far distant, it was in reality a long way for a delicately-nurtured
young lady such as Yuki, and every mile of the journey that she had to
traverse increased her querulousness. Her father had often boasted of
the journeys that he had taken down to the coast, free of cost,
concealed in a truck-load of rice, and she would take no excuses that
there was no railway to the point at which they were to await His
Highness the Wind, although had there been it would never have done for
a party engaged on such an embassy to ride in a railway truck. Nor was
her humour improved by the time they had to wait in the very second-rate
accommodation afforded by a fishing hamlet, as none of them were
accustomed to a fish fare. But after many days there were signs that the
great personage was arriving, and they watched with some trepidation his
passage over the sea, although when, in due time, he neared the shore
they could hardly credit the Cloud's assurance as to his strength, for
he seemed the personification of all that was gentle; and Madame Rat at
once interposed the remark that you should never judge a person's
character by what you hear, and that the Cloud evidently owed the Wind a
grudge.
So the Rat at once unburdened himself to the Wind as it came over the
water towards him, making its face ripple with smiles. And the Wind
itself was in the fairest good humour and addressed the Rat as follows:
"Mr. Cloud is a flatterer, and knows full well that I have no power
against him when he really comes up against me in one of his thunderous
moods. To call me the most powerful person in the world is nonsense.
Where do you come from? Why, in that very village there is one stronger
than me, namely, the high wall that fences in the house of your good
neighbour. If your daughter must fain marry the strongest thing in the
world, wed her to the wall. You will find him a very stalwart spouse. I
wish you good day. I am sorry I cannot offer you a seat in my chariot,
but I am not going in the direction of that wall to-day, else I should
have had much pleasure in introducing your honourable self to my
powerful antagonist."
By this time the party was getting much disheartened, and the stress of
the journey and the chagrin of so many disappointments were beginning to
tell on O Yuki San's beauty. But Mr. Rat said there was nothing for it
but to return home; he knew the wall in question very well, but had no
idea it stood so high in the world's estimation--he had always thought
of it as somewhat of a dullard.
So they trudged homewards, and it was weary work, for the Cloud had
hidden the Sun, and the Wind had fretted the Cloud, who showed his
ill-humour by discharging a surplusage of moisture he had in his pocket,
and they approached their home wet through, bedraggled and worn out. As
luck would have it, just as they gained the wall which the wind had
singled out for its power, a heavier downpour than ever came on and they
were glad to take shelter under the lee of the wall. Now Mr. Wall had
always been known for his inquisitive nature, which, it is said, arose
from one side of his face never being able to see what was going on on
the other; and so hearing his leeward side addressing Mr. Rat, and
ascertaining that he had come from the sea, the windward side at once
asked whether he had any tidings of that scoundrel the Wind, who was
always coming and chafing his complexion.
"Why," said Mr. Rat, "we met him but recently, and he desired to be
remembered to you, who, he said, was the strongest person in the world."
"I the strongest! It shows his ignorance. Why, only yesterday your
nephew, the big brown rat, because he would not be at the trouble of
going round, must needs gnaw a hole through me. The strongest thing in
the world! Why, next time the wind comes this way he'll rush through the
hole and be telling your nephew that he's the strongest person in the
world."
At this moment the rain stopped, the clouds rolled by, and the sun shone
out, and Mr. and Mrs. Rat went home congratulating themselves that they
had not had to demean themselves by proposing their daughter in marriage
to a neighbour with such a false character.
And a month afterwards O Yuki San expressed her determination to marry
her cousin, and her parents were fain to give their consent, for had he
not proved himself to be the most powerful person in the world?
XXIII
THE LAND OF YOMI
From the glorious clouds of High Heaven, from the divine ether, the
vital essence, and the great concourse of eternal deities, there issued
forth the heavenly pair--Izanagi, His Augustness, the Lord of
Invitation, and with him, Izanami, Her Augustness, the Lady of
Invitation.
Together they stood upon the Floating Bridge of High Heaven, and they
looked down to where the mists swirled in confusion beneath their feet.
For to them had been given power and commandment to make, consolidate
and give birth to the drifting lands. And to this end the august powers
had granted them a heavenly jewelled spear. And the two deities,
standing upon the Floating Bridge of Heaven, lowered the jewelled spear
head-first into chaos, so that the mists were divided. And, as they
waited, the brine dripped from the jewels upon the spear-head, and there
was formed an island. This is the island of Onogoro.
And His Augustness, the Lord of Invitation, took by the hand Her
Augustness, the Lady of Invitation, his lovely Younger Sister, and
together they descended to the island that was created. And they made
the islands of Japan; the land of Iyo, which is called Lovely Princess;
the land of Toyo, which is called Luxuriant Sun Youth; the land of
Sanuki, which is called Good Prince Boiled Rice; and Great Yamato, the
Luxuriant Island of the Dragon Fly; and many more, of which to tell were
weariness.
Furthermore, they gave birth to many myriads of deities to rule over the
earth, and the air, and the deep sea; and for every season there were
deities, and every place was sacred, for the deities were like the
needles of the pine trees in number.
Now, when the time came for the Fire God, Kagu-Tsuchi, to be born, his
mother, the Lady Izanami, was burned, and suffered a change; and she
laid herself upon the ground. Then Izanagi, the Prince who Invites,
asked, "What is it that has come to thee, my lovely Younger Sister?"
And she answered, weeping, "The time of my departure draws near ... I go
to the land of Yomi."
And His Augustness Izanagi wept aloud, dropping his tears upon her feet
and upon her pillow. And all his tears fell down and became deities.
Nevertheless, the Lady Izanami departed.
Then His Augustness, the Prince who Invites, was wroth, and lifted his
face to High Heaven, and cried, "O Thine Augustness, my lovely Younger
Sister, that I should have given thee in exchange for this single
child!"
And, drawing the ten-grasp sword that was girded upon him, he slew the
Fire God, his child; and binding up his long hair, he followed the Lady
Izanami to the entrance of Yomi, the world of the dead. And she, the
Princess who Invites, appearing as lovely as she was when alive, came
forth to greet him. And she lifted up the curtain of the Palace of Hades
that they might speak together.
And the Lord Izanagi said, "I weary for thee, my lovely Younger Sister,
and the lands that thou and I created together are not finished making.
Therefore come back."
Then the Lady made answer, saying, "My sweet lord, and my spouse, it is
very lamentable that thou camest not sooner unto me, for I have eaten of
the baked meats of Yomi. Nevertheless, as thou hast dearly honoured me
in thy coming here, Thine Augustness, my lovely Elder Brother, if it may
be, I will return with thee. I go to lay my desire before the Gods of
Yomi. Wait thou here until I come again, and, if thou love me, seek not
to look upon me till the time." And so she spoke and left him.
Izanagi sat upon a stone at the entrance of the Palace of Hades until
the sun set, and he was weary of that valley of gloom. And because she
tarried long, he arose and plucked a comb from the left tress of his
hair, and broke off a tooth from one end of the comb, and lighting it to
be a torch, he drew back the curtain of the Palace of Yomi. But he saw
his beloved lying in corruption, and round about her were the eight
deities of Thunder. They are the Fire Thunder, and the Black Thunder,
and the Cleaving Thunder, and the Earth Thunder, and the Roaring
Thunder, and the Couchant Thunder, and the Young Thunder. And by her
terrible head was the Great Thunder.
And Izanagi, being overawed, turned to flee away, but Izanami arose and
cried, "Thou hast put me to shame, for thou hast seen my defilement. Now
I will see thine also."
And she called to her the Hideous Females of Yomi, and bade them take
and slay His Augustness, the Lord who Invites. But he ran for his life,
in the gloom stumbling upon the rocks of the valley of Yomi. And tearing
the vine wreath from his long hair he flung it behind him, and it fell
to the ground and became many bunches of grapes, which the Hideous
Females stayed to devour. And he fled on. But the Females of Yomi still
pursued him; so then he took a multitudinous and close-toothed comb from
the right tresses of his long hair, and cast it behind him. When it
touched the ground it became a groove of bamboo shoots, and again the
females stayed to devour; and Izanagi fled on, panting.
But, in her wrath and despair, his Younger Sister sent after him the
Eight Thunders, together with a thousand and five hundred warriors of
Hades; yet he, the Prince of Invitation, drew the ten-grasp sword that
was augustly girded upon him, and brandishing it behind him gained at
last the base of the Even Pass of Hades, the black mouth of Yomi. And he
plucked there three peaches that grew upon a tree, and smote his
enemies that they all fled back; and the peaches were called Their
Augustnesses, Great Divine Fruit.
Then, last of all, his Younger Sister, the Princess who Invites, herself
came out to pursue. So Izanagi took a rock which could not have been
lifted by a thousand men, and placed it between them in the Even Pass of
Hades. And standing behind the rock, he pronounced a leave-taking and
words of separation. But, from the farther side of the rock, Izanami
called to him, "My lovely Elder Brother, Thine Augustness, of small
avail shall be thy making of lands, and thy creating of deities, for I,
with my powers, shall strangle every day a thousand of thy people."
So she cried, taunting him.
But he answered her, "My lovely Younger Sister, Thine Augustness, if
thou dost so, I shall cause, in one day, fifteen hundred to be born.
Farewell."
So Her Augustness, the Lady who Invites, is called the Queen of the
Dead.
But the great lord, His Highness, the Prince who Invites, departed,
crying, "Horror! Horror! Horror! I have come to a hideous and polluted
land." And he lay still by the river-side, until such time as he should
recover strength to perform purification.
XXIV
THE SPRING LOVER AND THE AUTUMN LOVER
This is a story of the youth of Yamato, when the gods still walked upon
the Land of the Reed Plains and took pleasure in the fresh and waving
rice-ears of the country-side.
There was a lady having in her something of earth and something of
heaven. She was a king's daughter. She was augustly radiant and
renowned. She was called the Dear Delight of the World, the Greatly
Desired, the Fairest of the Fair. She was slender and strong, at once
mysterious and gay, fickle yet faithful, gentle yet hard to please. The
gods loved her, but men worshipped her.
The coming of the Dear Delight was on this wise. Prince Ama Boko had a
red jewel of one of his enemies. The jewel was a peace-offering. Prince
Ama Boko set it in a casket upon a stand. He said, "This is a jewel of
price." Then the jewel was transformed into an exceeding fair lady. Her
name was the Lady of the Red Jewel, and Prince Ama Boko took her to
wife. There was born to them one only daughter, who was the Greatly
Desired, the Fairest of the Fair.
It is true that eighty men of name came to seek her hand. Princes they
were, and warriors, and deities. They came from near and they came from
far. Across the Sea Path they came in great ships, white sails or
creaking oars, with brave and lusty sailors. Through the forests dark
and dangerous they made their way to the Princess, the Greatly Desired;
or lightly, lightly they descended by way of the Floating Bridge in
garments of glamour and silver-shod. They brought their gifts with
them--gold, fair jewels upon a string, light garments of feathers,
singing birds, sweet things to eat, silk cocoons, oranges in a basket.
They brought minstrels and singers and dancers and tellers of tales to
entertain the Princess, the Greatly Desired.
As for the Princess, she sat still in her white bower with her maidens
about her. Passing rich was her robe, and ever and anon her maidens
spread it afresh over the mats, set out her deep sleeves, or combed her
long hair with a golden comb.
Round about the bower was a gallery of white wood, and here the suitors
came and knelt in the presence of their liege lady.
Many and many a time the carp leapt in the garden fish-pond. Many and
many a time a scarlet pomegranate flower fluttered and dropped from the
tree. Many and many a time the lady shook her head and a lover went his
way, sad and sorry.
Now it happened that the God of Autumn went to try his fortune with the
Princess. He was a brave young man indeed. Ardent were his eyes; the
colour flamed in his dark cheek. He was girded with a sword that ten men
could not lift. The chrysanthemums of autumn burned upon his coat in
cunning broidery. He came and bent his proud head to the very ground
before the Princess, then raised it and looked her full in the eyes. She
opened her sweet red lips--waited--said nothing--but shook her head.
So the God of Autumn went forth from her presence, blinded with his
bitter tears.
He found his younger brother, the God of Spring.
"How fares it with you, my brother?" said the God of Spring.
"Ill, ill indeed, for she will not have me. She is the proud lady. Mine
is the broken heart."
"Ah, my brother!" said the God of Spring.
"You'd best come home with me, for all is over with us," said the God of
Autumn.
But the God of Spring said, "I stay here."
"What," cried his brother, "is it likely, then, that she will take you
if she'll have none of me? Will she love the smooth cheeks of a child
and flout the man full grown? Will you go to her, brother? She'll laugh
at you for your pains."
"Still I will go," said the God of Spring.
"A wager! A wager!" the God of Autumn cried. "I'll give you a cask of
_saké_ if you win her--_saké_ for the merry feast of your wedding. If
you lose her, the _saké_ will be for me. I'll drown my grief in it."
"Well, brother," said the God of Spring, "I take the wager. You'll have
your _saké_ like enough indeed."
"And so I think," said the God of Autumn, and went his ways.
Then the young God of Spring went to his mother, who loved him.
"Do you love me, my mother?" he said.
She answered, "More than a hundred existences."
"Mother," he said, "get me for my wife the Princess, the Fairest of the
Fair. She is called the Greatly Desired; greatly, oh, greatly, do I
desire her."
"You love her, my son?" said his mother.
"More than a hundred existences," he said.
"Then lie down, my son, my best beloved, lie down and sleep, and I will
work for you."
So she spread a couch for him, and when he was asleep she looked on him.
"Your face," she said, "is the sweetest thing in the world."
There was no sleep for her the live-long night, but she went swiftly to
a place she knew of, where the wistaria drooped over a still pool. She
plucked her sprays and tendrils and brought home as much as she could
carry. The wistaria was white and purple, and you must know it was not
yet in flower, but hidden in the unopened bud. From it she wove
magically a robe. She fashioned sandals also, and a bow and arrows.
In the morning she waked the God of Spring.
"Come, my son," she said, "let me put this robe on you."
The God of Spring rubbed his eyes. "A sober suit for courting," he said.
But he did as his mother bade him. And he bound the sandals on his feet,
and slung the bow and the arrows in their quiver on his back.
"Will all be well, my mother?" he said.
"All will be well, beloved," she answered him.
So the God of Spring came before the Fairest of the Fair. And one of her
maidens laughed and said:
"See, mistress, there comes to woo you to-day only a little plain boy,
all in sober grey."
But the Fairest of the Fair lifted up her eyes and looked upon the God
of Spring. And in the same moment the wistaria with which he was clothed
burst into flower. He was sweet-scented, white and purple from head to
heel.
The Princess rose from the white mats.
"Lord," she said, "I am yours if you will have me."
Hand in hand they went together to the mother of the God of Spring.
"Ah, my mother," he said, "what shall I do now? My brother the God of
Autumn is angry with me. He will not give me the _saké_ I have won from
him in a wager. Great is his rage. He will seek to take our lives."
"Be still, beloved," said his mother, "and fear not."
She took a cane of hollow bamboo, and in the hollow she put salt and
stones; and when she had wrapped the cane round with leaves, she hung it
in the smoke of the fire. She said:
"The green leaves fade and die. So you must do, my eldest born, the God
of Autumn. The stone sinks in the sea, so must you sink. You must sink,
you must fail, like the ebb tide."
Now the tale is told, and all the world knows why Spring is fresh and
merry and young, and Autumn the saddest thing that is.
XXV
THE STRANGE STORY OF THE GOLDEN COMB
[Illustration: The Strange Story of the Golden Comb.--_P. 191._]
In ancient days two _samurai_ dwelt in Sendai of the North. They were
friends and brothers in arms.
Hasunuma one was named, and the other Saito. Now it happened that a
daughter was born to the house of Hasunuma, and upon the selfsame day,
and in the selfsame hour, there was born to the house of Saito a son.
The boy child they called Konojo, and the girl they called Aiko, which
means the Child of Love.
Or ever a year had passed over their innocent heads the children were
betrothed to one another. And as a token the wife of Saito gave a golden
comb to the wife of Hasunuma, saying: "For the child's hair when she
shall be old enough." Aiko's mother wrapped the comb in a handkerchief,
and laid it away in her chest. It was of gold lacquer, very fine work,
adorned with golden dragon-flies.
This was very well; but before long misfortune came upon Saito and his
house, for, by sad mischance, he aroused the ire of his feudal lord, and
he was fain to fly from Sendai by night, and his wife was with him, and
the child. No man knew where they went, or had any news of them, nor of
how they fared, and for long, long years Hasunuma heard not one word of
them.
The child Aiko grew to be the loveliest lady in Sendai. She had longer
hair than any maiden in the city, and she was the most graceful dancer
ever seen. She moved as a wave of the sea, or a cloud of the sky, or the
wild bamboo grass in the wind. She had a sister eleven moons younger
than she, who was called Aiyamé, or the Water Iris; and she was the
second loveliest lady in Sendai. Aiko was white, but Aiyamé was brown,
quick, and light, and laughing. When they went abroad in the streets of
Sendai, folk said, "There go the moon and the south wind."
Upon an idle summer day when all the air was languid, and the cicala
sang ceaselessly as he swung on the pomegranate bough, the maidens
rested on the cool white mats of their lady mother's bower. Their dark
locks were loose, and their slender feet were bare. They had between
them an ancient chest of red lacquer, a Bride Box of their lady
mother's, and in the chest they searched and rummaged for treasure.
"See, sister," said Aiyamé, "here are scarlet thongs, the very thing for
my sandals ... and what is this? A crystal rosary, I declare! How
beautiful!"
Aiko said, "My mother, I pray you give me this length of violet silk, it
will make me very fine undersleeves to my new grey gown; and, mother,
let me have the crimson for a petticoat; and surely, mother, you do not
need this little bit of brocade?"
"And what an _obi_," cried Aiyamé, as she dragged it from the chest,
"grass green and silver!" Springing lightly up, she wound the length
about her slender body. "Now behold me for the finest lady in all
Sendai. Very envious shall be the daughter of the rich Hachiman, when
she sees this wonder _obi_; but I shall be calm and careless, and say,
looking down thus humbly, 'Your pardon, noble lady, that I wear this
foolish trifling _obi_, unmeet for your great presence!' Mother, mother,
give me the _obi_."
"Arah! Arah! Little pirates!" said the mother, and smiled.
Aiko thrust her hand to the bottom of the chest. "Here is something
hard," she murmured, "a little casket wrapped in a silken handkerchief.
How it smells of orris and ancient spices!--now what may it be?" So
saying, she unwound the kerchief and opened the casket. "A golden comb!"
she said, and laid it on her knee.
"Give it here, child," cried the mother quickly; "it is not for your
eyes."
But the maiden sat quite still, her eyes upon the golden comb. It was of
gold lacquer, very fine work, adorned with golden dragon-flies.
For a time the maiden said not a word, nor did her mother, though she
was troubled; and even the light Lady of the South Wind seemed stricken
into silence, and drew the scarlet sandal thongs through and through
her fingers.
"Mother, what of this golden comb?" said Aiko at last.
"My sweet, it is the love-token between you and Konojo, the son of
Saito, for you two were betrothed in your cradles. But now it is full
fifteen years since Saito went from Sendai in the night, he and all his
house, and left no trace behind."
"Is my love dead?" said Aiko.
"Nay, that I know not--but he will never come; so, I beseech you, think
no more of him, my pretty bird. There, get you your fan, and dance for
me and for your sister."
Aiko first set the golden comb in her hair. Then she flung open her fan
to dance. She moved like a wave of the sea, or a cloud of the sky, or
the wild bamboo grass in the wind. She had not danced long before she
dropped the fan, with a long cry, and she herself fell her length upon
the ground. From that hour she was in a piteous way, and lay in her bed
sighing, like a maid lovelorn and forsaken. She could not eat nor sleep;
she had no pleasure in life. The sunrise and the sound of rain at night
were nothing to her any more. Not her father, nor her mother, nor her
sister, the Lady of the South Wind, were able to give her any ease.
Presently she turned her face to the wall. "It is more than I can
understand," she said, and so died.
When they had prepared the poor young maid for her grave, her mother
came, crying, to look at her for the last time. And she set the golden
comb in the maid's hair, saying:
"My own dear little child, I pray that in other lives you may know
happiness. Therefore take your golden token with you; you will have need
of it when you meet the wraith of your lover." For she believed that
Konojo was dead.
But, alas, for Karma that is so pitiless, one short moon had the maid
been in her grave when the brave young man, her betrothed, came to claim
her at her father's house.
"Alas and alack, Konojo, the son of Saito, alas, my brave young man, too
late you have come! Your joy is turned to mourning, for your bride lies
under the green grass, and her sister goes weeping in the moonlight to
pour the water of the dead." Thus spoke Hasunuma the _samurai_.
"Lord," said the brave young man, "there are three ways left, the sword,
the strong girdle, and the river. These are the short roads to Yomi.
Farewell."
But Hasunuma held the young man by the arm. "Nay, then, thou son of
Saito," he said, "but hear the fourth way, which is far better. The road
to Yomi is short, but it is very dark; moreover, from the confines of
that country few return. Therefore stay with me, Konojo, and comfort me
in my old age, for I have no sons."
So Konojo entered the household of Hasunuma the _samurai_, and dwelt in
the garden house by the gate.
Now in the third month Hasunuma and his wife and the daughter that was
left them arose early and dressed them in garments of ceremony, and
presently were borne away in _kago_, for to the temple they were bound,
and to their ancestral tombs, where they offered prayers and incense the
live-long day.