{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_8128/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_8128","id":"gutenberg_8128","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8128","summary":null,"tags":["Buddhism","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Category: Short Stories","Folklore -- Japan","Japan -- Social life and customs"],"text":"[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nIn Ghostly Japan\n\nby Lafcadio Hearn\n\n\nContents\n\n FRAGMENT\n FURISOD\u00c9\n INCENSE\n A STORY OF DIVINATION\n SILKWORMS\n A PASSIONAL KARMA\n FOOTPRINTS OF THE BUDDHA\n ULULATION\n BITS OF POETRY\n JAPANESE BUDDHIST PROVERBS\n SUGGESTION\n INGWA-BANASHI\n STORY OF A TENGU\n AT YAIDZU\n\nList of Illustrations\n\n The Mountain of Skulls\n The Magical Incense\n The Peony Lantern\n The Lights of the Dead\n S\u2019r\u00eep\u00e2da-tracing at Dentsu-In, Koishikawa, T\u014dky\u014d\n Sh\u014d-Ek\u014d-H\u014d-Kwan\n Square and Triangle\n Jiz\u014d\n Emma Dai-\u014d\n\n[Illustration: The Mountain of Skulls]\n\n\n\n\nFragment\n\n\nAnd it was at the hour of sunset that they came to the foot of the\nmountain. There was in that place no sign of life,\u2014neither token of\nwater, nor trace of plant, nor shadow of flying bird,\u2014nothing but\ndesolation rising to desolation. And the summit was lost in heaven.\n\nThen the Bodhisattva said to his young companion:\u2014\u201cWhat you have asked\nto see will be shown to you. But the place of the Vision is far; and\nthe way is rude. Follow after me, and do not fear: strength will be\ngiven you.\u201d\n\nTwilight gloomed about them as they climbed. There was no beaten path,\nnor any mark of former human visitation; and the way was over an\nendless heaping of tumbled fragments that rolled or turned beneath the\nfoot. Sometimes a mass dislodged would clatter down with hollow\nechoings;\u2014sometimes the substance trodden would burst like an empty\nshell\u2026.Stars pointed and thrilled; and the darkness deepened.\n\n\u201cDo not fear, my son,\u201d said the Bodhisattva, guiding: \u201cdanger there is\nnone, though the way be grim.\u201d\n\nUnder the stars they climbed,\u2014fast, fast,\u2014mounting by help of power\nsuperhuman. High zones of mist they passed; and they saw below them,\never widening as they climbed, a soundless flood of cloud, like the\ntide of a milky sea.\n\nHour after hour they climbed;\u2014and forms invisible yielded to their\ntread with dull soft crashings;\u2014and faint cold fires lighted and died\nat every breaking.\n\nAnd once the pilgrim-youth laid hand on a something smooth that was not\nstone,\u2014and lifted it,\u2014and dimly saw the cheekless gibe of death.\n\n\u201cLinger not thus, my son!\u201d urged the voice of the teacher;\u2014\u201cthe summit\nthat we must gain is very far away!\u201d\n\nOn through the dark they climbed,\u2014and felt continually beneath them the\nsoft strange breakings,\u2014and saw the icy fires worm and die,\u2014till the\nrim of the night turned grey, and the stars began to fail, and the east\nbegan to bloom.\n\nYet still they climbed,\u2014fast, fast,\u2014mounting by help of power\nsuperhuman. About them now was frigidness of death,\u2014and silence\ntremendous\u2026.A gold flame kindled in the east.\n\nThen first to the pilgrim\u2019s gaze the steeps revealed their\nnakedness;\u2014and a trembling seized him,\u2014and a ghastly fear. For there\nwas not any ground,\u2014neither beneath him nor about him nor above\nhim,\u2014but a heaping only, monstrous and measureless, of skulls and\nfragments of skulls and dust of bone,\u2014with a shimmer of shed teeth\nstrown through the drift of it, like the shimmer of scrags of shell in\nthe wrack of a tide.\n\n\u201cDo not fear, my son!\u201d cried the voice of the Bodhisattva;\u2014\u201conly the\nstrong of heart can win to the place of the Vision!\u201d\n\nBehind them the world had vanished. Nothing remained but the clouds\nbeneath, and the sky above, and the heaping of skulls\nbetween,\u2014up-slanting out of sight.\n\nThen the sun climbed with the climbers; and there was no warmth in the\nlight of him, but coldness sharp as a sword. And the horror of\nstupendous height, and the nightmare of stupendous depth, and the\nterror of silence, ever grew and grew, and weighed upon the pilgrim,\nand held his feet,\u2014so that suddenly all power departed from him, and he\nmoaned like a sleeper in dreams.\n\n\u201cHasten, hasten, my son!\u201d cried the Bodhisattva: \u201cthe day is brief, and\nthe summit is very far away.\u201d\n\nBut the pilgrim shrieked,\u2014\u201cI fear! I fear unspeakably!\u2014and the power\nhas departed from me!\u201d\n\n\u201cThe power will return, my son,\u201d made answer the Bodhisattva\u2026. \u201cLook\nnow below you and above you and about you, and tell me what you see.\u201d\n\n\u201cI cannot,\u201d cried the pilgrim, trembling and clinging; \u201cI dare not look\nbeneath! Before me and about me there is nothing but skulls of men.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd yet, my son,\u201d said the Bodhisattva, laughing softly,\u2014\u201cand yet you\ndo not know of what this mountain is made.\u201d\n\nThe other, shuddering, repeated:\u2014\u201cI fear!\u2014unutterably I fear!\u2026there is\nnothing but skulls of men!\u201d\n\n\u201cA mountain of skulls it is,\u201d responded the Bodhisattva. \u201cBut know, my\nson, that all of them ARE YOUR OWN! Each has at some time been the nest\nof your dreams and delusions and desires. Not even one of them is the\nskull of any other being. All,\u2014all without exception,\u2014have been yours,\nin the billions of your former lives.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nFurisod\u00e9\n\n\nRecently, while passing through a little street tenanted chiefly by\ndealers in old wares, I noticed a _furisod\u00e9_, or long-sleeved robe, of\nthe rich purple tint called _murasaki_, hanging before one of the\nshops. It was a robe such as might have been worn by a lady of rank in\nthe time of the Tokugawa. I stopped to look at the five crests upon it;\nand in the same moment there came to my recollection this legend of a\nsimilar robe said to have once caused the destruction of Yedo.\n\nNearly two hundred and fifty years ago, the daughter of a rich merchant\nof the city of the Sh\u014dguns, while attending some temple-festival,\nperceived in the crowd a young samurai of remarkable beauty, and\nimmediately fell in love with him. Unhappily for her, he disappeared in\nthe press before she could learn through her attendants who he was or\nwhence he had come. But his image remained vivid in her memory,\u2014even to\nthe least detail of his costume. The holiday attire then worn by\nsamurai youths was scarcely less brilliant than that of young girls;\nand the upper dress of this handsome stranger had seemed wonderfully\nbeautiful to the enamoured maiden. She fancied that by wearing a robe\nof like quality and color, bearing the same crest, she might be able to\nattract his notice on some future occasion.\n\nAccordingly she had such a robe made, with very long sleeves, according\nto the fashion of the period; and she prized it greatly. She wore it\nwhenever she went out; and when at home she would suspend it in her\nroom, and try to imagine the form of her unknown beloved within it.\nSometimes she would pass hours before it,\u2014dreaming and weeping by\nturns. And she would pray to the gods and the Buddhas that she might\nwin the young man\u2019s affection,\u2014often repeating the invocation of the\nNichiren sect: _Namu my\u014d h\u014d reng\u00e9 ky\u014d!_\n\nBut she never saw the youth again; and she pined with longing for him,\nand sickened, and died, and was buried. After her burial, the\nlong-sleeved robe that she had so much prized was given to the Buddhist\ntemple of which her family were parishioners. It is an old custom to\nthus dispose of the garments of the dead.\n\nThe priest was able to sell the robe at a good price; for it was a\ncostly silk, and bore no trace of the tears that had fallen upon it. It\nwas bought by a girl of about the same age as the dead lady. She wore\nit only one day. Then she fell sick, and began to act strangely,\u2014crying\nout that she was haunted by the vision of a beautiful young man, and\nthat for love of him she was going to die. And within a little while\nshe died; and the long-sleeved robe was a second time presented to the\ntemple.\n\nAgain the priest sold it; and again it became the property of a young\ngirl, who wore it only once. Then she also sickened, and talked of a\nbeautiful shadow, and died, and was buried. And the robe was given a\nthird time to the temple; and the priest wondered and doubted.\n\nNevertheless he ventured to sell the luckless garment once more. Once\nmore it was purchased by a girl and once more worn; and the wearer\npined and died. And the robe was given a fourth time to the temple.\n\nThen the priest felt sure that there was some evil influence at work;\nand he told his acolytes to make a fire in the temple-court, and to\nburn the robe.\n\nSo they made a fire, into which the robe was thrown. But as the silk\nbegan to burn, there suddenly appeared upon it dazzling characters of\nflame,\u2014the characters of the invocation, _Namu my\u014d h\u014d reng\u00e9 ky\u014d;_\u2014and\nthese, one by one, leaped like great sparks to the temple roof; and the\ntemple took fire.\n\nEmbers from the burning temple presently dropped upon neighbouring\nroofs; and the whole street was soon ablaze. Then a sea-wind, rising,\nblew destruction into further streets; and the conflagration spread\nfrom street to street, and from district into district, till nearly the\nwhole of the city was consumed. And this calamity, which occurred upon\nthe eighteenth day of the first month of the first year of Meir\u00e9ki\n(1655), is still remembered in T\u014dky\u014d as the _Furisod\u00e9-Kwaji_,\u2014the Great\nFire of the Long-sleeved Robe.\n\nAccording to a story-book called _Kibun-Daijin_, the name of the girl\nwho caused the robe to be made was O-Sam\u00e9; and she was the daughter of\nHikoyemon, a wine-merchant of Hyakush\u014d-machi, in the district of Azabu.\nBecause of her beauty she was also called Azabu-Komachi, or the Komachi\nof Azabu.[1] The same book says that the temple of the tradition was a\nNichiren temple called Hon-myoji, in the district of Hongo; and that\nthe crest upon the robe was a _kiky\u014d_-flower. But there are many\ndifferent versions of the story; and I distrust the _Kibun-Daijin_\nbecause it asserts that the beautiful samurai was not really a man, but\na transformed dragon, or water-serpent, that used to inhabit the lake\nat Uy\u00e9no,\u2014_Shinobazu-no-Ik\u00e9_.\n\n [1] After more than a thousand years, the name of Komachi, or\n Ono-no-Komachi, is still celebrated in Japan. She was the most\n beautiful woman of her time, and so great a poet that she could move\n heaven by her verses, and cause rain to fall in time of drought. Many\n men loved her in vain; and many are said to have died for love of her.\n But misfortunes visited her when her youth had passed; and, after\n having been reduced to the uttermost want, she became a beggar, and\n died at last upon the public highway, near Ky\u014dto. As it was thought\n shameful to bury her in the foul rags found upon her, some poor person\n gave a wornout summer-robe (_katabira_) to wrap her body in; and she\n was interred near Arashiyama at a spot still pointed out to travellers\n as the \u201cPlace of the Katabira\u201d (_Katabira-no-Tsuchi_).\n\n\n\n\nIncense\n\n\nI\n\nI see, rising out of darkness, a lotos in a vase. Most of the vase is\ninvisible, but I know that it is of bronze, and that its glimpsing\nhandles are bodies of dragons. Only the lotos is fully illuminated:\nthree pure white flowers, and five great leaves of gold and green,\u2014gold\nabove, green on the upcurling under-surface,\u2014an artificial lotos. It is\nbathed by a slanting stream of sunshine,\u2014the darkness beneath and\nbeyond is the dusk of a temple-chamber. I do not see the opening\nthrough which the radiance pours, but I am aware that it is a small\nwindow shaped in the outline-form of a temple-bell.\n\nThe reason that I see the lotos\u2014one memory of my first visit to a\nBuddhist sanctuary\u2014is that there has come to me an odor of incense.\nOften when I smell incense, this vision defines; and usually thereafter\nother sensations of my first day in Japan revive in swift succession\nwith almost painful acuteness.\n\nIt is almost ubiquitous,\u2014this perfume of incense. It makes one element\nof the faint but complex and never-to-be-forgotten odor of the Far\nEast. It haunts the dwelling-house not less than the temple,\u2014the home\nof the peasant not less than the yashiki of the prince. Shint\u014d shrines,\nindeed, are free from it;\u2014incense being an abomination to the elder\ngods. But wherever Buddhism lives there is incense. In every house\ncontaining a Buddhist shrine or Buddhist tablets, incense is burned at\ncertain times; and in even the rudest country solitudes you will find\nincense smouldering before wayside images,\u2014little stone figures of\nFud\u014d, Jiz\u014d, or Kwannon. Many experiences of travel,\u2014strange impressions\nof sound as well as of sight,\u2014remain associated in my own memory with\nthat fragrance:\u2014vast silent shadowed avenues leading to weird old\nshrines;\u2014mossed flights of worn steps ascending to temples that moulder\nabove the clouds;\u2014joyous tumult of festival nights;\u2014sheeted\nfuneral-trains gliding by in glimmer of lanterns; murmur of household\nprayer in fishermen\u2019s huts on far wild coasts;\u2014and visions of desolate\nlittle graves marked only by threads of blue smoke ascending,\u2014graves of\npet animals or birds remembered by simple hearts in the hour of prayer\nto Amida, the Lord of Immeasurable Light.\n\nBut the odor of which I speak is that of cheap incense only,\u2014the\nincense in general use. There are many other kinds of incense; and the\nrange of quality is amazing. A bundle of common incense-rods\u2014(they are\nabout as thick as an ordinary pencil-lead, and somewhat longer)\u2014can be\nbought for a few sen; while a bundle of better quality, presenting to\ninexperienced eyes only some difference in color, may cost several yen,\nand be cheap at the price. Still costlier sorts of incense,\u2014veritable\nluxuries,\u2014take the form of lozenges, wafers, pastilles; and a small\nenvelope of such material may be worth four or five pounds-sterling.\nBut the commercial and industrial questions relating to Japanese\nincense represent the least interesting part of a remarkably curious\nsubject.\n\nII\n\nCurious indeed, but enormous by reason of it infinity of tradition and\ndetail. I am afraid even to think of the size of the volume that would\nbe needed to cover it\u2026. Such a work would properly begin with some\nbrief account of the earliest knowledge and use of aromatics in Japan.\nI would next treat of the records and legends of the first introduction\nof Buddhist incense from Korea,\u2014when King Sh\u014dmy\u014d of Kudara, in 551 A.\nD., sent to the island-empire a collection of sutras, an image of the\nBuddha, and one complete set of furniture for a temple. Then something\nwould have to be said about those classifications of incense which were\nmade during the tenth century, in the periods of Engi and of\nTenryaku,\u2014and about the report of the ancient state-councillor,\nKimitaka-Sangi, who visited China in the latter part of the thirteenth\ncentury, and transmitted to the Emperor Yomei the wisdom of the Chinese\nconcerning incense. Then mention should be made of the ancient incenses\nstill preserved in various Japanese temples, and of the famous\nfragments of _ranjatai_ (publicly exhibited at Nara in the tenth year\nof Meiji) which furnished supplies to the three great captains,\nNobunaga, Hideyoshi, and Iyeyasu. After this should follow an outline\nof the history of mixed incenses made in Japan,\u2014with notes on the\nclassifications devised by the luxurious Takauji, and on the\nnomenclature established later by Ashikaga Yoshimasa, who collected one\nhundred and thirty varieties of incense, and invented for the more\nprecious of them names recognized even to this day,\u2014such as\n\u201cBlossom-Showering,\u201d \u201cSmoke-of-Fuji,\u201d and \u201cFlower-of-the-Pure-Law.\u201d\nExamples ought to be given likewise of traditions attaching to\nhistorical incenses preserved in several princely families, together\nwith specimens of those hereditary recipes for incense-making which\nhave been transmitted from generation to generation through hundreds of\nyears, and are still called after their august inventors,\u2014as \u201cthe\nMethod of Hina-Dainagon,\u201d \u201cthe Method of Sent\u014d-In,\u201d etc. Recipes also\nshould be given of those strange incenses made \u201c_to imitate the perfume\nof the lotos, the smell of the summer breeze, and the odor of the\nautumn wind_.\u201d Some legends of the great period of incense-luxury\nshould be cited,\u2014such as the story of Su\u00e9 Owari-no-Kami, who built for\nhimself a palace of incense-woods, and set fire to it on the night of\nhis revolt, when the smoke of its burning perfumed the land to a\ndistance of twelve miles\u2026. Of course the mere compilation of materials\nfor a history of mixed-incenses would entail the study of a host of\ndocuments, treatises, and books,\u2014particularly of such strange works as\nthe _Kun-Sh\u016b-Rui-Sh\u014d_, or \u201cIncense-Collector\u2019s\nClassifying-Manual\u201d;\u2014containing the teachings of the Ten Schools of the\nArt of Mixing Incense; directions as to the best seasons for\nincense-making; and instructions about the \u201c_different kinds of fire_\u201d\nto be used for burning incense\u2014(one kind is called \u201cliterary fire,\u201d and\nanother \u201cmilitary fire\u201d); together with rules for pressing the ashes of\na censer into various artistic designs corresponding to season and\noccasion\u2026. A special chapter should certainly be given to the\nincense-bags (_kusadama_) hung up in houses to drive away goblins,\u2014and\nto the smaller incense-bags formerly carried about the person as a\nprotection against evil spirits. Then a very large part of the work\nwould have to be devoted to the religious uses and legends of\nincense,\u2014a huge subject in itself. There would also have to be\nconsidered the curious history of the old \u201cincense-assemblies,\u201d whose\nelaborate ceremonial could be explained only by help of numerous\ndiagrams. One chapter at least would be required for the subject of the\nancient importation of incense-materials from India, China, Annam,\nSiam, Cambodia, Ceylon, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, and various islands of\nthe Malay archipelago,\u2014places all named in rare books about incense.\nAnd a final chapter should treat of the romantic literature of\nincense,\u2014the poems, stories, and dramas in which incense-rites are\nmentioned; and especially those love-songs comparing the body to\nincense, and passion to the eating flame:\u2014\n\nEven as burns the perfume lending thy robe its fragance,\nSmoulders my life away, consumed by the pain of longing!\n\n\n\u2026.The merest outline of the subject is terrifying! I shall attempt\nnothing more than a few notes about the religious, the luxurious, and\nthe ghostly uses of incense.\n\nIII\n\nThe common incense everywhere burned by poor people before Buddhist\nicons is called _an-soku-k\u014d_. This is very cheap. Great quantities of\nit are burned by pilgrims in the bronze censers set before the\nentrances of famous temples; and in front of roadside images you may\noften see bundles of it. These are for the use of pious wayfarers, who\npause before every Buddhist image on their path to repeat a brief\nprayer and, when possible, to set a few rods smouldering at the feet of\nthe statue. But in rich temples, and during great religious ceremonies,\nmuch more expensive incense is used. Altogether three classes of\nperfumes are employed in Buddhist rites: _k\u014d_, or incense-proper, in\nmany varieties\u2014(the word literally means only \u201cfragrant\nsubstance\u201d);\u2014_dzuk\u014d_, an odorous ointment; and _makk\u014d_, a fragrant\npowder. _K\u014d_ is burned; _dzuk\u014d_ is rubbed upon the hands of the priest\nas an ointment of purification; and _makk\u014d_ is sprinkled about the\nsanctuary. This _makk\u014d_ is said to be identical with the\nsandalwood-powder so frequently mentioned in Buddhist texts. But it is\nonly the true incense which can be said to bear an important relation\nto the religious service.\n\n\u201cIncense,\u201d declares the _Soshi-Ryaku_,[1] \u201cis the Messenger of Earnest\nDesire. When the rich Sudatta wished to invite the Buddha to a repast,\nhe made use of incense. He was wont to ascend to the roof of his house\non the eve of the day of the entertainment, and to remain standing\nthere all night, holding a censer of precious incense. And as often as\nhe did thus, the Buddha never failed to come on the following day at\nthe exact time desired.\u201d\n\n [1] \u201cShort [or Epitomized] History of Priests.\u201d\n\n\nThis text plainly implies that incense, as a burnt-offering, symbolizes\nthe pious desires of the faithful. But it symbolizes other things also;\nand it has furnished many remarkable similes to Buddhist literature.\nSome of these, and not the least interesting, occur in prayers, of\nwhich the following, from the book called _H\u014dji-san_[2] is a striking\nexample:\u2014\n\n [2] \u201cThe Praise of Pious Observances.\u201d\n\n\n\u2014\u201c_Let my body remain pure like a censer!\u2014let my thought be ever as a\nfire of wisdom, purely consuming the incense of s\u00eela and of dhy\u00e2na,_[3]\n_that so may I do homage to all the Buddhas in the Ten Directions of\nthe Past, the Present, and the Future!_\u201d\n\n [3] By _s\u00eela_ is meant the observance of the rules of purity in act\n and thought. _Dhy\u00e2na_ (called by Japanese Buddhists _Zenj\u014d_) is one of\n the higher forms of meditation.\n\n\nSometimes in Buddhist sermons the destruction of Karma by virtuous\neffort is likened to the burning of incense by a pure flame,\u2014sometimes,\nagain, the life of man is compared to the smoke of incense. In his\n\u201cHundred Writings \u201c(_Hyaku-ts\u016b-kiri-kami_), the Shinsh\u016b priest My\u014dden\nsays, quoting from the Buddhist work _Kujikkaj\u014d_, or \u201cNinety Articles\n\u201c:\u2014\n\n\u201cIn the burning of incense we see that so long as any incense remains,\nso long does the burning continue, and the smoke mount skyward. Now the\nbreath of this body of ours,\u2014this impermanent combination of Earth,\nWater, Air, and Fire,\u2014is like that smoke. And the changing of the\nincense into cold ashes when the flame expires is an emblem of the\nchanging of our bodies into ashes when our funeral pyres have burnt\nthemselves out.\u201d\n\nHe also tells us about that Incense-Paradise of which every believer\nought to be reminded by the perfume of earthly incense:\u2014\u201cIn the\nThirty-Second Vow for the Attainment of the Paradise of Wondrous\nIncense,\u201d he says, \u201cit is written: \u2018_That Paradise is formed of\nhundreds of thousands of different kinds of incense, and of substances\nincalculably precious;\u2014the beauty of it incomparably exceeds anything\nin the heavens or in the sphere of man;\u2014the fragrance of it perfumes\nall the worlds of the Ten Directions of Space; and all who perceive\nthat odor practise Buddha-deeds._\u2019 In ancient times there were men of\nsuperior wisdom and virtue who, by reason of their vow, obtained\nperception of the odor; but we, who are born with inferior wisdom and\nvirtue in these later days, cannot obtain such perception. Nevertheless\nit will be well for us, when we smell the incense kindled before the\nimage of Amida, to imagine that its odor is the wonderful fragrance of\nParadise, and to repeat the _Nembutsu_ in gratitude for the mercy of\nthe Buddha.\u201d\n\nIV\n\nBut the use of incense in Japan is not confined to religious rites and\nceremonies: indeed the costlier kinds of incense are manufactured\nchiefly for social entertainments. Incense-burning has been an\namusement of the aristocracy ever since the thirteenth century.\nProbably you have heard of the Japanese tea-ceremonies, and their\ncurious Buddhist history; and I suppose that every foreign collector of\nJapanese _bric-\u00e0-brac_ knows something about the luxury to which these\nceremonies at one period attained,\u2014a luxury well attested by the\nquality of the beautiful utensils formerly employed in them. But there\nwere, and still are, incense-ceremonies much more elaborate and costly\nthan the tea-ceremonies,\u2014and also much more interesting. Besides music,\nembroidery, poetical composition and other branches of the\nold-fashioned female education, the young lady of pre-Meiji days was\nexpected to acquire three especially polite accomplishments,\u2014the art of\narranging flowers, (_ik\u00e9bana_), the art of ceremonial tea-making\n(_cha-no-yu_ or _cha-no-e_),[4] and the etiquette of incense-parties\n(_k\u014d-kwai_ or _k\u014d-\u00e9_). Incense-parties were invented before the time of\nthe Ashikaga sh\u014dguns, and were most in vogue during the peaceful period\nof the Tokugawa rule. With the fall of the sh\u014dgunate they went out of\nfashion; but recently they have been to some extent revived. It is not\nlikely, however, that they will again become really fashionable in the\nold sense,\u2014partly because they represented rare forms of social\nrefinement that never can be revived, and partly because of their\ncostliness.\n\n [4] Girls are still trained in the art of arranging flowers, and in\n the etiquette of the dainty, though somewhat tedious, _cha-no-yu_.\n Buddhist priests have long enjoyed a reputation as teachers of the\n latter. When the pupil has reached a certain degree of proficiency,\n she is given a diploma or certificate. The tea used in these\n ceremonies is a powdered tea of remarkable fragrance,\u2014the best\n qualities of which fetch very high prices.\n\n\nIn translating _k\u014d-kwai_ as \u201cincense-party,\u201d I use the word \u201cparty\u201d in\nthe meaning that it takes in such compounds as \u201ccard-party,\u201d\n\u201cwhist-party,\u201d \u201cchess-party\u201d;\u2014for a _k\u014d-kwai_ is a meeting held only\nwith the object of playing a game,\u2014a very curious game. There are\nseveral kinds of incense-games; but in all of them the contest depends\nupon the ability to remember and to name different kinds of incense by\nthe perfume alone. That variety of _k\u014d-kwai_ called _Jitch\u016b-k\u014d_\n(\u201cten-burning-incense\u201d) is generally conceded to be the most amusing;\nand I shall try to tell you how it is played.\n\nThe numeral \u201cten,\u201d in the Japanese, or rather Chinese name of this\ndiversion, does not refer to ten kinds, but only to ten packages of\nincense; for _Jitch\u016b-k\u014d_, besides being the most amusing, is the very\nsimplest of incense-games, and is played with only four kinds of\nincense. One kind must be supplied by the guests invited to the party;\nand three are furnished by the person who gives the entertainment. Each\nof the latter three supplies of incense\u2014usually prepared in packages\ncontaining one hundred wafers is divided into four parts; and each part\nis put into a separate paper numbered or marked so as to indicate the\nquality. Thus four packages are prepared of the incense classed as No.\n1, four of incense No. 2, and four of incense No. 3,\u2014or twelve in all.\nBut the incense given by the guests,\u2014always called \u201cguest-incense\u201d\u2014is\nnot divided: it is only put into a wrapper marked with an abbreviation\nof the Chinese character signifying \u201cguest.\u201d Accordingly we have a\ntotal of thirteen packages to start with; but three are to be used in\nthe preliminary sampling, or \u201cexperimenting\u201d\u2014as the Japanese term\nit,\u2014after the following manner.\n\nWe shall suppose the game to be arranged for a party of six,\u2014though\nthere is no rule limiting the number of players. The six take their\nplaces in line, or in a half-circle\u2014if the room be small; but they do\nnot sit close together, for reasons which will presently appear. Then\nthe host, or the person appointed to act as incense-burner, prepares a\npackage of the incense classed as No 1, kindles it in a censer, and\npasses the censer to the guest occupying the first seat,[5] with the\nannouncement\u2014\u201cThis is incense No 1\u201d The guest receives the censer\naccording to the graceful etiquette required in the _k\u014d-kwai_, inhales\nthe perfume, and passes on the vessel to his neighbor, who receives it\nin like manner and passes it to the third guest, who presents it to the\nfourth,\u2014and so on. When the censer has gone the round of the party, it\nis returned to the incense-burner. One package of incense No. 2, and\none of No. 3, are similarly prepared, announced, and tested. But with\nthe \u201cguest-incense\u201d no experiment is made. The player should be able to\nremember the different odors of the incenses tested; and he is expected\nto identify the guest-incense at the proper time merely by the\nunfamiliar quality of its fragrance.\n\n [5] The places occupied by guests in a Japanese _zashiki_, or\n reception room are numbered from the alcove of the apartment. The\n place of the most honored is immediately before the alcove: this is\n the first seat, and the rest are numbered from it, usually to the\n left.\n\n\nThe original thirteen packages having thus by \u201cexperimenting\u201d been\nreduced to ten, each player is given one set of ten small\ntablets\u2014usually of gold-lacquer,\u2014every set being differently\nornamented. The backs only of these tablets are decorated; and the\ndecoration is nearly always a floral design of some sort:\u2014thus one set\nmight be decorated with chrysanthemums in gold, another with tufts of\niris-plants, another with a spray of plum-blossoms, etc. But the faces\nof the tablets bear numbers or marks; and each set comprises three\ntablets numbered \u201c1,\u201d three numbered \u201c2,\u201d three numbered \u201c3,\u201d and one\nmarked with the character signifying \u201cguest.\u201d After these tablet-sets\nhave been distributed, a box called the \u201ctablet-box\u201d is placed before\nthe first player; and all is ready for the real game.\n\nThe incense-burner retires behind a little screen, shuffles the flat\npackages like so many cards, takes the uppermost, prepares its contents\nin the censer, and then, returning to the party, sends the censer upon\nits round. This time, of course, he does not announce what kind of\nincense he has used. As the censer passes from hand to hand, each\nplayer, after inhaling the fume, puts into the tablet-box one tablet\nbearing that mark or number which he supposes to be the mark or number\nof the incense he has smelled. If, for example, he thinks the incense\nto be \u201cguest-incense,\u201d he drops into the box that one of his tablets\nmarked with the ideograph meaning \u201cguest;\u201d or if he believes that he\nhas inhaled the perfume of No. 2, he puts into the box a tablet\nnumbered \u201c2.\u201d When the round is over, tablet-box and censer are both\nreturned to the incense-burner. He takes the six tablets out of the\nbox, and wraps them up in the paper which contained the incense guessed\nabout. The tablets themselves keep the personal as well as the general\nrecord,\u2014since each player remembers the particular design upon his own\nset.\n\nThe remaining nine packages of incense are consumed and judged in the\nsame way, according to the chance order in which the shuffling has\nplaced them. When all the incense has been used, the tablets are taken\nout of their wrappings, the record is officially put into writing, and\nthe victor of the day is announced. I here offer the translation of\nsuch a record: it will serve to explain, almost at a glance, all the\ncomplications of the game.\n\nAccording to this record the player who used the tablets decorated with\nthe design called \u201cYoung Pine,\u201d made but two mistakes; while the holder\nof the \u201cWhite-Lily\u201d set made only one correct guess. But it is quite a\nfeat to make ten correct judgments in succession. The olfactory nerves\nare apt to become somewhat numbed long before the game is concluded;\nand, therefore it is customary during the _K\u014d-kwai_ to rinse the mouth\nat intervals with pure vinegar, by which operation the sensitivity is\npartially restored.\n\nRECORD OF A K\u014c-KWAI.\n\n\nOrder in which the ten packages of incense were used:\u2014\n\n\n1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9   10\nNo. No. \u2014 No. No. No. No. No. No. No.\nIII I \u201cGUEST\u201d II I III II I III II\n\n\nNames given to the six sets of tablets used, according to decorative\ndesigns on the back:\n\u201cGold Chrysanthemum\u201d 1    3    1    2*  Guest  1     2*   2    3* 3    \n    3\n\u201cYoung Bamboo\u201d   3*   1*   1    2*   1*   Guest  3    2    1 3 4\n\u201cRed Peony\u201d     Guest 1*   2    2*   3     1     3    2    3* 1 3\n\u201cWhite Lily\u201d     1    3    1    3    2     2     1    3   Guest 2* 1\n\u201cYoung Pine\u201d     3*   1* Guest* 3    1*    2     2*   1*   3* 2* 8\n(Winner)\n\u201cCherry-Blossom-in-a-Mist\u201d      1    3  Guest* 2*   1*    3*    1 2   \n3* 2*         6\n\nGuesses recorded by numbers on the tablet; correct being marked *\n\nNo. of correct guesses\n\nNAMES OF INCENSE USED.\n\n\nI. \u201cTasogare\u201d (\u201cWho-Is-there?\u201d I. e. \u201cEvening-Dusk\u201d).\nII. \u201cBaikwa\u201d (\u201cPlum Flower\u201d).\nIII. \u201cWakakusa\u201d (\u201cYoung Grass\u201d).\nIV.  (\u201cGuest Incense\u201d) \u201cYamaji-no-Tsuyu\u201d (\u201cDew-on-the-Mountain-Path\u201d).\n\nTo the Japanese original of the foregoing record were appended the\nnames of the players, the date of the entertainment, and the name of\nthe place where the party was held. It is the custom In some families\nto enter all such records in a book especially made for the purpose,\nand furnished with an index which enables the _K\u014d-kwai_ player to refer\nimmediately to any interesting fact belonging to the history of any\npast game.\n\nThe reader will have noticed that the four kinds of incense used were\ndesignated by very pretty names. The incense first mentioned, for\nexample, is called by the poets\u2019 name for the gloaming,\u2014_Tasogar\u00e9_\n(lit: \u201cWho is there?\u201d or \u201c Who is it?\u201d)\u2014a word which in this relation\nhints of the toilet-perfume that reveals some charming presence to the\nlover waiting in the dusk. Perhaps some curiosity will be felt\nregarding the composition of these incenses. I can give the Japanese\nrecipes for two sorts; but I have not been able to identify all of the\nmaterials named:\u2014\n\n_Recipe for Yamaji-no-Tsuyu._\n\n   Ingredients                   Proportions.\n                                              about Jink\u014d (aloes-wood) \n                                                           4 _momm\u00e9_   \n                                                (\u00bd oz.) C\u014doji (cloves) \n                                                               4 \u201d     \n                                                    \u201d Kunroku\n                                              (olibanum)              \n                                              4 \u201d            \u201d Hakk\u014d\n                                              (artemisia Schmidtiana)  \n                                               4 \u201d            \u201d Jak\u014d\n                                              (musk)                   \n                                                1 _bu_         (\u215b oz.)\n                                              K\u014dk\u014d(?)                  \n                                                     4 _momm\u00e9_      (\u00bd\n                                              oz.)\n\n_To 21 pastilles_\n\n_Recipe for Baikwa._\n\n   Ingredients                   Proportions.\n                                              about Jink\u014d (aloes)      \n                                                           20 _momm\u00e9_  \n                                               (2 1/2 oz.) Ch\u014dji\n                                              (cloves)                 \n                                               12 \u201c         (1 1/2 oz.)\n                                              K\u014dk\u014d(?)                  \n                                                  8 1/3 \u201c         (1\n                                              1/40 oz.) Byakudan\n                                              (sandal-wood)           \n                                              4 \u201c         (1/2 oz.)\n                                              Kansh\u014d (spikenard)       \n                                                      2 _bu_       \n                                              (1/4 oz.) Kwakk\u014d\n                                              (Bishop\u2019s-wort?)     1\n                                              _bu_ 2 _shu_  (3/16 oz.)\n                                              Kunroku (olibanum)       \n                                                      3 \u201d  3 \u201d   \n                                              (15/22 oz.) Sh\u014dmokk\u014d (?) \n                                                                  2 \u201d  \n                                                    (1/4 oz.) Jak\u014d\n                                              (musk)                   \n                                                 3 \u201d 2 _shu_   (7/16\n                                              oz.) Ry\u016bn\u014d (refined\n                                              Borneo Camphor)    3\n                                              _shu_       (3/8 oz.)\n\n_To 50 pastilles_\n\nThe incense used at a _K\u014d-kwai_ ranges in value, according to the style\nof the entertainment, from $2.50 to $30.00 per envelope of 100\nwafers\u2014wafers usually not more than one-fourth of an inch in diameter.\nSometimes an incense is used worth even more than $30.00 per envelope:\nthis contains _ranjatai_, an aromatic of which the perfume is compared\nto that of \u201cmusk mingled with orchid-flowers.\u201d But there is some\nincense,\u2014never sold,\u2014which is much more precious than\n_ranjatai_,\u2014incense valued less for its composition than for its\nhistory: I mean the incense brought centuries ago from China or from\nIndia by the Buddhist missionaries, and presented to princes or to\nother persons of high rank. Several ancient Japanese temples also\ninclude such foreign incense among their treasures. And very rarely a\nlittle of this priceless material is contributed to an\nincense-party,\u2014much as in Europe, on very extraordinary occasions, some\nbanquet is glorified by the production of a wine several hundred years\nold.\n\nLike the tea-ceremonies, the _K\u014d-kwai_ exact observance of a very\ncomplex and ancient etiquette. But this subject could interest few\nreaders; and I shall only mention some of the rules regarding\npreparations and precautions. First of all, it is required that the\nperson invited to an incense-party shall attend the same in as\n_odorless_ a condition as possible: a lady, for instance, must not use\nhair-oil, or put on any dress that has been kept in a perfumed\nchest-of-drawers. Furthermore, the guest should prepare for the contest\nby taking a prolonged hot bath, and should eat only the lightest and\nleast odorous kind of food before going to the rendezvous. It is\nforbidden to leave the room during the game, or to open any door or\nwindow, or to indulge in needless conversation. Finally I may observe\nthat, while judging the incense, a player is expected to take not less\nthan three inhalations, or more than five.\n\nIn this economical era, the _K\u014d-kwai_ takes of necessity a much humbler\nform than it assumed in the time of the great daimy\u014d, of the princely\nabbots, and of the military aristocracy. A full set of the utensils\nrequired for the game can now be had for about $50.00; but the\nmaterials are of the poorest kind. The old-fashioned sets were\nfantastically expensive. Some were worth thousands of dollars. The\nincense-burner\u2019s desk,\u2014the writing-box, paper-box, tablet-box,\netc.,\u2014the various stands or _dai_,\u2014were of the costliest\ngold-lacquer;\u2014the pincers and other instruments were of gold, curiously\nworked;\u2014and the censer\u2014whether of precious metal, bronze, or\nporcelain,\u2014was always a _chef-d\u2019\u0153uvre_, designed by some artist of\nrenown.\n\nV\n\nAlthough the original signification of incense in Buddhist ceremonies\nwas chiefly symbolical, there is good reason to suppose that various\nbeliefs older than Buddhism,\u2014some, perhaps, peculiar to the race;\nothers probably of Chinese or Korean derivation,\u2014began at an early\nperiod to influence the popular use of incense in Japan. Incense is\nstill burned in the presence of a corpse with the idea that its\nfragrance shields both corpse and newly-parted soul from malevolent\ndemons; and by the peasants it is often burned also to drive away\ngoblins and the evil powers presiding over diseases. But formerly it\nwas used to summon spirits as well as to banish them. Allusions to its\nemployment in various weird rites may be found in some of the old\ndramas and romances. One particular sort of incense, imported from\nChina, was said to have the power of calling up human spirits. This was\nthe wizard-incense referred to in such ancient love-songs as the\nfollowing:\u2014\n\n\u201cI have heard of the magical incense that summons the souls of the\nabsent:\nWould I had some to burn, in the nights when I wait alone!\u201d\n\n\nThere is an interesting mention of this incense in the Chinese book,\n_Shang-hai-king_. It was called _Fwan-hwan-hiang_ (by Japanese\npronunciation, _Hangon-k\u014d_), or \u201cSpirit-Recalling-Incense;\u201d and it was\nmade in Tso-Chau, or the District of the Ancestors, situated by the\nEastern Sea. To summon the ghost of any dead person\u2014or even that of a\nliving person, according to some authorities,\u2014it was only necessary to\nkindle some of the incense, and to pronounce certain words, while\nkeeping the mind fixed upon the memory of that person. Then, in the\nsmoke of the incense, the remembered face and form would appear.\n\n[Illustration: The Magical Incense]\n\nIn many old Japanese and Chinese books mention is made of a famous\nstory about this incense,\u2014a story of the Chinese Emperor Wu, of the Han\ndynasty. When the Emperor had lost his beautiful favorite, the Lady Li,\nhe sorrowed so much that fears were entertained for his reason. But all\nefforts made to divert his mind from the thought of her proved\nunavailing. One day he ordered some Spirit-Recalling-Incense to be\nprocured, that he might summon her from the dead. His counsellors\nprayed him to forego his purpose, declaring that the vision could only\nintensify his grief. But he gave no heed to their advice, and himself\nperformed the rite,\u2014kindling the incense, and keeping his mind fixed\nupon the memory of the Lady Li. Presently, within the thick blue smoke\narising from the incense, the outline, of a feminine form became\nvisible. It defined, took tints of life, slowly became luminous, and\nthe Emperor recognized the form of his beloved At first the apparition\nwas faint; but it soon became distinct as a living person, and seemed\nwith each moment to grow more beautiful. The Emperor whispered to the\nvision, but received no answer. He called aloud, and the presence made\nno sign. Then unable to control himself, he approached the censer. But\nthe instant that he touched the smoke, the phantom trembled and\nvanished.\n\nJapanese artists are still occasionally inspired by the legends of the\nHangon-ho. Only last year, in T\u014dky\u014d, at an exhibition of new kakemono,\nI saw a picture of a young wife kneeling before an alcove wherein the\nsmoke of the magical incense was shaping the shadow of the absent\nhusband.[6]\n\n [6] Among the curious T\u014dky\u014d inventions of 1898 was a new variety of\n cigarettes called _Hangon-s\u014d_, or \u201cHerb of Hangon,\u201d\u2014a name suggesting\n that their smoke operated like the spirit-summoning incense. As a\n matter of fact, the chemical action of the tobacco-smoke would define,\n upon a paper fitted into the mouth-piece of each cigarette, the\n photographic image of a dancing-girl.\n\n\nAlthough the power of making visible the forms of the dead has been\nclaimed for one sort of incense only, the burning of any kind of\nincense is supposed to summon viewless spirits in multitude. These come\nto devour the smoke. They are called _Jiki-k\u014d-ki_, or \u201cincense-eating\ngoblins;\u201d and they belong to the fourteenth of the thirty-six classes\nof Gaki (_pr\u00eatas_) recognized by Japanese Buddhism. They are the ghosts\nof men who anciently, for the sake of gain, made or sold bad incense;\nand by the evil karma of that action they now find themselves in the\nstate of hunger-suffering spirits, and compelled to seek their only\nfood in the smoke of incense.\n\n\n\n\nA Story of Divination\n\n\nI once knew a fortune-teller who really believed in the science that he\nprofessed. He had learned, as a student of the old Chinese philosophy,\nto believe in divination long before he thought of practising it.\nDuring his youth he had been in the service of a wealthy daimy\u014d, but\nsubsequently, like thousands of other samurai, found himself reduced to\ndesperate straits by the social and political changes of Meiji. It was\nthen that he became a fortune-teller,\u2014an itinerant\n_uranaiya_,\u2014travelling on foot from town to town, and returning to his\nhome rarely more than once a year with the proceeds of his journey. As\na fortune-teller he was tolerably successful,\u2014chiefly, I think, because\nof his perfect sincerity, and because of a peculiar gentle manner that\ninvited confidence. His system was the old scholarly one: he used the\nbook known to English readers as the _Y\u00ee-King_,\u2014also a set of ebony\nblocks which could be so arranged as to form any of the Chinese\nhexagrams;\u2014and he always began his divination with an earnest prayer to\nthe gods.\n\nThe system itself he held to be infallible in the hands of a master. He\nconfessed that he had made some erroneous predictions; but he said that\nthese mistakes had been entirely due to his own miscomprehension of\ncertain texts or diagrams. To do him justice I must mention that in my\nown case\u2014(he told my fortune four times),\u2014his predictions were\nfulfilled in such wise that I became afraid of them. You may disbelieve\nin fortune-telling,\u2014intellectually scorn it; but something of inherited\nsuperstitious tendency lurks within most of us; and a few strange\nexperiences can so appeal to that inheritance as to induce the most\nunreasoning hope or fear of the good or bad luck promised you by some\ndiviner. Really to see our future would be a misery. Imagine the result\nof knowing that there must happen to you, within the next two months,\nsome terrible misfortune which you cannot possibly provide against!\n\nHe was already an old man when I first saw him in Izumo,\u2014certainly more\nthan sixty years of age, but looking very much younger. Afterwards I\nmet him in \u014csaka, in Ky\u014dto, and in Kob\u00e9. More than once I tried to\npersuade him to pass the colder months of the winter-season under my\nroof,\u2014for he possessed an extraordinary knowledge of traditions, and\ncould have been of inestimable service to me in a literary way. But\npartly because the habit of wandering had become with him a second\nnature, and partly because of a love of independence as savage as a\ngipsy\u2019s, I was never able to keep him with me for more than two days at\na time.\n\nEvery year he used to come to T\u014dky\u014d,\u2014usually in the latter part of\nautumn. Then, for several weeks, he would flit about the city, from\ndistrict to district, and vanish again. But during these fugitive trips\nhe never failed to visit me; bringing welcome news of Izumo people and\nplaces,\u2014bringing also some queer little present, generally of a\nreligious kind, from some famous place of pilgrimage. On these\noccasions I could get a few hours\u2019 chat with him. Sometimes the talk\nwas of strange things seen or heard during his recent journey;\nsometimes it turned upon old legends or beliefs; sometimes it was about\nfortune-telling. The last time we met he told me of an exact Chinese\nscience of divination which he regretted never having been able to\nlearn.\n\n\u201cAny one learned in that science,\u201d he said, \u201cwould be able, for\nexample, not only to tell you the exact time at which any post or beam\nof this house will yield to decay, but even to tell you the direction\nof the breaking, and all its results. I can best explain what I mean by\nrelating a story.\n\n\u201cThe story is about the famous Chinese fortune-teller whom we call in\nJapan Sh\u014dko Setsu, and it is written in the book _Baikwa-Shin-Eki_,\nwhich is a book of divination. While still a very young man, Sh\u014dko\nSetsu obtained a high position by reason of his learning and virtue;\nbut he resigned it and went into solitude that he might give his whole\ntime to study. For years thereafter he lived alone in a hut among the\nmountains; studying without a fire in winter, and without a fan in\nsummer; writing his thoughts upon the wall of his room\u2014for lack of\npaper;\u2014and using only a tile for his pillow.\n\n\u201cOne day, in the period of greatest summer heat, he found himself\novercome by drowsiness; and he lay down to rest, with his tile under\nhis head. Scarcely had he fallen asleep when a rat ran across his face\nand woke him with a start. Feeling angry, he seized his tile and flung\nit at the rat; but the rat escaped unhurt, and the tile was broken.\nSh\u014dko Setsu looked sorrowfully at the fragments of his pillow, and\nreproached himself for his hastiness. Then suddenly he perceived, upon\nthe freshly exposed clay of the broken tile, some Chinese\ncharacters\u2014between the upper and lower surfaces. Thinking this very\nstrange, he picked up the pieces, and carefully examined them. He found\nthat along the line of fracture seventeen characters had been written\nwithin the clay before the tile had been baked; and the characters read\nthus: \u2018_In the Year of the Hare, in the fourth month, on the\nseventeenth day, at the Hour of the Serpent, this tile, after serving\nas a pillow, will be thrown at a rat and broken._\u2019 Now the prediction\nhad really been fulfilled at the Hour of the Serpent on the seventeenth\nday of the fourth month of the Year of the Hare. Greatly astonished,\nSh\u014dko Setsu once again looked at the fragments, and discovered the seal\nand the name of the maker. At once he left his hut, and, taking with\nhim the pieces of the tile, hurried to the neighboring town in search\nof the tilemaker. He found the tilemaker in the course of the day,\nshowed him the broken tile, and asked him about its history.\n\n\u201cAfter having carefully examined the shards, the tilemaker said: \u2014\u2018This\ntile was made in my house; but the characters in the clay were written\nby an old man\u2014a fortune-teller,\u2014who asked permission to write upon the\ntile before it was baked.\u2019 \u2018Do you know where he lives?\u2019 asked Sh\u014dko\nSetsu. \u2018He used to live,\u2019 the tilemaker answered, \u2018not very far from\nhere; and I can show you the way to the house. But I do not know his\nname.\u2019\n\n\u201cHaving been guided to the house, Sh\u014dko Setsu presented himself at the\nentrance, and asked for permission to speak to the old man. A\nserving-student courteously invited him to enter, and ushered him into\nan apartment where several young men were at study. As Sh\u014dko Setsu took\nhis seat, all the youths saluted him. Then the one who had first\naddressed him bowed and said: \u2018We are grieved to inform you that our\nmaster died a few days ago. But we have been waiting for you, because\nhe predicted that you would come to-day to this house, at this very\nhour. Your name is Sh\u014dko Setsu. And our master told us to give you a\nbook which he believed would be of service to you. Here is the\nbook;\u2014please to accept it.\u2019\n\n\u201cSh\u014dko Setsu was not less delighted than surprised; for the book was a\nmanuscript of the rarest and most precious kind,\u2014containing all the\nsecrets of the science of divination. After having thanked the young\nmen, and properly expressed his regret for the death of their teacher,\nhe went back to his hut, and there immediately proceeded to test the\nworth of the book by consulting its pages in regard to his own fortune.\nThe book suggested to him that on the south side of his dwelling, at a\nparticular spot near one corner of the hut, great luck awaited him. He\ndug at the place indicated, and found a jar containing gold enough to\nmake him a very wealthy man.\u201d\n\n\nMy old acquaintance left this world as lonesomely as he had lived in\nit. Last winter, while crossing a mountain-range, he was overtaken by a\nsnowstorm, and lost his way. Many days later he was found standing\nerect at the foot of a pine, with his little pack strapped to his\nshoulders: a statue of ice\u2014arms folded and eyes closed as in\nmeditation. Probably, while waiting for the storm to pass, he had\nyielded to the drowsiness of cold, and the drift had risen over him as\nhe slept. Hearing of this strange death I remembered the old Japanese\nsaying,\u2014_Uranaiya minouy\u00e9 shiradzu:_ \u201cThe fortune-teller knows not his\nown fate.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nSilkworms\n\nI\n\nI was puzzled by the phrase, \u201csilkworm-moth eyebrow,\u201d in an old\nJapanese, or rather Chinese proverb:\u2014_The silkworm-moth eyebrow of a\nwoman is the axe that cuts down the wisdom of man._ So I went to my\nfriend Niimi, who keeps silkworms, to ask for an explanation.\n\n\u201cIs it possible,\u201d he exclaimed, \u201cthat you never saw a silkworm-moth?\nThe silkworm-moth has very beautiful eyebrows.\u201d\n\n\u201cEyebrows?\u201d I queried, in astonishment. \u201cWell, call them what you\nlike,\u201d returned Niimi;\u2014\u201cthe poets call them eyebrows\u2026. Wait a moment,\nand I will show you.\u201d\n\nHe left the guest-room, and presently returned with a white paper-fan,\non which a silkworm-moth was sleepily reposing.\n\n\u201cWe always reserve a few for breeding,\u201d he said;\u2014\u201cthis one is just out\nof the cocoon. It cannot fly, of course: none of them can fly\u2026. Now\nlook at the eyebrows.\u201d\n\nI looked, and saw that the antennae, very short and feathery, were so\narched back over the two jewel-specks of eyes in the velvety head, as\nto give the appearance of a really handsome pair of eyebrows.\n\nThen Niimi took me to see his worms.\n\nIn Niimi\u2019s neighborhood, where there are plenty of mulberrytrees, many\nfamilies keep silkworms;\u2014the tending and feeding being mostly done by\nwomen and children. The worms are kept in large oblong trays, elevated\nupon light wooden stands about three feet high. It is curious to see\nhundreds of caterpillars feeding all together in one tray, and to hear\nthe soft papery noise which they make while gnawing their\nmulberry-leaves. As they approach maturity, the creatures need almost\nconstant attention. At brief intervals some expert visits each tray to\ninspect progress, picks up the plumpest feeders, and decides, by gently\nrolling them between forefinger and thumb, which are ready to spin.\nThese are dropped into covered boxes, where they soon swathe themselves\nout of sight in white floss. A few only of the best are suffered to\nemerge from their silky sleep,\u2014the selected breeders. They have\nbeautiful wings, but cannot use them. They have mouths, but do not eat.\nThey only pair, lay eggs, and die. For thousands of years their race\nhas been so well-cared for, that it can no longer take any care of\nitself.\n\nIt was the evolutional lesson of this latter fact that chiefly occupied\nme while Niimi and his younger brother (who feeds the worms) were\nkindly explaining the methods of the industry. They told me curious\nthings about different breeds, and also about a wild variety of\nsilkworm that cannot be domesticated:\u2014it spins splendid silk before\nturning into a vigorous moth which can use its wings to some purpose.\nBut I fear that I did not act like a person who felt interested in the\nsubject; for, even while I tried to listen, I began to muse.\n\nII\n\nFirst of all, I found myself thinking about a delightful revery by M.\nAnatole France, in which he says that if he had been the Demiurge, he\nwould have put youth at the end of life instead of at the beginning,\nand would have otherwise so ordered matters that every human being\nshould have three stages of development, somewhat corresponding to\nthose of the lepidoptera. Then it occurred to me that this fantasy was\nin substance scarcely more than the delicate modification of a most\nancient doctrine, common to nearly all the higher forms of religion.\n\nWestern faiths especially teach that our life on earth is a larval\nstate of greedy helplessness, and that death is a pupa-sleep out of\nwhich we should soar into everlasting light. They tell us that during\nits sentient existence, the outer body should be thought of only as a\nkind of caterpillar, and thereafter as a chrysalis;\u2014and they aver that\nwe lose or gain, according to our behavior as larv\u00e6, the power to\ndevelop wings under the mortal wrapping. Also they tell us not to\ntrouble ourselves about the fact that we see no Psych\u00e9-imago detach\nitself from the broken cocoon: this lack of visual evidence signifies\nnothing, because we have only the purblind vision of grubs. Our eyes\nare but half-evolved. Do not whole scales of colors invisibly exist\nabove and below the limits of our retinal sensibility? Even so the\nbutterfly-man exists,\u2014although, as a matter of course, we cannot see\nhim.\n\nBut what would become of this human imago in a state of perfect bliss?\nFrom the evolutional point of view the question has interest; and its\nobvious answer was suggested to me by the history of those\nsilkworms,\u2014which have been domesticated for only a few thousand years.\nConsider the result of our celestial domestication for\u2014let us\nsay\u2014several millions of years: I mean the final consequence, to the\nwishers, of being able to gratify every wish at will.\n\nThose silkworms have all that they wish for,\u2014even considerably more.\nTheir wants, though very simple, are fundamentally identical with the\nnecessities of mankind,\u2014food, shelter, warmth, safety, and comfort. Our\nendless social struggle is mainly for these things. Our dream of heaven\nis the dream of obtaining them free of cost in pain; and the condition\nof those silkworms is the realization, in a small way, of our imagined\nParadise. (I am not considering the fact that a vast majority of the\nworms are predestined to torment and the second death; for my theme is\nof heaven, not of lost souls. I am speaking of the elect\u2014those worms\npre\u00f6rdained to salvation and rebirth.) Probably they can feel only very\nweak sensations: they are certainly incapable of prayer. But if they\nwere able to pray, they could not ask for anything more than they\nalready receive from the youth who feeds and tends them. He is their\nprovidence,\u2014a god of whose existence they can be aware in only the\nvaguest possible way, but just such a god as they require. And we\nshould foolishly deem ourselves fortunate to be equally well cared-for\nin proportion to our more complex wants. Do not our common forms of\nprayer prove our desire for like attention? Is not the assertion of our\n\u201cneed of divine love\u201d an involuntary confession that we wish to be\ntreated like silkworms,\u2014to live without pain by the help of gods? Yet\nif the gods were to treat us as we want, we should presently afford\nfresh evidence,\u2014in the way of what is called \u201cthe evidence from\ndegeneration,\u201d\u2014that the great evolutional law is far above the gods.\n\nAn early stage of that degeneration would be represented by total\nincapacity to help ourselves;\u2014then we should begin to lose the use of\nour higher sense-organs;\u2014later on, the brain would shrink to a\nvanishing pin-point of matter;\u2014still later we should dwindle into mere\namorphous sacs, mere blind stomachs. Such would be the physical\nconsequence of that kind of divine love which we so lazily wish for.\nThe longing for perpetual bliss in perpetual peace might well seem a\nmalevolent inspiration from the Lords of Death and Darkness. All life\nthat feels and thinks has been, and can continue to be, only as the\nproduct of struggle and pain,\u2014only as the outcome of endless battle\nwith the Powers of the Universe. And cosmic law is uncompromising.\nWhatever organ ceases to know pain,\u2014whatever faculty ceases to be used\nunder the stimulus of pain,\u2014must also cease to exist. Let pain and its\neffort be suspended, and life must shrink back, first into protoplasmic\nshapelessness, thereafter into dust.\n\nBuddhism\u2014which, in its own grand way, is a doctrine of\nevolution\u2014rationally proclaims its heaven but a higher stage of\ndevelopment through pain, and teaches that even in paradise the\ncessation of effort produces degradation. With equal reasonableness it\ndeclares that the capacity for pain in the superhuman world increases\nalways in proportion to the capacity for pleasure. (There is little\nfault to be found with this teaching from a scientific\nstandpoint,\u2014since we know that higher evolution must involve an\nincrease of sensitivity to pain.) In the Heavens of Desire, says the\n_Sh\u014db\u014d-nen-j\u014d-ky\u014d_, the pain of death is so great that all the agonies\nof all the hells united could equal but one-sixteenth part of such\npain.[1]\n\n [1] This statement refers only to the Heavens of Sensuous\n Pleasure,\u2014not to the Paradise of Amida, nor to those heavens into\n which one enters by the Apparitional Birth. But even in the highest\n and most immaterial zones of being,\u2014in the Heavens of\n Formlessness,\u2014the cessation of effort and of the pain of effort,\n involves the penalty of rebirth in a lower state of existence.\n\n\nThe foregoing comparison is unnecessarily strong; but the Buddhist\nteaching about heaven is in substance eminently logical. The\nsuppression of pain\u2014mental or physical,\u2014in any conceivable state of\nsentient existence, would necessarily involve the suppression also of\npleasure;\u2014and certainly all progress, whether moral or material,\ndepends upon the power to meet and to master pain. In a\nsilkworm-paradise such as our mundane instincts lead us to desire, the\nseraph freed from the necessity of toil, and able to satisfy his every\nwant at will, would lose his wings at last, and sink back to the\ncondition of a grub\u2026.\n\nIII\n\nI told the substance of my revery to Niimi. He used to be a great\nreader of Buddhist books.\n\n\u201cWell,\u201d he said, \u201cI was reminded of a queer Buddhist story by the\nproverb that you asked me to explain,\u2014_The silkworm-moth eyebrow of a\nwoman is the axe that cuts down the wisdom of man._ According to our\ndoctrine, the saying would be as true of life in heaven as of life upon\nearth\u2026. This is the story:\u2014\n\n\u201cWhen Shaka[2] dwelt in this world, one of his disciples, called Nanda,\nwas bewitched by the beauty of a woman; and Shaka desired to save him\nfrom the results of this illusion. So he took Nanda to a wild place in\nthe mountains where there were apes, and showed him a very ugly female\nape, and asked him: \u2018Which is the more beautiful, Nanda, \u2014the woman\nthat you love, or this female ape?\u2019 \u2018Oh, Master!\u2019 exclaimed Nanda, \u2018how\ncan a lovely woman be compared with an ugly ape?\u2019 \u2018Perhaps you will\npresently find reason to make the comparison yourself,\u2019 answered the\nBuddha;\u2014and instantly by supernatural power he ascended with Nanda to\nthe _San-J\u016bsan-Ten_, which is the Second of the Six Heavens of Desire.\nThere, within a palace of jewels, Nanda saw a multitude of heavenly\nmaidens celebrating some festival with music and dance; and the beauty\nof the least among them incomparably exceeded that of the fairest woman\nof earth. \u2018O Master,\u2019 cried Nanda, \u2018what wonderful festival is this?\u2019\n\u2018Ask some of those people,\u2019 responded Shaka. So Nanda questioned one of\nthe celestial maidens; and she said to him:\u2014\u2018This festival is to\ncelebrate the good tidings that have been brought to us. There is now\nin the human world, among the disciples of Shaka, a most excellent\nyouth called Nanda, who is soon to be reborn into this heaven, and to\nbecome our bridegroom, because of his holy life. We wait for him with\nrejoicing.\u2019 This reply filled the heart of Nanda with delight. Then the\nBuddha asked him: \u2018Is there any one among these maidens, Nanda, equal\nin beauty to the woman with whom you have been in love?\u2019 \u2018Nay, Master!\u2019\nanswered Nanda; \u2018even as that woman surpassed in beauty the female ape\nthat we saw on the mountain, so is she herself surpassed by even the\nleast among these.\u2019\n\n [2] S\u00e2kyamuni.\n\n\n\u201cThen the Buddha immediately descended with Nanda to the depths of the\nhells, and took him into a torture-chamber where myriads of men and\nwomen were being boiled alive in great caldrons, and otherwise horribly\ntormented by devils. Then Nanda found himself standing before a huge\nvessel which was filled with molten metal;\u2014and he feared and wondered\nbecause this vessel had as yet no occupant. An idle devil sat beside\nit, yawning. \u2018Master,\u2019 Nanda inquired of the Buddha, \u2018for whom has this\nvessel been prepared?\u2019 \u2018Ask the devil,\u2019 answered Shaka. Nanda did so;\nand the devil said to him: \u2018There is a man called Nanda,\u2014now one of\nShaka\u2019s disciples,\u2014about to be reborn into one of the heavens, on\naccount of his former good actions. But after having there indulged\nhimself, he is to be reborn in this hell; and his place will be in that\npot. I am waiting for him.\u2019\u201d[3]\n\n [3] I give the story substantially as it was told to me; but I have\n not been able to compare it with any published text. My friend says\n that he has seen two Chinese versions,\u2014one in the _Hongy\u014d-ky\u014d_ (?),\n the other in the _Z\u014dichi-agon-ky\u014d_ (Ek\u00f4ttar\u00e2gamas). In Mr. Henry\n Clarke Warren\u2019s _Buddhism in Translations_ (the most interesting and\n valuable single volume of its kind that I have ever seen), there is a\n Pali version of the legend, which differs considerably from the\n above.\u2014This Nanda, according to Mr. Warren\u2019s work, was a prince, and\n the younger half-brother of S\u00e2kyamuni.\n\n\n\n\nA Passional Karma\n\n\nOne of the never-failing attractions of the T\u014dky\u014d stage is the\nperformance, by the famous Kikugor\u014d and his company, of the\n_Botan-D\u014dr\u014d_, or \u201cPeony-Lantern.\u201d This weird play, of which the scenes\nare laid in the middle of the last century, is the dramatization of a\nromance by the novelist Encho, written in colloquial Japanese, and\npurely Japanese in local color, though inspired by a Chinese tale. I\nwent to see the play; and Kikugor\u014d made me familiar with a new variety\nof the pleasure of fear. \u201cWhy not give English readers the ghostly part\nof the story?\u201d\u2014asked a friend who guides me betimes through the mazes\nof Eastern philosophy. \u201cIt would serve to explain some popular ideas of\nthe supernatural which Western people know very little about. And I\ncould help you with the translation.\u201d\n\nI gladly accepted the suggestion; and we composed the following summary\nof the more extraordinary portion of Ench\u014d\u2019s romance. Here and there we\nfound it necessary to condense the original narrative; and we tried to\nkeep close to the text only in the conversational passages,\u2014some of\nwhich happen to possess a particular quality of psychological interest.\n\n\n\u2014_This is the story of the Ghosts in the Romance of the\nPeony-Lantern:_\u2014\n\nI\n\nThere once lived in the district of Ushigom\u00e9, in Yedo, a _hatamoto_[1]\ncalled Iijima Heizay\u00e9mon, whose only daughter, Tsuyu, was beautiful as\nher name, which signifies \u201cMorning Dew.\u201d Iijima took a second wife when\nhis daughter was about sixteen; and, finding that O-Tsuyu could not be\nhappy with her mother-in-law, he had a pretty villa built for the girl\nat Yanagijima, as a separate residence, and gave her an excellent\nmaidservant, called O-Yon\u00e9, to wait upon her.\n\n [1] The _hatamoto_ were samurai forming the special military force of\n the Sh\u014dgun. The name literally signifies \u201cBanner-Supporters.\u201d These\n were the highest class of samurai,\u2014not only as the immediate vassals\n of the Sh\u014dgun, but as a military aristocracy.\n\n\nO-Tsuyu lived happily enough in her new home until one day when the\nfamily physician, Yamamoto Shij\u014d, paid her a visit in company with a\nyoung samurai named Hagiwara Shinzabur\u014d, who resided in the Nedzu\nquarter. Shinzabur\u014d was an unusually handsome lad, and very gentle; and\nthe two young people fell in love with each other at sight. Even before\nthe brief visit was over, they contrived,\u2014unheard by the old doctor,\u2014to\npledge themselves to each other for life. And, at parting, O-Tsuyu\nwhispered to the youth,\u2014\u201c_Remember! If you do not come to see me again,\nI shall certainly die!_\u201d\n\nShinzabur\u014d never forgot those words; and he was only too eager to see\nmore of O-Tsuyu. But etiquette forbade him to make the visit alone: he\nwas obliged to wait for some other chance to accompany the doctor, who\nhad promised to take him to the villa a second time. Unfortunately the\nold man did not keep this promise. He had perceived the sudden\naffection of O-Tsuyu; and he feared that her father would hold him\nresponsible for any serious results. Iijima Heizay\u00e9mon had a reputation\nfor cutting off heads. And the more Shij\u014d thought about the possible\nconsequences of his introduction of Shinzabur\u014d at the Iijima villa, the\nmore he became afraid. Therefore he purposely abstained from calling\nupon his young friend.\n\nMonths passed; and O-Tsuyu, little imagining the true cause of\nShinzabur\u014d\u2019s neglect, believed that her love had been scorned. Then she\npined away, and died. Soon afterwards, the faithful servant O-Yon\u00e9 also\ndied, through grief at the loss of her mistress; and the two were\nburied side by side in the cemetery of Shin-Banzui-In,\u2014a temple which\nstill stands in the neighborhood of Dango-Zaka, where the famous\nchrysanthemum-shows are yearly held.\n\nII\n\nShinzabur\u014d knew nothing of what had happened; but his disappointment\nand his anxiety had resulted in a prolonged illness. He was slowly\nrecovering, but still very weak, when he unexpectedly received another\nvisit from Yamamoto Shij\u014d. The old man made a number of plausible\nexcuses for his apparent neglect. Shinzabur\u014d said to him:\u2014\u201cI have been\nsick ever since the beginning of spring;\u2014even now I cannot eat\nanything\u2026. Was it not rather unkind of you never to call? I thought\nthat we were to make another visit together to the house of the Lady\nIijima; and I wanted to take to her some little present as a return for\nour kind reception. Of course I could not go by myself.\u201d\n\nShij\u014d gravely responded,\u2014\u201cI am very sorry to tell you that the young\nlady is dead!\u201d\n\n\u201cDead!\u201d repeated Shinzabur\u014d, turning white,\u2014\u201cdid you say that she is\ndead?\u201d\n\nThe doctor remained silent for a moment, as if collecting himself: then\nhe resumed, in the quick light tone of a man resolved not to take\ntrouble seriously:\u2014\n\n\u201cMy great mistake was in having introduced you to her; for it seems\nthat she fell in love with you at once. I am afraid that you must have\nsaid something to encourage this affection\u2014when you were in that little\nroom together. At all events, I saw how she felt towards you; and then\nI became uneasy,\u2014fearing that her father might come to hear of the\nmatter, and lay the whole blame upon me. So\u2014to be quite frank with\nyou,\u2014I decided that it would be better not to call upon you; and I\npurposely stayed away for a long time. But, only a few days ago,\nhappening to visit Iijima\u2019s house, I heard, to my great surprise, that\nhis daughter had died, and that her servant O-Yon\u00e9 had also died. Then,\nremembering all that had taken place, I knew that the young lady must\nhave died of love for you\u2026. [_Laughing_] Ah, you are really a sinful\nfellow! Yes, you are! [_Laughing_] Isn\u2019t it a sin to have been born so\nhandsome that the girls die for love of you?[2] [_Seriously_] Well, we\nmust leave the dead to the dead. It is no use to talk further about the\nmatter;\u2014all that you now can do for her is to repeat the Nembutsu[3]\u2026.\nGood-bye.\u201d\n\n [2] Perhaps this conversation may seem strange to the Western reader;\n but it is true to life. The whole of the scene is characteristically\n Japanese.\n\n\n [3] The invocation _Namu Amida Butsu!_ (\u201cHail to the Buddha\n Amit\u00e2bha!\u201d),\u2014repeated, as a prayer, for the sake of the dead.\n\n\nAnd the old man retired hastily,\u2014anxious to avoid further converse\nabout the painful event for which he felt himself to have been\nunwittingly responsible.\n\nIII\n\nShinzabur\u014d long remained stupefied with grief by the news of O-Tsuyu\u2019s\ndeath. But as soon as he found himself again able to think clearly, he\ninscribed the dead girl\u2019s name upon a mortuary tablet, and placed the\ntablet in the Buddhist shrine of his house, and set offerings before\nit, and recited prayers. Every day thereafter he presented offerings,\nand repeated the _Nembutsu;_ and the memory of O-Tsuyu was never absent\nfrom his thought.\n\nNothing occurred to change the monotony of his solitude before the time\nof the Bon,\u2014the great Festival of the Dead,\u2014which begins upon the\nthirteenth day of the seventh month. Then he decorated his house, and\nprepared everything for the festival;\u2014hanging out the lanterns that\nguide the returning spirits, and setting the food of ghosts on the\n_sh\u014dry\u014ddana_, or Shelf of Souls. And on the first evening of the Bon,\nafter sun-down, he kindled a small lamp before the tablet of O-Tsuyu,\nand lighted the lanterns.\n\nThe night was clear, with a great moon,\u2014and windless, and very warm.\nShinzabur\u014d sought the coolness of his veranda. Clad only in a light\nsummer-robe, he sat there thinking, dreaming, sorrowing;\u2014sometimes\nfanning himself; sometimes making a little smoke to drive the\nmosquitoes away. Everything was quiet. It was a lonesome neighborhood,\nand there were few passers-by. He could hear only the soft rushing of a\nneighboring stream, and the shrilling of night-insects.\n\nBut all at once this stillness was broken by a sound of women\u2019s\n_geta_[4] approaching\u2014_kara-kon, kara-kon;_\u2014and the sound drew nearer\nand nearer, quickly, till it reached the live-hedge surrounding the\ngarden. Then Shinzabur\u00f6, feeling curious, stood on tiptoe, so as to\nlook over the hedge; and he saw two women passing. One, who was\ncarrying a beautiful lantern decorated with peony-flowers,[5] appeared\nto be a servant;\u2014the other was a slender girl of about seventeen,\nwearing a long-sleeved robe embroidered with designs of\nautumn-blossoms. Almost at the same instant both women turned their\nfaces toward Shinzabur\u014d;\u2014and to his utter astonishment, he recognized\nO-Tsuyu and her servant O-Yon\u00e9.\n\n [4] _Komageta_ in the original. The geta is a wooden sandal, or clog,\n of which there are many varieties,\u2014some decidedly elegant. The\n _komageta_, or \u201cpony-geta\u201d is so-called because of the sonorous\n hoof-like echo which it makes on hard ground.\n\n\n [5] The sort of lantern here referred to is no longer made; and its\n shape can best be understood by a glance at the picture accompanying\n this story. It was totally unlike the modern domestic band-lantern,\n painted with the owner\u2019s crest; but it was not altogether unlike some\n forms of lanterns still manufactured for the Festival of the Dead, and\n called _Bon-d\u014dr\u014d_. The flowers ornamenting it were not painted: they\n were artificial flowers of cr\u00eape-silk, and were attached to the top of\n the lantern.\n\n[Illustration: The Peony Lantern]\n\nThey stopped immediately; and the girl cried out,\u2014\u201cOh, how strange!\u2026\nHagiwara Sama!\u201d\n\nShinzabur\u014d simultaneously called to the maid:\u2014\u201cO-Yon\u00e9! Ah, you are\nO-Yon\u00e9!\u2014I remember you very well.\u201d\n\n\u201cHagiwara Sama!\u201d exclaimed O-Yon\u00e9 in a tone of supreme amazement.\n\u201cNever could I have believed it possible!\u2026 Sir, we were told that you\nhad died.\u201d\n\n\u201cHow extraordinary!\u201d cried Shinzabur\u014d. \u201cWhy, I was told that both of\nyou were dead!\u201d\n\n\u201cAh, what a hateful story!\u201d returned O-Yon\u00e9. \u201cWhy repeat such unlucky\nwords?\u2026 Who told you?\u201d\n\n\u201cPlease to come in,\u201d said Shinzabur\u014d;\u2014\u201chere we can talk better. The\ngarden-gate is open.\u201d\n\nSo they entered, and exchanged greeting; and when Shinzabur\u014d had made\nthem comfortable, he said:\u2014\n\n\u201cI trust that you will pardon my discourtesy in not having called upon\nyou for so long a time. But Shij\u014d, the doctor, about a month ago, told\nme that you had both died.\u201d\n\n\u201cSo it was he who told you?\u201d exclaimed O-Yon\u00e9. \u201cIt was very wicked of\nhim to say such a thing. Well, it was also Shij\u014d who told us that _you_\nwere dead. I think that he wanted to deceive you,\u2014which was not a\ndifficult thing to do, because you are so confiding and trustful.\nPossibly my mistress betrayed her liking for you in some words which\nfound their way to her father\u2019s ears; and, in that case, O-Kuni\u2014the new\nwife\u2014might have planned to make the doctor tell you that we were dead,\nso as to bring about a separation. Anyhow, when my mistress heard that\nyou had died, she wanted to cut off her hair immediately, and to become\na nun. But I was able to prevent her from cutting off her hair; and I\npersuaded her at last to become a nun only in her heart. Afterwards her\nfather wished her to marry a certain young man; and she refused. Then\nthere was a great deal of trouble,\u2014chiefly caused by O-Kuni;\u2014and we\nwent away from the villa, and found a very small house in\nYanaka-no-Sasaki. There we are now just barely able to live, by doing a\nlittle private work\u2026. My mistress has been constantly repeating the\n_Nembutsu_ for your sake. To-day, being the first day of the Bon, we\nwent to visit the temples; and we were on our way home\u2014thus late\u2014when\nthis strange meeting happened.\u201d\n\n\u201cOh, how extraordinary!\u201d cried Shinzabur\u014d. \u201cCan it be true?-or is it\nonly a dream? Here I, too, have been constantly reciting the _Nembutsu_\nbefore a tablet with her name upon it! Look!\u201d And he showed them\nO-Tsuyu\u2019s tablet in its place upon the Shelf of Souls.\n\n\u201cWe are more than grateful for your kind remembrance,\u201d returned O-Yon\u00e9,\nsmiling\u2026. \u201cNow as for my mistress,\u201d\u2014she continued, turning towards\nO-Tsuyu, who had all the while remained demure and silent, half-hiding\nher face with her sleeve,\u2014\u201cas for my mistress, she actually says that\nshe would not mind being disowned by her father for the time of seven\nexistences,[6] or even being killed by him, for your sake! Come! will\nyou not allow her to stay here to-night?\u201d\n\n [6] \u201cFor the time of seven existences,\u201d\u2014that is to say, for the time\n of seven successive lives. In Japanese drama and romance it is not\n uncommon to represent a father as disowning his child \u201cfor the time of\n seven lives.\u201d Such a disowning is called _shichi-sh\u014d mad\u00e9 no mand\u014d_, a\n disinheritance for seven lives,\u2014signifying that in six future lives\n after the present the erring son or daughter will continue to feel the\n parental displeasure.\n\n\nShinzabur\u014d turned pale for joy. He answered in a voice trembling with\nemotion:\u2014\n\n\u201cPlease remain; but do not speak loud\u2014because there is a troublesome\nfellow living close by,\u2014a _ninsomi_[7] called Haku\u014dd\u014d Yusai, who tells\npeoples fortunes by looking at their faces. He is inclined to be\ncurious; and it is better that he should not know.\u201d\n\n [7] The profession is not yet extinct. The _ninsomi_ uses a kind of\n magnifying glass (or magnifying-mirror sometimes), called _tenganky\u014d_\n or _ninsom\u00e9gan\u00e9_.\n\n\nThe two women remained that night in the house of the young samurai,\nand returned to their own home a little before daybreak. And after that\nnight they came every nighht for seven nights,\u2014whether the weather were\nfoul or fair,\u2014always at the same hour. And Shinzabur\u014d became more and\nmore attached to the girl; and the twain were fettered, each to each,\nby that bond of illusion which is stronger than bands of iron.\n\nIV\n\nNow there was a man called Tomoz\u014d, who lived in a small cottage\nadjoining Shinzabur\u014d\u2019s residence, Tomoz\u014d and his wife O-Min\u00e9 were both\nemployed by Shinzabur\u014d as servants. Both seemed to be devoted to their\nyoung master; and by his help they were able to live in comparative\ncomfort.\n\nOne night, at a very late hour, Tomoz\u014d heard the voice of a woman in\nhis master\u2019s apartment; and this made him uneasy. He feared that\nShinzabur\u014d, being very gentle and affectionate, might be made the dupe\nof some cunning wanton,\u2014in which event the domestics would be the first\nto suffer. He therefore resolved to watch; and on the following night\nhe stole on tiptoe to Shinzabur\u014d\u2019s dwelling, and looked through a chink\nin one of the sliding shutters. By the glow of a night-lantern within\nthe sleeping-room, he was able to perceive that his master and a\nstrange woman were talking together under the mosquito-net. At first he\ncould not see the woman distinctly. Her back was turned to him;\u2014he only\nobserved that she was very slim, and that she appeared to be very\nyoung,\u2014judging from the fashion of her dress and hair.[8] Putting his\near to the chink, he could hear the conversation plainly. The woman\nsaid:\u2014\n\n\u201cAnd if I should be disowned by my father, would you then let me come\nand live with you?\u201d\n\n [8] The color and form of the dress, and the style of wearing the\n hair, are by Japanese custom regulated according to the age of the\n woman.\n\n\nShinzabur\u014d answered:\u2014\n\n\u201cMost assuredly I would\u2014nay, I should be glad of the chance. But there\nis no reason to fear that you will ever be disowned by your father; for\nyou are his only daughter, and he loves you very much. What I do fear\nis that some day we shall be cruelly separated.\u201d\n\nShe responded softly:\u2014\n\n\u201cNever, never could I even think of accepting any other man for my\nhusband. Even if our secret were to become known, and my father were to\nkill me for what I have done, still\u2014after death itself\u2014I could never\ncease to think of you. And I am now quite sure that you yourself would\nnot be able to live very long without me.\u201d\u2026 Then clinging closely to\nhim, with her lips at his neck, she caressed him; and he returned her\ncaresses.\n\nTomoz\u014d wondered as he listened,\u2014because the language of the woman was\nnot the language of a common woman, but the language of a lady of\nrank.[9] Then he determined at all hazards to get one glimpse of her\nface; and he crept round the house, backwards and forwards, peering\nthrough every crack and chink. And at last he was able to see;\u2014but\ntherewith an icy trembling seized him; and the hair of his head stood\nup.\n\n [9] The forms of speech used by the samurai, and other superior\n classes, differed considerably from those of the popular idiom; but\n these differences could not be effectively rendered into English.\n\n\nFor the face was the face of a woman long dead,\u2014and the fingers\ncaressing were fingers of naked bone,\u2014and of the body below the waist\nthere was not anything: it melted off into thinnest trailing shadow.\nWhere the eyes of the lover deluded saw youth and grace and beauty,\nthere appeared to the eyes of the watcher horror only, and the\nemptiness of death. Simultaneously another woman\u2019s figure, and a\nweirder, rose up from within the chamber, and swiftly made toward the\nwatcher, as if discerning his presence. Then, in uttermost terror, he\nfled to the dwelling of Haku\u014dd\u014d Yusai, and, knocking frantically at the\ndoors, succeeded in arousing him.\n\nV\n\nHaku\u014dd\u014d Yusai, the _ninsomi_, was a very old man; but in his time he\nhad travelled much, and he had heard and seen so many things that he\ncould not be easily surprised. Yet the story of the terrified Tomoz\u014d\nboth alarmed and amazed him. He had read in ancient Chinese books of\nlove between the living and the dead; but he had never believed it\npossible. Now, however, he felt convinced that the statement of Tomoz\u014d\nwas not a falsehood, and that something very strange was really going\non in the house of Hagiwara. Should the truth prove to be what Tomoz\u014d\nimagined, then the young samurai was a doomed man.\n\n\u201cIf the woman be a ghost,\u201d\u2014said Yusai to the frightened servant, \u201c\u2014if\nthe woman be a ghost, your master must die very soon,\u2014unless something\nextraordinary can be done to save him. And if the woman be a ghost, the\nsigns of death will appear upon his face. For the spirit of the living\nis _y\u014dki_, and pure;\u2014the spirit of the dead is _inki_, and unclean: the\none is Positive, the other Negative. He whose bride is a ghost cannot\nlive. Even though in his blood there existed the force of a life of one\nhundred years, that force must quickly perish\u2026. Still, I shall do all\nthat I can to save Hagiwara Sama. And in the meantime, Tomoz\u014d, say\nnothing to any other person,\u2014not even to your wife,\u2014about this matter.\nAt sunrise I shall call upon your master.\u201d\n\nVI\n\nWhen questioned next morning by Yusai, Shinzabur\u014d at first attempted to\ndeny that any women had been visiting the house; but finding this\nartless policy of no avail, and perceiving that the old man\u2019s purpose\nwas altogether unselfish, he was finally persuaded to acknowledge what\nhad really occurred, and to give his reasons for wishing to keep the\nmatter a secret. As for the lady Iijima, he intended, he said, to make\nher his wife as soon as possible.\n\n\u201cOh, madness!\u201d cried Yusai,\u2014losing all patience in the intensity of his\nalarm. \u201cKnow, sir, that the people who have been coming here, night\nafter night, are dead! Some frightful delusion is upon you!\u2026 Why, the\nsimple fact that you long supposed O-Tsuyu to be dead, and repeated the\n_Nembutsu_ for her, and made offerings before her tablet, is itself the\nproof!\u2026 The lips of the dead have touched you!\u2014the hands of the dead\nhave caressed you!\u2026 Even at this moment I see in your face the signs of\ndeath\u2014and you will not believe!\u2026 Listen to me now, sir,\u2014I beg of\nyou,\u2014if you wish to save yourself: otherwise you have less than twenty\ndays to live. They told you\u2014those people\u2014that they were residing in the\ndistrict of Shitaya, in Yanaka-no-Sasaki. Did you ever visit them at\nthat place? No!\u2014of course you did not! Then go to-day,\u2014as soon as you\ncan,\u2014to Yanaka-no-Sasaki, and try to find their home!\u2026\u201d\n\nAnd having uttered this counsel with the most vehement earnestness,\nHaku\u014dd\u014d Yusai abruptly took his departure.\n\nShinzabur\u014d, startled though not convinced, resolved after a moment\u2019s\nreflection to follow the advice of the _ninsomi_, and to go to Shitaya.\nIt was yet early in the morning when he reached the quarter of\nYanaka-no-Sasaki, and began his search for the dwelling of O-Tsuyu. He\nwent through every street and side-street, read all the names inscribed\nat the various entrances, and made inquiries whenever an opportunity\npresented itself. But he could not find anything resembling the little\nhouse mentioned by O-Yon\u00e9; and none of the people whom he questioned\nknew of any house in the quarter inhabited by two single women. Feeling\nat last certain that further research would be useless, he turned\nhomeward by the shortest way, which happened to lead through the\ngrounds of the temple Shin-Banzui-In.\n\nSuddenly his attention was attracted by two new tombs, placed side by\nside, at the rear of the temple. One was a common tomb, such as might\nhave been erected for a person of humble rank: the other was a large\nand handsome monument; and hanging before it was a beautiful\npeony-lantern, which had probably been left there at the time of the\nFestival of the Dead. Shinzabur\u014d remembered that the peony-lantern\ncarried by O-Yon\u00e9 was exactly similar; and the coincidence impressed\nhim as strange. He looked again at the tombs; but the tombs explained\nnothing. Neither bore any personal name,\u2014only the Buddhist _kaimy\u014d_, or\nposthumous appellation. Then he determined to seek information at the\ntemple. An acolyte stated, in reply to his questions, that the large\ntomb had been recently erected for the daughter of Iijima Heizay\u00e9mon,\nthe _hatamoto_ of Ushigom\u00e9; and that the small tomb next to it was that\nof her servant O-Yon\u00e9, who had died of grief soon after the young\nlady\u2019s funeral.\n\nImmediately to Shinzabur\u00f6\u2019s memory there recurred, with another and\nsinister meaning, the words of O-Yon\u00e9:\u2014\u201c_We went away, and found a very\nsmall house in Yanaka-no-Sasaki. There we are now just barely able to\nlive\u2014by doing a little private work_\u2026.\u201d Here was indeed the very small\nhouse,\u2014and in Yanaka-no-Sasaki. But the little _private work\u2026?_\n\nTerror-stricken, the samurai hastened with all speed to the house of\nYusai, and begged for his counsel and assistance. But Yusai declared\nhimself unable to be of any aid in such a case. All that he could do\nwas to send Shinzabur\u014d to the high-priest Ry\u014dseki, of Shin-Banzui-In,\nwith a letter praying for immediate religious help.\n\nVII\n\nThe high-priest Ry\u014dseki was a learned and a holy man. By spiritual\nvision he was able to know the secret of any sorrow, and the nature of\nthe karma that had caused it. He heard unmoved the story of Shinzabur\u014d,\nand said to him:\u2014\n\n\u201cA very great danger now threatens you, because of an error committed\nin one of your former states of existence. The karma that binds you to\nthe dead is very strong; but if I tried to explain its character, you\nwould not be able to understand. I shall therefore tell you only\nthis,\u2014that the dead person has no desire to injure you out of hate,\nfeels no enmity towards you: she is influenced, on the contrary, by the\nmost passionate affection for you. Probably the girl has been in love\nwith you from a time long preceding your present life,\u2014from a time of\nnot less than three or four past existences; and it would seem that,\nalthough necessarily changing her form and condition at each succeeding\nbirth, she has not been able to cease from following after you.\nTherefore it will not be an easy thing to escape from her influence\u2026.\nBut now I am going to lend you this powerful _mamori_.[10] It is a pure\ngold image of that Buddha called the Sea-Sounding\nTath\u00e2gata\u2014_Kai-On-Ny\u014drai_,\u2014because his preaching of the Law sounds\nthrough the world like the sound of the sea. And this little image is\nespecially a _shiry\u014d-yok\u00e9_,[11]\u2014which protects the living from the\ndead. This you must wear, in its covering, next to your body,\u2014under the\ngirdle\u2026. Besides, I shall presently perform in the temple, a\n_segaki_-service[12] for the repose of the troubled spirit\u2026. And here\nis a holy sutra, called _Ub\u014d-Darani-Ky\u014d_, or \u201cTreasure-Raining\nS\u00fbtra\u201d[13] you must be careful to recite it every night in your\nhouse\u2014without fail\u2026. Furthermore I shall give you this package of\n_o-fuda_;[14]\u2014you must paste one of them over every opening of your\nhouse,\u2014no matter how small. If you do this, the power of the holy texts\nwill prevent the dead from entering. But\u2014whatever may happen\u2014do not\nfail to recite the sutra.\u201d\n\n [10] The Japanese word _mamori_ has significations at least as\n numerous as those attaching to our own term \u201camulet.\u201d It would be\n impossible, in a mere footnote, even to suggest the variety of\n Japanese religious objects to which the name is given. In this\n instance, the _mamori_ is a very small image, probably enclosed in a\n miniature shrine of lacquer-work or metal, over which a silk cover is\n drawn. Such little images were often worn by _samurai_ on the person.\n I was recently shown a miniature figure of Kwannon, in an iron case,\n which had been carried by an officer through the Satsuma war. He\n observed, with good reason, that it had probably saved his life; for\n it had stopped a bullet of which the dent was plainly visible.\n\n\n [11] From _shiry\u014d_, a ghost, and _yokeru_, to exclude. The Japanese\n have, two kinds of ghosts proper in their folk-lore: the spirits of\n the dead, _shiry\u014d_; and the spirits of the living, _ikiry\u014d_. A house\n or a person may be haunted by an _ikiry\u014d_ as well as by a _shiry\u014d_.\n\n\n [12] A special service,\u2014accompanying offerings of food, etc., to those\n dead having no living relatives or friends to care for them,\u2014is thus\n termed. In this case, however, the service would be of a particular\n and exceptional kind.\n\n\n [13] The name would be more correctly written _Ub\u014d-Darani-Ky\u014d_. It is\n the Japanese pronunciation of the title of a very short sutra\n translated out of Sanscrit into Chinese by the Indian priest\n Amoghavajra, probably during the eighth century. The Chinese text\n contains transliterations of some mysterious Sanscrit\n words,\u2014apparently talismanic words,\u2014like those to be seen in Kern\u2019s\n translation of the Saddharma-Pundar\u00eeka, ch. xxvi.\n\n\n [14] _O-fuda_ is the general name given to religious texts used as\n charms or talismans. They are sometimes stamped or burned upon wood,\n but more commonly written or printed upon narrow strips of paper.\n _O-fuda_ are pasted above house-entrances, on the walls of rooms, upon\n tablets placed in household shrines, etc., etc. Some kinds are worn\n about the person;\u2014others are made into pellets, and swallowed as\n spiritual medicine. The text of the larger _o-fuda_ is often\n accompanied by curious pictures or symbolic illustrations.\n\n\nShinzabur\u014d humbly thanked the high-priest; and then, taking with him\nthe image, the sutra, and the bundle of sacred texts, he made all haste\nto reach his home before the hour of sunset.\n\nVIII\n\nWith Yusai\u2019s advice and help, Shinzabur\u014d was able before dark to fix\nthe holy texts over all the apertures of his dwelling. Then the\n_ninsomi_ returned to his own house,\u2014leaving the youth alone.\n\nNight came, warm and clear. Shinzabur\u014d made fast the doors, bound the\nprecious amulet about his waist, entered his mosquito-net, and by the\nglow of a night-lantern began to recite the _Ub\u014d-Darani-Ky\u014d_. For a\nlong time he chanted the words, comprehending little of their\nmeaning;\u2014then he tried to obtain some rest. But his mind was still too\nmuch disturbed by the strange events of the day. Midnight passed; and\nno sleep came to him. At last he heard the boom of the great\ntemple-bell of Dentsu-In announcing the eighth hour.[15]\n\n [15] According to the old Japanese way of counting time, this\n _yatsudoki_ or eighth hour was the same as our two o\u2019clock in the\n morning. Each Japanese hour was equal to two European hours, so that\n there were only six hours instead of our twelve; and these six hours\n were counted backwards in the order,\u20149, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4. Thus the ninth\n hour corresponded to our midday, or midnight; half-past nine to our\n one o\u2019clock; eight to our two o\u2019clock. Two o\u2019clock in the morning,\n also called \u201cthe Hour of the Ox,\u201d was the Japanese hour of ghosts and\n goblins.\n\n\nIt ceased; and Shinzabur\u014d suddenly heard the sound of _geta_\napproaching from the old direction,\u2014but this time more slowly:\n_karan-koron, karan-koron!_ At once a cold sweat broke over his\nforehead. Opening the sutra hastily, with trembling hand, he began\nagain to recite it aloud. The steps came nearer and nearer,\u2014reached the\nlive hedge,\u2014stopped! Then, strange to say, Shinzabur\u014d felt unable to\nremain under his mosquito-net: something stronger even than his fear\nimpelled him to look; and, instead of continuing to recite the\n_Ub\u014d-Darani-Ky\u014d_, he foolishly approached the shutters, and through a\nchink peered out into the night. Before the house he saw O-Tsuyu\nstanding, and O-Yon\u00e9 with the peony-lantern; and both of them were\ngazing at the Buddhist texts pasted above the entrance. Never\nbefore\u2014not even in what time she lived\u2014had O-Tsuyu appeared so\nbeautiful; and Shinzabur\u014d felt his heart drawn towards her with a power\nalmost resistless. But the terror of death and the terror of the\nunknown restrained; and there went on within him such a struggle\nbetween his love and his fear that he became as one suffering in the\nbody the pains of the Sh\u014d-netsu hell.[16]\n\n [16] _En-netsu_ or _Sh\u014d-netsu_ (Sanscrit \u201cTapana\u201d) is the sixth of the\n Eight Hot Hells of Japanese Buddhism. One day of life in this hell is\n equal in duration to thousands (some say millions) of human years.\n\n\nPresently he heard the voice of the maid-servant, saying:\u2014\n\n\u201cMy dear mistress, there is no way to enter. The heart of Hagiwara Sama\nmust have changed. For the promise that he made last night has been\nbroken; and the doors have been made fast to keep us out\u2026. We cannot go\nin to-night\u2026. It will be wiser for you to make up your mind not to\nthink any more about him, because his feeling towards you has certainly\nchanged. It is evident that he does not want to see you. So it will be\nbetter not to give yourself any more trouble for the sake of a man\nwhose heart is so unkind.\u201d\n\nBut the girl answered, weeping:\u2014\n\n\u201cOh, to think that this could happen after the pledges which we made to\neach other!\u2026 Often I was told that the heart of a man changes as\nquickly as the sky of autumn;\u2014yet surely the heart of Hagiwara Sama\ncannot be so cruel that he should really intend to exclude me in this\nway!\u2026 Dear Yone, please find some means of taking me to him\u2026. Unless\nyou do, I will never, never go home again.\u201d\n\nThus she continued to plead, veiling her face with her long\nsleeves,\u2014and very beautiful she looked, and very touching; but the fear\nof death was strong upon her lover.\n\nO-Yon\u00e9 at last made answer,\u2014\u201cMy dear young lady, why will you trouble\nyour mind about a man who seems to be so cruel?\u2026 Well, let us see if\nthere be no way to enter at the back of the house: come with me!\u201d\n\nAnd taking O-Tsuyu by the hand, she led her away toward the rear of the\ndwelling; and there the two disappeared as suddenly as the light\ndisappears when the flame of a lamp is blown out.\n\nIX\n\nNight after night the shadows came at the Hour of the Ox; and nightly\nShinzabur\u014d heard the weeping of O-Tsuyu. Yet he believed himself\nsaved,\u2014little imagining that his doom had already been decided by the\ncharacter of his dependents.\n\nTomoz\u014d had promised Yusai never to speak to any other person\u2014not even\nto O-Min\u00e9\u2014of the strange events that were taking place. But Tomoz\u014d was\nnot long suffered by the haunters to rest in peace. Night after night\nO-Yon\u00e9 entered into his dwelling, and roused him from his sleep, and\nasked him to remove the _o-fuda_ placed over one very small window at\nthe back of his master\u2019s house. And Tomoz\u014d, out of fear, as often\npromised her to take away the _o-fuda_ before the next sundown; but\nnever by day could he make up his mind to remove it,\u2014believing that\nevil was intended to Shinzabur\u014d. At last, in a night of storm, O-Yon\u00e9\nstartled him from slumber with a cry of reproach, and stooped above his\npillow, and said to him: \u201cHave a care how you trifle with us! If, by\nto-morrow night, you do not take away that text, you shall learn how I\ncan hate!\u201d And she made her face so frightful as she spoke that Tomoz\u014d\nnearly died of terror.\n\nO-Min\u00e9, the wife of Tomoz\u014d, had never till then known of these visits:\neven to her husband they had seemed like bad dreams. But on this\nparticular night it chanced that, waking suddenly, she heard the voice\nof a woman talking to Tomoz\u014d. Almost in the same moment the talk-ing\nceased; and when O-Min\u00e9 looked about her, she saw, by the light of the\nnight-lamp, only her husband,\u2014shuddering and white with fear. The\nstranger was gone; the doors were fast: it seemed impossible that\nanybody could have entered. Nevertheless the jealousy of the wife had\nbeen aroused; and she began to chide and to question Tomoz\u014d in such a\nmanner that he thought himself obliged to betray the secret, and to\nexplain the terrible dilemma in which he had been placed.\n\nThen the passion of O-Min\u00e9 yielded to wonder and alarm; but she was a\nsubtle woman, and she devised immediately a plan to save her husband by\nthe sacrifice of her master. And she gave Tomoz\u014d a cunning\ncounsel,\u2014telling him to make conditions with the dead.\n\nThey came again on the following night at the Hour of the Ox; and\nO-Min\u00e9 hid herself on hearing the sound of their coming,\u2014_karan-koron,\nkaran-koron!_ But Tomoz\u014d went out to meet them in the dark, and even\nfound courage to say to them what his wife had told him to say:\u2014\n\n\u201cIt is true that I deserve your blame;\u2014but I had no wish to cause you\nanger. The reason that the _o-fuda_ has not been taken away is that my\nwife and I are able to live only by the help of Hagiwara Sama, and that\nwe cannot expose him to any danger without bringing misfortune upon\nourselves. But if we could obtain the sum of a hundred _ry\u014d_ in gold,\nwe should be able to please you, because we should then need no help\nfrom anybody. Therefore if you will give us a hundred _ry\u014d_, I can take\nthe _o-fuda_ away without being afraid of losing our only means of\nsupport.\u201d\n\nWhen he had uttered these words, O-Yon\u00e9 and O-Tsuyu looked at each\nother in silence for a moment. Then O-Yon\u00e9 said:\u2014\n\n\u201cMistress, I told you that it was not right to trouble this man, \u2014as we\nhave no just cause of ill will against him. But it is certainly useless\nto fret yourself about Hagiwara Sama, because his heart has changed\ntowards you. Now once again, my dear young lady, let me beg you not to\nthink any more about him!\u201d\n\nBut O-Tsuyu, weeping, made answer:\u2014\n\n\u201cDear Yone, whatever may happen, I cannot possibly keep myself from\nthinking about him! You know that you can get a hundred _ry\u014d_ to have\nthe _o-fuda_ taken off\u2026. Only once more, I pray, dear Yone!\u2014only once\nmore bring me face to face with Hagiwara Sama,\u2014I beseech you!\u201d And\nhiding her face with her sleeve, she thus continued to plead.\n\n\u201cOh! why will you ask me to do these things?\u201d responded O-Yon\u00e9. \u201cYou\nknow very well that I have no money. But since you will persist in this\nwhim of yours, in spite of all that I can say, I suppose that I must\ntry to find the money somehow, and to bring it here to-morrow night\u2026.\u201d\nThen, turning to the faithless Tomoz\u014d, she said:\u2014\u201cTomoz\u014d, I must tell\nyou that Hagiwara Sama now wears upon his body a _mamori_ called by the\nname of _Kai-On-Ny\u014drai_, and that so long as he wears it we cannot\napproach him. So you will have to get that _mamori_ away from him, by\nsome means or other, as well as to remove the _o-fuda_.\u201d\n\nTomoz\u014d feebly made answer:\u2014\n\n\u201cThat also I can do, if you will promise to bring me the hundred\n_ry\u014d_.\u201d\n\n\u201cWell, mistress,\u201d said O-Yon\u00e9, \u201cyou will wait,\u2014will you not,\u2014until\nto-morrow night?\u201d\n\n\u201cOh, dear Yon\u00e9!\u201d sobbed the other,\u2014\u201chave we to go back to-night again\nwithout seeing Hagiwara Sama? Ah! it is cruel!\u201d\n\nAnd the shadow of the mistress, weeping, was led away by the shadow of\nthe maid.\n\nX\n\nAnother day went, and another night came, and the dead came with it.\nBut this time no lamentation was heard without the house of Hagiwara;\nfor the faithless servant found his reward at the Hour of the Ox, and\nremoved the _o-fuda_. Moreover he had been able, while his master was\nat the bath, to steal from its case the golden _mamori_, and to\nsubstitute for it an image of copper; and he had buried the\n_Kai-On-Ny\u014drai_ in a desolate field. So the visitants found nothing to\noppose their entering. Veiling their faces with their sleeves they rose\nand passed, like a streaming of vapor, into the little window from over\nwhich the holy text had been torn away. But what happened thereafter\nwithin the house Tomoz\u014d never knew.\n\nThe sun was high before he ventured again to approach his master\u2019s\ndwelling, and to knock upon the sliding-doors. For the first time in\nyears he obtained no response; and the silence made him afraid.\nRepeatedly he called, and received no answer. Then, aided by O-Min\u00e9, he\nsucceeded in effecting an entrance and making his way alone to the\nsleeping-room, where he called again in vain. He rolled back the\nrumbling shutters to admit the light; but still within the house there\nwas no stir. At last he dared to lift a corner of the mosquito-net. But\nno sooner had he looked beneath than he fled from the house, with a cry\nof horror.\n\nShinzabur\u014d was dead\u2014hideously dead;\u2014and his face was the face of a man\nwho had died in the uttermost agony of fear;\u2014and lying beside him in\nthe bed were the bones of a woman! And the bones of the arms, and the\nbones of the hands, clung fast about his neck.\n\nXI\n\nHaku\u014dd\u014d Yusai, the fortune-teller, went to view the corpse at the\nprayer of the faithless Tomoz\u014d. The old man was terrified and\nastonished at the spectacle, but looked about him with a keen eye. He\nsoon perceived that the _o-fuda_ had been taken from the little window\nat the back of the house; and on searching the body of Shinzabur\u014d, he\ndiscovered that the golden _mamori_ had been taken from its wrapping,\nand a copper image of Fud\u014d put in place of it. He suspected Tomoz\u014d of\nthe theft; but the whole occurrence was so very extraordinary that he\nthought it prudent to consult with the priest Ry\u014dseki before taking\nfurther action. Therefore, after having made a careful examination of\nthe premises, he betook himself to the temple Shin-Banzui-In, as\nquickly as his aged limbs could bear him.\n\nRy\u014dseki, without waiting to hear the purpose of the old man\u2019s visit, at\nonce invited him into a private apartment.\n\n\u201cYou know that you are always welcome here,\u201d said Ry\u014dseki. \u201cPlease seat\nyourself at ease\u2026. Well, I am sorry to tell you that Hagiwara Sama is\ndead.\u201d\n\nYusai wonderingly exclaimed:\u2014\u201cYes, he is dead;\u2014but how did you learn of\nit?\u201d\n\nThe priest responded:\u2014\n\n\u201cHagiwara Sama was suffering from the results of an evil karma; and his\nattendant was a bad man. What happened to Hagiwara Sama was\nunavoidable;\u2014his destiny had been determined from a time long before\nhis last birth. It will be better for you not to let your mind be\ntroubled by this event.\u201d\n\nYusai said:\u2014\n\n\u201cI have heard that a priest of pure life may gain power to see into the\nfuture for a hundred years; but truly this is the first time in my\nexistence that I have had proof of such power\u2026. Still, there is another\nmatter about which I am very anxious\u2026.\u201d\n\n\u201cYou mean,\u201d interrupted Ry\u014dseki, \u201cthe stealing of the holy _mamori_,\nthe _Kai-On-Ny\u014drai_. But you must not give yourself any concern about\nthat. The image has been buried in a field; and it will be found there\nand returned to me during the eighth month of the coming year. So\nplease do not be anxious about it.\u201d\n\nMore and more amazed, the old _ninsomi_ ventured to observe:\u2014\n\n\u201cI have studied the _In-Y\u014d_,[17] and the science of divination; and I\nmake my living by telling peoples\u2019 fortunes;\u2014but I cannot possibly\nunderstand how you know these things.\u201d\n\n [17] The Male and Female principles of the universe, the Active and\n Passive forces of Nature. Yusai refers here to the old Chinese\n nature-philosophy,\u2014better known to Western readers by the name\n FENG-SHUI.\n\n\nRy\u014dseki answered gravely:\u2014\n\n\u201cNever mind how I happen to know them\u2026. I now want to speak to you\nabout Hagiwara\u2019s funeral. The House of Hagiwara has its own\nfamily-cemetery, of course; but to bury him there would not be proper.\nHe must be buried beside O-Tsuyu, the Lady Iijima; for his\nkarma-relation to her was a very deep one. And it is but right that you\nshould erect a tomb for him at your own cost, because you have been\nindebted to him for many favors.\u201d\n\nThus it came to pass that Shinzabur\u014d was buried beside O-Tsuyu, in the\ncemetery of Shin-Banzui-In, in Yanaka-no-Sasaki.\n\n\u2014_Here ends the story of the Ghosts in the Romance of the\nPeony-Lantern._\u2014\n\n\nMy friend asked me whether the story had interested me; and I answered\nby telling him that I wanted to go to the cemetery of\nShin-Banzui-In,\u2014so as to realize more definitely the local color of the\nauthor\u2019s studies.\n\n\u201cI shall go with you at once,\u201d he said. \u201cBut what did you think of the\npersonages?\u201d\n\n\u201cTo Western thinking,\u201d I made answer, \u201cShinzabur\u014d is a despicable\ncreature. I have been mentally comparing him with the true lovers of\nour old ballad-literature. They were only too glad to follow a dead\nsweetheart into the grave; and nevertheless, being Christians, they\nbelieved that they had only one human life to enjoy in this world. But\nShinzabur\u014d was a Buddhist,\u2014with a million lives behind him and a\nmillion lives before him; and he was too selfish to give up even one\nmiserable existence for the sake of the girl that came back to him from\nthe dead. Then he was even more cowardly than selfish. Although a\nsamurai by birth and training, he had to beg a priest to save him from\nghosts. In every way he proved himself contemptible; and O-Tsuyu did\nquite right in choking him to death.\u201d\n\n\u201cFrom the Japanese point of view, likewise,\u201d my friend responded,\n\u201cShinzabur\u014d is rather contemptible. But the use of this weak character\nhelped the author to develop incidents that could not otherwise,\nperhaps, have been so effectively managed. To my thinking, the only\nattractive character in the story is that of O-Yon\u00e9: type of the\nold-time loyal and loving servant,\u2014intelligent, shrewd, full of\nresource,\u2014faithful not only unto death, but beyond death\u2026. Well, let us\ngo to Shin-Banzui-In.\u201d\n\nWe found the temple uninteresting, and the cemetery an abomination of\ndesolation. Spaces once occupied by graves had been turned into\npotato-patches. Between were tombs leaning at all angles out of the\nperpendicular, tablets made illegible by scurf, empty pedestals,\nshattered water-tanks, and statues of Buddhas without heads or hands.\nRecent rains had soaked the black soil,\u2014leaving here and there small\npools of slime about which swarms of tiny frogs were hopping.\nEverything\u2014excepting the potato-patches\u2014seemed to have been neglected\nfor years. In a shed just within the gate, we observed a woman cooking;\nand my companion presumed to ask her if she knew anything about the\ntombs described in the Romance of the Peony-Lantern.\n\n\u201cAh! the tombs of O-Tsuyu and O-Yon\u00e9?\u201d she responded, smiling;\u2014\u201cyou\nwill find them near the end of the first row at the back of the\ntemple\u2014next to the statue of Jizo.\u201d\n\nSurprises of this kind I had met with elsewhere in Japan.\n\nWe picked our way between the rain-pools and between the green ridges\nof young potatoes,\u2014whose roots were doubtless feeding on the sub-stance\nof many another O-Tsuyu and O-Yon\u00e9;\u2014and we reached at last two\nlichen-eaten tombs of which the inscriptions seemed almost obliterated.\nBeside the larger tomb was a statue of Jizo, with a broken nose.\n\n\u201cThe characters are not easy to make out,\u201d said my friend\u2014\u201cbut wait!\u201d\u2026.\nHe drew from his sleeve a sheet of soft white paper, laid it over the\ninscription, and began to rub the paper with a lump of clay. As he did\nso, the characters appeared in white on the blackened surface.\n\n\u201c_Eleventh day, third month\u2014Rat, Elder Brother, Fire\u2014Sixth year of\nHor\u00e9ki_ [A. D. 1756].\u2019\u2026 This would seem to be the grave of some\ninnkeeper of Nedzu, named Kichibei. Let us see what is on the other\nmonument.\u201d\n\nWith a fresh sheet of paper he presently brought out the text of a\nkaimy\u014d, and read,\u2014\n\n\u201c_En-my\u014d-In, H\u014d-y\u014d-I-tei-ken-shi, H\u014d-ni\u2019:\u2014\u2018Nun-of-the-Law, Illustrious,\nPure-of-heart-and-will, Famed-in-the-Law,\u2014inhabiting the\nMansion-of-the-Preaching-of-Wonder._\u2019\u2026. The grave of some Buddhist\nnun.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat utter humbug!\u201d I exclaimed. \u201cThat woman was only making fun of\nus.\u201d\n\n\u201cNow,\u201d my friend protested, \u201cyou are unjust to the, woman! You came\nhere because you wanted a sensation; and she tried her very best to\nplease you. You did not suppose that ghost-story was true, did you?\u201d\n\n\n\n\nFootprints of the Buddha\n\n\nI\n\nI was recently surprised to find, in Anderson\u2019s catalogue of Japanese\nand Chinese paintings in the British Museum, this remarkable\nstatement:\u2014\u201cIt is to be noted that in Japan the figure of the Buddha is\nnever represented by the feet, or pedestal alone, as in the Amravati\nremains, and many other Indian art-relics.\u201d As a matter of fact the\nrepresentation is not even rare in Japan. It is to be found not only\nupon stone monuments, but also in religious paintings,\u2014especially\ncertain kakemono suspended in temples. These kakemono usually display\nthe footprints upon a very large scale, with a multitude of mystical\nsymbols and characters. The sculptures may be less common; but in T\u014dky\u014d\nalone there are a number of _Butsu-soku-s\u00e9ki_, or \u201cBuddha-foot stones,\u201d\nwhich I have seen,\u2014and probably several which I have not seen. There is\none at the temple of Ek\u014d-In, near Ry\u014dgoku-bashi; one at the temple of\nDenb\u014d-In, in Koishikawa; one at the temple of Denb\u014d-In, in Asakusa; and\na beautiful example at Z\u014dj\u014dji in Shiba. These are not cut out of a\nsingle block, but are composed of fragments cemented into the irregular\ntraditional shape, and capped with a heavy slab of Nebukawa granite, on\nthe polished surface of which the design is engraved in lines about\none-tenth of an inch in depth. I should judge the average height of\nthese pedestals to be about two feet four inches, and their greatest\ndiameter about three feet. Around the footprints there are carved (in\nmost of the examples) twelve little bunches of leaves and buds of the\n_Bodai-j\u016b_ (\u201cBodhidruma\u201d), or Bodhi-tree of Buddhist legend. In all\ncases the footprint design is about the same; but the monuments are\ndifferent in quality and finish. That of Z\u014dj\u014dji,\u2014with figures of\ndivinities cut in low relief on its sides,\u2014is the most ornate and\ncostly of the four. The specimen at Ek\u014d-In is very poor and plain.\n\nThe first _Butsu-soku-s\u00e9ki_ made in Japan was that erected at T\u014ddaiji,\nin Nara. It was designed after a similar monument in China, said to be\nthe faithful copy of an Indian original. Concerning this Indian\noriginal, the following tradition is given in an old Buddhist\nbook:[1]\u2014\u201cIn a temple of the province of Makada [_Maghada_] there is a\ngreat stone. The Buddha once trod upon this stone; and the prints of\nthe soles of his feet remain upon its surface. The length of the\nimpressions is one foot and eight inches,[2] and the width of them a\nlittle more than six inches. On the sole-part of each footprint there\nis the impression of a wheel; and upon each of the prints of the ten\ntoes there is a flower-like design, which sometimes radiates light.\nWhen the Buddha felt that the time of his Nirv\u00e2na was approaching, he\nwent to Kushina [_Kusin\u00e2r\u00e2_], and there stood upon that stone. He stood\nwith his face to the south. Then he said to his disciple Anan\n[_\u00c2nanda_]: \u2018In this place I leave the impression of my feet, to remain\nfor a last token. Although a king of this country will try to destroy\nthe impression, it can never be entirely destroyed.\u2019 And indeed it has\nnot been destroyed unto this day. Once a king who hated Buddhism caused\nthe top of the stone to be pared off, so as to remove the impression;\nbut after the surface had been removed, the footprints reappeared upon\nthe stone.\u201d\n\n [1] The Chinese title is pronounced by Japanese as _Sei-iki-ki_.\n \u201cSei-iki\u201d(the Country of the West) was the old Japanese name for\n India; and thus the title might be rendered, \u201cThe Book about India.\u201d I\n suppose this is the work known to Western scholars as _Si-yu-ki_.\n\n\n [2] \u201cOne _shaku_ and eight _sun_.\u201d But the Japanese foot and inch are\n considerably longer than the English.\n\n\nConcerning the virtue of the representation of the footprints of the\nBuddha, there is sometimes quoted a text from the\n_Kwan-butsu-sanmai-ky\u014d_ [\u201cBuddha-dhy\u00e2na-sam\u00e2dhi-s\u00e2gara-s\u00fbtra\u201d], thus\ntranslated for me:\u2014\u201cIn that time Shaka [\u201cS\u00e2kyamuni\u201d] lifted up his\nfoot\u2026. When the Buddha lifted up his foot all could perceive upon the\nsole of it the appearance of a wheel of a thousand spokes\u2026. And Shaka\nsaid: \u2018Whosoever beholds the sign upon the sole of my foot shall be\npurified from all his faults. Even he who beholds the sign after my\ndeath shall be delivered from all the evil results of all his errors.\u201d\nVarious other texts of Japanese Buddhism affirm that whoever looks upon\nthe footprints of the Buddha \u201cshall be freed from the bonds of error,\nand conducted upon the Way of Enlightenment.\u201d\n\n[Illustration: S\u2019r\u00eep\u00e2da-tracing at Dentsu-In, Koishikawa, T\u014dky\u014d]\n\nAn outline of the footprints as engraved on one of the Japanese\npedestals[3] should have some interest even for persons familiar with\nIndian sculptures of the S\u2019r\u00eep\u00e2da. The double-page drawing,\naccompanying this paper, and showing both footprints, has been made\nafter the tracing at Dentsu-In, where the footprints have the full\nlegendary dimension, It will be observed that there are only seven\nemblems: these are called in Japan the _Shichi-S\u014d_, or \u201cSeven\nAppearances.\u201d I got some information about them from the\n_Sh\u014d-Ek\u014d-H\u014d-Kwan_,\u2014a book used by the Jodo sect. This book also\ncontains rough woodcuts of the footprints; and one of them I reproduce\nhere for the purpose of calling attention to the curious form of the\nemblems upon the toes. They are said to be modifications of the\n_manji_, or svastik\u00e2, but I doubt it. In the\n_Butsu-soku-s\u00e9ki_-tracings, the corresponding figures suggest the\n\u201cflower-like design\u201d mentioned in the tradition of the Maghada stone;\nwhile the symbols in the book-print suggest fire. Indeed their outline\nso much resembles the conventional flamelet-design of Buddhist\ndecoration, that I cannot help thinking them originally intended to\nindicate the traditional luminosity of the footprints. Moreover, there\nis a text in the book called _H\u014d-Kai-Shidai_ that lends support to this\nsupposition:\u2014\u201cThe sole of the foot of the Buddha is flat,\u2014like the base\nof a toilet-stand\u2026. Upon it are lines forming the appearance of a wheel\nof a thousand spokes\u2026. The toes are slender, round, long, straight,\ngraceful, _and somewhat luminous_.\u201d\n\n [3] A monument at Nara exhibits the _S\u2019r\u00eep\u00e2da_ in a form differing\n considerably from the design upon the T\u014dky\u014d pedestals.\n\n[Illustration: Left: S\u2019r\u00eep\u00e2da showing the svastik\u00e2 (From the\nBukky\u014d-Hyakkwa-Zensho)\nRight: (From the Sh\u014d-Ek\u014d-H\u014d-Kwan)]\n\nThe explanation of the Seven Appearances which is given by the\n_Sh\u014d-Ek\u014d-H\u014d-Kwan_ cannot be called satisfactory; but it is not without\ninterest in relation to Japanese popular Buddhism. The emblems are\nconsidered in the following order:\u2014\n\nI.\u2014_The Svastik\u00e2_. The figure upon each toe is said to be a\nmodification of the _manji_;[4] and although I doubt whether this is\nalways the case, I have observed that on some of the large kak\u00e9mono\nrepresenting the footprints, the emblem really _is_ the svastik\u00e2,\u2014not a\nflamelet nor a flower-shape.[5] The Japanese commentator explains the\nsvastik\u00e2 as a symbol of \u201ceverlasting bliss.\u201d\n\n [4] Lit.: \u201cThe thousand-character\u201d sign.\n\n\n [5] On some monuments and drawings there is a sort of disk made by a\n single line in spiral, on each toe,\u2014together with the image of a small\n wheel.\n\n\nII.\u2014_The Fish_ (_Gyo_). The fish signifies freedom from all restraints.\nAs in the water a fish moves easily in any direction, so in the\nBuddha-state the fully-emancipated knows no restraints or obstructions.\n\nIII.\u2014_The Diamond-Mace_ (Jap. _Kong\u014d-sho;_\u2014Sansc. \u201cVadjra\u201d). Explained\nas signifying the divine force that \u201cstrikes and breaks all the lusts\n(_bonn\u014d_) of the world.\u201d\n\nIV.\u2014_The Conch-Shell_ (Jap. \u201c_Hora_\u201d) or _Trumpet_. Emblem of the\npreaching of the Law. The book _Shin-zoku-butsu-ji-hen_ calls it the\nsymbol of the voice of the Buddha. The _Dai-hi-ky\u014d_ calls it the token\nof the preaching and of the power of the Mahayana doctrine. The\n_Dai-Nichi-Ky\u014d_ says:\u2014\u201d At the sound of the blowing of the shell, all\nthe heavenly deities are filled with delight, and come to hear the\nLaw.\u201d\n\nV.\u2014_The Flower-Vase_ (Jap. \u201c_Hanagam\u00e9_\u201d). Emblem of _mur\u014d_,\u2014a mystical\nword which might be literally rendered as \u201cnot-leaking,\u201d\u2014signifying\nthat condition of supreme intelligence triumphant over birth and death.\n\nVI.\u2014_The Wheel-of-a-Thousand-Spokes_ (Sansc. \u201cTchakra \u201c). This emblem,\ncalled in Japanese _Senfuku-rin-s\u014d_, is curiously explained by various\nquotations. The _Hokk\u00e9-Monku_ says:\u2014\u201cThe effect of a wheel is to crush\nsomething; and the effect of the Buddha\u2019s preaching is to crush all\ndelusions, errors, doubts, and superstitions. Therefore preaching the\ndoctrine is called, \u2018turning the Wheel.\u2019\u201d\u2026 The _Sei-Ri-Ron_ says: \u201cEven\nas the common wheel has its spokes and its hub, so in Buddhism there\nare many branches of the _Hasshi Sh\u014ddo_ (\u2018Eight-fold Path,\u2019 or eight\nrules of conduct).\u201d\n\nVII.\u2014_The Crown of Brahm\u00e2_. Under the heel of the Buddha is the\nTreasure-Crown (_H\u014d-Kwan_) of Brahm\u00e2 (_Bon-Ten-O_),\u2014in symbol of the\nBuddha\u2019s supremacy above the gods.\n\nBut I think that the inscriptions upon any of these _Butsu-soku-s\u00e9ki_\nwill be found of more significance than the above imperfect attempts at\nan explanation of the emblems. The inscriptions upon the monument at\nDentsu-In are typical. On different sides of the structure,\u2014near the\ntop, and placed by rule so as to face certain points of the\ncompass,\u2014there are engraved five Sanscrit characters which are symbols\nof the Five Elemental Buddhas, together with scriptural and\ncommemorative texts. These latter have been translated for me as\nfollows:\u2014\n\nThe HO-KO-HON-NYO-KYO says:\u2014\u201cIn that time, from beneath his feet, the\nBuddha radiated a light having the appearance of a wheel of a thousand\nspokes. And all who saw that radiance became strictly upright, and\nobtained the Supreme Enlightenment.\u201d\n\nThe KWAN-BUTSU-SANMAI-KYO says:\u2014\u201cWhosoever looks upon the footprints of\nthe Buddha shall be freed from the results even of innumerable\nthousands of imperfections.\u201d\n\nThe BUTSU-SETSU-MU-RYO-JU-KYO says:\u2014\u201cIn the land that the Buddha treads\nin journeying, there is not even one person in all the multitude of the\nvillages who is not benefited. Then throughout the world there is peace\nand good will. The sun and the moon shine clear and bright. Wind and\nrain come only at a suitable time. Calamity and pestilence cease. The\ncountry prospers; the people are free from care. Weapons become\nuseless. All men reverence religion, and regulate their conduct in all\nmatters with earnestness and modesty.\u201d\n\n[Commemorative Text.]\n\n\n\u2014The Fifth Month of the Eighteenth Year of Meiji, all the priests of\nthis temple made and set up this pedestal-stone, bearing the likeness\nof the footprints of the Buddha, and placed the same within the main\ncourt of Dentsu-In, in order that the seed of holy enlightenment might\nbe sown for future time, and for the sake of the advancement of\nBuddhism.\n\nTAIJO, priest,\u2014being the sixty-sixth chief-priest by succession of this\ntemple,\u2014has respectfully composed.\n\nJUNYU, the minor priest, has reverentially inscribed.\n\nII\n\nStrange facts crowd into memory as one contemplates those graven\nfootprints,\u2014footprints giant-seeming, yet less so than the human\npersonality of which they remain the symbol. Twenty-four hundred years\nago, out of solitary meditation upon the pain and the mystery of being,\nthe mind of an Indian pilgrim brought forth the highest truth ever\ntaught to men, and in an era barren of science anticipated the\nuttermost knowledge of our present evolutional philosophy regarding the\nsecret unity of life, the endless illusions of matter and of mind, and\nthe birth and death of universes. He, by pure reason,\u2014and he alone\nbefore our time,\u2014found answers of worth to the questions of the Whence,\nthe Whither, and the Why;\u2014and he made with these answers another and a\nnobler faith than the creed of his fathers. He spoke, and returned to\nhis dust; and the people worshipped the prints of his dead feet,\nbecause of the love that he had taught them. Thereafter waxed and waned\nthe name of Alexander, and the power of Rome and the might of\nIslam;\u2014nations arose and vanished;\u2014cities grew and were not;\u2014the\nchildren of another civilization, vaster than Romes, begirdled the\nearth with conquest, and founded far-off empires, and came at last to\nrule in the land of that pilgrim\u2019s birth. And these, rich in the wisdom\nof four and twenty centuries, wondered at the beauty of his message,\nand caused all that he had said and done to be written down anew in\nlanguages unborn at the time when he lived and taught. Still burn his\nfootprints in the East; and still the great West, marvelling, follows\ntheir gleam to seek the Supreme Enlightenment. Even thus, of old,\nMilinda the king followed the way to the house of Nagasena,\u2014at first\nonly to question, after the subtle method of the Greeks; yet, later, to\naccept with noble reverence the nobler method of the Master.\n\n\n\n\nUlulation\n\n\nShe is lean as a wolf, and very old,\u2014the white bitch that guards my\ngate at night. She played with most of the young men and women of the\nneighborhood when they were boys and girls. I found her in charge of my\npresent dwelling on the day that I came to occupy it. She had guarded\nthe place, I was told, for a long succession of prior\ntenants\u2014apparently with no better reason than that she had been born in\nthe woodshed at the back of the house. Whether well or ill treated she\nhad served all occupants faultlessly as a watch. The question of food\nas wages had never seriously troubled her, because most of the families\nof the street daily contributed to her support.\n\nShe is gentle and silent,\u2014silent at least by day; and in spite of her\ngaunt ugliness, her pointed ears, and her somewhat unpleasant eyes,\neverybody is fond of her. Children ride on her back, and tease her at\nwill; but although she has been known to make strange men feel\nuncomfortable, she never growls at a child. The reward of her patient\ngood-nature is the friendship of the community. When the dog-killers\ncome on their bi-annual round, the neighbors look after her interests.\nOnce she was on the very point of being officially executed when the\nwife of the smith ran to the rescue, and pleaded successfully with the\npoliceman superintending the massacres. \u201cPut somebody\u2019s name on the\ndog,\u201d said the latter: \u201cthen it will be safe. Whose dog is it?\u201d That\nquestion proved hard to answer. The dog was everybody\u2019s and\nnobody\u2019s\u2014welcome everywhere but owned nowhere. \u201cBut where does it\nstay?\u201d asked the puzzled constable. \u201cIt stays,\u201d said the smith\u2019s wife,\n\u201cin the house of the foreigner.\u201d \u201cThen let the foreigner\u2019s name be put\nupon the dog,\u201d suggested the policeman.\n\nAccordingly I had my name painted on her back in big Japanese\ncharacters. But the neighbors did not think that she was sufficiently\nsafeguarded by a single name. So the priest of Kobudera painted the\nname of the temple on her left side, in beautiful Chinese text; and the\nsmith put the name of his shop on her right side; and the\nvegetable-seller put on her breast the ideographs for\n\u201ceight-hundred,\u201d\u2014which represent the customary abbreviation of the word\nyaoya (vegetable-seller),\u2014any yaoya being supposed to sell eight\nhundred or more different things. Consequently she is now a very\ncurious-looking dog; but she is well protected by all that calligraphy.\n\nI have only one fault to find with her: she howls at night. Howling is\none of the few pathetic pleasures of her existence. At first I tried to\nfrighten her out of the habit; but finding that she refused to take me\nseriously, I concluded to let her howl. It would have been monstrous to\nbeat her.\n\nYet I detest her howl. It always gives me a feeling of vague disquiet,\nlike the uneasiness that precedes the horror of nightmare. It makes me\nafraid,\u2014indefinably, superstitiously afraid. Perhaps what I am writing\nwill seem to you absurd; but you would not think it absurd if you once\nheard her howl. She does not howl like the common street-dogs. She\nbelongs to some ruder Northern breed, much more wolfish, and retaining\nwild traits of a very peculiar kind.\n\nAnd her howl is also peculiar. It is incomparably weirder than the howl\nof any European dog; and I fancy that it is incomparably older. It may\nrepresent the original primitive cry of her species,\u2014totally unmodified\nby centuries of domestication. It begins with a stifled moan, like the\nmoan of a bad dream,\u2014mounts into a long, long wail, like a wailing of\nwind,\u2014sinks quavering into a chuckle,\u2014rises again to a wail, very much\nhigher and wilder than before,\u2014breaks suddenly into a kind of atrocious\nlaughter,\u2014and finally sobs itself out in a plaint like the crying of a\nlittle child. The ghastliness of the performance is chiefly\u2014though not\nentirely\u2014in the goblin mockery of the laughing tones as contrasted with\nthe piteous agony of the wailing ones: an incongruity that makes you\nthink of madness. And I imagine a corresponding incongruity in the soul\nof the creature. I know that she loves me,\u2014that she would throw away\nher poor life for me at an instant\u2019s notice. I am sure that she would\ngrieve if I were to die. But she would not think about the matter like\nother dogs,\u2014like a dog with hanging ears, for example. She is too\nsavagely close to Nature for that. Were she to find herself alone with\nmy corpse in some desolate place, she would first mourn wildly for her\nfriend; but, this duty performed, she would proceed to ease her sorrow\nin the simplest way possible,\u2014by eating him,\u2014by cracking his bones\nbetween those long wolf\u2019s-teeth of hers. And thereafter, with spotless\nconscience, she would sit down and utter to the moon the funeral cry of\nher ancestors.\n\nIt fills me, that cry, with a strange curiosity not less than with a\nstrange horror,\u2014because of certain extraordinary vowellings in it which\nalways recur in the same order of sequence, and must represent\nparticular forms of animal speech,\u2014particular ideas. The whole thing is\na song,\u2014a song of emotions and thoughts not human, and therefore\nhumanly unimaginable. But other dogs know what it means, and make\nanswer over the miles of the night,\u2014sometimes from so far away that\nonly by straining my hearing to the uttermost can I detect the faint\nresponse. The words\u2014(if I may call them words)\u2014are very few; yet, to\njudge by their emotional effect, they must signify a great deal.\nPossibly they mean things myriads of years old,\u2014things relating to\nodors, to exhalations, to influences and effluences inapprehensible by\nduller human sense,\u2014impulses also, impulses without name, bestirred in\nghosts of dogs by the light of great moons.\n\nCould we know the sensations of a dog,\u2014the emotions and the ideas of a\ndog, we might discover some strange correspondence between their\ncharacter and the character of that peculiar disquiet which the howl of\nthe creature evokes. But since the senses of a dog are totally unlike\nthose of a man, we shall never really know. And we can only surmise, in\nthe vaguest way, the meaning of the uneasiness in ourselves. Some notes\nin the long cry,\u2014and the weirdest of them,\u2014oddly resemble those tones\nof the human voice that tell of agony and terror. Again, we have reason\nto believe that the sound of the cry itself became associated in human\nimagination, at some period enormously remote, with particular\nimpressions of fear. It is a remarkable fact that in almost all\ncountries (including Japan) the howling of dogs has been attributed to\ntheir perception of things viewless to man, and awful,\u2014especially gods\nand ghosts;\u2014and this unanimity of superstitious belief suggests that\none element of the disquiet inspired by the cry is the dread of the\nsupernatural. To-day we have ceased to be consciously afraid of the\nunseen;\u2014knowing that we ourselves are supernatural,\u2014that even the\nphysical man, with all his life of sense, is more ghostly than any\nghost of old imagining: but some dim inheritance of the primitive fear\nstill slumbers in our being, and wakens perhaps, like an echo, to the\nsound of that wail in the night.\n\nWhatever thing invisible to human eyes the senses of a dog may at times\nperceive, it can be nothing resembling our idea of a ghost. Most\nprobably the mysterious cause of start and whine is not anything\n_seen_. There is no anatomical reason for supposing a dog to possess\nexceptional powers of vision. But a dog\u2019s organs of scent proclaim a\nfaculty immeasurably superior to the sense of smell in man. The old\nuniversal belief in the superhuman perceptivities of the creature was a\nbelief justified by fact; but the perceptivities are not visual. Were\nthe howl of a dog really\u2014as once supposed\u2014an outcry of ghostly terror,\nthe meaning might possibly be, \u201c_I smell Them!_\u201d\u2014but not, \u201c_I see\nThem!_\u201d No evidence exists to support the fancy that a dog can see any\nforms of being which a man cannot see.\n\nBut the night-howl of the white creature in my close forces me to\nwonder whether she does not _mentally_ see something really\nterrible,\u2014something which we vainly try to keep out of moral\nconsciousness: the ghoulish law of life. Nay, there are times when her\ncry seems to me not the mere cry of a dog, but the voice of the law\nitself,\u2014the very speech of that Nature so inexplicably called by poets\nthe loving, the merciful, the divine! Divine, perhaps, in some\nunknowable ultimate way,\u2014but certainly not merciful, and still more\ncertainly not loving. Only by eating each other do beings exist!\nBeautiful to the poet\u2019s vision our world may seem,\u2014with its loves, its\nhopes, its memories, its aspirations; but there is nothing beautiful in\nthe fact that life is fed by continual murder,\u2014that the tenderest\naffection, the noblest enthusiasm, the purest idealism, must be\nnourished by the eating of flesh and the drinking of blood. All life,\nto sustain itself, must devour life. You may imagine yourself divine if\nyou please,\u2014but you have to obey that law. Be, if you will, a\nvegetarian: none the less you must eat forms that have feeling and\ndesire. Sterilize your food; and digestion stops. You cannot even drink\nwithout swallowing life. Loathe the name as we may, we are\ncannibals;\u2014all being essentially is One; and whether we eat the flesh\nof a plant, a fish, a reptile, a bird, a mammal, or a man, the ultimate\nfact is the same. And for all life the end is the same: every creature,\nwhether buried or burnt, is devoured,\u2014and not only once or twice,\u2014nor a\nhundred, nor a thousand, nor a myriad times! Consider the ground upon\nwhich we move, the soil out of which we came;\u2014think of the vanished\nbillions that have risen from it and crumbled back into its latency to\nfeed what becomes our food! Perpetually we eat the dust of our\nrace,\u2014_the substance of our ancient selves_.\n\nBut even so-called inanimate matter is self-devouring. Substance preys\nupon substance. As in the droplet monad swallows monad, so in the vast\nof Space do spheres consume each other. Stars give being to worlds and\ndevour them; planets assimilate their own moons. All is a ravening that\nnever ends but to recommence. And unto whomsoever thinks about these\nmatters, the story of a divine universe, made and ruled by paternal\nlove, sounds less persuasive than the Polynesian tale that the souls of\nthe dead are devoured by the gods.\n\nMonstrous the law seems, because we have developed ideas and sentiments\nwhich are opposed to this demoniac Nature,\u2014much as voluntary movement\nis opposed to the blind power of gravitation. But the possession of\nsuch ideas and sentiments does but aggravate the atrocity of our\nsituation, without lessening in the least the gloom of the final\nproblem.\n\nAnyhow the faith of the Far East meets that problem better than the\nfaith of the West. To the Buddhist the Cosmos is not divine at\nall\u2014quite the reverse. It is Karma;\u2014it is the creation of thoughts and\nacts of error;\u2014it is not governed by any providence;\u2014it is a\nghastliness, a nightmare. Likewise it is an illusion. It seems real\nonly for the same reason that the shapes and the pains of an evil dream\nseem real to the dreamer. Our life upon earth is a state of sleep. Yet\nwe do not sleep utterly. There are gleams in our darkness,\u2014faint\nauroral wakenings of Love and Pity and Sympathy and Magnanimity: these\nare selfless and true;\u2014these are eternal and divine;\u2014these are the Four\nInfinite Feelings in whose after-glow all forms and illusions will\nvanish, like mists in the light of the sun. But, except in so far as we\nwake to these feelings, we are dreamers indeed,\u2014moaning unaided in\ndarkness,\u2014tortured by shadowy horror. All of us dream; none are fully\nawake; and many, who pass for the wise of the world, know even less of\nthe truth than my dog that howls in the night.\n\nCould she speak, my dog, I think that she might ask questions which no\nphilosopher would be able to answer. For I believe that she is\ntormented by the pain of existence. Of course I do not mean that the\nriddle presents itself to her as it does to us,\u2014nor that she can have\nreached any abstract conclusions by any mental processes like our own.\nThe external world to her is \u201ca continuum of smells.\u201d She thinks,\ncompares, remembers, reasons by smells. By smell she makes her\nestimates of character: all her judgments are founded upon smells.\nSmelling thousands of things which we cannot smell at all, she must\ncomprehend them in a way of which we can form no idea. Whatever she\nknows has been learned through mental operations of an utterly\nunimaginable kind. But we may be tolerably sure that she thinks about\nmost things in some odor-relation to the experience of eating or to the\nintuitive dread of being eaten. Certainly she knows a great deal more\nabout the earth on which we tread than would be good for us to know;\nand probably, if capable of speech, she could tell us the strangest\nstories of air and water. Gifted, or afflicted, as she is with such\nterribly penetrant power of sense, her notion of apparent realities\nmust be worse than sepulchral. Small wonder if she howl at the moon\nthat shines upon such a world!\n\nAnd yet she is more awake, in the Buddhist meaning, than many of us.\nShe possesses a rude moral code\u2014inculcating loyalty, submission,\ngentleness, gratitude, and maternal love; together with various minor\nrules of conduct;\u2014and this simple code she has always observed. By\npriests her state is termed a state of darkness of mind, because she\ncannot learn all that men should learn; but according to her light she\nhas done well enough to merit some better condition in her next\nrebirth. So think the people who know her. When she dies they will give\nher an humble funeral, and have a sutra recited on behalf of her\nspirit. The priest will let a grave be made for her somewhere in the\ntemple-garden, and will place over it a little sotoba bearing the\ntext,\u2014_Nyo-z\u00e9 chikush\u014d hotsu Bodai-shin_:[1] \u201cEven within such as this\nanimal, the Knowledge Supreme will unfold at last.\u201d\n\n [1] Lit., \u201cthe Bodhi-mind;\u201d\u2014that is to say, the Supreme Enlightenment,\n the intelligence of Buddhahood itself.\n\n\n\n\nBits of Poetry\n\n\nI\n\nAmong a people with whom poetry has been for centuries a universal\nfashion of emotional utterance, we should naturally suppose the common\nideal of life to be a noble one. However poorly the upper classes of\nsuch a people might compare with those of other nations, we could\nscarcely doubt that its lower classes were morally and otherwise in\nadvance of our own lower classes. And the Japanese actually present us\nwith such a social phenomenon.\n\nPoetry in Japan is universal as the air. It is felt by everybody. It is\nread by everybody. It is composed by almost everybody,\u2014irrespective of\nclass and condition. Nor is it thus ubiquitous in the mental atmosphere\nonly: it is everywhere to be heard by the ear, and _seen by the eye!_\n\nAs for audible poetry, wherever there is working there is singing. The\ntoil of the fields and the labor of the streets are performed to the\nrhythm of chanted verse; and song would seem to be an expression of the\nlife of the people in about the same sense that it is an expression of\nthe life of cicad\u00e6\u2026. As for visible poetry, it appears everywhere,\nwritten or graven,\u2014in Chinese or in Japanese characters,\u2014as a form of\ndecoration. In thousands and thousands of dwellings, you might observe\nthat the sliding-screens, separating rooms or closing alcoves, have\nChinese or Japanese decorative texts upon them;\u2014and these texts are\npoems. In houses of the better class there are usually a number of\n_gaku_, or suspended tablets to be seen,\u2014each bearing, for all design,\na beautifully written verse. But poems can be found upon almost any\nkind of domestic utensil,\u2014for example upon braziers, iron kettles,\nvases, wooden trays, lacquer ware, porcelains, chopsticks of the finer\nsort,\u2014even toothpicks! Poems are painted upon shop-signs, panels,\nscreens, and fans. Poems are printed upon towels, draperies, curtains,\nkerchiefs, silk-linings, and women\u2019s cr\u00eape-silk underwear. Poems are\nstamped or worked upon letter-paper, envelopes, purses, mirror-cases,\ntravelling-bags. Poems are inlaid upon enamelled ware, cut upon\nbronzes, graven upon metal pipes, embroidered upon tobacco-pouches. It\nwere a hopeless effort to enumerate a tithe of the articles decorated\nwith poetical texts. Probably my readers know of those social\ngatherings at which it is the custom to compose verses, and to suspend\nthe compositions to blossoming trees,\u2014also of the Tanabata festival in\nhonor of certain astral gods, when poems inscribed on strips of colored\npaper, and attached to thin bamboos, are to be seen even by the\nroadside,\u2014all fluttering in the wind like so many tiny flags\u2026. Perhaps\nyou might find your way to some Japanese hamlet in which there are\nneither trees nor flowers, but never to any hamlet in which there is no\nvisible poetry. You might wander,\u2014as I have done,\u2014into a settlement so\npoor that you could not obtain there, for love or money, even a cup of\nreal tea; but I do not believe that you could discover a settlement in\nwhich there is nobody capable of making a poem.\n\nII\n\nRecently while looking over a manuscript-collection of verses,\u2014mostly\nshort poems of an emotional or descriptive character,\u2014it occurred to me\nthat a selection from them might serve to illustrate certain Japanese\nqualities of sentiment, as well as some little-known Japanese theories\nof artistic expression,\u2014and I ventured forthwith, upon this essay. The\npoems, which had been collected for me by different persons at many\ndifferent times and places, were chiefly of the kind written on\nparticular occasions, and cast into forms more serried, if not also\nactually briefer, than anything in Western prosody. Probably few of my\nreaders are aware of two curious facts relating to this order of\ncomposition. Both facts are exemplified in the history and in the texts\nof my collection,\u2014though I cannot hope, in my renderings, to reproduce\nthe original effect, whether of imagery or of feeling.\n\nThe first curious fact is that, from very ancient times, the writing of\nshort poems has been practised in Japan even more as a moral duty than\nas a mere literary art. The old ethical teaching was somewhat like\nthis:\u2014\u201cAre you very angry?\u2014do not say anything unkind, but compose a\npoem. Is your best-beloved dead?\u2014do not yield to useless grief, but try\nto calm your mind by making a poem. Are you troubled because you are\nabout to die, leaving so many things unfinished?\u2014be brave, and write a\npoem on death! Whatever injustice or misfortune disturbs you, put aside\nyour resentment or your sorrow as soon as possible, and write a few\nlines of sober and elegant verse for a moral exercise.\u201d Accordingly, in\nthe old days, every form of trouble was encountered with a poem.\nBereavement, separation, disaster called forth verses in lieu of\nplaints. The lady who preferred death to loss of honor, composed a poem\nbefore piercing her throat The samurai sentenced to die by his own\nhand, wrote a poem before performing _hara-kiri_. Even in this less\nromantic era of Meiji, young people resolved upon suicide are wont to\ncompose some verses before quitting the world. Also it is still the\ngood custom to write a poem in time of ill-fortune. I have frequently\nknown poems to be written under the most trying circumstances of misery\nor suffering,\u2014nay even upon a bed of death;-and if the verses did not\ndisplay any extraordinary talent, they at least afforded extraordinary\nproof of self-mastery under pain\u2026. Surely this fact of composition as\nethical practice has larger interest than all the treatises ever\nwritten about the rules of Japanese prosody.\n\nThe other curious fact is only a fact of aesthetic theory. The common\nart-principle of the class of poems under present consideration is\nidentical with the common principle of Japanese pictorial illustration.\nBy the use of a few chosen words the composer of a short poem endeavors\nto do exactly what the painter endeavors to do with a few strokes of\nthe brush,\u2014to evoke an image or a mood,\u2014to revive a sensation or an\nemotion. And the accomplishment of this purpose,\u2014by poet or by\npicture-maker,\u2014depends altogether upon capacity to _suggest_, and only\nto suggest. A Japanese artist would be condemned for attempting\nelaboration of detail in a sketch intended to recreate the memory of\nsome landscape seen through the blue haze of a spring morning, or under\nthe great blond light of an autumn after-noon. Not only would he be\nfalse to the traditions of his art: he would necessarily defeat his own\nend thereby. In the same way a poet would be condemned for attempting\nany _completeness_ of utterance in a very short poem: his object should\nbe only to stir imagination without satisfying it. So the term\n_ittakkiri_\u2014meaning \u201call gone,\u201d or \u201centirely vanished,\u201d in the sense of\n\u201call told,\u201d\u2014is contemptuously applied to verses in which the\nverse-maker has uttered his whole thought;\u2014praise being reserved for\ncompositions that leave in the mind the thrilling of a something\nunsaid. Like the single stroke of a temple-bell, the perfect short poem\nshould set murmuring and undulating, in the mind of the hearer, many a\nghostly aftertone of long duration.\n\nIII\n\nBut for the same reason that Japanese short poems may be said to\nresemble. Japanese pictures, a full comprehension of them requires an\nintimate knowledge of the life which they reflect. And this is\nespecially true of the emotional class of such poems,\u2014a literal\ntranslation of which, in the majority of cases, would signify almost\nnothing to the Western mind. Here, for example, is a little verse,\npathetic enough to Japanese comprehension:\u2014\n\nCh\u014dch\u014d ni!..\nKyonen shishitaru\nTsuma koishi!\n\n\nTranslated, this would appear to mean only,\u2014\u201c_Two butterflies!\u2026 Last\nyear my dear wife died!_\u201d Unless you happen to know the pretty Japanese\nsymbolism of the butterfly in relation to happy marriage, and the old\ncustom of sending with the wedding-gift a large pair of\npaper-butterflies (_och\u014d-mech\u014d_), the verse might well seem to be less\nthan commonplace. Or take this recent composition, by a University\nstudent, which has been praised by good judges:\u2014\n\nFurusato ni\nFubo ari\u2014mushi no\nKo\u00eb-go\u00eb![1]\n\n\n\u2014\u201c_In my native place the old folks [or, my parents] are\u2014clamor of\ninsect-voices!_\u201d\n\n [1] I must observe, however, that the praise was especially evoked by\n the use of the term _ko\u00eb-go\u00eb_\u2014(literally meaning \u201cvoice after voice\u201d\n or a crying of many voices);\u2014and the special value of the syllables\n here can be appreciated only by a Japanese poet.\n\n\nThe poet here is a country-lad. In unfamiliar fields he listens to the\ngreat autumn chorus of insects; and the sound revives for him the\nmemory of his far-off home and of his parents. But here is something\nincomparably more touching,\u2014though in literal translation probably more\nobscure,\u2014than either of the preceding specimens;\u2014\n\nMi ni shimiru\nKaz\u00e9 ya!\nSh\u014dji ni\nYubi no ato!\n\n\n\u2014\u201c_Oh, body-piercing wind!\u2014that work of little fingers in the\nsh\u014dji!_\u201d[2]\u2026. What does this mean? It means the sorrowing of a mother\nfor her dead child. _Sh\u014dji_ is the name given to those light\nwhite-paper screens which in a Japanese house serve both as windows and\ndoors, admitting plenty of light, but concealing, like frosted glass,\nthe interior from outer observation, and excluding the wind. Infants\ndelight to break these by poking their fingers through the soft paper:\nthen the wind blows through the holes. In this case the wind blows very\ncold indeed,\u2014into the mother\u2019s very heart;\u2014for it comes through the\nlittle holes that were made by the fingers of her dead child.\n\n [2] More literally:\u2014\u201cbody-through-pierce wind\u2014ah!\u2014_sh\u014dji_ in the\n traces of [viz.: holes made by] fingers!\u201d\n\n\nThe impossibility of preserving the inner quality of such poems in a\nliteral rendering, will now be obvious. Whatever I attempt in this\ndirection must of necessity be _ittakkiri;_\u2014for the unspoken has to be\nexpressed; and what the Japanese poet is able to say in seventeen or\ntwenty-one syllables may need in English more than double that number\nof words. But perhaps this fact will lend additional interest to the\nfollowing atoms of emotional expression:\u2014\n\nA MOTHER\u2019S REMEMBRANCE\n\n\n_Sweet and clear in the night, the voice of a boy at study,\nReading out of a book\u2026. I also once had a boy!_\n\nA MEMORY IN SPRING\n\n\n_She, who, departing hence, left to the flowers of the plum-tree,\nBlooming beside our eaves, the charm of her youth and beauty,\nAnd maiden pureness of heart, to quicken their flush and fragrance,\u2014\nAh! where does she dwell to-day, our dear little vanished sister?_\n\nFANCIES OF ANOTHER FAITH\n\n\n_(1) I sought in the place of graves the tomb of my vanished friend:\nFrom ancient cedars above there rippled a wild doves cry._\n\n_(2) Perhaps a freak of the wind-yet perhaps a sign of remembrance,\u2014\nThis fall of a single leaf on the water I pour for the dead._\n\n_(3)I whispered a prayer at the grave: a butterfly rose and fluttered\u2014\nThy spirit, perhaps, dear friend!\u2026_\n\nIN A CEMETERY AT NIGHT\n\n\n_This light of the moon that plays on the water I pour for the dead,\nDiffers nothing at all from the moonlight of other years._\n\nAFTER LONG ABSENCE\n\n\n_The garden that once I loved, and even the hedge of the garden,\u2014\nAll is changed and strange: the moonlight only is faithful;\u2014\nThe moon alone remembers the charm of the time gone by!_\n\nMOONLIGHT ON THE SEA\n\n\n_O vapory moon of spring!\u2014would that one plunge into ocean\nCould win me renewal of life as a part of thy light on the waters!_\n\nAFTER FAREWELL\n\n\n_Whither now should! look?\u2014where is the place of parting?\nBoundaries all have vanished;\u2014nothing tells of direction:\nOnly the waste of sea under the shining moon!_\n\nHAPPY POVERTY\n\n\n_Wafted into my room, the scent of the flowers of the plum-tree\nChanges my broken window into a source of delight._\n\nAUTUMN FANCIES\n\n\n_(1) Faded the clover now;\u2014sere and withered the grasses:\nWhat dreams the matsumushi_[3] _in the desolate autumn-fields?_\n\n_(2) Strangely sad, I thought, sounded the bell of evening;\u2014\nHaply that tone proclaimed the night in which autumn dies!_\n\n_(3) Viewing this autumn-moon, I dream of my native village\nUnder the same soft light,\u2014and the shadows about my home._\n\n [3] A musical cricket\u2014_calyptotryphus marmoratus_.\n\n\nIN TIME OF GRIEF, HEARING A S\u00c9MI (CICADA)\n\n\n_Only \u201cI,\u201d \u201cI,\u201d\u2014the cry of the foolish semi!\nAny one knows that the world is void as its cast-off shell._\n\nON THE CAST-OFF SHELL OF A S\u00c9MI\n\n\n_Only the pitiful husk!\u2026 O poor singer of summer,\nWherefore thus consume all thy body in song?_\n\nSUBLIMITY OF INTELLECTUAL POWER\n\n\n_The mind that, undimmed, absorbs the foul and the pure together\u2014\nCall it rather a sea one thousand fathoms deep!_[4]\n\n [4] This is quite novel in its way,\u2014a product of the University: the\n original runs thus:\u2014\n\n\nNigor\u00e9ru mo\nSum\u00e9ru mo tomo ni\nIruru koso\nChi-hiro no umi no\nKokoro nari-ker\u00e9!\n\n\nSHINT\u014c REVERY\n\n\n_Mad waves devour The rocks: I ask myself in the darkness,\n\u201cHave I become a god?\u201d Dim is The night and wild!_\n\n\u201cHave I become a god?\u201d\u2014that is to say, \u201cHave I died?\u2014am I only a ghost\nin this desolation?\u201d The dead, becoming _kami_ or gods, are thought to\nhaunt wild solitudes by preference.\n\nIV\n\nThe poems above rendered are more than pictorial: they suggest\nsomething of emotion or sentiment. But there are thousands of pictorial\npoems that do not; and these would seem mere insipidities to a reader\nignorant of their true purpose. When you learn that some exquisite text\nof gold means only, \u201c_Evening-sunlight on the wings of the\nwater-fowl_,\u201d\u2014or,\u201d_Now in my garden the flowers bloom, and the\nbutterflies dance_,\u201d\u2014then your first interest in decorative poetry is\napt to wither away. Yet these little texts have a very real merit of\ntheir own, and an intimate relation to Japanese aesthetic feeling and\nexperience. Like the pictures upon screens and fans and cups, they give\npleasure by recalling impressions of nature, by reviving happy\nincidents of travel or pilgrimage, by evoking the memory of beautiful\ndays. And when this plain fact is fully understood, the persistent\nattachment of modern Japanese poets\u2014notwithstanding their University\ntraining\u2014to the ancient poetical methods, will be found reasonable\nenough.\n\nI need offer only a very few specimens of the purely pictorial poetry.\nThe following\u2014mere thumb-nail sketches in verse\u2014are of recent date.\n\nLONESOMENESS\n\nFuru-dera ya:\nKan\u00e9 mono iwazu;\nSakura chiru.\n\n\n\u2014\u201c_Old temple: bell voiceless; cherry-flowers fall_.\u201d\n\nMORNING AWAKENING AFTER A NIGHT\u2019S REST IN A TEMPLE\n\nYamadera no\nShich\u014d ak\u00e9yuku:\nTaki no oto.\n\n\n\u2014\u201c_In the mountain-temple the paper mosquito-curtain is lighted by the\ndawn: sound of water-fall_.\u201d\n\nWINTER-SCENE\n\nYuki no mura;\nNiwatori nait\u00e9;\nAk\u00e9 shiroshi.\n\n\n\u201c_Snow-village;\u2014cocks crowing;\u2014white dawn_.\u201d\n\nLet me conclude this gossip on poetry by citing from another group of\nverses\u2014also pictorial, in a certain sense, but chiefly remarkable for\ningenuity\u2014two curiosities of impromptu. The first is old, and is\nattributed to the famous poetess Chiyo. Having been challenged to make\na poem of seventeen syllables referring to a square, a triangle, and a\ncircle, she is said to have immediately responded,\u2014\n\nKaya no t\u00e9 wo\nHitotsu hazushit\u00e9,\nTsuki-mi kana!\n\n\n\u2014\u201c_Detaching one corner of the mosquito-net, lo! I behold the moon!_\u201d\nThe top of the mosquito-net, suspended by cords at each of its four\ncorners, represents the square;\u2014letting down the net at one corner\nconverts the square into a triangle;\u2014and the moon represents the\ncircle.\n\n[Illustration: Square  Triangle]\n\nThe other curiosity is a recent impromptu effort to portray, in one\nverse of seventeen syllables, the last degree of\ndevil-may-care-poverty,\u2014perhaps the brave misery of the wandering\nstudent;\u2014and I very much doubt whether the effort could be improved\nupon:\u2014\n\nNusundaru\nKagashi no kasa ni\nAm\u00e9 ky\u016b nari.\n\n\n\u2014\u201c_Heavily pours the rain on the hat that I stole from the scarecrow!_\u201d\n\n\n\n\nJapanese Buddhist Proverbs\n\n\nAs representing that general quality of moral experience which remains\nalmost unaffected by social modifications of any sort, the proverbial\nsayings of a people must always possess a special psychological\ninterest for thinkers. In this kind of folklore the oral and the\nwritten literature of Japan is rich to a degree that would require a\nlarge book to exemplify. To the subject as a whole no justice could be\ndone within the limits of a single essay. But for certain classes of\nproverbs and proverbial phrases something can be done within even a few\npages; and sayings related to Buddhism, either by allusion or\nderivation, form a class which seems to me particularly worthy of\nstudy. Accordingly, with the help of a Japanese friend, I have selected\nand translated the following series of examples,\u2014choosing the more\nsimple and familiar where choice was possible, and placing the\noriginals in alphabetical order to facilitate reference. Of course the\nselection is imperfectly representative; but it will serve to\nillustrate certain effects of Buddhist teaching upon popular thought\nand speech.\n\n\n1.\u2014_Akuji mi ni tomaru._\nAll evil done clings to the body.[1]\n\n [1] The consequence of any evil act or thought never,\u2014so long as karma\n endures,\u2014will cease to act upon the existence of the person guilty of\n it.\n\n\n2.\u2014_Atama soru yori kokoro wo sor\u00e9._\nBetter to shave the heart than to shave the head.[2]\n\n [2] Buddhist nuns and priests have their heads completely shaven. The\n proverb signifies that it is better to correct the heart,\u2014to conquer\n all vain regrets and desires,\u2014than to become a religious. In common\n parlance the phrase \u201cto shave the head\u201d means to become a monk or a\n nun.\n\n\n3.\u2014_Au wa wakar\u00e9 no hajim\u00e9._\nMeeting is only the beginning of separation.[3]\n\n [3] Regret and desire are equally vain in this world of impermanency;\n for all joy is the beginning of an experience that must have its pain.\n This proverb refers directly to the sutra-text,\u2014_Sh\u014dja hitsumetsu\n \u00e9-sha-jori_,\u2014\u201d All that live must surely die; and all that meet will\n surely part.\u201d\n\n\n4.\u2014_Banji wa yum\u00e9._\nAll things[4] are merely dreams.\n\n [4] Literally, \u201cten thousand things.\u201d\n\n\n5.\u2014_Bonbu mo sator\u00e9ba hotok\u00e9 nari._\nEven a common man by obtaining knowledge becomes a Buddha.[5]\n\n [5] The only real differences of condition are differences in\n knowledge of the highest truth.\n\n\n6.\u2014_Bonn\u014d kun\u014d._\nAll lust is grief.[6]\n\n [6] All sensual desire invariably brings sorrow.\n\n\n7\u2014_Bupp\u014d to wara-ya no am\u00e9, d\u00e9t\u00e9 kik\u00e9._\nOne must go outside to hear Buddhist doctrine or the sound of rain on a\nstraw roof.[7]\n\n [7] There is an allusion here to the condition of the _shukk\u00e9_\n (priest): literally, \u201cone who has left his house.\u201d The proverb\n suggests that the higher truths of Buddhism cannot be acquired by\n those who continue to live in the world of follies and desires.\n\n\n8.\u2014_Bussh\u014d en yori okoru._\nOut of karma-relation even the divine nature itself grows.[8]\n\n [8] There is good as well as bad karma. Whatever hap-piness we enjoy\n is not less a consequence of the acts and thoughts of previous lives,\n than is any misfortune that comes to us. Every good thought and act\n contributes to the evolution of the Buddha-nature within each of us.\n Another proverb [No. 10],\u2014_En naki shuj\u014d wa doshi gatashi_,\u2014further\n illustrates the meaning of this one.\n\n\n9.\u2014_Enk\u014d  ga tsuki wo toran to suru ga gotoshi._\nLike monkeys trying to snatch the moon\u2019s reflection on water.[9]\n\n [9] Allusion to a parable, said to have been related by the Buddha\n himself, about some monkeys who found a well under a tree, and mistook\n for reality the image of the moon in the water. They resolved to seize\n the bright apparition. One monkey suspended himself by the tail from a\n branch overhanging the well, a second monkey clung to the first, a\n third to the second, a fourth to the third, and so on,\u2014till the long\n chain of bodies had almost reached the water. Suddenly the branch\n broke under the unaccustomed weight; and all the monkeys were drowned.\n\n\n10.\u2014_En naki shuj\u014d wa doshi gatashi._\nTo save folk having no karma-relation would be difficult indeed![10]\n\n [10] No karma-relation would mean an utter absence of merit as well as\n of demerit.\n\n\n11.\u2014_Fuj\u014d sepp\u014d suru h\u014dshi wa, biratak\u00e9 ni umaru._\nThe priest who preaches foul doctrine shall be reborn as a fungus.\n\n12.\u2014_Gaki mo ninzu._\nEven gaki (_pr\u00eatas_) can make a crowd.[11]\n\n [11] Literally: \u201cEven gaki are a multitude (or, \u2018population\u2019).\u201d This\n is a popular saying used in a variety of ways. The ordinary meaning is\n to the effect that no matter how poor or miserable the individuals\n composing a multitude, they collectively represent a respectable\n force. Jocosely the saying is sometimes used of a crowd of wretched or\n tired-looking people,\u2014sometimes of an assembly of weak boys desiring\n to make some demonstration,\u2014sometimes of a miserable-looking company\n of soldiers.\u2014Among the lowest classes of the people it is not uncommon\n to call a deformed or greedy person a \u201cgaki.\u201d\n\n\n13.\u2014_Gaki no m\u00e9 ni midzu mi\u00e9zu._\nTo the eyes of gaki water is viewless.[12]\n\n [12] Some authorities state that those _pr\u00eatas_ who suffer especially\n from thirst, as a consequence of faults committed in former lives, are\n unable to see water.\u2014This proverb is used in speaking of persons too\n stupid or vicious to perceive a moral truth.\n\n\n14.\u2014_Gosh\u014d wa daiji._\nThe future life is the all-important thing.[13]\n\n [13] The common people often use the curious expression\n \u201c_gosho-daiji_\u201d as an equivalent for \u201cextremely important.\u201d\n\n\n15.\u2014_Gun-m\u014d no tai-z\u014d wo saguru ga gotoshi._\nLike a lot of blind men feeling a great elephant.[14]\n\n [14] Said of those who ignorantly criticise the doctrines of\n Buddhism.\u2014The proverb alludes to a celebrated fable in the _Avad\u00e2nas_,\n about a number of blind men who tried to decide the form of an\n elephant by feeling the animal. One, feeling the leg, declared the\n elephant to be like a tree; another, feeling the trunk only, declared\n the elephant to be like a serpent; a third, who felt only the side,\n said that the elephant was like a wall; a fourth, grasping the tail,\n said that the elephant was like a rope, etc.\n\n\n16.\u2014_Gwai-men nyo-Bosatsu; nai shin nyo-Yasha._\nIn outward aspect a Bodhisattva; at innermost heart a demon.[15]\n\n [15] _Yasha_ (Sanscrit _Yaksha_), a man-devouring demon.\n\n\n17.\u2014_Hana wa n\u00e9 ni kaeru._\nThe flower goes back to its root.[16]\n\n [16] This proverb is most often used in reference to death,\u2014signifying\n that all forms go back into the nothingness out of which they spring.\n But it may also be used in relation to the law of cause-and-effect.\n\n\n18.\u2014_Hibiki no ko\u00eb ni ozuru ga gotoshi._\nEven as the echo answers to the voice.[17]\n\n [17] Referring to the doctrine of cause-and-effect. The philosophical\n beauty of the comparison will be appreciated only if we bear in mind\n that even the _tone_ of the echo repeats the tone of the voice.\n\n\n19.\u2014_Hito wo tasuk\u00e9ru ga shukh\u00e9 no yuku._\nThe task of the priest is to save mankind.\n\n20.\u2014_Hi wa kiyur\u00e9domo t\u014d-shin wa kiy\u00e9dzu._\nThough the flame be put out, the wick remains.[18]\n\n [18] Although the passions may be temporarily overcome, their sources\n remain. A proverb of like meaning is, _Bonn\u014d no inu o\u00ebdomo sarazu:_\n \u201cThough driven away, the Dog of Lust cannot be kept from coming back\n again.\u201d\n\n\n21.\u2014_Hotok\u00e9 mo motowa bonbu._\nEven the Buddha was originally but a common man.\n\n22.\u2014_Hotok\u00e9 ni naru mo shami wo beru._\nEven to become a Buddha one must first become a novice.\n\n23.\u2014_Hotok\u00e9 no kao mo sando._\nEven a Buddha\u2019s face,\u2014only three times.[19]\n\n [19] This is a short popular form of the longer proverb, _Hotok\u00e9 no\n kao mo sando nazur\u00e9ba, hara wo tatsu:_ \u201cStroke even the face of a\n Buddha three times, and his anger will be roused.\u201d\n\n\n24.\u2014_Hotok\u00e9 tanond\u00e9 Jigoku \u00e9 yuku._\nPraying to Buddha one goes to hell.[20]\n\n [20] The popular saying, _Oni no Nembutsu_,\u2014\u201ca devil\u2019s praying,\u201d\u2014has a\n similar meaning.\n\n\n25.\u2014_Hotok\u00e9 tsukutt\u00e9 tamashii ir\u00e9dzu._\nMaking a Buddha without putting in the soul.[21]\n\n [21] That is to say, making an image of the Buddha without giving it a\n soul. This proverb is used in reference to the conduct of those who\n undertake to do some work, and leave the most essential part of the\n work unfinished. It contains an allusion to the curious ceremony\n called _Kai-gen_, or \u201cEye-Opening.\u201d This _Kai-gen_ is a kind of\n consecration, by virtue of which a newly-made image is supposed to\n become animated by the real presence of the divinity represented.\n\n\n26.\u2014_Ichi-ju no kag\u00e9, ichi-ga no nagar\u00e9, tash\u014d no en._\nEven [the experience of] a single shadow or a single flowing of water,\nis [made by] the karma-relations of a former life.[22]\n\n [22] Even so trifling an occurrence as that of resting with another\n person under the shadow of a tree, or drinking from the same spring\n with another person, is caused by the karma-relations of some previous\n existence.\n\n\n27.\u2014_Ichi-m\u014d sh\u016b-m\u014d wo hiku._\nOne blind man leads many blind men.[23]\n\n [23] From the Buddhist work _Dai-chi-d\u014d-ron_.\u2014The reader will find a\n similar proverb in Rhys-David\u2019s \u201c_Buddhist Suttas_\u201d (Sacred Books of\n the East), p. 173,\u2014together with a very curious parable, cited in a\n footnote, which an Indian commentator gives in explanation.\n\n\n28.\u2014_Ingwa na ko._\nA karma-child.[24]\n\n [24] A common saying among the lower classes in reference to an\n unfortunate or crippled child. Here the word _ingwa_ is used\n especially in the retributive sense. It usually signifies evil karma;\n _kwah\u014d_ being the term used in speaking of meritorious karma and its\n results. While an unfortunate child is spoken of as \u201ca child of\n _ingwa_,\u201d a very lucky person is called a \u201c_kwah\u014d-mono_,\u201d\u2014that is to\n say, an instance, or example of _kwah\u014d_.\n\n\n29.\u2014_Ingwa wa, kuruma no wa._\nCause-and-effect is like a wheel.[25]\n\n [25] The comparison of _karma_ to the wheel of a wagon will be\n familiar to students of Buddhism. The meaning of this proverb is\n identical with that of the _Dhammapada_ verse:\u2014\u201cIf a man speaks or\n acts with an evil thought, pain follows him as the wheel follows the\n foot of the ox that draws the carriage.\u201d\n\n\n30.\u2014_Innen ga fukai._\nThe karma-relation is deep.[26]\n\n [26] A saying very commonly used in speaking of the attachment of\n lovers, or of the unfortunate results of any close relation between\n two persons.\n\n\n31.\u2014_Inochi wa f\u016b-zen no tomoshibi._\nLife is a lamp-flame before a wind.[27]\n\n [27] Or, \u201clike the flame of a lamp exposed to the wind.\u201d A frequent\n expression in Buddhist literature is \u201cthe Wind of Death.\u201d\n\n\n32.\u2014_Issun no mushi ni mo, gobu no tamashii._\nEven a worm an inch long has a soul half-an-inch long.[28]\n\n [28] Literally, \u201chas a soul of five _bu_,\u201d\u2014five _bu_ being equal to\n half of the Japanese inch. Buddhism forbids all taking of life, and\n classes as _living_ things (_Uj\u014d_) all forms having sentiency. The\n proverb, however,\u2014as the use of the word \u201csoul\u201d (_tamashii_)\n implies,\u2014reflects popular belief rather than Buddhist philosophy. It\n signifies that any life, however small or mean, is entitled to mercy.\n\n\n33.\u2014_Iwashi[29] no atama mo shinjin kara._\nEven the head of an _iwashi_, by virtue of faith, [will have power to\nsave, or heal].\n\n [29] The _iwashi_ is a very small fish, much resembling a sardine. The\n proverb implies that the object of worship signifies little, so long\n as the prayer is made with perfect faith and pure intention.\n\n\n34.\u2014_Jig\u014d-jitoku._[30]\nThe fruit of ones own deeds [in a previous state of existence].\n\n [30] Few popular Buddhist phrases are more often used than this.\n _Jig\u014d_ signifies ones own acts or thoughts; _jitoku_, to bring upon\n oneself,\u2014nearly always in the sense of misfortune, when the word is\n used in the Buddhist way. \u201cWell, it is a matter of _Jig\u014d-jitoku_,\u201d\n people will observe on seeing a man being taken to prison; meaning,\n \u201cHe is reaping the consequence of his own faults.\u201d\n\n\n35.\u2014_Jigoku d\u00e9 hotok\u00e9._\nLike meeting with a Buddha in hell.[31]\n\n [31] Refers to the joy of meeting a good friend in time of misfortune.\n The above is an abbreviation. The full proverb is, _Jigoku d\u00e9 hotok\u00e9\n hotoke ni \u014dta yo da_.\n\n\n36.\u2014_Jigoku Gokuraku wa kokoro ni ari._\nHell and Heaven are in the hearts of men.[32]\n\n [32] A proverb in perfect accord with the higher Buddhism.\n\n\n37.\u2014_Jigoku mo sumika._\nEven Hell itself is a dwelling-place.[33]\n\n [33] Meaning that even those obliged to live in hell must learn to\n accommodate themselves to the situation. One should always try to make\n the best of circumstances. A proverb of kindred signification is,\n _Sumeba, Miyako:_ \u201cWheresoever ones home is, that is the Capital [or,\n imperial City].\u201d\n\n\n38.\u2014_Jigoku ni mo shiru bito._\nEven in hell old acquaintances are welcome.\n\n39.\u2014_Kag\u00e9 no katachi ni shitagau gotoshi._\nEven as the shadow follows the shape.[34]\n\n [34] Referring to the doctrine of cause-and-effect. Compare with verse\n 2 of the _Dhammapada_.\n\n\n40.\u2014_Kan\u00e9 wa Amida yori bikaru._\nMoney shines even more brightly than Amida.[35]\n\n [35] Amit\u00e2bha, the Buddha of Immeasurable Light. His image in the\n temples is usually gilded from head to foot.\u2014There are many other\n ironical proverbs about the power of wealth,\u2014such as _Jigoku no sata\n mo kan\u00e9 shidai:_ \u201cEven the Judgments of Hell may be influenced by\n money.\u201d\n\n\n41.\u2014_Karu-toki no Jiz\u014d-gao; nasu-toki no Emma-gao._\nBorrowing-time, the face of Jiz\u014d; repaying-time, the face of Emma.[36]\n\n [36] Emma is the Chinese and Japanese Yama,\u2014in Buddhism the Lord of\n Hell, and the Judge of the Dead. The proverb is best explained by the\n accompanying drawings, which will serve to give an idea of the\n commoner representations of both divinities.\n\n[Illustration: Jiz\u014d]\n\n[Illustration: Emma Dai-\u014d]\n\n42.\u2014_Kiit\u00e9 Gokuraku, mit\u00e9 Jigoku._\nHeard of only, it is Paradise; seen, it is Hell.[37]\n\n [37] Rumor is never trustworthy.\n\n\n43.\u2014_K\u014dji mon wo id\u00e9zu: akuji sen ni wo hashiru._\nGood actions go not outside of the gate: bad deeds travel a thousand\n_ri_.\n\n44.\u2014_Kokoro no koma ni tadzuna wo yuru-suna._\nNever let go the reins of the wild colt of the heart.\n\n45.\u2014_Kokoro no oni ga mi wo s\u00e9m\u00e9ru._\nThe body is tortured only by the demon of the heart.[38]\n\n [38] Or \u201cmind.\u201d That is to say that we suffer only from the\n consequences of our own faults.\u2014The demon-torturer in the Buddhist\n hell says to his victim:\u2014\u201cBlame not me!\u2014I am only the creation of your\n own deeds and thoughts: you made me for this!\u201d\u2014Compare with No. 36.\n\n\n46.\u2014_Kokoro no shi to wa nar\u00e9; kokoro wo shi to sezar\u00e9._\nBe the teacher of your heart: do not allow your heart to become your\nteacher.\n\n47.\u2014_Kono yo wa kari no yado._\nThis world is only a resting-place.[39]\n\n [39] \u201cThis world is but a travellers\u2019 inn,\u201d would be an almost equally\n correct translation. _Yado_ literally means a lodging, shelter, inn;\n and the word is applied often to those wayside resting-houses at which\n Japanese travellers halt during a journey. _Kari_ signifies temporary,\n transient, fleeting,\u2014as in the common Buddhist saying, _Kono yo kari\n no yo:_ \u201cThis world is a fleeting world.\u201d Even Heaven and Hell\n represent to the Buddhist only halting places upon the journey to\n Nirv\u00e2na.\n\n\n48.\u2014_Kori wo chiribam\u00e9; midzu ni \u00e9gaku._\nTo inlay ice; to paint upon water.[40]\n\n [40] Refers to the vanity of selfish effort for some merely temporary\n end.\n\n\n49.\u2014_Korokoro to\nNaku wa yamada no\nHototogisu,\nChichi nit\u00e9ya aran,\nHaha nit\u00e9ya aran._\nThe bird that cries _korokoro_ in the mountain rice-field I know to be\na _hototogisu;_\u2014yet it may have been my father; it may have been my\nmother.[41]\n\n [41] This verse-proverb is cited in the Buddhist work _W\u014dj\u014d Y\u014dsh\u016b_,\n with the following comment:\u2014\u201cWho knows whether the animal in the\n field, or the bird in the mountain-wood, has not been either his\n father or his mother in some former state of existence?\u201d\u2014The\n _hototogisu_ is a kind of cuckoo.\n\n\n50.\u2014_Ko wa Sangai no kubikase._\nA child is a neck-shackle for the Three States of Existence.[42]\n\n [42] That is to say, The love of parents for their child may impede\n their spiritual progress\u2014not only in this world, but through all their\n future states of being,\u2014just as a _kubikas\u00e9_, or Japanese cangue,\n impedes the movements of the person upon whom it is placed. Parental\n affection, being the strongest of earthly attachments, is particularly\n apt to cause those whom it enslaves to commit wrongful acts in the\n hope of benefiting their offspring.\u2014The term Sangai here signifies the\n three worlds of Desire, Form, and Formlessness,\u2014all the states of\n existence below Nirv\u00e2na. But the word is sometimes used to signify the\n Past, the Present, and the Future.\n\n\n51.\u2014_Kuchi wa wazawai no kado._\nThe mouth is the front-gate of all misfortune.[43]\n\n [43] That is to say, The chief cause of trouble is unguarded speech.\n The word Kado means always the main entrance to a residence.\n\n\n52.\u2014_Kwah\u014d wa, n\u00e9t\u00e9 mat\u00e9._\nIf you wish for good luck, sleep and wait.[44]\n\n [44] _Kwah\u014d_, a purely Buddhist term, signifying good fortune as the\n result of good actions in a previous life, has come to mean in common\n parlance good fortune of any kind. The proverb is often used in a\n sense similar to that of the English saying: \u201cWatched pot never\n boils.\u201d In a strictly Buddhist sense it would mean, \u201cDo not be too\n eager for the reward of good deeds.\u201d\n\n\n53.\u2014_Makanu tan\u00e9 wa ha\u00ebnu._\nNothing will grow, if the seed be not sown.[45]\n\n [45] Do not expect harvest, unless you sow the seed. Without earnest\n effort no merit can be gained.\n\n\n54.\u2014_Mat\u00e9ba, kanr\u014d no hiyori._\nIf you wait, ambrosial weather will come.[46]\n\n [46] _Kanr\u014d_, the sweet dew of Heaven, or _amrita_. All good things\n come to him who waits.\n\n\n55.\u2014_Meid\u014d no michi ni \u014c wa nashi._\nThere is no King on the Road of Death.[47]\n\n [47] Literally, \u201con the Road of Meid\u014d.\u201d The _Meid\u014d_ is the Japanese\n Hades,\u2014the dark under-world to which all the dead must journey.\n\n\n56.\u2014_Mekura hebi ni ojizu._\nThe blind man does not fear the snake.[48]\n\n [48] The ignorant and the vicious, not understanding the law of\n cause-and-effect, do not fear the certain results of their folly.\n\n\n57.\u2014_Mitsur\u00e9ba, hakuru._\nHaving waxed, wanes.[49]\n\n [49] No sooner has the moon waxed full than it begins to wane. So the\n height of prosperity is also the beginning of fortunes decline.\n\n\n58.\u2014_Mon zen no koz\u014d narawanu ky\u014d wo yomu._\nThe shop-boy in front of the temple-gate repeats the sutra which he\nnever learned.[50]\n\n [50] _Koz\u014d_ means \u201cacolyte\u201d as well as \u201cshop-boy,\u201d\u201cerrand-boy,\u201d or\n \u201capprentice;\u201d but in this case it refers to a boy employed in a shop\n situated near or before the gate of a Buddhist temple. By constantly\n hearing the sutra chanted in the temple, the boy learns to repeat the\n words. A proverb of kindred meaning is, _Kangaku-In no suzum\u00e9 wa,\n M\u014dgy\u016b wo say\u00e9zuru:_ \u201cThe sparrows of Kangaku-In [an ancient seat of\n learning] chirp the M\u014dgy\u016b,\u201d\u2014a Chinese text formerly taught to young\n students. The teaching of either proverb is excellently expressed by a\n third:\u2014_Narau yori wa nar\u00e9ro:_ \u201cRather than study [an art], get\n accustomed to it,\u201d\u2014that is to say, \u201ckeep constantly in contact with\n it.\u201d Observation and practice are even better than study.\n\n\n59.\u2014_Muj\u014d no kaz\u00e9 wa, toki erabazu._\nThe Wind of Impermanency does not choose a time.[51]\n\n [51] Death and Change do not conform their ways to human expectation.\n\n\n60.\u2014_Neko mo Bussh\u014d ari._\nIn even a cat the Buddha-nature exists.[52]\n\n [52] Notwithstanding the legend that only the cat and the _mamushi_ (a\n poisonous viper) failed to weep for the death of the Buddha.\n\n\n61.\u2014_N\u00e9ta ma ga Gokuraku._\nThe interval of sleep is Paradise.[53]\n\n [53] Only during sleep can we sometimes cease to know the sorrow and\n pain of this world. (Compare with No. 83.)\n\n\n62.\u2014_Nijiu-go Bosatsu mo sor\u00e9-sor\u00e9 no yaku._\nEven each of the Twenty-five Bodhisattvas has his own particular duty\nto perform.\n\n63.\u2014_Nin mit\u00e9, h\u014d tok\u00e9._\n[First] see the person, [then] preach the doctrine.[54]\n\n [54] The teaching of Buddhist doctrine should always be adapted to the\n intelligence of the person to be instructed. There is another proverb\n of the same kind,\u2014_Ki ni yorit\u00e9, h\u014d wo tok\u00e9:_ \u201cAccording to the\n understanding [of the person to be taught], preach the Law.\u201d\n\n\n64.\u2014_Ninshin uk\u00e9gataku Buppo\u014d aigatashi._\nIt is not easy to be born among men, and to meet with [the good fortune\nof hearing the doctrine of] Buddhism.[55]\n\n [55] Popular Buddhism teaches that to be born in the world of mankind,\n and especially among a people professing Buddhism, is a very great\n privilege. However miserable human existence, it is at least a state\n in which some knowledge of divine truth may be obtained; whereas the\n beings in other and lower conditions of life are relatively incapable\n of spiritual progress.\n\n\n65.\u2014_Oni mo jiu-hachi._\nEven a devil [is pretty] at eighteen.[56]\n\n [56] There are many curious sayings and proverbs about the oni, or\n Buddhist devil,\u2014such as _Oni no m\u00e9 ni mo namida_, \u201ctears in even a\n devil\u2019s eyes;\u201d\u2014Oni no kakuran, \u201cdevil\u2019s cholera\u201d (said of the\n unexpected sickness of some very strong and healthy person), etc.,\n etc.\u2014The class of demons called _Oni_, properly belong to the Buddhist\n hells, where they act as torturers and jailers. They are not to be\n confounded with the _Ma, Yasha, Kijin_, and other classes of evil\n spirits. In Buddhist art they are represented as beings of enormous\n strength, with the heads of bulls and of horses. The bull-headed\n demons are called _Go-zu;_ the horse-headed _M\u00e9-zu_.\n\n\n66.\u2014_Oni mo mi, nar\u00e9taru ga yoshi._\nEven a devil, when you become accustomed to the sight of him, may prove\na pleasant acquaintance.\n\n67.\u2014_Oni ni kanab\u014d._\nAn iron club for a demon.[57]\n\n [57] Meaning that great power should be given only to the strong.\n\n\n68.\u2014_Oni no ny\u014dbo ni kijin._\nA devil takes a goblin to wife.[58]\n\n [58] Meaning that a wicked man usually marries a wicked woman.\n\n\n69.\u2014_Onna no k\u00e9 ni wa dai-z\u014d mo tsunagaru._\nWith one hair of a woman you can tether even a great elephant.\n\n70.\u2014_Onna wa Sangai ni iy\u00e9 nashi._\nWomen have no homes of their own in the Three States of Existence.\n\n71.\u2014_Oya no ingwa ga ko ni muku\u00fc._\nThe karma of the parents is visited upon the child.[59]\n\n [59] Said of the parents of crippled or deformed children. But the\n popular idea here expressed is not altogether in accord with the\n teachings of the higher Buddhism.\n\n\n72.\u2014_Rakkwa \u00e9da ni kaerazu._\nThe fallen blossom never returns to the branch.[60]\n\n [60] That which has been done never can be undone: the past cannot be\n recalled.\u2014This proverb is an abbreviation of the longer Buddhist text:\n _Rakkwa \u00e9da ni kaerazu; ha-ky\u014d futatabi terasazu:_ \u201cThe fallen blossom\n never returns to the branch; the shattered mirror never again\n reflects.\u201d\n\n\n73.\u2014_Raku wa ku no tan\u00e9; ku wa raku no tan\u00e9._\nPleasure is the seed of pain; pain is the seed of pleasure.\n\n74.\u2014_Rokud\u014d wa, m\u00e9 no ma\u00eb._\nThe Six Roads are right before your eyes.[61]\n\n [61] That is to say, Your future life depends upon your conduct in\n this life; and you are thus free to choose for yourself the place of\n your next birth.\n\n\n75.\u2014_Sangai mu-an._\nThere is no rest within the Three States of Existence.\n\n76.\u2014_Sangai ni kaki nashi;\u2014Rokud\u014d ni hotori nashi._\nThere is no fence to the Three States of Existence;\u2014there is no\nneighborhood to the Six Roads.[62]\n\n [62] Within the Three States (Sangai), or universes, of Desire, Form,\n and Formlessness; and within the Six Worlds, or conditions of\n being,\u2014_Jigokud\u014d_ (Hell), _Gakid\u014d_ (Pretas), _Chikush\u014dd\u014d_ (Animal\n Life), _Shurad\u014d_ (World of Fighting and Slaughter), _Ningend\u014d_\n (Mankind), _Tenj\u014dd\u014d_ (Heavenly Spirits)\u2014all existence is included.\n Beyond there is only Nirv\u00e2na. \u201cThere is no fence,\u201d \u201cno\n neighborhood,\u201d\u2014that is to say, no limit beyond which to escape,\u2014no\n middle-path between any two of these states. We shall be reborn into\n some one of them according to our karma.\u2014Compare with No. 74.\n\n\n77.\u2014_Sang\u00e9 ni wa sannen no tsumi mo h\u014drobu._\nOne confession effaces the sins of even three years.\n\n78.\u2014_San nin yor\u00e9ba, kugai._\nWhere even three persons come together, there is a world of pain.[63]\n\n [63] _Kugai_ (lit.: \u201cbitter world\u201d) is a term often used to describe\n the life of a prostitute.\n\n\n79.\u2014_San nin yor\u00e9ba, Monj\u016b no chi\u00e9._\nWhere three persons come together, there is the wisdom of _Monj\u016b_.[64]\n\n [64] Monj\u016b Bosatsu [_Ma\u00f1djus\u2019ri Bodhisattva_] figures in Japanese\n Buddhism as a special divinity of wisdom.\u2014The proverb signifies that\n three heads are better than one. A saying of like meaning is,_ Hiza to\n mo dank\u014d:_ \u201cConsult even with your own knee;\u201d that is to say, Despise\n no advice, no matter how humble the source of it.\n\n\n80.\u2014_Shaka ni sekky\u014d._\nPreaching to S\u00e2kyamuni.\n\n81.\u2014_Shami kara ch\u014dr\u014d._\nTo become an abbot one must begin as a novice.\n\n82.\u2014_Shindar\u00e9ba, koso ikitar\u00e9._\nOnly by reason of having died does one enter into life.[65]\n\n [65] I never hear this singular proverb without being re-minded of a\n sentence in Huxley\u2019s famous essay, _On the Physical Basis of\n Life:_\u2014\u201cThe living protoplasm not only ultimately dies and is resolved\n into its mineral and lifeless constituents, but is always dying, and,\n strange as the paradox may sound, _could not live unless it died_.\u201d\n\n\n83.\u2014_Shiranu ga, hotok\u00e9; minu ga, Gokuraku._\nNot to know is to be a Buddha; not to see is Paradise.\n\n84.\u2014_Sh\u014dbo ni kidoku nashi._\nThere is no miracle in true doctrine.[66]\n\n [66] Nothing can happen except as a result of eternal and irrevocable\n law.\n\n\n85.\u2014_Sh\u014d-chi\u00e9 wa Bodai no samatag\u00e9._\nA little wisdom is a stumbling-block on the way to Buddhahood.[67]\n\n [67] _Bodai_ is the same word as the Sanscrit _Bodhi_, signifying the\n supreme enlightenment,\u2014the knowledge that leads to Buddhahood; but it\n is often used by Japanese Buddhists in the sense of divine bliss, or\n the Buddha-state itself.\n\n\n86.\u2014_Sh\u014dshi no kukai hetori nashi._\nThere is no shore to the bitter Sea of Birth and Death.[68]\n\n [68] Or, \u201cthe Pain-Sea of Life and Death.\u201d\n\n\n87.\u2014_Sod\u00e9 no furi-awas\u00e9 mo tash\u014d no en._\nEven the touching of sleeves in passing is caused by some relation in a\nformer life.\n\n88.\u2014_Sun zen; shaku ma._\nAn inch of virtue; a foot of demon.[69]\n\n [69] _Ma_ (Sanscrit, _M\u00e2rak\u00e2yikas_) is the name given to a particular\n class of spirits who tempt men to evil. But in Japanese folklore the\n _Ma_ have a part much resembling that occupied in Western popular\n superstition by goblins and fairies.\n\n\n89.\u2014_Tanoshimi wa hanasimi no motoi._\nAll joy is the source of sorrow.\n\n90.\u2014_Tond\u00e9 hi ni iru natsu no mushi._\nSo the insects of summer fly to the flame.[70]\n\n [70] Said especially in reference to the result of sensual indulgence.\n\n\n91.\u2014_Tsuchi-botok\u00e9 no midzu-asobi._\nClay-Buddha\u2019s water-playing.[71]\n\n [71] That is to say, \u201cAs dangerous as for a clay Buddha to play with\n water.\u201d Children often amuse themselves by making little Buddhist\n images of mud, which melt into shapelessness, of course, if placed in\n water.\n\n\n92.\u2014_Tsuki ni murakumo, hana ni kaz\u00e9._\nCloud-wrack to the moon; wind to flowers.[72]\n\n [72] The beauty of the moon is obscured by masses of clouds; the trees\n no sooner blossom than their flowers are scattered by the wind. All\n beauty is evanescent.\n\n\n93.\u2014_Tsuyu no inochi._\nHuman life is like the dew of morning.\n\n94.\u2014_U-ki wa, kokoro ni ari._\nJoy and sorrow exist only in the mind.\n\n95.\u2014_Uri no tsuru ni nasubi wa naranu._\nEgg-plants do not grow upon melon-vines.\n\n96.\u2014_Uso mo h\u014dben._\nEven an untruth may serve as a device.[73]\n\n [73] That is, a pious device for effecting conversion. Such a device\n is justified especially by the famous parable of the third chapter of\n the _Saddharma Pundar\u00eeka_.\n\n\n97.\u2014_Waga ya no hotok\u00e9 tattoshi._\nMy family ancestors were all excellent Buddhas.[74]\n\n [74] Meaning that one most reveres the _hotok\u00e9_\u2014the spirits of the\n dead regarded as Buddhas\u2014in one\u2019s own household-shrine. There is an\n ironical play upon the word _hotok\u00e9_, which may mean either a dead\n person simply, or a Buddha. Perhaps the spirit of this proverb may be\n better explained by the help of another: _Nig\u00e9ta sakana ni chisai wa\n nai; shinda kodomo ni warui ko wa nai_\u2014\u201cFish that escaped was never\n small; child that died was never bad.\u201d\n\n\n98.\u2014_Yuki no hat\u00e9 wa, Nehan._\nThe end of snow is Nirv\u00e2na.[75]\n\n [75] This curious saying is the only one in my collection containing\n the word _Nehan_ (Nirv\u00e2na), and is here inserted chiefly for that\n reason. The common people seldom speak of _Nehan_, and have little\n knowledge of those profound doctrines to which the term is related.\n The above phrase, as might be inferred, is not a popular expression:\n it is rather an artistic and poetical reference to the aspect of a\n landscape covered with snow to the horizon-line,\u2014so that beyond the\n snow-circle there is only the great void of the sky.\n\n\n99.\u2014_Zen ni wa zen no mukui; aku ni wa aku no mukui._\nGoodness [or, virtue] is the return for goodness; evil is the return\nfor evil.[76]\n\n [76] Not so commonplace a proverb as might appear at first sight; for\n it refers especially to the Buddhist belief that every kindness shown\n to us in this life is a return of kindness done to others in a former\n life, and that every wrong inflicted upon us is the reflex of some\n injustice which we committed in a previous birth.\n\n\n100.\u2014_Zens\u00e9 no yakusoku-goto._\nPromised [or, destined] from a former birth.[77]\n\n [77] A very common saying,\u2014often uttered as a comment upon the\n unhappiness of separation, upon sudden misfortune, upon sudden death,\n etc. It is used especially in relation to _shinj\u016b_, or lovers\u2019\n suicide. Such suicide is popularly thought to be a result of cruelty\n in some previous state of being, or the consequence of having broken,\n in a former life, the mutual promise to become husband and wife.\n\n\n\n\nSuggestion\n\n\nI had the privilege of meeting him in T\u014dky\u014d, where he was making a\nbrief stay on his way to India;\u2014and we took a long walk together, and\ntalked of Eastern religions, about which he knew incomparably more than\nI. Whatever I could tell him concerning local beliefs, he would comment\nupon in the most startling manner,\u2014citing weird correspondences in some\nliving cult of India, Burmah, or Ceylon. Then, all of a sudden, he\nturned the conversation into a totally unexpected direction.\n\n\u201cI have been thinking,\u201d he said, \u201cabout the constancy of the relative\nproportion of the sexes, and wondering whether Buddhist doctrine\nfurnishes an explanation. For it seems to me that, under ordinary\nconditions of karma, human rebirth would necessarily proceed by a\nregular alternation.\u201d\n\n\u201cDo you mean,\u201d I asked, \u201cthat a man would be reborn as a woman, and a\nwoman as a man?\u201d\n\n\u201cYes,\u201d he replied, \u201cbecause desire is creative, and the desire of\neither sex is towards the other.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd how many men,\u201d I said, \u201cwould want to be reborn as women?\u201d\n\n\u201cProbably very few,\u201d he answered. \u201cBut the doctrine that desire is\ncreative does not imply that the individual longing creates its own\nsatisfaction,\u2014quite the contrary. The true teaching is that the result\nof every selfish wish is in the nature of a penalty, and that what the\nwish creates must prove\u2014to higher knowledge at least\u2014the folly of\nwishing.\u201d\n\n\u201cThere you are right,\u201d I said; \u201cbut I do not yet understand your\ntheory.\u201d\n\n\u201cWell,\u201d he continued, \u201cif the physical conditions of human rebirth are\nall determined by the karma of the will relating to physical\nconditions, then sex would be determined by the will in relation to\nsex. Now the will of either sex is towards the other. Above all things\nelse, excepting life, man desires woman, and woman man. Each\nindividual, moreover, independently of any personal relation, feels\nperpetually, you say, the influence of some inborn feminine or\nmasculine ideal, which you call \u2018a ghostly reflex of countless\nattachments in countless past lives.\u2019 And the insatiable desire\nrepresented by this ideal would of itself suffice to create the\nmasculine or the feminine body of the next existence.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut most women,\u201d I observed, \u201cwould like to be reborn as men; and the\naccomplishment of that wish would scarcely be in the nature of a\npenalty.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhy not?\u201d he returned. \u201cThe happiness or unhappiness of the new\nexistence would not be decided by sex alone: it would of necessity\ndepend upon many conditions in combination.\u201d\n\n\u201cYour theory is interesting,\u201d I said;\u2014\u201cbut I do not know how far it\ncould be made to accord with accepted doctrine\u2026. And what of the person\nable, through knowledge and practice of the higher law, to remain\nsuperior to all weaknesses of sex?\u201d\n\n\u201cSuch a one,\u201d he replied, \u201cwould be reborn neither as man nor as\nwoman,\u2014providing there were no pre-existent karma powerful enough to\ncheck or to weaken the results of the self-conquest.\u201d\n\n\u201cReborn in some one of the heavens?\u201d I queried,\u2014\u201cby the\nApparitional Birth?\u201d\n\n\u201cNot necessarily,\u201d he said. \u201cSuch a one might be reborn in a world of\ndesire,\u2014like this,\u2014but neither as man only, nor as woman only.\u201d\n\n\u201cReborn, then, in what form?\u201d I asked.\n\n\u201cIn that of a perfect being,\u201d he responded. \u201cA man or a woman is\nscarcely more than half-a-being,\u2014because in our present imperfect state\neither sex can be evolved only at the cost of the other. In the mental\nand the physical composition of every man, there is undeveloped woman;\nand in the composition of every woman there is undeveloped man. But a\nbeing complete would be both perfect man and perfect woman, possessing\nthe highest faculties of both sexes, with the weaknesses of neither.\nSome humanity higher than our own,\u2014in other worlds,\u2014might be thus\nevolved.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut you know,\u201d I observed, \u201cthat there are Buddhist texts,\u2014in the\n_Saddharma Pundar\u00eeka_, for example, and in the _Vinayas_,\u2014which\nforbid\u2026.\u201d\n\n\u201cThose texts,\u201d he interrupted, \u201crefer to imperfect beings\u2014less than man\nand less than woman: they could not refer to the condition that I have\nbeen supposing\u2026. But, remember, I am not preaching a doctrine;\u2014I am\nonly hazarding a theory.\u201d\n\n\u201cMay I put your theory some day into print?\u201d I asked.\n\n\u201cWhy, yes,\u201d he made answer,\u2014\u201cif you believe it worth thinking about.\u201d\n\nAnd long afterwards I wrote it down thus, as fairly as I was able, from\nmemory.\n\n\n\n\nIngwa-banashi[1]\n\n\n [1] Lit., \u201ca tale of _ingwa_.\u201d _Ingwa_ is a Japanese Buddhist term for\n evil karma, or the evil consequence of faults committed in a former\n state of existence. Perhaps the curious title of the narrative is best\n explained by the Buddhist teaching that the dead have power to injure\n the living only in consequence of evil actions committed by their\n victims in some former life. Both title and narrative may be found in\n the collection of weird stories entitled _Hyaku-Monogatari_.\n\n\nThe daimy\u014d\u2019s wife was dying, and knew that she was dying. She had not\nbeen able to leave her bed since the early autumn of the tenth Bunsei.\nIt was now the fourth month of the twelfth Bunsei,\u2014the year 1829 by\nWestern counting; and the cherry-trees were blossoming. She thought of\nthe cherry-trees in her garden, and of the gladness of spring. She\nthought of her children. She thought of her husband\u2019s various\nconcubines,\u2014especially the Lady Yukiko, nineteen years old.\n\n\u201cMy dear wife,\u201d said the daimy\u014d, \u201cyou have suffered very much for three\nlong years. We have done all that we could to get you well,\u2014watching\nbeside you night and day, praying for you, and often fasting for your\nsake, But in spite of our loving care, and in spite of the skill of our\nbest physicians, it would now seen that the end of your life is not far\noff. Probably we shall sorrow more than you will sorrow because of your\nhaving to leave what the Buddha so truly termed \u2018this burning-house of\nthe world. I shall order to be performed\u2014no matter what the cost\u2014every\nreligious rite that can serve you in regard to your next rebirth; and\nall of us will pray without ceasing for you, that you may not have to\nwander in the Black Space, but may quickly enter Paradise, and attain\nto Buddha-hood.\u201d\n\nHe spoke with the utmost tenderness, pressing her the while. Then, with\neyelids closed, she answered him in a voice thin as the voice of in\ninsect:\u2014\n\n\u201cI am grateful\u2014most grateful\u2014for your kind words\u2026. Yes, it is true, as\nyou say, that I have been sick for three long years, and that I have\nbeen treated with all possible care and affection\u2026. Why, indeed, should\nI turn away from the one true Path at the very moment of my death?\u2026\nPerhaps to think of worldly matters at such a time is not right;\u2014but I\nhave one last request to make,\u2014only one\u2026. Call here to me the Lady\nYukiko;\u2014you know that I love her like a sister. I want to speak to her\nabout the affairs of this household.\u201d\n\nYukiko came at the summons of the lord, and, in obedience to a sign\nfrom him, knelt down beside the couch. The daimy\u014d\u2019s wife opened her\neyes, and looked at Yukiko, and spoke:\u2014\u201cAh, here is Yukiko!\u2026 I am so\npleased to see you, Yukiko!\u2026 Come a little closer,\u2014so that you can hear\nme well: I am not able to speak loud\u2026. Yukiko, I am going to die. I\nhope that you will be faithful in all things to our dear lord;\u2014for I\nwant you to take my place when I am gone\u2026. I hope that you will always\nbe loved by him,\u2014yes, even a hundred times more than I have been,\u2014and\nthat you will very soon be promoted to a higher rank, and become his\nhonored wife\u2026. And I beg of you always to cherish our dear lord: never\nallow another woman to rob you of his affection\u2026. This is what I wanted\nto say to you, dear Yukiko\u2026. Have you been able to understand?\u201d\n\n\u201cOh, my dear Lady,\u201d protested Yukiko, \u201cdo not, I entreat you, say such\nstrange things to me! You well know that I am of poor and mean\ncondition:\u2014how could I ever dare to aspire to become the wife of our\nlord!\u201d\n\n\u201cNay, nay!\u201d returned the wife, huskily,\u2014\u201cthis is not a time for words\nof ceremony: let us speak only the truth to each other. After my death,\nyou will certainly be promoted to a higher place; and I now assure you\nagain that I wish you to become the wife of our lord\u2014yes, I wish this,\nYukiko, even more than I wish to become a Buddha!\u2026 Ah, I had almost\nforgotten!\u2014I want you to do something for me, Yukiko. You know that in\nthe garden there is a _ya\u00eb-zakura_,[2] which was brought here, the year\nbefore last, from Mount Yoshino in Yamato. I have been told that it is\nnow in full bloom;\u2014and I wanted so much to see it in flower! In a\nlittle while I shall be dead;\u2014I must see that tree before I die. Now I\nwish you to carry me into the garden\u2014at once, Yukiko,\u2014so that I can see\nit\u2026. Yes, upon your back, Yukiko;\u2014take me upon your back\u2026.\u201d\n\n [2] _Ya\u00eb-zakura, ya\u00eb-no-sakura_, a variety of Japanese cherry-tree\n that bears double-blossoms.\n\n\nWhile thus asking, her voice had gradually become clear and strong,\u2014as\nif the intensity of the wish had given her new force: then she suddenly\nburst into tears. Yukiko knelt motionless, not knowing what to do; but\nthe lord nodded assent.\n\n\u201cIt is her last wish in this world,\u201d he said. \u201cShe always loved\ncherry-flowers; and I know that she wanted very much to see that\nYamato-tree in blossom. Come, my dear Yukiko, let her have her will.\u201d\n\nAs a nurse turns her back to a child, that the child may cling to it,\nYukiko offered her shoulders to the wife, and said:\u2014\n\n\u201cLady, I am ready: please tell me how I best can help you.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhy, this way!\u201d\u2014responded the dying woman, lifting herself with an\nalmost superhuman effort by clinging to Yukiko\u2019s shoulders. But as she\nstood erect, she quickly slipped her thin hands down over the\nshoulders, under the robe, and clutched the breasts of the girl,, and\nburst into a wicked laugh.\n\n\u201cI have my wish!\u201d she cried\u2014\u201cI have my wish for the\ncherry-bloom,[3]\u2014but not the cherry-bloom of the garden!\u2026 I could not\ndie before I got my wish. Now I have it!\u2014oh, what a delight!\u201d\n\n [3] In Japanese poetry and proverbial phraseology, the physical beauty\n of a woman is compared to the cherry-flower; while feminine moral\n beauty is compared to the plum-flower.\n\n\nAnd with these words she fell forward upon the crouching girl, and\ndied.\n\nThe attendants at once attempted to lift the body from Yukiko\u2019s\nshoulders, and to lay it upon the bed. But\u2014strange to say!\u2014this\nseemingly easy thing could not be done. The cold hands had attached\nthemselves in some unaccountable way to the breasts of the\ngirl,\u2014appeared to have grown into the quick flesh. Yukiko became\nsenseless with fear and pain.\n\nPhysicians were called. They could not understand what had taken place.\nBy no ordinary methods could the hands of the dead woman be unfastened\nfrom the body of her victim;\u2014they so clung that any effort to remove\nthem brought blood. This was not because the fingers held: it was\nbecause the flesh of the palms had united itself in some inexplicable\nmanner to the flesh of the breasts!\n\nAt that time the most skilful physician in Yedo was a foreigner,\u2014a\nDutch surgeon. It was decided to summon him. After a careful\nexamination he said that he could not understand the case, and that for\nthe immediate relief of Yukiko there was nothing to be done except to\ncut the hands from the corpse. He declared that it would be dangerous\nto attempt to detach them from the breasts. His advice was accepted;\nand the hands\u2019 were amputated at the wrists. But they remained clinging\nto the breasts; and there they soon darkened and dried up,\u2014like the\nhands of a person long dead.\n\nYet this was only the beginning of the horror.\n\nWithered and bloodless though they seemed, those hands were not dead.\nAt intervals they would stir\u2014stealthily, like great grey spiders. And\nnightly thereafter,\u2014beginning always at the Hour of the Ox,[4]\u2014they\nwould clutch and compress and torture. Only at the Hour of the Tiger\nthe pain would cease.\n\n [4] In ancient Japanese time, the Hour of the Ox was the special hour\n of ghosts. It began at 2 A.M., and lasted until 4 A.M.\u2014for the old\n Japanese hour was double the length of the modern hour. The Hour of\n the Tiger began at 4 A.M.\n\n\nYukiko cut off her hair, and became a mendicant-nun,\u2014taking the\nreligious name of Dassetsu. She had an _ihai_ (mortuary tablet) made,\nbearing the _kaimy\u014d_ of her dead mistress,\u2014\u201c_My\u014d-K\u014d-In-Den\nChizan-Ry\u014d-Fu Daishi_\u201d;\u2014and this she carried about with her in all her\nwanderings; and every day before it she humbly besought the dead for\npardon, and performed a Buddhist service in order that the jealous\nspirit might find rest. But the evil karma that had rendered such an\naffliction possible could not soon be exhausted. Every night at the\nHour of the Ox, the hands never failed to torture her, during more than\nseventeen years,\u2014according to the testimony of those persons to whom\nshe last told her story, when she stopped for one evening at the house\nof Noguchi Dengozay\u00e9mon, in the village of Tanaka in the district of\nKawachi in the province of Shimotsuk\u00e9. This was in the third year of\nK\u014dkwa (1846). Thereafter nothing more was ever heard of her.\n\n\n\n\nStory of a Tengu[1]\n\n\n [1] This story may be found in the curious old Japanese book called\n _Jikkun-Sh\u014d_. The same legend has furnished the subject of an\n interesting _N\u014d_-play, called _Dai-\u00c9_ (\u201cThe Great Assembly\u201d).\n    In Japanese popular art, the Tengu are commonly represented either\n    as winged men with beak-shaped noses, or as birds of prey. There\n    are different kinds of Tengu; but all are supposed to be\n    mountain-haunting spirits, capable of assuming many forms, and\n    occasionally appearing as crows, vultures, or eagles. Buddhism\n    appears to class the Tengu among the M\u00e2rak\u00e2yikas.\n\n\nIn the days of the Emperor Go-Reizei, there was a holy priest living in\nthe temple of Saito, on the mountain called Hiyei-Zan, near Ky\u014dto. One\nsummer day this good priest, after a visit to the city, was returning\nto his temple by way of Kita-no-\u014cji, when he saw some boys ill-treating\na kite. They had caught the bird in a snare, and were beating it with\nsticks. \u201cOh, the, poor creature!\u201d compassionately exclaimed the\npriest;\u2014\u201cwhy do you torment it so, children?\u201d One of the boys made\nanswer:\u2014\u201cWe want to kill it to get the feathers.\u201d Moved by pity, the\npriest persuaded the boys to let him have the kite in exchange for a\nfan that he was carrying; and he set the bird free. It had not been\nseriously hurt, and was able to fly away.\n\nHappy at having performed this Buddhist act of merit, the priest then\nresumed his walk. He had not proceeded very far when he saw a strange\nmonk come out of a bamboo-grove by the road-side, and hasten towards\nhim. The monk respectfully saluted him, and said:\u2014\u201cSir, through your\ncompassionate kindness my life has been saved; and I now desire to\nexpress my gratitude in a fitting manner.\u201d Astonished at hearing\nhimself thus addressed, the priest replied:\u2014\u201cReally, I cannot remember\nto have ever seen you before: please tell me who you are.\u201d \u201cIt is not\nwonderful that you cannot recognize me in this form,\u201d returned the\nmonk: \u201cI am the kite that those cruel boys were tormenting at\nKita-no-\u014cji. You saved my life; and there is nothing in this world more\nprecious than life. So I now wish to return your kindness in some way\nor other. If there be anything that you would like to have, or to know,\nor to see,\u2014anything that I can do for you, in short,\u2014please to tell me;\nfor as I happen to possess, in a small degree, the Six Supernatural\nPowers, I am able to gratify almost any wish that you can express.\u201d On\nhearing these words, the priest knew that he was speaking with a Tengu;\nand he frankly made answer:\u2014\u201cMy friend, I have long ceased to care for\nthe things of this world: I am now seventy years of age; neither fame\nnor pleasure has any attraction for me. I feel anxious only about my\nfuture birth; but as that is a matter in which no one can help me, it\nwere useless to ask about it. Really, I can think of but one thing\nworth wishing for. It has been my life-long regret that I was not in\nIndia in the time of the Lord Buddha, and could not attend the great\nassembly on the holy mountain Gridhrak\u00fbta. Never a day passes in which\nthis regret does not come to me, in the hour of morning or of evening\nprayer. Ah, my friend! if it were possible to conquer Time and Space,\nlike the Bodhisattvas, so that I could look upon that marvellous\nassembly, how happy should I be!\u201d\n\n\u201cWhy,\u201d the Tengu exclaimed, \u201cthat pious wish of yours can easily be\nsatisfied. I perfectly well remember the assembly on the Vulture Peak;\nand I can cause everything that happened there to reappear before you,\nexactly as it occurred. It is our greatest delight to represent such\nholy matters\u2026. Come this way with me!\u201d\n\nAnd the priest suffered himself to be led to a place among pines, on\nthe slope of a hill. \u201cNow,\u201d said the Tengu, \u201cyou have only to wait here\nfor awhile, with your eyes shut. Do not open them until you hear the\nvoice of the Buddha preaching the Law. Then you can look. But when you\nsee the appearance of the Buddha, you must not allow your devout\nfeelings to influence you in any way;\u2014you must not bow down, nor pray,\nnor utter any such exclamation as, \u2018_Even so, Lord!_\u2019 or \u2018_O thou\nBlessed One!_\u2019 You must not speak at all. Should you make even the\nleast sign of reverence, something very unfortunate might happen to\nme.\u201d The priest gladly promised to follow these injunctions; and the\nTengu hurried away as if to prepare the spectacle.\n\nThe day waned and passed, and the darkness came; but the old priest\nwaited patiently beneath a tree, keeping his eyes closed. At last a\nvoice suddenly resounded above him,\u2014a wonderful voice, deep and clear\nlike the pealing of a mighty bell,\u2014the voice of the Buddha S\u00e2kyamuni\nproclaiming the Perfect Way. Then the priest, opening his eyes in a\ngreat radiance, perceived that all things had been changed: the place\nwas indeed the Vulture Peak,\u2014the holy Indian mountain Gridhrak\u00fbta; and\nthe time was the time of the S\u00fbtra of the Lotos of the Good Law. Now\nthere were no pines about him, but strange shining trees made of the\nSeven Precious Substances, with foliage and fruit of gems;\u2014and the\nground was covered with Mand\u00e2rava and Manj\u00fbshaka flowers showered from\nheaven;\u2014and the night was filled with fragrance and splendour and the\nsweetness of the great Voice. And in mid-air, shining as a moon above\nthe world, the priest beheld the Blessed One seated upon the\nLion-throne, with Samantabhadra at his right hand, and Manjusri at his\nleft,\u2014and before them assembled\u2014immeasurably spreading into Space, like\na flood Of stars\u2014the hosts of the Mah\u00e2sattvas and the Bodhisattvas with\ntheir countless following: \u201cgods, demons, N\u00e2gas, goblins, men, and\nbeings not human.\u201d S\u00e2riputra he saw, and K\u00e2syapa, and \u00c2nanda, with all\nthe disciples of the Tath\u00e2gata,\u2014and the Kings of the Devas,\u2014and the\nKings of the Four Directions, like pillars of fire,\u2014and the great\nDragon-Kings,\u2014and the Gandharvas and Garudas,\u2014and the Gods of the Sun\nand the Moon and the Wind,\u2014and the shining myriads of Brahm\u00e2\u2019s heaven.\nAnd incomparably further than even the measureless circling of the\nglory of these, he saw\u2014made visible by a single ray of light that shot\nfrom the forehead of the Blessed One to pierce beyond uttermost\nTime\u2014the eighteen hundred thousand Buddha-fields of the Eastern Quarter\nwith all their habitants,\u2014and the beings in each of the Six States of\nExistence,\u2014and even the shapes of the Buddhas extinct, that had entered\ninto Nirv\u00e2na. These, and all the gods, and all the demons, he saw bow\ndown before the Lion-throne; and he heard that multitude incalculable\nof beings praising the S\u00fbtra of the Lotos of the Good Law,\u2014like the\nroar of a sea before the Lord. Then forgetting utterly his\npledge,\u2014foolishly dreaming that he stood in the very presence of the\nvery Buddha,\u2014he cast himself down in worship with tears of love and\nthanksgiving; crying out with a loud voice, \u201c_O thou Blessed One!_\u201d\u2026\n\nInstantly with a shock as of earthquake the stupendous spectacle\ndisappeared; and the priest found himself alone in the dark, kneeling\nupon the grass of the mountain-side. Then a sadness unspeakable fell\nupon him, because of the loss of the vision, and because of the\nthoughtlessness that had caused him to break his word. As he\nsorrowfully turned his steps homeward, the goblin-monk once more\nappeared before him, and said to him in tones of reproach and\npain:\u2014\u201cBecause you did not keep the promise which you made to me, and\nheedlessly allowed your feelings to overcome you, the Gohotend\u00f3, who is\nthe Guardian of the Doctrine, swooped down suddenly from heaven upon\nus, and smote us in great anger, crying out, \u2018_How do ye dare thus to\ndeceive a pious person?_\u2019 Then the other monks, whom I had assembled,\nall fled in fear. As for myself, one of my wings has been broken,\u2014so\nthat now I cannot fly.\u201d And with these words the Tengu vanished\nforever.\n\n\n\n\nAt Yaidzu\n\n\nI\n\nUnder a bright sun the old fishing-town of Yaidzu has a particular\ncharm of neutral color. Lizard-like it takes the grey tints of the rude\ngrey coast on which it rests,\u2014curving along a little bay. It is\nsheltered from heavy seas by an extraordinary rampart of boulders. This\nrampart, on the water-side, is built in the form of terrace-steps;\u2014the\nrounded stones of which it is composed being kept in position by a sort\nof basket-work woven between rows of stakes driven deeply into the\nground,\u2014a separate row of stakes sustaining each of the grades. Looking\nlandward from the top of the structure, your gaze ranges over the whole\ntown,\u2014a broad space of grey-tiled roofs and weather-worn grey timbers,\nwith here and there a pine-grove marking the place of a temple-court.\nSeaward, over leagues of water, there is a grand view,\u2014a jagged blue\nrange of peaks crowding sharply into the horizon, like prodigious\namethysts,\u2014and beyond them, to the left, the glorious spectre of Fuji,\ntowering enormously above everything. Between sea-wall and sea there is\nno sand,\u2014only a grey slope of stones, chiefly boulders; and these roll\nwith the surf so that it is ugly work trying to pass the breakers on a\nrough day. If you once get struck by a stone-wave,\u2014as I did several\ntimes,\u2014you will not soon forget the experience.\n\nAt certain hours the greater part of this rough slope is occupied by\nranks of strange-looking craft,\u2014fishing-boats of a form peculiar to the\nlocality. They are very large,\u2014capable of carrying forty or fifty men\neach;\u2014and they have queer high prows, to which Buddhist or Shint\u014d\ncharms (_mamori_ or _shugo_) are usually attached. A common form of\nShint\u014d written charm (_shugo_) is furnished for this purpose from the\ntemple of the Goddess of Fuji: the text reads:\u2014_Fuji-san ch\u014dj\u014d\nSengen-gu dai-gy\u014d manzoku_,\u2014meaning that the owner of the boat pledges\nhimself, in case of good-fortune at fishing, to perform great\nausterities in honor of the divinity whose shrine is upon the summit of\nFuji.\n\nIn every coast-province of Japan,\u2014and even at different\nfishing-settlements of the same province,\u2014the forms of boats and\nfishing-implements are peculiar to the district or settlement. Indeed\nit will sometimes be found that settlements, within a few miles of each\nother, respectively manufacture nets or boats as dissimilar in type as\nmight be the inventions of races living thousands of miles apart. This\namazing variety may be in some degree due to respect for local\ntradition,\u2014to the pious conservatism that preserves ancestral teaching\nand custom unchanged through hundreds of years: but it is better\nexplained by the fact that different communities practise different\nkinds of fishing; and the shapes of the nets or the boats made, at any\none place, are likely to prove, on investigation, the inventions of a\nspecial experience. The big Yaidzu boats illustrate this fact. They\nwere devised according to the particular requirements of the\nYaidzu-fishing-industry, which supplies dried _katsuo_ (bonito) to all\nparts of the Empire; and it was necessary that they should be able to\nride a very rough sea. To get them in or out of the water is a heavy\njob; but the whole village helps. A kind of slipway is improvised in a\nmoment by laying flat wooden frames on the slope in a line; and over\nthese frames the flat-bottomed vessels are hauled up or down by means\nof long ropes. You will see a hundred or more persons thus engaged in\nmoving a single boat,\u2014men, women, and children pulling together, in\ntime to a curious melancholy chant. At the coming of a typhoon, the\nboats are moved far back into the streets. There is plenty of fun in\nhelping at such work; and if you are a stranger, the fisher-folk will\nperhaps reward your pains by showing you the wonders of their sea:\ncrabs with legs of astonishing length, balloon-fish that blow\nthemselves up in the most absurd manner, and various other creatures of\nshapes so extraordinary that you can scarcely believe them natural\nwithout touching them.\n\nThe big boats with holy texts at their prows are not the strangest\nobjects on the beach. Even more remarkable are the bait-baskets of\nsplit bamboo,\u2014baskets six feet high and eighteen feet round, with one\nsmall hole in the dome-shaped top. Ranged along the sea-wall to dry,\nthey might at some distance be mistaken for habitations or huts of some\nsort. Then you see great wooden anchors, shaped like ploughshares, and\nshod with metal; iron anchors, with four flukes; prodigious wooden\nmallets, used for driving stakes; and various other implements, still\nmore unfamiliar, of which you cannot even imagine the purpose. The\nindescribable antique queerness of everything gives you that weird\nsensation of remoteness,\u2014of the far away in time and place,\u2014which makes\none doubt the reality of the visible. And the life of Yaidzu is\ncertainly the life of many centuries ago. The people, too, are the\npeople of Old Japan: frank and kindly as children\u2014good children,\u2014honest\nto a fault, innocent of the further world, loyal to the ancient\ntraditions and the ancient gods.\n\nII\n\nI happened to be at Yaidzu during the three days of the _Bon_ or\nFestival of the Dead; and I hoped to see the beautiful farewell\nceremony of the third and last day. In many parts of Japan, the ghosts\nare furnished with miniature ships for their voyage,\u2014little models of\njunks or fishing-craft, each containing offerings of food and water and\nkindled incense; also a tiny lantern or lamp, if the ghost-ship be\ndespatched at night. But at Yaidzu lanterns only are set afloat; and I\nwas told that they would be launched after dark. Midnight being the\ncustomary hour elsewhere, I supposed that it was the hour of farewell\nat Yaidzu also, and I rashly indulged in a nap after supper, expecting\nto wake up in time for the spectacle. But by ten o\u2019clock, when I went\nto the beach again, all was over, and everybody had gone home. Over the\nwater I saw something like a long swarm of fire-flies,\u2014the lanterns\ndrifting out to sea in procession; but they were already too far to be\ndistinguished except as points of colored light. I was much\ndisappointed: I felt that I had lazily missed an opportunity which\nmight never again return,\u2014for these old Bon-customs are dying rapidly.\nBut in another moment it occurred to me that I could very well venture\nto swim out to the lights. They were moving slowly. I dropped my robe\non the beach, and plunged in. The sea was calm, and beautifully\nphosphorescent. Every stroke kindled a stream of yellow fire. I swam\nfast, and overtook the last of the lantern-fleet much sooner than I had\nhoped. I felt that it would be unkind to interfere with the little\nembarcations, or to divert them from their silent course: so I\ncontented myself with keeping close to one of them, and studying its\ndetails.\n\n[Illustration: The Lights of the Dead]\n\nThe structure was very simple. The bottom was a piece of thick plank,\nperfectly square, and measuring about ten inches across. Each one of\nits corners supported a slender slick about sixteen inches high; and\nthese four uprights, united above by cross-pieces, sustained the paper\nsides. Upon the point of a long nail, driven up through the centre of\nthe bottom, was fixed a lighted candle. The top was left open. The four\nsides presented five different colors,\u2014blue, yellow, red, white, and\nblack; these five colors respectively symbolizing Ether, Wind, Fire,\nWater, and Earth,\u2014the five Buddhist elements which are metaphysically\nidentified with the Five Buddhas. One of the paper-panes was red, one\nblue, one yellow; and the right half of the fourth pane was black,\nwhile the left half, uncolored, represented white. No _kaimy\u014d_ was\nwritten upon any of the transparencies. Inside the lantern there was\nonly the flickering candle.\n\nI watched those frail glowing shapes drifting through the night, and\never as they drifted scattering, under impulse of wind and wave, more\nand more widely apart. Each, with its quiver of color, seemed a life\nafraid,\u2014trembling on the blind current that was bearing it into the\nouter blackness\u2026. Are not we ourselves as lanterns launched upon a\ndeeper and a dimmer sea, and ever separating further and further one\nfrom another as we drift to the inevitable dissolution? Soon the\nthought-light in each burns itself out: then the poor frames, and all\nthat is left of their once fair colors, must melt forever into the\ncolorless Void.\n\nEven in the moment of this musing I began to doubt whether I was really\nalone,\u2014to ask myself whether there might not be something more than a\nmere shuddering of light in the thing that rocked beside me: some\npresence that haunted the dying flame, and was watching the watcher. A\nfaint cold thrill passed over me,\u2014perhaps some chill uprising from the\ndepths,\u2014perhaps the creeping only of a ghostly fancy. Old superstitions\nof the coast recurred to me,\u2014old vague warnings of peril in the time of\nthe passage of Souls. I reflected that were any evil to befall me out\nthere in the night,\u2014meddling, or seeming to meddle, with the lights of\nthe Dead,\u2014I should myself furnish the subject of some future weird\nlegend\u2026. I whispered the Buddhist formula of farewell\u2014to the\nlights,\u2014and made speed for shore.\n\nAs I touched the stones again, I was startled by seeing two white\nshadows before me; but a kindly voice, asking if the water was cold,\nset me at ease. It was the voice of my old landlord, Otokichi the\nfishseller, who had come to look for me, accompanied by his wife.\n\n\u201cOnly pleasantly cool,\u201d I made answer, as I threw on my robe to go home\nwith them.\n\n\u201cAh,\u201d said the wife, \u201cit is not good to go out there on the night of\nthe Bon!\u201d\n\n\u201cI did not go far,\u201d I replied;\u2014\u201cI only wanted to look at the lanterns.\u201d\n\n\u201cEven a Kappa gets drowned sometimes,\u201d[1] protested Otokichi. \u201cThere\nwas a man of this village who swam home a distance of seven ri, in bad\nweather, after his boat had been broken. But he was drowned\nafterwards.\u201d\n\n [1] This is a common proverb:\u2014_Kappa mo obor\u00e9-shini_. The Kappa is a\n water-goblin, haunting rivers especially.\n\n\nSeven _ri_ means a trifle less than eighteen miles. I asked if any of\nthe young men now in the settlement could do as much.\n\n\u201cProbably some might,\u201d the old man replied. \u201cThere are many strong\nswimmers. All swim here,\u2014even the little children. But when fisher-folk\nswim like that, it is only to save their lives.\u201d\n\n\u201cOr to make love,\u201d the wife added,\u2014\u201clike the Hashima girl.\u201d\n\n\u201cWho?\u201d queried I.\n\n\u201cA fisherman\u2019s daughter,\u201d said Otokichi. \u201cShe had a lover in Ajiro,\nseveral _ri_ distant; and she used to swim to him at night, and swim\nback in the morning. He kept a light burning to guide her. But one dark\nnight the light was neglected\u2014or blown out; and she lost her way, and\nwas drowned\u2026. The story is famous in Idzu.\u201d\n\n\u2014\u201cSo,\u201d I said to myself, \u201cin the Far East, it is poor Hero that does\nthe swimming. And what, under such circumstances, would have been the\nWestern estimate of Leander?\u201d\n\nIII\n\nUsually about the time of the Bon, the sea gets rough; and I was not\nsurprised to find next morning that the surf was running high. All day\nit grew. By the middle of the afternoon, the waves had become\nwonderful; and I sat on the sea-wall, and watched them until sundown.\n\nIt was a long slow rolling,\u2014massive and formidable. Sometimes, just\nbefore breaking, a towering swell would crack all its green length with\na tinkle as of shivering glass; then would fall and flatten with a peal\nthat shook the wall beneath me\u2026. I thought of the great dead Russian\ngeneral who made his army to storm as a sea,\u2014wave upon wave of\nsteel,\u2014thunder following thunder\u2026. There was yet scarcely any wind; but\nthere must have been wild weather elsewhere,\u2014and the breakers were\nsteadily heightening. Their motion fascinated. How indescribably\ncomplex such motion is,\u2014yet how eternally new! Who could fully describe\neven five minutes of it? No mortal ever saw two waves break in exactly\nthe same way.\n\nAnd probably no mortal ever watched the ocean-roll or heard its thunder\nwithout feeling serious. I have noticed that even animals,\u2014horses and\ncows,\u2014become meditative in the presence of the sea: they stand and\nstare and listen as if the sight and sound of that immensity made them\nforget all else in the world.\n\nThere is a folk-saying of the coast:\u2014\u201c_The Sea has a soul and hears_.\u201d\nAnd the meaning is thus explained: Never speak of your fear when you\nfeel afraid at sea;\u2014if you say that you are afraid, the waves will\nsuddenly rise higher. Now this imagining seems to me absolutely\nnatural. I must confess that when I am either in the sea, or upon it, I\ncannot fully persuade myself that it is not alive,\u2014a conscious and a\nhostile power. Reason, for the time being, avails nothing against this\nfancy. In order to be able to think of the sea as a mere body of water,\nI must be upon some height from whence its heaviest billowing appears\nbut a lazy creeping of tiny ripples.\n\nBut the primitive fancy may be roused even more strongly in darkness\nthan by daylight. How living seem the smoulderings and the flashings of\nthe tide on nights of phosphorescence!\u2014how reptilian the subtle\nshifting of the tints of its chilly flame! Dive into such a\nnight-sea;\u2014open your eyes in the black-blue gloom, and watch the weird\ngush of lights that follow your every motion: each luminous point, as\nseen through the flood, like the opening and closing of an eye! At such\na moment, one feels indeed as if enveloped by some monstrous\nsentiency,\u2014suspended within some vital substance that feels and sees\nand wills alike in every part, an infinite soft cold Ghost.\n\nIV\n\nLong I lay awake that night, and listened to the thunder-rolls and\ncrashings of the mighty tide. Deeper than these distinct shocks of\nnoise, and all the storming of the nearer waves, was the bass of the\nfurther surf,\u2014a ceaseless abysmal muttering to which the building\ntrembled,\u2014a sound that seemed to imagination like the sound of the\ntrampling of infinite cavalry, the massing of incalculable\nartillery,\u2014some rushing, from the Sunrise, of armies wide as the world.\n\nThen I found myself thinking of the vague terror with which I had\nlistened, when a child, to the voice of the sea;\u2014and I remembered that\nin after-years, on different coasts in different parts of the world,\nthe sound of surf had always revived the childish emotion. Certainly\nthis emotion was older than I by thousands of thousands of\ncenturies,\u2014the inherited sum of numberless terrors ancestral. But\npresently there came to me the conviction that fear of the sea alone\ncould represent but one element of the multitudinous awe awakened by\nits voice. For as I listened to that wild tide of the Suruga coast, I\ncould distinguish nearly every sound of fear known to man: not merely\nnoises of battle tremendous,\u2014of interminable volleying,\u2014of immeasurable\ncharging,\u2014but the roaring of beasts, the crackling and hissing of fire,\nthe rumbling of earthquake, the thunder of ruin, and, above all these,\na clamor continual as of shrieks and smothered shoutings,\u2014the Voices\nthat are said to be the voices of the drowned., Awfulness supreme of\ntumult,\u2014combining all imaginable echoings of fury and destruction and\ndespair!\n\nAnd to myself I said:\u2014Is it wonderful that the voice of the sea should\nmake us serious? Consonantly to its multiple utterance must respond all\nwaves of immemorial fear that move in the vaster sea of\nsoul-experience. Deep calleth unto deep. The visible abyss calls to\nthat abyss invisible of elder being whose flood-flow made the ghosts of\nus.\n\nWherefore there is surely more than a little truth in the ancient\nbelief that the speech of the dead is the roar of the sea. Truly the\nfear and the pain of the dead past speak to us in that dim deep awe\nwhich the roar of the sea awakens.\n\nBut there are sounds that move us much more profoundly than the voice\nof the sea can do, and in stranger ways,\u2014sounds that also make us\nserious at times, and very serious,\u2014sounds of music.\n\nGreat music is a psychical storm, agitating to unimaginable depth the\nmystery of the past within us. Or we might say that it is a prodigious\nincantation, every different instrument and voice making separate\nappeal to different billions of prenatal memories. There are tones that\ncall up all ghosts of youth and joy and tenderness;\u2014there are tones\nthat evoke all phantom pain of perished passion;\u2014there are tones that\nresurrect all dead sensations of majesty and might and glory,\u2014all\nexpired exultations,\u2014all forgotten magnanimities. Well may the\ninfluence of music seem inexplicable to the man who idly dreams that\nhis life began less than a hundred years ago! But the mystery lightens\nfor whomsoever learns that the substance of Self is older than the sun.\nHe finds that music is a Necromancy;\u2014he feels that to every ripple of\nmelody, to every billow of harmony, there answers within him, out of\nthe Sea of Death and Birth, some eddying immeasurable of ancient\npleasure and pain.\n\nPleasure and pain: they commingle always in great music; and therefore\nit is that music can move us more profoundly than the voice of ocean or\nthan any other voice can do. But in music\u2019s larger utterance it is ever\nthe sorrow that makes the undertone,\u2014the surf-mutter of the Sea of\nSoul\u2026. Strange to think how vast the sum of joy and woe that must have\nbeen experienced before the sense of music could evolve in the brain of\nman!\n\nSomewhere it is said that human life is the music of the Gods,\u2014that its\nsobs and laughter, its songs and shrieks and orisons, its outcries of\ndelight and of despair, rise never to the hearing of the Immortals but\nas a perfect harmony\u2026. Wherefore they could not desire to hush the\ntones of pain: it would spoil their music! The combination, without the\nagony-tones, would prove a discord unendurable to ears divine.\n\nAnd in one way we ourselves are as Gods,\u2014since it is only the sum of\nthe pains and the joys of past lives innumerable that makes for us,\nthrough memory organic, the ecstasy of music. All the gladness and the\ngrief of dead generations come back to haunt us in countless forms of\nharmony and of melody. Even so,\u2014a million years after we shall have\nceased to view the sun,\u2014will the gladness and the grief of our own\nlives pass with richer music into other hearts\u2014there to bestir, for one\nmysterious moment, some deep and exquisite thrilling of voluptuous\npain.","title":"In Ghostly Japan","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":36687}