KUMAMOTO, August, 1893.
DEAR NISHIDA,--I have missed you very much this long vacation; but, as I
anticipated, it could not be helped. Another bundle of proofs has been
keeping me at work; and I find the book promises to be bigger than I
told you in my last letter. They are using type that will spread it out
to probably 750 pp. I send you one specimen proof--just to show you the
size of the type.
The man who has been sent for to fill the place in Kyōto, will not,
I imagine, be able to keep it. He is a rabid proselytizer; in Kumamoto,
years ago, he formed a society of Christians, called the Christian
Band (I forget the Japanese name): that is why the Kyūshū folk
nearly killed him. Privately--between you and me--I think there will
be great changes in the Kyōto middle school next year; _and I think
that I shall get there_. But there is nothing sure. I will not go to
Tōkyō as long as I can help it.
Many thanks for your splendid letter about the legends of the ballads.
I have put it away carefully to use in a future essay.--You say, if
you were to tell me about the noble things the common people do, you
would never get done. Indeed, _one_ strong fact would give me work for
two or three months. The publishers wrote me to say they want stories
of the life of the common people _to-day_,--showing the influence
of moral teaching on _conduct_: that is, Buddhist, Shintō, and
ancestor-teaching. I have been trying to get the facts about the poor
girl who killed herself in Kyōto because the Emperor "augustly
mourned" after the crazy action of Tsuda Sanzo; but I have not yet
succeeded. By the way, I think Tsuda Sanzo will be more kindly judged
by a future generation. His crime was only "loyalty-run-mad." He was
insane for the moment with an insanity which would have been of the
highest value in a good cause and time. He saw before him the living
representative of the awful Power which makes even England tremble;--the
power against which Western Europe has mustered an army of more than
15,000,000 of men. He saw, or thought he saw (perhaps he really _did_
see: time only can show) the Enemy of Japan. Then he struck--out of
his heart, without consulting his head. He did very wrong;--he made
a sad mistake; but I think that man's heart was noble and true, in
spite of all his foolishness. He would have been a hero under happier
circumstances....
[Illustration: [Japanese]]
I have just heard that the name of one kind of those horrid beetles in
Kumamoto is _gane-bun-bun_, and the _hyakushō_ call them _gane-bu_;
and people throw them out of the window, saying, "Come back the
day-before-yesterday." Then they never come back at all.
[Illustration: [Japanese]]
[Illustration: [Japanese]]
I have made a mistake again. The _gane-bun-bun_ is not the greatest
plague I was complaining of,--but the _fu-mushi_. There is yet another
small one, I have not found out the name of. They make a whole room
smell horribly. Some, however, call both the big _fu-mushi_ and the
small creature by the same name--distinguishing them only as the green
and the black. By the way, I will put a _fu-mushi_ in this letter,
because they keep coming on the table so that I think it may be well to
send one to Izumo, in the hopes of inducing the rest to emigrate.
All send kindest regards to you, and pray you to take good care of your
health.
With every best wish, believe me ever,
Most faithfully,
LAFCADIO HEARN.