{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_30020/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_30020","id":"gutenberg_30020","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30020","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Children & Young Adult Reading","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Fairy tales","Folklore -- Japan"],"text":"Japanese Fairy Tale Series, No 10.\n\n#The Matsuyama Mirror.#\n\nTOLD IN ENGLISH BY MRS. T. H. JAMES.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nPublished by T. HASEGAWA, 17 Kami Negishi, TOKYO.\n\n\n\n\nALL RIGHTS RESERVED.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nTHE\n\nMATSUYAMA\n\nMIRROR.\n\n\nA long long time ago, there lived in a quiet spot, a young man and his\nwife. They had one child, a little daughter, whom they both loved with\nall their hearts. I cannot tell you their names, for they have been\nlong since forgotten, but the name of the place where they lived was\nMatsuyama, in the province of Echigo.\n\nIt happened once, while the little girl was still a baby, that the\nfather was obliged to go to the great city, the capital of Japan, upon\nsome business. It was too far for the mother and her little baby to go,\nso he set out alone, after bidding them good bye, and promising to bring\nthem home some pretty present.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nThe mother had never been further from home than the next village, and\nshe could not help being a little frightened at the thought of her\nhusband taking such a long journey, and yet she was a little proud\ntoo, for he was the first man in all that country side who had been to\nthe big town where the King and his great lords lived, and where there\nwere so many beautiful and curious things to be seen.\n\nAt last the time came when she might expect her husband back, so she\ndressed the baby in its best clothes, and herself put on a pretty blue\ndress which she knew her husband liked.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nYou may fancy how glad this good wife was to see him come home safe\nand sound, and how the little girl clapped her hands, and laughed with\ndelight, when she saw the pretty toys her father had brought for her.\nHe had much to tell of all the wonderful things he had seen upon the\njourney, and in the town itself.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\"I have brought you a very pretty thing,\" said he to his wife: \"it is\ncalled a mirror. Look and tell me what you see inside.\" He gave to her\na plain, white wooden box, in which, when she had opened it, she found\na round piece of metal. One side was white like frosted silver, and\nornamented with raised figures of birds and flowers, the other was\nbright as the clearest crystal. Into it the young mother looked with\ndelight and astonishment, for, from its depths was looking at her with\nparted lips and bright eyes, a smiling happy face.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\"What do you see?\" again asked the husband, pleased at her\nastonishment, and glad to show that he had learned something while he\nhad been away. \"I see a pretty woman looking at me, and she moves her\nlips as if she was speaking, and--dear me, how odd, she has on a blue\ndress just like mine!\" \"Why, you silly woman, it is your own face that\nyou see,\" said the husband, proud of knowing something that his wife\ndidn't know. That round piece of metal is called a mirror, in the town\nevery body has one, although we have not seen them in this country place\nbefore.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nThe wife was charmed with her present, and, for a few days could not\nlook into the mirror often enough, for you must remember, that, as this\nwas the first time she had seen a mirror, so, of course, it was the\nfirst time she had ever seen the reflection of her own pretty face. But\nshe considered such a wonderful thing far too precious for every day\nuse, and soon shut it up in its box again, and put it away carefully\namong her most valued treasures.\n\nYears past on, and the husband and wife still lived happily. The joy of\ntheir life was their little daughter, who grew up the very image of her\nmother, and who was so dutiful and affectionate that every body loved\nher. Mindful of her own little passing vanity on finding herself so\nlovely, the mother kept the mirror carefully hidden away, fearing that\nthe use of it might breed a spirit of pride in her little girl.\n\nShe never spoke of it, and as for the father, he had forgotten all about\nit. So it happened that the daughter grew up as simple as the mother had\nbeen, and knew nothing of her own good looks, or of the mirror which\nwould have reflected them.\n\nBut bye and bye a terrible misfortune happened to this happy little\nfamily. The good, kind mother fell sick; and, although her daughter\nwaited upon her day and night, with loving care, she got worse and\nworse, until at last there was no hope but that she must die.\n\nWhen she found that she must so soon leave her husband and child, the\npoor woman felt very sorrowful, grieving for those she was going to\nleave behind, and most of all for her little daughter.\n\nShe called the girl to her and said; \"My darling child, you know that I\nam very sick: soon I must die, and leave your dear father and you alone.\nWhen I am gone, promise me that you will look into this mirror every\nnight and every morning: there you will see me, and know that I am still\nwatching over you.\" With these words she took the mirror from its hiding\nplace and gave it to her daughter. The child promised, with many tears,\nand so the mother, seeming now calm and resigned, died a short time\nafter.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nNow this obedient and dutiful daughter, never forgot her mother's last\nrequest, but each morning and evening took the mirror from its hiding\nplace, and looked in it long and earnestly. There she saw the bright and\nsmiling vision of her lost mother. Not pale and sickly as in her last\ndays, but the beautiful young mother of long ago. To her at night she\ntold the story of the trials and difficulties of the day, to her in the\nmorning she looked for sympathy and encouragement in whatever might be\nin store for her. So day by day she lived as in her mother's sight,\nstriving still to please her as she had done in her life time, and\ncareful always to avoid whatever might pain or grieve her. Her greatest\njoy was to be able to look in the mirror and say; \"Mother, I have been\ntoday what you would have me to be.\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\nSeeing her every night and morning, without fail, look into the mirror,\nand seem to hold converse with it, her father at length asked her the\nreason of her strange behaviour. \"Father,\" she said, \"I look in the\nmirror every day to see my dear mother and to talk with her.\" Then she\ntold him of her mother's dying wish, and how she had never failed to\nfulfil it. Touched by so much simplicity, and such faithful, loving\nobedience, the father shed tears of pity and affection. Nor could he\nfind it in his heart to tell the child, that the image she saw in the\nmirror, was but the reflection of her own sweet face, by constant\nsympathy and association, becoming more and more like her dead mother's\nday by day.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n[Illustration]","title":"The Matsuyama Mirror","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":1234}