“Because you love each other so much, I have taken it upon myself to
authorize your marriage, in lieu of my kinsman, the Lord of Noto; and
your wedding shall now be celebrated before me. The guests are
assembled;—the gifts are ready.”
At a signal from the lord, the sliding-screens concealing a further
apartment were pushed open; and Tomotada saw there many dignitaries of
the court, assembled for the ceremony, and Aoyagi awaiting him in
brides’ apparel... Thus was she given back to him;—and the wedding was
joyous and splendid;—and precious gifts were made to the young couple
by the prince, and by the members of his household.
For five happy years, after that wedding, Tomotada and Aoyagi dwelt
together. But one morning Aoyagi, while talking with her husband about
some household matter, suddenly uttered a great cry of pain, and then
became very white and still. After a few moments she said, in a feeble
voice: “Pardon me for thus rudely crying out—but the pain was so
sudden!... My dear husband, our union must have been brought about
through some Karma-relation in a former state of existence; and that
happy relation, I think, will bring us again together in more than one
life to come. But for this present existence of ours, the relation is
now ended;—we are about to be separated. Repeat for me, I beseech you,
the _Nembutsu_-prayer,—because I am dying.”
“Oh! what strange wild fancies!” cried the startled husband,—“you are
only a little unwell, my dear one!... lie down for a while, and rest;
and the sickness will pass.”...
“No, no!” she responded—“I am dying!—I do not imagine it;—I know!...
And it were needless now, my dear husband, to hide the truth from you
any longer:—I am not a human being. The soul of a tree is my soul;—the
heart of a tree is my heart;—the sap of the willow is my life. And some
one, at this cruel moment, is cutting down my tree;—that is why I must
die!... Even to weep were now beyond my strength!—quickly, quickly
repeat the _Nembutsu_ for me... quickly!... Ah!...”
With another cry of pain she turned aside her beautiful head, and tried
to hide her face behind her sleeve. But almost in the same moment her
whole form appeared to collapse in the strangest way, and to sink down,
down, down—level with the floor. Tomotada had sprung to support
her;—but there was nothing to support! There lay on the matting only
the empty robes of the fair creature and the ornaments that she had
worn in her hair: the body had ceased to exist...
Tomotada shaved his head, took the Buddhist vows, and became an
itinerant priest. He traveled through all the provinces of the empire;
and, at holy places which he visited, he offered up prayers for the
soul of Aoyagi. Reaching Echizen, in the course of his pilgrimage, he
sought the home of the parents of his beloved. But when he arrived at
the lonely place among the hills, where their dwelling had been, he
found that the cottage had disappeared. There was nothing to mark even
the spot where it had stood, except the stumps of three willows—two old
trees and one young tree—that had been cut down long before his
arrival.
Beside the stumps of those willow-trees he erected a memorial tomb,
inscribed with divers holy texts; and he there performed many Buddhist
services on behalf of the spirits of Aoyagi and of her parents.