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There is a nice old priest of the Zen sect,--past-master in the craft
of arranging flowers, and in other arts of the ancient time,--who comes
occasionally to see me. He is loved by his congregation, though he
preaches against many old-fashioned beliefs, and discourages all faith
in omens and dreams, and tells people to believe only in the Law of the
Buddha. Priests of the Zen persuasion are seldom thus sceptical. But
the scepticism of my friend is not absolute; for the last time that we
met we talked of the dead, and he told me something creepy. "Stories of
spirits or ghosts," he said, "I always doubt. Sometimes a _danka_[1]
comes to tell me about having seen a ghost, or having dreamed a strange
dream; but whenever I question such a person carefully, I find that
the matter can be explained in a natural way.
"Only once in my life I had a queer experience which I could not easily
explain. I was then in Kyūshū,--a young novice; and I was performing my
gyō,--the pilgrimage that every novice has to make. One evening, while
travelling through a mountain-district, I reached a little village
where there was a temple of the Zen sect. I went there to ask for
lodging, according to our rules; but I found that the priest had gone
to attend a funeral at a village several miles away, leaving an old nun
in charge of the temple. The nun said that she could not receive me
during the absence of the priest, and that he would not come back for
seven days.... In that part of the country, a priest was required by
custom to recite the sûtras and to perform a Buddhist service, every
day for seven days, in the house of a dead parishioner.... I said that
I did not want any food, but only a place to sleep: moreover I pleaded
that I was very tired, and at last the old nun took pity on me. She
spread some quilts for me in the temple, near the altar; and I fell
asleep almost as soon as I lay down. In the middle of the night--a
very cold night!--I was awakened by the tapping of a _mokugyo_[2] and
the voice of somebody chanting the _Nembutsu_[3], close to where I was
lying. I opened my eyes; but the temple was utterly dark,--so dark that
if a man had seized me by the nose I could not have seen him [_hana wo
tsumarété mo wakaranai_]; and I wondered that anybody should be tapping
the _mokugyo_ and chanting in such darkness. But, though the sounds
seemed at first to be quite near me, they were somewhat faint; and I
tried to persuade myself that I must have been mistaken,--that the
priest had come back and was performing a service in some other part of
the temple. In spite of the tapping and chanting I fell asleep again,
and slept until morning. Then, as soon as I had washed and dressed, I
went to look for the old nun, and found her. After thanking her for
her kindness, I ventured to remark, 'So the priest came back last
night?' 'He did not,' she answered very crossly--'I told you that he
would not come back for seven days more.' 'Please pardon me,' I said;
Mast night I heard somebody chanting the _Nembutsu_, and beating the
_mokugyo_, so I thought that the priest had come back.' 'Oh, that was
not the priest!' she exclaimed; 'that was the _danka._' 'Who?' I asked;
for I could not understand her. 'Why,' she replied, 'the dead man, of
course![4] That always happens when a parishioner dies; the _hotoké_
comes to sound the _mokugyo_ and to repeat the _Nembutsu_ ...' She
spoke as if she had been so long accustomed to the thing that it did
not seem to her worthwhile mentioning."
[Footnote 1: _Danka_ or _danké_ signifies the parishioner of a Buddhist
temple. Those who regularly contribute to the support of a Shintō
temple are called _Ujiko_.]
[Footnote 2: The _mokugyo_ is a very curious musical instrument of
wood, in the form of a fish's head, and is usually lacquered in red
and gold. It is tapped with a stick during certain Buddhist chants or
recitations, producing a dull hollow sound.]
[Footnote 3: The invocation to Amitâbha, _Namu Amida Butsu_ ("Hail to
the Buddha Amitâbha!"), commonly repeated on behalf of the dead, is
thus popularly named.]
[Footnote 4: The original expression was at least equally emphatic:
"_Aa, aré desuka?--aré wa botoké ga kita no desu yo!_" The word
"hotoké" means either a Buddha or, as in this case, the spirit of a
dead person.]