Long, long ago there lived a man called Sentaro. His surname meant
"Millionaire," but although he was not so rich as all that, he was
still very far removed from being poor. He had inherited a small
fortune from his father and lived on this, spending his time
carelessly, without any serious thoughts of work, till he was about
thirty-two years of age.
One day, without any reason whatsoever, the thought of death and
sickness came to him. The idea of falling ill or dying made him very
wretched.
"I should like to live," he said to himself, "till I am five or six
hundred years old at least, free from all sickness. The ordinary span
of a man's life is very short."
He wondered whether it were possible, by living simply and frugally
henceforth, to prolong his life as long as he wished.
He knew there were many stories in ancient history of emperors who had
lived a thousand years, and there was a Princess of Yamato, who it was
said, lived to the age of five hundred. This was the latest story of a
very long life on record.
Sentaro had often heard the tale of the Chinese King named
Shin-no-Shiko. He was one of the most able and powerful rulers in
Chinese history. He built all the large palaces, and also the famous
great wall of China. He had everything in the world he could wish for,
but in spite of all his happiness, and the luxury and splendor of his
court, the wisdom of his councilors and the glory of his reign, he was
miserable because he knew that one day he must die and leave it all.
When Shin-no-Shiko went to bed at night, when he rose in the morning,
as he went through his day, the thought of death was always with him.
He could not get away from it. Ah--if only he could find the Elixir of
Life, he would be happy.
The Emperor at last called a meeting of his courtiers and asked them
all if they could not find for him the Elixir of Life of which he had
so often read and heard.
One old courtier, Jofuku by name, said that far away across the seas
there was a country called Horaizan, and that certain hermits lived
there who possessed the secret of the Elixir of Life. Whoever drank of
this wonderful draught lived forever.
The Emperor ordered Jofuku to set out for the land of Horaizan, to
find the hermits, and to bring him back a phial of the magic elixir.
He gave Jofuku one of his best junks, fitted it out for him, and
loaded it with great quantities of treasures and precious stones for
Jofuku to take as presents to the hermits.
Jofuku sailed for the land of Horaizan, but he never returned to the
waiting Emperor; but ever since that time Mount Fuji has been said to
be the fabled Horaizan and the home of hermits who had the secret of
the elixir, and Jofuku has been worshipped as their patron god.
Now Sentaro determined to set out to find the hermits, and if he
could, to become one, so that he might obtain the water of perpetual
life. He remembered that as a child he had been told that not only did
these hermits live on Mount Fuji, but that they were said to inhabit
all the very high peaks.
So he left his old home to the care of his relatives, and started out
on his quest. He traveled through all the mountainous regions of the
land, climbing to the tops of the highest peaks, but never a hermit
did he find.
At last, after wandering in an unknown region for many days, he met a
hunter.
"Can you tell me," asked Sentaro, "where the hermits live who have the
Elixir of Life?"
"No," said the hunter; "I can't tell you where such hermits live, but
there is a notorious robber living in these parts. It is said that he
is chief of a band of two hundred followers."
This odd answer irritated Sentaro very much, and he thought how
foolish it was to waste more time in looking for the hermits in this
way, so he decided to go at once to the shrine of Jofuku, who is
worshipped as the patron god of the hermits in the South of Japan.
Sentaro reached the shrine and prayed for seven days, entreating
Jofuku to show him the way to a hermit who could give him what he
wanted so much to find.
At midnight of the seventh day, as Sentaro knelt in the temple, the
door of the innermost shrine flew open, and Jofuku appeared in a
luminous cloud, and calling to Sentaro to come nearer, spoke thus:
"Your desire is a very selfish one and cannot be easily granted. You
think that you would like to become a hermit so as to find the Elixir
of Life. Do you know how hard a hermit's life is? A hermit is only
allowed to eat fruit and berries and the bark of pine trees; a hermit
must cut himself off from the world so that his heart may become
as pure as gold and free from every earthly desire. Gradually after
following these strict rules, the hermit ceases to feel hunger or cold
or heat, and his body becomes so light that he can ride on a crane or
a carp, and can walk on water without getting his feet wet.
"You, Sentaro, are fond of good living and of every comfort. You are
not even like an ordinary man, for you are exceptionally idle, and
more sensitive to heat and cold than most people. You would never be
able to go barefoot or to wear only one thin garment in the winter
time! Do you think that you would ever have the patience or the
endurance to live a hermit's life?
"In answer to your prayer, however, I will help you in another way.
I will send you to the country of Perpetual Life, where death never
comes--where the people live for ever!"
Saying this, Jofuku put into Sentaro's hand a little crane made of
paper, telling him to sit on its back and it would carry him there.
Sentaro obeyed wonderingly. The crane grew large enough for him to
ride on it with comfort. It then spread its wings, rose high in the
air, and flew away over the mountains right out to sea.
Sentaro was at first quite frightened; but by degrees he grew
accustomed to the swift flight through the air. On and on they went
for thousands of miles. The bird never stopped for rest or food, but
as it was a paper bird it doubtless did not require any nourishment,
and strange to say, neither did Sentaro.
After several days they reached an island. The crane flew some
distance inland and then alighted.
As soon as Sentaro got down from the bird's back, the crane folded up
of its own accord and flew into his pocket.
Now Sentaro began to look about him wonderingly, curious to see what
the country of Perpetual Life was like. He walked first round about
the country and then through the town. Everything was, of course,
quite strange, and different from his own land. But both the land and
the people seemed prosperous, so he decided that it would be good for
him to stay there and took up lodgings at one of the hotels.
The proprietor was a kind man, and when Sentaro told him that he was a
stranger and had come to live there, he promised to arrange everything
that was necessary with the governor of the city concerning Sentaro's
sojourn there. He even found a house for his guest, and in this way
Sentaro obtained his great wish and became a resident in the country
of Perpetual Life.
Within the memory of all the islanders no man had ever died there,
and sickness was a thing unknown. Priests had come over from India
and China and told them of a beautiful country called Paradise, where
happiness and bliss and contentment fill all men's hearts, but its
gates could only be reached by dying. This tradition was handed down
for ages from generation to generation--but none knew exactly what
death was except that it led to Paradise.
Quite unlike Sentaro and other ordinary people, instead of having a
great dread of death, they all, both rich and poor, longed for it as
something good and desirable. They were all tired of their long,
long lives, and longed to go to the happy land of contentment called
Paradise of which the priests had told them centuries ago.
All this Sentaro soon found out by talking to the islanders. He found
himself, according to his ideas, in the land of _Topsy-turvydom_.
Everything was upside down. He had wished to escape from dying. He had
come to the land of Perpetual Life with great relief and joy, only
to find that the inhabitants themselves, doomed never to die, would
consider it bliss to find death.
What he had hitherto considered poison these people ate as good
food, and all the things to which he had been accustomed as food they
rejected. Whenever any merchants from other countries arrived, the
rich people rushed to them eager to buy poisons. These they swallowed
eagerly hoping for death to come so that they might go to Paradise.
But what were deadly poisons in other lands were without effect in
this strange place, and people who swallowed them with the hope of
dying, only found that in a short time they felt better in health
instead of worse.
Vainly they tried to imagine what death could be like. The wealthy
would have given all their money and all their goods if they could but
shorten their lives to two or three hundred years even. Without any
change, to live on forever, seemed to this people wearisome and sad.
In the drug-shops there was a drug which was in constant demand,
because after using it for a hundred years, it was supposed to turn
the hair slightly gray and to bring about disorders of the stomach.
Sentaro was astonished to find that the poisonous globe-fish was
served up in restaurants as a delectable dish, and hawkers in the
streets went about selling sauces made of Spanish flies. He never saw
anyone ill after eating these horrible things, nor did he ever see
anyone with as much as a cold.
Sentaro was delighted. He said to himself that he would never grow
tired of living, and that he considered it profane to wish for death.
He was the only happy man on the island. For his part he wished
to live thousands of years and to enjoy life. He set himself up in
business, and for the present never even dreamed of going back to his
native land.
As years went by, however, things did not go as smoothly as at first.
He had heavy losses in business, and several times some affairs went
wrong with his neighbors. This caused him great annoyance.
Time passed like the flight of an arrow for him, for he was busy from
morning till night. Three hundred years went by in this monotonous
way, and then at last he began to grow tired of life in this country,
and he longed to see his own land and his old home. However long he
lived here, life would always be the same, so was it not foolish and
wearisome to stay on here for ever?
Sentaro, in his wish to escape from the country of Perpetual Life,
recollected Jofuku, who had helped him before when he was wishing to
escape from death--and he prayed to the saint to bring him back to his
own land again.
No sooner did he pray than the paper crane popped out of his pocket.
Sentaro was amazed to see that it had remained undamaged after all
these years. Once more the bird grew and grew till it was large enough
for him to mount it. As he did so, the bird spread its wings and flew
swiftly out across the sea in the direction of Japan.
Such was the wilfulness of the man's nature that he looked back and
regretted all he had left behind. He tried to stop the bird in vain.
The crane held on its way for thousands of miles across the ocean.
Then a storm came on, and the wonderful paper crane got damp, crumpled
up, and fell into the sea. Sentaro fell with it. Very much frightened
at the thought of being drowned, he cried out loudly to Jofuku to save
him. He looked round, but there was no ship in sight. He swallowed
a quantity of sea-water, which only increased his miserable plight.
While he was thus struggling to keep himself afloat, he saw a
monstrous shark swimming towards him. As it came nearer it opened its
huge mouth ready to devour him. Sentaro was all but paralyzed with
fear now that he felt his end so near, and screamed out as loudly as
ever he could to Jofuku to come and rescue him.
Lo, and behold, Sentaro was awakened by his own screams, to find that
during his long prayer he had fallen asleep before the shrine, and
that all his extraordinary and frightful adventures had been only a
wild dream. He was in a cold perspiration with fright, and utterly
bewildered.
Suddenly a bright light came towards him, and in the light stood a
messenger. The messenger held a book in his hand and spoke to Sentaro:
"I am sent to you by Jofuku, who in answer to your prayer, has
permitted you in a dream to see the land of Perpetual Life. But you
grew weary of living there, and begged to be allowed to return to your
native land so that you might die. Jofuku, so that he might try you,
allowed you to drop into the sea, and then sent a shark to swallow you
up. Your desire for death was not real, for even at that moment you
cried out loudly and shouted for help.
"It is also vain for you to wish to become a hermit, or to find the
Elixir of Life. These things are not for such as you--your life is not
austere enough. It is best for you to go back to your paternal home,
and to live a good and industrious life. Never neglect to keep the
anniversaries of your ancestors, and make it your duty to provide for
your children's future. Thus will you live to a good old age and be
happy, but give up the vain desire to escape death, for no man can
do that, and by this time you have surely found out that even when
selfish desires are granted they do not bring happiness.
"In this book I give you there are many precepts good for you to
know--if you study them, you will be guided in the way I have pointed
out to you."
The angel disappeared as soon as he had finished speaking, and Sentaro
took the lesson to heart. With the book in his hand he returned to his
old home, and giving up all his old vain wishes, tried to live a good
and useful life and to observe the lessons taught him in the book, and
he and his house prospered henceforth.
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