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A Japanese Miscellany 
 
Oyama no. 
 O-KON San wa 
 
 See Page iy8 
 
TO 
 
 MRS. ELIZABETH BISLAND WETMORE 
 
Contents 
 
 STRANGE STORIES: — 
 
 I. Of a Promise Kept S 
 
 II. Of a Promise Broken IS 
 
 III. Before the Supreme Court 29 
 
 IV. The Story of Kwashin Koji 37 
 
 V. The Story of Umetsu Chubei 55 
 
 VI. The Story of Kogi the Priest 65 
 
 FOLKLORE GLEANINGS: — 
 
 I. Dragon-flies {illustrated) 81 
 
 II. Buddhist Names of Plants and Animals . . 125 
 
 III. Songs of Japanese Children {illustrated) . . 143 
 
 STUDIES HERE AND THERE: — 
 
 I. On a Bridge 235 
 
 II. The Case of 0-Dai .... 1 243 
 
 III. Beside the Sea {illustrated) 255 
 
 IV. Drifting 269 
 
 V. Otokichi'S Daruma {illustrated) 283 
 
 V/ IN a Japanese Hospital 299 
 
Illustrations 
 
 "Oyama no, 
 
 0-Kon San wa" Frontispiece 
 
 Dragon-flies : — Facing page 
 
 Plate 1 84 
 
 I. Shio-Tombo (''Salt'' D.) 
 II. Mugiwara-Tombo (*' Barlej> Straw" ) 
 
 Plate 2 85 
 
 I. Kino-Tombo 
 
 II. Ko-Mugi-Tombo 
 
 Plate 3 86 
 
 Yurei-Tombo {''Ghost'' D.) or Kuro-Tombo 
 ("Black" D.) 
 Plate 4 87 
 
 I. Shojo-Tombo 
 
 II. Kane-tsuke-Tombo {'' Stained-with-Kane" D.) 
 
 Plate 5 ^^ 
 
 Haguro-Tombo 
 
 Plate 6 89 
 
 I. Seki-i-Shisha ("Red-Robed Messenger" ) 
 II. Aka-Tombo 
 
 The Feast of the Ghosts 256 
 
 Yuki-Daruma ^^S' 287 
 
 Toy-Daruma 289 
 
 Otokichi's Daruma. 1 290 
 
 II 292 
 
 III 296 
 
Strange Stories 
 
Of a Promise Kept 
 
Of a Promise Kept' 
 
 " T SHALL return in the early autumn," said 
 
 I Akana Soyemon several hundred years 
 
 ago, — when bidding good-bye to his 
 
 brother by adoption, young Hasebe Samon. The 
 
 time was spring; and the place was the village 
 
 of Kato in the province of Harima. Akana was 
 
 an Izumo samurai ; and he wanted to visit his 
 
 birthplace. 
 
 Hasebe said : — 
 
 "Your Izumo, — the Country of the Eight- 
 Cloud Rising,^ — is very distant. Perhaps it 
 will therefore be difficult for you to promise to 
 return here upon any particular day. But, if we 
 were to know the exact day, we should feel hap- 
 pier. We could then prepare a feast of welcome ' 
 
 1 Related in the Ugetsu Monogaiart, 
 a One of the old poetical names for the Province o! 
 Izumo, or Unshu. 
 
 s 
 
6 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 and we could watch at the gateway for your 
 coming." 
 
 " Why, as for that," responded Akana, " I 
 have been so much accustomed to travel that I 
 can usually tell beforehand how long it will take 
 me to reach a place; and I can safely promise 
 you to be here upon a particular day. Suppose 
 we say the day of the festival Choyo ? " 
 
 "That is the ninth day of the ninth month," 
 said Hasebe ; — " then the chrysanthemums will 
 be in bloom, and we can go together to look at 
 them. How pleasant! ... So you promise to 
 come back on the ninth day of the ninth 
 month > " 
 
 *' On the ninth day of the ninth month," 
 repeated Akana, smiling farewell. Then he 
 strode away from the village of Kato in the 
 province of Harima ; — and Hasebe Samon and 
 the mother of Hasebe looked after him with 
 tears in their tyos, 
 
 " Neither the Sun nor the Moon," says an old 
 Japanese proverb, "ever halt upon their jour- 
 ney." Swiftly the months went by; and the 
 autumn came, — the season of chrysanthemums. 
 And early upon the morning of the ninth day of 
 
Of a Promise Kept 7 
 
 the ninth month Hasebe prepared to welcome his 
 adopted brother. He made ready a feast of good 
 things, bought wine, decorated the guest-room, 
 and filled the vases of the alcove with chrysan- 
 themums of two colors. Then his mother, 
 watching him, said : — " The province of Izumo, 
 my son, is more than one hundred ri ^ from this 
 place; and the journey thence over the moun- 
 tains is difficult and weary; and you cannot be 
 sure that Akana will be able to come to-day. 
 Would it not be better, before you take all this 
 trouble, to wait for his comjng ? " '' Nay, 
 mother ! " Hasebe made answer — '' Akana 
 promised to be here to-day : he could not break 
 a promise ! And if he were to see us beginning 
 to make preparation after his arrival, he would 
 know that we had doubted his word ; and we 
 should be put to shame." 
 
 The day was beautiful, the sky without a 
 cloud, and the air so pure that the world seemed 
 to be a thousand miles wider than usual. In the 
 morning many travellers passed through the 
 village — some of them samurai ; and Hasebe, 
 watching each as he came, more than once im- 
 
 1 A ri is about equal to two and a half English miles. 
 
8 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 agined that he saw Akana approaching. But the 
 temple-bells sounded the hour of midday; and 
 Akana did not appear. Through the afternoon 
 also Hasebe watched and waited in vain. The 
 sun set; and still there was no sign of Akana. 
 Nevertheless Hasebe remained at the gate, gazing 
 down the road. Later his mother went to him, 
 and said : — " The mind of a man, my son, — 
 as our proverb declares — may change as quickly 
 as the sky of autumn. But your chrysan- 
 themum-flowers will still be fresh to-morrow. 
 Better now to sleep ; and in the morning you can 
 watch again for Akana, if you wish." " Rest well, 
 mother," returned Hasebe ; — " but I still believe 
 that he will come." Then the mother went to 
 her own room ; and Hasebe lingered at the gate. 
 The night was pure as the day had been : all 
 the sky throbbed with stars ; and the white River 
 of Heaven shimmered with unusual splendor. 
 The village slept ; — the silence was broken only 
 by the noise of a little brook, and by the far- 
 away barking of peasants' dogs. Hase'be still 
 waited, — waited until he saw the thin moon sink 
 behind the neighboring hills. Then at last he 
 began to doubt and to fear. Just as he was 
 about to re-enter the house, he perceived in the 
 
Of a Promise Kept 9 
 
 distance a tall man approaching, — very lightly 
 and quickly ; and in the next moment he recog- 
 nized Akana. 
 
 ** Oh ! " cried Hasebe, springing to meet him 
 — '* I have been waiting for you from the morn- 
 ing until now ! ... So you really did keep your 
 promise after all. . . . But you must be tired, 
 poor brother ! — come in ; — everything is ready 
 for you." He guided Akana to the place of 
 honor in the guest-room, and hastened to trim 
 the lights, which were burning low. " Mother," 
 continued Hasebe, "felt a little tired this even- 
 ing, and she has already gone to bed ; but I shall 
 awaken her presently." Akana shook his head, 
 and made a little gesture of disapproval. *' As 
 you will, brother," said Hasebe; and he set warm 
 food and wine before the traveller. Akana did 
 not touch the food or the wine, but remained 
 motionless and silent for a short time. Then, 
 speaking in a whisper, — as if fearful of awaken- 
 ing the mother, he said : — 
 
 " Now I must tell you how it happened that 
 I came thus late. When I returned to Izumo I 
 found that the people had almost forgotten the 
 kindness of our former ruler, the good Lord 
 Enya, and were seeking the favor of the usurper 
 
10 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 Tsunehisa, who had possessed himself of the 
 Tonda Castle. But I had to visit my cousin, 
 Akana Tanji, though he had accepted service 
 under Tsunehisa, and was living, as a retainer, 
 within the castle grounds. He persuaded me to 
 present myself before Tsunehisa : I yielded chiefly 
 in order to observe the character of the new ruler, 
 whose face I had never seen. He is a skilled sol- 
 dier, and of great courage ; but he is cunning and 
 cruel. I found it necessary to let him know that 
 I could never enter into his service. After I left 
 his presence he ordered my cousin to detain me 
 — to keep me confined within the house. I pro- 
 tested that I had promised to return to Harima 
 upon the ninth day of the ninth month ; but 1 
 was refused permission to go. I then hoped to 
 escape from the castle at night ; but I was con- 
 stantly watched ; and until to-day 1 could find no 
 way to fulfil my promise. . . ." 
 
 " Until to-day ! " exclaimed Hasebe in bewil- 
 derment ; — ''the castle is more than a hundred 
 ri from here ! " 
 
 " Yes,'' returned Akana ; " and no living man 
 can travel on foot a hundred ri in one day. But 
 I felt that, if I did not keep my promise, you 
 could not think well of me: and I remembered 
 
Of a Promise Kept 11 
 
 the ancient proverb, Tamayoku ichi nichi ni sen ri 
 woyuku [" The soul of a man can journey a thou- 
 sand ri in a day "] . Fortunately I had been allowed 
 to keep my sword ; — thus only was I able to 
 come to you. ... Be good to our mother." 
 
 With these words he stood up, and in the same 
 instant disappeared. 
 
 Then Hasebe knew that Akana had killed him- 
 self in order to fulfil the promise. 
 
 At earliest dawn Hasebe Samon set out for the 
 Castle Tonda, in the province of Izumo. Reach- 
 ing Matsue, he there learned that, on the night of 
 the ninth day of the ninth month, Akana Soye- 
 mon had performed harakiri in the house of 
 Akana Tanji, in the grounds of the castle. Then 
 Hasebe went to the house of Akana Tanji, and 
 reproached Akana Tanji for the treachery done, 
 and slew him in the midst of his family, and es- 
 caped without hurt. And when the Lord Tsune- 
 hisa had heard the story, he gave commands that 
 Hasebe should not be pursued. For, although 
 an unscrupulous and cruel man himself, the Lord 
 Tsunehisa could respect the love of truth in 
 others, and could admire the friendship and the 
 courage of Hasebe Samon. 
 
Of a Promise Broken 
 
Of a Promise Broken' 
 
 I 
 
 " T AM not afraid to die," said the dying 
 
 I wife; — ''there is only one thing that 
 troubles me now. I wish that I could 
 know who will take my place in this house." 
 
 " My dear one," answered the sorrowing hus- 
 band, " nobody shall ever take your place in my 
 home. I will never, never marry again." 
 
 At the time that he said this he was speaking 
 out of his heart ; for he loved the woman whom 
 he was about to lose. 
 
 '' On the faith of a samurai ? " she questioned, 
 with a feeble smile. 
 
 ** On the faith of a samurai," he responded, — 
 stroking the pale thin face. 
 
 "Then, my dear one," she said, '' you will let 
 me be buried in the garden, — will you not ? — 
 near those plum-trees that we planted at the 
 
 1 Izumo legend. 
 
 15 
 
16 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 further end? 1 wanted long ago to ask this; 
 but I thought, that if you were to marry again, 
 you would not like to have my grave so near 
 you. Now you have promised that no other 
 woman shall take my place ; — so I need not 
 hesitate to speak of my wish. ... I want so 
 much to be buried in the garden ! I think that 
 in the garden I should sometimes hear your 
 voice, and that I should still be able to see the 
 flowers in the spring." 
 
 " It shall be as you wish," he answered. " But 
 do not now speak of burial : you are not so ill 
 that we have lost all hope." 
 
 " / have," she returned ; — "I shall die this 
 morning. . . . But you will bury me in the 
 garden ? " 
 
 '*Yes," he said, — "under the shade of the 
 plum-trees that we planted ; — and you shall have 
 a beautiful tomb there." 
 
 " And will you give me a little bell ? " 
 
 "Bell — ?" 
 
 "Yes: I want you to put a little bell in the 
 coffin, — such a little bell as the Buddhist pil- 
 grims carry. Shall I have it ? " 
 
 " You shall have the little bell, — and anything 
 else that you wish." 
 
Of a Promise Broken 17 
 
 " I do not wish for anything else," she said. 
 
 . . '* My dear one, you have been very good 
 to me always. Now I can die happy." 
 
 Then she closed her eyes and died— as easily 
 as a tired child falls asleep. She looked beautiful 
 when she was dead ; and there was a smile upon 
 her face. 
 
 She was buried in the garden, under the shade 
 of the trees that she loved ; and a small bell was 
 buried with her. Above the grave was erected a 
 handsome monument, decorated with the family 
 crest, and bearing the kaimyo : — " Great Elder 
 Sister, Luminous-Shadow-of-the -Plum- Flower- 
 Chamber, dwelling in the Mansion of the Great 
 Sea of Compassion:' 
 
 But, within a twelve-month after the death of 
 his wife, the relatives and friends of the samurai 
 began to insist that he should marry again. " You 
 are still a young man," they said, " and an only 
 son ; and you have no children. It is the duty of 
 a samurai to marry. If you die childless, who 
 will there be to make the offerings and to re- 
 member the ancestors .? " 
 
 2 
 
18 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 By many such representations he was at last 
 persuaded to marry again. The bride was only 
 seventeen years old ; and he found that he could 
 love her dearly, notwithstanding the dumb 
 reproach of the tomb in the garden. 
 
 II 
 
 Nothing took place to disturb the happiness of 
 the young wife until the seventh day after the 
 wedding, — when her husband was ordered to 
 undertake certain duties requiring his presence at 
 the castle by night. On the first evening that he 
 was obliged to leave her alone, she felt uneasy in 
 a way that she could not explain, — vaguely 
 afraid without knowing why. When she went 
 to bed she could not sleep. There was a strange 
 oppression in the air, — an indefinable heaviness 
 like that which sometimes precedes the coming 
 of a storm. 
 
 About the Hour of the Ox she heard, outside 
 in the night, the clanging of a bell,— a Buddhist 
 pilgrim's bell ; — and she ^^^ondered what pilgrim 
 could be passing through the samurai quarter at 
 such a time. Presently, after a pause, the bell 
 
Of a Promise Broken 19 
 
 sounded much nearer. Evidently the pilgrim was 
 approaching the house ; — but why approaching 
 from the rear, where no road was ? . . . Sud- 
 denly the dogs began to whine and howl in an 
 unusual and horrible way ; — and a fear came 
 upon her like the fear of dreams. . . . That ring- 
 ing was certainly in the garden. . . . She tried 
 to get up to waken a servant. But she found 
 that she could not rise, — could not move, — 
 could not call. . . . And nearer, and still more 
 near, came the clang of the bell ; — and oh ! how 
 the dogs howled ! . . . Then, lightly as a shadow 
 steals, there glided into the room a Woman, — 
 though every door stood fast, and every screen 
 unmoved, — a Woman robed in a grave-robe, and 
 carrying a pilgrim's bell. Eyeless she came, — 
 because she had long been dead ; — and her loos- 
 ened hair streamed down about her face ; — and 
 she looked without eyes through the tangle of 
 it, and spoke without a tongue : — 
 
 " Not in this house, — not in this house shall 
 you stay I Here I am mistress still. You shall 
 go ; and you shall tell to none the reason of your 
 going. If you tell HIM, I will tear you into 
 pieces I " 
 
20 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 So speaking, the haunter vanished. The bride 
 became senseless with fear. Until the dawn she 
 so remained. 
 
 Nevertheless, in the cheery light of day, she 
 doubted the reality of what she had seen and 
 heard. The memory of the warning still weighed 
 upon her so heavily that she did not dare to 
 speak of the vision, either to her husband or to 
 any one else ; but she was almost able to persuade 
 herself that she had only dreamed an ugly dream, 
 which had made her ill. 
 
 On the following night, however, she could 
 not doubt. Again, at the Hour of the Ox, the 
 dogs began to howl and whine ; — again the bell 
 resounded, — approaching slowly from the gar- 
 den ; — again the listener vainly strove to rise and 
 call ; — again the dead came into the room, and 
 hissed, — 
 
 *' You shall go ; and you shall tell to no 
 one why you must go ! If you even whisper it 
 to HIM, I will tear you in pieces .' " . . . 
 
 This time the haunter came close to the couch, 
 — and bent and muttered and mowed above 
 it. . . . 
 
Of a Promise Broken 21 
 
 Next morning, when the samurai returned from 
 the castle, his young wife prostrated herself be- 
 fore him in supplication : — 
 
 '' I beseech you," she said, " to pardon my in- 
 gratitude and my great rudeness in thus address- 
 ing you : but I want to go home ; — I want to go 
 away at once." 
 
 " Are you not happy here ? " he asked, in sin- 
 cere surprise. " Has any one dared to be unkind 
 to you during my absence ? " 
 
 ** It is not that — " she answered, sobbing. 
 " Everybody here has been only too good to me. 
 . . . But I cannot continue to be your wife ; — 
 I must go away. . . ." 
 
 "My dear," he exclaimed, in great astonish- 
 ment, " it is very painful to know that you have 
 had any cause for unhappiness in this house. But 
 I cannot even imagine why you should want to 
 go away — unless somebody has been very un- 
 kind to you. . . . Surely you do not mean that 
 you wish for a divorce.?" 
 
 She responded, trembling and weeping, — 
 
 " If you do not give me a divorce, I shall 
 die ! " 
 
 He remained for a little while silent, — vainly 
 trying to think of some cause for this amazing 
 
22 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 declaration. Then, without betraying any emo- 
 tion, he made answer : — 
 
 '' To send you back now to your people, with- 
 out any fault on your part, would seem a shame- 
 ful act. If you will tell me a good reason for 
 your wish, — any reason that will enable me to 
 explain matters honorably, — I can write you a 
 divorce. But unless you give me a reason, a 
 good reason, I will not divorce you, — for the 
 honor of our house must be kept above 
 reproach." 
 
 And then she felt obliged to speak ; and she 
 told him everything, — adding, in an agony of 
 terror, — 
 
 *' Now that I have let you know, she will kill 
 me ! — she will kill me ! . . ." 
 
 Although a brave man, and little inclined to 
 believe in phantoms, the samurai was more than 
 startled for the moment. But a simple and nat- 
 ural explanation of the matter soon presented 
 itself to his mind. 
 
 "My dear," he said, "you are now very ner- 
 vous ; and I fear that some one has been telling 
 you foolish stories. I cannot give you a divorce 
 merely because you have had a bad dream in this 
 house. But I am very sorry indeed that you 
 
Of a Promise Broken 2J 
 
 should have been suffering in such a way during 
 my absence. To-night, also, I must be at the 
 castle ; but you shall not be alone. I will order 
 two of the retainers to keep watch in your room ; 
 and you will be able to sleep in peace. They are 
 good men ; and they will take all possible care of 
 you." 
 
 Then he spoke to her so considerately and so 
 affectionately that she became almost ashamed of 
 her terrors, and resolved to remain in the house. 
 
 Ill 
 
 The two retainers left in charge of the young wife 
 were big, brave, simple-hearted men, — experi- 
 enced guardians of women and children. They 
 told the bride pleasant stories to keep her cheer- 
 ful. She talked with them a long time, laughed 
 at their good-humored fun, and almost forgot 
 her fears. When at last she lay down to sleep, 
 the men-at-arms took their places in a corner of 
 the room, behind a screen, and began a game of 
 go^ — speaking only in whispers, that she might 
 not be disturbed. She slept like an infant. 
 
 1 A game resembling draughts, but much more com- 
 plicated. 
 
24 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 But again at the Hour of the Ox she awoke 
 with a moan of terror, — fof she heard the bell ! 
 ... It was already near, and was coming nearer. 
 She started up ; she screamed ; — but in the room 
 there was no stir, — only a silence as of death, — 
 a silence growing, — a silence thickening. She 
 rushed to the men-at-arms : they sat before their 
 checker-table, — motionless, — each staring at the 
 other with fixed eyes. She shrieked to them: 
 she shook them : they remained as if frozen. . . . 
 
 Afterwards they said that they had heard the 
 bell, — heard also the cry of the bride, — even 
 felt her try to shake them into wakefulness ; — 
 and that, nevertheless, they had not been able to 
 move or speak. From the same moment they 
 had ceased to hear or to see : a black sleep had 
 seized upon them. 
 
 Entering his bridal -chamber at dawn, the samu- 
 rai beheld, by the light of a dying lamp, the 
 headless body of his young wife, lying in a pool 
 of blood. Still squatting before their unfinished 
 game, the two retainers slept. At their master's 
 cry they sprang up, and stupidly stared at the 
 horror on the floor. . . . 
 
Of a Promise Broken 2? 
 
 The head was nowhere to be seen; — and the 
 hideous wound showed that it had not been cut 
 off, but torn off. A trail of blood led from the 
 chamber to an angle of the outer gallery, where 
 the storm-doors appeared to have been riven 
 apart. The three men followed that trail into the 
 garden, — over reaches of grass, — over spaces ot 
 sand, — along the bank of an iris-bordered pond, 
 
 — under heavy shadowings of cedar and bamboo. 
 And suddenly, at a turn, they found themselves 
 face to face with a nightmare-thing that chippered 
 like a bat : the figure of the long-buried woman, 
 erect before her tomb, — in one hand clutching 
 a bell, in the other the dripping head. ... For a 
 moment the three stood numbed. Then one of the 
 men-at-arms, uttering a Buddhist invocation, drew, 
 and struck at the shape. Instantly it crumbled 
 down upon the soil, — an empty scattering of 
 grave-rags, bones, and hair ; — and the bell rolled 
 clanking out of the ruin. But the fleshless right 
 hand, though parted from the wrist, still writhed ; 
 
 — and its fingers still gripped at the bleeding head, 
 
 — and tore, and mangled, — as the claws of the 
 yellow crab cling fast to a fallen fruit. . . . 
 
 * 
 * # 
 
26 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 [" That is a wicked story," I said to the friend 
 who had related it. '' The vengeance of the dead 
 — if taken at all — should have been taken upon 
 the man." 
 
 " Men think so," he made answer. " But that 
 is not the way that a woman feels. . . .*' 
 
 He was right. ] 
 
Before the Supreme Court 
 
Before the Supreme Court 
 
 THE great Buddhist priest, Mongaku Shonin, 
 says in his book Kyo-gyo Shin-sho : — 
 " Many of those gods whom the people 
 worship are unjust gods [jajin] : therefore such 
 gods are not worshipped by persons who revere 
 the Three Precious Things.^ And even persons 
 who obtain favors from those gods, in answer 
 to prayer, usually find at a later day that such 
 favors cause misfortune." This truth is well 
 exemplified by a story recorded in the book 
 Nihon-Rei-Iki. 
 
 During the time of the Emperor Shomu there 
 lived in the district called Yamadagori, in the prov- 
 ince of Sanuki, a man named Fushiki no Shin. 
 
 1 Sambo (Ratnatraya) , — the Buddha, the Doctrine, and 
 the Priesthood. 
 
 2 He reigned during the second quarter of the eighth 
 century. 
 
 29 
 
30 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 He had but one child, a daughter called Kinume." 
 Kinume was a fine-looking girl, and very strong ; 
 but, shortly after she had reached her eighteenth 
 year, a dangerous sickness began to prevail in that 
 part of the country, and she was attacked by it. 
 Her parents and friends then made offerings on 
 her behalf to a certain Pest- God, and performed 
 great austerities in honor of the Pest-God, — 
 beseeching him to save her. 
 
 After having lain in a stupor for several days, 
 the sick girl one evening came to herself, and told 
 her parents a dream that she had dreamed. She 
 had dreamed that the Pest-God appeared to her, 
 and said : — " Your people have been praying to 
 me so earnestly for you, and have been worship- 
 ping me so devoutly, that I really wish to save 
 you. But I cannot do so except by giving you 
 the life of some other person. Do you happen to 
 know of any other girl who has the same name 
 as yours ? " *M remember," answered Kinume, 
 " that in Utarigori there is a girl whose name is 
 the same as mine." '' Point her out to me," the 
 God said, touching the sleeper ; — and at the touch 
 she rose into the air with him ; and, in less than a 
 
 1 <* Golden Plum-Flower." 
 
Before the Supreme Court ?1 
 
 second, the two were in front of the house of 
 the other Kinume, in Utarigori. It was night; 
 but the family had not yet gone to bed, and the 
 daughter was washing something in the kitchen. 
 " That is the girl," said Kinume of Yamadagori. 
 The Pest- God took out of a scarlet bag at his 
 girdle a long sharp instrument shaped like a chisel ; 
 and, entering the house, he drove the sharp in- 
 strument into the forehead of Kinume of Utari- 
 gori. Then Kinume of Utarigori sank to the 
 floor in great agony; and Kinume of Yamada- 
 gori awoke, and related the dream. 
 
 Immediately after having related it, however, 
 she again fell into a stupor. For three days she 
 remained without knowledge of the world ; and 
 her parents began to despair of her recovery. 
 Then once more she opened her eyes, and spoke. 
 But almost in the same moment she rose from 
 her bed, looked wildly about the room, and 
 rushed out of the house, exclaiming: — "This is 
 not my home! — you are not my parents! " . . . 
 
 Something strange had happened. 
 
 Kinume of Utarigori had died after having 
 been stricken by the Pest-God. Her parents sor- 
 rowed greatly; and the priests of their parish- 
 
J2 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 temple performed a Buddhist service for her ; and 
 her body was burned in a field outside the village. 
 Then her spirit descended to the Meido, the world 
 of the dead, and was summoned to the tribunal 
 of Emma-Dai-O, — the King and Judge of Souls. 
 But no sooner had the Judge cast eyes upon her 
 than he exclaimed : — " This girl is the Utarigori- 
 Kinume: she ought not to have been brought 
 here so soon! Send her back at once to the 
 Shaba-world/ and fetch me the other Kinume, — 
 the Yamadagori girl ! " Then the spirit of Kin- 
 ume of Utarigori made moan before King Emma, 
 and complained, saying: — ''Great Lord, it is 
 more than three days since I died ; and by this 
 time my body must have been burned; and, if 
 you now send me back to the Shaba-world, what 
 shall I do ? My body has been changed into ashes 
 and smoke ; — I shall have no body ! " ** Do not 
 be anxious," the terrible King answered ; — " I am 
 going to give you the body of Kinume of Yama- 
 dagori, — for her spirit must be brought here to 
 me at once. You need not fret about the burn- 
 ing of your body : you will find the body of the 
 
 1 The Shaba-world (Sahaloka), in common parlance, 
 signifies the world of men, — the region of human ex- 
 istence. 
 
Before the Supreme Court ?? 
 
 other Kinume very much better." And scarcely 
 had he finished speaking when the spirit of Kin- 
 ume of Utarigori revived in the body of Kinume 
 of Yamadagori. 
 
 Now when the parents of Kinume of Yamada- 
 gori saw their sick girl spring up and run away, 
 exclaiming, '* This is not my home ! " — they im- 
 agined her to be out of her mind, and they ran 
 after her, calling out : — '' Kinume, where are 
 you going ? — wait for a moment, child ! you are 
 much too ill to run like that ! " But she escaped 
 from them, and ran on without stopping, until 
 she came to Utarigori, and to the house of the 
 family of the dead Kinume. There she entered, 
 and found the old people ; and she saluted them, 
 crying : — " Oh, how pleasant to be again at 
 home ! ... Is it well with you, dear parents ? " 
 They did not recognize her, and thought her 
 mad ; but the mother spoke to her kindly, ask- 
 ing: — ''Where have you come from, child?" 
 " From the Meido I have come," Kinume made 
 answer. "I am your own child, Kinume, re- 
 turned to you from the dead. But I have now 
 another body, mother." And she related all that 
 had happened ; and the old people wondered ex- 
 
 3 
 
M Japanese Miscellany 
 
 ceedingly, yet did not know what to believe. 
 Presently the parents of Kinume of Yamadagori 
 also came to the house, looking for their 
 daughter ; and then the two fathers and the two 
 mothers consulted together, and made the girl re- 
 peat her story, and questioned her over and over 
 again. But she replied to every question in such 
 a way that the truth of her statements could not be 
 doubted. At last the mother of the Yamadagori 
 Kinume, after having related the strange dream 
 which her sick daughter had dreamed, said to the 
 parents of the Utarigori Kinume : — '* We are 
 satisfied that the spirit of this girl is the spirit of 
 your child. But you know that her body is the 
 body of our child ; and we think that both fami- 
 lies ought to have a share in her. So we would 
 ask you to agree that she be considered hence- 
 forward the daughter of both families." To this 
 proposal the Utarigori parents joyfully consented ; 
 and it is recorded that in after-time Kinume in- 
 herited the property of both households. 
 
 " This story," says the Japanese author of the 
 Bukkyo Hyakkwa Zensho, *' may be found on the 
 left side of the twelfth sheet of the first volume 
 of the Nihon-Rei-Iki." 
 
The Story of Kwashin Koji 
 
The Story of Kwashin KojP 
 
 DURING the period of Tensho ^ there lived, 
 in one of the northern districts of Kyoto, 
 an old man whom the people called 
 Kwashin Koji. He wore a long white beard, and 
 was always dressed like a Shinto priest ; but he 
 made his living by exhibiting Buddhist pictures 
 and by preaching Buddhist doctrine. Every fine 
 day he used to go to the grounds of the temple 
 Gion, and there suspend to some tree a large 
 kakemono on which were depicted the punish- 
 ments of the various hells. This kakemono was 
 so wonderfully painted that all things represented 
 in it seemed to be real ; and the old man would 
 
 1 Related in the curious old book Yaso-Kidan. 
 
 2 The period of Tensho lasted from 1573 to 1591 
 (a. D.). The death of the great captain, Oda Nobunaga, 
 who figures in this story, occurred in 1582. 
 
 37 
 
38 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 discourse to the people crowding to see it, and 
 explain to them the Law of Cause and Effect, — 
 pointing out with a Buddhist staff [nyot], which 
 he always carried, each detail of the different tor- 
 ments, and exhorting everybody to follow the 
 teachings of the Buddha. Multitudes assembled 
 to look at the picture and to hear the old man 
 preach about it ; and sometimes the mat which 
 he spread before him, to receive contributions, 
 was covered out of sight by the heaping of coins 
 thrown upon it. 
 
 Oda Nobunaga was at that time ruler of Kyoto 
 and of the surrounding provinces. One of his 
 retainers, named Arakawa, during a visit to the 
 temple of Gion, happened to see the picture be- 
 ing displayed there ; and he afterwards talked 
 about it at the palace. Nobunaga was inter- 
 ested by Arakawa's description, and sent orders 
 to Kwashin Koji to come at once to the palace, 
 and to bring the picture with him. 
 
 When Nobunaga saw the kakemono he was 
 not able to conceal his surprise at the vividness of 
 the work : the demons and the tortured spirits 
 actually appeared to move before his eyes; and 
 he heard voices crying out of the picture ; and 
 the blood there represented seemed to be really 
 
The Story of Kwashin Koji 39 
 
 flowing, — so that he could not help putting out 
 his finger to feel if the painting was wet. But 
 the finger was not stained, —for the paper proved 
 to be perfectly dry. More and more astonished, 
 Nobunaga asked who had made the wonderful 
 picture. Kwashin Koji answered that it had been 
 painted by the famous Oguri Sotan, ^ — after 
 he had performed the rite of self-purification 
 every day for a hundred days, and practised 
 great austerities, and made earnest prayer for 
 inspiration to the divine Kwannon of Kiyomidzu 
 Temple. 
 
 Observing Nobunaga's evident desire to possess 
 the kakemono, Arakawa then asked Kwashin Koji 
 whether he would " offer it up," as a gift to the 
 great lord. But the old man boldly answered : — 
 " This painting is the only object of value that I 
 possess ; and I am able to make a little money by 
 showing it to the people. Were I now to present 
 this picture to the lord, I should deprive myself 
 of the only means which I have to make my liv- 
 ing. However, if the lord be greatly desirous to 
 
 1 Oguri Sotan was a great religious artist who flourished 
 in the early part of the fifteenth century. He became a 
 Buddhist priest in the later years of his life. 
 
40 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 possess it, let him pay me for it the sum of one 
 hundred rjo of gold. With that amount of 
 mone}^ I should be able to engage m some profit- 
 able business. Otherwise, I must refuse to give 
 up the picture." 
 
 Nobunaga did not seem to be pleased at this 
 reply ; and he remained silent. Arakawa pres- 
 ently whispered something in the ear of the lord, 
 who nodded assent ; and Kwashin Koji was then 
 dismissed, \\ith a small present of money. 
 
 But when the old man left the palace, Arakawa 
 secretly followed him, — hoping for a chance to 
 get the picture by foul means. The chance 
 came ; for Kwashin Koji happened to take a road 
 leading directly to the heights beyond the town. 
 When he reached a certain lonesome spot at the 
 foot of the hills, where the road made a sudden 
 turn, he was seized by Arakawa, who said to 
 hun : — " Why were you so greedy as to ask a 
 hundred ryo of gold for that picture ? Instead of 
 a hundred ryo of gold, I am now gomg to give 
 you one piece of iron three feet long." Then 
 Arakawa drew his sword, and killed the old 
 man, and took the picture. 
 
The Srorv' of Kwiishin Ko]i -I- 1 
 
 The next day Aniciwa. presented t&e fcike- 
 incHio — still wrapped up as Kwa^mi Koji had 
 wrapped it before leaving- the palace — to Oda 
 Nobiinaga, who ordered it to be hung up tonh- 
 with. But, when it was unrolled, bodi Nobu- 
 mgi and his retainer were astounded to nnd that 
 there was no piaure at all — nothing bur a blank: 
 surface. Arakawa could not explain how the 
 ordinal painting !iad disappijared : and as he had 
 
 been guilty- — whetiier willing- ■ ^Hingiy — of 
 
 deceiving bis master, it was cc. ..: he should 
 
 be punished. Aco^rdingly he was sentenced to 
 remain in cominem«ait for a considerable time. 
 
 Scarcely had Arakawa completed his term of 
 ttnprisonment. when news was brought to him 
 tixat K-washin Koji was exhibiting the famous pic- 
 ture in the grounds of Kitano Temple. Arakawa 
 couM hardly believe his ears : but the intorma- 
 tion inspired him with a vague hope that he 
 might be aHe. in some way or other, to secure 
 the kakemono, and thereby redeem his recait 
 fault. So he quickly assembled some of his fol- 
 lowers, and hurried to the temple : but wfeai he 
 reached it he was told that Kwashin Koji had 
 gone away. 
 
42 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 Several days later, word was brought to Ara- 
 kawa that Kwashin Koji was exhibiting the pic- 
 ture at Kiyomidzu Temple, and preaching about 
 it to an immense crowd. Arakawa made all 
 haste to Kiyomidzu ; but he arrived there only in 
 time to see the crowd disperse, — for Kwashin 
 Koji had again disappeared. 
 
 At last one day Arakawa unexpectedly caught 
 sight of Kwashin Koji in a wine -shop, and there 
 captured him. The old man only laughed good- 
 humoredly on finding himself seized, and said : — 
 " I will go with you; but please wait until I drink 
 a little wine." To this request Arakawa made no 
 objection ; and Kwashin Koji thereupon drank, to 
 the amazement of the bystanders, twelve bowls 
 of wine. After drinking the twelfth he declared 
 himself satisfied ; and Arakawa ordered him to 
 be bound with a rope, and taken to Nobunaga's 
 residence. 
 
 In the court of the palace Kwashin Koji was 
 examined at once by the Chief Officer, and 
 sternly reprimanded. Finally the Chief Officer 
 said to him : — " It is evident that you have been 
 deluding people by magical practices; and for 
 this offence alone you deserve to be heavily pun- 
 ished. However, if you will now respectfully 
 
The Story of Kwashin Koji 4} 
 
 oflFer up that picture to the Lord Nobunaga, we 
 shall this time overlook your fault. Otherwise 
 we shall certainly inflict upon you a very severe 
 punishment." 
 
 At this menace Kwashin Koji laughed in a be- 
 wildered way, and exclaimed : — " It is not I who 
 have been guilty of deluding people." Then, 
 turning to Arakawa, he cried out : — " You are 
 the deceiver 1 You wanted to flatter the lord by 
 giving him that picture ; and you tried to kill me 
 in order to steal it. Surely, if there be any such 
 thing as crime, that was a crime ! As luck would 
 have it, you did not succeed in killing me ; but if 
 you had succeeded, as you wished, what would 
 you have been able to plead in excuse for such an 
 act ? You stole the picture, at all events. The 
 picture that I now have is only a copy. And 
 after you stole the picture, you changed your 
 mind about giving it to Lord Nobunaga ; and 
 you devised a plan to keep it for yourself. So 
 you gave a blank kakemono to Lord Nobunaga ; 
 and, in order to conceal your secret act and pur- 
 pose, you pretended that I had deceived you by 
 substituting a blank kakemono for the real one. 
 Where the real picture now is, I do not know. 
 You probably do." 
 
44 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 At these words Arakawa became so angry that 
 he rushed towards the prisoner, and would have 
 struck him but for the interference of the guards. 
 And this sudden outburst of anger caused the 
 Chief Officer to suspect that Arakawa was not 
 altogether innocent. He ordered Kwashin Koji to 
 be taken to prison for the time being ; and he 
 then proceeded to question Arakawa closely. 
 Now Arakawa was naturally slow of speech ; and 
 on this occasion, being greatly excited, he could 
 scarcely speak at all ; and he stammered, and 
 contradicted himself, and betrayed every sign of 
 guilt. Then the Chief Officer ordered that Ara- 
 kawa should be beaten with a stick until he told 
 the truth. But it was not possible for him even 
 to seem to tell the truth. So he was beaten with 
 a bamboo until his senses departed from him, 
 and he lay as if dead. 
 
 Kwashin Kofi was told in the prison about 
 what had happened to Arakawa ; and he laughed. 
 But after a little while he said to the jailer: — 
 " Listen ! That fellow Arakawa really behaved 
 like a rascal ; and I purposely brought this pun- 
 ishment upon him, in order to correct his evil 
 inclinations. But now please say to the Chief 
 
The Story of Kwashin Koji 45 
 
 Officer that Arakawa must have been ignorant of 
 the truth, and that I shall explain the whole 
 matter satisfactorily." 
 
 Then Kwashin Koji was again taken before 
 the Chief Officer, to whom he made the following 
 declaration : — "In any picture of real excellence 
 there must be a ghost ; and such a picture, hav- 
 ing a will of its own, may refuse to be separated 
 from the person who gave it life, or even from 
 its rightful owner. There are many stories to 
 prove that really great pictures have souls. It is 
 well known that some sparrows, painted upon a 
 sliding-screen [fusuma] by Hogen Yenshin, once 
 flew away, leaving blank the spaces which they 
 had occupied upon the surface. Also it is well 
 known that a horse, painted upon a certain 
 kakemono, used to go out at night to eat grass. 
 Now, in this present case, I believe the truth to 
 be that, inasmuch as the Lord Nobunaga never 
 became the rightful owner of my kakemono, the 
 picture voluntarily vanished from the paper when 
 it was unrolled in his presence. But if you will 
 give me the price that I first asked, — one hun- 
 dred ryo of gold, — I think that the painting 
 will then reappear, of its own accord, upon the 
 now blank paper. At all events, let us try! 
 
46 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 There is nothing to risk, — since, if the picture 
 does not reappear, I shall at once return the 
 money." 
 
 On hearing of these strange assertions, Nobu- 
 naga ordered the hundred ryo to be paid, and 
 came in person to observe the result. The kake- 
 mono was then unrolled before him ; and, to the 
 amazement of all present, the painting reappeared, 
 with all its details. But the colors seemed to 
 have faded a little ; and the figures of the souls 
 and the demons did not look really alive, as be- 
 fore. Perceiving this difference, the lord asked 
 Kwashin Koji to explain the reason of it; and 
 Kwashin Koji replied : — " The value of the 
 painting, as you first saw it, was the value of a 
 painting beyond all price. But the value of the 
 painting, as you now see it, represents exactly 
 what you paid for it, — one hundred ryo of 
 gold. . . . How could it be otherwise .? " On 
 hearing this answer, all present felt that it would 
 be worse than useless to oppose the old man any 
 further. He was immediately set at liberty ; and 
 Arakawa was also liberated, as he had more than 
 expiated his fault by the punishment which he 
 had undergone. 
 
The Story of Kwashin Koji 47 
 
 Now Arakawa had a younger brother named 
 Buichi, — also a retainer in the service of Nobu- 
 naga. Buichi was furiously angry because Ara- 
 kawa had been beaten and imprisoned; and he 
 resolved to kill Kwashin Koji, Kwashin Koji 
 no sooner found himself again at liberty than he 
 went straight to a wine-shop, and called for wine. 
 Buichi rushed after him into the shop, struck him 
 down, and cut off his head. Then, taking the 
 hundred ryo thai had been paid to the old man, 
 Buichi wrapped up the head and the gold together 
 in a cloth, and hurried home to show them to 
 Arakawa. But when he unfastened the cloth he 
 found, instead of the head, only an empty wine- 
 gourd, and only a lump of filth instead of the 
 gold. . . . And the bewilderment of the brothers 
 was presently increased by the information that 
 the headless body had disappeared from the wine- 
 shop, — none could say how or when. 
 
 Nothing more was heard of Kwashin Koji 
 until about a month later, when a drunken man 
 was found one evening asleep in the gateway of 
 Lord Nobunaga's palace, and snoring so loud that 
 every snore sounded like the rumbling of distant 
 thunder. A retainer discovered that the drunk. 
 
48 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 ard was Kwashin Koji. For this insolent offence, 
 the old fellow was at once seized and thrown into 
 the prison. But he did not awake ; and in the 
 prison he continued to sleep without interruption 
 for ten days and ten nights, — all the while snor- 
 ing so that the sound could be heard to a great 
 distance. 
 
 About this time, the Lord Nobunaga came to 
 his death through the treachery of one of his 
 captains, Akechi Mitsuhide, who thereupon 
 usurped rule. But Mitsuhide 's power endured 
 only for a period of twelve days. 
 
 Now when Mitsuhide became master of Kyoto, 
 he was told of the case of Kwashin Koji ; and 
 he ordered that the prisoner should be brought 
 before him. Accordingly Kwashin Koji was 
 summoned into the presence of the new lord ; but 
 Mitsuhide spoke to him kindly, treated him as a 
 guest, and commanded that a good dinner shouM 
 be served to him. When the old man had eaten, 
 Mitsuhide said to him : — " I have heard that you 
 are very fond of wine ; — how much wine can 
 you drink at a single sitting ? " Kwashin Koji 
 answered : — " I do not really know how much ; 
 1 stop drinking only when I feel intoxication 
 
The Story of Kwashin Koji 49 
 
 coming on." Then the lord set a great wine- 
 cup ^ before Kwashin Koji, and told a servant to 
 fill the cup as often as the old man wished. And 
 Kwashin Koji emptied the great cup ten times in 
 succession, and asked for more; but the servant 
 made answer that the wine-vessel was exhausted. 
 ^11 present were astounded by this drinking-feat ; 
 and the lord asked Kwashin Koji, "Are you 
 not yet satisfied, Sir ? " " Well, yes," replied 
 Kwashin Koji, " 1 am somewhat satisfied ; — and 
 now, in return for your august kindness, I shall 
 display a little of my art. Be therefore so good 
 as to observe that screen." He pointed to a large 
 eight-folding screen upon which were painted the 
 Eight Beautiful Views of the Lake of Omi (Omi- 
 Hakkei) ; and everybody looked at the screen. 
 In one of the views the artist had represented, far 
 away on the lake, a man rowing a boat, — the 
 boat occupying, upon the surface of the screen, 
 a space of less than an inch in length. Kwashin 
 
 1 The term " bowl " would better indicate the kind of 
 vessel to which the story-teller refers. Some of the so- 
 called cups, used on festival occasions, were very large, — 
 shallow lacquered basins capable of holding considerably 
 more than a quart. To empty one of the largest size, at a 
 draught, was considered to be no small feat. 
 4 
 
$0 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 Koji then waved his hand in the direction of the 
 boat ; and all saw the boat suddenly turn, and be- 
 gin to move toward the foreground of the picture. 
 It grew rapidly larger and larger as it approached ; 
 and presently the features of the boatman be- 
 came clearly distinguishable. Still the boat drew 
 nearer, — always becoming larger, — until it ap- 
 peared to be only a short distance away. And, 
 all of a sudden, the water of the lake seemed to 
 overflow, — out of the picture into the room ; — 
 and the room was flooded ; and the spectators 
 girded up their robes in haste, as the water rose 
 above their knees. In the same moment the 
 boat appeared to glide out of the screen, — a real 
 fishing-boat ; — and the creaking of the single oar 
 could be heard. Still the flood in the room con- 
 tinued to rise, until the spectators were standing 
 up to their girdles in water. Then the boat came 
 close up to Kwashin Koji ; and Kwashin Koji 
 climbed into it ; and the boatman turned about, 
 and began to row away very swiftly. And, as the 
 boat receded, the water in the room began to lower 
 rapidly, — seeming to ebb back into the screen. 
 No sooner had the boat passed the apparent fore- 
 ground of the picture than the room was dry 
 again! But still the painted vessel appeared to 
 
The Story of Kwashin Koji $1 
 
 glide over the painted water, — retreating f urthier 
 into the distance, and ever growing smaller, — 
 till at last it dwindled to a dot in the offing. 
 And then it disappeared altogether ; and Kwashin 
 Koji disappeared with it. He was never again 
 seen in Japan. 
 
The Story of Ume'tsu Chubei 
 
The Story of Umetsu Chubei' 
 
 UMETSU CHUBEI was a young samurai 
 of great strength and courage. He 
 was in the service of the Lord Tomura 
 Judayu, whose castle stood upon a lofty hill in 
 the neighborhood of Yokote, in the province of 
 Dewa. The houses of the lord's retainers formed 
 a small town at the base of the hill. 
 
 Umetsu was one of those selected for night- 
 duty at the castle- gates. There were two night- 
 watches ; — the first beginning at ' sunset and 
 ending at midnight ; the second beginning at 
 midnight and ending at sunrise. 
 
 Once, when Umetsu happened to be on the 
 second watch, he met with a strange adventure. 
 While ascending the hill at midnight, to take his 
 place on guard, he perceived a woman standing 
 at the last upper turn of the winding road lead- 
 
 1 Related in the Bukkj^o-Hyakkwa-Zensbo. 
 55 
 
$6 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 mg to the castle. She appeared to have a child 
 in her arms, and to be waiting for somebody. 
 Only the most extraordinary circumstances could 
 account for the presence of a woman in that 
 lonesome place at so late an hour ; and Umetsu 
 remembered that goblins were wont to assume 
 feminine shapes after dark, in order to deceive 
 and destroy men. He therefore doubted whether 
 the seeming woman before him was really a 
 human being; and when he saw her hasten 
 towards him, as if to speak, he intended to 
 pass her by without a word. But he was too 
 much surprised to do so when the woman called 
 him by name, and said, in a very sweet voice : — 
 "Good Sir Umetsu, to-night I am in great 
 trouble, and I have a most painful duty to per- 
 form: will you not kindly help me by holding 
 this baby for one little moment.?" And she 
 held out the child to him. 
 
 Umetsu did not recognize the woman, who 
 appeared to be very young: he suspected the 
 charm of the strange voice, suspected a super- 
 natural snare, suspected everything ; — but he 
 was naturally kind ; and he felt that it would 
 be unmanly to repress a kindly impulse through 
 fear of goblins. Without replying, he took the 
 
Umetsu Chubei ?7 
 
 child. " Please hold it till I come back," said 
 the woman : "I shall return in a very little 
 while." ** I will hold it," he answered ; and 
 immediately the woman turned from him, and, 
 leaving the road, sprang soundlessly down the 
 hill so lightly and so quickly that he could 
 scarcely believe his tyts. She was out of sight 
 in a few seconds. 
 
 Umetsu then first looked at the child. It was 
 very small, and appeared to have been just born. 
 It was very still in his hands; and it did not 
 cry at all. 
 
 Suddenly it seemed to be growing larger. He 
 looked at it again. ... No: it was the same 
 small creature ; and it had not even moved. 
 Why had he imagined that it was growing 
 larger } 
 
 In another moment he knew why; — and he 
 felt a chill strike through him. The child was 
 not growing larger ; but it was growing heavier. 
 ... At first it had seemed to weigh only seven 
 or eight pounds: then its weight had gradually 
 doubled — tripled — quadrupled. Now -it could 
 not weigh less than fifty pounds ; — and still it 
 was getting heavier and heavier. ... A hun- 
 dred pounds 1 — a hundred and fifty I — two hun- 
 
<8 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 dred ! . . . Umetsu knew that he had been 
 dehided, — that he had not been speaking with 
 any mortal woman, — that the child was not 
 human. But he had made a promise; and a 
 samurai was bound by his promise. So he kept 
 the infant in his arms ; and it continued to grow 
 heavier and heavier . . . two hundred and fifty ! 
 — three hundred ! — four hundred pounds ! . . . 
 What was going to happen he could not imag- 
 ine ; but he resolved not to be afraid, and not 
 to let the child go while his strength lasted. . . . 
 Five hundred! — five hundred and fifty! — six 
 hundred pounds! All his muscles began to 
 quiver with the strain ; — and still the weight 
 increased. . . . " Namu Amida Butsu I" he 
 groaned — " Namu Amida Butsu ! — Namu 
 Amida Butsu I" Even as he uttered the holy 
 invocation for the third time, the weight passed 
 away from him with a shock ; and he stood 
 stupefied, with empty hands, — for the child had 
 unaccountably disappeared. But almost in the 
 same instant he saw the mysterious woman re- 
 turning as quickly as she had gone. Still pant- 
 ing she came to him; and he then first saw 
 that she was very fair ; — but her brow dripped 
 with sweat; and her sleeves were bound back 
 
Umetsu Chubei ?9 
 
 with tasuki-cords, as if she had been working 
 hard. 
 
 "Kind Sir Umetsu," she said, "you do not 
 know how great a service you have done me. 
 I am the Ujigami^ of this place; and to-night 
 one of my Ujiko found herself in the pains of 
 childbirth, and prayed to me for aid. But the 
 labor proved to be very difficult ; and I soon 
 saw that, by my own power alone, I might not 
 be able to save her: — therefore I sought for 
 the help of your strength and courage. And 
 the child that I laid in your hands was the child 
 that had not yet been born; and in the time 
 that you first felt the child becoming heavier 
 and heavier, the danger was very great, — for 
 the Gates of Birth were closed. And when you 
 felt the child become so heavy that you despaired 
 of being able to bear the weight much longer, — 
 in that same moment the mother seemed to be 
 dead, and the family wept for her. Then you 
 three times repeated the prayer, Namu Amida 
 Butsu! — and the third time that you uttered 
 
 1 Ujigami is the title given to the tutelary Shinto divin- 
 ity of a parish or district. All persons living in that parish 
 or district, and assisting in the maintenance of the temple 
 {miya) of the deity, are called Ujiko. 
 
60 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 it the power of the Lord Buddha came to our 
 aid, and the Gates of Birth were opened. . . . 
 And for that which you have done you shall be 
 fitly rewarded. To a brave samurai no gift can 
 be more serviceable than strength : therefore, 
 not only to you, but likewise to your children 
 and to your children's children, great strength 
 shall be given." 
 
 And, with this promise, the divinity disap- 
 peared. 
 
 Umetsu Chubei, wondering greatly, resumed 
 his way to the castle. At sunrise, on being 
 relieved from duty, he proceeded as usual to 
 wash his face and hands before making his 
 morning prayer. But when he began to wring 
 the towel which had served him, he was sur- 
 prised to feel the tough material snap asunder 
 in his hands. He attempted to twist together 
 the separated portions ; and again the stuflF 
 parted — like so much wet paper. He tried to 
 wring the four thicknesses; and the result was 
 the same. Presently, after handling various ob- 
 jects of bronze and of iron which yielded to his 
 touch like clay, he understood that he had come 
 into full possession of the great strength prom- 
 
Umetsu Chubei 61 
 
 ised, and that he would have to be careful thence- 
 forward when touching things, lest they should 
 crumble in his fingers. 
 
 On returning home, he made inquiry as to 
 whether any child had been born in the settle- 
 ment during the night. Then he learned that 
 a birth had actually taken place at the very 
 hour of his adventure, and that the circum- 
 stances had been exactly as related to him by 
 the Ujigami. 
 
 The children of Umetsu Chubei inherited their 
 father's strength. Several of his descendants — 
 all remarkably powerful men — were still living 
 in the province of Dewa at the time when this 
 story was written. 
 
The Story of Kogi the Priest 
 
The Story of Kogi the Priest' 
 
 NEARLY one thousand years ago there lived 
 in the famous temple called Miidera, at 
 Otsu ^ in the province of Omi, a learned 
 priest named Kogi. He was a great artist. He 
 painted, with almost equal skill, pictures of the 
 Buddhas, pictures of beautiful scenery, and pic- 
 tures of animals or birds; but he liked best to 
 paint fishes. Whenever the weather was fair, and 
 religious duty permitted, he would go to Lake 
 Biwa, and hire fishermen to catch fish for him, 
 without injuring them in any way, so that he 
 could paint them afterwards as they swam about 
 in a large vessel of water. After having made 
 
 1 From the collection entitled Ugetsu Monogatari. 
 
 * The town of Otsu stands on the shore of the great 
 Lake of Omi, — usually called Lake Biwa; — and the temple 
 Miidera is situated upon a hill overlooking the water. 
 Miidera was founded in the seventh century, but has been 
 several times rebuilt : the present structure dates back to 
 the latter part of the seventeenth century. 
 5 65 
 
66 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 pictures of them, and fed them like pets, he 
 would set them free again, — taking them back 
 to the lake himself. His pictures of fish at last 
 became so famous that people travelled from 
 great distances to see them. But the most won- 
 derful of all his drawings of fish was not drawn 
 from life, but was made from the memory of a 
 dream. For one day, as he sat by the lake-side 
 to watch the fishes swimming, Kogi had fallen 
 into a doze, and had dreamed that he was playing 
 with the fishes under the water. After he awoke, 
 the memory of the dream remained so clear that 
 he was able to paint it ; and this painting, which 
 he hung up in the alcove of his own room in the 
 temple, he called " Dream-Carp." 
 
 Kogi could never be persuaded to sell any of 
 his pictures of fish. He was willing to part with 
 his drawings of landscapes, of birds, or of flowers ; 
 but he said that lie would not sell a picture of 
 living fish to any one who was cruel enough to 
 kill or to eat fish. And as the persons who 
 wanted to buy his paintings were all fish- eaters, 
 their offers of money could not tempt him. 
 
 One summer Kogi fell sick ; and after a week's 
 illness he lost all power of speech and movement, 
 
K5gi the Priest 67 
 
 so that he seemed to be dead. But after his 
 funeral service had been performed, his disciples 
 discovered some warmth in the body, and decided 
 to postpone the burial for awhile, and to keep 
 watch by the seeming corpse. In the afternoon 
 of the same day he suddenly revived, and ques- 
 tioned the watchers, asking : — 
 
 " How long have I remained without knowledge 
 of the world ? " 
 
 " More than three days," an acolyte made 
 answer. " We thought that you were dead ; and 
 this morning your friends and parishioners assem- 
 bled in the temple for your funeral service. We 
 performed the service; but afterwards, finding 
 that your body was not altogether cold, we put 
 off the burial; and now we are very glad that 
 we did so." 
 
 Kogi nodded approvingly : then he said : — 
 
 " I want some one of you to go immediately 
 to the house of Taira no Suke, where the young 
 men are having a feast at the present moment — 
 (they are eating fish and drinking wine), — and 
 say to them : — ' Our master has revived ; and he 
 begs that you will be so good as to leave your 
 feast, and to call upon him without delay, be- 
 cause he has a wonderful story to tell you.' . . . 
 
68 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 At the same time " — continued Kogi — " observe 
 what Suke and his brothers are doing; — see 
 whether they are not feasting as I say." 
 
 Then an acolyte went at once to the house of 
 Taira no Suke, and was surprised to find that 
 Suke and his brother Jiiro, with their attendant, 
 Kamori, were having a feast, just as Kogi had 
 said. But, on receiving the message, all three 
 immediately left their fish and wine, and hastened 
 to the temple. Kogi, lying upon the couch to 
 which he had been removed, received them with 
 a smile of welcome; and, after some pleasant 
 words had been exchanged, he said to Suke : — 
 
 " Now, my friend, please reply to some ques- 
 tions that I am going to ask you. First of all, 
 kindly tell me whether you did not buy a fish 
 to-day from the fisherman Bunshi." 
 
 " Why, yes," replied Suke — " but how did 
 you know ? " 
 
 " Please wait a moment," said the priest. . . . 
 *' That fisherman Bunshi to-day entered your gate, 
 with a fish three feet long in his basket : it was 
 early in the afternoon, just after you and Juro 
 had begun a game of go ; — and Kamori was 
 watching the game, and eating a peach — was 
 he not } " 
 
Kogi the Priest 69 
 
 "That is true," exclaimed Suke and Kamori 
 together, with, increasing surprise. 
 
 " And when Kamori saw that big fish," pro- 
 ceeded Kogi, *^ he agreed to buy it at once ; and, 
 besides paying the price of the fish, he also gave 
 Bunshi some peaches, in a dish, and three cups of 
 wine. Then the cook was called ; and he came 
 and looked at the fish, and admired it ; and then, 
 by your order, he sliced it and prepared it for 
 your feast. . . . Did not all this happen just as 1 
 have said ? " 
 
 ** Yes," responded Suke ; " but we are very 
 much astonished that you should know what 
 happened in our house to-day. Please tell us 
 how you learned these matters." 
 
 ** Well, now for my story," said the priest. 
 ** You are aware that almost everybody believed 
 me to be dead; — you yourselves attended my 
 funeral service. But I did not think, three days 
 ago, that I was at all dangerously ill : I remem- 
 ber only that I felt weak and very hot, and that 
 I wanted to go out into the air to cool myself. 
 And I thought that I got up from my bed, with a 
 great effort, and went out, — supporting myself 
 with a stick. . . . Perhaps this may have been 
 imagination; but you will presently be able to 
 
70 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 judge the truth for yourselves : I am going to 
 relate everything exactly as it appeared to hap- 
 pen. ... As soon as I got outside of the house, 
 into the bright air, I began to feel quite light, — 
 light as a bird flying away from the net or the 
 basket in which it has been confined. I wandered 
 on and on till I reached the lake ; and the water 
 looked so beautiful and blue that I felt a great 
 desire to have a swim. I took oflf my clothes, 
 and jumped in, and began to swim about ; and I 
 was astonished to find that I could swim very 
 fast and very skilfully, — although before my 
 sickness I had always been a very poor swim- 
 mer. . . . You think that I am only telling you 
 a foolish dream — but listen! . . . While I was 
 wondering at this new skill of mine, I perceived 
 many beautiful fishes swimming below me and 
 around me ; and I felt suddenly envious of their 
 happiness, — reflecting that, no matter how good 
 a swimmer a man may become, he never can 
 enjoy himself under the water as a fish can. 
 Just then, a very big fish lifted its head above the 
 surface in front of me, and spoke to me with the 
 voice of a man, saying : — * That wish of yours 
 can very easily be satisfied: please wait there a 
 moment ! ' The fish then went down, out of 
 
Kogi the Priest 71 
 
 sight ; and I waited. After a few minutes there 
 came up, from the bottom of the lake, — riding 
 on the back of the same big fish that had spoken 
 to me, — a man wearing the headdress . and the 
 ceremonial robes of a prince ; and the man said 
 to me : — M come to you with a message from 
 the Dragon -King, who knows of your desire to 
 enjoy for a little time the condition of a fish. 
 As you have saved the lives of many fish, and 
 have always shown compassion to living crea- 
 tures, the God now bestows upon you the attire 
 of the Golden Carp, so that you will be able to 
 enjoy the pleasures of the Water- World. But 
 you must be very careful not to eat any fish, or 
 any food prepared from fish, — no matter how 
 nice may be the smell of it; — and you must 
 also take great care not to get caught by the 
 fishermen, or to hurt your body in any way.* 
 With these words, the messenger and his fish 
 went below and vanished in the deep water. I 
 looked at myself, and saw that my whole body 
 had become covered with scales that shone like 
 gold;— I saw that I had fins; — I found that I 
 had actually been changed into a Golden Carp. 
 Then I knew that I could swim wherever I 
 pleased. 
 
72 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 " Thereafter it seemed to me that I swam 
 away, and visited many beautiful places. [Here, 
 in the original narrative, are introduced some 
 vtrses describing the Eight Famous Attractions 
 of the Lake of Omi, — " Omi-Hakkei."] Some- 
 times I was satisfied only to look at the sunlight 
 dancing over the blue water, or to admire the 
 beautiful reflection of hills and trees upon still 
 surfaces sheltered from the wind. ... I remem- 
 ber especially the coast of an island — either 
 Okitsushima or Chikubushima — reflected in the 
 water like a red wall. . . . Sometimes I would 
 approach the shore so closely that I could see the 
 faces and hear the voices of people passing by ; 
 sometimes I would sleep on the water until 
 startled by the sound of approaching oars. At 
 night there were beautiful moonlight-views ; but 
 I was frightened more than once by the approach- 
 ing torchfires of the fishing-boats of Katase. 
 When the weather was bad, I would go below, — 
 far down, — even a thousand feet, — and play at 
 the bottom of the lake. But after two or three 
 days of this wandering pleasure, I began to feel 
 very hungry; and I returned to this neighbor- 
 hood in the hope of finding something to eat. 
 Just at that time the fisherman Bunshi happened 
 
Kogi the Priest 7? 
 
 to be fishing ; and I approached the hook which 
 he had let down into the water. There was some 
 fish-food upon it that was good to smell. I 
 remembered in the same moment the warning of 
 the Dragon- King, and swam away, saying to my- 
 self : — 'In any event I must not eat food con- 
 taining fish ; — 1 am a disciple of the Buddha.' 
 Yet after a little while my hunger became so in- 
 tense that I could not resist the temptation ; and I 
 swam back again to the hook, thinking, — ' Even 
 if Bunshi should catch me, he would not hurt 
 me; — he is my old friend.' I was not able to 
 loosen the bait from the hook ; and the pleas- 
 ant smell of the food was too much for my 
 patience ; and I swallowed the whole thing at a 
 gulp. Immediately after I did so, Bunshi pulled 
 in his line, and caught me. I cried out to him, 
 * What are you doing ? — you hurt me ! ' — but 
 he did not seem to hear me, and he quickly put 
 a string through my jaws. Then he threw me 
 into his basket, and took me to your house. 
 When the basket was opened there, I saw you 
 and Jiiro playing go in the south room, and 
 Kamori watching you — eating a peach the while. 
 All of you presently came out upon the veranda 
 to look at me; and you were delighted to see 
 
74 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 such a big fish. I called out to you as loud as I 
 could : — M am not a fish ! — I am Kogi — Kogi 
 the priest ! please let me go back to my temple ! ' 
 But you clapped your hands for gladness, and 
 paid no attention to my words. Then your cook 
 carried me into the kitchen, and threw me down 
 violently upon a cutting-board, where a terribly 
 sharp knife was lying. With his left hand he 
 pressed me down, and with his right hand he 
 took up that knife, — and 1 screamed to him : — 
 ' How can you kill me so cruelly ! I am a dis- 
 ciple of the Buddha ! — help ! help ! ' But in the 
 same instant I felt his knife dividing me — a 
 frightful pain ! — and then I suddenly awoke, and 
 found myself here in the temple." 
 
 When the priest had thus finished his story, 
 the brothers wondered at it; and Suke said to 
 him : — ''I now remember noticing that the jaws 
 of the fish were moving all the time that we were 
 looking at it ; but we did not hear any voice. . . . 
 Now I must send a servant to the house with 
 orders to throw the remainder of that fish into 
 the lake." 
 
 Kogi soon recovered from his illness, and lived 
 to paint many more pictures. It is related that, 
 
Kogi the Priest 7? 
 
 long after his death, some of his fish-pictures once 
 happened to fall into the lake, and that the figures 
 of the fish immediately detached themselves from 
 the silk or the paper upon which they had been 
 painted, and swam away! 
 
Folklore Gleanings 
 
Dragon-flies 
 
Dragon-flies 
 
 1 
 
 ONE of the old names of Japan is Akitsu- 
 shima, meaning ** The Island of the 
 Dragon-fly," and written with the char- 
 acter representing a dragon-fly, — which insect, 
 now called tombo, was anciently called akitsu. 
 Perhaps this name Akitsushima, " Island of the 
 Dragon-fly," was phonetically suggested by a 
 still older name for Japan, also pronounced Akit- 
 sushima, but written with different characters, 
 and signifying "The Land of Rich Harvests." 
 However this may be, there is a tradition that 
 the Emperor Jimmu, some twenty-six hundred 
 years ago, ascended a mountain to gaze over the 
 province of Yamato, and observed to those who 
 accompanied him that the configuration of the 
 land was like a dragon-fly licking its tail. Because 
 of this august observation the province of Ya- 
 6 81 
 
82 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 mato came to be known as the Land of the 
 Dragon-fly; and eventually the name was ex- 
 tended to the whole island. And the Dragon-fly 
 remains an emblem of the Empire even to this 
 day. 
 
 In a literal sense, Japan well deserves to be 
 called the Land of the Dragon-fly ; for, as Rein 
 poetically declared, it is "a true Eldorado to the 
 neuroptera-fancier." Probably no other country 
 of either temperate zone possesses so many kinds 
 of dragon-flies; and I doubt whether even the 
 tropics can produce any dragon- flies more curi- 
 ously beautiful than some of the Japanese species. 
 The most wonderful dragon-fly that I ever saw 
 was a Japanese Calepteryx, which I captured 
 last summer in Shidzuoka. It was what the 
 country-folk call a '' black dragon-lly " ; but the 
 color was really a rich deep purple. The long 
 narrow wings, velvety purple, seemed — even to 
 touch — like the petals of some marvellous flower. 
 The purple body, slender as a darning-needle, 
 was decorated with dotted lines of dead gold. 
 The head and thorax were vivid gold-green ; but 
 the eyes were pure globes of burnished gold. 
 The legs were fringed on the inner side with in- 
 describably delicate spines, set at right angles to 
 
Dragon-flies 83 
 
 the limb, like the teeth of a fairy-comb. So 
 exquisite was the creature that I felt a kind of re- 
 morse for having disturbed it, — felt as if I had 
 been mecfdling- with something belonging to the 
 gods; — and I quickly returned it to the shrub on 
 which it had been reposing. . . . This particular 
 kind of dragon-fly is said to haunt only the neigh- 
 borhood of a clear stream near the town of 
 Yaidzu. It is, however, but one of many lovely 
 varieties. 
 
 But the more exquisite dragon-flies are infre- 
 quently seen; and they seldom figure in Japanese 
 literature ; — and I can attempt to interest my 
 reader only in the poetry and the folklore of 
 dragon-flies. I propose to discourse of dragon- 
 flies in the old-fashioned Japanese way ; and the 
 little that I have been able to learn upon the sub- 
 ject,— with the help of quaint books and of 
 long-forgotten drawings, — mostly relates to the 
 commoner species. 
 
 But before treating of dragon-fly literature, it 
 will be necessary to say something regarding 
 dragon-fly nomenclature. Old Japanese books 
 profess to name about fifty kinds ; and the Chufu- 
 
84 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 Zusetsu actually contains colored pictures of 
 nearly that number of dragon-flies. But in these 
 volumes several insects resembling dragon-flies are 
 improperly classed with dragon-flies ; and in more 
 than one case it would seem that different names 
 have been given to the male and female of the 
 same species. On the other hand I find as many 
 as four different varieties of dragon-fly bearing 
 the same folk-name ! And in view of these facts 
 I venture to think that the following list will be 
 found sufficiently complete : — 
 
 I. — Mugiwara-tomho (or simply, tomho), 
 *' Barley -straw Dragon-fly," — so called because 
 its body somewhat resembles in shape and color a 
 barley-straw. — This is perhaps the most common 
 of all the dragon-flies, and the first to make its 
 appearance. 
 
 II. — Shiokara-tombo, or Shio-tomho, — " Salt- 
 fish Dragon-fly," or "Salt Dragon-fly," — so 
 called because the end of its tail looks as if it 
 had been dipped in salt. Shiokara is the name 
 given to a preparation of fish preserved in salt. 
 
 III. — Kino-tomho, ''Yellow Dragon-fly." — It 
 is not all yellow, but reddish, with yellow stripes 
 and bands. 
 
'.^' 
 
 / 
 
 IfF 
 
 d 
 
 Plate 1 
 
 I. Shio-Tombo ("Srt// •' D,> 
 II. MUGIWARA-TOMBO (" Barley Straw ") 
 
Dragon-flies 8? 
 
 IV. — Ao-tomho. Ao means either blue or 
 green ; and two different kinds of dragon-fly, — 
 one green, and one metallic-blue, — are called by 
 this name. 
 
 V. — Koshiaki'tombd, — " Shining Loins." The 
 insect usually so called is black and yellow. 
 
 VI. — Tono - Sama - tomho, — " August - Lord 
 Dragon-fly." Many different kinds of dragon-fly 
 are called by this name, — probably on account of 
 their beautiful colors. The name Koshiaki, or 
 "Shining Loins," is likewise given to several 
 varieties. 
 
 VII. — Ko-mugi-tombo, " Wheat-straw Dragon- 
 fly." — Somewhat smaller than the ** Barley -straw 
 dragon-fly." 
 
 VIII. — Tsumaguro-tombo, " Black -skirted (or 
 " black -hemmed ") Dragon-fly." — Several kinds 
 of dragon-flies are thus called, because the edges 
 of the wings are black or dark -red. 
 
 IX. — Kuro-tombo, "Black Dragon-fly." As 
 the word kuro means either dark in color or 
 black, it is not surprising to find this name given 
 both to deep red and to deep purple insects. 
 
 X. — Karakasa-tombo, " Umbrella Dragon-fly." 
 The body of this creature is said to resemble, both 
 in form and color, a closed umbrella of the kind 
 
86 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 known as karakasa, made of split bamboo 
 covered with thick oil-paper. 
 
 XL — Cho-tombo, — " Butterfly Dragon-fly." 
 Several varieties of dragon-fly are thus called, — 
 apparently because of wing-markings like those 
 of moths or butterflies. 
 
 XII. — Shojo-tombo. A bright-red dragon-fly 
 is so named, simply because of its tint. — In the 
 zoological mythology of China and Japan, the 
 Shojo figures as a being less than human, but 
 more than animal, — in appearance resembling 
 a stout boy with long crimson hair. From this 
 crimson hair it was alleged that a wonderful red 
 dye could be extracted. The Shojo was supposed 
 to be very fond of sake; and in Japanese art 
 the creature is commonly represented as dancing 
 about a s^^^-vessel. 
 
 XIII. — Haguro-tombo, " Black-winged Dragon- 
 fly." 
 
 XIV. — Oni -yamma, " Demon Dragon-fly." 
 This is the largest of all the Japanese dragon- 
 flies. It is rather unpleasantly colored; the 
 body being black, with bright yellow bands and 
 stripes. 
 
 XV. — Ki-yamma, " Goblin Dragon-fly." Also 
 called Ki-Emma, — '* Emma," or" Yemma," being 
 
Plate 3 
 
 YUREI-TOMBO C Ghost " D.) or 
 KuRO-TOMb5 (" Black '■' D.) 
 
Plate 4 
 
 I. Shojo-Tombo 
 
 II. KanE-TSUKE-Tombo (." Stained-with-Kaii, 
 
Dragon-flies 87 
 
 the name of the King of Death and Judge of 
 Souls. 
 
 XVl — Shdryd-tombo, " The Dragon-fly of the 
 Ancestral Spirits." This appellation, as well as 
 another of kindred meaning, — Shorai-tomho, or 
 ** Dragon-fly of the Dead," — would appear, so far 
 as I could learn, to be given to many kinds of 
 dragon-fly. 
 
 XVII. — Yurei-tomho, — " Ghost Dragon-fly." 
 Various creatures are called by this name, — which 
 I thought especially appropriate in the case of one 
 beautiful Calepteryx, whose soundless black flit- 
 ting might well be mistaken for the motion of a 
 shadow, — the shadow of a dragon-fly. Indeed 
 this appellation for the black insect must have been 
 intended to suggest the primitive idea of shadow 
 as ghost. 
 
 XVIII. — Kane-tsuke - tomho, or 0-haguro - 
 tomho. Either name refers to the preparation 
 formerly used to blacken the teeth of married 
 women, and might be freely rendered as " Tooth- 
 blackening Dragon-fly." 0-haguro ('' honora- 
 ble tooth-blackening " ) or Kane, were the terms 
 by which the tooth-staining infusion was com- 
 monly known. Kane wo tsukeru signified to 
 apply, or, more literally, to wear the stuff : thus 
 
88 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 the appellation Kane-tsuke tombo might be inter- 
 preted as *' the Kane-sidimtd Dragon-fly." The 
 wings of the insect are half-black, and look as if 
 they had been partly dipped in ink. Another 
 and equally picturesque name for the creature is 
 Koya, " the Dyer." 
 
 XIX. — Ta-no- Kami-tomho , '' Dragon-fly of 
 the God of Rice-fields." This appellation has 
 been given to an insect variegated with red and 
 yellow. 
 
 XX. — Yanagi-joro, " The Lady of the Weep- 
 ing-willow." A beautiful, but ghostly name; 
 for the Yanagi-joro is the Spirit of the Willow- 
 tree. I find that two very graceful species of 
 dragon-fly are thus called. 
 
 XXI. — Seki-i-Shisha, '* Red-robed Messenger." 
 
 XXII. — Yamma-tombo. The name is a sort 
 of doublet ; yamma signifying a large dragon-fly, 
 and tombo any sort of dragon-fly. This is the 
 name for a black-and-green insect, called Onjo 
 in Izumo. 
 
 XXIII. — Kuruma-yamma, ** Wagon Dragon- 
 fly," — probably so-named from the disk-like 
 appendages of the tail. 
 
 XXIV. —Aka-tombd, '' Red Dragon-fly." The 
 name is now given to various species; but the 
 
Plate 5 
 Haguro-Tombo 
 
Plate 6 
 
 1. SEKl-\-SH\SH\t^' Red Ri'hta Mestertf^ei 'i 
 II. AKA-TOMBO 
 
Dragon-flies 89 
 
 insect especially referred to as Aha-toinho by 
 the old poets is a small dragon-fly, which is often 
 seen in flocks. 
 
 XXV. — Tosumi-tombo, " Lamp-wick Dragon- 
 fly." A very small creature, — thus named be- 
 cause of the resemblance of its body to the 
 slender pith-wick used in the old-fashioned 
 Japanese lamp. 
 
 XXVI. — Mono-sashi-tombo, " Foot-measure 
 Dragon-fly." This also is a very small insect. 
 The form of its body, with the ten joint-mark- 
 ings, suggested this name ; — the ordinary Jap- 
 anese foot -measure, usually made of bamboo, 
 being very narrow, and divided into only ten 
 sun, or inches. 
 
 XXVII. — Beni-tombo. This is the name given 
 to a beautiful pink dragon-fly, on account of its 
 color. Beni is a kind of rouge, with which the 
 Japanese girl tints her lips and cheeks on certain 
 occasions. 
 
 XXWWl — Mekura-tombo, " Blind Dragon-fly." 
 The creature thus called is not blind at all ; but it 
 dashes its large body in so clumsy a way against 
 objects in a room that it was at one time sup- 
 posed to be sightless. 
 
 XX\X. — Ka-tombC, ** Mosquito Dragon-fly," 
 
90 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 — perhaps in the same sense as the American 
 term " mosquito-hawk." 
 
 XXX. — Kuro-yama-tomho, "Black Mountain- 
 Dragon-fly," — so called to distinguish it from 
 the Yama-tombo, or '' Mountain Dragon-fly," 
 which is mostly green. 
 
 XXXI. — Ko-yama-tombo, " Little Mountain- 
 Dragon-fly," — the name of a small insect resem- 
 bling the Yama-tomho in form and color. 
 
 XXXII. — Tsukete-dan. The word dan is a 
 general term for variegated woven stuffs; and 
 the name tsukete-dan might be freely rendered 
 as " The Wearer of the Many-Colored Robe." 
 
 I believe that in the foregoing list the only 
 name requiring further explanation is the name 
 Shorai-tombo, or Shoryd-tombo, in its meaning 
 of " the Dragon-fly of the Dead." Unlike the 
 equally weird name Yurei-tombo, or '' Ghost 
 Dragon-fly," the term Shorai-tombo does not re- 
 fer to the appearance of the insect, but to the 
 strange belief that certain dragon -flies are ridden 
 by the dead, — used as winged steeds. From the 
 morning of the thirteenth to the midnight of 
 the fifteenth day of the old seventh month, — 
 the time of the Festival of the Bon, — the 
 
Dragon-flies 91 
 
 dragon-flies are said to carry the Hotoke-Sama, 
 the August Spirits of the Ancestors, who then 
 revisit their former homes. Therefore during 
 this Buddhist " All-Souls," children are forbidden 
 to molest any dragon-flies, — especially dragon- 
 flies that may then happen to enter the family 
 dwelling. This supposed relation of dragon -flies 
 to the supernatural world helps to explain an old 
 folk saying, still current in some provinces, to the 
 eflfect that the child who catches dragon -flies will 
 never ''obtain knowledge." Another curious 
 belief is that certain dragon-flies " carry the 
 image of Kwannon-Sama (Avalokitesvara)," 
 — because the markings upon the backs of the 
 insects bear some faint resemblance to the form 
 of a Buddhist icon. 
 
 II 
 
 Different kinds of dragon-fly show themselves 
 at diflferent periods ; and the more beautiful spe- 
 cies, with few exceptions, are the latest to appear. 
 All Japanese dragon -flies have been grouped by 
 old writers into four classes, according to the 
 predominant color of each variety, — the Yellow, 
 Green (or Blue), Black (or Dark), and Red 
 
92 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 Dragon -flies. It is said that the yellow-marked 
 insects are the earliest to appear ; that the green, 
 blue, and black varieties first show themselves in 
 the Period of Greatest Heat; and that the red 
 kinds are the last to come and the last to go, — 
 vanishing only with the close of autumn. In a 
 vague and general way, these statements can be 
 accepted as results of observation. Nevertheless, 
 the dragon-fly is popularly spoken of as a crea- 
 ture of autumn : indeed one of its many names, 
 Akitsu-mushi, signifies '' autumn insect." And 
 the appellation is really appropriate ; for it is not 
 until the autumn that dragon-flies appear in such 
 multitude as to compel attention. For the poet, 
 however, the true dragon-fly of autumn is the red 
 
 dragon-fly : 
 
 Aki no ki no 
 
 Aka-tombo ni 
 
 Sadamarinu. 
 
 That the autumn season has begun is decided by the 
 [appearance of the] red dragon-fly. 
 
 Onoga mi ni 
 
 Aki wo somenuku 
 
 Tombo kana ! 
 
 the dragon-fly ! — he has dyed his own body with 
 [ the color of] autumn ! 
 
Dragon-flies 93 
 
 Aki no hi no 
 Someta iro nari 
 Aka-tombo ! 
 
 Dyed he is with the color of autumn days — the red 
 dragon-fly ! 
 
 ** Spring," says a Japanese poet, " is the Season 
 of the Eyes ; Autumn is the Season of the Ears," 
 — meaning that in spring the blossoming of the 
 trees and the magic of morning haze make de- 
 light for the eyes, and that in autumn the ears 
 are charmed by the music of countless insects. 
 But he goes on to say that this pleasure of 
 autumn is toned with melancholy. Those plain- 
 tive voices evoke the memory of vanished years 
 and of vanished faces, and so to Buddhist 
 thought recall the doctrine of impermanency- 
 Spring is the period of promise and of hope ; 
 autumn, the time of remembrance and of regret. 
 And the coming of autumn's special insect, the 
 soundless dragon-fly, — voiceless in the season 
 of voices, — only makes weirder the aspects of 
 change. Everywhere you see a silent play of 
 fairy lightnings, — flashes of color continually 
 intercrossing, like a weaving of interminable 
 
94 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 enchantment over the face of the land. Thus 
 an old poet describes it : — 
 
 Kurenai no 
 Kagero hashiru, 
 Tombo kana ! 
 
 Like a fleeting of crimson gossamer-threads, the flashing 
 of the dragon-flies. 
 
 Ill 
 
 For more than ten centuries the Japanese have 
 been making verses about dragon-flies ; and the 
 subject remains a favorite one even with the 
 younger poets of to-day. The oldest extant 
 poem about a dragon-fly is said to have been 
 composed, fourteen hundred and forty years 
 ago, by the Emperor Yiiriaku. One day while 
 this Emperor was hunting, say the ancient 
 records, a gadfly came and bit his arm. There- 
 with a dragon-fly pounced upon that gadfly, 
 and devoured it. Then the Emperor com- 
 manded his ministers to make an ode in praise 
 of that dragon-fly. But as they hesitated how 
 to begin, he himself composed a poem in praise 
 of the insect, ending with the words, — 
 
Dragon-flies 9$ 
 
 " Even a creeping insect 
 Waits upon the Great Lord : 
 Thy form it will bear, 
 O Yamato, land of the dragon-fly ! " 
 
 And in honor of the loyal dragon-fly, the place 
 of the incident was called Akitsuno, or the Moor 
 of the Dragon-fly. 
 
 The poem attributed to the Emperor Yuriaku 
 is written in the form called naga-uta, or " long- 
 poetry " ; but the later poems on dragon -flies 
 are mostly composed in the briefer forms of 
 Japanese verse. There are three brief forms, — 
 the ancient tanka, consisting of thirty-one sylla- 
 bles ; the popular dodoitsu, consisting of twenty- 
 six syllables; and the hokku, consisting of only 
 seventeen. The vast majority of dragon-fly 
 poems are in hokku. There are scarcely any 
 poems upon the subject in dodoitsu, and — 
 strange to say! — but very few in the classical 
 tanka. The friend who collected for me all 
 the verses quoted in this essay, and many hun- 
 dreds more, declares that he read through fifty- 
 two volumes of thirty-one- syllable poetry in 
 the Imperial Library before he succeeded in 
 finding a single composition about dragon-flies; 
 
96 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 and eventually, after much further research, he 
 was able to discover only about a dozen such 
 poems in tanka. 
 
 The reason for this must be sought in the 
 old poetical conventions. Japanese thirty -one- 
 syllable poetry is composed according to rules 
 that have been fixed for hundreds of years. 
 These rules require that almost every subject 
 treated shall be considered in some relation to 
 one of the seasons. And this should be done in 
 accordance with certain laws of grouping, — long- 
 established conventions of association, recognized 
 both in painting and in poetry: for example, 
 the nightingale should be mentioned, or por- 
 trayed, together with the plum-tree ; the sparrow, 
 with the bamboo; the cuckoo, with the moon; 
 frogs, with rain ; the butterfly, with flowers ; the 
 bat, with the willow-tree. Every Japanese child 
 knows something about these regulations. Now, 
 it so happens that no such relations have been 
 clearly fixed for the dragon-fly in /^;z^^-poetry, 
 — though in pictures we often see it perched on 
 the edge of a water-bucket, or upon an ear 
 of ripened rice. Moreover, in the classification 
 of subject-groupings for poetry, the dragon-fly 
 is not placed among musM ('Mnsects" — by 
 
Dragon-flies 97 
 
 which word the poet nearly always means a 
 musical insect of some sort) , but among zo, — 
 a term of very wide signification ; for it includes 
 the horse, cat, dog, monkey, crow, sparrow, tor- 
 toise, snake, frog, — almost all fauna, in short. 
 
 Thus the rarity of tanka-potms about dragon- 
 flies may be explained. But why should dragon - 
 flies be almost ignored in dodoitsu? Probably 
 for the reason that this form of verse is usually 
 devoted to the subject of love. The voiceless 
 dragon-fly can suggest to the love-poet no such 
 fancies as those inspired by the singing-insects, — 
 especially by those night-crickets whose music 
 lingers in the memory of some evening tryst. 
 Out of several hundred dragon-fly poems col- 
 lected for me, I find only seven relating, directly 
 or indirectly, to the subject of love ; and not one 
 of the seven is in twenty -six-syllable verse. 
 
 But in the form hokktt — limited to seventeen 
 syllables — the poems on dragon-flies are almost 
 as numerous as are the dragon-flies themselves 
 in the early autumn. For in this measure there 
 are few restraints placed upon the composer, 
 either as to theme or method. Almost the only 
 rule about hokku, — not at all a rigid one, — is 
 that the poem shall be a little word-picture, — 
 7 
 
98 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 that it shall revive the memory of something 
 seen or felt, — that it shall appeal to some ex- 
 perience of sense. The greater number of the 
 poems that I am going to quote certainly fulfil 
 this requirement: the reader will find that they 
 are really pictures, — tiny color-prints in the 
 manner of the Ukiyo-ye school. Indeed almost 
 any of the following could be delightfully imaged, 
 with a few touches of the brush, by some Japa- 
 nese master : — 
 
 Picture-poems about Dragon-flies 
 
 Ine no ho no 
 Tombo tomari 
 Tarenikeri. 
 
 An ear of rice has bent because a dragon-fly perched 
 upon it. 
 
 Tombo no 
 Eda ni tsuitari 
 Wasure-guwa. 
 
 See the dragon-fly resting on the handle of the forgotten 
 mattock .1 
 
 * The kuwa is shaped like a hoe, but is a much heavier tool. When 
 left with the heavy blade resting flat upon the ground, as suggested in 
 this little word-picture, the handle remains almost perpendicular. 
 
Dragon-flies 99 
 
 Tombo no 
 Kaide yukikeri 
 Sute waraji. 
 
 Dragon-flies have gone to sniff at a pair of cast-oflf 
 sandals of straw. 
 
 Sode ni tsuku 
 Sumi ka? — obana ni 
 Kane -tombo ! 
 
 Is it an inic-stain upon a sleeve? — no: it is only the 
 black dragon-fly resting upon the obana. ^ 
 
 Hi wa naname 
 Sekiya no yari ni 
 Tombo kana ! 
 
 See the dragon-fly perching on the blade of the spear 
 leaning against the rampart-wall ! 
 
 Tombo no 
 Kusa ni undeya, 
 Ushi no tsuno ! 
 
 O dragon-fly ! how have you wearied of the grass that 
 you should thus perch upon the horn of a cow ! 
 
 1 Obana is another name for the beautiful flowering grass usually 
 called susuki, and known to botanists as Eularia Japonica. 
 
100 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 Kaki-dake no 
 
 Ippon nagaki — 
 
 Tombo kana ! 
 
 One of the bamboo-stakes in that fence seems to be 
 higher than the others — but no ! there is a dragon-fly 
 upon it ! 
 
 Kaki-dake to 
 
 Tombo to utsuru 
 
 Shoji kana ! 
 
 The shadow of the bamboo-fence, with a dragon-fly at 
 rest upon it, is thrown upon my paper-window ! 
 
 Tsurigane ni 
 
 Hito-toki yasumi 
 
 Tombo kana ! 
 
 See ! the dragon-fly is resting awhile upon the temple- 
 bell ! 
 
 O WO motte 
 Kane ni mukaeru, — 
 Tombo kana ! 
 
 Only with his tail he thinks to oppose [the weight of^ 
 the great temple-bell, — silly dragon-fly ! 
 
Dragon-flies 101 
 
 Naki-hito no 
 Shirushi no take ni 
 Tombo kana ! 
 
 Lo 1 a dragon-fly rests upon the bamboo that marks the 
 grave ! 
 
 Itte wa kite 
 Tombo taezu 
 Fune no tsuna. 
 
 About the ropes of the ship the dragon-flies cease not to 
 come and go. 
 
 Tombo ya 
 Fune wa nagarete 
 Todomarazu. 
 
 The dragon-fly ceases not to flit about the vessel drifting 
 down the stream. 
 
 Tombo ya ! 
 
 Hobashira ate ni 
 
 Toku yuku. 
 
 O the dragon-fly ! — keeping an eye upon the mast, he 
 ventures far ! 
 
 Tombo ya ! 
 Hi no kage dekite, 
 Nami no ue. 
 
 Poor dragon-fly ! — now that the sun has become ob- 
 scured, he wanders over the waves. 
 
102 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 Wata-tori no 
 
 Kasa ya tombo no 
 
 Hitotsu-zutsu. 
 
 Look at the bamboo-hats of the cotton-pickers ! — there 
 is a dragon-fly perched on each of them ! 
 
 Nagare-yuku 
 
 Awa ni yume miru 
 
 Tombo kana ! 
 
 Lo 1 the dragon-fly dreams a dream above the flowing 
 of the foam-bubbles ! 
 
 Uki-kusa no 
 
 Hana ni asobu ya, 
 
 Aka-tombo ! 
 
 See the red dragon-fly sporting about the blossoms of 
 the water-weed ! 
 
 Tombo no 
 Hitoshio akashi 
 Fuchi no ue. 
 
 Much more red seems the red dragon-fly when hovering 
 above the pool. 
 
 Tsuri-beta no 
 
 Sao ni kite neru 
 
 Tombo kana ! 
 
 See ! the dragon-fly settles down to sleep on the rod of 
 the unskilful angler ! 
 
Dragon-flies 10? 
 
 Tombo no 
 Ha-ura ni sabishi, — 
 Aki-shigure. 
 
 Lonesomely clings the dragon-fly to the underside of the 
 leaf — Ah ! the autumn-rains ! 
 
 Tombo no 
 To bakari tsuku 
 Kara-e kana ! 
 
 Only ten dragon-flies — all clinging to the same withered 
 spray ! 
 
 Yosogoto no 
 
 Naruko ni nigeru, 
 
 Tombo kana ! 
 
 Poor dragon-fly! scared away by the clapper* that 
 never was intended for you ! 
 
 Ao-zora ya, 
 Ka hodo mure-tobu 
 Aka-tombo. 
 
 High in the azure sky the gathering of red dragon-flies 
 looks like a swarming of mosquitoes » 
 
 I Naruko. This clapper, used to frighten away birds from the 
 crops, consists of a number of pieces of bamboo, or hard wood, fas- 
 tened to a rope extended across the field or garden. When the end of 
 the rope is pulled, the pieces of wood rattle loudly. 
 
104 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 Furu-haka ya ; 
 Aka-tombo tobu ; 
 Kare shikimi. 
 
 Old tomb ! — [onlf] a flitting of red dragon-flies ; — some 
 withered [offerings of] shikimi i [before the grave] ! 
 
 Sabishisa wo ! 
 Tombo tobu nari 
 Haka no ue. 
 
 Desolation ! — dragon-flies flitting above the graves ! 
 
 Tombo tonde, 
 Koto-naki mura no 
 Hi go nari. 
 
 Dragon-flies are flitting, and the noon-sun is shining, 
 above the village where nothing eventful ever happens. 
 
 YiJzuki hi 
 Usuki tombo no 
 Ha-kage kana ! 
 
 O the thin shadow of the dragon-fly's wings in the light 
 of sunset I 
 
 ' It is the custom to set sprays of shikimi in bamboo vases before 
 the graves of Buddhist dead. This shikimi is a kind of anise, botani- 
 cally known as Illicium religiosum. 
 
Dragon-flies iOS 
 
 Tombo no 
 Kabe wo kakayuru 
 Nishi-hi kana ! 
 
 that sunlight from the West, and the dragon-fly cling- 
 ing to the wall ! 
 
 Tombo toru 
 Iri-hi ni tori no 
 Metsuki kana ! 
 
 O the expression of that cock's eyes in the sunset-light 
 — trying to catch a dragon-fly ! 
 
 Tombo no 
 Mo ya iri-hi no 
 Issekai. 
 
 Dance, O dragon-flies, in your world of the setting sun ! 
 
 Nama-kabe ni 
 Yii-hi sasunari 
 Aka-tomb5. 
 
 To the freshly-plastered wall a red dragon-fly clings in 
 the light of the setting-sun .1 
 
 * This is a tiny color-study. The tint of the freshly-plastered wall 
 is supposed to be a warm grey. 
 
106 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 Deru tsuki to 
 
 Iri-hi no ai ya — 
 
 Aka-tombo. 
 
 In the time between the setting of the sun and the rising 
 of the moon — red dragon-flies. 
 
 Yu-kage ya, 
 Nagare ni hitasu 
 Tombo no o ! 
 
 The dragon-fly at dusk dips her tail into the running 
 stream. 
 
 IV 
 
 The foregoing compositions are by old authors 
 mostly : few modern hokku on the subject have 
 the same naive quality of picturesqueness. The 
 older poets seem to have watched the ways of 
 the dragon-fly with a patience and a freshness of 
 curiosity impossible to this busier generation. 
 They made verses about all its habits and pecu- 
 liarities, — even about such matters as the queer 
 propensity of the creature to return many times 
 in succession to any spot once chosen for a perch. 
 Sometimes they praised the beauty of its wings, 
 
Dragon-flies 107 
 
 and compared them to the wings of devas or 
 Buddhist angels; sometimes they celebrated the 
 imponderable grace of its hovering, — the ghostly 
 stillness and lightness of its motion ; and some- 
 times they jested about its waspish appearance 
 of anger, or about the goblin oddity of its stare. 
 They noticed the wonderful way in which it can 
 change the direction of its course, or reverse the 
 play of its wings with the sudden turn that sug- 
 gested the modern Japanese word for a somer- 
 sault, — tombogaeri ("dragon -fly -turning ")} In 
 the dazzling rapidity of its flight — invisible but 
 as a needle-gleam of darting color — they found 
 a similitude for impermanency. But they per- 
 ceived that this lightning flight was of short 
 duration, and that the dragon-fly seldom travels 
 far, unless pursued, preferring to flit about one 
 spot all day long. Some thought it worth while 
 to record in verse that at sunset all the dragon - 
 flies flock towards the glow, and that they rise 
 high in air when the sun sinks below the horizon, 
 — as if they hoped to obtain from the altitudes 
 one last sight of the vanishing splendor. They 
 
 1 Tombogaeri wo utsu, " to throw a dragon-fly-turning " 
 is the Japanese expression corresponding with our phrase, 
 •* to turn a somersault." 
 
108 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 remarked that the dragon-fly cares nothing- for 
 flowers, and is apt to light upon stakes or stones 
 rather than upon blossoms; and they wondered 
 what pleasure it could find in resting on the rail 
 of a fence or upon the horn of a cow. Also they 
 marvelled at its stupidity when attacked with 
 sticks or stones, — as often flying toward the 
 danger as away from it. But they sympathized 
 with its struggles in the spider's net, and rejoiced 
 to see it burst through the meshes. The follow- 
 ing examples, selected from hundreds of compo- 
 sitions, will serve to suggest the wide range of 
 these curious studies: — 
 
 Dragon -FLIES and Sunshine 
 
 Tombo ya, 
 Hi no sasu katae 
 Tate-yuku ! 
 
 dragon-fly ! ever towards the sun you rise and soar I 
 
 Hiatari no 
 Dote ya hinemosu 
 Tombo tobu. 
 
 Over the sunlit bank, all day long, the dragon-flies flit to 
 and fro. 
 
Dragon-flies 109 
 
 Go-roku shaku 
 Onoga kumoi no 
 Tombo kana ! 
 
 Poor dragon-fly ! — the [blue] space of five or six feet 
 [above him] he thinks to be his own sky ! 
 
 Tombo no 
 Muki wo soroeru 
 Nishi-hi kana ! 
 
 Ah, the sunset-glow ! Now all the dragon-flies are 
 shooting in the same direction. 
 
 Tomb5 ya ! 
 
 Sora e hanarete 
 
 Kurekakari. 
 
 Dusk approaches: see! the dragon-flies have risen 
 toward the sky ! 
 
 Hoshi hitotsu 
 
 Miru made asobu 
 
 Tombo kana ! 
 
 O dragon-fly ! you continue to sport until the first star 
 appears 1 
 
110 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 Flight of Dragon-flies 
 
 To yama ya, 
 Tombo tsui-yuki, 
 Tsui-kaeru. 
 
 Quickly the dragon-fly starts for the distant mountain 5 
 but as quickly returns. 
 
 Yukiote, 
 Dochiramo soreru 
 Tombo kana ! 
 
 Meeting in flight, how wonderfully do the dragon-flies 
 glance away from each other ! 
 
 Narabu ka to 
 
 Miete wa soreru 
 
 Tombo kana ! 
 
 Lo ! the dragon-flies that seemed to fly in line all scatter 
 away from each other. 
 
 Mentioned in Love-Songs 
 
 Kagero no 
 Kage tomo ware wa 
 
 Nari ni keri 
 Aruka nakika no 
 Kimi ga nasake ni. 
 
Dragon-flies 111 
 
 Even as the shadow of a dragon-fly 1 1 have become, by 
 reason of the slightness of your love. 
 
 Obotsu kana ! 
 Yume ka ? utsusu ka ? 
 
 Kagero no 
 Honomeku yori mo 
 Hakanakarishi wa ! 
 
 O my doubt ! Is it a dream or a reality ? — more fugitive 
 than even the dim flitting of a dragon-fly ! 2 
 
 Tombo ya ! 
 Mi wo mo kogasazu, 
 Naki mo sezu ! 
 
 Happy dragon-fly ! —never self -consumed by longing,— 
 never even uttering a cry ! 
 
 Strangeness and Beauty 
 
 Tombo no 
 Kao wa okata 
 Medama kana ! 
 
 O the face of the dragon-fly! — almost nothing but 
 eyes! 
 
 1 The word kagero here means " dragon-fly." There Is another word 
 kagero meaning "gossamer." Though written alike in Romaji, these 
 two terms are represented in Japanese by very different characters. 
 
 2 The thought suggested is, — "Can it be true that we were ever 
 united, even for a moment? " 
 
112 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 Koe naki wo, 
 Tombo munen ni 
 Miyuru kana ! 
 
 O dragon-fly! you appear to be always angry because 
 you have no voice! 
 
 Semi ni makenu 
 Hagoromo mochishi, 
 Tombo kana ! 
 
 O dragon-fly ! the celestial raiment ^ you possess is no- 
 wise inferior to that of the cicada ! 
 
 Lightness of Dragon-flies 
 
 Tsubame yori 
 Tombo wa mono mo 
 Ugokasazu. 
 
 More lightly even than the swallow does the dragon-fly 
 touch things without moving them. 
 
 Tombo ya, 
 Tori no fumarenu 
 Eda no saki ! 
 
 ^ Literally " feather-robe " (hagoromo) ; — this is the name gfiven 
 to the raiment supposed to be worn by the "Sky-People" — angelic 
 Inhabitants of the Buddhist heaven. The hagoromo enables its 
 wearer to soar through space ; and the poet compares the wings of the 
 beautiful insect to such a fairy robe. 
 
Dragon-flies 11 J 
 
 O dragon-fly, you perch on the tip of the spray where 
 never a bird can tread ! 
 
 Stupidity of Dragon-flies 
 
 Utsu-tsue no 
 
 Saki ni tomarishi, 
 
 Tombo kana ! 
 
 O dragon-fly ! you light upon the end of the very stick 
 with which one tries to strike you down ! 
 
 Tachi-kaeru 
 Tombo tomaru 
 Tsubute kana ! 
 
 See! the dragon-fly returns to perch upon the pebble 
 that was thrown at it ! 
 
 Dragon-flies and Spiders 
 
 Kumonosu no 
 Atari ni asobu 
 Tombo kana ! 
 
 Ah! the poor dragon-fly, sporting beside the spider's 
 web! 
 
114 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 Sasagami no 
 
 Ami no hazurete, 
 
 Tombo kana ! 
 
 Good dragon-fly ! — he has extricated himself from the 
 net of the spider ! 
 
 Kumo gaki mo 
 Yaburu kihoi ya, 
 Oni -tombo ! 
 
 Through even the spider's fence he has force to burst 
 his way ! — the demon-dragon-fly ! 
 
 Heedless of Flowers 
 
 Tombo ya ! 
 Hana-no ni mo me wa 
 Hosorasezu. 
 
 Ah, the dragon-fly! even in the flower-field he never 
 half-shuts his eyes ! i 
 
 Tombo ya ! 
 Hana ni wa yorade, 
 Ishi no ue. 
 
 O the dragon-fly ! — heedless of the flowers, he lights 
 upon a stone ! 
 
 * Alluding to the fact that one half-closes one's eyes, — in order to 
 shadow them, and so to see more distinctly, — when looking at some 
 beautiful object. — Perhaps the rendering, "never makes his eyes 
 narrower," would better express the exact sense of the original. 
 
Dragon-flies 11? 
 
 Tombo ya ! 
 
 Hana naki kui ni 
 
 Sumi-narai. 
 
 Ah, the dragon-fly ! content to dwell upon a flowerless 
 stake ! 
 
 Neta ushi no 
 Tsuno ni hararenu, 
 Yamma kana ! 
 
 O great dragon-fly ! will you never leave the horn of 
 the sleeping ox ? 
 
 Kui no saki 
 Nanika ajiwo 
 Tombo kana ? 
 
 O dragon-fly I what can you be tasting on the top of 
 that fence-stake ? 
 
 Of course these compositions make but slight 
 appeal to aesthetic sentiment : they are merely 
 curious, for the most part. But they help us to 
 understand something of the soul of the elder 
 Japan. The people who could find delight, cen- 
 tury after century, in watching the ways of in- 
 sects, and in making such verses about them, 
 must have comprehended, better than we, the 
 simple pleasure of existence. They could not, 
 
116 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 indeed, describe the magic of nature as our great 
 Western poets have done; but they could feel 
 the beauty of the world without its sorrow, and 
 rejoice in that beauty, much after the manner of 
 inquisitive and happy children. 
 
 If they could have seen the dragon-fly as we 
 can see it, — if they could have looked at that 
 elfish head with its jewelled ocelli, its marvellous 
 compound eyes, its astonishing mouth, under the 
 microscope, — how much more extraordinary 
 would the creature have seemed to them ! . . . 
 And yet, though wise enough to have lost that 
 fresh naive pleasure in natural observation which 
 colors the work of these quaint poets, we are 
 not so very much wiser than they were in regard 
 to the real wonder of the insect. We are able 
 only to estimate more accurately the immensity 
 of our ignorance concerning it. Can we ever 
 hope for a Natural History with colored plates 
 that will show us how the world appears to the 
 faceted eyes of a dragon-fly ? 
 
 Catching dragon-flies has been for hundreds of 
 years a favorite amusement of Japanese children. 
 
Dragon-flies 117 
 
 ft begins with the hot season, and lasts during the 
 greater part of the autumn. There are many old 
 poems about it, — describing the recklessness of 
 the little hunters. To-day, just as in other cen- 
 turies, the excitement of the chase leads them 
 into all sorts of trouble : they tumble down em- 
 bankments, and fall into ditches, and scratch and 
 dirty themselves most fearfully, — heedless of 
 thorns or mud-holes or quagmires, — heedless of 
 heat, — heedless even of the dinner-hour : — 
 
 Meshi-doki mo 
 Modori wasurete, 
 Tombo-tsuri ! 
 
 Even at the hour of the noon-day meal they forget to 
 return home, — the children catching dragon-flies ! 
 
 Hadaka-go no 
 
 Tombo tsuri-keri 
 
 Hiru no tsuji ! 
 
 The naked child has been catching dragon-flies at the 
 road-crossing, — heedless of the noon-sun! 
 
 But the most celebrated poem in relation to this 
 amusement is of a touching character. It was 
 
118 Japanese Miscellany . 
 
 written by the famous female poet, Chiyo of 
 Kap, after the death of her little boy: — 
 
 Tombo-tsuri ! — 
 Kyo wa doko made 
 Itta yara ! 
 
 "Catching dragon-flies 1 ... I wonder where he has 
 gone to-day I " 
 
 The verse is intended to suggest, not to express, 
 the emotion of the mother. She sees children 
 running after dragon- flies, and thinks of her own 
 dead boy who used to join in the sport, — and 
 so finds herself wondering, in presence of the 
 infinite Mystery, what has become of the little 
 soul. Whither has it gone ? — in what shadowy 
 play does it now find delight } 
 
 Dragon-flies are captured sometimes with nets, 
 sometimes by means of bamboo rods smeared 
 at the end with birdlime, sometimes even by 
 striking them down with a light stick or switch. 
 The use of a switch, however, is not commonly 
 approved ; for the insect is thereby maimed, and 
 to injure it unnecessarily is thought to be unlucky, 
 — by reason, perhaps, of its supposed relation to 
 
Dragon-flies 119 
 
 the dead. A very successful method of dragon- 
 fly-catching — practised chiefly in the Western 
 provinces — is to use a captured female dragon- 
 fly as a decoy. One end of a long thread is 
 fastened to the insect's tail, and the other end 
 of the thread to a flexible rod. By moving the 
 rod in a particular way the female can be kept 
 circling on her wings at the full length of the 
 thread; and a male is soon attracted. As soon 
 as he clings to the female, a slight jerk of the 
 rod will bring both insects into the angler's hand. 
 With a single female for lure, it is easy to cap- 
 ture eight or ten males in succession. 
 
 During these dragon-fly hunts the children 
 usually sing little songs, inviting the insect to ap- 
 proach. There are many such dragon-fly songs ; 
 and they differ according to province. An Izumo 
 song of this class ^ contains a curious allusion to 
 the traditional conquest of Korea in the third 
 century by the armies of the Empress Jingo; 
 the male dragon-fly being thus addressed : — 
 " Thou, the male, King of Korea, art not 
 ashamed to flee from the Queen of the East ? " 
 
 1 Cited in Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan; vol. II., p. 
 372. 
 
120 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 In Tokyo to-day the little dragon-fly hunters 
 usually sing the following: — 
 
 Tombo! tombol 
 
 O-tomari ! — 
 Ashita no ichi ni, 
 Shiokara kote, 
 
 Neburasho ! 
 
 Dragon-fly 1 dragon-fly ! honorably wait I — to-mor- 
 row at the market I will buy some shiskara and let you 
 lick it I 
 
 Children also find amusement in catching the 
 larva of the dragon-fly. This larva has many 
 popular names; but is usually called in Tokyo 
 taiko-mushi, or *' drum-insect," because it moves 
 its forelegs in the water somewhat as a man 
 moves his arms while playing upon a drum. 
 
 A most extraordinary device for catching 
 dragon-flies is used by the children of the prov- 
 ince of Kii. They get a long hair, — a woman's 
 hair, — and attach a very small pebble to each 
 end of it, so as to form a miniature " bolas " ; 
 and this they sling high into the air. A dragon- 
 fly pounces upon the passing object; but the 
 
Dragon-flies 121 
 
 moment that he seizes it, the hair twists round 
 his body, and the weight of the pebbles brings 
 him to the ground. I wonder whether this 
 method of bolassing dragon-flies is known any- 
 where outside of Japan. 
 
Buddhist Names of Plants 
 and Animals 
 
Buddhist Names of Plants 
 and Animals 
 
 AT one time I hoped to compile a glossary of 
 the Buddhist names given to Japanese 
 animals and plants ; and I began to col- 
 lect material for the work. But I then knew very 
 little about the real difficulties of such an under- 
 taking. To mention only one, I may observe 
 that in almost every province of Japan the folk- 
 speech is diflferent; and the difference appears 
 even in the names given to certain plants, insects, 
 reptiles, fishes, and birds. Such names must be 
 learned, of course, from the lips of peasants and 
 of fishermen; and that which I wished to do 
 could never be well done except through the 
 patient labors of a folklore society. And now I 
 find that, instead of being able to prepare the 
 glossary intended, I must content myself with a 
 few general notes upon the subject. 
 125 
 
126 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 But perhaps these notes — relics of an under- 
 taking for which I possessed neither the requisite 
 scholarship nor the means — will have at least 
 a suggestive worth to future explorers in this 
 unfamiliar region of Far-Eastern folklore. 
 
 The name Buddha appears in the appellations 
 of several trees and plants. Marubusbukan, or 
 ** Round-Fingers-of-Buddha," is the name of a 
 kind of lemon-tree, — so called from the very re- 
 markable shape of its fruit. The Chinese hibis- 
 cus is called Bussoge, or '' Buddha's mulberry " ; 
 and a variety of rock -moss is popularly known 
 by the picturesque names of Hotoke-no-tsume 
 and Bukkoso, — both signifying '' Finger-nails of 
 Buddha." A kind of yam is called Tsukune-imo, 
 — which appellation, as written with the proper 
 Chinese characters, signifies '' Buddha's-hand po- 
 tato " ; and a variety of clover is honored by the 
 name Hotoke-no-^a, or '' Buddha's-throne." 
 
 Names of Bodhisattvas and of other Buddhist 
 divinities are also to be found in the appellations 
 of plants and animals. The name of Kwannon 
 (Avalokitesvara) appears in the term Kwannon- 
 
Buddhist Names 127 
 
 chihu, or '' Bamboo of Kwannon " ; and several 
 different plants are known, in different provinces, 
 by the name Kwannon-so, or '' Herb of Kwan- 
 non." The name of Fugen (Samantabhadra) 
 has been given to a variety of cherry-tree, — the 
 Fugen-:{akura, or " Fugen's cherry-tree." The 
 name of Dai-Mokukenren (Mahamaudgalyayana), 
 — shortened by popular usage into Mokuren, — 
 figures both in the common appellation of the 
 Ficus pumila, known as Mokuren, and in that of 
 the Magnolia conspicua, usually called Hakii- 
 mokuren, or *' White-Mokuren." The name of 
 Brahma, — known to Japanese Buddhism as Bon- 
 ten, — appears in the designation of a kind of 
 upland rice, Bont en-mat. The memory of Bo- 
 dai-Daruma (Bodhidharma) is preserved in the 
 popular appellation of the Aster spatiifolium, 
 called Daruma-giku, or " Daruma's chrysanthe- 
 mum," — as well as in the name of the swamp- 
 cabbage, Daruma-so, or '* Daruma's plant." Two 
 fishes also have been named after this patriarch : 
 the Pr (acanthus Niphonius, which is called Da- 
 ruma-dai, or " Daruma's sea-bream " ; and the 
 Synanceia erosa, popularly known as Daruma- 
 hasago, — *'kasago" being properly the name 
 of the fish scientifically called sehastes inermis. 
 
128 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 More curious than any of the above terms, how- 
 ever, is the popular name for a species of grain- 
 weevil, Kokuio, — " Kokuzo " being the Japanese 
 appellation of the great Bodhisattva Akasapra- 
 tishthita. 
 
 The term Bosatsu (Bodhisattva) also appears 
 in some plant-names. A variety of rose is 
 known as the Bosatsu-ibara, or *' Thorny-Rose 
 of the Bodhisattva"; and a kind of rice is 
 called Bosatsu. 
 
 The term Rakan (Arhat) forms a prefix to 
 several plant-names. Rakan-haku, or " Arhat's 
 oak," is the popular name of the Thuya dolo- 
 brata. Rakan-sho, or " Arhat's Pine," is the 
 common appellation of the Podocarpus macro- 
 phylla; and the name Rakan-maki, or " Arhat's 
 maW ("maki" being the Japanese name for 
 the podocarpus chinensis) — has been given to 
 the umbrella-pine. And the fruit of a tree, of 
 which I cannot find the scientific name, is called in 
 several provinces Rakan, or " the Arhat," because 
 it curiously resembles in shape the rude stone 
 images of Arhats set up in temple-gardens. 
 
 Kukai, or Kobodaishi, the great Japanese patri- 
 arch of the Shingon sect, also has a place in this 
 
Buddhist Names 129 
 
 nomenclature. Kobo-mugi, or " Vv^heat of Kobo- 
 daishi," is a common name for the Car ex mac- 
 rocephala ; and a variety of chestnut is called 
 Kobodaishi - kawa^u -no-kuri, — '' The Chestnut 
 that Kobodaishi did not eat." 
 
 Many names of plants or living creatures refer 
 to Buddhist customs, legends, rites, or beliefs. 
 The word boiu, ** priest " — (the origin of our 
 word " bonze ") — has been attached to several 
 plant-names. No less than three different herbs 
 are known, in diflferent parts of the country, by 
 the name of Bo^ugusa, or " Priest -grass." In 
 the dialect of Chikuzen a kind of turtle is called 
 Umi-boiu, or "Priest of the Sea," — a name, 
 by the way, also given to a mythical marine- 
 monster, often represented in Japanese picture- 
 books. The name of the famous Bo-tree of 
 Buddhist tradition has been given in Japan, not 
 only to the Ficus religiosa, but also to the 
 Tilia miqueliana, popularly called Bodaiju 
 (Bodhidruma) . The great Buddhist festival of 
 the spring-equinox, the festival of the Higan, 
 or " Further Shore," has furnished names for 
 two plants which blossom about that time, — the 
 Higan-iakura or '' Higan cherry-tree " {Primus 
 9 
 
130 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 miqiieliana) , and the Higan-bana, or ''Flower 
 of Higan " {Lycoris radiata). What we term 
 " Job's Tears " are in Japan Called Zuiudama, 
 or Buddhist rosary-beads ; and a kind of dove 
 is known — probably because of its markings 
 — as the Zu^ukake-hato, or " Rosary-bearing 
 Dove." The Allium vidoriale is called Gyoja- 
 ninniku, or "Hermit's garlic" (" gy oja " being 
 the Buddhist term for hermit) ; and the popu- 
 lar Japanese name for the Bleeding-heart is 
 Keman-so, or '' Keman-htrh,'' — an appellation 
 probably due to the resemblance of the flower 
 to the Keman, or decoration, placed upon the 
 head of the statue of Buddha. Perhaps the 
 water-arum has the most curious of all such 
 Buddhist appellations : its Japanese name, Koku- 
 len-so literally signifies the " Small-sitting-in- 
 Dhyana-meditation-plant. " 
 
 The word Sennm, — commonly translated as 
 " Genius " or " Fairy," but originally meaning 
 Rishi, — a being who has acquired supernatural 
 power and unlimited life by force of ascetic 
 practices, — occasionally appears in plant-names. 
 A variety of Clematis is known as Sennin-so, 
 or " Fairy-weed " ; and a kind of cactus has 
 
Buddhist Names 131 
 
 received the grotesque appellation of Sennin-sho, 
 or "Sennin's-Palm," — the palm of the hand 
 being referred io. 
 
 The Sanscrit term Yaksha, signifying a man- 
 devouring demon, appears in several plant-names 
 under its Japanese form, — Yaslm. The cone 
 of the Aldus fir ma is picturesquely called Yasha- 
 hushi, or " Yaksha's-joint " ; and a water-plant 
 is known by the curious name of Yasha-hishaku, 
 or " Yaksha's Ladle." 
 
 Very many Japanese names of vegetables, 
 birds, fishes, and insects, have attached to them 
 as a prefix the word Oni, a Buddhist term for 
 ''demon" or ''devil," — just as in English folk- 
 speech we have such names for plants and insects 
 as " Devil's-apron, " "Devil-wood," " Devil's- 
 fingers," " Devil's-horse," and " Devil's- darning- 
 needle." The tiger-lily is known in Japan by 
 the equally fantastic name of Oni-yuri, or 
 " Devil-lily." A species of coix is called Oni- 
 luiudama, or " Devil's rosary -beads." The 
 bur-marigold is called Oni-hari, or "Devil's 
 needle"; and a water-weed, injurious to lotos- 
 cultivation, is popularly termed the Oni-hasu, 
 or " Demon-lotos." This prefix of Oni is prob- 
 
132 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 ably attached to hundreds of folk-names of flora 
 and fauna : I have myself collected no less than 
 seventy -one examples. Nevertheless, few of 
 them are interesting. 
 
 The word Kijin, or Kishin, signifying a kind 
 of goblin recognized by Japanese Buddhism, is 
 similarly used as a prefix ; — for example, a sort 
 of needle-grass is known as Kishin-so, or *' Gob- 
 lin-weed." Kijo, another Buddhist word signi- 
 fying a kind of female goblin, appears in the 
 common name of an orchid, — Kijoran, or 
 " Goblin-orchid." Also there is a prefix, Ki, — 
 abbreviation of a term for demon or goblin, — 
 which sometimes figures in plant-names: the 
 Pardanthus chinensis, for instance, is called in 
 Japan Kisen, meaning *' Goblin-fan." It is 
 worthy of remark that these devilish names are 
 given to vegetables or to animals, not merely 
 because of some ugly or extraordinary shape, 
 but even because of remarkable size. Thus a 
 species of lark is called Oni-hihari, or *' Demon- 
 lark," because it happens to be a much larger bird 
 than the common field-lark ; and a very large kind 
 of dragon-fly is designated for the same reason 
 Oni-yamma, or " Demon- dragonfly." 
 
Buddhist Names i?j 
 
 Many Buddhist names, both of creatures and 
 of plants, are ghostly. A pretty green grass- 
 hopper is called Hotoke-uma, or '' the Buddha- 
 horse " ; — the head of the insect curiously 
 resembling the head of a horse in shape. But 
 the word hotoke also means the spirit of a dead 
 person, — all good persons being supposed by 
 popular faith to become Buddhas ; — and the real 
 meaning of the name Hotoke-uma is ''The Horse 
 of the Dead." Now during the great three-days' 
 Festival of the Dead in the seventh month, it 
 is believed that many spirits revisit their homes, 
 or their former friends, either with the help of 
 insects or actually in the form of insects. The 
 name of this grasshopper really implies that it is 
 used as a horse by the shadowy visitors. . . . 
 Again, we find the word shoryo, — a general term 
 for the spirits of ancestors worshipped according 
 to Buddhist rite, — coupled with the name of a 
 dragon-fly: Shoryo -yamma, "the Dragon-fly of 
 the Ancestral Spirits." Shorai-tomho, or '* Ghost 
 Dragon-fly," and Ki-yamma, a term of similar 
 meaning, are names likewise intended to suggest 
 the relation of the insect to the invisible world. 
 Equally weird is the name by which the mole- 
 cricket is known in the dialect of Kyoto, — a 
 
IM Japanese Miscellany 
 
 name probably suggested by the creature's under- 
 ground life, — Shorai-mushi, or *' Ghost-insect." 
 Among appellations of plants one finds also such 
 terms as Yurei-dahe, or '* Ghost -bamboo," and 
 Yurei-bana, or " Ghost-flower," — the latter 
 name being not inappropriately given to a species 
 of delicate mushroom. 
 
 Some of the Buddhist names, although highly 
 interesting in themselves, could not be understood 
 by the Western reader without the help of picto- 
 rial illustration, because they have reference to the 
 furniture of temples, or to particular articles used 
 in Buddhist religious service. Such, for example, 
 is the name of a tree popularly known as Sanko- 
 matsu, or " Sanko-pine " ; — the term " Sanko " 
 (Sanscrit, Fadjra) signifying a brass object, — 
 shaped much like the classic representation of a 
 thunderbolt, with prongs at either end, — which 
 priests use in certain rites as a symbol of super- 
 natural power. Such also is the name Hossugai, 
 or " //oss^-shell," given to the beautiful glass- 
 sponge, Hyalonema Sieboldii, because of its re- 
 semblance to the " hossu," — a brush or duster of 
 long white hair used in Buddhist religious service. 
 And such, again, is the excellent name of a little 
 
Buddhist Names 1?? 
 
 insect called the Koromo-semi, or " Priest's-robe 
 cicada," because the general form and color of 
 the creature, when resting with closed wings, 
 really suggest the figure of a priest in his 
 ♦' koromo." But unless you had seen the insect, 
 and the kind of '' koromo " thus referred to, you 
 could not appreciate the graphic worth of the 
 appellation. 
 
 Very remarkable Buddhist names have been 
 given to some species of birds. There is a bird, 
 known to ornithologists as Eurystomus orientalis, 
 which is called Bupposo, because its cry resembles 
 the sound of the word Bupposd. This word is a 
 Japanese equivalent for the Sanscrit term Triratna 
 or Ratnatraya,—''l\^rtt Jewels"; — the syl- 
 lable Bu standing for Butsu, '' the Buddha " ; 
 po, for ho, ''iht Law " ; and so, for " the Priest- 
 hood." The bird is also called Sambocho, or 
 ''the Samho-Ux<\ "; — the word " Sambo" being 
 a literal translation of Triratna. Another bird, 
 of which I do not know the scientific appellation, 
 is called the Jihishincho, or '' Compassionate- 
 Mind- Bird," —because its call resembles the 
 utterance of the phrase Jihi-sUn, " Compassion- 
 ate Mind," which forms one of the epithets of 
 
1?6 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 the Buddha. '' This bird," my informant writes, 
 lives only in the neighborhood of Nikko, where 
 in the summer it may be heard continually crying 
 out, * O thou Compassionate Mind ! -- O thou 
 Compassionate Mind ! ' " . . . Almost equally 
 interesting is the common Buddhist name for the 
 hototogisu {Cuculus poliocephalus) , a species of 
 cuckoo much celebrated by Japanese poets. It is 
 called Mujo-dori, or **the Bird of Imperma- 
 nency." This name would not appear to be 
 derived from the bird's note, which is popularly 
 interpreted as ** Honion kahetaha ? " — meaning, 
 " Has the horizon yet been suspended ? " (The 
 ** honzon " is the sacred picture displayed in 
 temples upon the eighth day of the fourth month, 
 — a little before the time at which the bird makes 
 its annual appearance.) It seems to me more 
 probable that the name was given in the significa- 
 tion, " Bird of Death " ; — for the word mujo has 
 also the meaning of death as change; and this 
 meaning is strongly suggested by the strange fact 
 that the hototogisu is supposed to come from the 
 spirit-world. It is also called Tama-mukae-dori, 
 or the " Ghost -welcoming Bird," because it is 
 said to meet and to greet the spirits of the dead 
 on their journey over the Mountain of Shide to 
 
Buddhist Names 137 
 
 the River of Souls. There are many ghostly 
 legends and fancies about the hototogisu ; and 
 this weird folklore sufficiently explains why the 
 bird is known in the provinces by no less than 
 fifty -two different names! 
 
 The uguisu, a variety of nightingale, and the 
 sweetest-voiced of all Japanese singers, does not 
 appear to have any popular Buddhist name ; but 
 its flute-like call is said to be an utterance of 
 the word Hokkekyo, which is the popular name 
 for the Saddharma-Pundarika-Sutra, — the grand 
 scripture of the Nichiren or Hokke sect. And 
 Buddhist piety asserts that the bird passes its life 
 in chanting the praise of the Sutra of the Lotos of 
 the Good Law. So that the uguisu is really re- 
 garded as a Buddhist bird. Another bird which 
 seems to have some relation to Buddhism is the 
 snowy heron, to which the extraordinary appella- 
 tion of Bonno-sagi, or '' Bonno-htron," has been 
 given. " Bonno" is a Buddhist term for worldly 
 desire, lust, passion ; and I am not able to say 
 v/hy it appears in the name of the bird. 
 
 The difficulty of guessing at the origin of these 
 Buddhist names cannot even be imagined without 
 the help of examples. The literal meaning, in 
 
138 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 many cases, serves only to mislead investigation. 
 For instance, the hammer-headed shark is known 
 on parts of the Kyushu coast by the extraordi- 
 nary appellation, Nemhutsu-ho, or '' Nembutsu- 
 Priest." The word Nembutsu is the name of the 
 invocation, " Namu Amida Butsu ! " — (Saluta- 
 tion to the Buddha Amitabha !) — uttered by the 
 pious of many sects as a prayer, and especially as 
 a prayer for the dead. The grim suggestiveness 
 of the name Nembiitsu-bd reminded me that the 
 modern French word for shark is, according to 
 Littre, only a corruption of '' Requiem," —the 
 appellation originally implying (as stated by Pere 
 Dutertre in 1667) that for the man caught by 
 a shark there was nothing to be done except to 
 chant his requiem. But I was wrong in imagin- 
 ing that the Buddhist name Nembutsu-bo implied 
 something of the same kind. The real meaning 
 of the term is proved by another Buddhist name 
 for the same monster, — Sbumoku-:{ame, or 
 '' Shumoku-sh2iYk." The word *' Shumoku " 
 signifies a peculiar " T "-shaped mallet with 
 which the priest strikes a gong during the repe- 
 tition of the Nembutsu and of other prayers. 
 (I may observe that the same kind of mallet is 
 used to sound a gong during the chanting of the 
 
Buddhist Names 139 
 
 Nembiitsu, in some pious households, before the 
 family shrine.) It was this use of the mallet 
 and gong, during the repetition of the invoca- 
 tion, that suggested the term Nembutsu-bo as 
 an alternate name for the Shiimoku-^ame, or 
 '' Mallet -shark ; " — and the true signification of 
 Nembutsu-bo is not " The Nembutsu-Pritst" 
 but "The Priest with the Mallet." 
 
Songs of Japanese Children 
 
Songs of Japanese Children 
 
 UNDER the influence of twenty-seven 
 thousand public schools the old folk- 
 literature of Japan, the unwritten litera- 
 ture of song and tradition, is rapidly passing out 
 of memory. Even within my own recollection 
 one variety of this oral literature, partly corre- 
 sponding to our own literature of the nursery, has 
 been greatly affected by the new order of things. 
 When I first came to Japan the children were 
 singing the old songs which they had been taught 
 by their grandfathers and grandmothers, — the 
 home-teaching being usually left to the grand- 
 parents. But to-day the little folk, at play in the 
 streets or in the temple-courts, are singing new 
 songs learned in the class-room, — songs set to 
 music written according to the Western scale ; — 
 and the far more interesting pre-Meiji songs are 
 now but seldom heard. 
 
 143 
 
144 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 As yet, however, they are not entirely for- 
 gotten, — partly because many of them are in- 
 separably connected with games that cannot be 
 suddenly superseded, — partly because there are 
 still alive some millions of delightful grandfathers 
 and grandmothers who never studied under 
 organ-playing schoolmasters, and who like to 
 hear the children repeat the ditties of long ago. 
 But I suppose that after these charming old peo- 
 ple have been gathered to their ancestors, most of 
 the songs which they taught will cease to be sung. 
 Happily the Japanese folklorists have been exert- 
 ing themselves to preserve such unwritten litera- 
 ture ; and their labors have enabled me to attempt 
 the present paper. 
 
 Out of a great number of the old-time child - 
 songs and nonsense-verses, carefully copied and 
 translated for me, I have endeavored to make a 
 fairly representative selection, — grouping all the 
 examples under six subject-titles, in the following 
 order : — 
 
 I. — Songs of Weather and Sky. 
 
 II. — Songs about Animals. 
 
 III. — Miscellaneous Play- Songs. 
 IV. — Narrative Songs. 
 
Songs of Japanese Children 14$ 
 
 V. — Battledoor and Ball Songs. 
 
 VI. — Lullabies. 
 
 The classification is very loose, especially as re- 
 gards the third group ; but I think that it is justi- 
 fied by the strangely indefinite character of many 
 compositions. 
 
 Of course the plain English renderings can give 
 an idea of the Japanese verses only as flowers 
 pressed and dried between the leaves of a book 
 can represent the living blossoms in their natural 
 environment. The queer rhythm of the rhyme- 
 less lines, the naivete of the Japanese words, the 
 curious little airs, — difficult to memorize as 
 bird-warblings, — and the sweet freshness of 
 many child-voices chanting in unison : these help 
 to make the true charm of the original song, and 
 all are equally irreproducible. 
 
 A good deal of the exotic may be discovered in 
 these cullings ; but the reader will occasionally 
 find something to remind him of familiar nursery- 
 rhymes. Children, all the world over, think and 
 feel in nearly the same way on certain subjects, 
 and sing of like experiences. In almost every 
 country they sing about the sun and the moon, — 
 about wind and rain, — about birds and beasts, — 
 about flowers and trees and brooks ; — also about 
 
 10 
 
146 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 such daily household duties as drawing water, 
 making fire, cooking and washing. Yet 1 believe 
 that, even within these limits, the differences 
 between Japanese child -literature and other child- 
 literature will be found more interesting than the 
 resemblances. 
 
 I 
 
 SONGS OF WEATHER AND SKY 
 
 C Tokyo Sunset-song.) 
 
 Yu-yake ! 
 
 Ko-yake ! 
 
 Ashita wa tenki ni nare. 
 
 Evening-burning" ! 
 Little burning ! 
 Weather, be fair to-morrow ! ^ 
 
 " (Kite-flying song — Province of Iga.) 
 
 Tengu San, 
 Kaze okure ! 
 Kaze ga nakera 
 Zeni okure ! 
 
 * This little song is still sung by the children in my neighborhood 
 whenever a beautiful sunset occurs. 
 
Songs of Japanese Children 147 
 
 Tengu San [Lord Mountain-Spiftt] , 
 Please to give me some wind ! 
 If there be no wind, 
 Please give some money ! i 
 
 (Rain-song — Province of Tosa.) 
 
 Ame, ame, furi-yame ! 
 O-tera no mae no 
 Kaki no ki no moto de 
 Kiji no ko ga nakuzo ! 
 
 Rain, rain ! stop falling ! — At the foot of the kaki-irtt 
 in front of the temple', the young of the pheasant is crying ! 
 
 (Snow-song — Province of Iga.) 
 
 Yuki wa chira-chira ! 
 Kumo wa hai-darake ! 
 
 Snow is fluttering, — chira-chira ! 
 The clouds are full of ashes ! 2 
 
 1 In Tokyo the Kttle kite-flyers usually sing, — 
 Kaze no kami wa 
 Yowai na 1 
 (" Ah ! the God of the Wind is weak to-day I ") In Izumo they sing, 
 
 Dai sen no yatna kara 
 O-Kaze fuete 1 
 Koi yo I 
 ("Come, August-Wind, and blow from the mountain Daisen 1 ") 
 » White ashes of wood are referred to. 
 
148 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 (Province of I{umo.) 
 
 Yuki ya ! 
 
 Konko ya ! 
 
 Arare ya ! 
 
 Konko ya ! 
 Omae no sedo de 
 Dango mo nieru, 
 Azuki mo nieru, 
 Yamado wa modoru, 
 Akago wa hoeru, 
 Shakushi wa miezu, 
 Yare isogashiya na ! 
 
 Snow-grains ! hail-grains ! — In your kitchen dumplings 
 are boiling; beans too are boiling; the huntsman is return- 
 ing ; the baby is squalling ; the ladle is missing I — O what 
 a flurry and worry ! 
 
 (Star-song — Province of Iga.) 
 
 — Hoshi San, Hoshi San ! 
 Hitori-boshi de denu monja; 
 Sen mo, man mo deru monja. 
 
 — Mr. star, Mr. Star ! 
 For a single star to rise alone is not right ; 
 Even a thousand, even ten thousand should rise together ! i 
 
 Sung when the first stars begin to twinkle after sundown. 
 
Songs of Japanese Children 149 
 
 {Moon-song — Province of Shinano.) 
 
 O-Tsuki Sama, 
 Kwannon-do orite, 
 Mamma agare ! 
 — Mamma wa iya-iya : 
 Ammo nara mitsu kuryo ! 
 
 — O Lady Moon, 
 
 Come down from over the Temple of Kwannon, 
 And help yourself to some boiled rice ! 
 
 — Rice ? no ! I do not like rice. 
 
 But if you have ammochi^ let me have three 1 
 
 {Province of Kii.) 
 
 — O-Tsuki Sama, ikutsu ? 
 
 — Jiu-san hitotsu. 
 
 — Sorya mada wakai *. 
 Waka-bune e notte, 
 Kara made watare 
 
 — Lady Moon, how old are you ? 
 
 — Thirteen and one. 
 
 — That is still young : 
 
 In the Ship of Youth embarking, 
 Cross over the sea to China ! 
 
 1 Rice-cakes stuffed with a mixture of sugar and bean-flour. 
 
ISO Japanese Miscellany 
 
 (Province of Tosa.) 
 
 — O-Tsuki Sama 
 Momo-iro ! 
 
 — Dare ga iuta ? 
 
 — Ama ga iuta. 
 
 — Ama no kuchi wo 
 Hikisake ! 
 
 — O Lady Moon, your face is the color of a peach ! — 
 Who said so ? — A nun said so. — Pinch and tear the mouth 
 of that nun ! 
 
 (Province of Suw5.) 
 
 O-Tsuki Sama, 
 O-Tsuki Sama, 
 Moshi! moshi! — 
 Neko to nezumi ga, 
 Issho-daru sagete, 
 Fuji-no-yama wo 
 Ima koeta ! 
 
 O Lady Moon ! 
 
 Lady Moon ! 
 
 1 say ! I say ! 
 
 A cat and a rat, 
 
 Carrying a one-sh5 barrel [of sak^], 
 
 The Mountain of Fuji 
 
 Just now crossed over ! i 
 
 1 Sung: when a cloud passes over the Mooii. The cat and the rat 
 are playful goblins, of course, — such as figure in children's picture- 
 
Songs of Japanese Children 151 
 II 
 
 SONGS ABOUT ANIMALS^ 
 
 Of child-songs about insects and reptiles, birds 
 and beasts, the number is surprising, — almost 
 every Japanese village having one or two songs 
 of its own belonging to this class. The great 
 majority are brief compositions of from two to 
 eight lines. Some of the better ones recall Eng- 
 lish nursery- rhymes on kindred topics, — such 
 nursery-rhymes, for example, as, *' Bat, bat, 
 come under my hat ! " — ** Lady-bird, lady -bird, 
 fly away home!" — ''Cuckoo, cuckoo, what 
 do you do } " — "A pie sat on a pear-tree," 
 etc., etc. Very probably several of the fol- 
 lowing selections are older than most of our 
 nursery-rhymes. Variants of nearly all exist in 
 multitude. 
 
 1 See also, for a small collection of Izumo songs relating 
 to natural history, the chapter ** In a Japanese Garden," in 
 my Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan. 
 
 books. The purpose of the song is to make the Moon peep out 
 again. 
 
 An Izumo moon-song, more interesting than any of these, will be 
 found in my Kokoro, pp. 75-76. 
 
1?2 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 (Dove-scmg — Tokyo.) 
 
 Hato 
 Poppo ! 
 Mame ga tabetai.^ 
 
 ** Poppo," says the dove, — '* I want to eat some beans." 
 (Crow-song — Tokyo.) 
 
 Karasu ! 
 Karasu ! 
 Kanzaburo ! 
 Oya no on wo wasurena yo ! 
 
 O crow! O crow! Kanzaburo!'^ — never forget tht 
 goodness of your parents ! 
 
 (Owl-song — Tokyo.) 
 
 Gorosuke-hoko 
 Muda-boko ! 
 
 Gorosuke's service, useless service ! 
 
 * Or kuetai. 
 
 * Kanzaburo is a very common form of masculine proper name, — 
 here probably given to the bird merely for the sake of the sound. — 
 The song was no doubt suggested by the old proverb, Karasu tii hampo 
 no kb ari : " The filial duty of feeding one's parents is known even to 
 the crow." It is said that the old crows, unable to forage for them- 
 selves, are fed by their offspring. — Children sing this song when they 
 see the crows flying home at sundown. 
 
Songs of Japanese Children 1^3 
 
 (Bird-song — Province of he.) 
 
 Suzume wa, Chu-Chu-Chuzaburo! 
 Karasu wa, Ka-Ka-Kanzaburo ! 
 Tombi wa, Toyama no kanetataki ! 
 Ichi nichi tataite ; — 
 
 Kome issho ! 
 
 Awa issho ! 
 
 As for the sparrow, — Chu-Chu-Chuzaburo, 
 
 As for the crow, — Ka-Ka-Kanzaburo ; 
 
 As for the kite,i — the Bell-ringer of Toyama: 
 
 All day he taps his bell, 
 
 [Crying] Rice, one 5^0/2 
 Millet, one sbof 
 
 The personal names Kanzaburo, Chuzaburo, 
 and Gorosuke, are common names of men. No 
 doubt that the sparrow's sharp cry, resembling the 
 sound chu, first suggested the use of the name 
 Chiizaburo in the foregoing nursery -rhyme ; and 
 the crow was probably called Kanzaburo because 
 its caw sounds like the syllable Ka} But there 
 
 1 Another version reads, " Tobi wa, To-T6-Tozabur6." Tozaburo, 
 like Chuzaburo and Kanzaburo, is a real name. 
 ^ One sho is equal to about a quart and a half. 
 
 1 I may observe also that the crow is popularly said to 
 cry, Kawa! kawa! (" River ! river ! "), — meaning, ** Let 
 us go to the river ! " The sound of the cawing really re- 
 sembles the sound of the word Kawa. 
 
1?4 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 is a curious legend about the name given to 
 the owl, — Gorosuke. A long time ago, in the 
 house of some great samurai, there was a retainer 
 called Gorosuke. This Gorosuke was naturally 
 dull; and the very first time that a duty of 
 importance was confided to him, he made such 
 a blunder that serious mischief resulted. There- 
 fore everybody laughed at him, and put him to 
 shame ; and at last he killed himself. Then his 
 spirit took the form of the little owl which now 
 bears his name ; and all night long this owl cries 
 out, in a tone of utter despair, — 
 
 ** Gorosuke's service ! 
 Useless service ! " 
 
 (Hare-song — Tokyo,) 
 
 " Usagi, usagi, 
 Nani wo mite' haneru ? " 
 " Jiu-go-ya no O-Tsuki Sama 
 Mite haneru ! 
 Hyoi ! 
 
 — "Hare, hare! what do you see that makes you 
 jump ? " — " Seeing the Lady-Moon of the fifteenth night, I 
 jump! — Hyoi ! hyoi / " i 
 
 * At the words " hyoi ! hyoi ! " all the singers jump together. 
 
Songs of Japanese Children 155 
 
 {Sparrow-song — Tokyo.) 
 
 Suzume no atsumari : 
 Chi-i, chi-l — pappa! 
 Dare ni atattemo 
 Okoruna yo ! 
 Okorunara hajime kara 
 Yoran ga yoi. 
 
 Hear the gathering of the sparrows ! — £:H-?, chi-'i, — 
 pappa !^ — Be not so angry with everybody who hap- 
 pens to touch you ! Better in the beginning not to have 
 come at all, than to get angry thus ! 
 
 (Song about the white heron — Province of he.) 
 
 Shirosagi, shirosagi, 
 Naze kubi ga nagai ? 
 
 — Hidarute nagai. 
 
 — Hidarukya ta ute. 
 
 — Ta ucha, doro ga tsuku. 
 
 — Doro ga tsukya, harae. 
 
 — Haraya, itai. 
 
 — White-heron, white-heron! why is your neck so 
 long? — Because of hunger it became long. — If you are 
 hungry, go and till the rice-field. — I should get muddy if I 
 were to till the rice-field. — If you get muddy, you can 
 
 I Chi-i is an onomatope invented to describe the angry chirping of 
 the sparrow ; pappa signifies the sound of the quick flapping of its 
 wings. 
 
1?6 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 brush the mud off. — If I should brush myself, it would 
 hurt me ! 
 
 (Toad- song — Province of Tosa,) 
 
 Hiki-San, Hiki San, dete gonse 
 Denya mogusa sueru-zo ! 
 
 Toad, toad, come out of your hole I If you don't come 
 out I shall give you a moxa ! 
 
 (Kite-song — Province of I^umo.) 
 
 Tobi ! tobi ! maute mise ! 
 Ashita no ban ni, 
 Karasu ni kakushite, 
 Nezumi yaru ! 
 
 Kite ! kite ! let me see you dance ! To-morrow even- 
 ing, without letting the crows see it, 1 shall give you a rat I 
 
 { Bat-song — Province of I^umo . ) 
 
 Komori, koi ! sake nomasho ! 
 Sake ga nakya, taru furasho. 
 
 Bat, come hither, and you will drink some sake! If 
 there be no sake [ready], I will pour out some from the 
 barrel. 
 
 {Firefly-song — Province ofl^umo.) 
 
 Hotaru koi midzu nomasho : 
 Achi no midzu wa nigai zo ; 
 
Songs of Japanese Children 1?7 
 
 Kochi no midzu wa amai zo ; 
 Amai ho e tonde koi ! 
 
 Firefly, come hither, and you shall have water to drink ! 
 Yonder the water is bitter ; — here the water is sweet ! 
 Come, fly this way, to the sweet side ! 
 
 (Firefly-song — Province of hi.) 
 
 Hotaru, koi ! 
 Tsuchi-mushi, koi ! 
 Onoga hikari de 
 Jo mottekoi ! 
 
 Firefly, come hither I 
 Earth-insect,! come ! 
 By your own light 
 Bring me a letter ! 
 
 ( Tokyo.) 
 
 O-wata, koi ! koi ! 
 Mame kuwasho ! 
 O -mamma ga iyanara, 
 Toto kuwasho ! 
 
 Come here, o-wata ! ^ come here ! I will give you beans 
 to eat. If there be no boiled rice, then I will give you some 
 fish. 
 
 ^ Tsuchi-mushi, literally, is "earth-insect" or " earth-worm " ; but 
 in this little song it probably means " glow-worm." 
 
 2 The name " o-wata " (honorable cotton) is given to a small purplish 
 fly having a fluffy white protuberance on its tail, resembling a tuft of 
 cotton. 
 
158 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 (Butterfly-song .) 
 
 Chocho! chocho! 
 Na no ha ni tomare ! 
 Na no ha ga iyenara, 
 Te ni tomare ! 
 
 Butterfly ! butterfly ! light upon the na-\e2if ! i If you 
 do not like the «a-leaf, perch upon my hand ! 
 
 (Tokyo Smg.) 
 
 Chocho, tombo mo, 
 Tori no uchi, 
 Yama saezuru no wa, 
 Matsumushi, 
 Suzumushi, 
 Kutsuwamushi, 
 O-choko choi no choi ! 
 
 The butterfly, and the dragon-fly, too, at the house of 
 the bird. Oh, the twittering in the mountains ! The Pine- 
 Insect, the Bell-Insect, the Bridle-bit-Insect all together, — 
 O-choko choi no cho'i ! 
 
 (Sung hy children chasing dragon-flies.) 
 
 Achi e yuku to, 
 Yemma ga niramu ; 
 
 ^ The name na is given to several different kinds of vegetables ; 
 but the Japanese turnip is probably here referred to. — This song is 
 sung In nearly all parts of Japan. 
 
Songs of Japanese Children 159 
 
 Kochi e kuru to, 
 Yurushite yaru zo. 
 
 — If you go that way,i Yemma [or Emma] will glare at 
 you ! — if you come this way, I promise to forgive you ! 
 
 (Dragon-fly-song — Tokyo.) 
 
 ^ Shio ya ! 
 Kane ya ! 
 Yamma kaese ! ^ 
 
 Salt Dragon-fly ! — Black Dragon-fly ! — give us back 
 the Big Dragon-fly ! 
 
 (Snail-song — Tokyo.) 
 
 Maimaitsubura ! 
 O-yuya no mae ni 
 Kenkwa ga aru kara 
 Tsuno dase, yari dase ! 
 
 O snail I there is a fight in front of the bath-house : so 
 put out your horns, put out your spears ! 
 
 1 Yama, King of Death. 
 
 2 This song is very old. Some account of the insects referred to 
 will be found in the preceding paper on dragon-flies! 
 
160 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 (Frog-song — Tokyo.) 
 
 Kaeru ga 
 Naku kara kaero ! 
 Since the frogs are crying, I shall take leave.^ 
 
 (Snail-song — Province of Shinano.) 
 
 Tsubu, tsubu, yama e yuke. 
 
 — Orya iya da ! — ware yuke ! 
 
 Kyonen no haru mo ittareba, 
 
 Karasu to mosu kuroaori ga, 
 
 Achi e tsutsuki tsun-mawashi, 
 
 Kochi e tsutsuki tsun-mawashi ; — 
 
 Ni-do to yukumai ano yama e ! 
 
 — River-snail, river-snail, go to the mountain ! — I ? not 
 I ! Go yourself if you want to ! When I went there in the 
 spring of last year, the black bird that is called **crow" 
 pecked me and turned me over on one side, and then pecked 
 me again and turned me over on the other side. Not twice 
 do I go to that mountain 1 
 
 (Song about the cicada called Tsuku-tsuku-hoshi^ — Province 
 of Chikuien.) 
 
 Tsuku-tsuku-bo-San na, 
 Nanyu naku ka ? — 
 
 1 In this little song there is a play on the word kaeru, which, as 
 pronounced, might mean either "to return" or "frog." Kaero is a 
 future form of the verb. 
 
 * See article " Semi " in my Shadowings, for some account of this 
 curious insect. 
 
Songs of Japanese Children 161 
 
 Oy a ga nai ka ? 
 Ko ga nai ka ? 
 — Oya mo gozaru, 
 Ko mo gozaru ; 
 Oitoshi tonogo wo 
 Mottareba, 
 Takajo ni torarete ; 
 Kyo nanuka. 
 Nanuka to omoeba — 
 Shijiu-ku nichi ! 
 Shijiu-ku nichi no 
 Zeni-kane wo 
 Doshite tsukotana 
 Yokaro ka ? 
 Takai kome kote, 
 Fune ni tsumu ; 
 Yasui kome kote, 
 Fune ni tsumu. 
 Fune wa, doko fune ? 
 Osaka-bune. 
 Osaka-bune koso 
 Ne ga yokere. 
 
 — Tsuku-tsuku-bo-San, wherefore do you cry ? Have 
 
 you no parents ? — have you no children ? — Parents I have, 
 
 children also I have ; but my good husband was snatched 
 
 away from me by a falconer ; and to-day is the seventh day 
 
 11 
 
162 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 since his death. Nay — I thought it was the seventh day,— 
 it is already the forty-ninth ! i What will be the best way 
 to spend the money of the forty-ninth day ? — Buying dear 
 rice, to freight a ship ; — buying cheap rice, to freight a ship. 
 
 — As for the ship, where is it from ? — It is an Osaka ship. 
 
 — Ah ! the cost of an Osaka ship is indeed very high ! 
 
 Ill 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS PLAY-SONGS 
 
 Of play-songs, — songs to be sung with vari- 
 ous out-door or in-door games, — the number is 
 very great : my own collection includes upwards 
 of two hundred pieces. Some take the form of 
 stories ; others, of dialogues ; others belong to 
 that class which the French call chanson enu- 
 merative, or randonnee : a few are impossible to 
 classify. And some of the most remarkable are 
 so very queer, — so utterly unlike anything sung 
 by Western children, — that any translation of 
 them would remain, even with the aid of a 
 multitude of notes, unintelligible to readers un- 
 familiar with Japanese life. But I think that 
 the following series of examples will sufficiently 
 
 1 There is a reference here to the Buddhist services for the dead 
 held on the seventh and forty-ninth days after interment. 
 
Songs of Japanese Children 16? 
 
 serve to indicate the oddity and the variety of 
 this category of child-songs. 
 
 (Sung to a ctying child.) 
 
 Naki-mushi ! ke-mushi ! 
 Hasande sutero ! 
 
 Cry-Insect ! — Hairy-Insect 1 [i. e., Caterpillar] — with a 
 pair of chop-sticks we will throw you out of doors ! i 
 
 (Sung to a child afraid of being away from home.) 
 
 Inoru ! inoru ! 
 Inagasaki ni oni ga iru ! 
 Ato miriya ja ga iru ! 
 
 Wants to go home ! — wants to go home ! On the 
 going-home way 2 a demon is waiting; and if you look 
 behind you will see a dragon ! 
 
 (Dafice-song.) 
 
 Renge no hana hiraita, 
 Hiraita, hiraita ! 
 Hiraita to omotara 
 Yatokosa to tsubonda ! 
 
 1 Alluding to the Japanese method of catching and removing a 
 centipede, caterpillar, or other unpleasant visitor, with a pair of iron 
 chop-sticks, or fire-tongs. 
 
 2 There is a play upon words here not possible to render in r.nslis;-.. 
 
164 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 The Lotos-flower has opened, has opened, has opened ! — 
 Even as I thought that it had opened, — lo ! yatokosa ! — it 
 has closed up again ! i 
 
 (Play-song.) 
 
 Umeboshi-San 
 To iu hito wa, 
 Ashi kara kao made 
 Shiwa-yotte ! — 
 
 Shiwa-yotte ! 
 Are wa sui, 
 Kore wa SLii, — 
 
 Sui, sui, sui ! 
 
 The person called Mr. Pickled-Plum is wrinkled all over 
 from feet to face, — wrinkled all over ! Sour on that side ! 
 sour on this side ! — sour, sour, sour I 
 
 (Play-sottg.) 
 
 Chinkan-chinkara ! 
 Kajiya no ko ; 
 Hadaka de tobidasu, 
 Furoya no ko ^ . . . 
 
 ^ This Song of the Lotos is sung by a company of children who 
 form a circle, or dancing-round, all holding hands, and facing inwards. 
 As the song begins the circle is slowly widened ; but at the word 
 yatokosa all run in together, — closing up the round with a simultaneous 
 pull. 
 
 ' This appears to be a fragment of some " enumerative song," In 
 which different trades and occupations are referred to. 
 
Songs of Japanese Children 16? 
 
 Clink ! clank ! — the child of the blacksmith ! 
 Jumping out naked — the child of the bath house I 
 
 (Play-song.) 
 
 ** Kaji-don ! Kaji-don ! 
 
 Hi hitotsu goshare ! " 
 " Hi wa nai, nai ya ! 
 
 Ano yama koete, 
 
 Kono yama koete, 
 
 Hi wa koko, koko ni aru ! " 
 
 «* Sir Smith ! Sir Smith ! 
 Please give us a little fire." 
 " Fire I have none, none at all. 
 Crossing over that mountain, 
 Crossing over this mountain, 
 Fire then you will find here." ^ 
 
 (Dance-song.) 
 
 Naka no, naka no 
 Kobotoke wa. 
 Naze mata kaganda ? 
 Oya no hi ni 
 Ebi tabete, 
 
 ^ This song is sung in accompaniment to an ingenious and difficult 
 finger-play, — not altogether unlike our nursery-game of "Dance, 
 Thumbkin, dance I" — but much more complicated; both hands being 
 used. 
 
166 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 Sore de mata 
 Kaganda. 
 
 — The little Buddha in the middle [of the dancing-circle}, 
 the little Buddha in the middle, — why does he remain thus 
 always bent? — On the anniversary of his parents' death, 
 he ate shrimps : ^ therefore he remains thus always bent. 
 
 (Another version.) 
 
 Mawari, mawari no 
 Kobotoke wa, 
 Naze se ga hikui ? 
 Oya no hi ni 
 Toto kutte, 
 Sore de se ga 
 Hikui so na. 
 
 — The little Buddha in the middle of the dancing-round, 
 the little Buddha in the middle, — why is his stature thus 
 low? — Having eaten fish upon the anniversary of his 
 parents' death, therefrom his stature remains low. 
 
 (Centipede-dance — Province of Kii.) 
 
 Yurasu ya mukade ! 
 Atama wa cha-usu ; 
 O wa hiko-hiko yo ! 
 
 1 On the anniversary of a parent's death, and during the Festival of 
 the Dead, no good Buddhist should eat fish of any kind. 
 
Songs of Japanese Children 167 
 
 The centipede moves — shivery-shaky ! The head is 
 like a rice-mortar; — the tail goes hiko-hiko [wiggle- 
 waggle] ! 1 
 
 {Dance-song — Iiumo .) 
 
 Jizo-San ! Jizo-San ! 
 
 Omae no mizu-wo 
 
 Dondo to kunde, 
 
 Matsu-ba ni irete, 
 
 Makkuri-kaeta ! ^ 
 
 Jizo-San, Jizo-San ! plentifully drawing the water of 
 your well, round and round we stir it with pine-leaves, until 
 it spills over. 
 
 (Hand-play song.) 
 
 IcU ga saita, 
 Ni ga saita, 
 San ga saita, 
 Shi ga saita. 
 Go ga saita, 
 
 ^ This Centipede-Dance is performed by a number of children In 
 line, — each grasping the girdle of the one before him ; while the leader 
 holds in his hand some object shaped like a tea-mortar, to represent 
 the centipede's head. The real tea-mortar would probably prove much 
 too heavy for the sport. 
 
 * This is usually sung by little girls. The singers at first stand 
 face to face, in couples, holding hands as they sing. At the words 
 " makkuri-kaeta," they turn about, without loosing the clasp, so as to 
 come back to back. 
 
168 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 Rohu ga saita, 
 Shichi ga saita, 
 Hachi ga saita, 
 ATwmabachi ga saita, 
 Tokage ga saita ! 
 
 One stings ! [here one child lays his right hand upon the 
 right hand of a playfellow] — two stings I [left hand upon 
 the right] — three stings ! [left hand upon the left] — four 
 stings 1 [undermost right hand brought up and laid on] 
 — five stings ! [same manoeuvre by the other player] — six 
 stings! — seven stings! — the bee i stings! [here the one 
 whose hand is uppermost pinches the other's hand] — the 
 WASP stings I [retaliation] — the lizard bites ! [a very hard 
 pinch.] 
 
 (Game-song.) 
 
 " Koko wa doko no hoso-michi ja ? " 
 **Tenjin-San no hoso-michi ja." 
 " Chotto toshite kudanshanse ! " 
 " Goyo no nai mono toshiniasenu." 
 " Tenjin-San e gwan-kakete, 
 Ofuda osame ni mairimasu." 
 " Omae no uchi wa doko jaina ? " 
 " Hakone no o-seki degozarimas." 
 " Sonnara toyare, toyare ! 
 
 1 Hachi, as pronounced, may mean either " eight" or " bee." 
 
Songs of Japanese Children 169 
 
 Yuki wa yoi-yoi 
 Kaeri wa kowai ! " 
 
 « This narrow road, where does it go ? " — " This narrow 
 road is the Road of the God Tenjin." — " I pray you, allow 
 me to pass for a moment." — " No one must pass who has 
 no business to pass." — ''Having made a vow to the God 
 Tenjin, I want to pass to present an ofudaP i — " Where is 
 your house?" — " My house is at the barrier 2 of Hakond." 
 — "Pass, then! pass! Going, all will be well for you; 
 but coming back you will have reason to be afraid." 
 
 ( Game-song — l^umo .) 
 
 ** Kona ko yoi ko da ! 
 
 Doko no ko da ? " 
 
 ** Tonya Hachibei no otomusume." 
 
 " Nanto yoi ko da ! 
 
 Kiyo na ko da ! 
 
 Kiyo ni sodatete 
 
 Kita hodo ni 
 
 Oya ni jikkwan, 
 
 Ko ni go kwan, 
 
 Semete O-Baba ni 
 
 Shijiu-go kwan." 
 
 » Ofuda, a holy text, either written on paper, or stamped upon wood. 
 
 2 Hakone no seki. There used to be a military guard-house at 
 Hakon§, where all travellers had to give an account of themselves 
 before proceeding further. 
 
170 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 " Shijiu-go kwan no o-kane wo 
 
 Nani ni sum ? " 
 
 *' Yasui kome kote, 
 
 Fune ni tsumi : 
 
 Fune wa shirokane, 
 
 Ro wa kogane. 
 
 Saasa ose-ose 
 
 Miyako made." 
 
 '' Miyako modori ni 
 
 Nani morota ? '* 
 
 " Ichi-ni kogai, 
 
 Ni-ni kagami, 
 
 San-ni sarasa no 
 
 Obi morota." 
 
 " Kukete kudasare, 
 
 O-Baba San ! " 
 
 " Kukyo — kukyo, 
 
 To omoedomo, 
 
 Obi ni michikashi, 
 
 Tasuki ni nagashi." 
 
 *' Yamada Yakushi no 
 
 Kane no o ni." 
 
 — "This child is a fine child! — whose child is she?" — 
 " She is the youngest daughter of Hachibei, the wholesale 
 merchant." —" what a fine child! O what a clever 
 child I Because she has been so v/ell brought up, I shaU 
 
Songs of Japanese Children 171 
 
 give to the parents ten kwan} and to the child five kivan, 
 and to the grandmamma not less than forty-five kwan.'" — 
 ** With so much money as forty-five kwan, what will you 
 do ?" — " Cheap rice I will buy, and load it on a boat. The 
 boat is of silver ; the oar is of gold. . . Saasa ! [' Hearty 
 now ! '] — row hard till we get to the Capital ! " — " What 
 presents have you brought us on your return from the 
 Capital ? " — " Firstly, a hair-pin of tortoise-shell. Secondly, 
 a mirror. Thirdly, a girdle of sarasa " 2_*' Please sew it, 
 grandmamma." — *' Though I thought to sew it, — though 
 I thought to sew it, it is too short for a girdle ; it is too 
 long for a /aswyfe/^-cord."— "Then I will ofYer it up as 
 a bell-rope for the bell of [the temple of] Yakushi* at 
 Yamada." 
 
 (Gaim-song.^ 
 
 " Kozo, kozo ! 
 
 Ko hitori goshare ! " 
 
 *' Dono ko ga hoshikera ? 
 
 '' Ano ko ga hoshii wa." 
 
 " Nani soete yashinau ? " 
 
 1 One kwan was equal to a thousand copper-cash in old times. — 
 The value of the present given to the grandmother reminds one of the 
 fact that, in a Japanese family, the early training of the children is 
 usually left to the grandparents, and especially to the grandmother. 
 
 * Sarasa is a kind of calico, or chintz. 
 
 3 Tasuki, a cord used to tie back the long sleeves of the Japanese 
 robe, during working-hours. 
 
 ♦ Yakushi is the Japanese form of the name Bhaishagyaraga. (Bba- 
 ishagyaraga literally signifies "The Medical King.") Yakushi, or 
 Yakushi-Nyorai, is a very popular Buddhist divinity in Japan, —and 
 is especially prayed to as a healing Buddha. 
 
172 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 *' Tai soete yashinau." 
 
 " Sore wa hone ga atte ikenu." 
 
 " Sonnara tai ga hone nara, 
 
 Ika soete yashinau." 
 
 *' Sore wa mushi no dai-doku." 
 
 " Sonnara Tono-San no nikai de 
 
 Mosen shiite tenarai sashozo." 
 
 *' Te ga yogorete ikenu." 
 
 " Sonnara Tono-San no nikai de 
 
 Mosen shiite sato mochi.'* 
 
 ** Sonnara yaruzo ! " 
 
 ** Acolyte, acolyte, please give me one child ! " — " Which 
 child do you wish to have?" — ''That child I want to 
 have." — "With what kind of food will you feed the 
 child?"— «' With ^a/-fish I will feed the child." — " That 
 will not do, — there are too many bones." — "Then, as 
 there are too many bones in /a/-fish, I will feed the child 
 with cuttle-fish." — "That would be very bad for the 
 stomach of the child." — "Then, in the house of the 
 lord, upstairs, I will spread a rug, and teach the child to 
 write." — "That will not do: it would make the child's 
 hands dirty." — "Then in the house of the lord, upstairs, 
 I will spread a rug, and give sugar-cakes to the child." — 
 " Very well, I will let you have the child." 
 
 (New- Year Song. ) 
 
 Senzo ya ! manzo ! 
 O-fune ya gichiri ko, 
 
Songs of Japanese Children 173 
 
 Gichiri, gichiri, kogeba, 
 O-Ebisu ka ? Daikoku ka ? 
 Kocha f uku no kami ! 
 
 A thousand ships ! ten thousand ships ! Hear the 
 August [Treasure-] Ship coming:, — gichiri, gichiri, gichiri, 
 as they row ! Is it the God Ebisu ? is it the God Daikoku ? 
 — Hither come the Gods of Good Fortune. 
 
 (Old Tokyo Songs of the Bon-Festival.) 
 I 
 
 Bon no jiu-roku nichi 
 A-sobasenu oya wa, 
 Ki-Butsu, Kana-Butsu, 
 
 Ishi-Botoke ! 
 
 Ishi-Botoke ! 
 
 The parents who will not let their chikli-ei- ^Ky *^n the 
 sixteenth day of the [month of the] Bon-Festival, — th<?v are 
 wooden Buddhas, — they are metal Buddhas, — they are 
 Buddhas of stone, Buddhas of stone ! 
 
 II 
 
 Bon, Bon, Bon no 
 Jiu-roku nichi, 
 O-Emma Sama ye 
 Maero to shitara, 
 Zuzu no ga kirete, 
 
174 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 Hanao ga kirete, 
 Namu Shaka Nyorai ! 
 Te de ogamu, 
 Te de ogamu 1 
 
 If we go to [visit the temple of] the August Lord Emma,i 
 on the sixteenth day of the Bon, Bon, Bon, the string of 
 the praying beads having been broken, and the thong of 
 the sandal having been burst, Namu Shaka Nyorai !^ {we 
 cTf], — and pray with hands joined, and pray with hands 
 joined. 
 
 Ill 
 
 " O-Bon ga kita kara 
 Kamiyute okure." 
 ** Shimada ga yo'i ka ? 
 Karako ga yoi ka ? " 
 *' Shimada mo iya yo ! 
 Karako mo iya yo ! 
 O-Edo de hayaru 
 O-sage-gami ! " 
 
 " Now that the Bon-festival has come, please to dress 
 my hair." — " Will the Shimada-siyk^ suit you ? — or will 
 
 1 Yama, the King of Death. His festival is held on the i6th day of 
 the 7th month, after the three days' Festival of the Dead, — usually 
 called the Bon. 
 
 2 " Hail to the Tathagata, Sakyamuni! " — an invocation uttered, by 
 the members of certain Buddhist sects, on all occasions of distress. — 
 It is believed to be a bad omen for the thong of one's sandal to break. 
 
 s The Sbimada-style is the fashion in which a bride's hair is dressed. 
 
Songs of Japanese Children 175 
 
 the Karako i style suit you ? " — " No, I will not have my 
 hair dressed in the Shimada-siyXt, nor will I have it dressed 
 in the Karako siyl^. The honorable sage-gami^ style is 
 now the fashion in the noble city of Yedo." 
 
 IV 
 
 Ichi no maru koete, 
 Ni no maru koete, 
 San no maru saki ye 
 Hori-ido hotte, 
 Hori wa, hori-ido : 
 Tsurube wa kogane ; 
 Kogane no saki ye 
 Tombo ga tomatte ; 
 Yare, sore tombo ! 
 Sore, sore tombo ! 
 Tobanakya hane wo 
 Kirigirisu ! 
 Kiriko ga t5ro, 
 Kiriko ga toro ! 
 Kiriko ga toro wa, 
 Donata no saiku ? 
 
 ^ The Karakowage was an old-fashioned style of coiffure, — prob- 
 ably as the name implies, of Chinese origin ; the literal meaning of the 
 term being "Chinese-child-coiffure." 
 
 2 The term sage-gami means loose-flowing hair. Anciently noble 
 ladies wore their hair thus. 
 
176 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 O-Akashi Sama no 
 O-te zaiku, 
 O-te zaiku ! 
 
 Crossing the innermost line of fortification i, — cross- 
 ing the second line of fortification, — at the end of the 
 third line of fortification dug a well, a moat and a well. — 
 The well-bucket is of gold. On the top of the golden 
 bucket a dragon-fly alighted. Oh ! that dragon-fly ! that 
 dragon-fly ! If it does not fly, its wings shall be cut off.^ 
 — O the kirtko-hnierns \^—0 the kin ko-hniems — who 
 made the ;^m^o-lanterns ? Our august Lord Akashi made 
 them with his own august hand, with his own august 
 hand. 
 
 Nagai, nagai, 
 Ryogoku-bashi nagai ! 
 Nagai Ryogoku-bashi 
 Suzumi ni detara, 
 O-ko-sama-gata ga 
 Yakata no fune de, 
 Hikuya, kataruya, 
 Yare omoshiroya, 
 
 1 The lines of defence about a Japanese castle are counted from 
 within outwards. 
 
 2 There is here an untranslatable play of words, — the term kiri- 
 girisu, which is the name of a cricket, being used for the verb kiri, to 
 cut. 
 
 * This is given to a kind of four-sided or polygonal lantern. 
 
Songs of Japanese Children 177 
 
 Yare omoshiroya ! 
 Bon-odori ! 
 
 Long, long,— the Ryogoku bridge is long. Had you 
 gone there to get cool, on the long Ryogoku bridge, oh ! 
 to see the honorable children in the pleasure-boats, and to 
 hear the musicians, and the reciters ! — how pleasant it was, 
 how pleasant !— and the festival dance, too, — the Bon- 
 Odori ! 
 
 VI 
 
 Yanagi no shita no 
 Oshidori-Sama wa 
 Asahi ni terarete, 
 O-iro ga kuroi ; — 
 O-iro ga kurokirya 
 Ganguri-gasa o-sashi. 
 Ganguri-gasa iya yo ! 
 Ganguri-gasa iya yo ! 
 O-Edo de hayaru 
 Ja-no-me-gasa, 
 Ja-no-me-gasa ! 
 
 Under the willow-tree 
 
 Sir Mandarin-duck 
 
 Being shone upon by the morning sun, 
 
 His honorable color is dark. 
 
 If the honorable complexion be dark, 
 
 12 
 
178 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 Spread a ganguri-umhrelh.^ 
 
 A ganguri-umhreWd. I will not have I 
 
 A gangttri-umhrelh I will not have ! 
 
 Now in the honorable city of Yedo, is fashionable 
 
 The Serpent' s-Eye-umbrella,''^ 
 
 The Serpent's-Eye-umbrella. 
 
 VII 
 
 Konata no yashiki wa 
 Kirei na yashiki, — 
 Oku no ma de samisen, 
 Naka no ma de odori wo, 
 Daidoko ma demo 
 Fue taiko ! f ue taiko ! 
 
 This residence of yours is a fine residence, — with a 
 samisen playing in the best back-room, and dancing going 
 on in the middle-room, and even in the kitchen a flute and 
 drum, a flute and drum ! 
 
 ( Tokyo play-song.) 
 
 . " Oyama no, 
 Oyama no 
 
 1 Ganguri-gasa. I do not know what kind of umbrella was thus 
 called. 
 
 2 A paper umbrella painted black, all but a band some four or five 
 Inches from the top, so that when the umbrella is opened, this white 
 ring with the black space which it encloses, resembles in form a ser- 
 pent's eye. 
 
Songs of Japanese Children 179 
 
 O-Kon San wa 
 
 Doko ittaka ? " 
 
 " Tonari e 
 
 O-imo tabeni ikimashita." 
 
 " O-okashii ! o-okashii ! " 
 
 " 0-Kon San of Gyama — where has she gfone?" — 
 "She went next door, to eat some potatoes." — "How 
 very, very strange ! — how very, very strange ! " ^ 
 
 ( Tokyo play-song.) 
 
 Muko no yama no 
 Sumotori-bana wa 
 Enyaraya to hikeba, 
 O-te-te ga kireru, — 
 O-te-te no kireta 
 O-kusuri nai ka ? 
 Aka no mo aru, 
 Shiroi no mo aru. 
 Onaji-ku nareba 
 Akai no ni sho yo ! 
 
 When [with a ay of] Enyaraya ! we pull the violets 2 of 
 yonder mountam, our hands get torn. — Is there no medi- 
 
 * This song belongs to a game of hide-and-seek, played by girls. 
 
 2 Literally, the " wrestler's-flower," — so called because of a game 
 played with violet-flowers. Two children each take a violet, twist the 
 heads of their flowers together, and pull the stalks in opposite direc- 
 tions until one of them breaks. The player whose violet breaks first is 
 
180 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 cine for the torn hand? Red medicine there is, and also 
 white. — If the two medicines are equally good, then I shall 
 certainly take the red. 
 
 {Dialogue Song — Province of I^umo.) 
 
 " Muko no yama no 
 Kawazu ga naku ga ! 
 Nashite naku ka ? 
 Samute naku ka ? 
 Himoji te naku-ka ? 
 Himojikya ta tsukure." 
 *' Ta tsukuriya kitanai/' 
 '' Kitanakya arae." 
 " Arauya tsumetai." 
 " Tsumetakya atare." 
 " Atarya atsui." 
 " Atsukya shizare." 
 ** Shizara nomi ga ku." 
 " Nomi ga kuya korose." 
 *' Korosha kawai ! " 
 " Kawaikya daitene." 
 " Daitene ry a nomi ga ku." 
 " Nomi ga kiiya korose." . . . 
 &c., &c. 
 
 the loser. Perhaps the reader will be reminded of our " wishing-bone " 
 sport ; but in the Japanese play the flowers are supposed to represent 
 wrestlers. 
 
Songs of Japanese Children l8l 
 
 " The frogs of yonder mountain cry. Why do they 
 cry ? Is it for cold that they cry ? Is it for hunger that 
 they cry? If you are hungry, till the rice-field." — " It is 
 dirty work, to till the rice-field." — <* If it be dirty work, 
 wash." — "It is cold, to wash."— '* If it be cold, warm 
 yourselves by the fire." — "It is too hot by the fire." — 
 "If it be too hot, go further away."— " If we go further 
 away, the fleas will bite us." — " If the fleas bite you, kill 
 them." —"It is too pitiful to kill the poor things." — " If 
 you pity them so much, embrace them, and sleep with 
 them."— "If we embrace the fleas and sleep with them, 
 they will bite us." — "If the fleas bite you, kill them," 
 &c.,&c. 
 
 By far the strangest thing in this part of my 
 collection is a kind of metaphysical dialogue, 
 chanted by children as a play-song ! It probably 
 survives from the period when the teaching of 
 children was chiefly intrusted to the Buddhist 
 priesthood, and when almost every Buddhist 
 temple was also a school, or had some kind of 
 a school attached to it. There is nothing very 
 remarkable about the composition itself: it is 
 only the choice of subject — an astonishing sub- 
 ject for a play-song, — that makes the thing seem 
 strange to a Western mind. 
 
 This subject is the infinity of Jizo Bosatsu (the 
 Bodhisattva Kshitigarbha) , whose smiling images 
 may be seen by almost every roadside, and in 
 
182 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 countless Buddhist cemeteries. Often at cross- 
 roads, and still more often in graveyards, you will 
 find, instead of a single statue of Jiz5, six images 
 in a row, — each figure bearing a diflferent mys- 
 tical emblem. These Six Jizo, or Roku-Jiio, 
 symbolize the teaching that Jizo Bosatsu, self- 
 multiplied, at once exercises his saving pity in all 
 the Six Spheres of Sentient Existence, — that is 
 to say throughout the entire Universe of Forms. 
 But, according to the higher Buddhism, " there is 
 no being besides Buddha, and no Buddha besides 
 being." All the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas 
 are veritably but One ; — all substance, all life, 
 all mind is but One. And Jizo of the Six States 
 of Existence is not only a multiple manifestation 
 of the Absolute : he also is the Absolute. . . . 
 To find these conceptions embodied in a child's 
 play-song is somewhat startling; but there are 
 many things quite as startling to be met with in 
 the old popular literature of Buddhism : — 
 
 {Province of Mutsu.) 
 
 Hashi no shita ni Roku-Jizo 
 Nezumi ni atama wo kajirarete, 
 
 — Nezumi koso Jizo da ! 
 
 — Nezumi Jizo dara, 
 
Songs of Japanese Children I83 
 
 Nanishini neko ni torarebena ? 
 
 — Neko koso Jizo yo ! 
 
 — Neko wa Jizo dara, 
 Nanishini inu ni torarebena ? 
 
 — Inu koso Jizo yo ! 
 
 — Inu wa Jizo dara, 
 Nanishini okami ni torarebena ? 
 
 — Okami koso Jizo yo ! 
 
 — Okami Jizo dara, 
 Nanishini hi ni makarebena ? 
 
 — Hi koso Jizo yo ! 
 
 — Hi wa Jizo dara, 
 Nanishini mizu ni kesarebena ? 
 
 — Mizu koso Jizo yo ! 
 
 — Mizu wa Jizo dara, 
 Nanishini hito ni nomarebena ? 
 
 — Hito koso Jizo yo ! 
 
 — Hito wa Jizo dara, 
 Nanishini Jizo ogamubena ? 
 
 — Hon no Jizo wa Roku-Jizo. 
 
 — The heads of the Six Jizo under the bridge have been 
 gnawed by some rat. — But that rat itself is really Jizo. — 
 If the rat be Jizo, how comes it that the rat is caught by a 
 cat? — The cat itself is really Jizo. — If the cat be Jizo, 
 how does it happen that the cat is worried by a dog ? — 
 Truly the dog itself is also Jizo. — If the dog be Jizo, how 
 explain the fact that it is captured by a wolf? — The wolf 
 
184 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 itself is certainly Jizo. — If the wolf be Jiz6, why should it 
 be overcome by fire? — The fire indeed is also Jizo. — If 
 the fire be Jizo, why should it be extinguished by water ? — 
 The water also is really Jizo. — If the water be Jizo, how 
 explain the fact that it is drunk by mankind? — Mankind 
 is really Jizo. — If mankind be Jizo, why should mankind 
 pray to Jizo ? — The true Jizo is the Jizo of the Six States 
 of Existence (lit., ** the trmjiio is the Six-Jii5"), 
 
 IV 
 
 NARRATIVE-SONGS 
 
 {Province ofCboshi.) 
 
 Ora ga tonari no Semmatsu wa, 
 Omi no ikusa ni tanomarete, 
 Ichi-nen tatte mo mada konai, 
 Ni-nen tatte mo mada konai, 
 San-nen tattara kubi ga kita. 
 
 As for my neighbor Semmatsu, 
 
 Having been engaged for the war in Omi, 
 
 Though one year passed, still he did not come back ; 
 
 Though two years passed, still he did not come back ; 
 
 When three years had passed, his head came back.* 
 
 {Province of I^umo.) 
 
 Muko no yama ni 
 
 Sam ga sambiki tomatt^ ; 
 
 * Cut off, we must suppose. 
 
Songs of Japanese Children 185 
 
 Mae no saru wa mono shirazu ; 
 Ato no saru mo mono shirazu ; 
 Naka no ko-zaru yo mono shitte. 
 Gozare tomodachi, hana-mi ni yuko ya ? 
 Hana wa doko bana ? 
 Jizo no mae no sakura-bana. 
 Hito-eda oreba, patto chiru ; 
 Futa-eda oreba, patto chiru ; 
 Mi-eda ga saki ni hi ga kurete. 
 Dochi no koya e yado toroka ? 
 Higashi no koya e yado toroka ? 
 Minami no koya e yado toroka ? 
 Tonosan no koya e yado totte, 
 Tatami wa mijikashi, yo wa nagashi. 
 Akazuki okite sora mitara 
 Gikko no bakko no kiisengo. 
 Funedomo saraete ho wo kaketsu. 
 Hokakebune no tsuri-mono wa, 
 Shiro-ori, aka-ori, aka-ji no 
 Majitta tsuba-katana. 
 
 In yonder mountain three monkeys dwell. The first 
 monkey knows nothing. The last monkey also knows 
 nothing. But the midmost little monkey knows every- 
 thing well. — Come, friends, let us go to see the flowers. 
 — Flowers? where are the flowers.? — Before the statue 
 of Jiz6 the cherry-flowers are blooming. As I break one 
 
186 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 branch, the cherry-flowers fall scattering. As I break a 
 second branch the cherry-flowers fall scattering. Before I 
 can break a third, the darkness comes. — In what dye-house 
 shall I find lodging.? Shall 1 take lodging in the eastern 
 dye-house ? Shall I take lodging in the southern dye- 
 house ? — Lodging in the dye-house of the Tono-Sama 
 [Icyrd), the mats I find short, and the night long. — Awaking 
 at dawn, if I see the sky ... .1, cleaning out the ships, 
 hoisting the sails. The sails of this sailing-ship are of white 
 cloth and red ; the rigging is of red silk cord from the 
 variegated hilts of swords .2 
 
 {Province of I^umo.) 
 
 Yare haratatsu ! — tatsu naraba ; 
 Suzuri to fude to o-te ni motte, 
 Omou koto wo kaki-oite, 
 Murasaki-ga e mi wo nageta. 
 Shita kara zako ga tsutsuku yara, 
 Ue kara karasu ga tsutsuku yara. 
 Tsutsuita karasu wa doko yukita ? 
 Mori-ki no shita e mugi maki ni. 
 Nan-goku, nan-goku maite kita ? 
 Ni-sen-goku maite kita. 
 
 * Here is a line of which I could not obtain a translation, — gikko no 
 bakko no kiisengo. Perhaps the text is corrupt. 
 
 2 This is not quite literal ; but it is certainly the original meaning of 
 the description. — There are a great many songs of the same kind. 
 Might not the kind be described as ar imperfect form of randonnie, — 
 a randonnee in the first stage of evolution ? 
 
Songs of Japanese Children 187 
 
 Ni-sen-goku no no ni wa 
 Tera no mae de ko wo unda. 
 Juji no koromo e chi ga tsuite, 
 Ame-tare-mizu de aratte, 
 Koro no hi de abutte ; 
 Koro no hi ga taraide, 
 Abura-hi de abutte ; 
 Abura-hi ga taraide, 
 Kudo no hi de abutte; 
 Kudo no hi ga taraide, 
 Kotatsu no hi de abutte. 
 
 What I you are angry ? Ah ! if you be angry, taking 
 inkstone and writing-brush in your honorable hand, think 
 of what you wish to write and to leave behind you ! i 
 When you have cast your body into the Purple River 
 [Murasakt-gawa] small fishes will nibble it from below; 
 crows will pick it from above. — The crow that picked, 
 where is it gone ? — It has gone under a forest-tree, to sow 
 wheat. — How many koku,'^ how many kokn have been 
 sown ? — Two thousand koku have been sown. — By reason 
 of the sowing of two thousand koku, a child is born in 
 front of the temple. — The upper robe of the chief priest 
 having been sprinkled with blood, he washed it in rain- 
 water, and dried it by the fire of a censer. The fire in the 
 censer being insufficient, he dried it by fire of oil. The fire 
 of oil being insufficient, he dried it by the fire of a cook- 
 
 1 Alluding to the custom of writing a letter to explain one's motives* 
 before suicide. 
 
 2 One koku is equal to about 5.13 bushels.. 
 
188 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 ing-range. The fire of the cooking-range being insufficient, 
 he dried it by the fire of a kotatsu)- 
 
 {Province of he.) 
 
 Neko ga Kuwana e mairutote ; 
 Kuwana no michi de hi ga kiete, 
 Toboshitemo, toboshitemo, toboraide. 
 Chaya no en eto koshikakete, 
 
 — Mizu wo ippai okurenka ? 
 
 — Mizu wo yaru no wa yasui kedo, 
 Tsurube no soko ga nukemashita. 
 
 — Yare, yare ! kitsui ane-san ja ! 
 O-cha wo ippuku okurenka ? 
 
 — O-cha wo yaru no wa yasui kedo, 
 Chagama no soko ga nukemashita. 
 
 — Yare, yare ! kitsui ane-san ja ! 
 Tabako wo ippuku okurenka ? 
 
 — Tabako yaru no wa yasui kedo, 
 Kiseru no kubi ga nukemashita. 
 
 » A kotatsu is a square structure ; the sides and top being formed by 
 wooden bars ; and the lower part containing a metal brasier, or warming- 
 pan, in which a charcoal fire is lighted. Over this structure heavy 
 quilts are thrown ; and a number of persons can keep themselves warm 
 by sitting round the kotatsu with their knees under the quilts. The size 
 of the kotatsu varies from about one foot to two feet square. Diction- 
 aries absurdly describe the thing as " a kind of hearth." It is not a 
 hearth ; but in Western Japan it occupies a place in the home like that 
 of the hearth with us, — for the family assemble about It of winter 
 evenings. 
 
Songs of Japanese Children 189 
 
 — Yare, yare! kitsui ane-san ja ! . . . 
 f^i — fu — mi — yo — itsu — mu — nana — 
 ya — kono — to ! 
 
 A cat set out for Kuwana. On the road to Kuwana her 
 light went out. Though she tried and tried to reUght it, 
 she could not. Then, having seated herself on the veranda 
 of a tea-house, she asked : — " One cup of water will you 
 not kindly give me?" — " It would be very easy to give 
 you water ; but the bottom of the well-bucket has been 
 taken out." — " Oh ! oh ! how harshly speaks this Elder 
 Sister ! i Then will you not kindly give me a cup of tea ? " 
 — " To give you some tea were an easy matter ; but the 
 bottom of the tea-kettle has been taken out." — " Oh ! oh ! 
 how merciless this Elder Sister ! Then will you not let 
 me have one pipeful of tobacco .?" — " To give you some 
 tobacco were an easy matter; but the bowl of the pipe has 
 fallen off " — " Oh ! oh ! what a merciless Elder Sister ! " 
 _ One — two — three —four —five — six — seven — 
 eight —nine — ten ! ^ 
 
 Of course the cat, in the foregoing narration, 
 is a goblin-cat, — a cat having power to assume 
 divers shapes. She travels in human form ; but 
 this disguise is penetrated by the eye of the tea- 
 house servant, who answers her as goblins are 
 
 1 " Elder Sister" is still the title of courtesy by which the maid-ser- 
 vant of an inn is addressed ; but the form l^han, a contraction of Ane- 
 san, is more frequently used. 
 
 s The numbers here refer to a game played to the accompaniment ol 
 
 the song. 
 
190 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 answered. ... If any goblin or ghost ask you 
 for a bucket or other vessel, it is better not to re- 
 fuse directly ; but you must be careful to knock 
 the bottom out of the vessel asked for before 
 yielding it up, — otherwise the consequences 
 might be fatal. 
 
 This reminds me of a superficial criticism 
 sometimes made in regard to those European 
 fairy-tales which recount the wooing of beautiful 
 maidens by frogs or birds, and the intermarriage 
 of different species of animals. It has been said 
 that the monstrous absurdity of such stories un- 
 fits them for the perusal of children, and, further- 
 more, deprives them of all artistic merit. But 
 most of these fairy-tales can be traced back to 
 Oriental sources ; and to the Oriental mind there 
 is nothing absurd in the idea of marriage be- 
 tween human and non-human beings, — since it 
 is believed that many animals can assume human 
 shapes at will. To Far-Eastern faith all life is 
 One ; and the forms that enclose it but tempo- 
 rary conditions. Without some knowledge of 
 Far-Eastern beliefs,^ the real charm of the old 
 
 1 The beliefs are older than Buddhism; but Buddhism 
 gave them considerable recognition. One of the questions 
 
Songs of Japanese Children 191 
 
 Japanese fairy-tales cannot be understood. In 
 any event they should be read in translation only 
 when illustrated by Japanese artists. The il- 
 lustrations will explain much that the bare text 
 leaves in mystery. 
 
 In the next song we have the story of a 
 serpent assuming the shape of a certain man's 
 daughter. Stories of serpent- women and dragon- 
 women abound in Japanese literature. Probably 
 both this song and the preceding one were in- 
 spired by the memory of some old romance or 
 drama : — 
 
 {Province of Shinano.) 
 
 Muko no ozawa ni ja ga tatte, — 
 
 Hachiman-Choja no oto-musume. 
 
 Yoku mo tattari takundari, 
 
 Te ni wa nihon no tama wo mochi, 
 
 Ashi ni wa kogane no kutsu wo haki, 
 
 A yobe, ko yobe, to iinagara, 
 
 Yama kure no kure ittareba, 
 
 Kusakari tonogo ni yukiatte, 
 
 — Obi wo kudasare, tonogo-sama. 
 
 formerly to be asked of any one desiring to enter the 
 Buddhist Order, according to the Vinaya texts, was this: 
 — " Are j;ou a human being? " 
 
192 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 — Obi mo kasa mo yasui koto, 
 Ore no nyobo ni naru-naraba : 
 Asa wa okite kami-yute. 
 
 — Hana no saku made nete machi yo ! 
 
 From the swamp beyond there rose up a serpent, in the 
 likeness of the youngest daughter of the wealthy Hachiman. 
 Well did it assume that form, skilfully standing. Holding 
 in its hands two gems, and wearing upon its feet shoes of 
 gold, it traversed mountains and fields, crying out the 
 while:— "Call there! — Call here!" Then did it meet 
 a grass-cutter, and say to him : — "Fair husband, deign to 
 give me a girdle I " — "To give you [he answered] both a 
 girdle and a hat will be easily done, if you become my 
 wife. Then every morning, early rising, I will arrange 
 your hair." — Wait then [she said], — patiently wait until 
 the season of the blooming of flowers." 
 
 BATTLEDOOR-SONGS AND 
 BALL-SONGS 
 
 In the time of the New- Year holidays the streets 
 are made beautiful by groups of young girls 
 playing at battledoor- and -shuttlecock, or at vari- 
 ous games of hand-ball. It were difficult to 
 imagine anything more charming than some of 
 these little maids in their long-sleeved and many- 
 
Songs of Japanese Children 19? 
 
 colored holiday -costume : only the most radi- 
 ant of moths or butterflies might serve for a 
 comparison. Very skilful are the Tokyo artists 
 in portraying the grace and the daintiness of 
 them; and every year these artists delight us 
 with new colored prints of bevies of ball -players 
 — (showing the fashions of the season), — or 
 pictures of some fairy -damsel with upturned 
 smiling face and shining eyes, and flower-lips 
 half-parted, as she watches, battledoor in hand, 
 the feathery missile in its course. Yet the real- 
 ity may often be much more lovely than the 
 picture. And, oh! what wonderful battledoors 
 are sometimes to be seen ! — cushioned at the 
 back with silk mosaic-work, making the dream 
 of a landscape, a garden, a princess of ancient 
 days! 
 
 Yet the charm is not visual only ; — these fair- 
 ies, in their play, sing little songs of strange 
 rhythm and melody, very sweet to hear, and (for 
 the Western listener) impossible to remember. 
 
 Many of these queer little songs are so con- 
 structed that the first syllable of each successive 
 line or phrase corresponds with the first syllable 
 of a numeral noting the ordinal place of the 
 13 
 
194 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 line or phrase. Most commonly the Japanese 
 numerals are used : — hitotsu, futatsu, mitsu, 
 yotsu, itsutsu, mutsu, nanatsu, yatsu, koko- 
 notsu, and to. But in various examples the 
 Chinese numerals are used — ichi, ni, san, shi, 
 go, roku, shichi, hachi, hii, jiti. And in sundry 
 compositions the two sets of numerals are mixed 
 together. With the utterance of each line or 
 phrase the shuttlecock or the ball ought to be 
 struck once. The term cho (" even number ") 
 seems usually to signify ten strokes; — but this 
 meaning is not always evident. 
 
 ( Tokj'o Battledoor-song.) 
 
 Hit on kina, 
 Futan kina, 
 Miii yukina, 
 Kotte yukina ; 
 Itsu kite 
 M//zukashi ; 
 Nana y^kushi, 
 Koko no ma de 
 To yo! 
 
 Come, one! come, two! — After seeing, go! — After 
 entering, go ! — Wlienever I come to see you, your face is 
 
Songs of Japanese Children 19S 
 
 gloomy. — Seven for Yakushi ! i — There you are ! —ten 
 with the stroke of nine! 
 
 {Kjyoto Baitledoor-song,) 
 
 Hitori kina, 
 Futan kina, 
 MM yukita, 
 ybtte yukina ; 
 Itsu kite mitemo 
 Nanako obi wo 
 y^^kuruma ni shimete. 
 Kokono yo de itcho yo ! 
 
 Come, one ! Come, two ! — After seeing, departed ; — 
 after entering, go! Whenever I come to see you, you 
 put on your Namko 2-girdle, tying it in the mode called 
 "Eight Wheels." With this ninth stroke, one cho is 
 completed. 
 
 {Kyoto Battledoor-song.) 
 
 Hitomi, 
 Futamt, 
 M/yakashi, 
 Yomigo, 
 Itsuydi no 
 
 1 Yakushi-Nyoral (Bhaishagj/araga) , the Healing Buddha. 
 
 2 Nanako is the name given to a kind of heavy twilled silk with a 
 wavy lustre. 
 
196 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 M//sashi, 
 Niifhjy:\ no 
 y j/.s7/shi, — 
 Kokofio ya I 
 Tdl 
 
 One eye-glance ! — two ^hnces I — the Aiipfust Lights 
 [of the Gods] I — the Daujihter-in-Liiw ! — the Chequer- 
 g:ame [sold at the shop] Itsuyiil — the dandy [-clerk] or 
 the shop Nanaya ! — Nine there are I — And ten ! 
 
 {Batth'door-song — Proviuce of Shinano.) 
 
 Hi -vara Hikobe ; 
 Nakane no O-Toyo ; 
 Sando-me ni niakettf, 
 Abekobe chinchikurin, 
 Chinchikurin no chinchikurin ; 
 Hi toko n'l fnti7gOy 
 M/ watasu j'omego, 
 Itsu kite w/temo,* 
 NiViciko no obi wo 
 Yd no ji ni shiniete, 
 Kono ya wo tovu. 
 
 There goes one, Hikob^ ! — 0-Toyo of Nakan^; — three 
 times defeated ; — upside-down now, chincbikitrin ! — chin- 
 
 ^ The syllable mi of viitemo is here considered to be an equivalent 
 for mu, the first syllable of mutsu, " six." 
 
Songs of Japanese Children 197 
 
 chikurin ! and chinchikurin ! — one child and twins; — 
 bride seen far away ; whenever I }^o to see her, she puts 
 on her Nanako-ohi (taffeta j^irdle), tyin}( it in the form of 
 the character Ya} — and so she passes before this house. 
 
 Sometimes the names of ten celebrated temples, 
 or the names of ten divinities, or even the names 
 of the months, are used for the same enumerative 
 purpose, — as in the following examples : — 
 
 ( Tokyo Ball-song.) ^ 
 
 Ichi ni Ichibata O-Yakushi Sama yo ! 
 Ni-niwa Nihon no Nikko-Sama yo ! 
 San-ni Sanuki no Kompira-Sama yo ! 
 Shi-ni wa Shinano no Zenkoji-Sama yo ! 
 Itsutsu Enoshima Benten-Sama yo ! 
 Roku-ni Rokkakudo no Kwannon-Sama yo ! 
 Nanatsu Nana-ura no Tenjin-Sama yoj 
 Yatsu Yawata no Hachiman-Sama yo ! 
 Kokonotsu Koya no Kobo-Sama yo ! 
 To de tokoro no Ujigami-Sama yo ! 
 Kaketa gwan nara tokaneba naranu ! 
 
 The first time for the Aui^ust Lord Yakushi of Ichibata; 
 The second, for the Lord Deity of Nikko in Japan ; 
 
 ' The Hiragana character " ya " is here referred to. — This way of 
 tyin^ the girdle is still in fashion, and Is still called the " Ya-no-jl " 
 manner. 
 
 ' Variants of this composition seem to be known in almost every 
 part of Japan. 
 
198 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 The third, for the Lord Kompira of Sanuki ; 
 
 The fourth, for the Lord Buddha of Zenkoji in Shinano; 
 
 The fifth, for the deity Benten of Enoshima ; 
 
 The sixth, for the deity Kwannon of the Rokkakudo; 
 
 The seventh, for the August Lord Tenjin, of Nana-ura; 
 
 The eighth, for the August Lord Hachiman, of Yawata; 
 
 The ninth, for the Lord Kobodaishi of Koya; 
 
 The tenth, for the tutelary Gods of this place. 
 
 The vow that has been made must always be kept I 
 
 {Kyoto Battledoor-song.) 
 
 Shogwatsu, — 
 
 Kadomatsu ; 
 Nigwatsu, — 
 
 Hatsu-uma ; 
 Sangwatsu, — 
 
 Sekku ; 
 Shigwatsu, — 
 
 O-Shaka ; 
 Gogwatsu, — 
 
 Nobori ; 
 Rokugwatsu, — 
 
 Tenno ; 
 Shichigwatsu, — 
 
 Tanabata ; 
 Hachigwatsu, — 
 
 Hassaku ; 
 
Songs of Japanese Children 199 
 
 Kugwatsu, — 
 
 Kiku-tsuki ; 
 Jiugwatsu, — 
 
 Ebisu-ko ; 
 Shimotsuki ; 
 
 Shiwasu ; 
 Kokono yo de 
 
 Itcho yo ! 
 
 First Month, Gate-Pinetree;i— Second Month, First 
 Day-of-the-Horse;2 — Third Month, Girls' Festival ;» — 
 Fourth Month, the August Sakyamuni;* — Fifth Month, 
 Flags; 6 Sixth Month, Festival of the tutelar God;» — 
 Seventh Month, Festival of the Weaver ; "' — Eighth Month, 
 Festival of the First Day; — Ninth Month, the Month of 
 Chrysanthemums; — Tenth Month, Festival of Ebisu;^ — 
 The Frost Month; — The Last Month; — Nine strokes 
 given — now one cho is now completed. 
 
 * The Kadomatsu, or "Gate-Pine," Is planted before the main en- 
 trance of a house on the first day of the new year. 
 
 2 This is the great festival of the Rice-God ; — the term Hatsu-uma, 
 or " First Horse-Day," signifies only seventh day, each day of the old 
 month being named after one of the twelve Signs of the Zodiac. 
 
 3 Also called the Festival of Dolls. 
 
 * The Birthday of the Buddha is celebrated on the eighth day of the 
 fourth month. 
 
 6 This is the Boys' Festival. Nobori are flags, bearing symbolic 
 designs, and are hoisted in celebration of the birth of a son. In Tokyo 
 paper or cotton figures of carp-fish are used in lieu of nobori. 
 
 6 Tenno is the name usually given to the guardian-deity of a city ol 
 district. 
 
 ' The Weaver is the Star Vega. 
 
 * Patron-God of Labor. 
 
200 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 {Ball-song — Province of Shinano,) 
 
 Daikoku-Sama, to iu hito wa, — 
 Ichi-ni, tawara wo f unmaete ; 
 Ni-ni, nikkori warote ; 
 San-ni, sakazuki itadaite ; 
 Yotsu de, yo no naka yoi yo ni ; 
 Itsutsu de, izumi no waku yo ni ; 
 Mutsu, mubyo sokusai ni ; 
 Nanatsu, nanigoto nai yo ni ; 
 Yatsu de, yashiki wo tairagete ; 
 Kokonotsu, ko-kura wo oshitatete ; 
 To de, tokkuri osamatta. 
 
 [Praying tol the person called Daikoku-Sama, — firstly, 
 as he treads upon the rice-bales, — secondly, as he laughs 
 with pleasant countenance, — thirdly, taking the s^^^-cup 
 respectfully in hand, — fourthly, — \we beseech hirn] that all 
 the world may prosper, — fifthly, that the springs may 
 purely flow, — sixthly, that the people may be free from all 
 sickness and calamity, — seventhly, that all evils may cease, 
 — eighthly, that our house may be victorious \in war] , — 
 ninthly, that treasure-houses maybe erected, — tenthly, that 
 universal peace may continue to prevail. 
 
 This last is a curious example of a prayer trans- 
 formed into a ball-song. Excepting the first four 
 lines the text is almost, word-for-word, the text 
 of an old samurai-prayer, — the household prayer 
 
Songs of Japanese Children 201 
 
 which every warrior repeated daily. . . . Some 
 of the following, on the other hand, are little 
 more than nonsense- verses : — 
 
 {Battledoor-song — Province of Echt^en.) 
 
 Hiya! 
 Fu ya! 
 
 O-KomaSan! 
 Tabako no 
 Kemuri wa, 
 Johattsan ! 
 
 One struck ! — two struck ! 0-Koma San ! Smoke oi 
 tobacco — Johattsan. 1 
 
 {Battledoor-song — Province of Shinano,) 
 
 Ichigwatsu ; 
 Nigwatsu ; 
 Sangwatsu, 
 Sakura ; 
 Yanagi no 
 Shita de, 
 
 1 Johattsan, familiar abbreviation of Johachi San (" Mr. JohacW*). 
 The song alludes to the popular drama entitled " O-Koma-Saiza." 
 O-Koma, the heroine of this play, is a beautiful girl who comes to an 
 unhappy end through the rascality of Johachi, a trusted servant in her 
 father's house. Johachi appears on the stage, in various scenes ol 
 the drama, squatting before a hibachi, and smoking furiously. 
 
202 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 Kesho 
 Shite; — 
 To 
 Yo! 
 
 The first month ; the second month ; the third month, 
 cherry-flowers ! Under the willow-tree, making my toilet 
 — there goes ten 1 
 
 {Battledoor-song — Province of SMnano,) 
 
 Hiya! 
 Hikobe ! 
 Hagetaka, 
 Jirobe ? 
 Jirobe no 
 Atama wa, 
 Naze hageta ? 
 Oya ga 
 Jakende, 
 Hi e kubeta. 
 
 One for Hikob^ ! How did yeu get bald, Jirobe ? As 
 for Jirobe's head — how did it become bald ? His parents, 
 being cruel, put his head in the fire. 
 
 {Kjfoto Ball-song.) 
 
 Hi, fu, mi, yo, 
 Yomo no keshiki wo 
 
Songs of Japanese Children 203 
 
 Haru to nagamete ; — 
 
 Ume ni uguisu 
 
 '' H5-Ho-Hokekyo " to saezuru. 
 
 Asu wa Gion no 
 
 Niken chaya de, 
 
 Koto ya samisen 
 
 Hayashi tenten 
 
 Temari-uta, 
 
 ** Uta no Nakayama " 
 Chiyo go ni go-jiu de 
 Chiyo roku — roku — roku, 
 Chiyo shichi — shichi — shichi, 
 Chiyo hachi— hachi — hachi, 
 Chiyo ku ni ku-jiu de 
 Chotto hyaku tsuita. 
 
 One, two, three, four ! — in each of the four directions 
 gazing,' everywhere the signs of spring are seen. On the 
 plum-tree the nightingale sings Ho-Ho-Hokek)>d> To- 
 morrow in the two tea-houses of Gion-street, with accom- 
 paniment of koto and s^m/s^;/ — ting-ting ! — will be sung 
 the hand-ball songs, and the song called " Uta no Nakajyamar 
 . . . Thus making fifty and five chtyo.^ . . • C^/>, six — 
 six — six ! Chiyo, seven — seven — seven ! Chiyo, eight— 
 
 1 With regard to the cry of the uguisu. see the preceding paper on 
 Buddhist nomenclature. 
 
 2 Chiyo is here the same as cho, meaning the even number, or full 
 
 ten. 
 
204 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 eight — eight ! Chiyo, nine and ninety now 1 . . . Even so 
 a hundred have been struck ! 
 
 ( Cttj; of Shtd^uoka . ) 
 
 Uguisu ya ! uguisu ya ! 
 Tama-tama miyako e noboru toki, 
 Ume no ko-eda ni hirune shite, 
 O-Chiyo ni nani-nani kisete yaru ? 
 Uwagi wa kon-kon-kon-chirimen, 
 Shitagi wa chin-chin-chirimen ; — 
 Sore wo kisete yattareba 
 Michi de korobu ka ? — te wo tsuku ka ? 
 Tono-San ga totara, o-jigi wo seyo ; 
 Omma ^ kitaraba, waki ni yore ; 
 Te-narai kodomo wo kamo-nayo ; 
 Kamoto soshi de butareruzo ! 
 Mazu, mazu ikkwan okashimoshita ! 
 
 — O Nightingale, Nightingale ! when some time you go 
 to the capital, sleeping by day on a plum-tree bough, what 
 will you give 0-Chiyo to wear ? — An upper dress of dark- 
 blue, dark-blue, dark-blue crepe-silk; an under-dress of rare, 
 rare, rare crepe-silk. So dressed, when I send her out, 
 I shall warn her not to stumble, or to dirty her hands. " If 
 a Lord passes on the road, [/ shall saj> to her,] make the 
 honorable reverence. If an honorable horse approaches, 
 keep well to one side of the road. Do not vex the children 
 
 * Omma is a corruption of O-uma, " honorable horse. 
 
Songs of Japanese Children 20? 
 
 on their way to the writing-school ; — if you vex them, you 
 will certainly be beaten with copy-books." — Now, now I 
 have lent you one kwan [ i. e., I have struck the ball one 
 hundred times ! ] ^ 
 
 {Promnce ofEcht{en,) 
 
 Hitotsu, hiita mame, — 
 
 Ko ni shita mame ; 
 Futatsu, funda mame, — 
 
 Tsubureta mame ; 
 Mitsu, miso-mame, — 
 
 Fukureta mame ; 
 Yotsu, yotta mame, — 
 
 Kirei na mame ; 
 Itsutsu, itta mame, — 
 
 Hara-kitta mame ; 
 Mutsu, murota mame, — 
 
 Tokushita mame ; 
 Nanatsu, natta mame, — 
 
 Saya-tsuki mame ; 
 Yatsu, yatta mame, — 
 
 Son-shita mame ; 
 Kokonotsu, kota mame, — 
 
 Zeni-dashita mame ; 
 
 ^ The ancient kwan was worth looo cash, — or mon. Its value ' 
 therefore about the same as that of the dollar of loo cents. 
 
206 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 To de totta mame, — 
 
 Nushito-shita mame. 
 
 One — for ground peas, — 
 
 the peas made into flour ; 
 Two, — for trampled peas,— 
 
 the peas which were crushed; 
 Three, — the peas made into w/so-sauce,— 
 
 fermented peas ; 
 Four, — the selected peas, — 
 
 the beautiful peas ; 
 Five, — for parched peas, — 
 
 the belly-cut peas ; 
 5/;c, — for peas given to us,— 
 
 the peas which we gained ; 
 Seven, — for growing peas, — 
 
 the peas in the pod; 
 Eight,- the peas given away, — 
 
 the peas that are lost ; 
 Nine, — the peas which we paid for,— 
 
 the money-bought peas ; 
 And Ten, — for the peas that we took, — 
 
 the stolen peas ! 
 
 The interest of the next selection — best of all 
 the ball-songs — is of quite another kind. The 
 scheme of the composition is not unlike that of 
 our celebrated nursery-game, '* I love my love 
 with an A " ; and the narration can be extended 
 or varied indefinitely according to the imagina- 
 tive wit of the players : — 
 
Songs of Japanese Children 207 
 
 ( T5hyd Hand-hall Song.) 
 First Player:— 
 
 O-Kan — Kan — Kan — 
 Kaga-Sama yashiki ja, 
 O-Kesa kometsuku, 
 Konuka ga ochiru. 
 
 — Nantote ochiru ? 
 Sasa! shichiku-dake ! 
 Sasa! hachiku-dakel 
 
 — Muko no muko no 
 Koshi-zukuri no 
 Shirakabe-zukuri no 
 Akai-noren no kakatta, 
 O-Hime-Sama made 
 O-watashi — 
 Mdsu-su-su no su I 
 
 Second Player: — 
 
 Uketotta! uketotta! 
 
 Uketotta! 
 
 Daiji no o-mari wo uketotta ! 
 
 Aa! uketotta! 
 
 Cho ya, hana ya to 
 
 O-sodatemoshite ; 
 
 O-kaeshimoshite 
 
208 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 Konya no ban kara : 
 Kami mo irazumi, 
 Suzuri mo irazumi ; 
 Hari sambon, — 
 Kinu-ito mi-suji ni, — 
 Omma ga sambiki, — 
 O-kago ga sancho. 
 Norikae-hik'kae, 
 Muko no muko no 
 Koshi-zukuri no 
 Kaki no noren no 
 
 ? Sama made 
 
 O-watashi — 
 Mdsu-sn-su no su! 
 
 First Player: — 
 
 In the residence of the Lord of Ka — Ka— Kaga, the 
 maid 0-Kesa is cleaning rice, and the rice-bran falls. With 
 what sound does it faH ? — With the sound oiSasa! shicbiku- 
 dake! — sasa! bachiku-dake ! ^ . . . Now to the maiden- 
 princess dwelling far, far away ,2 — in the house with the 
 
 * These words are all names of bamboo. The sasa is a small variety 
 of bamboo: the shichiku-daki is a black bamboo; and the bacbiku- 
 dak'e is a purplish bamboo. But in this song the words are used only 
 as onomatopes. The syllables sasa represent the creaking of the great 
 wooden mallet, when lifted by the feet of the rice-pounder ; and the 
 syllables shichiku-daki, hachikii-dake are intended to imitate the noise 
 of the mallet falling, and the dull thud of the blow. 
 
 2 Muko no muko (lit., " in front of in front " ) might better be ren- 
 dered by our colloquial phrase, " at the back of beyond." 
 
Songs of Japanese Children 209 
 
 lattice-work, — in the house with the white walls, — in the 
 house with the red curtains hung up, — I do now most 
 worshipfully this ball pas-s-s-ss ! 
 
 [Here the ball is thrown to another girl, who 
 catches it, and sings : ~ ] 
 
 Second Player:— 
 
 I have caught it ! I have caught it ! I have received the 
 precious ball. Ah ! I have received it ! Like a butterfly, 
 like a blossom, even so tenderly shall it be honorably cared 
 for ; and by this night shall it worshipfully be returned. 
 [To return it] neither paper nor inkstone will be needed, i 
 — but three needles, and three lines of silken thread,^ — and 
 three honorable horses, and three honorable palanquins. . . 
 Changing horses, and again changing horses, [I myself 
 
 shall carry this ball] to the Lady ^ ^^ho dwells far, 
 
 far away from here, — in the building with the lattice-work, 
 in the building with the persimmon-colored curtains hung 
 up. To her I now do worshipfully [this ball] pas-s-s-ss ! 
 
 VI 
 
 LULLABIES 
 
 A PARTICULAR psychological interest attaches to 
 the literature of the lullaby, independently of 
 
 ^ Because the ball will not be returned merely by a niesseng:er bear- 
 ing a letter of thanks. 
 
 * Because it will be respectfully enclosed in a silken wrapper or bag. 
 
 5 Here the real name of the girl, to whom the ball Is next to be 
 thrown, may be mentioned. 
 14 
 
210 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 country or race. Being the natural utterance of 
 mother-love, the lullaby may be said to express 
 the most ancient form of tender experience ; and 
 in almost every time and place the essential char- 
 acter of this variety of folk-song has been little 
 affected by social changes of any sort. Whether 
 narrative or jingle, sense or nonsense, the verses 
 usually contain some reference to those familiar 
 things in which the child-mind discovers cause 
 for wonder : horses or cows, trees or flowers, the 
 moon and the stars, birds or butterflies, sights of 
 the street or garden. Often the lullaby repre- 
 sents the reiteration of one term of caress, alter- 
 nated with promises of reward for docility, and 
 hints of danger as a result of fretfulness. The 
 promises commonly refer to food or toys; and 
 the threatened penalties are not to be inflicted by 
 the mother, but by some bogey or goblin having 
 power to punish naughty children. To such 
 general rules the Japanese lullabies do not offer 
 any remarkable exceptions; but they abound in 
 queer fancies, and have a distinctly Oriental 
 quality. 
 
 Perhaps the European reader will be startled by 
 the apparition of the syllables nenne and nenneko 
 
Songs of Japanese Children 211 
 
 at the beginning of these little songs ; for many 
 of the French berceuses also begin with the syl- 
 lables nine, having nearly the same sound. 
 (The French word nene, — pronounced in some 
 dialects nenna and nono, — is commonly used by 
 mothers in southern France; dodo being the 
 northern equivalent.^) But of course there is no 
 real etymological relation between the French 
 nene and the Japanese nenne. The Japanese 
 phrase, nenneko, is compounded with a syllable 
 of the verb neru, signifying to sleep ; a syllable 
 of the word nenne or nennei, meaning baby ; and 
 the word ko, meaning child. *' Sleep, baby- 
 child ! " is the real meaning of the expression. 
 
 {Province of he.) 
 
 Nenne, nenne-to ! 
 Neru-ko wa kawai ; 
 Okite-naku-ko wa 
 Tsura-nikui. 
 
 Sleep, little one, sleep ! Sweet is the face of the sleeping 
 child; — ugly the face of the wakeful child that cries ! 
 
 * See, for examples, M. Tiersot's Histoire de la Chanson Populaire 
 en France : pp. 136-137, et seq. 
 
212 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 ( Province of I^umo. ) 
 
 Nenneko, nenneko, nenneko ya ! 
 Netara o-kaka e tsurete ina ! 
 Okitara gagama ga totte kama ! 
 
 Sleep, sleep, O sleep, my child! If you sleep I will 
 go home to fetch your mother ! If you stay awake the 
 Gagama ^ will catch and bite you I 
 
 {Kyoto Lullaby,) 
 
 Netaka? nenandaka? 
 Makura ni toeba, 
 Makura mono iuta, 
 Neta to iuta. 
 
 Gone to sleep ? — not yet sleeping ? When I questioned 
 the pillow, the pillow spoke words: "Already asleep," — 
 so it said. 
 
 {Province of Musashi.) 
 
 Nenneko ! nenneko ! 
 Nenneko yo ! 
 Oraga akabo wa 
 Itsu dekita ? 
 
 I This is an Izumo name for some kind of Goblin. I wonder if the 
 term is not a corruption of the ancient word Gogome, — a name g-iven 
 to certain phantoms of the primitive Shinto cult, — the Ugly Women of 
 the Underworld. 
 
Songs of Japanese Children 21 J 
 
 San-gwatsu, sakura no 
 Saku toki ni : 
 Dori de okao ga 
 Sakura-iro. 
 
 Sleep, sleep, sleep, my child I When was my baby 
 made ? In the third month, in the time of the blooming 
 of cherry-flowers. Therefore the color of the honorable 
 face of my child is the color of the cherry-blossom. 
 
 {Province of Sanuki.) 
 
 Nennen, nennen, 
 Nennen yo ! — 
 Nenneshita ko ni 
 Haneita to hane to ; 
 Nenne-sen ko ni 
 Hane bakari. . . . 
 
 Sleep, sleep, sleep ! — For the little one who goes to 
 sleep, a battledoor and shuttlecock ! For the child who 
 does not sleep, only a shuttlecock.! 
 
 {Promnce of Shinano.) 
 
 Nennen -y 6 ! 
 Korokoro yo ! 
 Nennen -Koyama^ no 
 
 * Perhaps the name Nennen- Kqyama might be translated, " The 
 Hills of the Land of Nod." The Kiji, a beautiful green pheasant, often 
 betrays itself to the hunter by its cry ; — hence the proverb, Kiji mo 
 
214 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 Kiji no ko wa, 
 Nakuto o-taka ni 
 Torareru yo ! 
 
 Sleep ! happily sleep ! The young of the kiji in the Hill 
 of Nennen — if it cries it is sure to be taken by the hawk. 
 
 ( Province of Iiumo. ) 
 
 Nenneko, nenneko, nenneko ya ! 
 Achira muitemo yama yama ; 
 Kochira muitemo yama yama. 
 Yama no naka ni nani ga am ? 
 Shii ya donguri kaya no mi. 
 
 Sleep, sleep, little one, sleep! I turn that way; but I 
 see only mountains. I turn this way; but I see only 
 mountains. In the midst of those mountains what can 
 there be? There are sM'i-nuts and acorns and seeds of 
 kajya? 
 
 {Province of I^umo.) 
 
 Nenneko se, nenneko se ! 
 Nenne no omori wa doko e itta ? 
 Yama wo koete sato, e itta. 
 
 nakaiuba utari wa shimai : " If the Kiji did not cry, it would not be 
 shot." 
 
 1 The sbii-tree is a variety of live-oak. 
 
 * The kaya is a kind of yew. 
 
Songs of Japanese Children 215 
 
 Sato no miyage ni nani morota ? 
 Denden-taiko ni furi-tsuzumi, 
 Okiagarikoboshi ni inu-hariko. 
 
 Sleep, little one, sleep ! Where is the sleep-nurse, the 
 girl-nurse gone ? Over the hills to her own village-home. 
 When she comes back, what presents will she bring you ? 
 A round drum to beat and a hand-drum i to shake j an 
 okiagarikoboshi,^ and a paper dog. 
 
 {Province of he.) 
 
 Nenne sanse yo ! 
 Kyo wa ni-jiu-go nichi ; 
 Asu wa kono ko no 
 . Miya-mairi. 
 Miya e mairaba 
 Do iute ogamu ? 
 Kono ko ichi-dai 
 Mame na yo ni. 
 
 Sleep, child I sleep ! T®-day is the twenty-fifth day. 
 To-morrow morning this child will make his first visit to 
 the [Shinto] parish-temple. When I go with him to the 
 temple, what shall I pray for ? I will pray that through 
 all his life this child may be healthy and strong. 
 
 1 The round shallow drum is called a dendem-taiko. The tsu^umi 
 is a hand-drum of a very peculiar shape. Of course the toy-drums 
 here referred to are considerably smaller than the real instrument. 
 
 2 The okiagarikoboshi is a little figure of a wrestler which is so 
 weighted as to assume an erect posture, no matter how thrown down. 
 
216 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 {Province of Musasbt.) 
 
 Nenneko, nenneko, 
 Nenneko yd ! 
 Oraga akabo no 
 Neta rusu ni, 
 Azuki wo yonagete, 
 Kome toide, 
 Aka no mamma e 
 Toto soete, 
 Aka no ii-ko ni 
 Kureru-zo ! 
 
 Sleep, sleep, sleep, little one ! While my baby sleeps 1 
 will wash some red beans and clean some rice ; — then add- 
 ing some fish to the red rice, I will serve it up to this best 
 of little babies. 
 
 {Province of Ecbi^en.) 
 
 Uchi no kono ko no 
 Makura no moyo, 
 Ume ni uguisu, 
 Matsu ni tsuru : 
 Ume ni naretemo, 
 Sakura wa iyaya; — 
 Onaji hana demo, 
 Chiri yasui. 
 
Songs of Japanese Children 217 
 
 The designs upon the pillow of this child of the house 
 are nightingales and plum-trees, storks and pines. I am 
 used to the plum-tree-design ; but I would not have the 
 cherry-flower design. Though the cherry-tree be equal in 
 beauty to the plum-tree, its blossoms too easily fall.i 
 
 {Mat sue : Province ofl^umo.) 
 
 Nenneko, nenneko nenneko ya ! 
 
 Kono ko nashite naku-yara ? 
 
 O-chichi ga taranuka ? — o-mama ga 
 
 taranuka ? 
 Ima ni ototsan no otono no o-kaeri ni 
 Ame ya, o-kwashi ya, hii-hii ya, 
 Gara-gara, nagiireba fuito tatsu 
 Okiagarikoboshi ! — 
 Nenneko, nenneko, nenneko ya ! 
 
 Sleep, sleep, sleep, little one ! Why does the child con- 
 tinue to cry ? Is the honorable milk deficient ? — is the 
 honorable rice deficient? Presently when father returns 
 from the great Lord's palace, ame will be given you, and 
 
 1 Therefore the design is unlucky. Some local bit of folklore is sug- 
 gested by this composition ; — usually the cherry-flower is thought to 
 be a happy symbol. — In this connection I may observe that the lotos- 
 flower design is held to be unlucky. It is never to be seen in patterns 
 for children's clothing ; and even pictures of the flower are scarcely 
 ever suspended in a room. The reason is that the lotos, being the 
 symbolic flower of Buddhism, is sculptured upon tombstones, and is 
 borne as an emblem in funeral processions. 
 
218 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 also cake, and a bii-hii likewise, and a rattle as well, and an 
 okiagarikohoshi that will stand up immediately after being 
 thrown down. 
 
 [Shid^uoka Citv.) 
 
 Yoi-ko da ! 
 San-ko da ! 
 Mame na ko da ! 
 Mame de sodateta 
 O-ko ja mono ! 
 Neruto nerimochi 
 Kureteyaru ; 
 Damaruto dango wo 
 Kureteyaru ; 
 Nakuto nagamochi 
 Showaseru zo ; 
 Okoruto okorimushi ni 
 Kureteyaru. 
 
 Good child, genteel child, — what a healthy child it is ! 
 For it is a child that has been nourished with peas. — 
 Kneaded rice-cakes I will give you if you sleep. Dumplings 
 I will give you if you hush. If you cry I will make you 
 carry a nagamochi [quilt-chest]. If you get angry I will 
 give you to the Anger-Insect .^ 
 
 1 The chief interest of this composition is the curiously alliterative 
 structure of the phrases. There are several queer plays upon words, 
 Mame, as pronounced, may mean either " peas " or " healthy." In the 
 
Songs of Japanese Children 219 
 
 {Province of Suruga.) 
 
 Bo ya wa iiko da ! 
 
 Nenneshina ! 
 
 Kono ko no kawaisa 
 
 Kagiri nai, — 
 
 Yama de no ki no kazu, 
 
 Kay a no kazu, 
 
 Ten e nobotte 
 
 Hoshi no kazu, 
 
 Numadzu e kudareba 
 
 Senbon matsu, — 
 
 Senbon-matsubara, 
 
 Ko-matsubara, 
 
 Matsuba no kazu yori 
 
 Mada kawai ! 
 
 Oh 1 how good a child this boy is ! S\e&^, /ny child ! — 
 My love of this child is incalculable as the number of the 
 trees in the mountain-forest, — as the number of the fruits 
 of the kajfa, — as the number of the stars in the sky above, 
 — as the thousands of the pines of Numadzu below, — as 
 the myriad great pines of the pine-forest, —as the myriad 
 little pines of the young pine-wood : more incalculable even 
 than the leaves of those pine-trees, is my love of this little 
 one ! 
 
 same way " okori " might mean either " to be angry " or " ague." 
 Okorimushi properly signifies the "ague-insect," and is the populai 
 name of a large moth, believed to cause chills and fever. 
 
220 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 {Lullahy sung to the child of a Daimj>o. — Province of 
 I^umo.) ^ 
 
 O-nenne, o-nenne, o-nenne ya ! 
 Yoi ni wa tokara gyoshin nari. 
 Asama wa tokara omezamete, 
 Omezame no ohobi ni nani, nani ? 
 O -chichi no debana wo agemashozo, 
 O -chichi no debana ga o-iya nara, 
 Niwatori-keawase o-me ni kakyo ; 
 Niwatori-keawase o-iya nara, 
 O-kwashi wa takusan o-agarika ! 
 
 Augustly rest, augustly rest ! Soon this evening augustly 
 sleep ! Early at daybreak, at the august awakening, what, 
 what honorable gift shall be presented at the august awak- 
 ening? Flower of honorable milk shall be presented. If 
 the flower of honorable milk be augustly disliked, then the 
 fighting of the cocks will be honorably displayed. If the 
 fighting of the cocks be augustly disliked, then will not 
 honorable cake be augustly accepted? 
 
 {Tokyo.) 
 
 Nennen yo ! 
 Korokoro yo ! 
 Nennen-Koyama no 
 Usagi wa, 
 
 » Obtained from dictation at Matsue, Izumo. The original interest 
 of this piece lies in the curious and really untranslatable honorifics. 
 
Songs of Japanese Children 221 
 
 Naze ni o-mimi ga 
 O-nagai ne ? 
 Okkasan no 
 O-naka ni, 
 Ita toki ni, 
 Biwa no mi, 
 Sasa no mi, 
 Tabemashite ; — 
 Sore de o-mimi ga 
 O-nagai yo ! ^ 
 
 Sleep, little one ! — pleasantly sleep ! - Why are the ears 
 of the hare of the Hill of Nennen so honorably long ? 
 When he was in his mother's honorable womb, she ate the 
 fruits of the loquat, the seeds of the small bamboo : there- 
 fore his honorable ears are thus honorably long ! 
 
 {Promnce of Settsu.) 
 
 Nenne ! Koro ichi ! — 
 Temma no ichi yo ! 
 Daikon soroete, 
 Fiine ni tsumu. 
 Fune ni tsundara 
 
 * An Izumo version of this lullaby will be found in Glimpses of Un- 
 familiar Japan, — p. 6oq. The Izumo version is more interesting. — 
 There are several Tokyd versions. 
 
222 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 Doko-made ikiyaru ? 
 Kizu ya Namba no • 
 Hashi no shita. 
 Hashi no shita ni wa 
 O-kame ga iyaru ; 
 O-kame toritaya, 
 Take hoshiya ! 
 Take ga hoshikerya, 
 Takeya e ikiyare ; 
 Take wa nandemo 
 Gozarimasu ! 
 
 Sleep, child ! Fair-time is coming. Oh I the fair of 
 Temma ! — The ends of the radishes having been evenly 
 trimmed, the ship is loaded. Having been laden, where 
 will the ship go ? — Under the Bridge of Kizu, and under the 
 Bridge of Namba. — Under those bridges live many hon- 
 orable tortoises. Honorable tortoises I want to catch I — 
 I want a bamboo-pole. — If you wish for a bamboo-pole, 
 go to the bamboo-shop. In that bamboo-shop all kinds of 
 bamboos augustly exist. 
 
 ( Tokyo.) 
 
 O-TsLiki Sama, ikutsu ? 
 Jiu-san, nanatsu. 
 Mada toshi waka ye ! 
 Ano ko wo unde, 
 Kono ko wo unde, 
 
Songs of Japanese Children 22J 
 
 Dare ni dakasho ? 
 O-Man ni dakasho. 
 O-Man doko itta ? 
 Abura-kae, cha-kae. 
 Aburaya no mae de 
 Subite koronde ; 
 Abura issho koboshita. 
 Sono abura doshita ? 
 Taro-Don no inu to, 
 Jiro-Don no inu to, 
 Mina namete shimatta. 
 Sono inu doshita ? 
 Taiko ni hatte, 
 Achi no h5 demo, 
 Don-doko-don ! 
 Kochi no ho demo, 
 Don-doko-don ! 
 Tataita-to-sa ! 
 
 Lady Moon, how old are you ? — Thirteen, seven.— 
 That is still young. — That child being born, this child be- 
 ing born, to whom shall the child be given to carry ? — To 
 O-Man it shall be given to carry. —Where is O-Man gone ? 
 — She has gone to buy oil ; she has gone to buy tea. — 
 Slipping and falling, in front of the oil-shop, one whole 
 shd 1 of oil she spilled. — What was done with that oil ? — 
 
 1 One sho is a little more than a quart and a half. 
 
224 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 The dog of Master Taro, and the dog of Masier Jiro, licked 
 it all up, — What was done with those dogs ? — Their skins 
 were stretched and made into drums. There you can hear 
 [the drum] even now, — don-doko-don! Here you can hear 
 [the drum] even now, — don-doko-don! So they beat the 
 drums 1 
 
 {Province of Gifu.) 
 
 Nenne ya ! korokoro ya ! 
 Nenne no umareta 
 Sono hi ni wa, 
 Akai o-mamma ni 
 Toto soete, 
 
 Toto-sama no o-hashi de 
 Agemashoka ? 
 Toto-sama no o-hashi wa 
 Toto kusai. 
 
 Haha-sama no o-hashi de 
 Agemash5ka ? 
 Haha-sama no o-hashi wa 
 Chichi kusai. 
 Ane-sama no o-hashi de 
 Agemasho. 
 Nennen! korokoro 
 Nenne-sho ! 
 
 Sleep, little one ! happily sleep ! On your next birth- 
 day 1 will give you red rice cooked with fish. Shall I then 
 
Songs of Japanese Children 225 
 
 feed you with the honorable chopsticks of your father?-— 
 The honorable chopsticks of father smell of fish. — Shall I 
 feed you with the honorable chopsticks of your mother ? — 
 Mother's honorable chopsticks smell of milk. — Then I 
 shall feed you with the honorable chopsticks of your elder 
 sister. — Sleep ! pleasantly go to sleep 1 
 
 (Province of Settsu.) 
 
 Nenneko, sanneko, sakaya no ko ! 
 Sakaya wo iyanara yome ni yaro. 
 Yome no dogu wa, nani-nani zo ? 
 Tansu, nagamochi, hitsu, todana ; 
 Ryukyu-zutsumi ga rokka aru ; 
 Furoshiki-zutsumi wa kazu shirezu . 
 Sorehodo koshirae yaru-kara-nya, 
 Issho sararete modoruna yo ! 
 — Sorya mata okkasan doyoku na ! 
 Sengoku tsundaru fune saemo, 
 Kaze ga kawareba modoru mono ! 
 
 Sleep, sleep, my child, — child of the sake-AtzXtr \ If 
 you do not like this sake-\\onst, I will send you away as a 
 bride. What are the bridal-gifts that will be given ? A 
 tansu (chest of drawers), a nagamochi (quilt-chest), one 
 hitsu (clothes-chest), one todana (cupboard). Of Ryukyu ^ 
 goods the packages are six ; — as for the presents wrapped 
 
 ^ Rykuyu is the Japanese name of the Loochoo Islands. Various 
 textile and other fabrics, made in the Loochoo islands, are greatly 
 prized in Japan. 
 
 15 
 
226 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 in furoshiki} their number cannot be told. So much hav- 
 ing been done for you, when you are given as a bride, 
 remember that if you be divorced, you must never in your 
 life come back to this house ! — Ah, mother ! that is too 
 cruel of you! Even the ship that is freighted with a 
 thousand koku of rice returns to port if the fair wind 
 changes. 
 
 ( Tokyo Lullaby.) 
 
 Senjo zashiki no 
 Karakami sodachi ! 
 Botchama mo yoi ko ni 
 Naru toki wa, 
 Jimen wo fuyashite, 
 Kura tatete, 
 Kura no tonari ni 
 Matsu uete, 
 Matsu no tonari ni 
 Take uete, 
 Take no tonari ni 
 Ume uete, 
 Ume no ko-eda ni 
 Suzu sagete, — 
 Sono suzu chara-chara 
 Naru toki wa, 
 
 ^ Small presents are usually wrapped 'n a square piece of cotton or 
 silk before being sent ; and this wrapper, much resembling a large 
 handkerchief, is called a.furoshiki. 
 
Songs of Japanese Children 227 
 
 Botchama mo sazo-sazo 
 Ureshikaro ! 
 
 [Big and beautiful] as the sliding-screens of a thou- 
 sand-mat room, — so Sir Baby-boy is growing ! When he 
 becomes a good boy Hkewise, then I will make larger the 
 grounds about our dwelling, and there build for him a 
 treasure-house. Next to the treasure-house I will plant 
 pine-trees. Next to the pine-trees I will plant bamboos. 
 Next to the bamboos I will plant plum-trees. To the little 
 branches of those plum-trees shall be hung little bells. 
 When those little bells sound chara-chara — O Sir Baby- 
 boy, how happy you will be! 
 
 {City of Hakata.) 
 
 Kinkan, mikan, nambo tabeta ? 
 O-tera no nikai de mitsu tabeta. 
 Sono o-tera wa dare ga tateta ? 
 Hachiman-Choja no oto-musume. 
 Oto ga yome'-iri suru toki nya 
 Nangai-teramachi shara-shara to, 
 Mijikai-teramachi shara-shara to. 
 Shara-shara setta no o ga kireta : 
 
 — Anesan, tatete kurenkana } 
 
 — Tatete yaro kota yarokendo 
 Hari mo nakareba, ito mo nai. 
 
 — Hari wa hariya de kote-yaru, 
 Ito wa itoya de kote-yaru. 
 
228 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 — Hari wa hariya no kusare-bari, 
 Ito wa itoya no kusare-ito ! 
 
 — Anesan, setta ni chi ga tsuita ! 
 
 — Sore wa chi ja nai — beni ja mono ! 
 Osaka beni koso iro yokere ; 
 
 Iro no yoi hodo ne ga takai. 
 
 — Citrons, oranges, — how many did you eat ? 
 
 — Upstairs in tlie honorable temple I ate three. 
 
 — As for that honorable temple, — by whom was it 
 
 built ? 
 By the youngest daughter of the wealthy Hachiman. 
 On the day when that youngest daughter went out to be 
 
 married, 
 Down the long Street-of-Temples she walked — 5/;am- 
 
 shara, 
 Down the short Street-of-Temples she walked— shara- 
 
 shara : 
 Then was broken a thong of the sandals i that sounded 
 
 shara-shara. 
 " Elder sister, will you not kindly mend it ?" 
 " The thong I would mend for you ; 
 But I have neither a needle nor thread." 
 " A needle from the needle-shop I will buy for you ; 
 Thread from the threadshop I will buy for you." 
 " Ah, this needle of the needle-shop is a rotten needle I 
 This thread of the thread-shop is rotten thread." 
 " Elder Sister ! there is blood upon my sandals I " 
 
 1 The setta is a light, but very strong: sandal, of which the leather 
 sole is strengthened with plates of thin metal. 
 
Songs of Japanese Children 229 
 
 " That is not blood, it is only heni { rouge) .^ 
 The rouge of Osaka has indeed a fine color : 
 Very fine is the color, — therefore the price is dear." 
 
 • *•••• 
 
 And now, by way of conclusion, let me state 
 that in preparing this rather lengthy paper I could 
 only hope to furnish the reader with a new 
 experience, — an experience somewhat like that 
 of passing, for the first time, through Japanese 
 streets. 
 
 The first general impression of a Japanese 
 street must be, for most people, even more 
 vague than strange. Unless you happen to 
 have senses of superlative delicacy, — unless you 
 possess a visual faculty like that of Pierre Loti, 
 for example, — you can remember very little, 
 and understand almost nothing, of what you 
 looked at while passing through that street. 
 Nevertheless you will find yourself surprised and 
 pleased ; — you will feel, without knowing why, 
 the sensation of the elfish and the odd, — the 
 charm of the unexpected. 
 
 Well, in all the child-songs which I have quoted, 
 perhaps less than half-a-dozen fairly arrested your 
 attention ; and of the rest you probably remem- 
 
 Beni is used chiefly to color the lips. 
 
230 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 ber scarcely anything. But if you have read 
 through the series, even hastily and superficially, 
 you should have obtained a general impression, 
 or vague sensation, not unlike the sensation that 
 follows upon the first vision of Japanese streets : 
 — dim surmise of another and inscrutable human- 
 ity, — another race-soul, strangely alluring, yet 
 forever alien to your own. 
 
Studies Here and There 
 
On a Bridge 
 
On a Bridge 
 
 M 
 
 Y old kurumaya, Heishichi, was taking me 
 to a famous temple in the neighborhood 
 of Kumamoto. 
 We came to a humped and venerable bridge 
 over the Shirakawa ; and 1 told Heishichi to halt 
 on the bridge, so that I could enjoy the view for 
 a moment. Under the summer sky, and steeped 
 in a flood of sunshine electrically white, the colors 
 of the land seemed almost unreally beautiful. 
 Below us the shallow river laughed and gurgled 
 over its bed of grey stones, overshadowed by ver- 
 dure of a hundred tints. Before us the reddish- 
 white road alternately vanished and re-appeared 
 as it wound away, through grove or hamlet, 
 toward the high blue ring of peaks encircling the 
 vast Plain of Higo. Behind us lay Kumamoto, 
 — a far bluish confusion of myriad roofs ; — 
 only the fine grey lines of its castle showing 
 sharp against the green of further wooded bills. 
 . . , Seen from within, Kumamoto is a shabby 
 235 
 
2?6 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 place ; but seen as I beheld it that summer day, 
 it is a fairy-city, built out of mist and dreams. . . . 
 
 " Twenty-two years ago," said Heishichi, wip- 
 ing his forehead — "no, twenty-three years ago, 
 — I stood here, and saw the city burn." 
 
 " At night ? " I queried. 
 
 "No," said the old man, "it was in the after- 
 noon — a wet day. . . . They were fighting ; and 
 the city was on fire." 
 
 " Who were fighting ? " 
 
 " The soldiers in the castle were fighting with 
 the Satsuma men. We dug holes in the ground 
 and sat in them, to escape the balls. The Sat- 
 suma men had cannons on the hill; and the 
 soldiers in the castle were shooting at them over 
 our heads. The whole city was burned." 
 
 " But how did you happen to be here ? " 
 
 " I ran away. I ran as far as this bridge, — 
 all by myself. I thought that I could get to my 
 brother's farm — about seven miles from here. 
 But they stopped me." 
 
 " Who stopped you ? " 
 
 " Satsuma men, — I don't know who they were. 
 As I got to the bridge I saw three peasants — I 
 thought they were peasants — leaning over the 
 
On a Bridge 237 
 
 railing: men wearing big straw hats and straw 
 rain -cloaks and straw sandals. I spoke to them 
 politely ; and one of them turned his head round, 
 and said to me, ' You stay here ! ' That was all 
 he said : the others did not say anything. Then 
 I saw that they were not peasants ; and I was 
 afraid." 
 
 " How did you know that they were not 
 peasants ? " 
 
 "They had long swords hidden under their 
 rain -cloaks, — very long swords. They were 
 very tall men. They leaned over the bridge, 
 looking down into the river. I stood beside 
 them,— just there, by the third post to the left, 
 and did as they did. I knew that they would 
 kill me if I moved from there. None of them 
 spoke. And we four stood leaning over the 
 railing for a long time." 
 
 " How long .? " 
 
 ** I do not know exactly — it must have been 
 a long time. I saw the city burning. All that 
 while none of the men spoke to me or looked 
 at me : they kept their eyes upon the water. 
 Then I heard a horse ; and I saw a cavalry officer 
 coming at a trot, — looking all about him as he 
 came. . . ." 
 
2?8 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 " From the city ? " 
 
 " Yes, — along that road behind you. . . . The 
 three men watched him from under their big 
 straw hats ; but they did not turn their heads ; — 
 they pretended to be looking down into the river. 
 But, the moment that the horse got on the bridge, 
 the three men turned and leaped ; — and one 
 caught the horse's bridle ; and another gripped the 
 officer's arm ; and the third cut of! his head — all 
 in a moment. . . ." 
 
 '' The officer's head ? " 
 
 *' Yes — he did not even have time to shout 
 before his head was oflf. . . . I never saw any- 
 thing done so quickly. Not one of the three 
 men uttered a word." 
 
 " And then ? " 
 
 '' Then they pitched the body over the railing 
 into the river ; and one of them struck the horse, 
 — hard ; and the horse ran away. ..." 
 
 *' Back to the town ? " 
 
 ** No — the horse was driven straight out over 
 the bridge, into the country. . . . The head was 
 not thrown into the river : one of the Satsuma 
 men kept it — under his straw cloak. . . . Then 
 all of us leaned over the railing, as before,— 
 lookmg down. My knees were shaking. The 
 
On a Bridge 239 
 
 three samurai did not speak a single word. I 
 could not even hear them breathing. I was 
 afraid to look at their faces ; — I kept looking 
 down into the river. . . . After a little while I 
 heard another horse, — and my heart jumped so 
 that I felt sick ; — and I looked up, and saw a 
 cavalry -soldier coming along the road, riding very 
 fast. No one stirred till he was on the bridge : 
 then — in one second — his head was off! The 
 body was thrown into the river, and the horse 
 driven away — exactly as before. Three men 
 were killed like that. Then the samurai left the 
 bridge." 
 
 ** Did you go with them ? " 
 
 " No : they left immediately after having 
 killed the third man, — taking the heads with 
 them; — and they paid no attention to me. 1 
 stayed on the bridge, afraid to move, until they 
 were very far away. Then I ran back to the 
 burning town ; — I ran quick, quick ! There I 
 was told that the Satsuma troops were retreating. 
 Soon afterwards, the army came from Tokyo; 
 and I was given some work : I carried straw san- 
 dals for the soldiers.'* 
 
 ** Who were the men that you saw killed on 
 the bridge ? " 
 
240 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 " I don't know." 
 
 " Did you never try to find out ? " 
 
 ** No," said Heishichi, again mopping his fore- 
 head : " I said nothing about the matter until many 
 years after the war." 
 
 ** But why ? " I persisted. 
 
 Heishichi gave me one astonished look, smiled 
 in a pitying way, and answered, — 
 
 " Because it would have been wrong ; — it 
 would have been ungrateful.'* 
 
 I felt properly rebuked. 
 
 And we resumed our journey. 
 
The Case of 0-Dai 
 
 " Honor thy father and thy mother." — Deut. v. i6. 
 " Hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the 
 law of thy mother." — Prov-rbs i. 8. 
 
The Case of 0-Dai 
 
 I 
 
 0-DAI pushed aside the lamplet and the 
 incense-cup and the water vessel on the 
 Buddha-shelf, and opened the little shrine 
 before which they had been placed. Within 
 were the ihai, the mortuary tablets of her people, 
 — five in all; and a gilded figure of the Bod- 
 hisattva Kwannon stood smiling behind them. 
 The ihai of the grandparents occupied the left 
 side ; those of the parents the right ; and between 
 them was a smaller tablet, bearing the kaimyo 
 of a child-brother with whom she used to play 
 and quarrel, to laugh and cry, in other and hap- 
 pier years. Also the shrine contained a make- 
 mono, or scroll, inscribed with the spirit-names 
 of many ancestors. Before that shrine, from 
 her infancy, O-Dai had been wont to pray. 
 243 
 
244 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 The tablets and the scroll signified more to 
 her faith in former time — very much more — 
 than remembrance of a father's affection and a 
 mother's caress; — more than any remembrance 
 of the ever-loving, ever-patient, ever-smiling 
 elders who had fostered her babyhood, carried 
 her pickaback to every temple -festival, invented 
 her pleasures, consoled her small sorrows, and 
 soothed her fretfulness with song; — more than 
 the memory of the laughter and the tears, the 
 cooing and the calling and the running of the 
 dear and mischievous little brother ; — more than 
 all the traditions of the ancestors. 
 
 For those objects signified the actual viewless 
 presence of the lost, — the haunting of invisible 
 sympathy and tenderness, — the gladness and 
 the grief of the dead in the joy and the sorrow 
 of the living. When, in other time, at evening 
 dusk, she was wont to kindle the lamplet before 
 them, how often had she seen the tiny flame 
 astir with a motion not its own! 
 
 Yet the ihai is even more than a token to 
 pious fancy. Strange possibilities of transmuta- 
 tion, transubstantiation, belong to it. It serves 
 as temporary body for the spirit between death 
 
The Case of 0-Dai 24? 
 
 and birth: each fibre of its incense-penetrated 
 wood lives with a viewless life -potential. The 
 will of the ghost may quicken it. Sometimes, 
 through power of love, it changes to flesh and 
 blood. By help of the ihai the buried mother 
 returns to suckle her babe in the dark. By help 
 of the ihai, the maid consumed upon the funeral 
 pyre may return to wed her betrothed, — even 
 to bless him with a son. By power of the ihai, 
 the dead servant may come back from the dust 
 of his rest to save his lord from ruin. Then, 
 after love or loyalty has wrought its will, the 
 personality vanishes ; — the body again becomes, 
 to outward seeming, only a tablet. 
 
 All this O-Dai ought to have known and re- 
 membered. Maybe she did; for she wept as 
 she took the tablets and the scroll out of the 
 shrine, and dropped them from a window into 
 the river below. She did not dare to look after 
 them, as the current whirled them away. 
 
 II 
 
 O-Dai had done this by order of two English 
 missionary-women who, by various acts of seem- 
 
246 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 ing kindness, had persuaded her to become a 
 Christian. (Converts are always commanded 
 to bury or to cast away their ancestral tablets.) 
 These missionary-women — the first ever seen 
 in the province — had promised O-Dai, their 
 only convert, an allowance of ihxttyen a month, 
 as assistant, — because she could read and write. 
 By the toil of her hands she had never been 
 able to earn more than two yen a month; and 
 out of that sum she had to pay a rent of twenty - 
 five sen for the use of the upper floor of a little 
 house, belonging to a dealer in second-hand 
 goods. Thither, after the death of her parents, 
 she had taken her loom, and the ancestral tablets. 
 She had been obliged to work very hard indeed 
 in order to live. But with three yen a month 
 she could live very well; and the missionary- 
 women had a room for her. She did not think 
 that the people would mind her change of 
 religion. 
 
 As a matter of fact they did not much care. 
 They did not know anything about Christianity, 
 and did not want to know: they only laughed 
 at the girl for being so foolish as to follow the 
 ways of the foreign women. They regarded 
 her as a dupe, and mocked her without malice. 
 
The Case of 0-Dai 247 
 
 And they continued to laugh at her, good- 
 humoredly enough, until the day when she was 
 seen to throw the tablets into the river. Then 
 they stopped laughing. They judged the act 
 in itself, without discussing its motives. Their 
 judgment was instantaneous, unanimous, and 
 voiceless. They said no word of reproach to 
 O-Dai. They merely ignored her existence. 
 
 The moral resentment of a Japanese com- 
 munity is not always a hot resentment, — not 
 the kind that quickly burns itself out. It may 
 be cold. In the case of O-Dai it was cold and 
 silent and heavy like a thickening of ice. No 
 one uttered it. It was altogether spontaneous, 
 instinctive. But the universal feeling might 
 have been thus translated into speech: — 
 
 " Human society, in this most eastern East, 
 has been held together from immemorial time 
 by virtue of that cult which exacts the gratitude 
 of the present to the past, the reverence of the 
 living for the dead, the affection of the descend- 
 ant for the ancestor. Far beyond the visible 
 world extends the duty of the child to the 
 parent, of the servant to the master, of the 
 
248 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 subject to the sovereign. Therefore do the dead 
 preside in the family council, in the communal 
 assembly, in the high seats of judgment, in the 
 governing of cities, in the ruling of the land. 
 
 ** Against the Virtue Supreme of Filial Piety, — 
 against the religion of the Ancestors, — against 
 all faith and gratitude and reverence and duty, — 
 against the total moral experience of her race, — 
 O-Dai has sinned the sin that cannot be forgiven. 
 Therefore shall the people account her a creature 
 impure, — less deserving of fellowship than the 
 Eta, — less worthy of kindness than the dog in 
 the street or the cat upon the roof; since even 
 these, according to their feebler light, observe the 
 common law of duty and affection. 
 
 " O-Dai has refused to her dead the word of 
 thankfulness, the whisper of love, the reverence 
 of a daughter. Therefore, now and forever, the 
 living shall refuse to her the word of greeting, 
 the common salutation, the kindly answer. 
 
 *' O-Dai has mocked the memory of the father 
 who begot her, the memory of the mother whose 
 breasts she sucked, the memory of the elders who 
 cherished her childhood, the memory of the little 
 one who called her Sister. She has mocked at 
 
The Case of 0-Dai 249 
 
 love: therefore all love shall be denied her, all 
 offices of aflFection. 
 
 '*To the spirit of the father who begot her, 
 to the spirit of the mother who bore her, O-Dai 
 has refused the shadow of a roof, and the vapor 
 of food, and the offering of water. Even so to 
 her shall be denied the shelter of a roof, and the 
 gift of food, and the cup of refreshment. 
 
 " And even as she cast out the dead, the living 
 shall cast her out. As a carcass shall she be in 
 the way, — as the small carrion that none will 
 turn to look upon, that none will bury, that none 
 will pity, that none will speak for in prayer to 
 the Gods and the Buddhas. As a Gaki^ she 
 shall be, — as a Shojihi-Gaki, — seeking suste- 
 nance in refuse-heaps. Alive into hell shall she 
 enter; — yet shall her hell remain the single hell, 
 the solitary hell, the hell Kodoku, that spheres 
 the spirit accurst in solitude of fire. . . ." 
 
 Ill 
 
 Unexpectedly the missionary-women informed 
 O-Dai that she would have to take care of 
 herself. Perhaps she had done her best; but 
 
 1 Prgta. 
 
2^0 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 she certainly had not been to them of any use 
 whatever, and they required a capable assistant. 
 Moreover they were going away for some time, 
 and could not take her with them. Surely she 
 could not have been so foolish as to think that 
 they were going to give her three yen per month 
 merely for being a Christian ! . . . 
 
 O-Dai cried; and they advised her to be 
 brave, and to walk in the paths of virtue. She 
 said that she could not find employment: they 
 told her that no industrious and honest person 
 need ever want for work in this busy world. 
 Then, in desperate terror, she told them truths 
 which they could not understand, and energeti- 
 cally refused to believe. She spoke of a danger 
 imminent; and they answered her with all the 
 harshness of which they were capable, — believ- 
 ing that she had confessed herself utterly de- 
 praved. In this they were wrong. There was 
 no atom of vice in the girl: an amiable weak- 
 ness and a childish trustfulness were the worst 
 of her faults. Really she needed help, — needed 
 it quickly, — needed it terribly. But they could 
 understand only that she wanted money; and 
 that she had threatened to commit sin if she 
 did not get it. They owed her nothing, as she 
 
The Case of 0-Dai 2?1 
 
 had always been paid in advance ; and they imag- 
 ined excellent reasons for denying her further aid 
 of any sort. 
 
 So they put her into the street. Already she 
 had sold her loom. She had nothing more to 
 sell except the single robe upon her back, and 
 a few pair of useless tahi, or cleft stockings, 
 which the missionary-women had obliged her 
 to buy, because they thought that it was im- 
 modest for a young girl to be seen with naked 
 feet. (They had also obliged her to twist her 
 hair into a hideous back-knot, because the Jap- 
 anese style of wearing the hair seemed to them 
 ungodly.) 
 
 What becomes of the Japanese girl publicly 
 convicted of oflfending against filial piety } What 
 becomes of the English girl publicly convicted 
 of unchastity.? . . . 
 
 Of course, had she been strong, O-Dai might 
 have filled her sleeves with stones, and thrown 
 herself into the river, — which would have been 
 an excellent thing io do under the circumstances. 
 Or she might have cut her throat, — which is 
 more respectable, as the act requires both nerve 
 and skill. But, like most converts of her class, 
 
2'>2 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 O-Dai was weak: the courage of the race had 
 failed in her. She wanted still to see the sun; 
 and she was not of the sturdy type able to 
 wrestle with the earth for that privilege. Even 
 after fully abjuring her errors, there was left 
 but one road for her to travel. 
 
 Said the person who bought the body of 
 O-Dai at a third of the price prayed for: — 
 
 " My business is an exceedingly shameful busi- 
 ness. But even into this business no woman can 
 be received who is known to have done the thing 
 that you have done. If I were to take you into 
 my house, no visitors would come ; and the 
 people would probably make trouble. There- 
 fore to Osaka, where you are not known, you 
 shall be sent ; and the house in Osaka will pay 
 the money. . . ." 
 
 So vanished forever O-Dai, — flung into the 
 furnace of a city's lust. . . . Perhaps she existed 
 only to furnish one example of facts that every 
 foreign missionary ought to try to understand. 
 
Beside the Sea 
 
1 • 
 
 Beside the Sea 
 
 I 
 
 THE Buddhist priests had announced that 
 a 5^^a^/-service, in behalf of all the 
 drowned folk of Yaidzu, would be held 
 on the shore at two o'clock in the afternoon. 
 Yaidzu is an ancient place— (it is mentioned, 
 under the name of ^^ Yakidzu," in the oldest 
 chronicles of Japan) ; — and for thousands of 
 years the fishers of Yaidzu have been regularly 
 paying their toll of life to the great deep. And 
 the announcement of the priests reminded me of 
 something very much older than Buddhism,— 
 the fancy that the spirits of the drowned move 
 with the waters forever. According to this 
 belief, the sea off Yaidzu must be thick with 
 souls. . . . 
 
 Early in the afternoon I went to the shore to 
 observe preparations ; and I found a multitude of 
 people already there assembled. It was a burn- 
 255 
 
2?6 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 ing July day — not a speck of cloud visible ; and 
 the coarse shingle of the slope, under the blaze of 
 sun, was radiating heat like slag just raked from 
 a furnace. But those fisher-folk, tanned to all 
 tints of bronze, did not mind the sun : they sat 
 on the scorching stones, and waited. The sea 
 was at ebb, and gentle, — moving in slow, long, 
 lazy ripples. 
 
 Upon the beach there had been erected a kind 
 of rude altar, about four feet high ; and on this 
 had been placed an immense ihai, or mortuary 
 tablet, of unpainted wood, — the back of the tab- 
 let being turned to the sea. The ihai bore, in 
 large Chinese characters, the inscription, Sangai- 
 8ai7-Rei-I, — sign\iymg, " Resting-place [or, seat] 
 of the myriad [innumerable] spirits of the Three 
 States of Existence." Various food-oflferings had 
 been set before this tablet, — including a bowl of 
 cooked rice ; rice-cakes ; eggplants ; pears ; and, 
 piled upon a fresh lotos leaf, a quantity of what 
 is called hyaku-mi-no-onjiki. It is really a mix- 
 ture of rice and sliced eggplant, though the name 
 implies one hundred different kinds of nourish- 
 ment. In the bowl of boiled rice tiny sticks were 
 fixed, with cuttings of colored paper attached to 
 
Beside the Sea 2?7 
 
 them. I also observed candles, a censer, some 
 bundles of incense-rods, a vessel of water, and a 
 pair of bamboo cups containing sprays of the 
 sacred plant shikimi} Beside the water-vessel 
 there had been laid a bunch of misohagi,^ with 
 which to sprinkle water upon the food -offerings, 
 according to the prescriptions of the rite. 
 
 To each of the four posts supporting the altar 
 a freshly-cut bamboo had been attached; and 
 other bamboos had been planted in the beach, to 
 right and left of the structure ; and to every bam- 
 boo was fastened a little banner inscribed with 
 Chinese characters. The banners of the bamboos 
 at the four corners of the altar bore the names 
 and attributes of the Four Deva Kings, — Zocho 
 Tenno, guardian of the West; Jikoku Tenno, 
 guardian of the East ; Tamon Tenno, guardian of 
 the North ; and Komoku Tenno, guardian of the 
 South. 
 
 In front of the altar straw-mattings had been 
 laid, so as to cover a space of beach about thirty 
 feet long by fifteen wide ; and above this matted 
 space awnings of blue cotton had been rigged up, 
 to shelter the priests from the sun. I squatted 
 
 1 IlUcium reh'gwsum. 
 
 2 A kind of bush-clover. 
 
 17 
 
2S8 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 down awhile under the awnings to make a rough 
 drawing (afterwards corrected and elaborated by 
 a Japanese friend) of the altar and the offerings. 
 
 The service was not held at the appointed 
 time: it must have been nearly three o'clock 
 when the priests made their appearance. There 
 were seven of them, in vestments of great cere- 
 mony ; and they were accompanied by acolytes 
 carrying bells, books, stools, reading-stands, and 
 other necessary furniture. Priests and acolytes 
 took their places under the blue awning; the 
 spectators standing outside, in the sun. Only 
 one of the priests, — the chief officiant, — sat 
 facing the altar ; the others, with their acolytes, 
 seated themselves to right and left of him, — so 
 as to form two ranks, facing each other. 
 
 II 
 
 After some preliminary rearrangement of the 
 offerings upon the altar, and the kindling of some 
 incense- rods, the ceremony proper began with a 
 Buddhist hymn, or gatha, which was chanted to 
 the accompaniment of hydshigi^ and of bells. 
 
 ^ Hyoshigi are small blocks of hard wood, which are 
 used, either for signalling or for musical purposes, by strik- 
 
Beside the Sea 2?9 
 
 There were two bells, — a large deep-sounding 
 bell ; and a small bell of very sweet tone, — in 
 charge of a little boy. The big bell was tapped 
 slowly ; the little bell was sounded rapidly ; and 
 the hydshigi rattled almost like a pair of castanets. 
 And the effect of the gatht as chanted by all 
 the oificiants in unison, with this extraordinary 
 instrumentation, was not less impressive than 
 strange : — 
 
 Biku Bikuni 
 Hosshin hdji 
 Ikkijo-jiki, 
 Fusejippo, 
 Kyu-jin koku, 
 Shuhen hokai, 
 Mijin setchu 
 ShO'U kokudo, 
 Issai gaki ; 
 Senbo kyumetsu, 
 Sansen chishu, 
 Naishi kqya, 
 ( Sho-kijin to, 
 
 Shorai shusU. . , . 
 
 ing them quickly together so as to produce a succession of 
 sharp dry sounds. 
 
260 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 This brief sonorous metre seemed to me partic- 
 ularly well adapted for invocatory or incantatory 
 chanting; and the gatha of the s^^-^^Z-service 
 was indeed a veritable incantation, — as the fol- 
 lowing free translation will make manifest : — 
 
 "We, Bhikshus and Bhikunis, devoutly presenting this 
 vessel of pure food, do offer the same to all, without excep- 
 tion, of the Pretas dwelling in the Ten Directions of Space, 
 in the surrounding Dharma-worlds, and in every part of 
 the Earth, — not excepting the smallest atom of dust within 
 a temple. And also to the spirits of those long dead and 
 passed away, — and likewise unto the Lord-Spirits of moun- 
 tain and river and soil, and of waste places. — Hither deign 
 therefore to approach and to gather, all ye goblins ! — we 
 now, out of our pity and compassion, desire to give you 
 food. We wish that each and all of you may enjoy this 
 our food-gift. And moreover we shall pray, doing homage 
 to all the Buddhas and to all the Heavenly Ones who dwell 
 within the Zones of Formlessness, that you, and that all 
 beings having desire, may be enabled to obtain content- 
 ment. We shall pray that all of you, by virtue of the utter- 
 ance of the dharanis, and by the enjoyment of this food- 
 offering, may find the higher knowledge, and be freed from 
 every pain, and soon obtain rebirth in the Zone Celestial- 
 there to know every bliss, moving freely in all the Ten 
 Directions, and finding everywhere delight. — Awaken 
 within yourselves the Bodhi-Mind ! — follow the Way of 
 Enlightenment ! Rise to Buddhahood ! Turn ye no more 
 backward ! — neither linger on the path ! Let such among 
 you as first obtain the Way vow each to lead up the rest, 
 and so become free ! — Also we beseech you now to watch 
 
Beside the Sea 261 
 
 over us and to guard us, by night and by day. And help us 
 even now to obtain our desire in bestowing this food upon 
 you, — that the merit produced by this action may be 
 extended to all beings dwelling within the Dhar ma-worlds, 
 and that the power of this merit may help to spread the 
 Truth through all those Dharma-worlds, and help all beings 
 therein to find the Supreme Enlightenment, and to obtain 
 all wisdom.— And we now pray that all your acts hereafter 
 may serve to gain for you the merit that will help you to 
 Buddhahood. And thus we desire that you quickly become 
 Buddhas." 
 
 Then began the most curious part of the ser- 
 vice, — namely, the sprinkling and the presenta- 
 tion of the food-offerings, with recitation of 
 certain dharanis, or magical verses, composed of 
 talismanic Sanscrit words. This portion of the 
 rite was brief ; but to recount all its details would 
 require much space, — every utterance or gesture 
 of the officiant being made according to rule. 
 For example, the hands and fingers of the priest, 
 during the recital of any dharani, must be held in 
 a position prescribed for that particular dharani. 
 But the principal incidents of this complicated 
 ritual are about as follows: 
 
 First of all is recited, seven times, the Dharani 
 of Invitation, to summon the spirits from the Ten 
 Directions of Space. During its recitation the 
 officiant must hold out his right hand, with 
 
262 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 the tip of the middle finger touching the tip of 
 the thumb, and the rest of the fingers extended. 
 Then is recited, with a different, but equally 
 weird gesture, the Dharam of the Breaking 
 of the Gates of Hell. Next is repeated the 
 Se-Kanro verse, or Dharani of the Bestowal of 
 the Amrita, — by virtue of which it is supposed 
 that the food-offerings are transformed, for the 
 sake of the ghosts, into heavenly nectar and am- 
 brosia. And thereafter is chanted, three times, 
 an invocation to the Five Tathagatas : — 
 
 "Salutation to Hosho Nyorai, — hereby besought to 
 relieve {the Pretas] from the karma of all desire, and to fill 
 them with bliss ! 
 
 "Salutation to Myo-Shikishin-Nyorai, — besought to 
 take away from them every imperfection of form ! 
 
 "Salutation to Kanro-0-Nyorai, — besought to purify 
 their bodies and their minds, and to give them peace of 
 heart ! 
 
 "Salutation to Kobaku-Shin-Nyorai, — besought to 
 favor them with the delight of excellent taste ! 
 
 "Salutation to Rifui-Nyorai, — besought to free them 
 from all their fears, and to deliver them out of the World 
 of Hungry Spirits ! " 
 
 The book Bongyo Segaki-Monhen says : — 
 " When the officiants have thus recited the 
 names of the Five Tathagatas, then, by the grace of 
 the power of those Buddhas, all the Pretas shall be 
 
w 
 
 Beside the Sea 26J 
 
 liberated from the karma of their former errors, — 
 shall experience immeasurable bliss, — shall re- 
 ceive excellent features and complete bodies,— 
 shall be rid of all their terrors, — and, after hav- 
 ing partaken of the food -offerings which have 
 been changed for them into amrita of delightful 
 taste, shall soon be reborn into the Pure Land 
 [Jodo]." 
 
 After the invocation of the Five Tathlgatas, 
 other verses are recited ; and during this recita- 
 tion the food-offerings are removed, one by one. 
 (There is a mysterious regulation that, after hav- 
 ing been taken from the altar, they must not be 
 placed under a willow-tree, a peach-tree, or a 
 pomegranate-tree.) Last of all is recited the Dhlr- 
 ani of Dismissal, seven times, — the priest each 
 time snapping his fingers as a signal to the ghosts 
 that they are free to return. This is called the 
 Hakken, or Sending-Away. 
 
 Ill 
 
 The sea never ebbs far on this steep coast,— 
 though it often rises tremendously, breaking into 
 the town ; and its gentler moods are not to be 
 
264 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 trusted. By way of precaution the posts of the 
 ihat-stmd had been driven deeply into the beach. 
 The event proved that this precaution had not 
 been taken in vain ; for the rite began, owing to 
 the delay of the priests, only with the turn of the 
 tide. Even while the gSth^l was being chanted, 
 the sea roughened and darkened ; and then, — 
 as if the outer deep responded, — the thunder-roll 
 of a great breaker suddenly smothered the voices 
 of the singers and the clanging of the bells. Soon 
 another heavy surge boomed along the shore, — 
 then another; and during the reciting of the 
 dharanis the service could be heard only in the 
 intervals of wave -bursts, — while the foam sheeted 
 up the slope, whirling and hissing even to within 
 a few paces of the altar. . . . 
 
 And again I found myself thinking of the old 
 belief in some dim relation between the dead and 
 the sea. In that moment the primitive fancy ap- 
 peared to me much more reasonable and more 
 humane than the ghastly doctrine of a Preta- 
 world, with its thirty-six orders of hideous misery, 
 — its swarms of goblins hungering and burning ! 
 . . . Nay, the poor dead ! — why should they be 
 thus deformed and doomed by human judgment ? 
 
X-: 1 
 
 Beside the Sea 26? 
 
 Wiser and kindlier to dream of them as mingling 
 with flood and wind and cloud, — or quickening 
 the heart of the flower, — or flushing the cheek 
 of the fruit, — or shrilling with the cicadas in 
 forest-solitudes, — or thinly humming in summer- 
 dusk with the gathering of the gnats. ... I do 
 not believe, — I do not wish to believe in hungry 
 
 ghosts Ghosts break up, I suppose, into 
 
 soul-dust at the touch of death, — though their 
 atoms, doubtless, thereafter recombine with other 
 dust for the making of other ghosts. . . . Still, 
 I cannot convince myself that even the grosser 
 substance of vanished being ever completely dies, 
 however dissolved or scattered, — fleeting in the 
 gale, — floating in the mists, — shuddering in the 
 leaf, — flickering in the light of waters, — or 
 tossed on some desolate coast in a thunder 
 of surf, to whiten and writhe in the clatter of 
 shingle. . . . 
 
 As the ceremony ended, a fisherman mounted 
 lightly to the top of one of the awning-posts ; 
 and there, gymnastically poised, he began to 
 shower down upon the crowd a quantity of very 
 small rice-cakes, which the young folks scrambled 
 for, with shouts of laughter. After the uncanny 
 
266 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 solemnity of that rite, the outburst of merriment 
 was almost startling; but I found it also very 
 natural, and pleasant, and human. Meanwhile 
 the seven priests departed in many-colored pro- 
 cession, — their acolytes trudging wearily behind 
 them, under much weight of stands and stools 
 and bells. Soon the assembly scattered, — all the 
 rice-cakes having been distributed and appropri- 
 ated ; — then the altar, the awnings, the mattings 
 were removed ; — and in a surprisingly short time 
 every trace of the strange ceremony had disap- 
 peared. ... I looked about me; — I was alone 
 upon the beach. . . . There was no sound but 
 the sound of the returning tide : a muttering 
 enormous, appalling, — as of some Life innom- 
 inable, that had been at peace, awakened to 
 immeasurable pain. . . . 
 
Drifting 
 
?" 
 
 Drifting 
 
 A TYPHOON was coming; and I sat on 
 the sea-wall in a great wind to look at 
 the breakers; and old Amano Jinsuke 
 sat beside me. Southeast all was black-blue 
 gloom, except the sea, which had a strange and 
 tawny color. Enormous surges were already 
 towering in. A hundred yards away they 
 crumbled over with thunder and earthquake, 
 and sent their foam leaping and sheeting up 
 the slope, to spring at our faces. After each 
 long crash, the sound of the shingle retreating 
 was exactly like the roar of a railway train at 
 full speed. I told Amano Jinsuke that it made 
 me afraid; and he smiled. 
 
 *' I swam for two nights and two days," he 
 said, *' in a sea worse than this. I was nineteen 
 years old at the time. Out of a crew of eight, 
 1 was the only man saved. 
 269 
 
270 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 "Our ship was called the Fukuju Maru;^ — 
 she was owned by Mayeda Jingoro, of this town. 
 All of the crew but one were Yaidzu men. The 
 captain was Saito Kichiyemon, — a man more 
 than sixty years of age: he lived in Jo-no- 
 Koshi, — the street just behind us. There was 
 another old man on board, called Nito Shoshichi, 
 who lived in the Araya quarter. Then there 
 was Terao Kankichi, forty-two years old: his 
 brother Minosuke, a lad of sixteen, was also 
 with us. The Terao folk lived in Araya. Then 
 there was Saito Heikichi, thirty years old; and 
 there was a man called Matsushiro ; — he came 
 from Suo, but had settled in Yaidzu. Washino 
 Otokichi was another of the crew: he lived 
 in Jo-no-Koshi, and was only twenty-one. I 
 was the youngest on board, — excepting Terao 
 Minosuke. 
 
 "We sailed from Yaidzu on the morning of 
 the tenth day of the seventh month of Manyen 
 Gwannen,^ — the Year of the Ape, — bound for 
 Sanuki. On the night of the eleventh, in the 
 
 1 The word Fukuju signifies " Fortunate Longevity." 
 
 2 That is to say the first, or coronation-year, of the 
 Period Manyen,— 1860-1861. 
 
Drifting 271 
 
 Kishu offing, we were caught by a typhoon from 
 the southeast. A little before midnight, the 
 ship capsized. As I felt her going over, I caught 
 a plank, and threw it out, and jumped. It was 
 blowing fearfully at the time; and the night 
 was so dark that I could see only a few feet 
 away; but I was lucky enough to find that 
 plank, and put it under me. In another moment 
 the ship was gone. Near me in the water were 
 Washino Otokichi and the Terao brothers and 
 the man Matsushiro, — all swimming. There 
 was no sign of the rest: they probably went 
 down with the ship. We five kept calling to 
 each other as we went up and down with the 
 great seas; and I found that every one except 
 Terao Kankichi had a plank or a timber of some 
 sort. 1 cried to Kankichi : — ' Elder brother, you 
 have children, and I am very young; — let me 
 give you this plank ! ' He shouted back : — Mn 
 this sea a plank is dangerous ! — keep away from 
 timber, Jinyo ! — you may get hurt ! ' Before 
 I could answer him, a wave like a black moun- 
 tain burst over us. I was a long time under ; and 
 when I came up again, there was no sign of 
 Kankichi. The younger men were still swim- 
 ming; but they had been swept away to the 
 
272 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 left of me ; — I could not see them : we shouted 
 to each other. I tried to keep with the waves 
 
 — the others called to me : — ' Jinyo ! Jinyo ! — 
 come this way, — this way ! ' But I knew that 
 to go in their direction would be very danger- 
 ous; for every time that a wave struck me 
 sideways, I was taken under. So 1 called back 
 to them , ' Keep with the tide ! — keep with the 
 current ! ' But they did not seem to understand ; 
 
 — and they still called to me, * Kocchi e koi ! — 
 kocchi e koi ! '^ — and their voices each time 
 sounded more and more far away. I became 
 afraid to answer. . . . The drowned call to you 
 like that when they want company: Kocchi e 
 koi! — kocchi e hoi! . . . 
 
 '* After a little time the calling ceased ; and I 
 heard only the sea and the wind and the rain. 
 It was so dark that one could see the waves 
 only at the moment they went by, — high black 
 shadows, — each with a great pull. By the pull 
 of them I guessed how to direct myself. The 
 rain kept them from breaking much; — had it 
 not been for the rain, no man could have lived 
 long in such a sea. And hour after hour the 
 
 I *' Come this way 1 
 
Drifting 273 
 
 wind became worse, and the swells grew higher ; 
 — and I prayed for help to Jizo-Sama of Ogawa 
 all that night. . . . Lights? — yes, there were 
 lights in the water, but not many : the large 
 kind, that shine like candles. . . . 
 
 ** At dawn the sea looked ugly, — a muddy 
 green ; and the waves were like hills ; and the 
 wind was terrible. Rain and spray made a fog 
 over the water ; and there was no horizon. But 
 even if there had been land in sight I could have 
 done nothing except try to keep afloat. I felt 
 hungry, — very hungry ; and the pain of the 
 hunger soon became hard to bear. All that day 
 I went up and down with the great waves, — 
 drifting under the wind and the rain ; and there 
 was no sign of land. I did not know where 1 
 was going: under that sky one could not tell 
 east from west. 
 
 '' After dark the wind lulled ; but the rain still 
 poured, and all was black. The pain of the 
 hunger passed ; but I felt weak, — so weak that 
 I thought I must go under. Then I heard the 
 voices calling me, — just as they had called me 
 the night before : — ' Kocchi e koi ! — kocchi e 
 koi .''... And, all at once, I saw the four men 
 of the Fukuju Maru, — not swimming, but 
 
 18 
 
274 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 standing by me, — Terao Kankichi, and Terao 
 Minosuke, and Washino Otokichi, and the man 
 Matsushir5. All looked at me with angry faces ; 
 and the boy Minosuke cried out, as in reproach : 
 — 'Here I have to fix the helm; and you, Jin- 
 suke, do nothing but sleep ! ' Then Terao Kan- 
 kichi — the one to whom I had offered the 
 plank — bent over me with a kakemono in his 
 hands, and half -unrolled it, and said : — ' Jinyo ! 
 here I have a picture of Amida Buddha — see! 
 Now indeed you must repeat the Nemhutsu ! * 
 He spoke strangely, in a way that made me 
 afraid : I looked at the figure of the Buddha ; 
 and I repeated the prayer in great fear, — Namu 
 Amida Butsu ! — namu Amida Butsu I ^ In 
 the same moment a pain, like the pain of fire, 
 stung through my thighs and hips ; and I found 
 that I had rolled off the plank into the sea. The 
 pain had been caused by a great katsuo-no- 
 eboshi. . . . You newer s^cw 2. katsuo-no-eboshi? 
 It is a jelly-fish shaped like the eboshi, or cap, of 
 a Shinto priest ; and we call it the katsuo-no- 
 eboshi because the katsuo-fish [bonito] feed upon 
 
 1 This invocation, signifying <* Salutation to the Buddha 
 AmitSbha," is commonly repeated as a prayer for the dead. 
 
Drifting 275 
 
 it. When that thing appears anywhere, the 
 fishermen expect to catch many katsuo. The 
 body is clear like glass ; but underneath there is 
 a kind of purple fringe, and long purple strings ; 
 and when those strings touch you, the pain is 
 very great, and lasts for a long time. . . . That 
 pain revived me; if I had not been stung I might 
 never have awakened. I got on the plank again, 
 and prayed to Jizo-Sama of Ogawa, and to Kom- 
 pira-Sama ; and 1 was able to keep awake until 
 morning. 
 
 " Before daylight the rain stopped, and the sky 
 began to clear ; for I could see some stars. At 
 dawn I got drowsy again ; and I was awakened 
 by a blow on the head. A large sea-bird had 
 struck me. The sun was rising behind clouds ; 
 and the waves had become gentle. Presently a 
 small brown bird flew by my face, — a coast-bird 
 (I do not know its real name) ; and I thought 
 that there must be land in sight. I looked behind 
 me, and I saw mountains. 1 did not recognize 
 the shapes of them: they were blue, — seemed to 
 be nine or ten ri distant. I made up my mind 
 to paddle towards them, — though I had little 
 hope of getting to shore. I was feeling hungry 
 again, — terribly hungry ! 
 
276 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 *' I paddled towards the mountains, hour after 
 hour. Once more I fell asleep ; and once again 
 a sea-bird struck me. All day I paddled. To- 
 wards evening I could tell, from the look of the 
 mountains, that I was approaching them; but I 
 knew that it would take me two days to reach 
 the shore. I had almost ceased to hope when I 
 caught sight of a ship, — a big junk. She was 
 sailing towards me ; but I saw that, unless I could 
 swim faster, she would pass me at a great dis- 
 tance. It was my last chance : so I dropped the 
 plank, and swam as fast as I could. I did get 
 within about two cho of her : then I shouted. 
 But I could see nobody on deck ; and I got no 
 answer. In another minute she had passed be- 
 yond me. The sun was setting ; and I despaired. 
 All of a sudden a man came on deck, and 
 shouted to me : — ' Don't try to swim ! don't 
 tire yourself ! — we are going to send a boat ! ' I 
 saw the sail lowered at the same time ; and I felt 
 so glad that new strength seemed to come to me ; 
 — I swam on fast. Then the junk dropped a 
 little boat ; and as the boat came towards me, a 
 man called out : — Ms there anybody else ? — 
 have you dropped anything ? ' I answered : — 
 * I had nothing but a plank.' ... In the same 
 
Drifting 277 
 
 instant all my strength was gone : I felt the men 
 in the boat pulling me up ; but I could neither 
 speak nor move, and everything became dark. 
 
 "After a time I heard the voices again, — the 
 voices of the men of the Fukuju Maru : — 
 ' Jinyo ! Jinyo ! ' — and I was frightened. Then 
 somebody shook me, and said : — ' Oi! oi ! ^ 
 it is only a dream!' — and I saw that I was 
 lying in the junk, under a hanging lantern (for 
 it was night) ; — and beside me an old man, a 
 stranger, was kneeling, with a cup of boiled rice 
 in his hand. ' Try to eat a little,' he said, very 
 kindly. I wanted to sit up, but could not : then 
 he fed me himself, out of the cup. When it was 
 empty I asked for more ; but the old man an- 
 swered : — ' Not now ; — you must sleep first.' 
 I heard him say to some one else : — * Give him 
 nothing more until 1 tell you : if you let him eat 
 much, he will die.' I slept again ; and twice 
 more that night I was given rice — soft-boiled 
 rice — one small cupful at a time. 
 
 " In the morning I felt much better ; and the 
 old man, who had brought me the rice, came and 
 questioned me. When he heard about the loss of 
 
 1 As we should say, " Hey ! hey ! " — to call attention. 
 
\r 
 
 278 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 our ship, and the time that 1 had been in the 
 water, he expressed great pity for me. He told 
 me that I had drifted, in those two nights and 
 days, more than twenty-five r // ' We went after 
 your plank,' he said, ' and picked it up. Perhaps 
 you would like to present it some day to the 
 temple of Kompira-Sama.' I thanked him, but 
 answered that I wanted to offer it to the temple 
 of Jizo-Sama of Ogawa, at Yaidzu; for it was 
 to Jizo-Sama of Ogawa that I had most often 
 prayed for help. 
 
 '' The kind old man was the captain, and also 
 the owner, of the junk. She was a Banshu ship, 
 and was bound for the port of Kuki, in Kishu. 
 . . . You write the name, Ku-ki, with the charac- 
 ter for ' demon,' — so that it means the Nine 
 Demons. ... All the men of the ship were very 
 good to me. I was naked, except for a loin 
 cloth, when I came on board ; and they found 
 clothes for me. One gave me an under-robe, 
 and another an upper-robe, and another a girdle ; 
 — several gave me towels and sandals ; — and all 
 of them together made up a gift of money for 
 me, amounting to between six and seven ryo. 
 
 1 That is to say, about sixty-three English miles. 
 
Drifting 279 
 
 " When we reached Kuki — a nice Httle place, 
 though it has a queer name — the captain took me 
 to a good inn ; and after a few days' rest I got 
 strong again. Then the governor of the district, 
 the Jito, as we called him in those days, — sent 
 for me, and heard my story, and had it written 
 down. He told me that he would have to send a 
 report of the matter to the Jito of the Yaidzu 
 district, after which he would find means to send 
 me home. But the Banshu captain, who had 
 saved me, offered to take me home in his own 
 ship, and also to act as messenger for the Jito ; 
 and there was much argument between the two. 
 At that time we had no telegraph and no post ; 
 and to send a special messenger (hikyaku), from 
 Kuki to Yaidzu,^ would have cost at least fifty 
 ryo. But, on the other hand, there were particu- 
 lar laws and customs about such matters, — laws 
 very different from those of to-day. Meanwhile 
 a Yaidzu ship came to the neighboring port of 
 Arasha; and a woman of Kuki, who happened 
 to be at Arasha, told the Yaidzu captain that I 
 was at Kuki. The Yaidzu ship then came to 
 Kuki ; and the Jito decided to send me home in 
 
 1 The distance is more than one hundred and fifty miles. 
 
u 
 
 280 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 charge of the Yaidzu captain, — giving him a 
 written order. 
 
 '' Altogether, it was about a month from the 
 time of the loss of the Fukiiju Maru when I re- 
 turned to Yaidzu. We reached the harbor at 
 night ; and I did not go home at once : it would 
 have frightened my people. Although no certain 
 news of the loss of our ship had then been re- 
 ceived at Yaidzu, several things belonging to her 
 had been picked up by fishing-craft ; and as the 
 typhoon had come very suddenly, with a terrible 
 sea, it was generally believed that the Fukuju 
 Maru had gone down, and that all of us had 
 been drowned. . . . None of the other men were 
 ever heard of again. ... I went that night to 
 the house of a friend ; and in the morning I sent 
 word to my parents and brother ; and they came 
 for me. ... 
 
 *' Once every year I go to the temple of Kom- 
 pira in Sanuki: all who have been saved from 
 shipwreck go there to give thanks. And 1 often 
 go to the temple of Jizo-Sama of Ogawa. If 
 you will come with me there to-morrow, 1 will 
 show you that plank." 
 
Otokichi's Daruma 
 
Otokichi's Daruma 
 
 I 
 
 THE young folks are delighted, because last 
 night a heavy fall of snow made for us 
 what the Japanese poets so prettily call 
 "a silver world." . . . Really these poets have 
 been guilty of no extravagance in their charming 
 praises of winter. For in Japan winter is beauti- 
 ful, — fantastically beautiful. It bestirs no mel- 
 ancholy imaginings about " the death of nature," 
 — inasmuch as nature remains most visibly alive 
 during even the Period of Greatest Cold. It 
 does not afflict the aesthetic eye with the spectacle 
 of *' skeleton -woods," — for the woods largely 
 consist of evergreens. And the snow, — heaping 
 softly upon the needles of the pines, or forcing 
 the bamboos to display their bending grace under 
 its momentary weight, — never suggests to Far- 
 Eastern poet the dismal fancy of a winding-sheet. 
 Indeed the singular charm of Japanese winter is 
 made by this snow, — lumping itself into grotes- 
 283 
 
284 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 queries unimaginable above the constant verdure 
 of woods and gardens. 
 
 This morning my two students, Aki and Niimi, 
 have been amusing themselves and the children 
 by making a Yuki-Daruma; and I have been 
 amusing myself by watching them. The rules 
 for making a Yuki-Daruma are ancient and 
 simple. You first compose a huge snowball, — 
 between three and four feet in diameter, if pos- 
 sible, — which is to represent the squatting body 
 of Daruma. Then you make a smaller snow- 
 ball, about two feet in diameter, to represent his 
 head ; and you put this smaller ball on top of the 
 other, — packing snow around the under-parts of 
 both, so as to fix them in place. Two round 
 lumps of charcoal serve to make eyes for Daruma ; 
 and some irregular fragments of the same material 
 will suffice to indicate his nose and mouth. Finally, 
 you must scoop out a hollow in the great belly of 
 him, to represent a navel, and stick a lighted 
 candle inside. The warmth of the candle gradu- 
 ally enlarges the opening. . . . 
 
 But I forgot to explain the term Yuki-Daruma, 
 or Snow-Daruma. " Daruma " is an abbreviation 
 of the name Bodai-Daruma, — Japanese rendering 
 
Otokichi's Daruma 285 
 
 of the Sanscrit " Bodhidharma." And who was 
 Bodhidharma ? 
 
 Bodhidharma, or Bodhitara, was the twenty- 
 eighth patriarch of Buddhism, by succession from 
 the great K^syapa. He went to China as a Bud- 
 dhist missionary in the first year of the Ryo 
 dynasty [520 A. D.] ; and in China he founded 
 the great Zen (Dhydna) sect,— whose doctrine is 
 called " The Doctrine of Thought transmitted by 
 Thought": that is to say, transmitted without 
 words, either written or spoken. Says Professor 
 Bunyiu Nanjio, in his History of the Twelve Bud- 
 dhist 5^^/s.- — " Besides all the doctrines of the 
 Mahay ana and Hinayana, there is one distinct 
 line of transmission of a secret doctrine, which is 
 not subject to any utterance at all. According to 
 this doctrine, one is to see the so-called key to the 
 thought of Buddha, or the nature of Buddha, 
 directly by his own thought." The tradition of 
 the Zen doctrine is curious. When the Buddha 
 was preaching upon the Vulture Peak, there sud- 
 denly appeared before him the great Brahma, who 
 presented a gold-colored flower to the Blessed 
 One, and therewith besought him to preach the 
 Law. The Blessed One accepted the heavenly 
 
286 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 flower, and held it in his hand, but spoke no word. 
 Then the great assembly wondered at the silence 
 of the Blessed One. But the venerable KSsyapa 
 smiled. And the Blessed One said to the venerable 
 Kasyapa : — "I have the wonderful thought of 
 NirvSna, the Eye of the True Law, which I now 
 shall give you." ... So by thought alone the 
 doctrine was transmitted to Ktsyapa; and by 
 thought alone Kasyapa transmitted it to Ananda ; 
 and thereafter by thought alone it was transmitted 
 from patriarch to patriarch even to the time of 
 Bodhidharma, who communicated it to his suc- 
 cessor, the second Chinese patriarch of the sect. 
 By some writers it is said that Bodhidharma 
 visited Japan ; but this statement appears to have 
 little foundation. At all events, the Zen doctrine 
 was not introduced into Japan before the eighth 
 century. 
 
 Now of the many legends about Daruma, the 
 most famous is the story that he once remained 
 for nine years in uninterrupted meditation, during 
 which time his legs fell oflf . Wherefore images 
 of him are made without legs. 
 
 Certainly Daruma has large claims to respect. 
 But the artists and the toymakers of the Far East 
 have never allowed these claims to interfere with 
 
u. 
 
 XJ ^^n ^ 
 
288 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 the indulgence of their sense of humor, — origi- 
 nally bestirred, no doubt, by the story of the loss 
 of his legs. For centuries this legendary mishap 
 has been made the subject of comical drawings 
 and comical carvings ; and generations of Japan- 
 ese children have amused themselves with a cer- 
 tain toy-image of Daruma so contrived that, 
 however the little figure be thrown down, it will 
 always bob up again into a squatting posture. 
 This still popular toy, called Okiagari-kohoshi 
 (" The Getting-up Little Priest") may have been 
 originally modelled, or remodelled, after a Chinese 
 toy made upon the same principle, and called Puh- 
 Tau-Ung (" The Not-falling-down Old Man"). 
 Mention is made of the Okiagari-Kohoshi in a 
 Japanese play called Manju-Kui, known to have 
 been composed in the fourteenth century. But the 
 earlier forms of the toy do not seem to have been 
 representations of Daruma. There is, however, 
 a children's-song, dating from the seventeenth 
 century, which proves that the Daruma-toy was 
 popular more than two hundred years ago : — 
 
 Hi ni ! fu ni ! 
 Fundan Daruma ga 
 Akai lukin kahuri sunmaita! 
 
Otokichi's Daruma 289 
 
 ["Once! twice! . . . Ever the red-hooded 
 Daruma heedlessly sits up again ! "] From this 
 little song it would seem that the form of the 
 toy has not been much changed since the seven- 
 teenth century ; Daruma still wears his hood, and 
 is still painted red — all of him except his face. 
 
 Besides the Snow- Daruma already described, 
 and the toy- Daruma (usually made of papier- 
 mache), there are countless comical varieties of 
 Daruma: figures moulded or carved in almost 
 every kind of material, and ranging in size from 
 the tiny metal Daruma, half-an-inch long, de- 
 signed for a pouch-clasp, to the big wooden 
 Daruma, two or three feet high, which the Japan- 
 ese tobacconist has adopted for a shop-sign. . . . 
 Thus profanely does popular art deride the holy 
 legend of the nine years' meditation. 
 
 TOY-DARUMA 
 19 
 
290 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 II 
 
 Now that Yuki-Daruma in my garden reminds 
 me of a vefy peculiar Daruma which I discov- 
 ered several years ago, at a certain fishing-village 
 on the eastern coast where I passed a happy 
 
 summer. There was no hotel in the place ; but 
 a good man called Otokichi, who kept a fish- 
 shop, used to let me occupy the upper part of his 
 house, and fed me with fish cooked in a wonder- 
 ful variety of ways. 
 
 One morning he called me into his shop to 
 show me a very fine hoho. ... I wonder if you 
 ever saw anything resembling a hobo. It looks 
 
Otokichi's Daruma 291 
 
 so much like a gigantic butterfly or moth, that 
 you must examine it closely to make sure that it 
 is not an insect, but a fish, — a sort of gurnard. 
 It has four fins arranged like pairs of wings, — 
 the upper pair dark, with bright spots of sky- 
 blue ; the lower pair deep red. It seems also to 
 have legs like a butterfly, — slender legs upon 
 which it runs about quickly. . . . 
 
 " Is it good to eat ? " I asked. 
 
 ''He!'' answered Otokichi : — " this shall be 
 prepared for the Honorable Dinner." 
 
 [To any question asked of him, — even a ques- 
 tion requiring answer in the negative, — Otokichi 
 would begin his reply with the exclamation He 
 ("Yes"), — uttered in such a tone of sympathy 
 and good-will as to make the hearer immediately 
 forget all the tribulations of existence.] 
 
 Then I wandered back into the shop, looking 
 at things. On one side were rows of shelves 
 supporting boxes of dried fish, and packages of 
 edible seaweed, and bundles of straw sandals, 
 and gourds for holding sake, and bottles of lem- 
 onade! On the opposite side, high up, I per- 
 ceived iht kamidana, — the Shelf of the Gods; 
 and I noticed, under the kamidana, a smaller 
 
292 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 shelf occupied by a red image of Daruma. Evi- 
 dently the image was not a toy: there were 
 oiferings in front of it. I was not surprised 
 to find Daruma accepted as a household divinity, 
 — because I knew that in many parts of Japan 
 
 prayers were addressed to him on behalf of chil- 
 dren attacked by smallpox. But I was rather 
 startled by the peculiar aspect of Otokichi's 
 Daruma, which had only one eye, — a large and 
 formidable eye that seemed to glare through the 
 dusk of the shop like the eye of a great owl. 
 It was the right eye, and was made of glazed paper. 
 The socket of the left eye was a white void. 
 
Otokichi's Daruma 29? 
 
 Therefore I called to Otokichi : — 
 " Otokichi San ! — did the children knock out 
 the left eye of Daruma Sama ? " 
 
 ^' He, he!'' sympathetically chuckled Otokichi, 
 
 — lifting a superb hatsuo to the cutting-bench, 
 
 — *' he never had a left eye." 
 
 " Was he made that way ? " I asked. 
 ** He!'' responded Otokichi, — as he swept his 
 long knife soundlessly through the argent body, 
 
 — '*the folk here make only blind Darumas. 
 When I got that Daruma, he had no eyes at 
 all. I made the right eye for him last year, — 
 after a day of great fishing." 
 
 *' But why not have given him both eyes ? *' 
 I queried; — ** he looks so unhappy with only 
 one eye ! " 
 
 ''He, he!" replied Otokichi, — skilfully rang- 
 ing the slices of pink-and-silver flesh upon a 
 little mat of glass rods,i — " when we have 
 another day of great good fortune, then he 
 shall be given the other eye." 
 
 Then I walked about the streets of the village, 
 peeping into the houses and shops; and I dis- 
 covered various other Darumas in different stages 
 
 1 Such a little glass mat is called sudare. 
 
294 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 of development, — some without eyes, some with 
 only one, and some with two. I remembered 
 that in Izumo it was especially Hotel, — the big- 
 bellied God of Comfort, — who used to be prac- 
 tically rewarded for his favors. As soon as the 
 worshipper found reason for gratitude, Hotel's 
 recumbent image was put upon a soft cushion; 
 and for each additional grace bestowed the god 
 would be given an additional cushion. But it 
 occurred to me that Daruma could not be given 
 more than two eyes : three would change him into 
 the sort of goblin called Mitsume-Koio. ... I 
 learned, upon inquiry, that when a Daruma has 
 been presented with a pair of eyes, and with sun- 
 dry small offerings, he is put away to make room 
 for an eyeless successor. The blind Daruma can 
 be expected to do wonderful things, because he 
 has to work for his eyes. 
 
 There are many such funny little deities in 
 Japan, — so many that it would need a very 
 big book to describe them; and I have found 
 that the people who worship these queer little 
 gods are, for the most part, pathetically honest. 
 Indeed my own experience would almost justify 
 the belief that the more artless the god, the 
 
Otokichi's Daruma 29? 
 
 more honest the man, — though I do not want 
 my reader to make any hasty deductions. I do 
 not wish to imply, for example, that the super- 
 lative point of honesty might begin at the van- 
 ishing point of the god. Only this much I would 
 venture : — Faith in very small gods, — toy-gods, 
 — belongs to that simplicity of heart which, in 
 this wicked world, makes the nearest possible 
 approach to pure goodness. 
 
 On the evening before I left the village, 
 Otokichi brought me his bill, — representing 
 the cost of two months' good cheer; — and the 
 amount proved to be unreasonably small. Of 
 course a present was expected, according to the 
 kindly Japanese custom; but, even taking that 
 fact into consideration, the bill was absurdly 
 honest. The least that I could do to show my 
 appreciation of many things was to double the 
 payment requested; and Otokichi's satisfaction, 
 because perfectly natural and at the same time 
 properly dignified, was something beautiful to 
 see. 
 
 1 was up and dressed by half -past three the 
 next morning, in order to take an early express - 
 train; but even at that ghostly hour I found 
 
296 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 a warm breakfast awaiting me downstairs, and 
 Otokichi's little brown daughter ready to serve 
 me. ... As I swallowed the final bowl of warm 
 tea, my gaze involuntarily wandered in the 
 direction of the household gods, whose tiny 
 lamps were still glowing. Then I noticed that 
 a light was burning also in front of Daruma; 
 and almost in the same instant I perceived that 
 Daruma was looking straight at me — with 
 TWO eyes! . . . 
 
In a Japanese Hospital 
 
In a Japanese Hospital 
 
 I 
 
 . . . The last patient of the evening, — a boy 
 less than four years old, — is received by nurses 
 and surgeons with smiles and gentle flatteries, to 
 which he does not at all respond. ... He is 
 both afraid and angry — especially angry — 
 at finding himself in an hospital to-night : some 
 indiscreet person assured him that he was being 
 taken to the theatre ; — and he sang for joy on 
 the way, forgetting the pain of his arm ; — and 
 this is not the theatre ! There are doctors here 
 — doctors that hurt people. ... He lets himself 
 be stripped, and bears the examination without 
 wincing ; but when told that he must lie down 
 upon a certain low table, under an electric lamp, 
 he utters a very emphatic lya !^. . . The expe- 
 rience inherited from his ancestors has assured 
 
 1 ''No!" 
 
 299 
 
300 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 him that to lie down in the presence of a possible 
 enemy is not good ; and by the same ghostly 
 wisdom he has divined that the smile of the sur- 
 geon was intended to deceive. ..." But it will 
 be so nice upon the table ! " — coaxingly observes 
 a young nurse ; — ''see the pretty red cloth ! " 
 '^ lya ! " repeats the little man — made only more 
 wary by this appeal to aesthetic sentiment. . . . 
 So they lay hands upon him — two surgeons and 
 two nurses, — lift him deftly, — bear him to the 
 table with the red cloth. Then he shouts his 
 small cry of war, — for he comes of good fight- 
 ing stock, — and, to the general alarm, battles 
 most valiantly, in spite of that broken arm. But 
 lo ! a white wet cloth descends upon his eyes 
 and mouth, — and he cannot cry, — and there is 
 a strange sweet smell in his nostrils, — and the 
 voices and the lights have floated very, very far 
 away, — and he is sinking, sinking, sinking into 
 wavy darkness. . . . The slight limbs relax ; — 
 for a moment the breast heaves quickly, in the 
 last fight of the lungs against the paralyzing 
 anaesthetic : then all motion stops. . . . Now the 
 cloth is removed ; and the face reappears — all 
 the anger and pain gone out of it. So smile the 
 little gods that watch the sleep of the dead. . . . 
 
In a Japanese Hospital-" 301 
 
 Quickly the ends of the fractured bone are 
 brought into place with a clear snap; — ban- 
 dages and cotton and plaster-of- Paris, and yet 
 more bandages, are rapidly applied by expert 
 hands ; — the face and little hands are sponged. 
 Then the patient, still insensible, is wrapped in a 
 blanket and taken away. . . . Interval, between 
 entrance and exit : twelve minutes and a half. 
 
 Nothing is commonplace as seen for the first 
 time; and the really painless details of the in- 
 cident — the stifling of the cry, the sudden numb- 
 ing of will, the subsequent pallid calm of the little 
 face — so simulated tragedy as to set imagination 
 wandering in darksome ways. ... A single 
 wicked blow would have produced exactly the 
 same results of silence and smiling rest. Count- 
 less times in the countless ages of the past it must 
 have done so ; — countless times passion must 
 have discerned, in the sudden passionless beauty 
 of the stricken, the eternal consequence of the 
 act. . . . Till the heavens he no more they shall 
 not awake, nor he roused out of their sleep. 
 " Till the heavens be no more" — but after .? 
 Thereafter — perhaps : yet never again the 
 same. . . . 
 
302 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 But I felt that I had been startled more than 
 touched by that sudden suppression of the per- 
 sonality, the Self, — because of the mystery 
 thereby made manifest. In one moment, — 
 under the vapor of a chemical, — voice, motion, 
 will, thought, all pleasure and pain and memory, 
 had ceased to be ; — the whole life of the budding 
 senses, — the delicate machinery of the little 
 brain, with its possible priceless inheritance from 
 countless generations, — had been stilled and 
 stopped as by the very touch of death. And 
 there remained, to all outward seeming, only the 
 form, the simulacrum, — a doll of plastic flesh, 
 with the faint unconscious smile of an icon. . . . 
 
 The faces of the little stone Buddhas, who 
 dream by roadsides or above the graves, have 
 the soft charm of Japanese infancy. They re- 
 semble the faces of children asleep ; — and you 
 must have seen Japanese children asleep to know 
 the curious beauty of the immature features, — 
 the vague sweetness of the lines of lids and lips. 
 In the art of the Buddhist image -maker, the 
 peace of the divine condition is suggested by 
 the same shadowy smile that makes beautiful 
 the slumber of the child. 
 
In a Japanese Hospital 303 
 
 II 
 
 The memory of icons naturally evoked remem- 
 brance of those powers which icon$.'do but sym- 
 bolize ; and presently I fouj^d^myself thinking 
 that, to the vision of a Gg^, the entire course of 
 a human life would appear much like the incident 
 which I had just witnessed, — a coming, a crying 
 and struggling, and a sudden vanishing of per- 
 sonality under the resistless anaesthetic of death. 
 (I am not speaking of a cosmic divinity, to whom 
 the interval between the kindling and the extinc- 
 tion of a sun would seem as brief as seems to us 
 the flash of a firefly in the night: I mean an 
 anthropomorphic God.) According to Herbert 
 Spencer, the tiny consciousness of a gnat can dis- 
 tinguish intervals of time representing something 
 between the ten-thousandth and the fifteen- 
 thousandth part of a second. For a being as 
 mentally superior to man as man to the gnat, 
 would not the time of a generation appear but an 
 instant .? Would such a being perceive our human 
 existence at all, except as a budding and a wither- 
 ing,— a ceaseless swift succession of apparitions 
 and disparitions, — a mere phenomenon of fer- 
 mentation peculiar to the surface of a cooling 
 
304 Japanese Miscellany 
 
 planet ? Of course, were he to study that phe- 
 nomenon in detail, somewhat as we study fer- 
 ments under the lens, he would not see the smile 
 of the babe change instantaneously to the laughter 
 of the skull ; — but 1 fancy that whatever might 
 psychologically happen, between the first smile of 
 rosy flesh and the last dull grin of bone, would 
 remain for him as indistinguishable as the gnat's 
 ten or fifteen thousand wing-beats per second 
 remain for us. I doubt whether the God of a 
 system, or even of a single world, could sympa- 
 thize with our emotions any more than we our- 
 selves can sympathize with the life that thrills in 
 a droplet of putrid water. . . . 
 
 But what is this human creature that, in the 
 sight of a God, might seem to rise from earth 
 merely to weep ^nd laugh one moment in the 
 light, ere crumbling back to clay again ? A form 
 evolved, in the course of a hundred million years, 
 from out some shapeless speck of primordial 
 slime. But this knowledge of the evolution no- 
 wise illuminates the secret of the life in itself, — 
 the secret of the sentiency struggling against de- 
 struction through all those million centuries, — 
 ever contriving and building, to baffle death, more 
 
In a Japanese Hospital 30? 
 and more astounding complexities of substance, 
 more and yet more marvellous complexities of 
 mind, — and able at last to prolong the term of 
 its being from the primal duration of an instant 
 to the possible human age of a hundred years. 
 The sentiency is the riddle of riddles. Thought 
 has been proved a compounding of sensation. 
 But the simplest sensation perceptible is itself a 
 compound or the result of a compounding, — 
 pediaps the shock of a fusion, — the flash of a 
 blending; — and the mystery of life remains the 
 most inscrutable, the most tremendous, the most 
 appalling of enigmas. 
 
 From the terror of that mystery our fathers 
 sought to save their world by uttering the black 
 decree: — "0/7 pain of swoni and fire, — on 
 peril of the Everlasting Death, — thou SHALT 
 
 NOT think! " 
 
 But the elder wisdom of the East proclaimed : 
 - Fear not to think, O child of the Abyss, upon 
 the Depth that gave thee birth ! Divining that 
 Formless out of which thou hast come, into 
 which thou must dissolve again, thou shall know 
 thy Being timeless, and infinitely One ! . . ." 
 
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