile +in his dreams; and she knew that Kwannon the divine was playing +shadowy play with him, and she would murmur the Buddhist +invocation to that Maid "who looketh forever down above the sound +of prayer." + + +Sometimes, in the season of very clear days, she would climb the +mountain of Dakeyama, carrying her little boy on her back. Such a +trip delighted him much, not only because of what his mother +taught him to see, but also of what she taught him to hear. The +sloping way was through groves and woods, and over grassed +slopes, and around queer rocks; and there were flowers with +stories in their hearts, and trees holding tree-spirits. Pigeons +cried korup-korup; and doves sobbed owao, owao and cicada wheezed +and fluted and tinkled. + +All those who wait for absent dear ones make, if they can, a +pilgrimage to the peak called Dakeyama. It is visible from any +part of the city; and from its summit several provinces can be +seen. At the very top is a stone of almost human height and +shape, perpendicularly set up; and little pebbles are heaped +before it and upon it. And near by there is a small Shinto shrine +erected to the spirit of a princess of other days. For she +mourned the absence of one she loved, and used to watch from this +mountain for his coming until she pined away and was changed into +a stone. The people therefore built the shrine; and lovers of the +absent still pray there for the return of those dear to them; and +each, after so praying, takes home one of the little pebbles +heaped there. And when the beloved one returns, the pebble must +be taken back to the pebble-pile upon the mountain-top, and other +pebbles with it, for a thank-offering and commemoration. + +Always ere O-Toyo and her son could reach their home after such a +day, the dusk would fall softly about them; for the way was long, +and they had to both go and return by boat through the wilderness +of rice-fields round the town,--which is a slow manner of +journeying. Sometimes stars and fireflies lighted them; sometimes +also the moon,--and O-Toyo would softly sing to her boy the Izumo +child-song to the moon:-- + +Nono-San, +Little Lady Moon, +How old are you? +"Thirteen days,-- +Thirteen and nine." +That is still young, +And the reason must be +For that bright red obi, +So nicely tied(2), +And that nice white girdle +About your hips. +Will you give it to the horse? +"Oh, no, no!" +Will you give it to the cow? +"Oh, no, no!(3)" + +And up to the blue night would rise from all those wet leagues of +labored field that great soft bubbling chorus which seems the +very voice of the soil itself,--the chant of the frogs. And +O-Toyo would interpret its syllables to the child: Me kayui! me +kayui! "Mine eyes tickle; I want to sleep." + +All those were happy hours. + +(1) Such a repast, offered to the spirit of the absent one loved, +is called a Kage-zen; lit., "Shadow-tray." The word zen is also +use to signify the meal served on the lacquered tray,--which has +feet, like miniature table. So that time term "Shadow-feast" +would be a better translation of Kage-zen. + +(2) Because an obi or girdle of very bright color can be worn +only by children. + +(3) Nono-San, +or +O-Tsuki-san +Ikutsu? +"Jiu-san,-- +Kokonotsu." + +Sore wa mada +Wakai yo, +Wakai ye mo +Dori +Akai iro no +Obi to, +Shire iro no +Obi to +Koshi ni shanto +Musun de. +Uma ni yaru? +"Iyaiya!" +Ushi ni yaru? +"Iyaiya!" + + + +II + +Then twice, within the time of three days, those masters of life +and death whose ways belong to the eternal mysteries struck at +her heart. First she was taught that the gentle busband for whom +she had so often prayed never could return to her,--having been +returned unto that dust out of which all forms are borrowed. And +in another little while she knew her boy slept so deep a sleep +that the Chinese physician could not waken him. These things she +learned only as shapes are learned in lightning flashes. Between +and beyond the flashes was that absolute darkness which is the +pity of the gods. + +It passed; and she rose to meet a foe whose name is Memory. +Before all others she could keep her face, as in other days, +sweet and smiling. But when alone with this visitant, she found +herself less strong. She would arrange little toys and spread +out little dresses on the matting, and look at them, and talk to +them in whispers, and smile silently. But the smile would ever +end in a burst of wild, loud weeping; and she would beat her head +upon the floor, and ask foolish questions of the gods. + + +One day she thought of a weird consolation,--that rite the +people name Toritsu-banashi,--the evocation of the dead. Could +she not call back her boy for one brief minute only? It would +trouble the little soul; but would he not gladly bear a moment's +pain for her dear sake? Surely! + + +[To have the dead called back one must go to some priest-- +Buddhist or Shinto--who knows the rite of incantation. And the +mortuary tablet, or ihai, of the dead must be brought to that +priest. + +Then ceremonies of purification are performed; candles are +lighted and incense is kindled before the ihai; and prayers or +parts of sutras are recited; and offerings of flowers and of rice +are made. But, in this case, the rice must not be cooked. +And when everything has been made ready, the priest, taking in +his left hand an instrument shaped like a bow, and striking it +rapidly with his right, calls upon the name of the dead, and +cries out the words, Kitazo yo! kitazo yo! kitazo yo! meaning, "I +have come(1)." And, as he cries, the tone of his voice gradually +changes until it becomes the very voice of the dead person,--for +the ghost enters into him. + +Then the dead will answer questions quickly asked, but will cry +continually: "Hasten, hasten! for this my coming back is painful, +and I have but a little time to stay!" And having answered, the +ghost passes; and the priest falls senseless upon his face. + +Now to call back the dead is not good. For by calling them back +their condition is made worse. Returning to the underworld, they +must take a place lower than that which they held before. + +To-day these rites are not allowed by law. They once consoled; +but the law is a good law, and just,--since there exist men +willing to mock the divine which is in human hearts.] + + +So it came to pass that O-Toyo found herself one night in a +lonely little temple at the verge of the city,--kneeling before +the ihai of her boy, and hearing the rite of incantation. And +presently, out of the lips of the officiant there came a voice +she thought she knew,--a voice loved above all others,--but faint +and very thin, like a sobbing of wind. + +And the thin voice cried to her:-- + +"Ask quickly, quickly, mother! Dark is the way and long; and I +may not linger." + +Then tremblingly she questioned:-- + +"Why must I sorrow for my child? What is the justice of the +gods?" + +And there was answer given:-- + +"O mother, do not mourn me thus! That I died was only that you +might not die. For the year was a year of sickness and of +sorrow,--and it was given me to know that you were to die; and I +obtained by prayer that I should take your place(2). + +"O mother, never weep for me! it is not kindness to mourn for the +dead. Over the River of Tears(3) their silent road is; and when +mothers weep, the flood of that river rises, and the soul cannot +pass, but must wander to and fro. + +"Therefore, I pray you, do not grieve, O mother mine! Only give +me a little water sometimes." + +(1) Whence the Izumo saying about one who too often announces his +coming: "Thy talk is like the talk of +necromancy!"--Toritsubanashi no yona. + +(2) Migawari, "substitute," is the religious term. + +(3) "Namida-no-Kawa." + + + +III + +From that hour she was not seen to weep. She performed, lightly +and silently, as in former days, the gentle duties of a daughter. + +Seasons passed; and her father thought to find another husband +for her. To the mother, he said:-- + +"If our daughter again have a son, it will be great joy for her, +and for all of us." + +But the wiser mother made answer:-- + +"Unhappy she is not. It is impossible that she marry again. She +has become as a little child, knowing nothing of trouble or sin." + +It was true that she had ceased to know real pain. She had begun +to show a strange fondness for very small things. At first she +had found her bed too large--perhaps through the sense of +emptiness left by the loss of her child; then, day by day, other +things seemed to grow too large,--the dwelling itself, the +familiar rooms, the alcove and its great flower-vases,--even the +household utensils. She wished to eat her rice with miniature +chop-sticks out of a very small bowl such as children use. + +In these things she was lovingly humored; and in other matters +she was not fantastic. The old people consulted together about +her constantly. At last the father said:-- + +"For our daughter to live with strangers might be painful. But as +we are aged, we may soon have to leave her. Perhaps we could +provide for her by making her a nun. We might build a little +temple for her." + +Next day the mother asked O-Toyo:-- + +"Would you not like to become a holy nun, and to live in a very, +very small temple, with a very small altar, and little images of +the Buddhas? We should be always near you. If you wish this, we +shall get a priest to teach you the sutras." + +O-Toyo wished it, and asked that an extremely small nun's dress +be got for her. But the mother said:-- + +"Everything except the dress a good nun may have made small. But +she must wear a large dress--that is the law of Buddha." + +So she was persuaded to wear the same dress as other nuns. + + +IV + +They built for her a small An-dera, or Nun's-Temple, in an empty +court where another and larger temple, called Amida-ji, had once +stood. The An-dera was also called Amida-ji, and was dedicated to +Amida-Nyorai and to other Buddhas. It was fitted up with a very +small altar and with miniature altar furniture. There was a tiny +copy of the sutras on a tiny reading-desk, and tiny screens and +bells and kakemono. And she dwelt there long after her parents +had passed away. People called her the Amida-ji no Bikuni,--which +means The Nun of the Temple of Amida. + +A little outside the gate there was a statue of Jizo. This Jizo +was a special Jizo--the friend of sick children. There were +nearly always offerings of small rice-cakes to be seen before +him. These signified that some sick child was being prayed for; +and the number of the rice-cakes signified the number of the +years of the child. Most often there were but two or three cakes; +rarely there were seven or ten. The Amida-ji no Bikuni took care +of the statue, and supplied it with incense-offerings, and +flowers from the temple garden; for there was a small garden +behind the An-dera. + +After making her morning round with her alms-bowl, she would +usually seat herself before a very small loom, to weave cloth +much too narrow for serious use. But her webs were bought always +by certain shopkeepers who knew her story; and they made her +presents of very small cups, tiny flower-vases, and queer +dwarf-trees for her garden. + +Her greatest pleasure was the companionship of children; and this +she never lacked. Japanese child-life, is mostly passed in temple +courts; and many happy childhoods were spent in the court of the +Amida-ji. All the mothers in that street liked to have their +little ones play there, but cautioned them never to laugh at the +Bikuni-San. "Sometimes her ways are strange," they would say; +"but that is because she once had a little son, who died, and the +pain became too great for her mother's heart. So you must be very +good and respectful to her." + +Good they were, but not quite respectful in the reverential +sense. They knew better than to be that. They called her +"Bikuni-San" always, and saluted her nicely; but otherwise they +treated her like one of themselves. They played games with her; +and she gave them tea in extremely small cups, and made for them +heaps of rice-cakes not much bigger than peas, and wove upon her +loom cloth of cotton and cloth of silk for the robes of their +dolls. So she became to them as a blood-sister. + +They played with her daily till they grew too big to play, and +left the court of the temple of Amida to begin the bitter work of +life, and to become the fathers and mothers of children whom they +sent to play in their stead. These learned to love the Bikuni-San +like their parents had done. And the Bikuni-San lived to play +with the children of the children of the children of those who +remembered when her temple was built. + +The people took good heed that she should not know want. There +was always given to her more than she needed for herself. So she +was able to be nearly as kind to the children as she wished, and +to feed extravagantly certain small animals. Birds nested in her +temple, and ate from her hand, and learned not to perch upon the +heads of the Buddhas. + + +Some days after her funeral, a crowd of children visited my +house. A little girl of nine years spoke for them all:-- + +"Sir, we are asking for the sake of the Bikuni-San who is dead. A +very large haka(1) has been set up for her. It is a nice haka. +But we want to give her also a very, very small haka because in +the time she was with us she often said that she would like a +very little haka. And the stone-cutter has promised to cut it for +us, and to make it very pretty, if we can bring the money. +Therefore perhaps you will honorably give something." + +"Assuredly," I said. "But now you will have nowhere to play." + +She answered, smiling:--"We shall still play in the court of the +temple of Amida. She is buried there. She will hear our playing, +and be glad." + +(1) Tombstone. + + +VI + +AFTER THE WAR + + +I + +Hyogo, May 5, 1895. + +Hyogo, this morning, lies bathed in a limpid magnificence of +light indescribable,--spring light, which is vapory, and lends a +sort of apparitional charm to far things seen through it. Forms +remain sharply outlined, but are almost idealized by faint colors +not belonging to them; and the great hills behind the town aspire +into a cloudless splendor of tint that seems the ghost of azure +rather than azure itself. + +Over the blue-gray slope of tiled roofs there is a vast quivering +and fluttering of extraordinary shapes,--a spectacle not indeed +new to me, but always delicious Everywhere are floating--tied to +very tall bamboo poles--immense brightly colored paper fish, +which look and move as if alive. The greater number vary from +five to fifteen feet in length; but here and there I see a baby +scarcely a foot long, hooked to the tail of a larger one. Some +poles have four or five fish attached to them at heights +proportioned to the dimensions of the fish, the largest always at +the top. So cunningly shaped and colored these things are that +the first sight of them is always startling to a stranger. The +lines holding them are fastened within the head; and the wind, +entering the open mouth, not only inflates the body to perfect +form, but keeps it undulating,--rising and descending, turning +and twisting, precisely like a real fish, while the tail plays +and the fins wave irreproachably. In the garden of my next-door +neighbor there are two very fine specimens. One has an orange +belly and a bluish-gray back; the other is all a silvery tint; +and both have big weird eyes. The rustling of their motion as +they swim against the sky is like the sound of wind in a +cane-field. A little farther off I see another very big fish, +with a little red boy clinging to its back. That red boy +represents Kintoki, strongest of all children ever born in Japan, +who, while still a baby, wrestled with bears and set traps for +goblin-birds. + +Everybody knows that these paper carp, or koi, are hoisted only +during the period of the great birth festival of boys, in the +fifth month; that their presence above a house signifies the +birth of a son; and that they symbolize the hope of the parents +that their lad will be able to win his way through the world +against all obstacles,--even as the real koi, the great Japanese +carp, ascends swift rivers against the stream. In many parts of +southern and western Japan you rarely see these koi. You see, +instead, very long narrow flags of cotton cloth, called nobori, +which are fastened perpendicularly, like sails, with little spars +and rings to poles of bamboo, and bear designs in various colors +of the koi in an eddy,--or of Shoki, conqueror of demons,--or of +pines,--or of tortoises,--or other fortunate symbols. + + +II + +But in this radiant spring of the Japanese year 2555, the koi +might be taken to symbolize something larger than parental hope, +--the great trust of a nation regenerated through war. The +military revival of the Empire--the real birthday of New +Japan--began with the conquest of China. The war is ended; the +future, though clouded, seems big with promise; and, however grim +the obstacles to loftier and more enduring achievements, Japan +has neither fears nor doubts. + +Perhaps the future danger is just in this immense self-confidence. +It is not a new feeling created by victory. it is a race feeling, +which repeated triumphs have served only to strengthen. From the +instant of the declaration of war there was never the least doubt of +ultimate victory. There was universal and profound enthusiasm, but +no outward signs of emotional excitement. Men at once set to writing +histories of the triumphs of Japan, and these histories--issued to +subscribers in weekly or monthly parts, and illustrated with photo- +lithographs or drawings on wood--were selling all over the country +long before any foreign observers could have ventured to predict the +final results of the campaign. From first to last the nation felt +sure of its own strength, and of the impotence of China. The toy- +makers put suddenly into the market legions of ingenious mechanisms, +representing Chinese soldiers in flight, or being cut down by +Japanese troopers, or tied together as prisoners by their queues, or +kowtowing for mercy to illustrious generals. The old-fashioned +military playthings, representing samurai in armor, were superseded +by figures--in clay, wood, paper, or silk--of Japanese cavalry, +infantry, and artillery; by models of forts and batteries; and +models of men-of-war. The storming of the defenses of Port Arthur by +the Kumamoto Brigade was the subject of one ingenious mechanical +toy; another, equally clever, repeated the fight of the Matsushima +Kan with the Chinese iron-clads. There were sold likewise myriads of +toy-guns discharging corks by compressed air with a loud pop, and +myriads of toy-swords, and countless tiny bugles, the constant +blowing of which recalled to me the tin-horn tumult of a certain New +Year's Eve in New Orleans. The announcement of each victory resulted +in an enormous manufacture and sale of colored prints, rudely and +cheaply executed, and mostly depicting the fancy of the artist only, +-but well fitted to stimulate the popular love of glory. Wonderful +sets of chessmen also appeared, each piece representing a Chinese or +Japanese officer or soldier. + +Meanwhile, the theatres were celebrating the war after a much +more complete fashion. It is no exaggeration to say that almost +every episode of the campaign was repeated upon the stage. Actors +even visited the battlefields to study scenes and backgrounds, +and fit themselves to portray realistically, with the aid of +artificial snowstorms, the hardships of the army in Manchuria. +Every gallant deed was dramatized almost as soon as reported. The +death of the bugler Shirakami Genjiro(1); the triumphant courage +of Harada Jiukichi, who scaled a rampart and opened a fortress +gate to his comrades; the heroism of the fourteen troopers who +held their own against three hundred infantry; the successful +charge of unarmed coolies upon a Chinese battalion,--all these +and many other incidents were reproduced in a thousand theatres. +Immense illuminations of paper lanterns, lettered with phrases of +loyalty or patriotic cheer, celebrated the success of the +imperial arms, or gladdened the eyes of soldiers going by train +to the field. In Kobe,--constantly traversed by troop-trains,-- +such illuminations continued night after night for weeks +together; and the residents of each street further subscribed for +flags and triumphal arches. + +But the glories of the war were celebrated also in ways more +durable by the various great industries of the country. Victories +and incidents of sacrificial heroism were commemorated in +porcelain, in metal-work, and in costly textures, not less than +in new designs for envelopes and note-paper. They were portrayed +on the silk linings of haori(2), on women's kerchiefs of +chirimen(3), in the embroidery of girdles, in the designs of silk +shirts and of children's holiday robes,--not to speak of cheaper +printed goods, such as calicoes and toweling. They were +represented in lacquer-ware of many kinds, on the sides and +covers of carven boxes, on tobacco-pouches, on sleeve-buttons, in +designs for hairpins, on women's combs, even on chopsticks. +Bundles of toothpicks in tiny cases were offered for sale, each +toothpick having engraved upon it, in microscopic text, a +different poem about the war. And up to the time of peace, or at +least up to the time of the insane attempt by a soshi(4) to kill +the Chinese plenipotentiary during negotiations, all things +happened as the people had wished and expected. + +But as soon as the terms of peace had been announced, Russia +interfered, securing the help of France and Germany to bully +Japan. The combination met with no opposition; the government +played jiujutsu, and foiled expectations by unlooked-for +yielding. Japan had long ceased to feel uneasy about her own +military power. Her reserve strength is probably much greater +than has ever been acknowledged, and her educational system, with +its twenty-six thousand schools, is an enormous drilling- +machine. On her own soil she could face any foreign power. Her +navy was her weak point, and of this she was fully aware. It was +a splendid fleet of small, light cruisers, and splendidly +handled. Its admiral, without the loss of a single vessel, had +annihilated the Chinese fleet in two engagements, but it was not +yet sufficiently heavy to face the combined navies of three +European powers; and the flower of the Japanese army was beyond +the sea. The most opportune moment for interference had been +cunningly chosen, and probably more than interference was +intended. The heavy Russian battle-ships were stripped for +fighting; and these alone could possibly have overpowered the +Japanese fleet, though the victory would have been a costly one. +But Russian action was suddenly checked by the sinister +declaration of English sympathy for Japan. Within a few weeks +England could bring into Asiatic waters a fleet capable of +crushing, in one short battle, all the iron-clads assembled by +the combination. And a single shot from a Russian cruiser might +have plunged the whole world into war. + +But in the Japanese navy there was a furious desire to battle +with the three hostile powers at once. It would have been a great +fight, for no Japanese commander would have dreamed of yielding, +no Japanese ship would have struck her colors. The army was +equally desirous of war. It needed all the firmness of the +government to hold the nation back. Free speech was gagged; the +press was severely silenced; and by the return to China of the +Liao-Tung peninsula, in exchange for a compensatory increase of +the war indemnity previously exacted, peace was secured. The +government really acted with faultless wisdom. At this period of +Japanese development a costly war with Russia could not fail to +have consequences the most disastrous to industry, commerce, and +finance. But the national pride has been deeply wounded, and the +country can still scarcely forgive its rulers. + +(1) At the battle of Song-Hwan, a Japanese bugler named +Shirakami Genjiro was ordered to sound the charge (suzume). He +had sounded it once when a bullet passed through his lungs, +throwing him down.. His comrades tried to take the bugle away, +seeing the wound was fatal. He wrested it from them, lifted it +again to his lips, sounded the charge once more with all his +strength, and fell back dead. I venture to offer this rough +translation of a song now sung about him by every soldier and +schoolboy in Japan:-- + +SHIRAKAMI GENJIRO + +(After the Japanese military ballad, Rappa-no-hibiki.) +Easy in other times than this +Were Anjo's stream to cross; +But now, beneath the storm of shot, +Its waters seethe and toss. + +In other time to pass that stream +Were sport for boys at play; +But every man through blood must wade +Who fords Anjo to-day. + +The bugle sounds;--through flood and flame +Charges the line of steel;-- +Above the crash of battle rings +The bugle's stern appeal. + +Why has that bugle ceased to call? +Why does it call once more? +Why sounds the stirring signal now +More faintly than before? + +What time the bugle ceased to sound, +The breast was smitten through;-- +What time the blast rang faintly, blood +Gushed from the lips that blew. + +Death-stricken, still the bugler stands! +He leans upon his gun,-- +Once more to sound the bugle-call +Before his life be done. + +What though the shattered body fall? +The spirit rushes free +Through Heaven and Earth to sound anew +That call to Victory! + +Far, far beyond our shore, the spot +Now honored by his fall;-- +But forty million brethren +Have heard that bugle-call. + +Comrade!--beyond the peaks and seas +Your bugle sounds to-day +In forty million loyal hearts +A thousand miles away! + +(2) Haori, a sort of upper dress, worn by men as well as women. +The linings are often of designs beautiful beyond praise. + +(3) Chirimen is crape-silk, of which there are many qualities; +some very costly and durable. +(4) Soshi form one of the modern curses of Japan. They are mostly +ex-students who earn a living by hiring themselves out as rowdy +terrorists. Politicians employ them either against the soshi of +opponents, or as bullies in election time. Private persons +sometimes employ them as defenders. They have figured in most of +the election rows which have taken place of late years in Japan, +also in a number of assaults made on distinguished personages. +The causes which produced nihilism in Russia have several points +of resemblance with the causes which developed the modern soshi +class in Japan. + + + +III + +Hyogo, May 15. + +The Matsushima Kan, returned from China, is anchored before the +Garden of the Pleasure of Peace. She is not a colossus, though +she has done grand things; but she certainly looks quite +formidable as she lies there in the clear light,--a stone-gray +fortress of steel rising out of the smooth blue. Permission to +visit her has been given to the delighted people, who don their +best for the occasion, as for a temple festival, and I am +suffered to accompany some of them. All the boats in the port +would seem to have been hired for the visitors, so huge is the +shoal hovering about the ironclad as we arrive. It is not +possible for such a number of sightseers to go on board at once, +and we have to wait while hundreds are being alternately admitted +and dismissed. But the waiting in the cool sea air is not +unpleasant; and the spectacle of the popular joy is worth +watching. What eager rushing when the turn comes! what swarming +and squeezing and clinging! Two women fall into the sea, and are +pulled out by blue-jackets, and say they are not sorry to have +fallen in, because they can now boast of owing their lives to the +men of the Matsushima Kan! As a matter of fact, they could not +very well have been drowned; there were legions of common boatmen +to look after them. + +But something of larger importance to the nation than the lives +of two young women is really owing to the men of the Matsushima +Kan; and the people are rightly trying to pay them back with +love,--for presents, such as thousands would like to make, are +prohibited by disciplinary rule. Officers and crew must be weary; +but the crowding and the questioning are borne with charming +amiability. Everything is shown and explained in detail: +the huge thirty-centimetre gun, with its loading apparatus and +directing machinery; the quick-firing batteries; the torpedoes, +with their impulse-tubes; the electric lantern, with its +searching mechanism. I myself, though a foreigner, and therefore +requiring a special permit, am guided all about, both below and +above, and am even suffered to take a peep at the portraits of +their Imperial Majesties, in the admiral's cabin; and I am told +the stirring story of the great fight off the Yalu. Meanwhile, +the old bald men and the women and the babies of the port hold +for one golden day command of the Matsushima. Officers, cadets, +blue-jackets, spare no effort to please. Some talk to the +grandfathers; others let the children play with the hilts of +their swords, or teach them how to throw up their little hands +and shout "_Teikoku Banzai!_" And for tired mothers, matting has +been spread, where they can squat down in the shade between +decks. + +Those decks, only a few months ago, were covered with the blood +of brave men. Here and there dark stains, which still resist +holy-stoning, are visible; and the people look at them with +tender reverence. The flagship was twice struck by enormous +shells, and her vulnerable parts were pierced by a storm of small +projectiles. She bore the brunt of the engagement, losing nearly +half her crew. Her tonnage is only four thousand two hundred and +eighty; and her immediate antagonists were two Chinese ironclads +of seven thousand four hundred tons each. Outside, her cuirass +shows no deep scars, for the shattered plates have been +replaced;--but my guide points proudly to the numerous patchings +of the decks, the steel masting supporting the fighting-tops, the +smoke-stack,--and to certain terrible dents, with small cracks +radiating from them, in the foot-thick steel of the barbette. He +traces for us, below, the course of the thirty-and-a-half +centimetre shell that pierced the ship. "When it came," he tells +us, "the shock threw men into the air that high" (holding his +hand some two feet above the deck). "At the same moment all +became dark; you could not see your hand. Then we found that one +of the starboard forward guns had been smashed, and the crew all +killed. We had forty men killed instantly, and many more wounded: +no man escaped in that part of the ship. The deck was on fire, +because a lot of ammunition brought up for the guns had exploded; +so we had to fight and to work to put out the fire at the same +time. Even badly wounded men, with the skin blown from their +hands and faces, worked as if they felt no pain; and dying men +helped to pass water. But we silenced the Ting-yuen with one more +shot from our big gun. The Chinese had European gunners helping +them. If we had not had to fight against Western gunners, _our +victory would have been too easy._" + +He gives the true note. Nothing, on this splendid spring day, +could so delight the men of the Matsushima Kan as a command to +clear for action, and attack the great belted Russian cruisers +lying off the coast. + + +IV + +Kobe, June 9. + +Last year, while traveling from Shimonoseki to the capital, I saw +many regiments on their way to the seat of war, all uniformed in +white, for the hot season was not yet over. Those soldiers looked +so much like students whom I had taught (thousands, indeed, were +really fresh from school) that I could not help feeling it was +cruel to send such youths to battle. The boyish faces were so +frank, so cheerful, so seemingly innocent of the greater sorrows +of life! "Don't fear for them," said an English fellow-traveler, +a man who had passed his life in camps; "they will give a +splendid account of themselves." "I know it," was my answer; "but +I am thinking of fever and frost and Manchurian winter: these are +more to be feared than Chinese rifles(1)." + +The calling of the bugles, gathering the men together after dark, +or signaling the hour of rest, had for years been one of the +pleasures of my summer evenings in a Japanese garrison town. But +during the months of war, those long, plaintive notes of the last +call touched me in another way. I do not know that the melody is +peculiar; but it was sometimes played, I used to think, with +peculiar feeling; and when uttered to the starlight by all the +bugles of a division at once, the multitudinously blending tones +had a melancholy sweetness never to be forgotten. And I would +dream of phantom buglers, summoning the youth and strength of +hosts to the shadowy silence of perpetual rest. + +Well, to-day I went to see some of the regiments return. Arches +of greenery had been erected over the street they were to pass +through, leading from Kobe station to Nanko-San,--the great +temple dedicated to the hero spirit of Kusunoki Masashige. The +citizens had subscribed six thousand yen far the honor of serving +the soldiers with the first meal after their return; and many +battalions had already received such kindly welcome. The sheds +under which they ate in the court of the temple had been +decorated with flags and festoons; and there were gifts for all +the troops,--sweetmeats, and packages of cigarettes, and little +towels printed with poems in praise of valor. Before the gate of +the temple a really handsome triumphal arch had been erected, +bearing on each of its facades a phrase of welcome in Chinese +text of gold, and on its summit a terrestrial globe surmounted by +a hawk with outspread pinions(2). + +I waited first, with Manyemon, before the station, which is very +near the temple. The train arrived; a military sentry ordered all +spectators to quit the platform, and outside, in the street, +police kept back the crowd, and stopped all traffic. After a few +minutes, the battalions came, marching in regular column through +the brick archway,--headed by a gray officer, who limped slightly +as he walked, smoking a cigarette. The crowd thickened about us, +but there was no cheering, not even speaking,--a hush broken only +by the measured tramp of the passing troops. I could scarcely +believe those were the same men I had seen going to the war; only +the numbers on the shoulder-straps assured me of the fact. +Sunburnt and grim the faces were; many had heavy beards. The dark +blue winter uniforms were frayed and torn, the shoes worn into +shapelessness; but the strong, swinging stride was the stride of +the hardened soldier. Lads no longer these, but toughened men, +able to face any troops in the world; men who had slaughtered and +stormed; men who had also suffered many things which never will +be written. The features showed neither joy nor pride; the +quick-searching eyes hardly glanced at the welcoming flags, the +decorations, the arch with its globe-shadowing hawk of battle, +--perhaps because those eyes had seen too often the things which +make men serious. (Only one man smiled as he passed; and I +thought of a smile seen on the face of a Zouave when I was a boy, +watching the return of a regiment from Africa,--a mocking smile, +that stabbed.) Many of the spectators were visibly affected, +feeling the reason of the change. But, for that, the soldiers +were better soldiers now; and they were going to find welcome, +and comforts, and gifts, and the great warm love of the +people,--and repose thereafter, in their old familiar camps. + +I said to Manyemon: "This evening they will be in Osaka and +Nagoya. They will hear the bugles calling; and they will think of +comrades who never can return." + +The old man answered, with simple earnestness: "Perhaps by +Western people it is thought that the dead never return. But we +cannot so think. There are no Japanese dead who do not return. +There are none who do not know the way. From China and from +Chosen, and out of the bitter sea, all our dead have come +back,--all! They are with us now. In every dusk they gather to +hear the bugles that called them home. And they will hear them +also in that day when the armies of the Son of Heaven shall be +summoned against Russia." + +(1) The total number of Japanese actually killed in battle, from +the fight at A-san to the capture of the Pescadores, was only +739. But the deaths resulting from other causes, up to as late a +date as the 8th of June, during the occupation of Formosa, were +3,148. Of these, 1,602 were due to cholera alone. Such, at least, +were the official figures as published in the Kobe Chronicle. + +(2) At the close of the great naval engagement of the 17th of +September, 1894, a hawk alighted on the fighting-mast of the +Japanese cruiser Takachiho, and suffered itself to be taken and +fed. After much petting, this bird of good omen was presented to +the Emperor. Falconry was a great feudal sport in Japan, and +hawks were finely trained. The hawk is now likely to become, more +than ever before in Japan, a symbol of victory. + + + +VII. + +HARU + +Haru was brought up, chiefly at home, in that old-fashioned way +which produced one of the sweetest types of woman the world has +ever seen. This domestic education cultivated simplicity of +heart, natural grace of manner, obedience, and love of duty as +they were never cultivated but in Japan. Its moral product was +something too gentle and beautiful for any other than the old +Japanese society: it was not the most judicious preparation for +the much harsher life of the new,--in which it still survives. +The refined girl was trained for the condition of being +theoretically at the mercy of her husband. She was taught never +to show jealousy, or grief, or anger,--even under circumstances +compelling all three; she was expected to conquer the faults of +her lord by pure sweetness. In short, she was required to be +almost superhuman,--to realize, at least in outward seeming, the +ideal of perfect unselfishness. And this she could do with a +husband of her own rank, delicate in discernment,--able to divine +her feelings, and never to wound them. + +Haru came of a much better family than her husband; and she was a +little too good for him, because he could not really understand +her. They had been married very young, had been poor at first, +and then had gradually become well-off, because Haru's husband +was a clever man of business. Sometimes she thought he had loved +her most when they were less well off; and a woman is seldom +mistaken about such matters. + +She still made all his clothes; and he commended her needle-work. +She waited upon his wants, aided him to dress and undress, made +everything comfortable for him in their pretty home; bade him a +charming farewell as he went to business in the morning, and +welcomed him upon his return; received his friends exquisitely; +managed his household matters with wonderful economy, and seldom +asked any favors that cost money. Indeed she scarcely needed such +favors; for he was never ungenerous, and liked to see her +daintily dressed,--looking like some beautiful silver moth robed +in the folding of its own wings,--and to take her to theatres and +other places of amusement. She accompanied him to +pleasure-resorts famed for the blossoming of cherry-trees in +spring, or the shimmering of fireflies on summer nights, or the +crimsoning of maples in autumn. And sometimes they would pass a +day together at Maiko, by the sea, where the pines seem to sway +like dancing girls; or an afternoon at Kiyomidzu, in the old, old +summer-house, where everything is like a dream of five hundred +years ago,--and where there is a great shadowing of high woods, +and a song of water leaping cold and clear from caverns, and +always the plaint of flutes unseen, blown softly in the antique +way,--a tone-caress of peace and sadness blending, just as the +gold light glooms into blue over a dying sun. + +Except for such small pleasures and excursions, Haru went out +seldom. Her only living relatives, and also those of her husband, +were far away in other provinces, and she had few visits to make. +She liked to be at home, arranging flowers for the alcoves or for +the gods, decorating the rooms, and feeding the tame gold-fish of +the garden-pond, which would lift up their heads when they saw +her coming. + +No child had yet brought new joy or sorrow into her life. She +looked, in spite of her wife's coiffure, like a very young girl; +and she was still simple as a child,--notwithstanding that +business capacity in small things which her husband so admired +that he often condescended to ask her counsel in big things. +Perhaps the heart then judged for him better than the pretty +head; but, whether intuitive or not, her advice never proved +wrong. She was happy enough with him for five years,--during +which time he showed himself as considerate as any young Japanese +merchant could well be towards a wife of finer character than his +own. + +Then his manner suddenly became cold,--so suddenly that she felt +assured the reason was not that which a childless wife might have +reason to fear. Unable to discover the real cause, she tried to +persuade herself that she had been remiss in her duties; examined +her innocent conscience to no purpose; and tried very, very hard +to please. But he remained unmoved. He spoke no unkind words,-- +though she felt behind his silence the repressed tendency to +utter them. A Japanese of the better class is not very apt to be +unkind to his wife in words. It is thought to be vulgar and +brutal. The educated man of normal disposition will even answer a +wife's reproaches with gentle phrases. Common politeness, by the +Japanese code, exacts this attitude from every manly man; +moreover, it is the only safe one. A refined and sensitive woman +will not long submit to coarse treatment; a spirited one may even +kill herself because of something said in a moment of passion, +and such a suicide disgraces the husband for the rest of his +life. But there are slow cruelties worse than words, and safer,-- +neglect or indifference, for example, of a sort to arouse +jealousy. A Japanese wife has indeed been trained never to show +jealousy; but the feeling is older than all training,--old as +love, and likely to live as long. Beneath her passionless mask +the Japanese wife feels like her Western sister,--just like that +sister who prays and prays, even while delighting some evening +assembly of beauty and fashion, for the coming of the hour which +will set her free to relieve her pain alone. + +Haru had cause for jealousy; but she was too much of a child to +guess the cause at once; and her servants too fond of her to +suggest it. Her husband had been accustomed to pass his evenings +in her company, either at home or elsewhere. But now, evening +after evening, he went out by himself. The first time he had +given her some business pretexts; afterwards he gave none, and +did not even tell her when he expected to return. Latterly, also, +he had been treating her with silent rudeness. He had become +changed,--"as if there was a goblin in his heart,"-the servants +said. As a matter of fact he had been deftly caught in a snare +set for him. One whisper from a geisha had numbed, his will; one +smile blinded his eyes. She was far less pretty than his wife; +but she was very skillful in the craft of spinning webs,--webs of +sensual delusion which entangle weak men; and always tighten more +and more about them until the final hour of mockery and ruin. +Haru did not know. She suspected no wrong till after her +husband's strange conduct had become habitual,--and even then +only because she found that his money was passing into unknown +hands. He had never told her where he passed his evenings. And +she was afraid to ask, lest he should think her jealous. Instead +of exposing her feelings in words, she treated him with such +sweetness that a more intelligent husband would have divined all. +But, except in business, he was dull. He continued to pass his +evenings away; and as his conscience grew feebler, his absences +lengthened. Haru had been taught that a good wife should always +sit up and wait for her lord's return at night; and by so doing +she suffered from nervousness, and from the feverish conditions, +that follow sleeplessness, and from the lonesomeness of her +waiting after the servants, kindly dismissed at the usual hour, +had left her with her thoughts. Once only, returning very late, +her husband said to her: "I am sorry you should have sat up so +late for me; do not wait like that again!" Then, fearing he might +really have been pained on her account, she laughed pleasantly, +and said: "I was not sleepy, and I am not tired; honorably please +not to think about me." So he ceased to think about her,--glad to +take her at her word; and not long after that he stayed away for +one whole night. The next night he did likewise, and a third +night. After that third night's absence he failed even to return +for the morning meal; and Haru knew the time had come when her +duty as a wife obliged her to speak. + +She waited through all the morning hours, fearing for him, +fearing for herself also; conscious at last of the wrong by which +a woman's heart can be most deeply wounded. Her faithful servants +had told her something; the rest she could guess. She was very +ill, and did not know it. She knew only that she was angry-- +selfishly angry, because of the pain given her, cruel, probing, +sickening pain. Midday came as she sat thinking how she could say +least selfishly what it was now her duty to say,--the first words +of reproach that would ever have passed her lips. Then her heart +leaped with a shock that made everything blur and swim before her +sight in a whirl of dizziness,--because there was a sound of +kuruma-wheels and the voice of a servant calling: +"_Honorable-return-is!_" + +She struggled to the entrance to meet him, all her slender body +a-tremble with fever and pain, and terror of betraying that pain. +And the man was startled, because instead of greeting him with +the accustomed smile, she caught the bosom of his silk robe in +one quivering little hand,--and looked into his face with eyes +that seemed to search for some shred of a soul,--and tried to +speak, but could utter only the single word, "_Anata(1)?_" Almost +in the same moment her weak grasp loosened, her eyes +closed with a strange smile; and even before he could put out his +arms to support her, she fell. He sought to lift her. But +something in the delicate life had snapped. She was dead. + +There were astonishments, of course, and tears, and useless +callings of her name, and much running for doctors. But she lay +white and still and beautiful, all the pain and anger gone out of +her face, and smiling as on her bridal day. + +Two physicians came from the public hospital,--Japanese military +surgeons. They asked straight hard questions,--questions that cut +open the self of the man down to the core. Then they told him +truth cold and sharp as edged steel,--and left him with his dead. + + +The people wondered he did not become a priest,--fair evidence +that his conscience had been awakened. By day he sits among his +bales of Kyoto silks and Osaka figured goods,--earnest and +silent. His clerks think him a good master; he never speaks +harshly. Often he works far into the night; and he has changed +his dwelling-place. There are strangers in the pretty house where +Haru lived; and the owner never visits it. Perhaps because he +might see there one slender shadow, still arranging flowers, or +bending with iris-grace above the goldfish in his pond. But +wherever he rest, sometime in the silent hours he must see the +same soundless presence near his pillow,--sewing, smoothing, +softly seeming to make beautiful the robes he once put on only to +betray. And at other times--in the busiest moments of his busy +life--the clamor of the great shop dies; the ideographs of his +ledger dim and vanish; and a plaintive little voice, which the +gods refuse to silence, utters into the solitude of his heart, +like a question, the single word,--"_Anata?_" +(1) "Thou?" + + + +VIII + +A GLIMPSE OP TENDENCIES + +I + +The foreign concession of an open port offers a striking contrast +to its far-Eastern environment. In the well-ordered ugliness of +its streets one finds suggestions of places not on this side of +the world,--just as though fragments of the Occident had been +magically brought oversea: bits of Liverpool, of Marseilles, of +New York, of New Orleans, and bits also of tropical towns in +colonies twelve or fifteen thousand miles away. The mercantile +buildings--immense by comparison with the low light Japanese +shops--seem to utter the menace of financial power. The +dwellings, of every conceivable design--from that of an Indian +bungalow to that of an English or French country-manor, with +turrets and bow-windows--are surrounded by commonplace gardens of +clipped shrubbery; the white roadways are solid and level as +tables, and bordered with boxed-up trees. Nearly all things +conventional in England or America have been domiciled in these +districts. You see church-steeples and factory-chimneys and +telegraph-poles and street-lamps. You see warehouses of imported +brick with iron shutters, and shop fronts with plate-glass +windows, and sidewalks, and cast-iron railings. There are morning +and evening and weekly newspapers; clubs and reading-rooms and +bowling alleys; billiard halls and barrooms; schools and bethels. +There are electric-light and telephone companies; hospitals, +courts, jails, and a foreign police. There are foreign lawyers, +doctors, and druggists; foreign grocers, confectioners, bakers, +dairymen; foreign dress-makers and tailors; foreign +school-teachers and music-teachers. There is a town-hall, for +municipal business and public meetings of all kinds,--likewise +for amateur theatricals or lectures and concerts; and very rarely +some dramatic company, on a tour of the world, halts there awhile +to make men laugh and women cry like they used to do at home. +There are cricket-grounds, racecourses, public parks,--or, as we +should call them in England, "squares,"--yachting associations, +athletic societies, and swimming baths. Among the familiar noises +are the endless tinkling of piano-practice, the crashing of a +town-band, and an occasional wheezing of accordions: in fact, one +misses only the organ-grinder. The population is English, French, +German, American, Danish, Swedish, Swiss, Russian, with a thin +sprinkling of Italians and Levantines. I had almost forgotten the +Chinese. They are present in multitude, and have a little corner +of the district to themselves. But the dominant element is +English and American, the English being in the majority. All the +faults and some of the finer qualities of the masterful races can +be studied here to better advantage than beyond seas,--because +everybody knows all about everybody else in communities so +small,--mere oases of Occidental life in the vast unknown of the +Far East. Ugly stories may be heard which are not worth writing +about; also stories of nobility and generosity--about good brave +things done by men who pretend to be selfish, and wear +conventional masks to hide what is best in them from public +knowledge. + +But the domains of the foreigner do not stretch beyond the +distance of an easy walk, and may shrink back again into nothing +before many years--for reasons I shall presently dwell upon. His +settlements developed precociously,--almost like "mushroom +cities" in the great American West,--and reached the apparent +limit of their development soon after solidifying. + +About and beyond the concession, the "native town"--the real +Japanese city--stretches away into regions imperfectly known. To +the average settler this native town remains a world of +mysteries; he may not think it worth his while to enter it for +ten years at a time. It has no interest for him, as he is not a +student of native customs, but simply a man of business; and he +has no time to think how queer it all is. Merely to cross the +concession line is almost the same thing as to cross the Pacific +Ocean,--which is much less wide than the difference between the +races. Enter alone into the interminable narrow maze of Japanese +streets, and the dogs will bark at you, and the children stare at +you as if you were the only foreigner they ever saw. Perhaps they +will even call after you "Ijin," "Tojin," or "Ke-tojin,"--the +last of which signifies "hairy foreigner," and is not intended as +a compliment. + + +II + +For a long time the merchants of the concessions had their own +way in everything, and forced upon the native firms methods of +business to which no Occidental merchant would think of +submitting,--methods which plainly expressed the foreign +conviction that all Japanese were tricksters. No foreigner would +then purchase anything until it had been long enough in his hands +to be examined and re-examined and "exhaustively" examined,--or +accept any order for imports unless the order were accompanied by +"a substantial payment of bargain money"(1). Japanese buyers and +sellers protested in vain; they found themselves obliged to +submit. But they bided their time,--yielding only with the +determination to conquer. The rapid growth of the foreign town, +and the immense capital successfully invested therein, proved to +them how much they would have to learn before being able to help +themselves. They wondered without admiring, and traded with the +foreigners or worked for them, while secretly detesting them. In +old Japan the merchant ranked below the common peasant; but these +foreign invaders assumed the tone of princes and the insolence of +conquerors. As employers they were usually harsh, and sometimes +brutal. Nevertheless they were wonderfully wise in the matter of +making money; they lived like kings and paid high salaries. It +was desirable that young men should suffer in their service for +the sake of learning things which would have to be learned to +save the country from passing under foreign rule. Some day Japan +would have a mercantile marine of her own, and foreign banking +agencies, and foreign credit, and be well able to rid herself of +these haughty strangers: in the meanwhile they should be endured +as teachers. + +So the import and export trade remained entirely in foreign +hands, and it grew from nothing to a value of hundreds of +millions; and Japan was well exploited. But she knew that she was +only paying to learn; and her patience was of that kind which +endures so long as to be mistaken for oblivion of injuries. Her +opportunities came in the natural order of things. The growing +influx of aliens seeking fortune gave her the first advantage. +The intercompetition for Japanese trade broke down old methods; +and new firms being glad to take orders and risks without +"bargain-money," large advance-payments could no longer be +exacted. The relations between foreigners and Japanese +simultaneously improved,--as the latter showed a dangerous +capacity for sudden combination against ill-treatment, could not +be cowed by revolvers, would not suffer abuse of any sort, and +knew how to dispose of the most dangerous rowdy in the space of a +few minutes. Already the rougher Japanese of the ports, the dregs +of the populace, were ready to assume the aggressive on the least +provocation. + +Within two decades from the founding of the settlements, those +foreigners who once imagined it a mere question of time when the +whole country would belong to them, began to understand bow +greatly they had underestimated the race. The Japanese had been +learning wonderfully well--"nearly as well as the Chinese." They +were supplanting the small foreign shopkeepers; and various +establishments had been compelled to close because of Japanese +competition. Even for large firms the era of easy fortune-making +was over; the period of hard work was commencing. In early days +all the personal wants of foreigners had necessarily been +supplied by foreigners,--so that a large retail trade had grown +up under the patronage of the wholesale trade. The retail trade +of the settlements was evidently doomed. Some of its branches had +disappeared; the rest were visibly diminishing. + +To-day the economic foreign clerk or assistant in a business +house cannot well afford to live at the local hotels. He can hire +a Japanese cook at a very small sum per month, or can have his +meals sent him from a Japanese restaurant at five to seven sen +per plate. He lives in a house constructed in "semi-foreign +style," and owned by a Japanese. The carpets or mattings on his +floor are of Japanese manufacture. His furniture is supplied by a +Japanese cabinet-maker. His suits, shirts, shoes, walking-cane, +umbrella, are "Japanese make": even the soap on his washstand is +stamped with Japanese ideographs. If a smoker, he buys his Manila +cigars from a Japanese tobacconist half a dollar cheaper per box +than any foreign house would charge him for the same quality. If +he wants books he can buy them at much lower prices from a +Japanese than from a foreign book dealer,--and select his +purchases from a much larger and better-selected stock. If he +wants a photograph taken he goes to a Japanese gallery: no +foreign photographer could make a living in Japan. If he wants +curios he visits a Japanese house;--the foreign dealer would +charge him a hundred per cent. dearer. + +On the other hand, if he be a man of family, his daily marketing +is supplied by Japanese butchers, fishmongers, dairymen, +fruit-sellers, vegetable dealers. He may continue for a time to +buy English or American hams, bacon, canned goods, etc., from +some foreign provision dealer; but he has discovered that +Japanese stores now offer the same class of goods at lower +prices. If he drinks good beer, it probably comes from a Japanese +brewery; and if he wants a good quality of ordinary wine or +liquor, Japanese storekeepers can supply it at rates below those +of the foreign importer. Indeed, the only things he cannot buy +from the Japanese houses are just those things which he cannot +afford,--high-priced goods such as only rich men are likely to +purchase. And finally, if any of his family become sick, he can +consult a Japanese physician who will charge him a fee perhaps +one tenth less than he would have had to pay a foreign physician +in former times. Foreign doctors now find it very hard to +live,--unless they have something more than their practice to +rely upon. Even when the foreign doctor brings down his fee to a +dollar a visit, the high-class Japanese doctor can charge two, +and still crush competition; for, he furnishes the medicine +himself at prices which would ruin a foreign apothecary. There +are doctors and doctors, of course, as in all countries; but the +German-speaking Japanese physician capable of directing a public +or military hospital is not easily surpassed in his profession; +and the average foreign physician cannot possibly compete with +him. He furnishes no prescriptions to be taken to a drugstore: +his drugstore is either at home or in a room of the hospital he +directs. + + +These facts, taken at random out of a multitude, imply that +foreign shops or as we call them in America, "stores," will soon +cease to be. The existence of some has been prolonged only by +needless and foolish trickery on the part of some petty Japanese +dealers,--attempts to sell abominable decoctions in foreign +bottles under foreign labels, to adulterate imported goods, or to +imitate trade-marks. But the common sense of the Japanese +dealers, as a mass, is strongly opposed to such immorality, and +the evil will soon correct itself. The native storekeepers can +honestly undersell the foreign ones, because able not only to +underlive them, but to make fortunes during the competition. + +This has been for some time well recognized in the concessions. +But the delusion prevailed that the great exporting and importing +firms were impregnable; that they could still control the whole +volume of commerce with the West; and that no Japanese companies +could find means to oppose the weight of foreign capital, or to +acquire the business methods according to which it was employed. +Certainly the retail trade would go. But that signified little. +The great firms would remain and multiply, and would increase +their capacities. + +(1) See Japan Mail, July 21, 1895. + + +III + +During all this time of outward changes the real feeling between +the races--the mutual dislike of Oriental and Occidental--had +continued to grow. Of the nine or ten English papers published in +the open ports, the majority expressed, day after day, one side +of this dislike, in the language of ridicule or contempt; and a +powerful native press retorted in kind, with dangerous +effectiveness. If the "anti-Japanese" newspapers did not actually +represent--as I believe they did--an absolute majority in +sentiment, they represented at least the weight of foreign +capital, and the preponderant influences of the settlements. The +English "pro-Japanese" newspapers, though conducted by shrewd +men, and distinguished by journalistic abilities of no common +order, could not appease the powerful resentment provoked by the +language of their contemporaries. The charges of barbarism or +immorality printed in English were promptly answered by the +publication in Japanese dailies of the scandals of the open +ports,--for all the millions of the empire to know. The race +question was carried into Japanese politics by a strong anti- +foreign league; the foreign concessions were openly denounced as +hotbeds of vice; and the national anger became so formidable that +only the most determined action on the part of the government +could have prevented disastrous happenings. Nevertheless oil was +still poured on the smothered fire by foreign editors, who at the +outbreak of the war with China openly took the part of China. +This policy was pursued throughout the campaign. Reports of +imaginary reverses were printed recklessly, undeniable victories +were unjustly belittled, and after the war had been decided, the +cry was raised that the Japanese "had been allowed to become +dangerous" Later on, the interference of Russia was applauded and +the sympathy of England condemned by men of English blood. The +effect of such utterances at such a time was that of insult never +to be forgiven upon a people who never forgive. Utterances of +hate they were, but also utterances of alarm,--alarm excited by +the signing of those new treaties, bringing all aliens under +Japanese jurisdiction,--and fear, not unfounded, of another +anti-foreign agitation with the formidable new sense of national +power behind it. Premonitory symptoms of such agitation were +really apparent in a general tendency to insult or jeer at +foreigners, and in some rare but exemplary acts of violence. The +government again found it necessary to issue proclamations and +warnings against such demonstrations of national anger; and they +ceased almost as quickly as they began. But there is no doubt +that their cessation was due largely to recognition of the +friendly attitude of England as a naval power, and the worth of +her policy to Japan in a moment of danger to the world's peace. +England, too, had first rendered treaty-revision possible,--in +spite of the passionate outcries of her own subjects in the Far +East; and the leaders of the people were grateful. Otherwise the +hatred between settlers and Japanese might have resulted quite as +badly as had been feared. + +In the beginning, of course, this mutual antagonism was racial, +and therefore natural; and the irrational violence of prejudice +and malignity developed at a later day was inevitable with the +ever-increasing conflict of interests. No foreigner really +capable of estimating the conditions could have seriously +entertained any hope of a rapprochement. The barriers of racial +feeling, of emotional differentiation, of language, of manners +and beliefs, are likely to remain insurmountable for centuries. +Though instances of warm friendship, due to the mutual attraction +of exceptional natures able to divine each other intuitively, +might be cited, the foreigner, as a general rule, understands the +Japanese quite as little as the Japanese understands him. What is +worse for the alien than miscomprehension is the simple fact that +he is in the position of an invader. Under no ordinary +circumstances need he expect to be treated like a Japanese, and +this not merely because he has more money at his command, but +because of his race. One price for the foreigner, another for the +Japanese, is the common regulation,--except in those Japanese +stores which depend almost exclusively upon foreign trade. If you +wish to enter a Japanese theatre, a figure-show, any place of +amusement, or even an inn, you must pay a virtual tax upon your +nationality. Japanese artisans, laborers, clerks, will not work +for you at Japanese rates--unless they have some other object in +view than wages. Japanese hotel-keepers--except in those hotels +built and furnished especially for European or American +travelers--will not make out your bill at regular prices. Large +hotel-companies have been formed which maintain this rule,-- +companies controlling scores of establishments throughout the +country, and able to dictate terms to local storekeepers and to +the smaller hostelries. It has been generously confessed that +foreigners ought to pay higher than Japanese for accommodation, +since they give more trouble; and this is true. But under even +these facts race-feeling is manifest. Those innkeepers who build +for Japanese custom only, in the great centres, care nothing for +foreign custom, and often lose by it,--partly because well-paying +native guests do not like hotels patronized by foreigners, and +partly because the Western guest wants all to himself the room +which can be rented more profitably to a Japanese party of five +or eight. Another fact not generally understood in connection +with this is that in Old Japan the question of recompense for +service was left to honor. The Japanese innkeeper always supplied +(and in the country often still supplies) food at scarcely more +than cost; and his real profit depended upon the conscience of +the customer. Hence the importance of the chadai, or present of +tea-money, to the hotel. From the poor a very small sum, from the +rich a larger sum, was expected,--according to services rendered. +In like manner the hired servant expected to be remunerated +according to his master's ability to pay, even more than +according to the value of the work done; the artist preferred, +when working for a good patron, never to name a price: only the +merchant tried to get the better of his customers by bargaining, +--the immoral privilege of his class. It may be readily imagined +that the habit of trusting to honor for payment produced no good +results in dealing with Occidentals. All matters of buying and +selling we think of as "business"; and business in the West is +not conducted under purely abstract ideas of morality, but at +best under relative and partial ideas of morality. A generous man +extremely dislikes to have the price of an article which he wants +to buy left to his conscience; for, unless he knows exactly the +value of the material and the worth of the labor, he feels +obliged to make such over-payment as will assure him that he has +done more than right; while the selfish man takes advantage of +the situation to give as nearly next to nothing as he can. +Special rates have to be made, therefore, by the Japanese in all +dealings with foreigners. But the dealing itself is made more or +less aggressive, according to circumstance, because of race +antagonism. The foreigner has not only to pay higher rates for +every kind of skilled labor; but must sign costlier leases, and +submit to higher rents. Only the lowest class of Japanese +servants can be hired even at high wages by a foreign household; +and their stay is usually brief, as they dislike the service +required of them. Even the apparent eagerness of educated +Japanese to enter foreign employ is generally misunderstood; +their veritable purpose being simply, in most cases, to fit +themselves for the same sort of work in Japanese business houses, +stores, and hotels. The average Japanese would prefer to work +fifteen hours a day for one of his own countrymen than eight +hours a day for a foreigner paying higher wages. I have seen +graduates of the university working as servants; but they were +working only to learn special things. + + +IV + +Really the dullest foreigner could not have believed that a +people of forty millions, uniting all their energies to achieve +absolute national independence, would remain content to leave the +management of their country's import and export trade to aliens, +--especially in view of the feeling in the open ports. The +existence of foreign settlements in Japan, under consular +jurisdiction, was in itself a constant exasperation to national +pride,--an indication of national weakness. It had so been +proclaimed in print,--in speeches by members of the anti-foreign +league,--in speeches made in parliament. But knowledge of the +national desire to control the whole of Japanese commerce, and +the periodical manifestations of hostility to foreigners as +settlers, excited only temporary uneasiness. It was confidently +asserted that the Japanese could only injure themselves by any +attempt to get rid of foreign negotiators. Though alarmed at the +prospect of being brought under Japanese law, the merchants of +the concessions never imagined a successful attack upon large +interests possible, except by violation of that law itself. It +signified little that the Nippon Yusen Kwaisha had become, during +the war, one of the largest steamship companies in the world; +that Japan was trading directly with India and China; that +Japanese banking agencies were being established in the great +manufacturing centres abroad; that Japanese merchants were +sending their sons to Europe and America for a sound commercial +education. Because Japanese lawyers were gaining a large foreign +clientele; because Japanese shipbuilders, architects, engineers +had replaced foreigners in government service, it did not at all +follow that the foreign agents controlling the import and export +trade with Europe and America could be dispensed with. The +machinery of commerce would be useless in Japanese hands; and +capacity for other professions by no means augured latent +capacity for business. The foreign capital invested in Japan +could not be successfully threatened by any combinations formed +against it. Some Japanese houses might carry on a small import +business, but the export trade required a thorough knowledge of +business conditions on the other side of the world, and such +connections and credits as the Japanese could not obtain. +Nevertheless the self-confidence of the foreign importers, and +exporters was rudely broken in July, 1895, when a British house +having brought suit against a Japanese company in a Japanese +court, for refusal to accept delivery of goods ordered, and +having won a judgment for nearly thirty thousand dollars, +suddenly found itself confronted and menaced by a guild whose +power had never been suspected. The Japanese firm did not appeal +against the decision of the court: it expressed itself ready to +pay the whole sum at once--if required But the guild to which it +belonged informed the triumphant plaintiffs that a compromise +would be to their advantage. Then the English house discovered +itself threatened with a boycott which could utterly ruin it,--a +boycott operating in all the industrial centres of the Empire. +The compromise was promptly effected at considerable loss to the +foreign firm; and the settlements were dismayed. There was much +denunciation of the immorality of the proceeding(1). But it was a +proceeding against which the law could do nothing; for boycotting +cannot be satisfactorily dealt with under law; and it +afforded proof positive that the Japanese were able to force +foreign firms to submit to their dictation,--by foul means if not +by fair. Enormous guilds had been organized by the great +industries,--combinations whose moves, perfectly regulated by +telegraph, could ruin opposition, and could set at defiance even +the judgment of tribunals. The Japanese had attempted boycotting +in previous years with so little success that they were deemed +incapable of combination. But the new situation showed how well +they had learned through defeat, and that with further +improvement of organization they could reasonably expect to get +the foreign trade under control,--if not into their own hands. It +would be the next great step toward the realization of the +national desire,--Japan only for the Japanese. Even though the +country should be opened to foreign settlement, foreign +investments would always be at the mercy of Japanese +combinations. + +(1) A Kobe merchant of great experience, writing to the Kobe +Chronicle of August 7, 1895, observed:--"I am not attempting to +defend boycotts; but I firmly believe from what has come to my +knowledge that in each and every case there has been provocation +irritating the Japanese, rousing their feelings and their sense +of justice, and driving them to combination as a defense." + + +V + +The foregoing brief account of existing conditions may suffice to +prove the evolution in Japan of a social phenomenon of great +significance. Of course the prospective opening of the country +under new treaties, the rapid development of its industries, and +the vast annual increase in the volume of trade with America and +Europe, will probably bring about some increase of foreign +settlers; and this temporary result might deceive many as to the +inevitable drift of things. But old merchants of experience even +now declare that the probable further expansion of the ports will +really mean the growth of a native competitive commerce that must +eventually dislodge foreign merchants. The foreign settlements, +as communities, will disappear: there will remain only some few +great agencies, such as exist in all the chief ports of the +civilized world; and the abandoned streets of the concessions, +and the costly foreign houses on the heights, will be peopled and +tenanted by Japanese. Large foreign investments will not be made +in the interior. And even Christian mission-work must be left to +native missionaries; for just as Buddhism never took definite +form in Japan until the teaching of its doctrines was left +entirely to Japanese priests,--so Christianity will never take +any fixed shape till it has been so remodeled as to harmonize +with the emotional and social life of the race. Even thus +remodeled it can scarcely hope to exist except in the form of a +few small sects. + +The social phenomenon exhibited can be best explained by a +simile. In many ways a human society may be compared biologically +with an individual organism. Foreign elements introduced forcibly +into the system of either, and impossible to assimilate, set up +irritations and partial disintegration, until eliminated +naturally or removed artificially. Japan is strengthening herself +through elimination of disturbing elements; and this natural +process is symbolized in the resolve to regain possession of all +the concessions, to bring about the abolishment of consular +jurisdiction, to leave nothing under foreign control within the +Empire. It is also manifested in the dismissal of foreign +employes, in the resistance offered by Japanese congregations to +the authority of foreign missionaries, and in the resolute +boycotting of foreign merchants. And behind all this +race-movement there is more than race-feeling: there is also the +definite conviction that foreign help is proof of national +feebleness, and that the Empire remains disgraced before the eyes +of the commercial world, so long as its import and export trade +are managed by aliens. Several large Japanese firms have quite +emancipated themselves from the domination of foreign middlemen; +large trade with India and China is being carried on by Japanese +steamship companies; and communication with the Southern States +of America is soon to be established by the Nippon Yusen Kwaisha, +for the direct importation of cotton. But the foreign settlements +remain constant sources of irritation; and their commercial +conquest by untiring national effort will alone satisfy the +country, and will prove, even better than the war with China, +Japan's real place among nations. That conquest, I think, will +certainly be achieved. + + +VI + +What of the future of Japan? No one can venture any positive +prediction on the assumption that existing tendencies will +continue far into that future. Not to dwell upon the grim +probabilities of war, or the possibility of such internal +disorder as might compel indefinite suspension of the +constitution, and lead to a military dictatorship,--a resurrected +Shogunate in modern uniform,--great changes there will assuredly +be, both for better and for worse. Supposing these changes +normal, however, one may venture some qualified predictions, +based upon the reasonable supposition that the race will +continue, through rapidly alternating periods of action and +reaction, to assimilate its new-found knowledge with the best +relative consequences. + + +Physically, I think, the Japanese will become before the close of +the next century much superior to what they now are. For such +belief there are three good reasons. The first is that the +systematic military and gymnastic training of the able-bodied +youth of the Empire ought in a few generations to produce results +as marked as those of the military system in Germany,--increase +in stature, in average girth of chest, in muscular development +Another reason is that the Japanese of the cities are taking to a +richer diet,--a flesh diet; and that a more nutritive food must +have physiological results favoring growth. Immense numbers of +little restaurants are everywhere springing up, in which "Western +Cooking" is furnished almost as cheaply as Japanese food. +Thirdly, the delay of marriage necessitated by education and by +military service must result in the production of finer and finer +generations of children. As immature marriages become the +exception rather than the rule, children of feeble constitution +will correspondingly diminish in number. At present the +extraordinary differences of stature noticeable in any Japanese +crowd seem to prove that the race is capable of great physical +development under a severer social discipline. + +Moral improvement is hardly to be expected--rather the reverse. +The old moral ideals of Japan were at least quite as noble as our +own; and men could really live up to them in the quiet benevolent +times of patriarchal government. Untruthfulness, dishonesty, and +brutal crime were rarer than now, as official statistics show, +the percentage of crime having been for some years steadily on +the increase--which proves of course, among other things, that +the struggle for existence has been intensified. The old standard +of chastity, as represented in public opinion, was that of a less +developed society than our own; yet I do not believe it can be +truthfully asserted that the moral conditions were worse than +with us. In one respect they were certainly better; for the +virtue of Japanese wives was generally in all ages above +suspicion(1). If the morals of men were much more open to +reproach, it is not necessary to cite Lecky for evidence as to +whether a much better state of things prevails in the Occident. +Early marriages were encouraged to guard young men from +temptations to irregular life; and it is only fair to suppose +that in a majority of cases this result was obtained. +Concubinage, the privilege of the rich, had its evil side; but it +had also the effect of relieving the wife from the physical +strain of rearing many children in rapid succession. The social +conditions were so different from those which Western religion +assumes to be the best possible, that an impartial judgment of +them cannot be ecclesiastical. One fact is indisputable,--that +they were unfavorable to professional vice; and in many of the +larger fortified towns,--the seats of princes,--no houses of +prostitution were suffered to exist. When all things are fairly +considered, it will be found that Old Japan might claim, in spite +of her patriarchal system, to have been less open to reproach +even in the matter of sexual morality than many a Western +country. The people were better than their laws asked them to be. +And now that the relations of the sexes are to be regulated by +new codes,--at a time when new codes are really needed, the +changes which it is desirable to bring about cannot result in +immediate good. Sudden reforms are not made by legislation. Laws +cannot directly create sentiment; and real social progress can be +made only through change of ethical feeling developed by long +discipline and training. Meanwhile increasing pressure of +population and increasing competition must tend, while quickening +intelligence, to harden character and develop selfishness. + + +Intellectually there will doubtless be great progress, but not a +progress so rapid as those who think that Japan has really +transformed herself in thirty years would have us believe. +However widely diffused among the people, scientific education +cannot immediately raise the average of practical intelligence to +the Western level. The common capacity must remain lower for +generations. There will be plenty of remarkable exceptions, +indeed; and a new aristocracy of intellect is coming into +existence. But the real future of the nation depends rather upon +the general capacity of the many than upon the exceptional +capacity of the few. Perhaps it depends especially upon the +development of the mathematical faculty, which is being +everywhere assiduously cultivated. At present this is the weak +point; hosts of students being yearly debarred from the more +important classes of higher study through inability to pass in +mathematics. At the Imperial naval and military colleges, +however, such results have been obtained as suffice to show that +this weakness will eventually be remedied. The most difficult +branches of scientific study, will become less formidable to the +children of those who have been able to distinguish themselves in +such branches. + + +In other respects, some temporary retrogression is to be looked +for. Just so certainly as Japan has attempted that which is above +the normal limit of her powers, so certainly must she fall back +to that limit, or, rather, below it. Such retrogression will be +natural as well as necessary: it will mean nothing more than a +recuperative preparation for stronger and loftier efforts. Signs +of it are oven now visible in the working of certain +state-departments,--notably in that of education. The idea of +forcing upon Oriental students a course of study above the +average capacity of Western students; the idea of making English +the language, or at least one of the languages of the country; +and the idea of changing ancestral modes of feeling and thinking +for the better by such training, were wild extravagances. Japan +must develop her own soul: she cannot borrow another. A dear +friend whose life has been devoted to philology once said to me +while commenting upon the deterioration of manners among the +students of Japan: "_Why, the English language itself has been a +demoralizing influence!_" There was much depth in that +observation. Setting the whole Japanese nation to study English +(the language of a people who are being forever preached to about +their "rights," and never about their "duties") was almost an +imprudence. The policy was too wholesale as well as too sudden. +It involved great waste of money and time, and it helped to sap +ethical sentiment. In the future Japan will learn English, just +as England learns German. But if this study has been wasted in +some directions, it has not been wasted in others. The influence +of English has effected modifications in the native tongue, +making it richer, more flexible, and more capable of expressing +the new forms of thought created by the discoveries of modern +science. This influence must long continue. There will be a +considerable absorption of English--perhaps also of French and +German words--into Japanese: indeed this absorption is already +marked in the changing speech of the educated classes, not less +than in the colloquial of the ports which is mixed with curious +modifications of foreign commercial words. Furthermore, the +grammatical structure of Japanese is being influenced; and though +I cannot agree with a clergyman who lately declared that the use +of the passive voice by Tokyo street-urchins announcing the fall +of Port Arthur--("_Ryojunko ga senryo sera-reta!_") represented +the working of "divine providence," I do think it afforded some +proof that the Japanese language, assimilative like the genius of +the race, is showing capacity to meet all demands made upon it by +the new conditions. + + +Perhaps Japan will remember her foreign teachers more kindly in +the twentieth century. But she will never feel toward the +Occident, as she felt toward China before the Meiji era, the +reverential respect due by ancient custom to a beloved, +instructor; for the wisdom of China was voluntarily sought, while +that of the West was thrust upon her by violence. She will have +some Christian sects of her own; but she will not remember our +American and English missionaries as she remembers even now those +great Chinese priests who once educated her youth. And she will +not preserve relics of our sojourn, carefully wrapped in septuple +coverings of silk, and packed way in dainty whitewood boxes, +because we had no new lesson of beauty to teach her,--nothing by +which to appeal to her emotions. + +(1) The statement has been made that there is no word for +chastity in the Japanese language. This is tree in the same sense +only that we might say there is no word for chastity in the +English language,--became such words as honor, virtue, purity, +chastity have been adopted into English from other languages. +Open any good Japanese-English dictionary and you will find many +words for chastity. Just as it would be ridiculous to deny that +the word "chastity" is modern English, because it came to us +through the French from the Latin, so it is ridiculous to deny +that Chinese moral terms, adopted into the Japanese tongue more +than a thousand years ago are Japanese to-day. The statement, +like a majority of missionary statements on these subjects, is +otherwise misleading; for the reader is left to infer the absence +of an adjective as well as a noun,--and the purely Japanese +adjectives signifying chaste are numerous. The word most commonly +used applies to both sexes,--and has the old Japanese sense of +firm, strict, resisting, honorable. The deficiency of abstract +terms in a language by no means implies the deficiency of +concrete moral ideas,--a fact which has been vainly pointed out +to missionaries more than once. + + + +IX + +BY FORCE OF KARMA + +"The face of the beloved and the face of the risen sun cannot be +looked at."-Japanese Proverb. + +I + +Modern science assures us that the passion of first love, so far +as the individual may be concerned, is "absolutely antecedent to +all relative experience whatever(1)." In other words, that which +might well seem to be the most strictly personal of all feelings, +is not an individual matter at all. Philosophy discovered the +same fact long ago, and never theorized more attractively than +when trying to explain the mystery of the passion. Science, so +far, has severely limited itself to a few suggestions on the +subject. This seems a pity, because the metaphysicians could at +no time give properly detailed explanations,--whether teaching +that the first sight of the beloved quickens in the soul of the +lover some dormant prenatal remembrance of divine truth, or that +the illusion is made by spirits unborn seeking incarnation. But +science and philosophy both agree as to one all-important fact, +that the lovers themselves have no choice, that they are merely +the subjects of an influence. Science is even the more positive +on this point: it states quite plainly that the dead, not the +living, are responsible. There would seem to be some sort of +ghostly remembrance in first loves. It is true that science, +unlike Buddhism, does not declare that under particular +conditions we may begin to recollect our former lives. That +psychology which is based upon physiology even denies the +possibility of memory-inheritance in this individual sense. But +it allows that something more powerful, though more indefinite, +is inherited,--the sum of ancestral memories incalculable,--the +sum of countless billions of trillions of experiences. Thus can +it interpret our most enigmatical sensations,--our conflicting +impulses,-our strangest intuitions; all those seemingly +irrational attractions or repulsions,--all those vague sadnesses +or joys, never to be accounted for by individual experience. But +it has not yet found leisure to discourse much to us about first +love,--although first love, in its relation to the world +invisible, is the very weirdest of all human feelings, and the +most mysterious. + +In our Occident the riddle runs thus. To the growing youth, whose +life is normal and vigorous, there comes a sort of atavistic +period in which he begins to feel for the feebler sex that +primitive contempt created by mere consciousness of physical +superiority. But it is just at the time when the society of girls +has grown least interesting to him that he suddenly becomes +insane. There crosses his life-path a maiden never seen +before,--but little different from other daughters of men,--not +at all wonderful to common vision. At the same instant, with a +single surging shock, the blood rushes to his heart; and all his +senses are bewitched. Thereafter, till the madness ends, his life +belongs wholly to that new-found being, of whom he yet knows +nothing, except that the sun's light seems more beautiful when it +touches her. From that glamour no mortal science can disenthrall +him. But whose the witchcraft? Is it any power in the living +idol? No, psychology tells us that it is the power of the dead +within the idolater. The dead cast the spell. Theirs the shock in +the lover's heart; theirs the electric shiver that tingled +through his veins at the first touch of one girl's hand. + +But why they should want her, rather than any other, is the +deeper part of the riddle. The solution offered by the great +German pessimist will not harmonize well with scientific +psychology. The choice of the dead, evolutionally considered, +would be a choice based upon remembrance rather than on +prescience. And the enigma is not cheerful. + +There is, indeed, the romantic possibility that they want her +because there survives in her, as in some composite photograph, +the suggestion of each and all who loved them in the past. But +there is the possibility also that they want her because there +reappears in her something of the multitudinous charm of all the +women they loved in vain. + +Assuming the more nightmarish theory, we should believe that +passion, though buried again and again, can neither die nor rest. +They who have vainly loved only seem to die; they really live on +in generations of hearts, that their desire may be fulfilled. +They wait, perhaps though centuries, for the reincarnation of +shapes beloved,--forever weaving into the dreams of youth their +vapory composite of memories. Hence the ideals unattainable,--the +haunting of troubled souls by the Woman-never-to-be-known. + +In the Far East thoughts are otherwise; and what I am about to +write concerns the interpretation of the Lord Buddha. + +(1) Herbert Spencer, Principles of Psychology: "The Feelings." + + +II + +A priest died recently under very peculiar circumstances. He was +the priest of a temple, belonging to one of the older Buddhist +sects, in a village near Osaka. (You can see that temple from the +Kwan-Setsu Railway, as you go by train to Kyoto.) + +He was young, earnest, and extremely handsome--very much too +handsome for a priest, the women said. He looked like one of +those beautiful figures of Amida made by the great Buddhist +statuaries of other days. + +The men of his parish thought him a pure and learned priest, in +which they were right. The women did not think about his virtue +or his learning only: he possessed the unfortunate power to +attract them, independently of his own will, as a mere man. He +was admired by them, and even by women of other parishes also, in +ways not holy; and their admiration interfered with his studies +and disturbed his meditations. They found irreproachable pretexts +for visiting the temple at all hours, just to look at him and +talk to him; asking questions which it was his duty to answer, +and making religious offerings which he could not well refuse. +Some would ask questions, not of a religious kind, that caused +him to blush. He was by nature too gentle to protect himself by +severe speech, even when forward girls from the city said things +that country-girls never would have said,--things that made him +tell the speakers to leave his presence. And the more he shrank +from the admiration of the timid, or the adulation of the +unabashed, the more the persecution increased, till it became the +torment of his life(1). + +His parents had long been dead; he had no worldly ties: he loved +only his calling, and the studies belonging to it; and he did not +wish to think of foolish and forbidden things. His extraordinary +beauty--the beauty of a living idol--was only a misfortune. +Wealth was offered him under conditions that he could not even +discuss. Girls threw themselves at his feet, and prayed him in +vain to love them. Love-letters were constantly being sent to +him, letters which never brought a reply. Some were written in +that classical enigmatic style which speaks of "the Rock-Pillow +of Meeting," and "waves on the shadow of a face," and "streams +that part to reunite." Others were artless and frankly tender, +full of the pathos of a girl's first confession of love. + +For a long time such letters left the young priest as unmoved, to +outward appearance, as any image of that Buddha in whose likeness +he seemed to have been made. But, as a matter of fact, he was not +a Buddha, but only a weak man; and his position was trying. + +One evening there came to the temple a little boy who gave him a +letter, whispered the name of the sender, and ran away in the +dark. According to the subsequent testimony of an acolyte, the +priest read the letter, restored it to its envelope, and placed +it on the matting, beside his kneeling cushion. After remaining +motionless for a long time, as if buried in thought, he sought +his writing-box, wrote a letter himself, addressed it to his +spiritual superior, and left it upon the writing-stand. Then he +consulted the clock, and a railway time-table in Japanese. The +hour was early; the night windy and dark. He prostrated himself +for a moment in prayer before the altar; then hurried out into +the blackness, and reached the railway exactly in time to kneel +down in the middle of the track, facing the roar and rush of the +express from Kobe. And, in another moment, those who had +worshiped the strange beauty of the man would have shrieked to +see, even by lantern-light, all that remained of his poor +earthliness, smearing the iron way. + + + +The letter written to his superior was found. It contained a bare +statement to the effect that, feeling his spiritual strength +departing from him, he had resolved to die in order that he might +not sin. + +The other letter was still lying where he had left it on the +floor,--a letter written in that woman-language of which every +syllable is a little caress of humility. Like all such letters +(they are never sent through the post) it contained no date, no +name, no initial, and its envelope bore no address. Into our +incomparably harsher English speech it might be imperfectly +rendered as follows:-- + +_To take such freedom may be to assume overmuch; yet I feel that +I must speak to you, and therefore send this letter. As for my +lowly self, I have to say only that when first seeing you in the +period of the Festival of the Further Shore, I began to think; +and that since then I have not, even for a moment, been able to +forget. More and more each day I sink into that ever-growing +thought of you; and when I sleep I dream; and when, awaking and +seeing you not, I remember there was no truth in my thoughts of +the night, I can do nothing but weep. Forgive me that, having +been born into this world a woman, I should utter my wish for the +exceeding favor of being found not hateful to one so high. +Foolish and without delicacy I may seem in allowing my heart to +be thus tortured by the thought of one so far above me. But only +because knowing that I cannot restrain my heart, out of the depth +of it I have suffered these poor words to come, that I may write +them with my unskillful brush, and send them to you. I pray that +you will deem me worthy of pity; I beseech that you will not send +me cruel words in return. Compassionate me, seeing that this is +but the overflowing of my humble feelings; deign to divine and +justly to judge,--be it only with the least of kindliness,--this +heart that, in its great distress alone, so ventures to address +you. Each moment I shall hope and wait for some gladdening +answer_. + +_Concerning all things fortunate, felicitation_. + +_To-day,-- +from the honorably-known, +to the longed-for, beloved, august one, +this letter goes._ + +(1) Actors in Japan often exercise a similar fascination upon +sensitive girls of the lower classes, and often take cruel +advantage of the power so gained. It is very rarely, indeed, that +such fascination can be exerted by a priest. + + +III + +I called upon a Japanese friend, a Buddhist scholar, to ask some +questions about the religious aspects of the incident. Even as a +confession of human weakness, that suicide appeared to me a +heroism. + +It did not so appear to my friend. He spoke words of rebuke. He +reminded me that one who even suggested suicide as a means of +escape from sin had been pronounced by the Buddha a spiritual +outcast,--unfit to live with holy men. As for the dead priest, he +had been one of those whom the Teacher called fools. Only a fool +could imagine that by destroying his own body he was destroying +also within himself the sources of sin. + +"But," I protested, "this man's life was pure.... Suppose he +sought death that he might not, unwittingly, cause others to +commit sin?" + +My friend smiled ironically. Then he said:--"There was once a +lady of Japan, nobly torn and very beautiful, who wanted to +become a nun. She went to a certain temple, and made her wish +known. But the high-priest said to her, 'You are still very +young. You have lived the life of courts. To the eyes of worldly +men you are beautiful; and, because of your face, temptations to +return to the pleasures of the world will be devised for you. +Also this wish of yours may be due to some momentary sorrow. +Therefore, I cannot now consent to your request.' But she still +pleaded so earnestly, that he deemed it best to leave her +abruptly. There was a large hibachi--a brazier of glowing +charcoal--in the room where she found herself alone. She heated +the iron tongs of the brazier till they were red, and with them +horribly pierced and seamed her face, destroying her beauty +forever. Then the priest, alarmed by the smell of the burning, +returned in haste, and was very much grieved by what he saw. But +she pleaded again, without any trembling in her voice: 'Because I +was beautiful, you refused to take me. Will you take me now?' She +was accepted into the Order, and became a holy nun.... Well, +which was the wiser, that woman, or the priest you wanted to +praise?" + +"But was it the duty of the priest," I asked, "to disfigure his +face?" + +"Certainly not! Even the woman's action would have been very +unworthy if done only as a protection against temptation. Self- +mutilation of any sort is forbidden by the law of Buddha; and +she transgressed. But, as she burned her face only that she might +be able to enter at once upon the Path, and not because afraid of +being unable by her own will to resist sin, her fault was a minor +fault. On the other hand, the priest who took his own life +committed a very great offense. He should have tried to convert +those who tempted him. This he was too weak to do. If he felt it +impossible to keep from sinning as a priest, then it would have +been better for him to return to the world, and there try to +follow the law for such as do not belong to the Order." + +"According to Buddhism, therefore, he has obtained no merit?" I +queried. + +"It is not easy to imagine that he has. Only by those ignorant of +the Law can his action be commended." + +"And by those knowing the Law, what will be thought of the +results, the karma of his act?" + +My friend mused a little; then he said, thoughtfully:--"The whole +truth of that suicide we cannot fully know. Perhaps it was not +the first time." + +"Do you mean that in some former life also he may have tried to +escape from sin by destroying his own body?" + +"Yes. Or in many former lives." + +"What of his future lives?" + +"Only a Buddha could answer that with certain knowledge." + +"But what is the teaching?" + +"You forget that it is not possible for us to know what was in +the mind of that man." + +"Suppose that he sought death only to escape from sinning?" + +"Then he will have to face the like temptation again and again, +and all the sorrow of it, and all the pain, even for a thousand +times a thousand times, until he shall have learned to master +himself. There is no escape through death from the supreme +necessity of self-conquest." + + +After parting with my friend, his words continued to haunt me; +and they haunt me still. They forced new thoughts about some +theories hazarded in the first part of this paper. I have not yet +been able to assure myself that his weird interpretation of the +amatory mystery is any less worthy of consideration than our +Western interpretations. I have been wondering whether the loves +that lead to death might not mean much more than the ghostly +hunger of buried passions. Might they not signify also the +inevitable penalty of long-forgotten sins? + + + +X + + +A CONSERVATIVE + +Amazakaru +Hi no iru kuni ni +Kite wa aredo, +Yamato-nishiki no +Iro wa kawaraji. + +I + +He was born in a city of the interior, the seat of a daimyo of +three hundred thousand koku, where no foreigner had ever been. +The yashiki of his father, a samurai of high rank, stood within +the outer fortifications surrounding the prince's castle. It was +a spacious yashiki; and behind it and around it were landscape +gardens, one of which contained a small shrine of the god of +armies. Forty years ago there were many such homes. To artist +eyes the few still remaining seem like fairy palaces, and their +gardens like dreams of the Buddhist paradise. + +But sons of samurai were severely disciplined in those days; and +the one of whom I write had little time for dreaming. The period +of caresses was made painfully brief for him. Even before he was +invested with his first hakama, or trousers,--a great ceremony in +that epoch,--he was weaned as far as possible from tender +influence, and taught to check the natural impulses of childish +affection. Little comrades would ask him mockingly, "Do you still +need milk?" if they saw him walking out with his mother, although +he might love her in the house as demonstratively as he pleased, +during the hours he could pass by her side. These were not many. +All inactive pleasures were severely restricted by his +discipline; and even comforts, except during illness, were not +allowed him. Almost from the time he could speak he was enjoined +to consider duty the guiding motive of life, self-control the +first requisite of conduct, pain and death matters of no +consequence in the selfish sense. + +There was a grimmer side to this Spartan discipline, designed to +cultivate a cold sternness never to be relaxed during youth, +except in the screened intimacy of the home. The boys were inured +to sights of blood. They were taken to witness executions; they +were expected to display no emotion; and they were obliged, on +their return home, to quell any secret feeling of horror by +eating plentifully of rice tinted blood-color by an admixture of +salted plum juice.. Even more difficult things might be demanded +of a very young boy,--to go alone at midnight to the +execution-ground, for example, and bring back a head in proof of +courage. For the fear of the dead was held not less contemptible +in a samurai than the fear of man. The samurai child was pledged +to fear nothing. In all such tests, the demeanor exacted was +perfect impassiveness; any swaggering would have been judged +quite as harshly as any sign of cowardice. + +As a boy grew up, he was obliged to find his pleasures chiefly in +those bodily exercises which were the samurai's early and +constant preparations for war,--archery and riding, wrestling and +fencing. Playmates were found for him; but these were older +youths, sons of retainers, chosen for ability to assist him in +the practice of martial exercises. It was their duty also to +teach him how to swim, to handle a boat, to develop his young +muscles. Between such physical training and the study of the +Chinese classics the greater part of each day was divided for +him. His diet, though ample, was never dainty; his clothing, +except in time of great ceremony, was light and coarse; and he +was not allowed the use of fire merely to warm himself. While +studying of winter mornings, if his hands became too cold to use +the writing brush, he would be ordered to plunge them into icy +water to restore the circulation; and if his feet were numbed by +frost, he would be told to run about in the snow to make them +warm. Still more rigid was his training in the special etiquette +of the military class, and he was early made to know that the +little sword in his girdle was neither an ornament nor a +plaything. He was shown how to use it, how to take his own life +at a moment's notice, without shrinking, whenever the code of his +class might so order(1). + +Also in the matter of religion, the training of a samurai boy was +peculiar. He was educated to revere the ancient gods and the +spirits of his ancestors; he was well schooled in the Chinese +ethics; and he was taught something of Buddhist philosophy and +faith. But he was likewise taught that hope of heaven and fear of +hell were for the ignorant only; and that the superior man should +be influenced in his conduct by nothing more selfish than the +love of right for its own sake, and the recognition of duty as a +universal law. + +Gradually, as the period of boyhood ripened into youth, his +conduct was less subjected to supervision. He was left more and +more free to act upon his own judgment,--but with full knowledge +that a mistake would not be forgotten; that a serious offense +would never be fully condoned, and that a well-merited reprimand +was more to be dreaded than death. On the other hand, there were +few moral dangers against which to guard him. Professional vice +was then strictly banished from many of the provincial +castle-towns; and even so much of the non-moral side of life as +might have been reflected in popular romance and drama, a young +samurai could know little about. He was taught to despise that +common literature appealing either to the softer emotions or the +passions, as essentially unmanly reading; and the public theatre +was forbidden to his class(2). Thus, in that innocent provincial +life of Old Japan, a young samurai might grow up exceptionally +pure-minded and simple-hearted. + + +So grew up the young samurai concerning whom these things are +written,--fearless, courteous, self-denying, despising pleasure, +and ready at an instant's notice to give his life for love, +loyalty, or honor. But though already a warrior in frame and +spirit, he was in years scarcely more than a boy when the country +was first startled by the coming of the Black Ships. + + +II + +The policy of Iyemitsu, forbidding any Japanese to leave the +country under pain of death, had left the nation for two hundred +years ignorant of the outer world. About the colossal forces +gathering beyond seas nothing was known. The long existence of +the Dutch settlement at Nagasaki had in no wise enlightened Japan +as to her true position,--an Oriental feudalism of the sixteenth +century menaced by a Western world three centuries older. +Accounts of the real wonders of that world would have sounded to +Japanese ears like stories invented to please children, or have +been classed with ancient tales of the fabled palaces of Horai. +The advent of the American fleet, "the Black Ships," as they were +then called, first awakened the government to some knowledge of +its own weakness, and of danger from afar. + +National excitement at the news of the second coming of the Black +Ships was followed by consternation at the discovery that the +Shogunate confessed its inability to cope with the foreign +powers. This could mean only a peril greater than that of the +Tartar invasion in the days of Hojo Tokimune, when the people had +prayed to the gods for help, and the Emperor himself, at Ise, had +besought the spirits of his fathers. Those prayers had been +answered by sudden darkness, a sea of thunder, and the coming of +that mighty wind still called Kami-kaze,--"the Wind of the Gods," +by which the fleets of Kublai Khan were given to the abyss. Why +should not prayers now also be made? They were, in countless +homes and at thousands of shrines. But the Superior Ones gave +this time no answer; the Kami-kaze did not come. And the samurai +boy, praying vainly before the little shrine of Hachiman in his +father's garden, wondered if the gods had lost their power, or if +the people of the Black Ships were under the protection of +stronger gods. + +(1) "Is that really the head of your father?" a prince once asked +of a samurai boy only seven years old. The child at once realized +the situation. The freshly-severed head set before him was not +his father's: the daimyo had been deceived, but further deception +was necessary. So the lad, after having saluted the head with +every sign of reverential grief, suddenly cut out his own bowels. +All the prince's doubts vanished before that bloody proof of +filial piety; the outlawed father was able to make good his +escape, and the memory of the child is still honored in Japanese +drama and poetry. + +(2) Samurai women, in some province, at least, could go to the +public theatre. The men could not,--without committing a breach +of good manners. But in samurai homes, or within the grounds of +the yashiki, some private performances of a particular character +were given. Strolling players were the performers. I know several +charming old samurai who have never been to a public theatre in +their lives, and refuse all invitations to witness a performance. +They still obey the rules of their samurai education. + + +III + +It soon became evident that the foreign "barbarians" were not to +be driven away. Hundreds had come, from the East as well as from +the West; and all possible measures for their protection had been +taken; and they had built queer cities of their own upon Japanese +soil. The government had even commanded that Western knowledge +was to be taught in all schools; that the study of English was to +be made an important branch of public education; and that public +education itself was to be remodeled upon Occidental lines. The +government had also declared that the future of the country would +depend upon the study and mastery of the languages and the +science of the foreigners. During the interval, then, between +such study and its successful results, Japan would practically +remain under alien domination. The fact was not, indeed, publicly +stated in so many words; but the signification of the policy was +unmistakable. After the first violent emotions provoked by +knowledge of the situation,--after the great dismay of the +people, and the suppressed fury of the samurai,--there arose an +intense curiosity regarding the appearance and character of those +insolent strangers who had been able to obtain what they wanted +by mere display of superior force. This general curiosity was +partly satisfied by an immense production and distribution of +cheap colored prints, picturing the manner and customs of the +barbarians, and the extraordinary streets of their settlements. +Caricatures only those flaring wood--prints could have seemed to +foreign eyes. But caricature was not the conscious object of the +artist. He tried to portray foreigners as he really saw them; and +he saw them as green-eyed monsters, with red hair like Shojo(1), +and with noses like Tengu(2), wearing clothes of absurd forms and +colors; and dwelling in structures like storehouses or prisons. +Sold by hundreds of thousands throughout the interior, these +prints must have created many uncanny ideas. Yet as attempts to +depict the unfamiliar they were only innocent. One should be able +to study those old drawings in order to comprehend just how we +appeared to the Japanese of that era; how ugly, how grotesque, +how ridiculous. + + +The young samurai of the town soon had the experience of seeing a +real Western foreigner, a teacher hired for them by the prince. +He was an Englishman. He came under the protection of an armed +escort; and orders were given to treat him as a person of +distinction. He did not seem quite so ugly as the foreigners in +the Japanese prints: his hair was red, indeed, and his eyes of a +strange color; but his face was not disagreeable. He at once +became, and long remained, the subject of tireless observation. +How closely his every act was watched could never be guessed by +any one ignorant of the queer superstitions of the pre-Meiji era +concerning ourselves. Although recognized as intelligent and +formidable creatures, Occidentals were not generally regarded as +quite human; they were thought of as more closely allied to +animals than to mankind. They had hairy bodies of queer shape; +their teeth were different from those of men; their internal +organs were also peculiar; and their moral ideas those of +goblins. The timidity which foreigners then inspired, not, +indeed, to the samurai, but to the common people, was not a +physical, but a superstitious fear. Even the Japanese peasant has +never been a coward. But to know his feelings in that time toward +foreigners, one must also know something of the ancient beliefs, +common to both Japan and China, about animals gifted with +supernatural powers, and capable of assuming human form; about +the existence of races half-human and half-superhuman; and about +the mythical beings of the old picture-books,--goblins +long-legged and long-armed and bearded (ashinaga and tenaga), +whether depicted by the illustrators of weird stories or +comically treated by the brush of Hokusai. Really the aspect of +the new strangers seemed to afford confirmation of the fables +related by a certain Chinese Herodotus; and the clothing they +wore might seem to have been devised for the purpose of hiding +what would prove them not human. So the new English teacher, +blissfully ignorant of the fact, was studied surreptitiously, +just as one might study a curious animal! I Nevertheless, from +his students he experienced only courtesy: they treated him by +that Chinese code which ordains that "even the shadow of a +teacher must not be trodden on." In any event it would have +mattered little to samurai students whether their teacher were +perfectly human or not, so long as he could teach. The hero +Yoshitsune had been taught the art of the sword by a Tengu. +Beings not human had proved themselves scholars and poets(3). But +behind the never-lifted mask of delicate courtesy, the stranger's +habits were minutely noted; and the ultimate judgment, based upon +the comparison of such observation, was not altogether +flattering. The teacher himself could never have imagined the +comments made upon him by his two-sworded pupils; nor would it +have increased his peace of mind, while overlooking compositions +in the class-room, to have understood their conversation:-- + +"See the color of his flesh, how soft it is! To take off his head +with a single blow would be very easy." + +Once he was induced to try their mode of wrestling, just for fun, +he supposed. But they really wanted to take his physical measure. +He was not very highly estimated as an athlete. + +"Strong arms he certainly has," one said. "But he does not know +how to use his body while using his arms; and his loins are very +weak. To break his back would not be difficult." + +"I think," said another, "that it would be easy to fight with +foreigners." + +"With swords it would be very easy," responded a third; "but they +are more skilful than we in the use of guns and cannon." + +"We can learn all that," said the first speaker. "When we have +learned Western military matters, we need not care for Western +soldiers." + +"Foreigners," observed another, "are not hardy like we are. They +soon tire, and they fear cold. All winter our teacher must have a +great fire in his room. To stay there five minutes gives me the +headache." + + +But for all that, the lads were kind to their teacher, and made +him love them. + +(1) Apish mythological beings with red hair, delighting in +drunkenness. + +(2) Mythological beings of several kinds, supposed to live in the +mountains. Some have long noses. + +(3) There is a legend that when Toryoko, a great poet, who was +the teacher of Sugiwara-no-Michizane (now deified as Tenjin), was +once passing the Gate called Ra-jo-mon, of the Emperor's palace +at Kyoto, he recited aloud this single verse which he had just +composed:-- + +"Clear is the weather and fair;--and the wind waves the hair of +young willows." +Immediately a deep mocking voice from the gateway continued the +poem, thus:-- + +"Melted and vanished the ice; the waves comb the locks of old +mosses." + +Toryoko looked, but there was no one to be seen. Reaching home, +he told his pupil about the matter, and repeated the two +compositions. Sugiwara-no-Michizane praised the second one, +saying:-- + +"Truly the words of the first are the words of a poet; +but the words of the second are the words of a Demon!" + + + +IV + +Changes came as great earthquakes come, without warning: the +transformation of daimyates into prefectures, the suppression of +the military class, the reconstruction of the whole social +system. These events filled the youth with sadness, although he +felt no difficulty in transferring his allegiance from prince to +emperor, and although the wealth of his family remained +unimpaired by the shock. All this reconstruction told him of the +greatness of the national danger, and announced the certain +disappearance of the old high ideals, and of nearly all things +loved. But he knew regret was vain. By self-transformation alone +could the nation hope to save its independence; and the obvious +duty of the patriot was to recognize necessity, and fitly prepare +himself to play the man in the drama of the future. + +In the samurai school he had learned much English, and he knew +himself able to converse with Englishmen. He cut his long hair, +put away his swords, and went to Yokohama that he might continue +his study of the language under more favorable conditions. At +Yokohama everything at first seemed to him both unfamiliar and +repellent. Even the Japanese of the port had been changed by +foreign contact: they were rude and rough; they acted and spoke +as common people would not have dared to do in his native town. +The foreigners themselves impressed him still more disagreeably: +it was the period when new settlers could assume the tone of +conquerors to the conquered, and when the life of the "open +ports" was much less decorous than now. The new buildings of +brick or stuccoed timber revived for him unpleasant memories of +the Japanese colored pictures of foreign manners and customs; and +he could not quickly banish the fancies of his boyhood concerning +Occidentals. Reason, based on larger knowledge and experience, +fully assured him what they really were; but to his emotional +life the intimate sense of their kindred humanity still failed to +come. Race-feeling is older than intellectual development; and +the superstitions attaching to race-feeling are not easy to get +rid of. His soldier-spirit, too, was stirred at times by ugly +things heard or seen,--incidents that filled him with the hot +impulse of his fathers to avenge a cowardice or to redress a +wrong. But he learned to conquer his repulsions as obstacles to +knowledge: it was the patriot's duty to study calmly the nature +of his country's foes. He trained himself at last to observe the +new life about him without prejudice,--its merits not less than +its defects; its strength not less than its weakness. He found +kindness; he found devotion to ideals,--ideals not his own, but +which he knew how to respect because they exacted, like the +religion of his ancestors, abnegation of many things. + +Through such appreciation he learned to like and to trust an aged +missionary entirely absorbed in the work of educating and +proselytizing. The old man was especially anxious to convert this +young samurai, in whom aptitudes of no common order were +discernible; and he spared no pains to win the boy's confidence. +He aided him in many ways, taught him something of French and +German, of Greek and Latin, and placed entirely at his disposal a +private library of considerable extent. The use of a foreign +library, including works of history, philosophy, travel, and +fiction, was not a privilege then easy for Japanese students to +obtain. It was gratefully appreciated; and the owner of the +library found no difficulty at a later day in persuading his +favored and favorite pupil to read a part of the New Testament. +The youth expressed surprise at finding among the doctrines of +the "Evil Sect" ethical precepts like those of Confucius. To the +old missionary he said: "This teaching is not new to us; but it +is certainly very good. I shall study the book and think about +it." + + +V + +The study and the thinking were to lead the young man much +further than he had thought possible. After the recognition of +Christianity as a great religion came recognitions of another +order, and various imaginings about the civilization of the races +professing Christianity. It then seemed to many reflective +Japanese, possibly even to the keen minds directing the national +policy, that Japan was doomed to pass altogether under alien +rule. There was hope, indeed; and while even the ghost of hope +remained, the duty for all was plain. But the power that could be +used against the Empire was irresistible. And studying the +enormity of that power, the young. Oriental could not but ask +himself, with a wonder approaching awe, whence and how it had +been gained. Could it, as his aged teacher averred, have some +occult relation to a higher religion? Certainly the ancient +Chinese philosophy, which declared the prosperity of peoples +proportionate to their observance of celestial law and their +obedience to the teaching of sages, countenanced such a theory. +And if the superior force of Western civilization really +indicated the superior character of Western ethics, was it not +the plain duty of every patriot to follow that higher faith, and +to strive for the conversion of the whole nation? A youth of that +era, educated in Chinese wisdom, and necessarily ignorant of the +history of social evolution in the West, could never have +imagined that the very highest forms of material progress were +developed chiefly through a merciless competition out of all +harmony with Christian idealism, and at variance with every great +system of ethics. Even to-day in the West unthinking millions +imagine some divine connection between military power and +Christian belief, and utterances are made in our pulpits implying +divine justification for political robberies, and heavenly +inspiration for the invention of high explosives. There still +survives among us the superstition that races professing +Christianity are divinely destined to rob or exterminate races +holding other beliefs. Some men occasionally express their +conviction that we still worship Thor and Odin,--the only +difference being that Odin has become a mathematician, and that +the Hammer Mjolnir is now worked by steam. But such persons are +declared by the missionaries to be atheists and men of shameless +lives. + +Be this as it may, a time came when the young samurai resolved to +proclaim himself a Christian, despite the opposition of his +kindred. It was a bold step; but his early training had given him +firmness; and he was not to be moved from his decision even by +the sorrow of his parents. His rejection of the ancestral faith +would signify more than temporary pain for him: it would mean +disinheritance, the contempt of old comrades, loss of rank, and +all the consequences of bitter poverty. But his samurai training +had taught him to despise self. He saw what he believed to be his +duty as a patriot and as a truthseeker, and he followed it +without fear or regret. + + +VI + +Those who hope to substitute their own Western creed in the room +of one which they wreck by the aid of knowledge borrowed from +modern science, do not imagine that the arguments used against +the ancient faith can be used with equal force against the new. +Unable himself to reach the higher levels of modern thought, the +average missionary cannot foresee the result of his small +teaching of science upon an Oriental mind naturally more powerful +than his own. He is therefore astonished and shocked to discover +that the more intelligent his pupil, the briefer the term of that +pupil's Christianity. To destroy personal faith in a fine mind +previously satisfied with Buddhist cosmogony, because innocent of +science, is not extremely difficult. But to substitute, in the +same mind, Western religious emotions for Oriental, Presbyterian +or Baptist dogmatisms for Chinese and Buddhist ethics, is not +possible. The psychological difficulties in the way are never +recognized by our modern evangelists. In former ages, when the +faith of the Jesuits and the friars was not less superstitious +than the faith they strove to supplant, the same deep-lying +obstacles existed; and the Spanish priest, even while +accomplishing marvels by his immense sincerity and fiery zeal, +must have felt that to fully realize his dream he would need the +sword of the Spanish soldier. To-day the conditions are far less +favorable for any work of conversion than they ever were in the +sixteenth century. Education has been secularized and remodeled +upon a scientific basis; our religions are being changed into +mere social recognitions of ethical necessities; the functions of +our clergy are being gradually transformed into those of a moral +police; and the multitude of our church-spires proves no increase +of our faith, but only the larger growth of our respect for +conventions. Never can the conventions of the Occident become +those of the Far East; and never will foreign missionaries be +suffered in Japan to take the role of a police of morals. Already +the most liberal of our churches, those of broadest culture, +begin to recognize the vanity of missions. But it is not +necessary to drop old dogmatisms in order to perceive the truth: +thorough education should be enough to reveal it; and the most +educated of nations, Germany, sends no missionaries to work in +the interior of Japan. A result of missionary efforts, much more +significant than the indispensable yearly report of new +conversions, has been the reorganization of the native religions, +and a recent government mandate insisting upon the higher +education of the native priest-hoods. Indeed, long before this +mandate the wealthier sects had established Buddhist schools on +the Western plan; and the Shinshu could already boast of its +scholars, educated in Paris or at Oxford,--men whose names are +known to Sanscritists the world over. Certainly Japan will need +higher forms of faith than her mediaeval ones; but these must be +themselves evolved from the ancient forms,--from within, never +from without. A Buddhism strongly fortified by Western science +will meet the future needs of the race. + + +The young convert at Yokohama proved a noteworthy example of +missionary failures. Within a few years after having sacrificed a +fortune in order to become a Christian,--or rather the member of +a foreign religious sect,--he publicly renounced the creed +accepted at such a cost. He had studied and comprehended the +great minds of the age better than his religious teachers, who +could no longer respond to the questions he propounded, except by +the assurance that books of which they had recommended him to +study parts were dangerous to faith as wholes. But as they could +not prove the fallacies alleged to exist in such books, their +warnings availed nothing. He had been converted to dogmatism by +imperfect reasoning; by larger and deeper reasoning he found his +way beyond dogmatism. He passed from the church after an open +declaration that its tenets were not based upon true reason or +fact; and that he felt himself obliged to accept the opinions of +men whom his teachers had called the enemies of Christianity. +There was great scandal at his "relapse." + +The real "relapse" was yet far away. Unlike many with a similar +experience, he knew that the religious question had only receded +for him, and that all he had learned was scarcely more than the +alphabet of what remained to learn. He had not lost belief in the +relative value of creeds,--in the worth of religion as a +conserving and restraining force. A distorted perception of one +truth--the truth of a relation subsisting between civilizations +and their religions--had first deluded him into the path that led +to his conversion. Chinese philosophy had taught him that which +modern sociology recognizes in the law that societies without +priesthoods have never developed; and Buddhism had taught him +that even delusions--the parables, forms, and symbols presented +as actualities to humble minds--have their value and their +justification in aiding the development of human goodness. From +such a point of view, Christianity had lost none of its interest +for him; and though doubting what his teacher had told him about +the superior morality of Christian nations, not at all +illustrated in the life of the open ports, he desired to see for +himself the influence of religion upon morals in the Occident; to +visit European countries and to study the causes of their +development and the reason of their power. + +This he set out to do sooner than he had purposed. That +intellectual quickening which had made him a doubter in religious +matters had made him also a freethinker in politics. He brought +down upon himself the wrath of the government by public +expressions of opinion antagonistic to the policy of the hour; +and, like others equally imprudent under the stimulus of new +ideas, he was obliged to leave the country. Thus began for him a +series of wanderings destined to carry him round the world. Korea +first afforded him a refuge; then China, where he lived as a +teacher; and at last he found himself on board a steamer bound +for Marseilles. He had little money; but he did not ask himself +how he was going to live in Europe. Young, tall, athletic, frugal +and inured to hardship, he felt sure of himself; and he had +letters to men abroad who could smooth his way. + +But long years were to pass before he could see his native land +again. + + + +VII + +During those years he saw Western civilization as few Japanese +ever saw it; for he wandered through Europe and America, living +in many cities, and toiling in many capacities,--sometimes with +his brain, oftener with his hands,--and so was able to study the +highest and the lowest, the best and the worst of the life about +him. But he saw with the eyes of the Far East; and the ways of +his judgments were not as our ways. For even as the Occident +regards the Far East, so does the Far East regard the Occident, +--only with this difference: that what each most esteems in +itself is least likely to be esteemed by the other. And both are +partly right and partly wrong; and there never has been, and +never can be, perfect mutual comprehension. + +Larger than all anticipation the West appeared to him,--a world +of giants; and that which depresses even the boldest Occidental +who finds himself, without means or friends, alone in a great +city, must often have depressed the Oriental exile: that vague +uneasiness aroused by the sense of being invisible to hurrying +millions; by the ceaseless roar of traffic drowning voices; by +monstrosities of architecture without a soul; by the dynamic +display of wealth forcing mind and hand, as mere cheap machinery, +to the uttermost limits of the possible. Perhaps he saw such +cities as Dore saw London: sullen majesty of arched glooms and +granite deeps opening into granite deeps beyond range of vision, +and mountains of masonry with seas of labor in turmoil at their +base, and monumental spaces displaying the grimness of ordered +power slow-gathering through centuries. Of beauty there was +nothing to make appeal to him between those endless cliffs of +stone which walled out the sunrise and the sunset, the sky and +the wind. All that which draws us to great cities repelled or +oppressed him; even luminous Paris soon filled him with +weariness. It was the first foreign city in which he made a long +sojourn. French art, as reflecting the aesthetic thought of the +most gifted of European races, surprised him much, but charmed +him not at all. What surprised him especially were its studies of +the nude, in which he recognized only an open confession of the +one human weakness which, next to disloyalty or cowardice, his +stoical training had taught him to most despise. Modern French +literature gave him other reasons for astonishment. He could +little comprehend the amazing art of the story-teller; the worth +of the workmanship in itself was not visible to him; and if he +could have been made to understand it as a European understands, +he would have remained none the less convinced that such +application of genius to production signified social depravity. +And gradually, in the luxurious life of the capital itself, he +found proof for the belief suggested to him by the art and the +literature of the period. He visited the pleasure-resorts, the +theatres, the opera; he saw with the eyes of an ascetic and a +soldier, and wondered why the Western conception of the worth of +life differed so little from the Far-Eastern conception of folly +and of effeminacy. He saw fashionable balls, and exposures de +rigueur intolerable to the Far-Eastern sense of modesty, +--artistically calculated to suggest what would cause a Japanese +woman to die of shame; and he wondered at criticisms he had heard +about the natural, modest, healthy half-nudity of Japanese +toiling under a summer sun. He saw cathedrals and churches in +vast number, and near to them the palaces of vice, and +establishments enriched by the stealthy sale of artistic +obscenities. He listened to sermons by great preachers; and he +heard blasphemies against all faith and love by priest--haters. +He saw the circles of wealth, and the circles of poverty, and the +abysses underlying both. The "restraining influence" of religion +he did not see. That world had no faith. It was a world of +mockery and masquerade and pleasure-seeking selfishness, ruled +not by religion, but by police; a world into which it were not +good that a man should he born. + +England, more sombre, more imposing, more formidable furnished +him with other problems to consider. He studied her wealth, +forever growing, and the nightmares of squalor forever +multiplying in the shadow of it. He saw the vast ports gorged +with the riches of a hundred lands, mostly plunder; and knew the +English still like their forefathers, a race of prey; and thought +of the fate of her millions if she should find herself for even a +single month unable to compel other races to feed them. He saw +the harlotry and drunkenness that make night hideous in the +world's greatest city; and he marveled at the conventional +hypocrisy that pretends not to see, and at the religion that +utters thanks for existing conditions, and at the ignorance that +sends missionaries where they are not needed, and at the enormous +charities that help disease and vice to propagate their kind. He +saw also the declaration of a great Englishman(1) who had +traveled in many countries that one tenth of the population of +England were professional criminals or paupers. And this in spite +of the myriads of churches, and the incomparable multiplication +of laws! Certainly English civilization showed less than any +other the pretended power of that religion which he had been +taught to believe the inspiration of progress. English streets +told him another story: there were no such sights to be seen in +the streets of Buddhist cities. No: this civilization signified a +perpetual wicked struggle between the simple and the cunning, the +feeble and the strong; force and craft combining to thrust +weakness into a yawning and visible hell. Never in Japan had +there been even the sick dream of such conditions. Yet the merely +material and intellectual results of those conditions he could +not but confess to be astonishing; and though he saw evil beyond +all he could have imagined possible, he also saw much good, among +both poor and rich. The stupendous riddle of it all, the +countless contradictions, were above his powers of +interpretation. + +He liked the English people better than the people of other +countries he had visited; and the manners of the English gentry +impressed him as not unlike those of the Japanese samurai. Behind +their formal coldness he could discern immense capacities of +friendship and enduring kindness,--kindness he experienced more +than once; the depth of emotional power rarely wasted; and the +high courage that had won the dominion of half a world. But ere +he left England for America, to study a still vaster field of +human achievement, mere differences of nationality had ceased to +interest him: they were blurred out of visibility in his growing +perception of Occidental civilization as one amazing whole, +everywhere displaying--whether through imperial, monarchical, or +democratic forms--the working of the like merciless necessities +with the like astounding results, and everywhere based on ideas +totally the reverse of Far-Eastern ideas. Such civilization he +could estimate only as one having no single emotion in harmony +with it,--as one finding nothing to love while dwelling in its +midst, and nothing to regret in the hour of leaving it forever. +It was as far away from his soul as the life of another planet +under another sun. But he could understand its cost in terms of +human pain, feel the menace of its weight, and divine the +prodigious range of its intellectual power. And he hated +it,--hated its tremendous and perfectly calculated mechanism; +hated its utilitarian stability; hated its conventions, its +greed, its blind cruelty, its huge hypocrisy, the foulness of its +want and the insolence of its wealth. Morally, it was monstrous; +conventionally, it was brutal. Depths of degradation unfathomable +it had shown him, but no ideals equal to the ideals of his youth. +It was all one great wolfish struggle;--and that so much real +goodness as he had found in it could exist, seemed to him +scarcely less than miraculous. The real sublimities of the +Occident were intellectual only; far steep cold heights of pure +knowledge, below whose perpetual snow-line emotional ideals die. +Surely the old Japanese civilization of benevolence and duty was +incomparably better in its comprehension of happiness, in its +moral ambitions, its larger faith, its joyous courage, its +simplicity and unselfishness, its sobriety and contentment. +Western superiority was not ethical. It lay in forces of +intellect developed through suffering incalculable, and used for +the destruction of the weak by the strong. + +And, nevertheless, that Western science whose logic he knew to be +irrefutable assured him of the larger and larger expansion of the +power of that civilization, as of an irresistible, inevitable, +measureless inundation of world-pain. Japan would have to learn +the new forms of action, to master the new forms of thought, or +to perish utterly. There was no other alternative. And then the +doubt of all doubts came to him, the question which all the sages +have had to face: _Is the universe moral?_ To that question +Buddhism had given the deepest answer. + +But whether moral or immoral the cosmic process, as measured by +infinitesimal human emotion, one conviction remained with him +that no logic could impair: the certainty that man should pursue +the highest moral ideal with all his power to the unknown end, +even though the suns in their courses should fight against him. +The necessities of Japan would oblige her to master foreign +science, to adopt much from the material civilization of her +enemies; but the same necessities could not compel her to cast +bodily away her ideas of right and wrong, of duty and of honor. +Slowly a purpose shaped itself in his mind,--a purpose which was +to make him in after years a leader and a teacher: to strive with +all his strength for the conservation of all that, was best in +the ancient life, and to fearlessly oppose further introduction +of anything not essential to national self-preservation, or +helpful to national, self-development. Fail he well, might, and +without shame; but he could hope at least to save something of +worth from the drift of wreckage. The wastefulness of Western +life had impressed him more than its greed of pleasure and its +capacity for pain: in the clean poverty of his own land he saw +strength; in her unselfish thrift, the sole chance of competing +with the Occident. Foreign civilization had taught him to +under-stand, as he could never otherwise have understood, the +worth and the beauty of his own; and he longed for the hour of +permission to return to the country of his birth. + +(1)"Although we have progressed vastly beyond the savage state in +intellectual achievements, we have not advanced equally in +morals.... It is not too much to say that the mass of our +populations have not at all advanced beyond the savage code of +morals, and have in many cases sunk below it. A deficient +morality is the great blot of modern civilization.... Our whole +social and moral civilization remains in a state of barbarism.... +We are the richest country in the world; and yet nearly one +twentieth of our population are parish paupers, and one thirtieth +known criminals. Add to these the criminals who escape detection, +and the poor who live mainly or partly on private charity (which, +according to Dr. Hawkesley, expends seven millions sterling +annually in London alone), and we may be sure that more than ONE +TENTH of our population are actually Paupers and Criminals." +--ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE + + +VIII + +It was through the transparent darkness of a cloudless April +morning, a little before sunrise, that he saw again the mountains +of his native land,--far lofty sharpening sierras, towering +violet-black out of the circle of an inky sea. Behind the steamer +which was bearing him back from exile the horizon was slowly +filling with rosy flame. There were some foreigners already on +deck, eager to obtain the first and fairest view of Fuji from the +Pacific;--for the first sight of Fuji at dawn is not to be +forgotten in this life or the next. They watched the long +procession of the ranges, and looked over the jagged looming into +the deep night, where stars were faintly burning still,--and they +could not see Fuji. "Ah!" laughed an officer they questioned, +"you are looking too low! higher up--much higher!" Then they +looked up, up, up into the heart of the sky, and saw the mighty +summit pinkening like a wondrous phantom lotos-bud in the flush +of the coming day: a spectacle that smote them dumb. Swiftly the +eternal snow yellowed into gold, then whitened as the sun reached +out beams to it over the curve of the world, over the shadowy +ranges, over the very stars, it seemed; for the giant base +remained viewless. And the night fled utterly; and soft blue +light bathed all the hollow heaven; and colors awoke from sleep; +--and before the gazers there opened the luminous bay of +Yokohama, with the sacred peak, its base ever invisible, hanging +above all like a snowy ghost in the arch of the infinite day. + +Still in the wanderer's ears the words rang, "_Ah! you are +looking too low!--higher up--much higher!_"--making vague rhythm +with an immense, irresistible emotion swelling at his heart. Then +everything dimmed: he saw neither Fuji above, nor the nearing +hills below, changing their vapory blue to green, nor the +crowding of the ships in the bay; nor anything of the modern +Japan; he saw the Old. The land-wind, delicately scented with +odors of spring, rushed to him, touched his blood, and startled +from long-closed cells of memory the shades of all that he had +once abandoned and striven to forget. He saw the faces of his +dead: he knew their voices over the graves of the years. Again he +was a very little boy in his father's yashiki, wandering from +luminous room to room, playing in sunned spaces where +leaf-shadows trembled on the matting, or gazing into the soft +green dreamy peace of the landscape garden. Once more he felt the +light touch of his mother's hand guiding his little steps to the +place of morning worship, before the household shrine, before the +tablets of the ancestors; and the lips of the man murmured again, +with sudden new-found meaning, the simple prayer of the child. + + + +XI + +IN THE TWILIGHT OF THE GODS + +"Do you know anything about josses?" + +"Josses?" + +"Yes; idols, Japanese idols,--josses." +"Something," I answered, "but not very much." + +"Well, come, and look at my collection, won't you? I've been +collecting josses for twenty years, and I've got some worth +seeing. They're not for sale, though,--except to the British +Museum." + +I followed the curio dealer through the bric-a-brac of his shop, +and across a paved yard into an unusually large go-down(1). Like +all go-downs it was dark: I could barely discern a stairway +sloping up through gloom. He paused at the foot. + +"You'll be able to see better in a moment," he said. "I had this +place built expressly for them; but now it is scarcely big +enough. They're all in the second story. Go right up; only be +careful,--the steps are bad." + +I climbed, and reached a sort of gloaming, under a very high +roof, and found myself face to face with the gods. + +In the dusk of the great go-down the spectacle was more than +weird: it was apparitional. Arhats and Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, +and the shapes of a mythology older than they, filled all the +shadowy space; not ranked by hierarchies, as in a temple, but +mingled without order, as in a silent panic. Out of the +wilderness of multiple heads and broken aureoles and hands +uplifted in menace or in prayer,--a shimmering confusion of dusty +gold half lighted by cobwebbed air-holes in the heavy walls,--I +could at first discern little; then, as the dimness cleared, I +began to distinguish personalities. I saw Kwannon, of many forms; +Jizo, of many names; Shaka, Yakushi, Amida, the Buddhas and their +disciples. They were very old; and their art was not all of +Japan, nor of any one place or time: there were shapes from +Korea, China, India,--treasures brought over sea in the rich days +of the early Buddhist missions. Some were seated upon +lotos-flowers, the lotos-flowers of the Apparitional Birth. Some +rode leopards, tigers, lions, or monsters mystical,--typifying +lightning, typifying death. One, triple-headed and many-handed, +sinister and splendid, seemed moving through the gloom on a +throne of gold, uplifted by a phalanx of elephants. Fudo I saw, +shrouded and shrined in fire, and Maya-Fujin, riding her +celestial peacock; and strangely mingling with these Buddhist +visions, as in the anachronism of a Limbo, armored effigies of +Daimyo and images of the Chinese sages. There were huge forms of +wrath, grasping thunderbolts, and rising to the roof: the +Deva-kings, like impersonations of hurricane power; the Ni-O, +guardians of long-vanished temple gates. Also there were forms +voluptuously feminine: the light grace of the limbs folded within +their lotos-cups, the suppleness of the fingers numbering the +numbers of the Good Law, were ideals possibly inspired in some +forgotten tune by the charm of an Indian dancing-girl. Shelved +against the naked brickwork above, I could perceive multitudes of +lesser shapes: demon figures with eyes that burned through the +dark like the eyes of a black cat, and figures half man, half +bird, winged and beaked like eagles,--the _Tengu_ of Japanese +fancy. + +"Well?" queried the curio dealer, with a chuckle of satisfaction +at my evident surprise. + +"It is a very great collection," I responded. + +He clapped his hand on my shoulder, and exclaimed triumphantly in +my ear, "Cost me fifty thousand dollars." + +But the images themselves told me how much more was their cost to +forgotten piety, notwithstanding the cheapness of artistic labor +in the East. Also they told me of the dead millions whose pilgrim +feet had worn hollow the steps leading to their shrines, of the +buried mothers who used to suspend little baby-dresses before +their altars, of the generations of children taught to murmur +prayers to them, of the countless sorrows and hopes confided to +them. Ghosts of the worship of centuries had followed them into +exile; a thin, sweet odor of incense haunted the dusty place. + +"What would you call that?" asked the voice of the curio dealer. +"I've been told it's the best of the lot." + +He pointed to a figure resting upon a triple golden +lotos,--Avalokitesvara: she "_who looketh down above the sound of +prayer."... Storms and hate give way to her name. Fire +is quenched by her name. Demons vanish at the sound of her name. +By her name one may stand firm in the sky, like a sun...._ +The delicacy of the limbs, the tenderness of the smile, were +dreams of the Indian paradise. + +"It is a Kwannon," I made reply, "and very beautiful." + +"Somebody will have to pay me a very beautiful price for it," he +said, with a shrewd wink. "It cost me enough! As a rule, though, +I get these things pretty cheap. There are few people who care to +buy them, and they have to be sold privately, you know: that +gives me an advantage. See that Jizo in the corner,--the big +black fellow? What is it?" + +"Emmei-Jizo," I answered,--"Jizo, the giver of long life. It must +be very old." + +"Well," he said, again taking me by the shoulder, "the man from +whom I got that piece was put in prison for selling it to me." + +Then he burst into a hearty laugh,--whether at the recollection +of his own cleverness in the transaction, or at the unfortunate +simplicity of the person who had sold the statue contrary to law, +I could not decide. + +"Afterwards," he resumed, "they wanted to get it back again, and +offered me more, than I had given for it. But I held on. I don't +know everything about josses, but I do know what they are worth. +There isn't another idol like that in the whole country. The +British Museum will be glad to get it." + +"When do you intend to offer the collection to the British +Museum?" I presumed to ask. + +"Well, I first want to get up a show," he replied. "There's money +to be made by a show of josses in London. London people never saw +anything like this in their lives. Then the church folks help +that sort of a show, if you manage them properly: it advertises +the missions. 'Heathen idols from Japan!'... How do you like the +baby?" + +I was looking at a small gold-colored image of a naked child, +standing, one tiny hand pointing upward, and the other downward, +--representing the Buddha newly born. _Sparkling with light he +came from the womb, as when the Sun first rises in the east.... +Upright he took deliberately seven steps; and the prints of his +feet upon the ground remained burning as seven stars. And he +spake with clearest utterance, saying, "This birth is a Buddha +birth. Re-birth is not for me. Only this last time am I born for +the salvation of all on earth and in heaven._" + +"That is what they call a Tanjo-Shaka," I said. "It looks like +bronze." + +"Bronze it is," he responded, tapping it with his knuckles to +make the metal ring. "The bronze alone is worth more than the +price I paid." + +I looked at the four Devas whose heads almost touched the roof, +and thought of the story of their apparition told in the +Mahavagga. _On a beautiful night the Four Great Kings entered the +holy grove, filling all the place with light; and having +respectfully saluted the Blessed One, they stood in the four +directions, like four great firebrands_. + +"How did you ever manage to get those big figures upstairs?" I +asked. + +"Oh, hauled them up! We've got a hatchway. The real trouble was +getting them here by train. It was the first railroad trip they +ever made.... But look at these here: they will make the +sensation of the show!" + +I looked, and saw two small wooden images, about three feet high. + +"Why do you think they will make a sensation?" I inquired +innocently. + +"Don't you see what they are? They date from the time of the +persecutions. _Japanese devils trampling on the Cross!_" + +They were small temple guardians only; but their feet rested upon +X-shaped supports. + +"Did any person tell you these were devils trampling on the +cross?" I made bold to ask. + +"What else are they doing?" he answered evasively. "Look at the +crosses under their feet!" + +"But they are not devils," I insisted; "and those cross-pieces +were put under their feet simply to give equilibrium." + +He said nothing, but looked disappointed; and I felt a little +sorry for him. _Devils trampling on the Cross_, as a display line +in some London poster announcing the arrival of "josses from +Japan," might certainly have been relied on to catch the public +eye. + +"This is more wonderful," I said, pointing to a beautiful group, +--Maya with the infant Buddha issuing from her side, according to +tradition. _Painlessly the Bodhisattva was born from her right +side. It was the eighth day of the fourth moon_. + +"That's bronze, too," he remarked, tapping it. "Bronze josses are +getting rare. We used to buy them up and sell them for old metal. +Wish I'd kept some of them! You ought to have seen the bronzes, +in those days, coming in from the temples,--bells and vases and +josses! That was the time we tried to buy the Daibutsu at +Kamakura." + +"For old bronze?" I queried. + +"Yes. We calculated the weight of the metal, and formed a +syndicate. Our first offer was thirty thousand. We could have +made a big profit, for there's a good deal of gold and silver in +that work. The priests wanted to sell, but the people wouldn't +let them." + +"It's one of the world's wonders," I said. "Would you really have +broken it up?" + +"Certainly. Why not? What else could you do with it?... That one +there looks just like a Virgin Mary, doesn't it?" + +He pointed to the gilded image of a female clasping a child to +her breast. + +"Yes," I replied; "but it is Kishibojin, the goddess who loves +little children." + +"People talk about idolatry," he went on musingly. "I've seen +things like many of these in Roman Catholic chapels. Seems to me +religion is pretty much the same the world over." + +"I think you are right," I said. + +"Why, the story of Buddha is like the story of Christ, isn't it?" + +"To some degree," I assented. + +"Only, he wasn't crucified." + +I did not answer; thinking of the text, _In all the world there +is not one spot even so large as a mustard-seed where he has not +surrendered his body for the sake of creatures_. Then it suddenly +seemed to me that this was absolutely true. For the Buddha of the +deeper Buddhism is not Gautama, nor yet any one Tathagata, but +simply the divine in man. Chrysalides of the infinite we all are: +each contains a ghostly Buddha, and the millions are but one. All +humanity is potentially the Buddha-to-come, dreaming through the +ages in Illusion; and the teacher's smile will make beautiful the +world again when selfishness shall die. Every noble sacrifice +brings nearer the hour of his awakening; and who may justly +doubt--remembering the myriads of the centuries of man--that even +now there does not remain one place on earth where life has not +been freely given for love or duty? + + +I felt the curio dealer's hand on my shoulder again. + +"At all events," he cried in a cheery tone, "they'll be +appreciated in the British Museum--eh?" + +"I hope so. They ought to be." + +Then I fancied them immured somewhere in that vast necropolis of +dead gods, under the gloom of a pea-soup-fog, chambered with +forgotten divinities of Egypt or Babylon, and trembling faintly +at the roar of London,--all to what end? Perhaps to aid another +Alma Tadema to paint the beauty of another vanished civilization; +perhaps to assist the illustration of an English Dictionary of +Buddhism; perhaps to inspire some future laureate with a metaphor +startling as Tennyson's figure of the "oiled and curled Assyrian +bull." Assuredly they would not be preserved in vain. The +thinkers of a less conventional and selfish era would teach new +reverence for them. Each eidolon shaped by human faith remains +the shell of a truth eternally divine, and even the shell itself +may hold a ghostly power. The soft serenity, the passionless +tenderness, of these Buddha faces might yet give peace of soul to +a West weary of creeds transformed into conventions, eager for +the coming of another teacher to proclaim, "_I have the same +feeling for the high as for the low, for the moral as for the +immoral, for the depraved as for the virtuous, for those holding +sectarian views and false opinions as for those whose beliefs are +good and true_." + +(1) A name given to fireproof storehouses in the open ports of +the Far East. The word is derived from the Malay gadong. + + + +XII + +THE IDEA OF PRE-EXISTENCE + +"If A Bikkhu should desire, O brethren, to call to mind his +various temporary states in days gone by--such as one birth, two +births, three, four, five, ten, twenty, thirty, fifty, one +hundred, or one thousand, or one hundred thousand births,-in all +their modes and all their details, let him be devoted to quietude +of heart,--let him look through things, let him be much alone." +--Akankheyya Sutta. + + +I + +Were I to ask any reflecting Occidental, who had passed some +years in the real living atmosphere of Buddhism, what fundamental +idea especially differentiates Oriental modes of thinking from +our own, I am sure he would answer: "The Idea of Pre-existence." +It is this idea, more than any other, which permeates the whole +mental being of the Far East. It is universal as the wash of air: +it colors every emotion; it influences, directly or indirectly, +almost every act. Its symbols are perpetually visible, even in +details of artistic decoration; and hourly by day or night, some +echoes of its language float uninvited to the ear. The utterances +of the people,--their household sayings, their proverbs, their +pious or profane exclamations, their confessions of sorrow, hope, +joy, or despair,--are all informed with it. It qualifies equally +the expression of hate or the speech of affection; and the term +_ingwa_, or _innen_,--meaning karma as inevitable retribution, +--comes naturally to every lip as an interpretation, as a +consolation, or as a reproach. The peasant toiling up some steep +road, and feeling the weight of his handcart straining every +muscle, murmurs patiently: "Since this is ingwa, it must be +suffered." Servants disputing, ask each other, "By reason of what +ingwa must I now dwell with such a one as you?" The incapable or +vicious man is reproached with his ingwa; and the misfortunes of +the wise or the virtuous are explained by the same Buddhist word. +The law-breaker confesses his crime, saying: "That which I did I +knew to be wicked when doing; but my ingwa was stronger than my +heart." Separated lovers seek death under the belief that their +union in this life is banned by the results of their sins in a +former one; and, the victim of an injustice tries to allay his +natural anger by the self-assurance that he is expiating some +forgotten fault which had to, be expiated in the eternal order of +things.... So likewise even the commonest references to a +spiritual future imply the general creed of a spiritual past. The +mother warns her little ones at play about the effect of +wrong-doing upon their future births, as the children of other +parents. The pilgrim or the street-beggar accepts your alms with +the prayer that your next birth may be fortunate. The aged +_inkyo_, whose sight and hearing begin to fail, talks cheerily of +the impending change that is to provide him with a fresh young +body. And the expressions _Yakusoku_, signifying the Buddhist +idea of necessity; _mae no yo_, the last life; _akirame_, +resignation, recur as frequently in Japanese common parlance as +do the words "right" and "wrong" in English popular speech. + +After long dwelling in this psychological medium, you find that +it has penetrated your own thought, and has effected therein +various changes. All concepts of life implied by the idea of +preexistence,--all those beliefs which, however sympathetically +studied, must at first have seemed more than strange to you,-- +finally lose that curious or fantastic character with which +novelty once invested them, and present themselves under a +perfectly normal aspect. They explain so many things so well as +even to look rational; and quite rational some assuredly are when +measured by the scientific thought of the nineteenth century. But +to judge them fairly, it is first necessary to sweep the mind +clear of all Western ideas of metempsychosis. For there is no +resemblance between the old Occidental conceptions of soul--the +Pythagorean or the Platonic, for example--and the Buddhist +conception; and it is precisely because of this unlikeness that +the Japanese beliefs prove themselves reasonable. The profound +difference between old-fashioned Western thought and Eastern +thought in this regard is, that for the Buddhist the conventional +soul--the single, tenuous, tremulous, transparent inner man, or +ghost--does not exist. The Oriental Ego is not individual. Nor is +it even a definitely numbered multiple like the Gnostic soul. It +is an aggregate or composite of inconceivable complexity,--the +concentrated sum of the creative thinking of previous lives +beyond all reckoning. + + +II + +The interpretative power of Buddhism, and the singular accord of +its theories with the facts of modern science, appear especially +in that domain of psychology whereof Herbert Spencer has been the +greatest of all explorers. No small part of our psychological +life is composed of feelings which Western theology never could +explain. Such are those which cause the still speechless infant +to cry at the sight of certain faces, or to smile at the sight of +others. Such are those instantaneous likes or dislikes +experienced on meeting strangers, those repulsions or attractions +called "first impressions," which intelligent children are prone +to announce with alarming frankness, despite all assurance that +"people must not be judged by appearances": a doctrine no child +in his heart believes. To call these feelings instinctive or +intuitive, in the theological meaning of instinct or intuition, +explains nothing at all--merely cuts off inquiry into the mystery +of life, just like the special creation hypothesis. The idea that +a personal impulse or emotion might be more than individual, +except through demoniacal possession, still seems to +old-fashioned orthodoxy a monstrous heresy. Yet it is now certain +that most of our deeper feelings are superindividual,--both those +which we classify as passional, and those which we call sublime. +The individuality of the amatory passion is absolutely denied by +science; and what is true of love at first sight is also true of +hate: both are superindividual. So likewise are those vague +impulses to wander which come and go with spring, and those vague +depressions experienced in autumn,--survivals, perhaps, from an +epoch in which human migration followed the course of the +seasons, or even from an era preceding the apparition of man. +Superindividual also those emotions felt by one who, after having +passed the greater part of a life on plain or prairies, first +looks upon a range of snow-capped peaks; or the sensations of +some dweller in the interior of a continent when he first beholds +the ocean, and hears its eternal thunder. The delight, always +toned with awe, which the sight of a stupendous landscape evokes; +Or that speechless admiration, mingled with melancholy +inexpressible, which the splendor of a tropical sunset +creates,--never can be interpreted by individual experience. +Psychological analysis has indeed shown these emotions to be +prodigiously complex, and interwoven with personal experiences of +many kinds; but in either case the deeper wave of feeling is +never individual: it is a surging up from that ancestral sea of +life out of which we came. To the same psychological category +possibly belongs likewise a peculiar feeling which troubled men's +minds long before the time of Cicero, and troubles them even more +betimes in our own generation,--the feeling of having already +seen a place really visited for the first time. Some strange air +of familiarity about the streets of a foreign town, or the forms +of a foreign landscape, comes to the mind with a sort of soft +weird shock, and leaves one vainly ransacking memory for +interpretations. Occasionally, beyond question, similar +sensations are actually produced by the revival or recombination +of former relations in consciousness; but there would seem to be +many which remain wholly mysterious when we attempt to explain +them by individual experience. + +Even in the most common of our sensations there are enigmas never +to be solved by those holding the absurd doctrine that all +feeling and cognition belong to individual experience, and that +the mind of the child newly-born is a _tabula rasa_. The pleasure +excited by the perfume of a flower, by certain shades of color, +by certain tones of music; the involuntary loathing or fear +aroused by the first sight of dangerous or venomous life; even +the nameless terror of dreams,--are all inexplicable upon the +old-fashioned soul-hypothesis. How deeply-reaching into the life +of the race some of these sensations are, such as the pleasure in +odors and in colors, Grant Allen has most effectively suggested +in his "Physiological Aesthetics," and in his charming treatise +on the Color-Sense. But long before these were written, his +teacher, the greatest of all psychologists, had clearly proven +that the experience-hypothesis was utterly inadequate to account +for many classes of psychological phenomena. "If possible," +observes Herbert Spencer, "it is even more at fault in respect to +the emotions than to the cognitions. The doctrine that all the +desires, all the sentiments, are generated by the experiences of +the individual, is so glaringly at variance with facts that I +cannot but wonder how any one should ever have ventured to +entertain it." It was Mr. Spencer, also, who showed us that words +like "instinct," "intuition," have no true signification in the +old sense; they must hereafter be used in a very different one. +Instinct, in the language of modern psychology, means "organized +memory," and memory itself is "incipient instinct,"--the sum of +impressions to be inherited by the next succeeding individual in +the chain of life. Thus science recognizes inherited memory: not +in the ghostly signification of a remembering of the details of +former lives, but as a minute addition to psychological life +accompanied by minute changes in the structure of the inherited +nervous system. "The human brain is an organized register of +infinitely numerous experiences received during the evolution of +life, or rather, during the evolution of that series of organisms +through which the human organism has been reached. The effects of +the most uniform and frequent of these experiences have been +successively bequeathed, principal and interest; and have slowly +amounted to that high intelligence which lies latent in the brain +of the infant--which the infant in after-life exercises and +perhaps strengthens or further complicates--and which, with +minute additions, it bequeaths to future generations(1)." Thus we +have solid physiological ground for the idea of pre-existence and +the idea of a multiple Ego. It is incontrovertible that in every +individual brain is looked up the inherited memory of the +absolutely inconceivable multitude of experiences received by all +the brains of which it is the descendant. But this scientific +assurance of self in the past is uttered in no materialistic +sense. Science is the destroyer of materialism: it has proven +matter incomprehensible; and it confesses the mystery of mind +insoluble, even while obliged to postulate an ultimate unit of +sensation. Out of the units of simple sensation, older than we by +millions of years, have undoubtedly been built up all the +emotions and faculties of man. Here Science, in accord with +Buddhism, avows the Ego composite, and, like Buddhism, explains +the psychical riddles of the present by the psychical experiences +of the past. + +(1) Principles of Psychology: "The Feelings." + + + +III + +To many persons it must seem that the idea of Soul as an infinite +multiple would render impossible any idea of religion in the +Western sense; and those unable to rid themselves of old +theological conceptions doubtless imagine that even in Buddhist +countries, and despite the evidence of Buddhist texts, the faith +of the common people is really based upon the idea of the soul as +a single entity. But Japan furnishes remarkable proof to the +contrary. The uneducated common people, the poorest country-folk +who have never studied Buddhist metaphysics, believe the self +composite. What is even more remarkable is that in the primitive +faith, Shinto, a kindred doctrine exists; and various forms of +the belief seem to characterize the thought of the Chinese and of +the Koreans. All these peoples of the Far East seem to consider +the soul compound; whether in the Buddhist sense, or in the +primitive sense represented by Shinto (a sort of ghostly +multiplying by fission), or in the fantastic sense elaborated by +Chinese astrology. In Japan I have fully satisfied myself that +the belief is universal. It is not necessary to quote here from +the Buddhist texts, because the common or popular beliefs, and +not the philosophy of a creed, can alone furnish evidence that +religious fervor is compatible and consistent with the notion of +a composite soul. Certainly the Japanese peasant does not think +the psychical Self nearly so complex a thing as Buddhist +philosophy considers it, or as Western science proves it to be. +_But he thinks of himself as multiple_. The struggle within him +between impulses good and evil he explains as a conflict between +the various ghostly wills that make up his Ego; and his spiritual +hope is to disengage his better self or selves from his worse +selves,--Nirvana, or the supreme bliss, being attainable only +through the survival of the best within him. Thus his religion +appears to be founded upon a natural perception of psychical +evolution not nearly so remote from scientific thought as are +those conventional notions of soul held by our common people at +home. Of course his ideas on these abstract subjects are vague +and unsystematized; but their general character and tendencies +are unmistakable; and there can be no question whatever as to the +earnestness of his faith, or as to the influence of that faith +upon his ethical life. + +Wherever belief survives among the educated classes, the same +ideas obtain definition and synthesis. I may cite, in example, +two selections from compositions, written by students aged +respectively twenty-three and twenty-six. I might as easily cite +a score; but the following will sufficiently indicate what I +mean:-- + +"Nothing is more foolish than to declare the immortality of the +soul. The soul is a compound; and though its elements be eternal, +we know they can never twice combine in exactly the same way. All +compound things must change their character and their +conditions." + +"Human life is composite. A combination of energies make the +soul. When a man dies his soul may either remain unchanged, or be +changed according to that which it combines with. Some +philosophers say the soul is immortal; some, that it is mortal. +They are both right. The soul is mortal or immortal according to +the change of the combinations composing it. The elementary +energies from which the soul is formed are, indeed, eternal; but +the nature of the soul is determined by the character of the +combinations into which those energies enter." + + +Now the ideas expressed in these compositions will appear to the +Western reader, at first view, unmistakably atheistic. Yet they +are really compatible with the sincerest and deepest faith. It +is the use of the English word "soul," not understood at all as +we understand it, which creates the false impression. "Soul," in +the sense used by the young writers, means an almost infinite +combination of both good and evil tendencies,--a compound doomed +to disintegration not only by the very fact of its being a +compound, but also by the eternal law of spiritual progress. + + +IV + +That the idea, which has been for thousands of years so vast a +factor in Oriental thought-life, should have failed to develop +itself in the West till within, our own day, is sufficiently +explained by Western theology. Still, it would not be correct to +say that theology succeeded in rendering the notion of +pre-existence absolutely repellent to Occidental minds. Though +Christian doctrine, holding each soul specially created out of +nothing to fit each new body, permitted no avowed beliefs in +pre-existence, popular common-sense recognized a contradiction of +dogma in the phenomena of heredity. In the same way, while +theology decided animals to be mere automata, moved by a sort of +incomprehensible machinery called instinct, the people generally +recognized that animals had reasoning powers. The theories of +instinct and of intuition held even a generation ago seem utterly +barbarous to-day. They were commonly felt to be useless as +interpretations; but as dogmas they served to check speculation +and to prevent heresy. Wordsworth's "Fidelity" and his +marvelously overrated "Intimations of Immortality" bear witness +to the extreme timidity and crudeness of Western notions on these +subjects even at the beginning of the century. The love of the +dog for his master is indeed "great beyond all human estimate," +but for reasons Wordsworth never dreamed about; and although the +fresh sensations of childhood are certainly intimations of +something much more wonderful than Wordsworth's denominational +idea of immortality, his famous stanza concerning them has been +very justly condemned by Mr. John Morley as nonsense. Before the +decay of theology, no rational ideas of psychological +inheritance, of the true nature of instinct, or of the unity of +life, could possibly have forced their way to general +recognition. + +But with the acceptance of the doctrine of evolution, old forms +of thought crumbled; new ideas everywhere arose to take the place +of worn-out dogmas; and we now have the spectacle of a general +intellectual movement in directions strangely parallel with +Oriental philosophy. The unprecedented rapidity and +multiformity of scientific progress during the last fifty years +could not have failed to provoke an equally unprecedented +intellectual quickening among the non-scientific. That the +highest and most complex organisms have been developed from the +lowest and simplest; that a single physical basis of life is the +substance of the whole living world; that no line of separation +can be drawn between the animal and vegetable; that the +difference between life and non-life is only a difference of +degree, not of kind; that matter is not less incomprehensible +than mind, while both are but varying manifestations of one and +the same unknown reality,--these have already become the +commonplaces of the new philosophy. After the first recognition +even by theology of physical evolution, it was easy to predict +that the recognition of psychical evolution could not be +indefinitely delayed; for the barrier erected by old dogma to +keep men from looking backward had been broken down. And to-day +for the student of scientific psychology the idea of +pre-existence passes out of the realm of theory into the realm of +fact, proving the Buddhist explanation of the universal mystery +quite as plausible as any other. "None but very hasty thinkers," +wrote the late Professor Huxley, "will reject it on the ground of +inherent absurdity. Like the doc-trine of evolution itself, that +of transmigration has its roots in the world of reality; and it +may claim such support as the great argument from analogy is +capable of supplying(1)." + +Now this support, as given by Professor Huxley, is singularly +strong. It offers us no glimpse of a single soul flitting from +darkness to light, from death to rebirth, through myriads of +millions of years; but it leaves the main idea of pre-existence +almost exactly in the form enunciated by the Buddha himself. In +the Oriental doctrine, the psychical personality, like the +individual body, is an aggregate doomed to disintegration By +psychical personality I mean here that which distinguishes mind +from mind,--the "me" from the "you": that which we call self. To +Buddhism this is a temporary composite of illusions. What makes +it is the karma. What reincarnates is the karma,--the sum-total +of the acts and thoughts of countless anterior existences,--each +existences,--each one of which, as an integer in some great +spiritual system of addition and subtraction, may affect all the +rest. Like a magnetism, the karma is transmitted from form to +form, from phenomenon to phenomenon, determining conditions by +combinations. The ultimate mystery of the concentrative and +creative effects of karma the Buddhist acknowledges to be +inscrutable; but the cohesion of effects he declares to be +produced by tanha, the desire of life, corresponding to what +Schopenhauer called the "will" to live. Now we find in Herbert +Spencer's "Biology" a curious parallel for this idea. He explains +the transmission of tendencies, and their variations, by a theory +of polarities,--polarities of the physiological unit between +this theory of polarities and the Buddhist theory of tanha, the +difference is much less striking than the resemblance. Karma or +heredity, tanha or polarity, are inexplicable as to their +ultimate nature: Buddhism and Science are here at one. The fact +worthy of attention is that both recognize the same phenomena +under different names. + +(1) Evolution and Ethics, p.61 (ed 1894). + + +V + +The prodigious complexity of the methods by which Science has +arrived at conclusions so strangely in harmony with the ancient +thought of the East, may suggest the doubt whether those +conclusions could ever be made clearly comprehensible to the mass +of Western minds. Certainly it would seem that just as the real +doctrines of Buddhism can be taught to the majority of believers +through forms only, so the philosophy of science can be +communicated to the masses through suggestion only,--suggestion +of such facts, or arrangements of fact, as must appeal to any +naturally intelligent mind. But the history of scientific +progress assures the efficiency of this method; and there is no +strong reason for the supposition that, because the processes of +the higher science remain above the mental reach of the +unscientific classes, the conclusions of that science will not be +generally accepted. The dimensions and weights of planets; the +distances and the composition of stars; the law of gravitation; +the signification of heat, light, and color; the nature of sound, +and a host of other scientific discoveries, are familiar to +thousands quite ignorant of the details of the methods by which +such knowledge was obtained. Again we have evidence that every +great progressive movement of science during the century has been +followed by considerable modifications of popular beliefs. +Already the churches, though clinging still to the hypothesis of +a specially-created soul, have accepted the main doctrine of +physical evolution; and neither fixity of belief nor intellectual +retrogression can be rationally expected in the immediate future. +Further changes of religious ideas are to be looked for; and it +is even likely that they will be effected rapidly rather than +slowly. Their exact nature, indeed, cannot be predicted; but +existing intellectual tendencies imply that the doctrine of. +psychological evolution must be accepted, though not at once so +as to set any final limit to ontological speculation; and that +the whole conception of the Ego will be eventually transformed +through the consequently developed idea of pre-existence. + + +VI + +More detailed consideration of these probabilities may be +ventured. They will not, perhaps, be acknowledged as +probabilities by persons who regard science as a destroyer rather +than a modifier. But such thinkers forget that religious feeling +is something infinitely more profound than dogma; that it +survives all gods and all forms of creed; and that it only widens +and deepens and gathers power with intellectual expansion. That +as mere doctrine religion will ultimately pass away is a +conclusion to which the study of evolution leads; but that +religion as feeling, or even as faith in the unknown power +shaping equally a brain or a constellation, can ever utterly die, +is not at present conceivable. Science wars only upon erroneous +interpretations of phenomena; it only magnifies the cosmic +mystery, and proves that everything, however minute, is +infinitely wonderful and incomprehensible. And it is this +indubitable tendency of science to broaden beliefs and to magnify +cosmic emotion which justifies the supposition that future +modifications of Western religious ideas will be totally unlike +any modifications effected in the past; that the Occidental +conception of Self will orb into something akin to the Oriental +conception of Self; and that all present petty metaphysical +notions of personality and individuality as realities per se will +be annihilated. Already the growing popular comprehension of the +facts of heredity, as science teaches them, indicates the path by +which some, at least, of these modifications will be reached. In +the coming contest over the great question of psychological +evolution, common intelligence will follow Science along the line +of least resistance; and that line will doubtless be the study of +heredity, since the phenomena to be considered, however in +themselves uninterpretable, are familiar to general experience, +and afford partial answers to countless old enigmas. It is thus +quite possible to imagine a coming form of Western religion +supported by the whole power of synthetic philosophy, differing +from Buddhism mainly in the greater exactness of its conceptions, +holding the soul as a composite, and teaching a new spiritual law +resembling the doctrine of karma. + +An objection to this idea will, however, immediately present +itself to many minds. Such a modification of belief, it will be +averred, would signify the sudden conquest and transformation of +feelings by ideas. "The world," says Herbert Spencer, "is not +governed by ideas, but by feelings, to which ideas serve only as +guides." How are the notions of a change, such as that supposed, +to be reconciled with common knowledge of existing religious +sentiment in the West, and the force of religious emotionalism? + +Were the ideas of pre-existence and of the soul as multiple +really antagonistic to Western religious sentiment, no +satisfactory answer could be made. But are they so antagonistic? +The idea of pre-existence certainly is not; the Occidental mind +is already prepared for it. It is true that the notion of Self as +a composite, destined to dissolution, may seem little better than +the materialistic idea of annihilation,--at least to those still +unable to divest themselves of the old habits of thought. +Nevertheless, impartial reflection will show that there is no +emotional reason for dreading the disintegration of the Ego. +Actually, though unwittingly, it is for this very disintegration +that Christians and Buddhists alike perpetually pray. Who has not +often wished to rid himself of the worse parts of his nature, of +tendencies to folly or to wrong, of impulses to say or do unkind +things,--of all that lower inheritance which still clings about +the higher man, and weighs down his finest aspirations? Yet that +of which we so earnestly desire the separation, the elimination, +the death, is not less surely a part of psychological +inheritance, of veritable Self, than are those younger and larger +faculties which help to the realization of noble ideals. Rather +than an end to be feared, the dissolution of Self is the one +object of all objects to which our efforts should be turned. What +no new philosophy can forbid us to hope is that the best elements +of Self will thrill on to seek loftier affinities, to enter into +grander and yet grander combinations, till the supreme revelation +comes, and we discern, through infinite vision,--through the +vanishing of all Self,--the Absolute Reality. + +For while we know that even the so-called elements themselves are +evolving, we have no proof that anything utterly dies. That we +are is the certainty that, we have been and will be. We have +survived countless evolutions, countless universes. We know that +through the Cosmos all is law. No chance decides what units shall +form the planetary core, or what shall feel the sun; what shall +be locked in granite and basalt, or shall multiply in plant and +in animal. So far as reason can venture to infer from analogy, +the cosmical history of every ultimate unit, psychological or +physical, is determined just as surely and as exactly as in the +Buddhist doctrine of karma. + + +VII + +The influence of Science will not be the only factor in the +modification of Western religious beliefs: Oriental philosophy +will certainly furnish another. Sanscrit, Chinese, and Pali +scholarship, and the tireless labor of philologists in all parts +of the East, are rapidly familiarizing Europe and America with +all the great forms of Oriental thought; Buddhism is being +studied with interest throughout the Occident; and the results of +these studies are yearly showing themselves more and more +definitely in the mental products of the highest culture. The +schools of philosophy are not more visibly affected than the +literature of the period. Proof that a reconsideration of the +problem of the Ego is everywhere forcing itself upon Occidental +minds, may be found not only in the thoughtful prose of the time, +but even in its poetry and its romance. Ideas impossible a +generation ago are changing current thought, destroying old +tastes, and developing higher feelings. Creative art, working +under larger inspiration, is telling what absolutely novel and +exquisite sensations, what hitherto unimaginable pathos, what +marvelous deepening of emotional power, may be gained in +literature with the recognition of the idea of pre-existence. +Even in fiction we learn that we have been living in a hemisphere +only; that we have been thinking but half-thoughts; that we need +a new faith to join past with future over the great parallel of +the present, and so to round out our emotional world into a +perfect sphere. The clear conviction that the self is multiple, +however paradoxical the statement seem, is the absolutely +necessary step to the vaster conviction that the many are One, +that life is unity, that there is no finite, but only infinite. +Until that blind pride which imagines Self unique shall have been +broken down, and the feeling of self and of selfishness shall +have been utterly decomposed, the knowledge of the Ego as +infinite,--as the very Cosmos,--never can be reached. + + +Doubtless the simple emotional conviction that we have been in +the past will be developed long before the intellectual +conviction that the Ego as one is a fiction of selfishness. But +the composite nature of Self must at last be acknowledged, though +its mystery remain. Science postulates a hypothetical +psychological unit as well as a hypothetical physiological unit; +but either postulated entity defies the uttermost power of +mathematical estimate,--seems to resolve itself into pure +ghostliness. The chemist, for working purposes, must imagine an +ultimate atom; but the fact of which the imagined atom is the +symbol may be a force centre only,--nay, a void, a vortex, an +emptiness, as in Buddhist concept. "_Form is emptiness, and +emptiness is form. What is form, that is emptiness; what is +emptiness, that is form. Perception and conception, name and +knowledge,--all these are emptiness._" For science and for +Buddhism alike the cosmos resolves itself into a vast +phantasmagoria,--a mere play of unknown and immeasurable forces. +Buddhist faith, however, answers the questions "Whence?" and +"Whither?" in its own fashion, and predicts in every great cycle +of evolution a period of spiritual expansion in which the memory +of former births returns, and all the future simultaneously opens +before the vision unveiled, even to the heaven of heavens. +Science here remains dumb. But her silence is the Silence of the +Gnostics,--Sige, the Daughter of Depth and the Mother of Spirit. + +What we may allow ourselves to believe, with the full consent of +Science, is that marvelous revelations await us. Within recent +time new senses and powers have been developed,--the sense of +music, the ever-growing faculties of the mathematician. +Reasonably it may be expected that still higher unimaginable +faculties will be evolved in our descendants. Again it is known +that certain mental capacities, undoubtedly inherited, develop in +old age only; and the average life of the human race is steadily +lengthening. With increased longevity there surely may come into +sudden being, through the unfolding of the larger future brain, +powers not less wonderful than the ability to remember former +births. The dreams of Buddhism can scarcely be surpassed, because +they touch the infinite; but who can presume to say they never +will be realized? + +NOTE. + +It may be necessary to remind some of those kind enough to read +the foregoing that the words "soul," "self," "ego," +"transmigration," "heredity," although freely used by me, convey +meanings entirely foreign to Buddhist philosophy, "Soul," in the +English sense of the word, does not exist for the Buddhist. +"Self" is an illusion, or rather a plexus of illusions. +"Transmigration," as the passing of soul from one body to +another, is expressly denied in Buddhist texts of unquestionable +authority. It will therefore be evident that the real analogy +which does exist between the doctrine of karma and the scientific +facts of heredity is far from complete. Karma signifies the +survival, not of the same composite individuality, but of its +tendencies, which recombine to form a new composite +individuality. The new being does not necessarily take even a +human form: the karma does not descend from parent to child; it +is independent of the line of heredity, although physical +conditions of life seem to depend upon karma. The karma-being of +a beggar may have rebirth in the body of a king; that of a king +in the body of a beggar; yet the conditions of either +reincarnation have been predetermined by the influence of karma. + +It will be asked, What then is the spiritual element in each +being that continues unchanged,--the spiritual kernel, so to +speak, within the shell of karma,--the power that makes for +righteousness? If soul and body alike are temporary composites, +and the karma (itself temporary) the only source of personality, +what is the worth or meaning of Buddhist doctrine? What is it +that suffers by karma; what is it that lies within the illusion, +--that makes progress,--that attains Nirvana? Is it not a self? +Not in our sense of the word. The reality of what we call self is +denied by Buddhism. That which forms and dissolves the karma; +that which makes for righteousness; that which reaches Nirvana, +is not our Ego in our Western sense of the word. Then what is it? +It is the divine in each being. It is called in Japanese +Muga-no-taiga,--the Great Self-without-selfishness. There Is no +other true self. The self wrapped in illusion is called +Nyorai-zo,--(Tathagata-gharba),--the Buddha yet unborn, as one in +a womb. The Infinite exists potentially in every being. That is +the Reality. The other self is a falsity,---a lie,--a mirage. The +doctrine of extinction refers only to the extinction of +Illusions; and those sensations and feelings and thoughts, which +belong to this life of the flesh alone, are the illusions which +make the complex illusive self. By the total decomposition of +this false self,--as by a tearing away of veils, the Infinite +Vision comes. There is no "soul": the Infinite All-Soul is the +only eternal principle in any being;--all the rest is dream. + +What remains in Nirvana? According to one school of Buddhism +potential identity in the infinite,--so that a Buddha, after +having reached Nirvana, can return to earth. According to +another, identity more than potential, yet not in our sense +"personal." A Japanese friend says:--"I take a piece of gold, and +say it is one. But this means that it produces on my visual +organs a single impression. Really in the multitude of atoms +composing it each atom is nevertheless distinct and separate, and +independent of every other atom. In Buddhahood even so are united +psychical atoms innumerable. They are one as to condition;--yet +each has its own independent existence." + +But in Japan the primitive religion has so affected the common +class of Buddhist beliefs that it is not incorrect to speak of +the Japanese "idea of self." It is only necessary that the +popular Shinto idea be simultaneously considered. In Shinto we +have the plainest possible evidence of the conception of soul. +But this soul is a composite,--not a mere "bundle of sensations, +perceptions, and volitions," like the karma-being, but a number +of souls united to form one ghostly personality. A dead man's +ghost may appear as one or as many. It can separate its units, +each of which remains capable of a special independent action. +Such separation, however, appears to be temporary, the various +souls of the composite naturally cohering even after death, and +reuniting after any voluntary separation. The vast mass of the +Japanese people are both Buddhists and Shintoists; but the +primitive beliefs concerning the self are certainly the most +powerful, and in the blending of the two faiths remain distinctly +recognizable. They have probably supplied to common imagination a +natural and easy explanation of the difficulties of the +karma-doctrine, though to what extent I am not prepared to say. +Be it also observed that in the primitive as well as in the +Buddhist form of belief the self is not a principle transmitted +from parent to offspring,--not an inheritance always dependent +upon physiological descent. + +These facts will indicate how wide is the difference between +Eastern ideas and our own upon the subject of the preceding +essay. They will also show that any general consideration of the +real analogies existing between this strange combination of +Far-Eastern beliefs and the scientific thought of the nineteenth +century could scarcely be made intelligible by strict +philosophical accuracy in the use of terms relating to the idea +of self. Indeed, there are no European words capable of rendering +the exact meaning of the Buddhist terms belonging to Buddhist +Idealism. + + +Perhaps it may be regarded as illegitimate to wander from that +position so tersely enunciated by Professor Huxley in his essay +on "Sensation and the Sensiferous Organs:" "In ultimate analysis +it appears that a sensation is the equivalent in terms of +consciousness for a mode of motion of the matter of the +sensorium. But if inquiry is pushed a stage further, and the +question is asked, What, then, do we know about matter and +motion? there is but one reply possible. All we know about motion +is that it is a name for certain changes in the relations of our +visual, tactile, and muscular sensations; and all we know about +matter is that it is the hypothetical substance of physical +phenomena, _the assumption of which is as pure a piece of +metaphysical speculation as is that of a substance of mind_." But +metaphysical speculation certainly will not cease because of +scientific recognition that ultimate truth is beyond the utmost +possible range of human knowledge. Rather, for that very reason, +it will continue. Perhaps it will never wholly cease. Without it +there can be no further modification of religious beliefs, and +without modifications there can be no religious progress in +harmony with scientific thought. Therefore, metaphysical +speculation seems to me not only justifiable, but necessary. + +Whether we accept or deny a _substance_ of mind; whether we +imagine thought produced by the play of some unknown element +through the cells of the brain, as music is made by the play of +wind through the strings of a harp; whether we regard the motion +itself as a special mode of vibration inherent in and peculiar to +the units of the cerebral structure,--still the mystery is +infinite, and still Buddhism remains a noble moral working- +hypothesis, in deep accord with the aspirations of mankind and +with the laws of ethical progression. Whether we believe or +disbelieve in the reality of that which is called the material +universe, still the ethical significance of the inexplicable laws +of heredity--of the transmission of both racial and personal +tendencies in the unspecialized reproductive cell--remains to +justify the doctrine of karma. Whatever be that which makes +consciousness, its relation to all the past and to all the future +is unquestionable. Nor can the doctrine of Nirvana ever cease to +command the profound respect of the impartial thinker. Science +has found evidence that known substance is not less a product of +evolution than mind,--that all our so-called "elements" have been +evolved out of "one primary undifferentiated form of matter." And +this evidence is startlingly suggestive of some underlying truth +in the Buddhist doctrine of emanation and illusion,--the +evolution of all forms from the Formless, of all material +phenomena from immaterial Unity,--and the ultimate return of all +into "that state which is empty of lusts, of malice, of +dullness,--that state in which the excitements of individuality +are known no more, and which is therefore designated THE VOID +SUPREME." + + + +XIII + +IN CHOLERA-TIME + +I + +China's chief ally in the late war, being deaf and blind, knew +nothing, and still knows nothing, of treaties or of peace. It +followed the returning armies of Japan, invaded the victorious +empire, and killed about thirty thousand people during the hot +season. It is still slaying; and the funeral pyres burn +continually. Sometimes the smoke and the odor come wind-blown +into my garden down from the hills behind the town, just to +remind me that the cost of burning an adult of my own size is +eighty sen,--about half a dollar in American money at the present +rate of exchange. + +From the upper balcony of my house, the whole length of a +Japanese street, with its rows of little shops, is visible down +to the bay. Out of various houses in that street I have seen +cholera-patients conveyed to the hospital,--the last one (only +this morning) my neighbor across the way, who kept a porcelain +shop. He was removed by force, in spite of the tears and cries of +his family. The sanitary law forbids the treatment of cholera in +private houses; yet people try to hide their sick, in spite of +fines and other penalties, because the public cholera-hospitals +are overcrowded and roughly managed, and the patients are +entirely separated from all who love them. But the police are not +often deceived: they soon discover unreported cases, and come +with litters and coolies. It seems cruel; but sanitary law must +be cruel. My neighbor's wife followed the litter, crying, until +the police obliged her to return to her desolate little shop. It +is now closed up, and will probably never be opened again by the +owners. + +Such tragedies end as quickly as they begin. The bereaved, so +soon as the law allows, remove their pathetic belongings, and +disappear; and the ordinary life of the street goes on, by day +and by night, exactly as if nothing particular had happened. +Itinerant venders, with their bamboo poles and baskets or buckets +or boxes, pass the empty houses, and utter their accustomed +cries; religious processions go by, chanting fragments of sutras; +the blind shampooer blows his melancholy whistle; the private +watchman makes his heavy staff boom upon the gutter-flags; the +boy who sells confectionery still taps his drum, and sings a +love-song with a plaintive sweet voice, like a girl's:-- + +"_You and I together_.... I remained long; yet in the moment of +going I thought I had only just come. + +"_You and I together_.... Still I think of the tea. Old or new +tea of Uji it might have seemed to others; but to me it was +Gyokoro tea, of the beautiful yellow of the yamabuki flower. + +"_You and I together_.... I am the telegraph-operator; you are +the one who waits the message. I send my heart, and you receive +it. What care we now if the posts should fall, if the wires be +broken?" + +And the children sport as usual. They chase one another with +screams and laughter; they dance in chorus; they catch +dragon-flies and tie them to long strings; they sing burdens of +the war, about cutting off Chinese heads:-- + +"_Chan-chan bozu no +Kubi wo hane!_" + +Sometimes a child vanishes; but the survivers continue their +play. And this is wisdom. + + +It costs only forty-four sen to burn a child. The son of one of +my neighbors was burned a few days ago. The little stones with +which he used to play lie there in the sun just as he left +them.... Curious, this child-love of stones! Stones are the toys +not only of the children of the poor, but of all children at one +period of existence: no matter how well supplied with other +playthings, every Japanese child wants sometimes to play with +stones. To the child-mind a stone is a marvelous thing, and ought +so to be, since even to the understanding of the mathematician +there can be nothing more wonderful than a common stone. The tiny +urchin suspects the stone to be much more than it seems, which is +an excellent suspicion; and if stupid grown-up folk did not +untruthfully tell him that his plaything is not worth thinking +about, he would never tire of it, and would always be finding +something new and extraordinary in it. Only a very great mind +could answer all a child's questions about stones. + +According to popular faith, my neighbor's darling is now playing +with small ghostly stones in the Dry Bed of the River of Souls, +--wondering, perhaps, why they cast no shadows. The true poetry +in the legend of the Sai-no-Kawara is the absolute naturalness of +its principal idea,--the phantom-continuation of that play which +all little Japanese children play with stones. + + +II + +The pipe-stem seller used to make his round with two large boxes +suspended from a bamboo pole balanced upon his shoulder: +one box containing stems of various diameters, lengths, and +colors, together with tools for fitting them into metal pipes; +and the other box containing a baby,--his own baby. Sometimes I +saw it peeping over the edge of the box, and smiling at the +passers-by; sometimes I saw it lying, well wrapped up and fast +asleep, in the bottom of the box; sometimes I saw it playing with +toys. Many people, I was told, used to give it toys. One of the +toys bore a curious resemblance to a mortuary tablet (ihai); and +this I always observed in the box, whether the child were asleep +or awake. + +The other day I discovered that the pipe-stem seller had +abandoned his bamboo pole and suspended boxes. He was coming up +the street with a little hand-cart just big enough to hold his +wares and his baby, and evidently built for that purpose in two +compartments. Perhaps the baby had become too heavy for the more +primitive method of conveyance. Above the cart fluttered a small +white flag, bearing in cursive characters the legend _Ki-seru-rao +kae_ (pipe-stems exchanged), and a brief petition for "honorable +help," _O-tasuke wo negaimasu_. The child seemed well and happy; +and I again saw the tablet-shaped object which had so often +attracted my notice before. It was now fastened upright to a high +box in the cart facing the infant's bed. As I watched the cart +approaching, I suddenly felt convinced that the tablet was really +an ihai: the sun shone full upon it, and there was no mistaking +the conventional Buddhist text. This aroused my curiosity; and I +asked Manyemon to tell the pipe-stem seller that we had a number +of pipes needing fresh stems,--which was true. Presently the +cartlet drew up at our gate, and I went to look at it. + +The child was not afraid, even of a foreign face,--a pretty boy. +He lisped and laughed and held out his arms, being evidently used +to petting; and while playing with him I looked closely at the +tablet. It was a Shinshu ihai, bearing a woman's kaimyo, or +posthumous name; and Manyemon translated the Chinese characters +for me: _Revered and of good rank in the Mansion of Excellence, +the thirty-first day of the third month of the twenty-eighth year +of Meiji_. Meantime a servant had fetched the pipes which needed +new stems; and I glanced at the face of the artisan as he worked. +It was the face of a man past middle age, with those worn, +sympathetic lines about the mouth, dry beds of old smiles, which +give to so many Japanese faces an indescribable expression of +resigned gentleness. Presently Manyemon began to ask questions; +and when Manyemon asks questions, not to reply is possible for +the wicked only. Sometimes behind that dear innocent old head I +think I see the dawning of an aureole,--the aureole of the +Bosatsu. + +The pipe-stem seller answered by telling his story. Two months +after the birth of their little boy, his wife had died. In the +last hour of her illness she had said: "From what time I die till +three full years be past I pray you to leave the child always +united with the Shadow of me: never let him be separated from my +ihai, so that I may continue to care for him and to nurse him-- +since thou knowest that he should have the breast for three +years. This, my last asking, I entreat thee, do not forget." But +the mother being dead, the father could not labor as he had been +wont to do, and also take care of so young a child, requiring +continual attention both night and day; and he was too poor to +hire a nurse. So he took to selling pipe-stems, as he could thus +make a little money without leaving the child even for a minute +alone. He could not afford to buy milk; but he had fed the boy +for more than a year with rice gruel and ame syrup. + +I said that the child looked very strong, and none the worse for +lack of milk. + +"That," declared Manyemon, in a tone of conviction bordering on +reproof, "is because the dead mother nurses him. How should he +want for milk?" + +And the boy laughed softly, as if conscious of a ghostly caress. + + + +XIV + +SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT ANCESTOR-WORSHIP + +"For twelve leagues, Ananda, around the Sala-Grove, there is no +spot in size even as the pricking of the point of the tip of a +hair, which is not pervaded by powerful spirits." +--The Book Of the Great Decease. + +I + +The truth that ancestor-worship, in various unobtrusive forms, +still survives in some of the most highly civilized countries of +Europe, is not so widely known as to preclude the idea that any +non-Aryan race actually practicing so primitive a cult must +necessarily remain in the primitive stage of religious thought. +Critics of Japan have pronounced this hasty judgment; and have +professed themselves unable to reconcile the facts of her +scientific progress, and the success of her advanced educational +system, with the continuance of her ancestor-worship. How can the +beliefs of Shinto coexist with the knowledge of modern science? +How can the men who win distinction as scientific specialists +still respect the household shrine or do reverence before the +Shinto parish-temple? Can all this mean more than the ordered +conservation of forms after the departure of faith? Is it not +certain that with the further progress of education, Shinto, even +as ceremonialism, must cease to exist? + +Those who put such questions appear to forget that similar +questions might be asked about the continuance of any Western +faith, and similar doubts expressed as to the possibility of its +survival for another century. Really the doctrines of Shinto are +not in the least degree more irreconcilable with modern science +than are the doctrines of Orthodox Christianity. Examined with +perfect impartiality, I would even venture to say that they are +less irreconcilable in more respects than one. They conflict less +with our human ideas of justice; and, like the Buddhist doctrine +of karma, they offer some very striking analogies with the +scientific facts of heredity,--analogies which prove Shinto to +contain an element of truth as profound as any single element of +truth in any of the world's great religions. Stated in the +simplest possible form, the peculiar element of truth in Shinto +is the belief that the world of the living is directly governed +by the world of the dead. + +That every impulse or act of man is the work of a god, and that +all the dead become gods, are the basic ideas of the cult. It +must be remembered, however, that the term Kami, although +translated by the term deity, divinity, or god, has really no +such meaning as that which belongs to the English words: it has +not even the meaning of those words as referring to the antique +beliefs of Greece and Rome. It signifies that which is "above," +"superior," "upper," "eminent," in the non-religious sense; in +the religious sense it signifies a human spirit having obtained +supernatural power after death. The dead are the "powers above," +the "upper ones,"--the Kami. We have here a conception resembling +very strongly the modern Spiritualistic notion of ghosts, only +that the Shinto idea is in no true sense democratic. The Kami are +ghosts of greatly varying dignity and power,--belonging to +spiritual hierarchies like the hierarchies of ancient Japanese +society. Although essentially superior to the living in certain +respects, the living are, nevertheless, able to give them +pleasure or displeasure, to gratify or to offend them,--even +sometimes to ameliorate their spiritual condition. Wherefore +posthumous honors are never mockeries, but realities, to the +Japanese mind. During the present year(1), for example, several +distinguished statesmen and soldiers were raised to higher rank +immediately after their death; and I read only the other day, in +the official gazette, that "His Majesty has been pleased to +posthumously confer the Second Class of the Order of the Rising +Sun upon Major-General Baron Yamane, who lately died in Formosa." +Such imperial acts must not be regarded only as formalities +intended to honor the memory of brave and patriotic men; neither +should they be thought of as intended merely to confer +distinction upon the family of the dead. They are essentially of +Shinto, and exemplify that intimate sense of relation between the +visible and invisible worlds which is the special religious +characteristic of Japan among all civilized countries. To +Japanese thought the dead are not less real than the living. They +take part in the daily life of the people,--sharing the humblest +sorrows and the humblest joys. They attend the family repasts, +watch over the well-being of the household, assist and rejoice in +the prosperity of their descendants. They are present at the +public pageants, at all the sacred festivals of Shinto, at the +military games, and at all the entertainments especially provided +for them. And they are universally thought of as finding pleasure +in the offerings made to them or the honors conferred upon them. + +For the purpose of this little essay, it will be sufficient to +consider the Kami as the spirits of the dead,--without making any +attempt to distinguish such Kami from those primal deities +believed to have created the land. With this general +interpretation of the term Kami, we return, then, to the great +Shinto idea that all the dead still dwell in the world and rule +it; influencing not only the thoughts and the acts of men, but +the conditions of nature. "They direct," wrote Motowori, "the +changes of the seasons, the wind and the rain, the good and the +bad fortunes of states and of individual men." They are, in +short, the viewless forces behind all phenomena. + +(1) Written in September, 1896. + + + +II + +The most interesting sub-theory of this ancient spiritualism is +that which explains the impulses and acts of men as due to the +influence of the dead. This hypothesis no modern thinker can +declare irrational, since it can claim justification from the +scientific doctrine of psychological evolution, according to +which each living brain represents the structural work of +innumerable dead lives,--each character a more or less +imperfectly balanced sum of countless dead experiences with good +and evil. Unless we deny psychological heredity, we cannot +honestly deny that our impulses and feelings, and the higher +capacities evolved through the feelings, have literally been +shaped by the dead, and bequeathed to us by the dead; and even +that the general direction of our mental activities has been +determined by the power of the special tendencies bequeathed to +us. In such a sense the dead are indeed our Kami and all our +actions are truly influenced by them. Figuratively we may say +that every mind is a world of ghosts,--ghosts incomparably more +numerous than the acknowledged millions of the higher Shinto Kami +and that the spectral population of one grain of brain-matter +more than realizes the wildest fancies of the medieval schoolmen +about the number of angels able to stand on the point of a +needle. Scientifically we know that within one tiny living cell +may be stored up the whole life of a race,--the sum of all the +past sensation of millions of years; perhaps even (who knows?) of +millions of dead planets. + +But devils would not be inferior to angels in the mere power of +congregating upon the point of a needle. What, of bad men and of +bad acts in this theory of Shinto? Motowori made answer; +"Whenever anything goes wrong in the world, it is to be +attributed to the action of the evil gods called the Gods of +Crookedness, whose power is so great that the Sun-Goddess and the +Creator-God are sometimes powerless to restrain them; much less +are human beings always able to resist their influence. The +prosperity of the wicked, and the misfortunes of the good, which +seem opposed to ordinary justice, are thus explained." All bad +acts are due to the influence of evil deities; and evil men may +become evil Kami. There are no self-contradictions in this +simplest of cults(1),--nothing complicated or hard to be +understood. It is not certain that all men guilty of bad actions +necessarily become "gods of crookedness," for reasons hereafter +to be seen; but all men, good or bad, become Kami, or influences. +And all evil acts are the results of evil influences. + +Now this teaching is in accord with certain facts of heredity. +Our best faculties are certainly bequests from the best of our +ancestors; our evil qualities are inherited from natures in which +evil, or that which we now call evil, once predominated. The +ethical knowledge evolved within us by civilization demands that +we strengthen the high powers bequeathed us by the best +experience of our dead, and diminish the force of the baser +tendencies we inherit. We are under obligation to reverence and +to obey our good Kami, and to strive against our gods of +crookedness. The knowledge of the existence of both is old as +human reason. In some form or other, the doctrine of evil and of +good spirits in personal attendance upon every soul is common to +most of the great religions. Our own mediaeval faith developed +the idea to a degree which must leave an impress on our language +for all time; yet the faith in guardian angels and tempting +demons evolutionarily represents only the development of a cult +once simple as the religion of the Kami. And this theory of +mediaeval faith is likewise pregnant with truth. The white-winged +form that whispered good into the right ear, the black shape that +murmured evil into the left, do not indeed walk beside the man of +the nineteenth century, but they dwell within his brain; and he +knows their voices and feels their urging as well and as often as +did his ancestors of the Middle Ages. + +The modern ethical objection to Shinto is that both good and evil +Kami are to be respected. "Just as the Mikado worshiped the gods +of heaven and of earth, so his people prayed to the good gods in +order to obtain blessings, and performed rites in honor of the +bad gods to avert their displeasure.... As there are bad as well +as good gods, it is necessary to propitiate them with offerings +of agreeable food, with the playing of harps and the blowing of +flutes, with singing and dancing, and with whatever else is +likely to put them in good-humor(2)." As a matter of fact, in +modern Japan, the evil Kami appear to receive few offerings or +honors, notwithstanding this express declaration that they are to +be propitiated. But it will now be obvious why the early +missionaries characterized such a cult as devil-worship, +--although, to Shinto imagination, the idea of a devil, in the +Western meaning of the word, never took shape. The seeming +weakness of the doctrine is in the teaching that evil spirits are +not to be warred upon,--a teaching essentially +repellent to Roman Catholic feeling. But between the evil spirits +of Christian and of Shinto belief there is a vast difference. The +evil Kami is only the ghost of a dead man, and is not believed to +be altogether evil,--since propitiation is possible. The +conception of absolute, unmixed evil is not of the Far East. +Absolute evil is certainly foreign to human nature, and therefore +impossible in human ghosts. The evil Kami are not devils. They +are simply ghosts, who influence the passions of men; and only in +this sense the deities of the passions. Now Shinto is of all +religions the most natural, and therefore in certain respects the +most rational. It does not consider the passions necessarily evil +in themselves, but evil only according to cause, conditions, and +degrees of their indulgence. Being ghosts, the gods are +altogether human,--having the various good and bad qualities of +men in varying proportions. The majority are good, and the sum of +the influence of all is toward good rather than evil. To +appreciate the rationality of this view requires a tolerably high +opinion of mankind,--such an opinion as the conditions of the old +society of Japan might have justified. No pessimist could profess +pure Shintoism. The doctrine is optimistic; and whoever has a +generous faith in humanity will have no fault to find with the +absence of the idea of implacable evil from its teaching. + +Now it is just in the recognition of the necessity for +propitiating the evil ghosts that the ethically rational +character of Shinto reveals itself. Ancient experience and modern +knowledge unite in warning us against the deadly error of trying +to extirpate or to paralyze certain tendencies in human +nature,--tendencies which, if morbidly cultivated or freed from +all restraint, lead to folly, to crime, and to countless social +evils. The animal passions, the ape-and-tiger impulses, antedate +human society, and are the accessories to nearly all crimes +committed against it. But they cannot be killed; and they cannot +be safely starved. Any attempt to extirpate them would signify +also an effort to destroy some of the very highest emotional +faculties with which they remain inseparably blended. The +primitive impulses cannot even be numbed save at the cost of +intellectual and emotional powers which give to human life all +its beauty and all its tenderness, but which are, nevertheless, +deeply rooted in the archaic soil of passion. The highest in us +had its beginnings in the lowest. Asceticism, by warring against +the natural feelings, has created monsters. Theological +legislation, irrationally directed against human weaknesses, has +only aggravated social disorders; and laws against pleasure have +only provoked debaucheries. The history of morals teaches very +plainly indeed that our bad Kami require some propitiation. The +passions still remain more powerful than the reason in man, +because they are incomparably older,--because they were once +all-essential to self-preservation,-because they made that primal +stratum of consciousness, out of which the nobler sentiments have +slowly grown. Never can they be suffered to rule; but woe to +whosoever would deny their immemorial rights! + +(1) I am considering only the pure Shinto belief as expounded by +Shinto scholars. But it may be necessary to remind the reader +that both Buddhism and Shintoism are blended in Japan, not only +with each other, but with Chinese ideas of various kinds. It is +doubtful whether the pure Shinto ideas now exist in their +original form in popular belief. We are not quite clear as to the +doctrine of multiple souls in Shinto,--whether the psychical +combination was originally thought of as dissolved by death. My +own opinion, the result of investigation in different parts of +Japan, is that the multiple soul was formerly believed to remain +multiple after death. + +(2) Motowori, translated by Satow. + + +III + +Out of these primitive, but--as may now be perceived--not +irrational beliefs about the dead, there have been evolved moral +sentiments unknown to Western civilization. These are well worth +considering, as they will prove in harmony with the most advanced +conception of ethics,--and especially with that immense though +yet indefinite expansion of the sense of duty which has followed +upon the understanding of evolution. I do not know that we have +any reason to congratulate ourselves upon the absence from our +lives of the sentiments in question;--I am even inclined to think +that we may yet find it morally necessary to cultivate sentiments +of the same kind. One of the surprises of our future will +certainly be a return to beliefs and ideas long ago abandoned +upon the mere assumption that they contained no truth,--belief +still called barbarous, pagan, mediaeval, by those who condemn +them out of traditional habit. Year after year the researches of +science afford us new proof that the savage, the barbarian, the +idolater, the monk, each and all have arrived, by different +paths, as near to some one point of eternal truth as any thinker +of the nineteenth century. We are now learning, also, that the +theories of the astrologers and of the alchemists were but +partially, not totally, wrong. We have reason even to suppose +that no dream of the invisible world has ever been dreamed,--that +no hypothesis of the unseen has ever been imagined,--which future +science will not prove to have contained some germ of reality. + + +Foremost among the moral sentiments of Shinto is that of loving +gratitude to the past,--a sentiment having no real correspondence +in our own emotional life. We know our past better than the +Japanese know theirs;--we have myriads of books recording or +considering its every incident and condition: but we cannot in +any sense be said to love it or to feel grateful to it. Critical +recognitions of its merits and of its defects;--some rare +enthusiasms excited by its beauties; many strong denunciations of +its mistakes: these represent the sum of our thoughts and +feelings about it. The attitude of our scholarship in reviewing +it is necessarily cold; that of our art, often more than +generous; that of our religion, condemnatory for the most part. +Whatever the point of view from which we study it, our attention +is mainly directed to the work of the dead,--either the visible +work that makes our hearts beat a little faster than usual while +looking at it, or the results of their thoughts and deeds in +relation to the society of their time. Of past humanity as +unity,--of the millions long-buried as real kindred,--we either +think not at all, or think only with the same sort of curiosity +that we give to the subject of extinct races. We do indeed find +interest in the record of some individual lives that have left +large marks in history;--our emotions re stirred by the memories +of great captains, statesmen, discoverers, reformers,--but only +because the magnitude of that which they accomplished appeals to +our own ambitions, desires, egotisms, and not at all to our +altruistic sentiments in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred. The +nameless dead to whom we owe most we do not trouble ourselves +about,--we feel no gratitude, no love to them. We even find it +difficult to persuade ourselves that the love of ancestors can +possibly be a real, powerful, penetrating, life-moulding, +religious emotion in any form of human society,--which it +certainly is in Japan. The mere idea is utterly foreign to our +ways of thinking, feeling, acting. A partial reason for this, of +course, is that we have no common faith in the existence of an +active spiritual relation between our ancestors and ourselves. If +we happen to be irreligious, we do not believe in ghosts. If we +are profoundly religious, we think of the dead as removed from us +by judgment,--as absolutely separated from us during the period +of our lives. It is true that among the peasantry of Roman +Catholic countries there still exists a belief that the dead are +permitted to return to earth once a year,--on the night of All +Souls. But even according to this belief they are not considered +as related to the living by any stronger bond than memory; and +they are thought of,--as our collections of folk-lore bear +witness,--rather with fear than love. + +In Japan the feeling toward the dead is utterly different. It is +a feeling of grateful and reverential love. It is probably the +most profound and powerful of the emotions of the race,--that +which especially directs national life and shapes national +character. Patriotism belongs to it. Filial piety depends upon +it. Family love is rooted in it. Loyalty is based upon it. The +soldier who, to make a path for his comrades through the battle, +deliberately flings away his life with a shout of "_Teikoku +manzai!_"--the son or daughter who unmurmuring sacrifices all the +happiness of existence for the sake, perhaps, of an undeserving +or even cruel, parent; the partisan who gives up friends, family, +and fortune, rather than break the verbal promise made in other +years to a now poverty-stricken master; the wife who +ceremoniously robes herself in white, utters a prayer, and +thrusts a sword into her throat to atone for a wrong done to +strangers by her husband,--all these obey the will and hear the +approval of invisible witnesses. Even among the skeptical +students of the new generation, this feeling survives many wrecks +of faith, and the old sentiments are still uttered: "Never must +we cause shame to our ancestors;" "it is our duty to give honor +to our ancestors." During my former engagement as a teacher of +English, it happened more than once that ignorance of the real +meaning behind such phrases prompted me to change them in written +composition. I would suggest, for example, that the expression, +"to do honor to the memory of our ancestors," was more correct +than the phrase given. I remember one day even attempting to +explain why we ought not to speak of ancestors exactly as if they +were living parents! Perhaps my pupils suspected me of trying to +meddle with their beliefs; for the Japanese never think of an +ancestor as having become "only a memory": their dead are alive. + + +Were there suddenly to arise within us the absolute certainty +that our dead are still with us,--seeing every act, knowing our +every thought, hearing each word we utter, able to feel sympathy +with us or anger against us, able to help us and delighted to +receive our help, able to love us and greatly needing our love,-- +it is quite certain that our conceptions of life and duty would +be vastly changed. We should have to recognize our obligations to +the past in a very solemn way. Now, with the man of the Far East, +the constant presence of the dead has been a matter of conviction +for thousands of years: he speaks to them daily; he tries to give +them happiness; and, unless a professional criminal he never +quite forgets his duty towards them. No one, says Hirata, who +constantly discharges that duty, will ever be disrespectful to +the gods or to his living parents. "Such a man will also be loyal +to his friends, and kind and gentle with his wife and children; +for the essence of this devotion is in truth filial piety." And +it is in this sentiment that the secret of much strange feeling +in Japanese character must be sought. Far more foreign to our +world of sentiment than the splendid courage with which death is +faced, or the equanimity with which the most trying sacrifices +are made, is the simple deep emotion of the boy who, in the +presence of a Shinto shrine never seen before, suddenly feels the +tears spring to his eyes. He is conscious in that moment of what +we never emotionally recognize,--the prodigious debt of the +present to the past, and the duty of love to the dead. + + +IV + +If we think a little about our position as debtors, and our way +of accepting that position, one striking difference between +Western and Far-Eastern moral sentiment will become manifest. + + +There is nothing more awful than the mere fact of life as mystery +when that fact first rushes fully into consciousness. Out of +unknown darkness we rise a moment into sun-light, look about us, +rejoice and suffer, pass on the vibration of our being to other +beings, and fall back again into darkness. So a wave rises, +catches the light, transmits its motion, and sinks back into sea. +So a plant ascends from clay, unfolds its leaves to light and +air, flowers, seeds, and becomes clay again. Only, the wave has +no knowledge; the plant has no perceptions. Each human life seems +no more than a parabolic curve of motion out of earth and back to +earth; but in that brief interval of change it perceives the +universe. The awfulness of the phenomenon is that nobody knows +anything about it No mortal can explain this most common, yet +moat incomprehensible of all facts,--life in itself; yet every +mortal who can think has been obliged betimes, to think about it +in relation to self. + +I come out of mystery;--I see the sky and the land, men and women +and their works; and I know that I must return to mystery;--and +merely what this means not even the greatest of philosophers--not +even Mr. Herbert Spencer--can tell me. We are all of us riddles +to ourselves and riddles to each other; and space and motion and +time are riddles; and matter is a riddle. About the before and +the after neither the newly-born nor the dead have any message +for us. The child is dumb; the skull only grins. Nature has no +consolation for us. Out of her formlessness issue forms which +return to formlessness,--that is all. The plant becomes clay; the +clay becomes a plant. When the plant turns to clay, what becomes +of the vibration which was its life? Does it go on existing +viewlessly, like the forces that shape spectres of frondage in +the frost upon a window-pane? + +Within the horizon-circle of the infinite enigma, countless +lesser enigmas, old as the world, awaited the coming of man. +Oedipus had to face one Sphinx; humanity, thousands of +thousands,--all crouching among bones along the path of Time, and +each with a deeper and a harder riddle. All the sphinxes have not +been satisfied; myriads line the way of the future to devour +lives yet unborn; but millions have been answered. We are now +able to exist without perpetual horror because of the relative +knowledge that guides us, the knowledge won out of the jaws of +destruction. + +All our knowledge is bequeathed knowledge. The dead have left us +record of all they were able to learn about themselves and the +world,--about the laws of death and life,--about things to be +acquired and things to be avoided,--about ways of making +existence less painful than Nature willed it,--about right and +wrong and sorrow and happiness,--about the error of selfishness, +the wisdom of kindness, the obligation of sacrifice. They left us +information of everything they could find out concerning climates +and seasons and places,--the sun and moon and stars,--the motions +and the composition of the universe. They bequeathed us also +their delusions which long served the good purpose of saving us +from falling into greater ones. They left us the story of their +errors and efforts, their triumphs and failures, their pains and +joys, their loves and hates,--for warning or example. They +expected our sympathy, because they toiled with the kindest +wishes and hopes for us, and because they made our world. They +cleared the land; they extirpated monsters; they tamed and taught +the animals most useful to us. "_The mother of Kullervo awoke +within her tomb, and from the deeps of the dust she cried to him, +--'I have left thee the Dog, tied to a tree, that thou mayest go +with him to the chase.'_(1)" They domesticated likewise the +useful trees and plants; and they discovered the places and the +powers of the metals. Later they created all that we call +civilization,--trusting us to correct such mistakes as they could +not help making. The sum of their toil is incalculable; and all +that they have given us ought surely to be very sacred, very +precious, if only by reason of the infinite pain and thought +which it cost. Yet what Occidental dreams of saying daily, like +the Shinto believer:--"_Ye forefathers of the generations, and of +our families, and of our kindred,--unto you, the founders of our +homes, we utter the gladness of our thanks_"? + +None. It is not only because we think the dead cannot hear, but +because we have not been trained for generations to exercise our +powers of sympathetic mental representation except within a very +narrow circle,--the family circle. The Occidental family circle +is a very small affair indeed compared with the Oriental family +circle. In this nineteenth century the Occidental family is +almost disintegrated;--it practically means little more than +husband, wife, and children well under age. The Oriental family +means not only parents and their blood-kindred, but grandparents +and their kindred, and great-grandparents, and all the dead +behind them, This idea of the family cultivates sympathetic +representation to such a degree that the range of the emotion +belonging to such representation may extend, as in Japan, to many +groups and sub-groups of living families, and even, in time of +national peril, to the whole nation as one great family: a +feeling much deeper than what we call patriotism. As a religious +emotion the feeling is infinitely extended to all the past; the +blended sense of love, of loyalty, and of gratitude is not less +real, though necessarily more vague, than the feeling to living +kindred. + +In the West, after the destruction of antique society, no such +feeling could remain. The beliefs that condemned the ancients to +hell, and forbade the praise of their works,--the doctrine that +trained us to return thanks for everything to the God of the +Hebrews,--created habits of thought and habits of +thoughtlessness, both inimical to every feeling of gratitude to +the past. Then, with the decay of theology and the dawn of larger +knowledge, came the teaching that the dead had no choice in their +work,--they had obeyed necessity, and we had only received from +them of necessity the results of necessity. And to-day we still +fail to recognize that the necessity itself ought to compel our +sympathies with those who obeyed it, and that its bequeathed +results are as pathetic as they are precious. Such thoughts +rarely occur to us even in regard to the work of the living who +serve us. We consider the cost of a thing purchased or obtained +to ourselves;--about its cost in effort to the producer we do not +allow ourselves to think: indeed, we should be laughed at for any +exhibition of conscience on the subject. And our equal +insensibility to the pathetic meaning of the work of the past, +and to that of the work of the present, largely explains the +wastefulness of our civilization,--the reckless consumption by +luxury of the labor of years in the pleasure of an hour,--the +inhumanity of the thousands of unthinking rich, each of whom +dissipates yearly in the gratification of totally unnecessary +wants the price of a hundred human lives. The cannibals of +civilization are unconsciously more cruel than those of savagery, +and require much more flesh. The deeper humanity,--the cosmic +emotion of humanity,--is essentially the enemy of useless luxury, +and essentially opposed to any form of society which places no +restraints upon the gratifications of sense or the pleasures of +egotism. + +In the Far East, on the other hand, the moral duty of simplicity +of life has been taught from very ancient times, because +ancestor-worship had developed and cultivated this cosmic emotion +of humanity which we lack, but which we shall certainly be +obliged to acquire at a later day, simply to save our selves from +extermination, Two sayings of Iyeyasu exemplify the Oriental +sentiment. When virtually master of the empire, this greatest of +Japanese soldiers and statesmen was seen one day cleaning and +smoothing with his own hands an old dusty pair of silk hakama or +trousers. "What you see me do," he said to a retainer, "I am not +doing because I think of the worth of the garment in itself, but +because I think of what it needed to produce it. It is the result +of the toil of a poor woman; and that is why I value it. _If we +do not think, while using things, of the time and effort required +to make them,--then our want of consideration puts us on a level +with the beasts_." Again, in the days of his greatest wealth, we +hear of him rebuking his wife for wishing to furnish him too +often with new clothing. "When I think," he protested, "of the +multitudes around me, and of the generations to come after me, I +feel it my duty to be very sparing, for their sake, of the goods +in my possession." Nor has this spirit of simplicity yet departed +from Japan. Even the Emperor and Empress, in the privacy of their +own apartments, continue to live as simply as their subjects, and +devote most of their revenue to the alleviation of public +distress. + +(1) Kalevala; thirty-sixth Rune. + + +V + +It is through the teachings of evolution that there will +ultimately be developed in the West a moral recognition of duty +to the past like that which ancestor-worship created in the Far +East. For even to-day whoever has mastered the first principles +of the new philosophy cannot look at the commonest product of +man's handiwork without perceiving something of its evolutional +history. The most ordinary utensil will appear to him not the +mere product of individual capacity on the part of carpenter or +potter, smith or cutler, but the product of experiment continued +through thousands of years with methods, with materials, and with +forms. Nor will it be possible for him to consider the vast time +and toil necessitated in the evolution, of any mechanical +appliance, and yet experience no generous sentiment. Coming +generations must think of the material bequests of the past in +relation to dead humanity. + +But in the development of this "cosmic emotion" of humanity, a +much more powerful factor than recognition of our material +indebtedness to the past will be the recognition of our psychical +indebtedness. For we owe to the dead our immaterial world +also,--the world that lives within us,--the world of all that is +lovable in impulse, emotion, thought. Whosoever understands +scientifically what human goodness is, and the terrible cost of +making it, can find in the commonest phases of the humblest lives +that beauty, which is divine, and can feel that in one sense our +dead are truly gods. + + +So long as we supposed the woman soul one in itself,--a something +specially created to fit one particular physical being,--the +beauty and the wonder of mother-love could never be fully +revealed to us. But with deeper knowledge we must perceive that +the inherited love of myriads of millions of dead mothers has +been treasured up in one life;--that only thus can be interpreted +the infinite sweetness of the speech which the infant hears,--the +infinite tenderness of the look of caress which meets its gaze. +Unhappy the mortal who has not known these; yet what mortal can +adequately speak of them! Truly is mother-love divine; for +everything by human recognition called divine is summed up in +that love; and every woman uttering and transmitting its highest +expression is more than the mother of man: she is the _Mater +Dei_. + +Needless to speak here about the ghostliness of first love, +sexual love, which is illusion,--because the passion and the +beauty of the dead revive in it, to dazzle, to delude; and to +bewitch. It is very, very wonderful; but it is not all good, +because it is not all true. The real charm of woman in herself is +that which comes later,--when all the illusions fade away to +reveal a reality, lovelier than any illusion, which has been +evolving behind the phantom-curtain of them. What is the divine +magic of the woman thus perceived? Only the affection, the +sweetness, the faith, the unselfishness, the intuitions of +millions of buried hearts. All live again;-all throb anew, in +every fresh warm beat of her own. + +Certain amazing faculties exhibited in the highest social life +tell in another way the story of soul structure built up by dead +lives. Wonderful is the man who can really "be all things to all +men," or the woman who can make herself twenty, fifty, a hundred +different women,--comprehending all, penetrating all, unerring to +estimate all others;--seeming to have no individual self, but +only selves innumerable;--able to meet each varying personality +with a soul exactly toned to the tone of that to be encountered. +Rare these characters are, but not so rare that the traveler is +unlikely to meet one or two of them in any cultivated society +which he has a chance of studying. They are essentially multiple +beings,--so visibly multiple that even those who think of the Ego +as single have to describe them as "highly complex." Nevertheless +this manifestation of forty or fifty different characters in the +same person is a phenomenon so remarkable (especially remarkable +because it is commonly manifested in youth long before relative +experience could possibly account for it) that I cannot but +wonder how few persons frankly realize its signification. + +So likewise with what have been termed the "intuitions" of some +forms of genius,--particularly those which relate to the +representation of the emotions. A Shakespeare would always remain +incomprehensible on the ancient soul-theory. Taine attempted to +explain him by the phrase, "a perfect imagination;"--and the +phrase reaches far in the truth. But what is the meaning of a +perfect imagination? Enormous multiplicity of +soul-life,--countless past existences revived in one. Nothing +else can explain it.... It is not however, in the world of pure +intellect that the story of psychical complexity is most +admirable: it is in the world which speaks to our simplest +emotions of love honor, sympathy, heroism. + +"But by such a theory," some critic may observe, "the source of +impulses to heroism is also the source of the impulses that +people jails. Both are of the dead." This is true. We inherited +evil as well as good. Being composites only,--still evolving, +still becoming,--we inherit imperfections. But the survival of +the fittest in impulses is certainly proven by the average moral +condition of humanity,--using the word "fittest" in its ethical +sense. In spite of all the misery and vice and crime, nowhere so +terribly developed as under our own so-called Christian +civilization, the fact must be patent to any one who has lived +much, traveled much, and thought much, that the mass of humanity +is good, and therefore that the vast majority of impulses +bequeathed us by past humanity is good. Also it is certain that +the more normal a social condition, the better its humanity. +Through all the past the good Kami have always managed to keep +the bad Kami from controlling the world. And with the acceptation +of this truth, our future ideas of wrong and of right must take +immense expansion. Just as a heroism, or any act of pure goodness +for a noble end, must assume a preciousness heretofore +unsuspected,--so a real crime must come to be regarded as a crime +less against the existing individual or society, than against the +sum of human experience, and the whole past struggle of ethical +aspiration. Real goodness will, therefore, be more prized, and +real crime less leniently judged. And the early Shinto teaching, +that no code of ethics is necessary,--that the right rule of +human conduct can always be known by consulting the heart,--is a +teaching which will doubtless be accepted by a more perfect +humanity than that of the present. + + +VI + +"Evolution" the reader may say, "does indeed show through its +doctrine of heredity that the living are in one sense really +controlled by the dead. But it also shows that the dead are +within us, not without us. They are part of us;--there is no +proof that they have any existence which is not our own. +Gratitude to the past would, therefore, be gratitude to +ourselves; love of the dead would be self-love. So that your +attempt at analogy ends in the absurd." + +No. Ancestor-worship in its primitive form may be a symbol only +of truth. It may be an index or foreshadowing only of the new +moral duty which larger knowledge must force upon as: the duty of +reverence and obedience to the sacrificial past of human ethical +experience. But it may also be much more. The facts of heredity +can never afford but half an explanation of the facts of +psychology. A plant produces ten, twenty, a hundred plants +without yielding up its own life in the process. An animal gives +birth to many young, yet lives on with all its physical +capacities and its small powers of thought undiminished. Children +are born; and the parents survive them. Inherited the mental life +certainly is, not less than the physical; yet the reproductive +cells, the least specialized of all cells, whether in plant or in +animal, never take away, but only repeat the parental being. +Continually multiplying, each conveys and transmits the whole +experience of a race; yet leaves the whole experience of the race +behind it. Here is the marvel inexplicable: the +self-multiplication of physical and psychical being,--life after +life thrown off from the parent life, each to become complete and +reproductive. Were all the parental life given to the offspring, +heredity might be said to favor the doctrine of materialism. But +like the deities of Hindoo legend, the Self multiplies and still +remains the same, with full capacities for continued +multiplication. Shinto has its doctrine of souls multiplying by +fission; but the facts of psychological emanation are infinitely +more wonderful than any theory. + +The great religions have recognized that heredity could not +explain the whole question of self,-could not account for the +fate of the original residual self. So they have generally united +in holding the inner independent of the outer being. Science can +no more fully decide the issues they have raised than it can +decide the nature of Reality-in-itself. Again we may vainly ask, +What becomes of the forces which constituted the vitality of a +dead plant? Much more difficult the question, What becomes of the +sensations which formed the psychical life of a dead man?-since +nobody can explain the simplest sensation. We know only that +during life certain active forces within the body of the plant or +the body of the man adjusted themselves continually to outer +forces; and that after the interior forces could no longer +respond to the pressure of the exterior forces,--then the body in +which the former were stored was dissolved into the elements out +of which it had been built up. We know nothing more of the +ultimate nature of those elements than we know of the ultimate +nature of the tendencies which united them. But we have more +right to believe the ultimates of life persist after the +dissolution of the forms they created, than to believe they +cease. The theory of spontaneous generation (misnamed, for only +in a qualified sense can the term "spontaneous" be applied to the +theory of the beginnings of mundane life) is a theory which the +evolutionist must accept, and which can frighten none aware of +the evidence of chemistry that matter itself is in evolution. The +real theory (not the theory of organized life beginning in +bottled infusions, but of the life primordial arising upon a +planetary surface) has enormous--nay, infinite--spiritual +significance. It requires the belief that all potentialities of +life and thought and emotion pass from nebula to universe, from +system to system, from star to planet or moon, and again back to +cyclonic storms of atomicity; it means that tendencies survive +sunburnings,--survive all cosmic evolutions and disintegrations. +The elements are evolutionary products only; and the difference +of universe from universe must be the creation of tendencies,--of +a form of heredity too vast and complex for imagination. There is +no chance. There is only law. Each fresh evolution must be +influenced by previous evolutions,--just as each individual human +life is influenced by the experience of all the lives in its +ancestral chain. Must not the tendencies even of the ancestral +forms of matter be inherited by the forms of matter to come; and +may not the acts and thoughts of men even now be helping to shape +the character of future worlds? No longer is it possible to say +that the dreams of the Alchemists were absurdities. And no longer +can we even assert that all material phenomena are not +determined, as in the thought of the ancient East, by soul- +polarities. + +Whether our dead do or do not continue to dwell without us as +well as within us,--a question not to be decided in our present +undeveloped state of comparative blindness,--certain it is that +the testimony of cosmic facts accords with one weird belief of +Shinto: the belief that all things are determined by the +dead,--whether by ghosts of men or ghosts of worlds. Even as our +personal lives are ruled by the now viewless lives of the past, +so doubtless the life of our Earth, and of the system to which it +belongs, is ruled by ghosts of spheres innumerable: dead +universes,--dead suns and planets and moons,--as forms long since +dissolved into the night, but as forces immortal and eternally +working. + + +Back to the Sun, indeed, like the Shintoist, we can trace our +descent; yet we know that even there the beginning of us was not. +Infinitely more remote in time than a million sun-lives was that +beginning,--if it can truly be said there was a beginning. +The teaching of Evolution is that we are one with that unknown +Ultimate, of which matter and human mind are but ever-changing +manifestations. The teaching of Evolution is also that each of us +is many, yet that all of us are still one with each other and +with the cosmos;--that we must know all past humanity not only in +ourselves, but likewise in the preciousness and beauty of every +fellow-life;--that we can best love ourselves in others;--that we +shall best serve ourselves in others;--that forms are but veils +and phantoms;--and that to the formless Infinite alone really +belong all human emotions, whether of the living or the dead. + + + +XV + +KIMIKO + +_Wasuraruru +Mi naran to omo +Kokoro koso +Wasure nu yori mo +Omoi nari-kere_. + +"To wish to be forgotten by the beloved is a soul-task harder far +than trying not to forget."--Poem by Kimiko. + +I + +The name is on a paper-lantern at the entrance of a house in the +Street of the Geisha. + +Seen at night the street is one of the queerest in the world. It +is narrow as a gangway; and the dark shining woodwork of the +house-fronts, all tightly closed,--each having a tiny sliding +door with paper-panes that look just like frosted glass,--makes +you think of first-class passenger-cabins. Really the buildings +are several stories high; but you do not observe this at +once,--especially if there be no moon,--because only the lower +stories are illuminated up to their awnings, above which all is +darkness. The illumination is made by lamps behind the narrow +paper-paned doors, and by the paper-lanterns hanging +outside,--one at every door. You look down the street between two +lines of these lanterns,--lines converging far-off into one +motionless bar of yellow light. Some of the lanterns are +egg-shaped, some cylindrical; others four-sided or six-sided; and +Japanese characters are beautifully written upon them. The street +is very quiet,--silent as a display of cabinet-work in some great +exhibition after closing-time. This is because the inmates are +mostly away,--at tending banquets and other festivities. Their +life is of the night. + +The legend upon the first lantern to the left as you go south is +"Kinoya: uchi O-Kata;" and that means The House of Gold wherein +O-Kata dwells. The lantern to the right tells of the House of +Nishimura, and of a girl Miyotsuru,--which name signifies The +Stork Magnificently Existing. Next upon the left comes the House +of Kajita;--and in that house are Kohana, the Flower-Bud, and +Hinako, whose face is pretty as the face of a doll. Opposite is +the House Nagaye, wherein live Kimika and Kimiko.... And this +luminous double litany of names is half-a-mile long. + +The inscription on the lantern of the last-named house reveals +the relationship between Kimika and Kimiko,--and yet something +more; for Kimiko is styled Ni-dai-me, an honorary untranslatable +title which signifies that she is only Kimiko No.2. Kimika is the +teacher and mistress: she has educated two geisha, both named, or +rather renamed by her, Kimiko; and this use of the same name +twice is proof positive that the first Kimiko--Ichi-dai-me--must +have been celebrated. The professional appellation borne by an +unlucky or unsuccessful geisha is never given to her successor. +If you should ever have good and sufficient reason to enter the +house,--pushing open that lantern-slide of a door which sets a +gong-bell ringing to announce visits,--you might be able to see +Kimika, provided her little troupe be not engaged for the +evening. You would find her a very intelligent person, and well +worth talking to. She can tell, when she pleases, the most +remarkable stories,--real flesh-and-blood stories,--true stories +of human nature. For the Street of the Geisha is full of +traditions,--tragic, comic, melodramatic;--every house has its +memories;--and Kimika knows them all. Some are very, very +terrible; and some would make you laugh; and some would make you +think. The story of the first Kimiko belongs to the last class. +It is not one of the most extraordinary; but it is one of the +least difficult for Western people to understand. + + +II + +There is no more Ichi-dai-me Kimiko: she is only a remembrance. +Kimika was quite young when she called that Kimiko her +professional sister. + +"An exceedingly wonderful girl," is what Kimika says of Kimiko. +To win any renown in her profession, a geisha must be pretty or +very clever; and the famous ones are usually both,--having been +selected at a very early age by their trainers according to the +promise of such qualities Even the commoner class of +singing-girls must have some charm in their best years,--if only +that _beaute du diable_ which inspired the Japanese proverb that +even a devil is pretty at eighteen(1). But Kimiko was much more +than pretty. She was according to the Japanese ideal of beauty; +and that standard is not reached by one woman in a hundred +thousand. Also she was more than clever: she was accomplished. +She composed very dainty poems,--could arrange flowers +exquisitely, perform tea-ceremonies faultlessly, embroider, make +silk mosaic: in short, she was genteel. And her first public +appearance made a flutter in the fast world of Kyoto. it was +evident that she could make almost any conquest she pleased, and +that fortune was before her. + +But it soon became evident, also, that she had been perfectly +trained for her profession. She had been taught how to conduct +herself under almost any possible circumstances; for what she +could not have known Kimika knew everything about: the power of +beauty, and the weakness of passion; the craft of promises and +the worth of indifference; and all the folly and evil in the +hearts of men. So Kimiko made few mistakes and shed few tears. By +and by she proved to be, as Kimika wished,--slightly dangerous. +So a lamp is to night-fliers: otherwise some of them would put it +out. The duty of the lamp is to make pleasant things visible: it +has no malice. Kimiko had no malice, and was not too dangerous. +Anxious parents discovered that she did not want to enter into +respectable families, nor even to lend herself to any serious +romances. But she was not particularly merciful to that class of +youths who sign documents with their own blood, and ask a +dancing-girl to cut off the extreme end of the little finger of +her left hand as a pledge of eternal affection. She was +mischievous enough with them to cure them of their folly. Some +rich folks who offered her lands and houses on condition of +owning her, body and soul, found her less merciful. One proved +generous enough to purchase her freedom unconditionally, at a +price which made Kimika a rich woman; and Kimiko was +grateful,--but she remained a geisha. She managed her rebuffs +with too much tact to excite hate, and knew how to heal despairs +in most cases. There were exceptions, of course. One old man, who +thought life not worth living unless he could get Kimiko all to +himself, invited her to a banquet one evening, and asked her to +drink wine with him. But Kimika, accustomed to read faces, deftly +substituted tea (which has precisely the same color) for Kimiko's +wine, and so instinctively saved the girl's precious life,--for +only ten minutes later the soul of the silly host was on its way +to the Meido alone, and doubtless greatly disappointed.... After +that night Kimika watched over Kimiko as a wild cat guards her +kitten. + +The kitten became a fashionable mania, a craze,-a delirium,--one +of the great sights and sensations of the period. There is a +foreign prince who remembers her name: he sent her a gift of +diamonds which she never wore. Other presents in multitude she +received from all who could afford the luxury of pleasing her; +and to be in her good graces, even for a day, was the ambition of +the "gilded youth." Nevertheless she allowed no one to imagine +himself a special favorite, and refused to make any contracts for +perpetual affection. To any protests on the subject she answered +that she knew her place. Even respectable women spoke not +unkindly of her,--because her name never figured in any story of +family unhappiness. She really kept her place. Time seemed to +make her more charming. Other geisha grew into fame, but no one +was even classed with her. Some manufacturers secured the sole +right to use her photograph for a label; and that label made a +fortune for the firm. + + +But one day the startling news was abroad that Kimiko had at last +shown a very soft heart. She had actually said good-by to Kimika, +and had gone away with somebody able to give her all the pretty +dresses she could wish for,--somebody eager to give her social +position also, and to silence gossip about her naughty +past,--somebody willing to die for her ten times over, and +already half-dead for love of her. Kimika said that a fool had +tried to kill himself because of Kimiko, and that Kimiko had +taken pity on him, and nursed him back to foolishness. Taiko +Hideyoshi had said that there were only two things in this world +which he feared,--a fool and a dark night. Kimika had always been +afraid of a fool; and a fool had taken Kimiko away. And she +added, with not unselfish tears, that Kimiko would never come +back to her: it was a case of love on both sides for the time of +several existences. + +Nevertheless, Kimika was only half right. She was very shrewd +indeed; but she had never been able to see into certain private +chambers in the soul of Kimiko. If she could have seen, she would +have screamed for astonishment. + +(1) Oni mo jiuhachi, azami no hana. There is a similar saying of +a dragon: ja mo hatachi ("even a dragon at twenty"). + + +III + +Between Kimiko and other geisha there was a difference of gentle +blood. Before she took a professional name, her name was Ai, +which, written with the proper character, means love. Written +with another character the same word-sound signifies grief. The +story of Ai was a story of both grief and love. + +She had been nicely brought up. As a child she had been sent to a +private school kept by an old samurai,--where the little girls +squatted on cushions before little writing-tables twelve inches +high, and where the teachers taught without salary. In these days +when teachers get better salaries than civil-service officials, +the teaching is not nearly so honest or so pleasant as it used to +be. A servant always accompanied the child to and from the +school-house, carrying her books, her writing-box, her kneeling +cushion, and her little table. + +Afterwards she attended an elementary public school. The first +"modern" text-books had just been issued,--containing Japanese +translations of English, German, and French stories about honor +and duty and heroism, excellently chosen, and illustrated with +tiny innocent pictures of Western people in costumes never of +this world. Those dear pathetic little text-books are now +curiosities: they have long been superseded by pretentious +compilations much less lovingly and sensibly edited. Ai learned +well. Once a year, at examination time, a great official would +visit the school, and talk to the children as if they were all +his own, and stroke each silky head as he distributed the prizes. +He is now a retired statesman, and has doubtless forgotten +Ai;--and in the schools of to-day nobody caresses little girls, +or gives them prizes. + +Then came those reconstructive changes by which families of rank +were reduced to obscurity and poverty; and Ai had to leave +school. Many great sorrows followed, till there remained to her +only her mother and an infant sister. The mother and Ai could do +little but weave; and by weaving alone they could not earn enough +to live. House and lands first,--then, article by article, all +things not necessary to existence--heirlooms, trinkets, costly +robes, crested lacquer-ware--passed cheaply to those whom misery +makes rich, and whose wealth is called by the people _Namida no +kane_,--"the Money of Tears." Help from the living was +scanty,--for most of the samurai-families of kin were in like +distress. But when there was nothing left to sell,--not even Al's +little school-books,--help was sought from the dead. + +For it was remembered that the father of Al's father had been +buried with his sword, the gift of a daimyo; and that the +mountings of the weapon were of gold. So the grave was opened, +and the grand hilt of curious workmanship exchanged for a common +one, and the ornaments of the lacquered sheath removed. But the +good blade was not taken, because the warrior might need it. Ai +saw his face as he sat erect in the great red-clay urn which +served in lieu of coffin to the samurai of high rank when buried +by the ancient rite. His features were still recognizable after +all those years of sepulture; and he seemed to nod a grim assent +to what had been done as his sword was given back to him. + +At last the mother of Ai became too weak and ill to work at the +loom; and the gold of the dead had been spent. Ai said:--"Mother, +I know there is but one thing now to do. Let me be sold to the +dancing-girls." The mother wept, and made no reply. Ai did not +weep, but went out alone. + +She remembered that in other days, when banquets were given in +her father's house, and dancers served the wine, a free geisha +named Kimika had often caressed her. She went straight to the +house of Kimika. "I want you to buy me," said Ai;--"and I want a +great deal of money." Kimika laughed, and petted her, and made +her eat, and heard her story,--which was bravely told, without +one tear. "My child," said Kimika, "I cannot give you a great +deal of money; for I have very little. But this I can do:--I can +promise to support your mother. That will be better than to give +her much money for you,--because your mother, my child, has been +a great lady, and therefore cannot know how to use money +cunningly. Ask your honored mother to sign the bond,--promising +that you will stay with me till you are twenty-four years old, or +until such time as you can pay me back. And what money I can now +spare, take home with you as a free gift." + +Thus Ai became a geisha; and Kimika renamed her Kimiko, and kept +the pledge to maintain the mother and the child-sister. The +mother died before Kimiko became famous; the little sister was +put to school. Afterwards those things already told came to pass. + + +The young man who had wanted to die for love of a dancing-girl +was worthy of better things. He was an only son and his parents, +wealthy and titled people, were willing to make any sacrifice for +him,--even that of accepting a geisha for daughter-in-law. +Moreover they were not altogether displeased with Kimiko, because +of her sympathy for their boy. + +Before going away, Kimiko attended the wedding of her young +sister, Ume, who had just finished school. She was good and +pretty. Kimiko had made the match, and used her wicked knowledge +of men in making it. She chose a very plain, honest, +old-fashioned merchant,--a man who could not have been bad, even +if he tried. Ume did not question the wisdom of her sister's +choice, which time proved fortunate. + + +IV + +It was in the period of the fourth moon that Kimiko was carried +away to the home prepared for her,--a place in which to forget +all the unpleasant realities of life,-a sort of fairy-palace lost +in the charmed repose of great shadowy silent high-walled +gardens. Therein she might have felt as one reborn, by reason of +good deeds, into the realm of Horai. But the spring passed, and +the summer came,--and Kimiko remained simply Kimiko. Three times +she had contrived, for reasons unspoken, to put off the +wedding-day. + + +In the period of the eighth moon, Kimiko ceased to be playful, +and told her reasons very gently but very firmly:--"It is time +that I should say what I have long delayed saying. For the sake +of the mother who gave me life, and for the sake of my little +sister, I have lived in hell. All that is past; but the scorch of +the fire is upon me, and there is no power that can take it away. +It is not for such as I to enter into an honored family,--nor to +bear you a son,--nor to build up your house.... Suffer me to +speak; for in the knowing of wrong I am very, very much wiser +than you.... Never shall I be your wife to become your shame. I +am your companion only, your play-fellow, your guest of an hour, +--and this not for any gifts. When I shall be no longer with you +nay! certainly that day must come!--you will have clearer sight. +I shall still be dear to you, but not in the same way as +now--which is foolishness. You will remember these words out of +my heart. Some true sweet lady will be chosen for you, to become +the mother of your children. I shall see them; but the place of a +wife I shall never take, and the joy of a mother I must never +know. I am only your folly, my beloved,--an illusion, a dream, a +shadow flitting across your life. Somewhat more in later time I +may become, but a wife to you never, neither in this existence +nor in the next. Ask me again-and I go." + + +In the period of the tenth moon, and without any reason +imaginable, Kimiko disappeared,--vanished,--utterly ceased to +exist. + + +V + +Nobody knew when or how or whither she had gone. Even in the +neighborhood of the home she had left, none had seen her pass. At +first it seemed that she must soon return. Of all her beautiful +and precious things-her robes, her ornaments, her presents: a +fortune in themselves--she had taken nothing. But weeks passed +without word or sign; and it was feared that something terrible +had befallen her. Rivers were dragged, and wells were searched. +Inquiries were made by telegraph and by letter. Trusted servants +were sent to look for her. Rewards were offered for any +news--especially a reward to Kimika, who was really attached to +the girl, and would have been only too happy to find her without +any reward at all. But the mystery remained a mystery. +Application to the authorities would have been useless: the +fugitive had done no wrong, broken no law; and the vast machinery +of the imperial police-system was not to be set in motion by the +passionate whim of a boy. Months grew into years; but neither +Kimika, nor the little sister in Kyoto, nor any one of the +thousands who had known and admired the beautiful dancer, ever +saw Kimiko again. + +But what she had foretold came true ;--for time dries all tears +and quiets all longing; and even in Japan one does not really try +to die twice for the same despair. The lover of Kimiko became +wiser; and there was found for him a very sweet person for wife, +who gave him a son. And other years passed; and there was +happiness in the fairy-home where Kimiko had once been. + +There came to that home one morning, as if seeking alms, a +traveling nun; and the child, hearing her Buddhist cry of +"_Ha--i! ha--i!_" ran to the gate. And presently a house-servant, +bringing out the customary gift of rice, wondered to see the nun +caressing the child, and whispering to him. Then the little one +cried to the servant, "Let me give!"--and the nun pleaded from +under the veiling shadow of her great straw hat: "Honorably allow +the child to give me." So the boy put the rice into the +mendicant's bowl. Then she thanked him, and asked:--"Now will +you say again for me the little word which I prayed you to tell +your honored father?" And the child lisped:--"_Father, one whom +you will never see again in this world, says that her heart is +glad because she has seen your son_." + +The nun laughed softly, and caressed him again, and passed away +swiftly; and the servant wondered more than ever, while the child +ran to tell his father the words of the mendicant. + +But the father's eyes dimmed as he heard the words, and he wept +over his boy. For he, and only he, knew who had been at the gate, +--and the sacrificial meaning of all that had been hidden. + + +Now he thinks much, but tells his thought to no one. + +He knows that the space between sun and sun is less than the +space between himself and the woman who loved him. + +He knows it were vain to ask in what remote city, in what +fantastic riddle of narrow nameless streets, in what obscure +little temple known only to the poorest poor, she waits for the +darkness before the Dawn of the Immeasurable Light,--when the +Face of the Teacher will smile upon her,--when the Voice of the +Teacher will say to her, in tones of sweetness deeper than ever +came from human lover's lips:--"_O my daughter in the Law, thou +hast practiced the perfect way; thou hast believed and understood +the highest truth;--therefore come I now to meet and to welcome +thee!_" + + + +APPENDIX + + +THREE POPULAR BALLADS + +Read before the Asiatic Society of Japan, October 17, 1894. + + +During the spring of 1891, I visited the settlement in Matsue, +Izumo, of an outcast people known as the _yama-no-mono_. Some +results of the visit were subsequently communicated to the "Japan +Mail," in a letter published June 13, 1891, and some extracts +from that letter I think it may be worth while to cite here, by +way of introduction to the subject of the present paper. + + +"The settlement is at the southern end of Matsue in a tiny +valley, or rather hollow among the hills which form a half-circle +behind the city. Few Japanese of the better classes have ever +visited such a village; and even the poorest of the common people +shun the place as they would shun a centre of contagion; for the +idea of defilement, both moral and physical, is still attached to +the very name of its inhabitants. Thus, although the settlement +is within half an hour's walk from the heart of the city, +probably not half a dozen of the thirty-six thousand residents of +Matsue have visited it. + +"There are four distinct outcast classes in Matsue and its +environs: the _hachiya_, the _koya-no-mono_, the _yama-no-mono_, +and the _eta_ of Suguta. + +"There are two settlements of _hachiya_. These were formerly the +public executioners, and served under the police in various +capacities. Although by ancient law the lowest class of pariahs, +their intelligence was sufficiently cultivated by police service +and by contact with superiors to elevate them in popular opinion +above the other outcasts. They are now manufacturers of bamboo +cages and baskets. They are said to be descendants of the family +and retainers of Taira-no-Masakado-Heishino, the only man in +Japan who ever seriously conspired to seize the imperial throes +by armed force, and who was killed by the famous general +Taira-no-Sadamori. + +"The _koya-no-mono_ are slaughterers and dealers in hides. They +are never allowed to enter any house in Matsue except the shop of +a dealer in geta and other footgear. Originally vagrants, they +were permanently settled in Matsue by some famous daimyo, who +built for them small houses--_koya_--on the bank of the canal. +Hence their name. As for the _eta_ proper, their condition and +calling are too familiar to need comment in this connection. + +"The _yama-no-mono_ are so called because they live among the +hills (_yama_) at the southern end of Matsue. They have a +monopoly of the rag-and-waste-paper business, and are buyers of +all sorts of refuse, from old bottles to broken-down machinery. +Some of them are rich. Indeed, the whole class is, compared with +other outcast classes, prosperous. Nevertheless, public prejudice +against them is still almost as strong as in the years previous +to the abrogation of the special laws concerning them. Under no +conceivable circumstances could any of them obtain employment as +servants. Their prettiest girls in old times often became _joro_; +but at no time could they enter a _joroya_ in any neighboring +city, much less in their own, so they were sold to establishments +in remote places. A _yama-no-mono_ to-day could not even become a +_kurumaya_. He could not obtain employment as a common laborer in +any capacity, except by going to some distant city where he could +hope to conceal his origin. But if detected under such conditions +he would run serious risk of being killed by his fellow- +laborers. Under any circumstance it would be difficult for a +_yama-no-mono_ to pass himself off for a _heimin_. Centuries of +isolation and prejudice have fixed and moulded the manners of the +class in recognizable ways; and even its language has become a +special and curious dialect. + +"I was anxious to see something of a class so singularly situated +and specialized; and I had the good fortune to meet a Japanese +gentleman who, although belonging to the highest class of Matsue, +was kind enough to agree to accompany me to their village, where +he had never been himself. On the way thither he told me many +curious things about the _yama-no-mono_. In feudal times these +people had been kindly treated by the samurai; and they were +often allowed or invited to enter the courts of samurai dwellings +to sing and dance, for which performances they were paid. The +songs and the dances with which they were able to entertain even +those aristocratic families were known to no other people, and +were called Daikoku-mai. Singing the Daikoku-mai was, in fact, +the special hereditary art of the _yama-no-mono_, and represented +their highest comprehension of aesthetic and emotional matters. +In former times they could not obtain admittance to a respectable +theatre; and, like the _hachiya_, had theatres of their own. It +would be interesting, my friend added, to learn the origin of +their songs and their dances; for their songs are not in their +own special dialect, but in pure Japanese. And that they should +have been able to preserve this oral literature without +deterioration is especially remarkable from the fact that the +_yama-no-mono_ were never taught to read or write. They could not +even avail themselves of those new educational opportunities +which the era of Meiji has given to the masses; prejudice is +still far too strong to allow of their children being happy in a +public school. A small special school might be possible, though +there would perhaps be no small difficulty in obtaining willing +teachers(1). + +"The hollow in which the village stands is immediately behind the +Buddhist cemetery of Tokoji. The settlement has its own Shinto +temple. I was extremely surprised at the aspect of the place; for +I had expected to see a good deal of ugliness and filth. On the +contrary, I saw a multitude of neat dwellings, with pretty +gardens about them, and pictures on the walls of the rooms. There +were many trees; the village was green with shrubs and plants, +and picturesque to an extreme degree; for, owing to the +irregularity of the ground, the tiny streets climbed up and down +hill at all sorts of angles,--the loftiest street being fifty or +sixty feet above the lowermost. A large public bath-house and a +public laundry bore evidence that the _yama-no-mono_ liked clean +linen as well as their _heimin_ neighbors on the other side of +the hill. + +"A crowd soon gathered to look at the strangers who had come to +their village,--a rare event for them. The faces I saw seemed +much like the faces of the _heimin_, except that I fancied the +ugly ones were uglier, making the pretty ones appear more pretty +by contrast. There were one or two sinister faces, recalling +faces of gypsies that I had seen; while some little girls, on the +other hand, had remarkably pleasing features. There were no +exchanges of civilities, as upon meeting _heimin_; a Japanese of +the better class would as soon think of taking off his hat to a +_yama-no-mono_ as a West-Indian planter would think of bowing to +a negro. The _yama-no-mono_ themselves usually show by their +attitude that they expect no forms. None of the men saluted us; +but some of the women, on being kindly addressed, made obeisance. +Other women, weaving coarse straw sandals (an inferior quality of +zori), would answer only 'yes' or 'no' to questions, and seemed +to be suspicious of us. My friend called my attention to the fact +that the women were dressed differently from Japanese women of +the ordinary classes. For example, even among the very poorest +_heimin_ there are certain accepted laws of costume; there are +certain colors which may or may not be worn, according to age. +But even elderly women among these people wear obi of bright red +or variegated hues, and kimono of a showy tint. + +"Those of the women seen in the city street, selling or buying, +are the elders only. The younger stay at home. The elderly women +always go into town with large baskets of a peculiar shape, by +which the fact that they are _yama-no-mono_ is at once known. +Numbers of these baskets were visible, principally at the doors +of the smaller dwellings. They are carried on the back, and are +used to contain all that the _yama-no-mono buy_,--old paper, old +wearing apparel, bottles, broken glass, and scrap-metal. + +"A woman at last ventured to invite us to her house, to look at +some old colored prints she wished to sell. Thither we went, and +were as nicely received as in a _heimin_ residence. The pictures +--including a number of drawings by Hiroshige--proved to be worth +buying; and my friend then asked if we could have the pleasure of +hearing the Daikoku-mai. To my great satisfaction the proposal +was well received; and on our agreeing to pay a trifle to each +singer, a small band of neat-looking young girls, whom we had not +seen before, made their appearance, and prepared to sing, while +an old woman made ready to dance. Both the old woman and the +girls provided themselves with curious instruments for the +performance. Three girls had instruments shaped like mallets, +made of paper and bamboo: these were intended to represent the +hammer of Dai-koku(2); they were held in the left hand, a fan +being waved in the right. Other girls were provided with a kind +of castanets,--two flat pieces of hard dark wood, connected by a +string. Six girls formed in a line before the house. The old +woman took her place facing the girls, holding in her hands two +little sticks, one stick being notched along a part of its +length. By drawing it across the other stick, a curious rattling +noise was made. + +"My friend pointed out to me that the singers formed two distinct +parties, of three each. Those bearing the hammer and fan were the +Daikoku band: they were to sing the ballads Those with the +castanets were the Ebisu party and formed the chorus. + +"The old woman rubbed her little sticks together, and from the +throats of the Daikoku band there rang out a clear, sweet burst +of song, quite different from anything I had heard before in +Japan, while the tapping of the castanets kept exact time to the +syllabification of the words, which were very rapidly uttered. +When the first three girls had sung a certain number of lines, +the voices of the other three joined in, producing a very +pleasant though untrained harmony; and all sang the burden +together. Then the Daikoku party began another verse; and, after +a certain interval, the chorus was again sung. In the meanwhile +the old woman was dancing a very fantastic dance which provoked +laughter from the crowd, occasionally chanting a few comic words. + +"The song was not comic, however; it was a very pathetic ballad +entitled 'Yaoya O-Shichi.' Yaoya O-Shichi was a beautiful girl, +who set fire to her own house in order to obtain another meeting +with her lover, an acolyte in a temple where she expected that +her family would be obliged to take refuge after the fire. But +being detected and convicted of arson, she was condemned by the +severe law of that age to be burnt alive. The sentence was +carried into effect; but the youth and beauty of the victim, and +the motive of her offense, evoked a sympathy in the popular heart +which found later expression in song and, drama. + +"None of the performers, except the old woman, lifted the feet +from the ground while singing--but all swayed their bodies in +time to the melody. The singing lasted more than one hour, during +which the voices never failed in their quality; and yet, so far +from being weary of it, and although I could not understand a +word uttered, I felt very sorry when it was all over. And with +the pleasure received there came to the foreign listener also a +strong sense of sympathy for the young singers, victims of a +prejudice so ancient that its origin is no longer known." + +(1) Since the time this letter to the Mail was written, a primary +school has been established for the yama-no-mono, through the +benevolence of Matsue citizens superior to prejudice. The +undertaking did not escape severe local criticism, but it seems +to have proved successful. + +(2) Daikoku is the popular God of Wealth. Ebisu is the patron of +labor. See, for the history of these deities, an article +(translated) entitled "The Seven Gods of Happiness," by Carlo +Puini, vol. iii. Transactions of the Asiatic Society. See, also, +for an account of their place in Shinto worship, Glimpses of +Unfamiliar Japan, vol. 1. + + + +The foregoing extracts from my letter to the "Mail" tell the +history of my interest in the Daikoku-mai. At a later time I was +able to procure, through the kindness of my friend Nishida +Sentaro, of Matsue, written copies of three of the ballads as +sung by the _yama-no-mono_; and translations of these were +afterwards made for me. I now venture to offer my prose +renderings of the ballads,--based on the translations referred +to,--as examples of folk-song not devoid of interest. An +absolutely literal rendering, executed with the utmost care, and +amply supplied with explanatory notes, would be, of course, more +worthy the attention of a learned society. Such a version would, +however, require a knowledge of Japanese which I do not possess, +as well as much time and patient labor. Were the texts in +them-selves of value sufficient to justify a scholarly +translation, I should not have attempted any translation at all; +but I felt convinced that their interest was of a sort which +could not be much diminished by a free and easy treatment. From +any purely literary point of view, the texts are disappointing, +exhibiting no great power of imagination, and nothing really +worthy to be called poetical art. While reading such verses, we +find ourselves very far away indeed from the veritable poetry of +Japan,--from those compositions which, with a few chosen +syllables only, can either create a perfect colored picture in +the mind, or bestir the finest sensations of memory with +marvelous penetrative delicacy. The Daikoku-mai are extremely +crude; and their long popularity has been due, I fancy, rather to +the very interesting manner of singing them than to any quality +which could permit us to compare them with the old English +ballads. + +The legends upon which these chants were based still exist in +many other forms, including dramatic compositions. I need +scarcely refer to the vast number of artistic suggestions which +they have given, but I may observe that their influence in this +regard has not yet passed away. Only a few months ago, I saw a +number of pretty cotton prints, fresh from the mill, picturing +Oguri-Hangwan making the horse Onikage stand upon a chessboard. +Whether the versions of the ballads I obtained in Izumo were +composed there or elsewhere I am quite unable to say; but the +stories of Shuntoku-maru, Oguri-Hangwan, and Yaoya O-Shichi are +certainly well known in every part of Japan. + +Together with these prose translations, I submit to the Society +the original texts, to which are appended some notes of interest +about the local customs connected with the singing of the +Daikoku-mai, about the symbols used by the dancers, and about the +comic phrases chanted at intervals during the +performances,--phrases of which the coarse humor sometimes +forbids any rendering. + +All the ballads are written in the same measure, exemplified by +the first four lines of "Yaoya O-Shichi." + +Koe ni yoru ne no, aki no skika +Tsuma yori miwoba kogasu nari +Go-nin musume no sanno de +Iro mo kawasanu Edo-zakura. + +The chorus, or _hayashi_, does not seem to be sung at the end of +a fixed number of lines, but rather at the termination of certain +parts of the recitative. There is also no fixed limit to the +number of singers in either band: these may be very many or very +few. I think that the curious Izumo way of singing the burden--so +that the vowel sounds in the word iya uttered by one band, and in +the word sorei uttered by the other, are made to blend together +--might be worth the attention of some one interested in Japanese +folk-music. Indeed, I am convinced that a very delightful and +wholly unexplored field of study offers itself in Japan to the +student of folk-music and popular chants. The songs of the +_Honen-odori_, or harvest dances, with their curious choruses; +the chants of the _Bon-odori_, which differ in every district; +the strange snatches of song, often sweet and weird, that one +hears from the rice-fields or the mountain slopes in remote +provinces, have qualities totally different from those we are +accustomed to associate with the idea of Japanese music,--a charm +indisputable even for Western ears, because not less in harmony +with the nature inspiring it than the song of a bird or the +shrilling of cicadae. To reproduce such melodies, with their +extraordinary fractional tones, would be no easy task, but I +cannot help believing that the result would fully repay the +labor. Not only do they represent a very ancient, perhaps +primitive musical sense: they represent also something +essentially characteristic of the race; and there is surely much +to be learned in regard to race-emotion from the comparative +study of folk-music. + +The fact, however, that few of those peculiarities which give so +strange a charm to the old peasant-chants are noticeable in the +Izumo manner of singing the Daikoku-mai would perhaps indicate +that the latter are comparatively modern. + + +THE BALLAD OF SHUNTOKU-MARU + +_Ara!--Joyfully young Daikoko and Ebisu enter dancing_ + +Shall we tell a tale, or shall we utter felicitations? A tale: +then of what is it best that we should tell? Since we are bidden +to your august house to relate a story, we shall relate the story +of Shuntoku. + + +Surely there once lived, in the Province of Kawachi, a very rich +man called Nobuyoshi. And his eldest son was called +Shuntoku-maru. + +When Shuntoku-maru, that eldest son, was only three years old, +his mother died. And when he was five years old, there was given +to him a stepmother. + +When he was seven years old, his stepmother gave birth to a son +who was called Otowaka-maru. And the two brothers grew up +together. + +When Shuntoku became sixteen years old, he went to Kyoto, to the +temple of Tenjin-Sama, to make offerings to the god. + +There he saw a thousand people going to the temple, and a +thousand returning, and a thousand remaining: there was a +gathering of three thousand persons(1). + +Through that multitude the youngest daughter of a rich man called +Hagiyama was being carried to the temple in a kago(2). Shuntoku +also was traveling in a kago; and the two kago moved side by side +along the way. + +Gazing on the girl, Shuntoku fell in love with her. And the two +exchanged looks and letters of love. + +All this was told to the stepmother of Shuntoku by a servant that +was a flatterer. + + +Then the stepmother began to think that should the youth remain +in his father's home, the store-houses east and west, and the +granaries north and south, and the house that stood in the midst, +could never belong to Otowaka-maru. + +Therefore she devised an evil thing, and spoke to her husband, +saying, "Sir, my lord, may I have your honored permission to be +free for seven days from the duties of the household?" + +Her husband answered, "Yes, surely; but what is it that you wish +to do for seven days?" She said to him: "Before being wedded to +my lord, I made a vow to the August Deity of Kiyomidzu; and now I +desire to go to the temple to fulfill that vow." + +Said the master: "That is well. But which of the man servants or +maid servants would you wish to go with you?" Then she made +reply: "Neither man servant nor maid servant do I require. I wish +to go all alone." + +And without paying heed to any advice about her journey, she +departed from the house, and made great haste to Kyoto. + + +Reaching the quarter Sanjo in the city of Kyoto, she asked the +way to the street Kajiyamachi, which is the Street of the Smiths. +And finding it, she saw three smithies side by side. + +Going to the middle one, she greeted the smith, and asked him: +"Sir smith, can you make some fine small work in iron?" And he +answered: "Ay, lady, that I can." + +Then she said: "Make me, I pray you, nine and forty nails without +heads." But he answered: "I am of the seventh generation of a +family of smiths; yet never did I hear till now of nails without +heads, and such an order I cannot take. It were better that you +should ask elsewhere." + +"Nay," said she, "since I came first to you, I do not want to go +elsewhere. Make them for me, I pray, sir smith." He answered: "Of +a truth, if I make such nails, I must be paid a thousand ryo(3)." + +She replied to him: "If you make them all for me, I care nothing +whether you desire one thousand or two thousand ryo. Make them, I +beseech you, sir smith." So the smith could not well refuse to +make the nails. + +He arranged all things rightly to honor the God of the +Bellows(4). Then taking up his first hammer, he recited the +Kongo-Sutra(5); taking up his second, he recited the +Kwannon-Sutra; taking up his third, he recited the +Amida-Sutra,--because he feared those nails might be used for a +wicked purpose. + +Thus in sorrow he finished the nails. Then was the woman much +pleased. And receiving the nails in her left hand, she paid the +money to the smith with her right, and bade him farewell, and +went upon her way. + +When she was gone, then the smith thought: "Surely I have in gold +koban(6) the sum of a thousand ryo. But this life of ours is only +like the resting-place of a traveler journeying, and I must +show to others some pity and kindness. To those who are cold I +will give clothing, and to those who are hungry I will give +food." + +And by announcing his intention in writings(7) set up at the +boundaries of provinces and at the limits of villages, he was +able to show his benevolence to many people. + + +On her way the woman stopped at the house of a painter, and asked +the painter to paint for her a picture. + +And the painter questioned her, sayings "Shall I paint you the +picture of a very old plum-tree, or of an ancient pine?" + +She said to him; "No: I want neither the picture of an old +plum-tree nor of an ancient pine. I want the picture of a boy of +sixteen years, having a stature of five feet, and two moles upon +his face." + +"That," said the painter, "will be an easy thing to paint." And +he made the picture in a very little time. It was much like +Shuntoku-maru; and the woman rejoiced as she departed. + +With that picture of Shuntoku she hastened to Kiyomidzu; and she +pasted the picture upon one of the pillars in the rear of the +temple. + +And with forty-seven out of the forty-nine nails she nailed the +picture to the pillar; and with the two remaining nails she +nailed the eyes. + +Then feeling assured that she had put a curse upon Shuntoku, that +wicked woman went home. And she said humbly, "I have returned;" +and she pretended to be faithful and true. + +(1) These numbers simply indicate a great multitude in the +language of the people; they have no exact significance. + +(2) Kago, a kind of palanquin. + +(3) The ancient ryo or tael had a value approximating that of the +dollar of 100 sen. + +(4) Fuigo Sama, deity of smiths. + +(5) "Diamond Sutra." + +(6) Koban, a gold coin. There were koban of a great many curious +shapes and designs. The most common form was a flat or oval disk, +stamped with Chinese characters. Some koban were fully five +inches in length by four in width. + +(7) Public announcements are usually written upon small wooden +tablets attached to a post; and in the country such announcements +are still set up just as suggested in the ballad. + + +Now three or four months after the stepmother of Shuntoku had +thus invoked evil upon him he became very sick. Then that +stepmother secretly rejoiced. + +And she spoke cunningly to Nobuyoshi, her husband, saying: "Sir, +my lord, this sickness of Shuntoku seems to be a very bad +sickness; and it is difficult to keep one having such sickness in +the house of a rich man." + +Then Nobuyoshi was much surprised, and sorrowed greatly; but, +thinking to himself that indeed it could not be helped, he called +Shuntoku to him, and said:-- + +"Son, this sickness which you have seems to be leprosy; and one +having such a sickness cannot continue to dwell in this house. + +"It were best for you, therefore, to make a pilgrimage through +all the provinces, in the hope that you may be healed by divine +influence. + +"And my storehouses and my granaries I will not give to +Otowaka-maru, but only to you, Shuntoku; so you must come back to +us." + +Poor Shuntoku, not knowing how wicked his stepmother was, +besought her in his sad condition, saying: "Dear mother, I have +been told that I must go forth and wander as a pilgrim. + +"But now I am blind, and I cannot travel without difficulty. I +should be content with one meal a day in place of three, and glad +for permission to live in a corner of some storeroom or outhouse; +but I should like to remain somewhere near my home. + +"Will you not please permit me to stay, if only for a little +time? Honored mother, I beseech you, let me stay." + +But she answered: "As this trouble which you now have is only the +beginning of the bad disease, it is not possible for me to suffer +you to stay. You must go away from the house at once." + + +Then Shuntoku was forced out of the house by the servants, and +into the yard, sorrowing greatly. + +And the wicked stepmother, following, cried out: "As your father +has commanded, you must go away at once, Shuntoku." + +Shuntoku answered: "See, I have not even a traveling-dress. A +pilgrim's gown and leggings I ought to have, and a pilgrim's +wallet for begging." + +At hearing these words, the wicked stepmother was glad; and she +at once gave him all that he required. + +Shuntoku received the things, and thanked her, and made ready to +depart, even in his piteous state. + +He put on the gown and hung a wooden mamori (charm) upon his +breast(1), and he suspended the wallet about his neck. He put on +his straw sandals and fastened them tightly, and took a bamboo +staff in his hand, and placed a hat of woven rushes upon his +head. + +And saying, "Farewell, father; farewell, mother," poor Shuntoku +started on his journey. + +Sorrowfully Nobuyoshi accompanied his son a part of the way, +saying: "It cannot be helped, Shuntoku. But if, through the +divine favor Of those august deities to whom that charm is +dedicated, your disease should become cured, then come back to us +at once, my son." + +Hearing from his father these kind words of farewell, Shuntoku +felt much happier, and covering his face with the great rush hat, +so as not to be known to the neighbors, he went on alone. + +But in a little while, finding his limbs so weak that he was +afraid he could not go far, and feeling his heart always drawn +back toward his home, so that he could not help often stopping +and turning his face thither, he became sad again. + +(1) See Professor Chamberlain's "Notes on some Minor Japanese +Religious Practices," for full details of pilgrimages and pilgrim +costumes, in Journal of the Anthropological Institute (1898). The +paper is excellently illustrated. + + +Since it would have been difficult for him to enter any dwelling, +he had often to sleep under pine-trees or in the forests; but +sometimes he was lucky enough to find shelter in some wayside +shrine containing images of the Buddhas. + +And once in the darkness of the morning, before the breaking of +the day, in the hour when the crows first begin to fly abroad and +cry, the dead mother of Shuntoku came to him in a dream. + +And she said to him: "Son, your affliction has been caused by the +witchcraft of your wicked stepmother. Go now to the divinity of +Kiyomidzu, and beseech the goddess that you may be healed." + +Shuntoku arose, wondering, and took his way toward the city of +Kyoto, toward the temple of Kiyomidzu. + +One day, as he traveled, he went to the gate of the house of a +rich man named Hagiyama, crying out loudly: "Alms! alms!" + +Then a maid servant of the house, hearing the cry, came out and +gave him food, and laughed aloud, saying: "Who could help +laughing at the idea of trying to give anything to so comical a +pilgrim?" + +Shuntoku asked: "Why do you laugh? I am the son of a rich and +well-famed man, Nobuyoshi of Kawachi. But because of a +malediction invoked upon me by my wicked stepmother, I have +become as you see me." + +Then Otohime, a daughter of that family, hearing the voices, came +out, and asked the maid: "Why did you laugh?" + +The servant answered: "Oh, my lady, there was a blind man from +Kawachi, who seemed about twenty years old, clinging to the +pillar of the gate, and loudly crying, 'Alms! alms.' + +"So I tried to give him some clean rice upon a tray; but when I +held out the tray toward his right hand, he advanced his left; +and when I held out the tray toward his left hand, he advanced +his right: that was the reason I could not help laughing." + +Hearing the maid explaining thus to the young lady, the blind man +became angry, and said: "You have no right to despise strangers. +I am the son of a rich and well-famed man in Kawachi, and I am +called Shuntoku-maru." + +Then the daughter of that house, Otohime, suddenly remembering +him, also became quite angry, and said to the servant: "You must +not laugh rudely. Laughing at others to-day, you might be laughed +at yourself to-morrow." + + +But Otohime had been so startled that she could not help +trembling a little, and, retiring to her room, she suddenly +fainted away. + +Then in the house all was confusion, and a doctor was summoned in +great baste. But the girl, being quite unable to take any +medicine, only became weaker and weaker. + +Then many famous physicians were sent for; and they consulted +together about Otohime; and they decided at last that her +sickness had been caused only by some sudden sorrow. + +So the mother said to her sick daughter "Tell me, without +concealment, if you have any secret grief; and if there be +anything you want, whatever it be, I will try to get it for you." + +Otohime replied: "I am very much ashamed; but I shall tell you +what I wish. + +"The blind man who came here the other day was the son of a rich +and well-famed citizen of Kawachi, called Nobuyoshi. + +"At the time of the festival of Tenjin at Kitano in Kyoto, I met +that young man there, on my way to the temple; and we then +exchanged letters of love, pledging ourselves to each other. + +"And therefore I very much wish that I may be allowed to travel +in search of him, until I find him, wherever he may be." + +The mother kindly made answer: "That, indeed, will be well. If +you wish for a kago, you may have one; or if you would like to +have a horse, you can have one. + +"You can choose any servant you like to accompany you, and I can +let you have as many koban as you desire." + +Otohime answered: "Neither horse nor kago do I need, nor any +servant; I need only the dress of a pilgrim,--leggings and +gown,--and a mendicant's wallet." + +For Otohime held it her duty to set out by herself all alone, +just as Shuntoku had done. + +So she left home, saying farewell to her parents, with eyes full +of tears: scarcely could she find voice to utter the word +"good-by." + + +Over mountains and mountains she passed, and again over +mountains; hearing only the cries of wild deer and the sound of +torrent-water. + +Sometimes she would lose her way; sometimes she would pursue +alone a steep and difficult path; always she journeyed sorrowing. + +At last she saw before her--far, far away--the pine-tree called +Kawama-matsu, and the two rocks called Ota(1); and when she saw +those rocks, she thought of Shuntoku with love and hope. + +Hastening on, she met five or six persona going to Kumano; and +she asked them: "Have you not met on your way a blind youth, +about sixteen years old?" + +They made answer: "No, not yet; but should we meet him anywhere, +we will tell him whatever you wish." + +This reply greatly disappointed Otohime; and she began to think +that all her efforts to find her lover might be in vain; and she +became very sad. + +At last she became so end that she resolved not to try to find +him in this world anymore, but to drown herself at once in the +pool of Sawara, that she might be able to meet him in a future +state. + +She hurried there as fast as she could. And when she reached the +pond, she fixed her pilgrim's staff in the ground, and hung her +outer robe on a pine-tree, and threw away her wallet, and, +loosening her hair, arranged it in the style called Shimada(2). + +Then, having filled her sleeves with stones, she was about to +leap into the water, when there appeared suddenly before her a +venerable man of seemingly not less than eighty years, robed all +in white, and bearing a tablet in his hand. + +And the aged man said to her: "Be not thus in haste to die, +Otohime! Shuntoku whom you seek is at Kiyomidzu San: go thither +and meet him." + +These were, indeed, the happiest tidings she could have desired, +and she became at once very happy. And she knew she had thus been +saved by the august favor of her guardian deity, and that it was +the god himself who had spoken to her those words. + +So she cast away the stones she had put into her sleeves, and +donned again the outer robe she had taken off, and rearranged her +hair, and took her way in all haste to the temple of Kiyomidzu. + +(l) One meaning of "Ota" in Japanese is "has met" or "have met." + +(2) The simple style in which the hair of dead woman is arranged. +See chapter "Of Women's Hair," in Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, +vol. ii. + +At last she reached the temple. She ascended the three lower +steps, and glancing beneath a porch she saw her lover, Shuntoku, +lying there asleep, covered with a straw mat; and she called to +him, "Moshi! Moshi!(1)" + +Shuntoku, thus being suddenly awakened, seized his staff, which +was lying by his side, and cried out, "Every day the children of +this neighborhood come here and annoy me, because I am blind!" + +Otohime hearing these words, and feeling great sorrow, approached +and laid her hands on her poor lover, and said to him:-- + + +"I am not one of those bad, mischievous children; I am the +daughter of the wealthy Hagiyama. And because I promised myself +to you at the, festival of Kitano Tenjin in Kyoto, I have come +here to see you." + +Astonished at hearing the voice of his sweet-heart, Shuntoku rose +up quickly, and cried out: "Oh! are you really Otohime? It is a +long time since we last met--but this is so strange! Is it not +all a lie?" + +And then, stroking each other, they could only cry, instead of +speaking. + +But presently Shuntoku, giving way to the excitement of his +grief, cried out to Otohime: "A malediction has been laid upon me +by my stepmother, and my appearance has been changed, as you see. + +"Therefore never can I be united to you as your husband. Even as +I now am, so must I remain until I fester to death. + +"And so you must go beck home at once, and live in happiness and +splendor." + +But she answered in great sorrow: "Never! Are you really in +earnest? Are you truly in your right senses? + +"No, no! I have disguised myself thus only because I loved you +enough even to give my life for you. + +"And now I will never leave yea, no matter what may become of me +in the future." + +Shuntoku was comforted by these words; but he was also filled +with pity for her, so that he wept, without being able to speak a +word. + +Then she said to him: "Since your wicked stepmother bewitched you +only because you were rich, I am not afraid to revenge you by +bewitching her also; for I, too, am the child of a rich man." + +And then, with her whole heart, she spoke thus to the divinity +within the temple:--"For the space of seven days and seven nights +I shall remain fasting in this temple, to prove my vow; and if +you have any truth and pity, I beseech you to save us. + +"For so great a building as this a thatched roof is not the +proper roof. I will re-roof it with feathers of little birds; and +the ridge of the roof I will cover with thigh-feathers of +falcons. + +"This torii and these lanterns of stone are ugly: I will erect a +torii of gold; and I will make a thousand lamps of gold and a +thousand of silver, and every evening I will light them. + +"In so large a garden as this there should be trees. I will plant +a thousand hinoki, a thousand sugi, a thousand karamatsu. + +"But if Shuntoku should not be healed by reason of this vow, then +he and I will drown ourselves together in yonder lotos-pond. + +"And after our death, taking the form of two great serpents, we +will torment all who come to worship at this temple, and bar the +way against pilgrims." + +(1) An exclamation uttered to call the attention of another to +the presence of the speaker,--from the respectful verb "to say." +Our colloquial "say" does not give the proper meaning. Our +"please" comes nearer to it. + +Now, strange to say, on the night of the seventh day after she +had vowed this vow, there came to her in a dream Kwannon-Sama who +said to her: + +"The prayer which you prayed I shall grant." + + +Forthwith Otohime awoke, and told her dream to Shuntoku, and they +both wondered. They arose, and went down to the river together, +and washed themselves, and worshiped the goddess. + +Then, strange to say, the eyes of blind Shuntoku were fully +opened, and his clear sight came back to him, and the disease +passed away from him. And both wept because of the greatness of +their joy. + +Together they sought an inn, and there laid aside their +pilgrim-dresses, and put on fresh robes, and hired kago and +carriers to bear them home. + + +Reaching the house of his father, Shuntoku cried out: "Honored +parents, I have returned to you! By virtue of the written charm +upon the sacred tablet, I have been healed of my sickness, as you +may see. Is all well with you, honored parents?" + +And Shuntoku's father, hearing, ran out and cried: "Oh! how much +troubled I have been for your sake! + +"Never for one moment could I cease to think of you; but now--how +glad I am to see you, and the bride you have brought with you!" +And all rejoiced together. + +But, on the other hand, it was very strange that the wicked +stepmother at the same moment became suddenly blind, and that her +fingers and her toes began to rot, so that she was in great +torment. + +Then the bride and the bridegroom said to that wicked stepmother: +"Lo! the leprosy has come upon you! + +"We cannot keep a leper in the house of a rich man. Please to go +away at once! + +"We shall give you a pilgrim's gown and leggings, a rush hat, and +a staff; for we have all these things ready here." + +Then the wicked stepmother knew that even to save her from death +it could not be helped, because she herself had done so wicked a +thing before. Shuntoku and his wife were very glad; how rejoiced +they were! + +The stepmother prayed them to allow her only one small meal a +day,--just as Shuntoku had done; but Otohime said to the stricken +woman: "We cannot keep you here,--not even in the corner of an +outhouse. Go away at once!" + +Also Nobuyoshi said to his wicked wife: "What do you mean by +remaining here? How long do you require to go?" + +And he drove her out, and she could not help herself, and she +went away crying, and striving to hide her face from the sight of +the neighbors. + +Otowaka led his blind mother by the hand; and together they went +to Kyoto and to the temple of Kiyomidzu. + +When they got there they ascended three of the temple steps, and +knelt down, and prayed the goddess, saying: "Give us power to +cast another malediction!" + +But the goddess suddenly appeared before them, and said: "Were it +a good thing that you pray for, I would grant your prayer; but +with an evil matter I will have no more to do. + +"If you must die, then die there! And after your death you shall +be sent to hell, and there put into the bottom of an iron caldron +to be boiled." + +_This is the end of the Story of Shuntoku. With a jubilant tap of +the fan we finish so! Joyfully!-joyfully!-joyfully!_ + + + +THE BALLAD OF OGURI-HANGWAN + +_To tell every word of the tale,--this is the story of +Oguri-Hangwan_. + + +I. THE BIRTH + +The famed Takakura Dainagon, whose other name was Kane-ie, was so +rich that he had treasure-houses in every direction. + +He owned one precious stone that had power over fire, and another +that had power over water. + +He also had the claws of a tiger, extracted from the paws of the +living animal; he had the horns of a colt; and he likewise owned +even a musk-cat (jako-neko)(1). + +Of all that a man might have in this world, he wanted nothing +except an heir, and he had no other cause for sorrow. + +A trusted servant in his house named Ikenoshoji said at last to +him these words:-- + +"Seeing that the Buddhist deity Tamon-Ten, enshrined upon the +holy mountain of Kurama, is famed for his divine favor far and +near, I respectfully entreat you to go to that temple and make +prayer to him; for then your wish will surely be fulfilled." + +To this the master agreed, and at once began to make preparation +for a journey to the temple. + +As he traveled with great speed he reached the temple very soon; +and there, having purified his body by pouring water over it, he +prayed with all his heart for an heir. + +And during three days and three nights he abstained from food of +every sort. But all seemed in vain. + +Wherefore the lord, despairing because of the silence of the god, +resolved to perform _harakiri_ in the temple, and so to defile +the sacred building. + +Moreover, he resolved that his spirit, after his death, should +haunt the mountain of Kurama, to deter and terrify all pilgrims +upon the nine-mile path of the mountain. + +The delay of even one moment would have been fatal; but good +Ikenoshoji came running to the place just in time, and prevented +the seppuku(2). + +"Oh, my lord!" the retainer cried, "you are surely too hasty in +your resolve to die. + +"Rather first suffer me to try my fortune, and see if I may not +be able to offer up prayer for your sake with more success." + +Then after having twenty-one times purified his body,--seven +times washing with hot water, seven times with cold, and yet +another seven times washing himself with a bundle of +bamboo-grass,--he thus prayed to the god:-- + +"If to my lord an heir be given by the divine favor, then I vow +that I will make offering of paving-blocks of bronze wherewith to +pave this temple court. + +"Also of lanterns of bronze to stand in rows without the temple, +and of plating of pure gold and pure silver to cover all the +pillars within!" + +And upon the third of the three nights which he passed in prayer +before the god, Tamon-Ten revealed himself to the pious +Ikenoshoji and said to him:-- + +"Earnestly wishing to grant your petition, I sought far and near +for a fitting heir,--even as far as Tenjiku (India) and Kara +(China). + +"But though human beings are numerous as the stars in the sky or +the countless pebbles upon the shore, I was grieved that I could +not find of the seed of man one heir that might well be given to +your master. + +"And at last, knowing not what else to do, I took away by stealth +[the spirit?] of one of the eight children whose father was one +of the Shi-Tenno(3), residing on the peak Ari-ari, far among the +Dandoku mountains. And that child I will give to become the heir +of your master." + +Having thus spoken, the deity retired within the innermost +shrine. Then Ikenoshoji, starting from his real dream, nine times +prostrated himself before the god, and hastened to the dwelling +of his master. + +Erelong the wife of Takakura Dainagon found herself with child; +and after the ten(4) happy months she bore a son with painless +labor. + +It was strange that the infant had upon his forehead, marked +quite plainly and naturally, the Chinese character for "rice." + +And it was yet more strange to find that in his eyes four +Buddhas(5) were reflected. + +Ikenoshoji and the parents rejoiced; and the name Ari-waka (Young +Ari) was given the child--after the name of the mountain Ari-ari +--on the third day after the birth. + +(1)"Musk-rat" is the translation given by some dictionaries. +"Musk-deer" was suggested by my translator. But as some +mythological animal is evidently meant, I thought it better to +translate the word literally. + +(2) The Chinese term for harakiri. It is thought to be the more +refined word. + +(3) Shi-Tenno: the Four Deva Kings of Buddhism, who guard the +Four Quarters of the World. + +(4) That is, ten by the ancient native manner of reckoning time. + +(5) Shitai-no-mi-Hotoke: literally, a four-bodied-august Buddha. +The image in the eye is called the Buddha: the idea here +expressed seems to be that the eyes of the child reflected four +instead of two images. Children of supernatural beings were +popularly said to have double pupils. But I am giving only a +popular explanation of the term. + + +II. THE BANISHMENT + +Very quickly the child grew; and when he became fifteen, the +reigning Emperor gave him the name and title of Oguri-Hangwan +Kane-uji. + +When he reached manhood his father resolved to get him a bride. + +So the Dainagon looked upon all the daughters of the ministers +and high officials, but he found none that he thought worthy to +become the wife of his son. + +But the young Hangwan, learning that he himself had been a gift +to his parents from Tamon-Ten, resolved to pray to that deity for +a spouse; and he hastened to the temple of the divinity, +accompanied by Ikenoshoji. + +There they washed their hands and rinsed their mouths, and +remained three nights without sleep, passing all the time in +religious exercises. + +But as they had no companions, the young prince at last felt very +lonesome, and began to play on his flute, made of the root of the +bamboo. + +Seemingly charmed by these sweet sounds, the great serpent that +lived in the temple pond came to the entrance of the +temple,--transforming its fearful shape into the likeness of a +lovely female attendant of the Imperial Court,--and fondly +listened to the melody. + +Then Kane-uji thought he saw before him the very lady he desired +for a wife. And thinking also that she was the one chosen for him +by the deity, he placed the beautiful being in a palanquin and +returned to his home. + +But no sooner had this happened than a fearful storm burst upon +the capital, followed by a great flood; and the flood and the +storm both lasted for seven days and seven nights. + +The Emperor was troubled greatly by these omens; and he sent for +the astrologers, that they might explain the causes thereof. + +They said in answer to the questions asked of them that the +terrible weather was caused only by the anger of the male +serpent, seeking vengeance for the loss of its mate,--which was +none other than the fair woman that Kane-uji had brought back +with him. + +Whereupon the Emperor commanded that Kane-uji should be banished +to the province of Hitachi, and that the transformed female +serpent should at once be taken back to the pond upon the +mountain of Kurama. + +And being thus compelled by imperial order to depart, Kane-uji +went away to the province of Hitachi, followed only by his +faithful retainer, Ikenoshoji. + + +III. THE EXCHANGE OF LETTERS + +Only a little while after the banishment of Kane-uji, a traveling +merchant, seeking to sell his wares, visited the house of the +exiled prince at Hitachi. + +And being asked by the Hangwan where he lived, the merchant made +answer, saying:--"I live in Kyoto, in the street called +Muromachi, and my name is Goto Sayemon. + +"My stock consists of goods of one thousand and eight different +kinds which I send to China, of one thousand and eight kinds +which I send to India, and yet another thousand and eight kinds +which I sell only in Japan. + +"So that my whole stock consists of three thousand and +twenty-four different kinds of goods. + +"Concerning the countries to which I have already been, I may +answer that I made three voyages to India and three to China and +this is my seventh journey to this part of Japan." + +Having heard these things, Oguri-Hangwan asked the merchant +whether he knew of any young girl who would make a worthy wife, +since he, the prince, being still unmarried, desired to find such +a girl. + +Then said Sayemon: "In the province of Sagami, to the west of us, +there lives a rich man called Tokoyama Choja, who has eight sons. + +"Long he lamented that he had no daughter, and he long prayed for +a daughter to the August Sun. + +"And a daughter was given him; and after her birth, her parents +thought it behoved them to give her a higher rank than their own, +because her birth had come to pass through the divine influence +of the August Heaven-Shining Deity; so they built for her a +separate dwelling. + +"She is, in very truth, superior to all other Japanese women; nor +can I think of any other person in every manner worthy of you." + +This story much pleased Kane-uji; and he at once asked Sayemon to +act the part of match-maker(1) for him; and Sayemon promised to +do everything in his power to fulfill the wish of the Hangwan. + +Then Kane-uji called for inkstone and writing-brush, and wrote a +love-letter, and tied it up with such a knot as love-letters are +tied with. + +And he gave it to the merchant to be delivered to the lady; and +he gave him also, in reward for his services, one hundred golden +ryo. + +Sayemon again and again prostrated himself in thanks; and he put +the letter into the box which he always carried with him. And +then he lifted the box upon his back, and bade the prince +fare-well. + +Now, although the journey from Hitachi to Sagami is commonly a +journey of seven days, the merchant arrived there at noon upon +the third day, having traveled in all haste, night and day +together, without stopping. + +And he went to the building called Inui-no-Goshyo, which had been +built by the rich Yokoyama for the sake of his only daughter, +Terute-Hime, in the district of Soba, in the province of Sagami; +and he asked permission to enter therein. + +But the stern gate-keepers bade him go away, announcing that the +dwelling was the dwelling of Terute-Hime, daughter of the famed +Choja Yokoyama, and that no person of the male sex whosoever +could be permitted to enter; and furthermore, that guards had +been appointed to guard the palace--ten by night and ten by +day--with extreme caution and severity. + +But the merchant told the gate-keepers that he was Goto Sayemon, +of the street called Muromachi, in the city of Kyoto; that he was +a well-famed merchant there, and was by the people called +Sendanya; that he had thrice been to India and thrice to China, +and was now upon his seventh return journey to the great country +of the Rising Sun. + +And he said also to them: "Into all the palaces of Nihon, save +this one only, I have been freely admitted; so I shall be deeply +grateful to you if you permit me to enter." + +Thus saying, he produced many rolls of silk, and presented them +to the gate-keepers; and their cupidity made them blind; and the +merchant, without more difficulty, entered, rejoicing. + +Through the great outer gate he passed, and over a bridge, and +then found himself in front of the chambers of the female +attendants of the superior class. + +And he called out with a very loud voice: "O my ladies, all +things that you may require I have here with me! + +"I have all _jorogata-no-meshi-dogu_; I have hair-combs and +needles and tweezers; I have _tategami_, and combs of silver, and +_kamoji_ from Nagasaki, and even all kinds of Chinese mirrors!" + +Whereupon the ladies, delighted with the idea of seeing these +things, suffered the merchant to enter their apartment, which he +presently made to look like a shop for the sale of female toilet +articles. + +(1) Nakodo. The profession of nakodo exists; but any person who +arranges marriages for a consideration is for the time being +called the nakodo. + + +But while making bargains and selling very quickly, Sayemon did +not lose the good chance offered him; and taking from his box the +love-letter which had been confided to him, he said to the +ladies:-- + +"This letter, if I remember rightly, I picked up in some town in +Hitachi, and I shall be very glad if you will accept it,--either +to use it for a model if it be written beautifully, or to laugh +at if it prove to have been written awkwardly." + +Then the chief among the maids, receiving the letter, tried to +read the writing upon the envelope: _"Tsuki ni hoshi--ame ni +arare ga--kori kana,_"-- + +Which signified, "Moon and stars--rain and hail--make ice." But +she could not read the riddle of the mysterious words. + +The other ladies, who were also unable to guess the meaning of +the words, could not but laugh; and they laughed so shrilly that +the Princess Terute heard, and came among them, fully robed, and +wearing a veil over her night-black hair. + +And the bamboo-screen having been rolled up before her, +Terute-Hime asked: "What is the cause of all this laughing? If +there be anything amusing, I wish that you will let me share in +the amusement." + +The maids then answered, saying: "We were laughing only at our +being unable to read a letter which this merchant from the +capital says that he picked up in some street. And here is the +letter: even the address upon it is a riddle to us." + +And the letter, having been laid upon an open crimson fan, was +properly presented to the princess, who received it, and admired +the beauty of the writing, and said:-- + +"Never have I seen so beautiful a hand as this: it is like the +writing of Kobodaishi himself, or of Monju Bosatsu. + +"Perhaps the writer is one of those princes of the Ichijo, or +Nijo, or Sanjo families, all famed for their skill in writing. + +"Or, if this guess of mine be wrong, then I should say that these +characters have certainly been written by Oguri-Hangwan Kane-uji, +now so famed in the province of Hitachi.... I shall read the +letter for you." + +Then the envelope was removed; and the first phrase she read was +_Fuji no yama_ (the Mountain of Fuji), which she interpreted as +signifying loftiness of rank. And then she met with such phrases +as these:-- + +_Kiyomidzu kosaka_ (the name of a place); _arare ni ozasa_ (hail +on the leaves of the bamboo-grass); _itaya ni arare_ (hail +following upon a wooden roof); + +_Tamato ni kori_ (ice in the sleeve); _nonaka ni shimidzu_ (pure +water running through a moor); _koike ni makomo_ (rushes in a +little pond); + +_Inoba ni tsuyu_ (dew on the leaves of the taro); _shakunaga obi_ +(a very long girdle); _shika ni momiji_ (deer and maple-trees); + +_Futamata-gawa (a forked river); _hoso tanigawa-ni marukibashi_ +(a round log laid over a little stream for a bridge); _tsurunashi +yumi ni hanuki dori_ (a stringless bow, and a wingless bird). + +And then she understood that the characters signified:-- + +_Maireba au_--they would meet, for he would call upon her. +_Arare nai_--then they would not be separated. _Korobi au_--they +would repose together. + +And the meaning of the rest was thus:-- + +"This letter should be opened within the sleeve, so that others +may know nothing of it. Keep the secret in your own bosom. + +"You must yield to me even as the rush bends to the wind. I am +earnest to serve you in all things. + +"We shall surely be united at last, whatever chance may separate +us at the beginning. I wish for you even as the stag for its mate +in the autumn. + +"Even though long kept apart we shall meet, as meet the waters of +a river divided in its upper course into two branches. + +"Divine, I pray you, the meaning of this letter, and preserve it. +I hope for a fortunate answer. Thinking of Terute-Hime, I feel as +though I could fly." + +And the Princess Terute found at the end of the letter the name +of him who wrote it,--Oguri-Hangwan Kane-uji himself,--together +with her own name, as being written to her. + +Then she felt greatly troubled, because she had not at first +supposed that the letter was addressed to her, and had, without +thinking, read it aloud to the female attendants. + +For she well knew that her father would quickly kill her in a +most cruel manner, should the iron-hearted Choja(1) come to know +the truth. + +Wherefore, through fear of being mingled with the earth of the +moor Uwanogahara,--fitting place for a father in wrath to slay +his daughter,--she set the end of the letter between her teeth, +and rent it to pieces, and withdrew to the inner apartment. + +(1) Choja is not a proper name: it signifies really a wealthy man +only, like the French terms "un richard," "un riche." But it is +used almost like a proper name in the country still; the richest +man in the place, usually a person of influence, being often +referred to as "the Choja." + + +But the merchant, knowing that he could not go back to Hitachi +without bearing some reply, resolved to obtain one by cunning. + +Wherefore he hurried after the princess even into her innermost +apartment, without so much as waiting to remove his sandals, and +he cried out loudly:--"Oh, my princess! I have been taught that +written characters were invented in India by Monju Bosatsu, and +in Japan by Kobodaishi. + +"And is it not like tearing the hands of Kobodaishi, thus to tear +a letter written with characters? + +"Know you not that a woman is less pure than a man? Wherefore, +then, do you, born a woman, thus presume to tear a letter? + +"Now, if you refuse to write a reply, I shall call upon all the +gods; I shall announce to them this unwomanly act, and I shall +invoke their malediction upon you!" + +And with these words he took from the box which he always carried +with him a Buddhist rosary; and he began to twist it about with +an awful appearance of anger. + +Then the Princess Terute, terrified and grieved, prayed him to +cease his invocations, and promised that she would write an +answer at once. + +So her answer was quickly written, and given to the merchant, who +was overjoyed by his success, and speedily departed for Hitachi, +carrying his box upon his back. + + +IV. HOW KANE-UJI BECAME A BRIDEGROOM WITHOUT HIS FATHER-IN-LAW'S +CONSENT + +Traveling with great speed, the nakodo quickly arrived at the +dwelling of the Hangwan, and gave the letter to the master, who +removed the cover with hands that trembled for joy. + +Very, very short the answer was,--only these words: _Oki naka +bune_, "a boat floating in the offing." + +But Kane-uji guessed the meaning to be: "As fortunes and +misfortunes are common to all, be not afraid, and try to come +unseen." + +Therewith he summoned Ikenoshoji, and bade him make all needful +preparation for a rapid journey. Goto Sayemon consented to serve +as guide. + +He accompanied them; and when they reached the district of Soba, +and were approaching the house of the princess, the guide said to +the prince:-- + +"That house before us, with the black gate, is the dwelling of +the far-famed Yokoyama Choja; and that other house, to the +northward of it, having a red gate, is the residence of the +flower-fair Terute. + +"Be prudent in all things, and you will succeed." And with these +words, the guide disappeared. + +Accompanied by his faithful retainer, the Hangwan approached the +red gate. + +Both attempted to enter, when the gate-keeper sought to prevent +them; declaring they were much too bold to seek to enter the +dwelling of Terute-Hime, only daughter of the renowned Yokoyama +Choja,--the sacred child begotten through the favor of the deity +of the Sun. + +"You do but right to speak thus," the retainer made reply. "But +you must learn that we are officers from the city in search of a +fugitive. + +"And it is just because all males are prohibited from entering +this dwelling that a search therein must be made." + +Then the guards, amazed, suffered them to pass, and saw the +supposed officers of justice enter the court, and many of the +ladies in waiting come forth to welcome them as guests. + +And the Lady Terute, marvelously pleased by the coming of the +writer of that love-letter, appeared before her wooer, robed in +her robes of ceremony, with a veil abut her shoulders. + +Kane-uji was also much delighted at being thus welcomed by the +beautiful maiden. And the wedding ceremony was at once performed, +to the great joy of both, and was followed by a great wine feast. + +So great was the mirth, and so joyful were all, that the +followers of the prince and the maids of the princess danced +together, and together made music. + +And Oguri-Hangwan himself produced his flute, made of the root of +a bamboo, and began to play upon it sweetly. + +Then the father of Terute, hearing all this joyous din in the +house of his daughter, wondered greatly what the cause might be. + +But when he had been told how the Hangwan had become the +bridegroom of his daughter without his consent, the Choja grew +wondrous angry, and in secret devised a scheme of revenge. + + +V. THE POISONING + +The next day Yokoyama sent to Prince Kane-uji a message, inviting +him to come to his house, there to perform the wine-drinking +ceremony of greeting each other as father-in-law and son-in-law. + +Then the Princess Terute sought to dissuade the Hangwan from +going there, because she had dreamed in the night a dream of ill +omen. + +But the Hangwan, making light of her fears, went boldly to the +dwelling of the Choja, followed by his young retainers. +Then Yokoyama Choja, rejoicing, caused many dishes to be +prepared, containing all delicacies furnished by the mountains +and the sea(1), and well entertained the Hangwan. + +At last, when the wine-drinking began to flag, Yokoyama uttered +the wish that his guest, the lord Kane-uji, would also furnish +some entertainment(2). + +"And what shall it be?" the Hangwan asked. + +"Truly," replied the Choja, "I am desirous to see you show your +great skill in riding." + +"Then I shall ride," the prince made answer. And presently the +horse called Onikage(3) was led out. + +That horse was so fierce that he did not seem to be a real horse, +but rather a demon or a dragon, so that few dared even to +approach him. + +But the Prince Hangwan Kane-uji at once loosened the chain by +which the horse was fastened, and rode upon him with wondrous +ease. + +In spite of his fierceness, Onikage found himself obliged to do +everything which his rider wished. All present, Yokoyama and the +others, could not speak for astonishment. + +But soon the Choja, taking and setting up a six-folding screen, +asked to see the prince ride his steed upon the upper edge of the +screen. + +The lord Oguri, consenting, rode upon the top of the screen; and +then he rode along the top of an upright shoji frame. + +Then a chessboard being set out, he rode upon it, making the +horse rightly set his hoof upon the squares of the chessboard as +he rode. + +And, lastly, he made the steed balance himself upon the frame of +an andon(4). + +Then Yokoyama was at a loss what to do, and he could only say, +bowing low to the prince: + +"Truly I am grateful for your entertainment; I am very much +delighted." + +And the lord Oguri, having attached Onikage to a cherry-tree in +the garden, reentered the apartment. + +But Saburo, the third son of the house, having persuaded his +father to kill the Hangwan with poisoned wine, urged the prince +to drink sake with which there had been mingled the venom of a +blue centipede and of a blue lizard, and foul water that had long +stood in the hollow joint of a bamboo. + +And the Hangwan and his followers, not suspecting the wine had +been poisoned, drank the whole. + +Sad to say, the poison entered into their viscera and their +intestines; and all their bones burst asunder by reason of the +violence of that poison. + +(1) Or, "with all strange flavors of mountain and sea." + +(2) The word is really sakana, "fish." It has always been +the rule to serve fish with sake; and gradually the word +"fish" became used for any entertainment given during the +wine-party by guests, such as songs, dances, etc. + +(3) Literally, "Demon-deer-hair." The term "deer-hair" refers to +color. A less exact translation of the original characters would +be "the demon chestnut". Kage, "deer-color" also means +"chestnut." A chestnut horse is Kage-no-uma. + +(4) A large portable lantern, having a wooden frame and paper +sides. There are andon of many forms, some remarkably beautiful. + + +Their lives passed from them quickly as dew in the morning from +the grass. + +And Saburo and his father buried their corpses in the moor +Uwanogahara. + + +VI. CAST ADRIFT + +The cruel Yokoyama thought that it would not do to suffer his +daughter to live, after he had thus killed her husband. Therefore +he felt obliged to order his faithful servants, Onio and Oniji, +(1) who were brothers, to take her far out into the sea of +Sagami, and to drown her there. + +And the two brothers, knowing their master was too stony-hearted +to be persuaded otherwise, could do nothing but obey. So they +went to the unhappy lady, and told her the purpose for which they +had been sent. + +Terute-Hime was so astonished by her father's cruel decision that +at first she thought all this was a dream, from which she +earnestly prayed to be awakened. + +After a while she said: "Never in my whole life have I knowingly +committed any crime.... But whatever happen to my own body, I am +more anxious than I can say to learn what became of my husband +after he visited my father's house." + +"Our master," answered the two brothers, "becoming very angry at +learning that you two had been wedded without his lawful +permission, poisoned the young prince, according to a plan +devised by your brother Saburo." + +Then Terute, more and more astonished, invoked, with just cause, +a malediction upon her father for his cruelty. + +But she was not even allowed time to lament her fate; for Onio +and his brother at once removed her garments, and put her naked +body into a roll of rush matting. + +When this piteous package was carried out of the house at night, +the princess and her waiting-maids bade each other their last +farewells, with sobs and cries of grief. + +(1) Onio, "the king of devils," Oniji, "the next greatest devil." + + +The brothers Onio and Oniji then rowed far out to sea with their +pitiful burden. But when they found themselves alone, then Oniji +said to Onio that it were better they should try to save their +young mistress. + +To this the elder brother at once agreed without difficulty; and +both began to think of some plan to save her. + +Just at the same time an empty canoe came near them, drifting +with the sea-current. + +At once the lady was placed in it; and the brothers, exclaiming, +"That indeed was a fortunate happening," bade their mistress +farewell, and rowed back to their master. + + +VII. THE LADY YORIHIME + +The canoe bearing poor Terute was tossed about by the waves for +seven days and seven nights, during which time there was much +wind and rain. And at last it was discovered by some fishermen +who were fishing near Nawoye. + +But they thought that the beautiful woman was certainly the +spirit that had caused the long storm of many days; and Terute +might have been killed by their oars, had not one of the men of +Nawoye taken her under his protection. + +Now this man, whose name was Murakimi Dayu, resolved to adopt the +princess as his daughter as he had no child of his own to be his +heir. + +So he took her to his home, and named her Yorihime, and treated +her so kindly that his wife grew jealous of the adopted daughter, +and therefore was often cruel to her when the husband was absent. + +But being still more angered to find that Yorihime would not go +away of her own accord, the evil-hearted woman began to devise +some means of getting rid of her forever. + +Just at that time the ship of a kidnapper happened to cast anchor +in the harbor. Needless to say that Yorihime was secretly sold to +this dealer in human flesh. + + +VIII. BECOMING A SERVANT + +After this misfortune, the unhappy princess passed from one +master to another as many as seventy-five times. Her last +purchaser was one Yorodzuya Chobei, well known as the keeper of a +large joroya(1) in the province of Mino. + +When Terute-Hime was first brought before this new master, she +spoke meekly to him, and begged him to excuse her ignorance of +all refinements and of deportment. And Chobei then asked her to +tell him all about herself, her native place, and her family. +But Terute-Hime thought it would not be wise to mention even the +name of her native province, lest she might possibly be forced to +speak of the poisoning of her husband by her own father. + +So she resolved to answer only that she was born in Hitachi; +feeling a sad pleasure in saying that she belonged to the same +province in which the lord Hangwan, her lover, used to live. + +"I was born," she said, "in the province of Hitachi; but I am of +too low birth to have a family name. Therefore may I beseech you +to bestow some suitable name upon me?" + +Then Terute-Hime was named Kohagi of Hitachi, and she was told +that she would have to serve her master very faithfully in his +business. + +But this order she refused to obey, and said that she would +perform with pleasure any work given her to do, however mean or +hard, but that she would never follow the business of a joro. + +"Then," cried Chobei in anger, "your daily tasks shall be +these:-- + +"To feed all the horses, one hundred in number, that are kept in +the stables, and to wait upon all other persons in the house when +they take their meals. + +"To dress the hair of the thirty-six joro belonging to this +house, dressing the hair of each in the style that best becomes +her; and also to fill seven boxes with threads of twisted hemp. + +"Also to make the fire daily in seven furnaces, and to draw water +from a spring in the mountains, half a mile from here." + +Terute knew that neither she nor any other being alive could +possibly fulfill all the tasks thus laid upon her by this cruel +master; and she wept over her misfortune. + +But she soon felt that to weep could avail her nothing. So wiping +away her tears, she bravely resolved to try what she could do, +and then putting on an apron, and tying back her sleeves, she set +to work feeding the horses. + +The great mercy of the gods cannot be understood; but it is +certain that as she fed the first horse, all the others, through +divine influence, were fully fed at the same time. + +And the same wonderful thing happened when she waited upon the +people of the house at mealtime, and when she dressed the hair of +the girls, and when she twisted the threads of hemp, and when she +went to kindle the fire in the furnaces. + +But saddest of all it was to see Terute-Hime bearing the +water-buckets upon her shoulders, taking her way to the distant +spring to draw water. + +And when she saw the reflection of her much-changed face in the +water with which she filled her buckets, then indeed she wept +very bitterly. + +But the sudden remembrance of the cruel Chobei filled her with +exceeding fear, and urged her back in haste to her terrible +abode. + +But soon the master of the joroya began to see that his new +servant was no common woman, and to treat her with a great show +of kindness. + +(1)A house of prostitution. + + +IX. DRAWING THE CART + +And now we shall tell what became of Kane-uji. + +The far-famed Yugyo Shonin, of the temple of Fujisawa in Kagami, +who traveled constantly in Japan to preach the law of Buddha in +all the provinces, chanced to be passing over the moor +Uwanogahara. + +There he saw many crows and kites flitting about a grave. Drawing +nearer, he wondered much to see a nameless thing, seemingly +without arms or legs, moving between the pieces of a broken +tombstone. + +Then he remembered the old tradition, that those who are put to +death before having completed the number of years allotted to +them in this world reappear or revive in the form called +_gaki-ami_. + +And he thought that the shape before him must be one of those +unhappy spirits; and the desire arose in his kindly heart to have +the monster taken to the hot springs belonging to the temple of +Kumano, and thereby enable it to return to its former human +state. + +So he had a cart made for the _gaki-ami_, and he placed the +nameless shape in it, and fastened to its breast a wooden tablet, +inscribed with large characters. + +And the words of the inscription were these: "Take pity upon this +unfortunate being, and help it upon its journey to the hot +springs of the temple of Kumano. + +"Those who draw the cart even a little way, by pulling the rope +attached to it, will be rewarded with very great good fortune. + +"To draw the cart even one step shall be equal in merit to +feeding one thousand priests, and to draw it two steps shall be +equal in merit to feeding ten thousand priests; + +"And to draw it three steps shall be equal in merit to causing +any dead relation--father, mother, or husband--to enter upon the +way of Buddhahood." + +Thus very soon travelers who traveled that way took pity on the +formless one: some drew the cart several miles, and, others were +kind enough to draw it for many days together. + +And so, after much time, the _gaki-ami_ in its cart appeared +before the joroya of Yorodzuya Chobei; and Kohagi of Hitachi, +seeing it, was greatly moved by the inscription. + +Then becoming suddenly desirous to draw the cart if even for one +day only, and so to obtain for her dead husband the merit +resulting from such work of mercy, she prayed her master to allow +her three days' liberty that she might draw the cart. + +And she asked this for the sake of her parents; for she dared not +speak of her husband, fearing the master might become very angry +were he to learn the truth. + +Chobei at first refused, declaring in a harsh voice that since +she had not obeyed his former commands, she should never be +allowed to leave the house, even for a single hour. + +But Kohagi said to him: "Lo, master! the hens go to their nests +when the weather becomes cold, end the little birds hie to the +deep forest. Even so do men in time of misfortune flee to the +shelter of benevolence. + +"Surely it is because you are known as a kindly man that the +_gaki-ami_ rested a while outside the fence of this house. + +"Now I shall promise to give up even a life for my master and +mistress in case of need, providing you will only grant me three +days' freedom now." + +So at last the miserly Chobei was persuaded to grant the prayer; +and his wife was glad to add even two days more to the time +permitted. And Kohagi, thus freed for five days, was so rejoiced +that she at once without delay commenced her horrible task. + +After having, with much hardship, passed through such places as +Fuhanoseki, Musa, Bamba, Samegaye, Ono, and Suenaga-toge, she +reached the famed town of Otsu, in the space of three days. + +There she knew that she would have to leave the cart, since it +would take her two days to return thence to the province of Mino. + + +On her long way to Otsu, the only pleasing sights and sounds were +the beautiful lilies growing wild by the roadside, the voices of +the hibari and shijugara(1) and all the birds of spring that sang +in the trees, and the songs of the peasant girls who were +planting the rice. + +But such sights and sounds could please her only a moment; for +most of them caused her to dream of other days, and gave her pain +by making her recollect the hopeless condition into which she had +now fallen. + +(1) Hibari, a species of field lark; shijugara, a kind of +titmouse. + + +Though greatly wearied by the hard labor she had undertaken for +three whole days, she would not go to an inn. She passed the last +night beside the nameless shape, which she would have to leave +next day. + +"Often have I heard," she thought to herself, "that a _gaki-ami_ +is a being belonging to the world of the dead. This one, then, +should know something about my dead husband. + +"Oh that this _gaki-ami_ had the sense either of hearing or of +sight! Then I could question it about Kane-uji, either by word of +mouth or in writing." + +When day dawned above the neighboring misty mountains, Kohagi +went away to get an inkstone and a brush; and she soon returned +with these to the place where the cart was. + +Then, with the brush, she wrote, below the inscription upon the +wooden tablet attached to the breast of the _gaki-ami_, these +words:-- + +"When you shall have recovered and are able to return to your +province, pray call upon Kohagi of Hitachi, a servant of +Yorodzuya Chobei of the town of Obaka in the province of Mino. + +"For it will give me much joy to see the person for whose sake I +obtained with difficulty five days' freedom, three of which I +gave to drawing your cart as far as this place." + +Then she bade the _gaki-ami_ farewell, and turned back upon her +homeward way, although she found it very difficult thus to leave +the cart alone. + + +X. THE REVIVAL + +At last the _gaki-ami_ was brought to the hot springs of the +famed temple of Kumano Gongen, and, by the aid of those +compassionate persons who pitied its state, was daily enabled to +experience the healing effects of the bath. + +After a single week the effects of the bath caused the eyes, +nose, ears, and mouth to reappear; after fourteen days all the +limbs had been fully re-formed; + +And after one-and-twenty days the nameless shape was completely +transformed into the real Oguri-Hangwan Kane-uji, perfect and +handsome as he had been in other years. + +When this marvelous change had been effected, Kane-uji looked all +about him, and wondered much when and how he had been brought to +that strange place. + +But through the august influence of the god of Kumano things were +so ordained that the revived prince could return safely to his +home at Nijo in Kyoto, where his parents, the lord Kane-ie and +his spouse, welcomed him with great joy. + +Then the august Emperor, hearing all that had happened, thought +it a wonderful thing that an of his subjects, after having been +dead three years, should have thus revived. + +And not only did he gladly pardon the fault for which the Hangwan +had been banished, but further appointed him to be lord ruler of +the three provinces, Hitachi, Sagami, and Mino. + + +XI. THE INTERVIEW + +One day Oguri-Hangwan left his residence to make a journey of +inspection through the provinces of which he had been appointed +ruler. And reaching Mino, he resolved to visit Kohagi of Hitachi, +and to utter his thanks to her for her exceeding goodness. + +Therefore he lodged at the house of Yorodzuya, where he was +conducted to the finest of all the guest-chambers, which was made +beautiful with screens of gold, with Chinese carpets, with Indian +hangings, and with other precious things of great cost. + +When the lord ordered Kohagi of Hitachi to be summoned to his +presence, he was answered that she was only one of the lowest +menials, and too dirty to appear before him. But he paid no heed +to these words, only commanding that she should come at once, no +matter how dirty she might be. + +Therefore, much against her will, Kohagi was obliged to appear +before the lord, whom she at first beheld through a screen, and +saw that he so much like the Hangwan that she was greatly +startled. + +Oguri then asked her to tell him her real name; but Kohagi +refused, saying: "If I may not serve my lord with wine, except on +condition of telling my real name, then I can only leave the +presence of my lord." + +But as she was about to go, the Hangwan called to her: "Nay, stop +a little while. I have a good reason to ask your name, because I +am in truth that very _gaki-ami_ whom you so kindly drew last +year to Otsu in a cart." + +And with these words he produced the wooden tablet upon which +Kohagi had written. + +Then she was greatly moved, and said: "I am very happy to see you +thus recovered. And now I shall gladly tell you all my history; +hoping only that you, my lord, will tell me something of that +ghostly world from which you have come back, and in which my +husband, alas, now dwells. + +"I was born (it hurts my heart to speak of former times!) the +only daughter of Yokoyama Choja, who dwelt in the district of +Soba, in the province of Sagami, and my name was Terute-Hime. + +"I remember too well, alas! having been wedded, three years ago, +to a famous person of rank, whose name was Oguri-Hangwan +Kane-uji, who used to live in the province of Hitachi. But my +husband was poisoned by my father at the instigation of his own +third son, Saburo. + +"I myself was condemned by him to be drowned in the sea of +Sagami. And I owe my present existence to the faithful servants +of my father, Onio and Oniji." + +Then the lord Hangwan said, "You see here before you, Terute, +your husband, Kane-uji. Although killed together with my +followers, I had been destined to live in this world many years +longer. + +"By the learned priest of Fujisawa temple I was saved, and, being +provided with a cart, I was drawn by many kind persons to the hot +springs of Kumano, where I was restored to my former health and +shape. And now I have been appointed lord ruler of the three +provinces, and can have all things that I desire." + +Hearing this tale, Terute could scarcely believe it was not all a +dream, and she wept for joy. Then she said: "Ah! since last I saw +you, what hardships have I not passed through! + +"For seven days and seven nights I was tossed about upon the sea +in a canoe; then I was in a great danger in the bay of Nawoye, +and was saved by a kind man called Murakami Deyu. + +"And after that I was sold and bought seventy-five times; and the +last time I was brought here, where I have been made to suffer +all kinds of hardship only because I refused to become a joro. +That is why you now see me in so wretched a condition." + +Very angry was Kane-uji to hear of the cruel conduct of the +inhuman Chobei, and desired to kill him at once. + +But Terute besought her husband to spare the man's life, and so +fulfilled the promise she had long before made to Chobei,--that +she would give even her own life, if necessary, for her master +and mistress, on condition of being allowed five days' freedom to +draw the cart of the _gaki-ami_. + +And for this Chobei was really grateful; and in compensation he +presented the Hangwan with the hundred horses from his stable, +and gave to Terute the thirty-six servants belonging to his +house. + +And then Terute-Hime, appropriately attired, went away with the +Prince Kane-uji; and, they began their journey to Sagami with +hearts full of joy. + + +XII. THE VENGEANCE + +This is the district of Soba, in the province of Sagami, the +native land of Terute: how many beautiful and how many sorrowful +thoughts does it recall to their minds! + +And here also are Yokoyama and his son, who killed Lord Ogiri +with poison. + +So Saburo, the third son, being led to the moor called +Totsuka-no-hara, was there punished. + +But Yokoyama Choja, wicked as he had been, was not punished; +because parents, however bad, must be for their children always +like the sun and moon. And hearing this order, Yokoyama repented +very greatly for that which he had done. + +Qnio and Oniji, the brothers, were rewarded with many gifts for +having saved the Princess Terute off the coast of Sagami. + +Thus those who were good prospered, and the bad were brought to +destruction. + +Fortunate and happy, Oguri-Sama and Terute-Hime together returned +to Miako, to dwell in the residence at Nijo, and their union was +beautiful as the blossoming of spring. + +_Fortunate! Fortunate!_ + + + +THE BALLAD OF O-SHICHI, THE DAUGHTER OF THE YAOYA (1) + +In autumn the deer are lured within reach of the hunters by the +sounds of the flute, which resemble the sounds of the voices of +their mates, and so are killed. + +Almost in like manner, one of the five most beautiful girls in +Yedo, whose comely faces charmed all the capital even as the +spring-blossoming of cherry-trees, cast away her life in the +moment of blindness caused by love. + +When, having done a foolish thing, she was brought before the +mayor of the city of Yedo, that high official questioned the +young criminal, asking: "Are you not O-Shichi, the daughter of +the yaoya? And being so young, how came you to commit such a +dreadful crime as incendiarism?" + +Then O-Shichi, weeping and wringing her hands, made this answer: +"Indeed, that is the only crime I ever committed; and I had no +extraordinary reason for it but this:-- + +"Once before, when there had been a great fire,--so great a fire +that nearly all Yedo was consumed,--our house also was burned +down. And we three,--my parents and I,--knowing no otherwhere to +go, took shelter in a Buddhist temple, to remain there until our +house could be rebuilt. + +"Surely the destiny that draws two young persons to each other is +hard to understand!... In that temple there was a young acolyte, +and love grew up between us. + +"In secret we met together, and promised never to forsake each +other; and we pledged ourselves to each other by sucking blood +from small cuts we made in our little fingers, and by exchanging +written vows that we should love each other forever. + +"Before our pillows had yet become fixed(2), our new house in +Hongo was built and made ready for us. + +"But from that day when I bade a sad farewell to Kichiza-Sama, to +whom I had pledged myself for the time of two existences, never +was my heart consoled by even one letter from the acolyte. + +"Alone in my bed at night, I used to think and think, and at last +in a dream there came to me the dreadful idea of setting fire to +the house, as the only means of again being able to meet my +beautiful lover. + +"Then, one evening, I got a bundle of dry rushes, and placed +inside it some pieces of live charcoal, and I secretly put the +bundle into a shed at the back of the house. + +"A fire broke out, and there was a great tumult, and I was +arrested and brought here--oh! how dreadful it was! + +"I will never, never commit such a fault again. But whatever +happen, oh, pray save me, my Bugyo(3)! Oh, pray take pity on me!" + +Ah! the simple apology!... But what was her age? Not twelve? not +thirteen? not fourteen? Fifteen comes after fourteen. Alas! she +was fifteen, and could not be saved! + +Therefore O-Shichi was sentenced according to the law. But first +she was bound with strong cords, and was for seven days exposed +to public view on the bridge called Nihonbashi. Ah! what a +piteous sight it was! + +Her aunts and cousins, even Bekurai and Kakusuke, the house +servants, had often to wring their sleeves, so wet were their +sleeves with tears. + +But, because the crime could not be forgiven, O-Shichi was bound +to four posts, and fuel was kindled, and the fire rose up!... And +poor O-Shichi in the midst of that fire! + + +_Even so the insects of summer fly to the flame_. + + +(1) Yaoya, a seller of vegetables. + +(2) This curious expression has its origin in the Japanese saying +that lovers "exchange pillows." In the dark, the little Japanese +wooden pillows might easily be exchanged by mistake. "While the +pillows, were yet not definite or fixed" would mean, therefore, +while the two lovers were still in the habit of seeking each +other secretly at night. + +(3) Governor or local chief. The Bugyo of old days often acted as +judge. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Kokoro, by Lafcadio Hearn + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KOKORO *** + +This file should be named kkoro10.txt or kkoro10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, kkoro11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, kkoro10a.txt + +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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