"As the sword is the soul of a _samurai_, so is the
mirror the soul of a woman."
"When the mirror is dim the soul is unclean."
_Japanese Proverbs_.
The Significance of Japanese Mirrors
Old Japanese metal mirrors are circular, the surface convex, and the
back adorned with elaborate designs in relief of flowers, birds, and
other scenes from Nature. Professor B. H. Chamberlain writes: "An
extraordinary peculiarity characterises some of these Japanese mirrors:
sunlight reflected from their _face_ displays a luminous image of the
design on their _back_! So strange a phenomenon has naturally attracted
the attention of men of science. After much speculation, it has been
clearly proved by Professors Ayrton and Perry to arise from the fact
that the curvature of the face of the mirror over the plain part of
the back is greater than over the design." It is the phenomenon rather
than the possible explanation of it that interests us, and no doubt
this strange occurrence accounts in some measure for the magical
significance of Nipponese mirrors.
The great legendary idea underlying Japanese mirrors is just this, that
the mirror, through constant reflection of its owner's face, draws
to itself the very soul of its possessor, and, as we shall see later
on, something of the same idea is to be traced in regard to old but
much-loved Japanese dolls.
Hidari Jingorō
The famous sculptor Hidari Jingorō on one occasion happened to fall
in love with a very attractive woman whom he met in the street on his
return to his studio. He was so fascinated by her rare beauty that as
soon as he had reached his destination he commenced to carve a statue
of her. Between the chiselled robes he placed a mirror, the mirror
which the lovely woman had dropped, and which her eager lover had at
once picked up. Because this mirror had reflected a thousand thousand
times that fair face, it had taken to its shining surface the very body
and soul of its owner, and because of these strange things the statue
came to life, to the extreme happiness of sculptor and maid.
The Divine Mirror
Long before the Japanese mirror was a familiar object in the house it
had a very deep religious significance in connection with Shintōism.
The Divine Mirror into which the Sun Goddess gazed reposes at Ise.
Other mirrors are to be found in Shintō shrines; indeed, these mirrors
are the essential part of a shrine remarkable for its simplicity. The
mirror "typifies the human heart, which, when perfectly placid and
clear, reflects the very image of the deity." In the _Kojiki_ we are
told that Izanagi presented his children with a polished silver disc,
and bade them kneel before it every morning and evening and examine
their reflections. He told them to think of heavenly things, to stifle
passion and all evil thought, so that the disc should reveal a pure and
lovely soul.
The Soul of a Mirror
The shrine of Ogawachi-Myōjin fell into decay, and the Shintō priest
in charge, Matsumura, journeyed to Kyōto in the hope of successfully
appealing to the Shōgun for a grant for the restoration of the temple.
Matsumura and his family resided in a house in Kyōto, said to be
extremely unlucky, and many tenants had thrown themselves into the
well on the north-east side of the dwelling. But Matsumura took no
notice of these tales, and was not the least afraid of evil spirits.
During the summer of that year there was a great drought in Kyōto.
Though the river-beds dried up and many wells failed for want of rain,
the well in Matsumura's garden was full to overflowing. The distress
elsewhere, owing to want of water, forced many poor people to beg for
it, and for all their drawing the water in this particular well did not
diminish.
One day, however, a dead body was found lying in the well, that of a
servant who had come to fetch water. In his case suicide was out of the
question, and it seemed impossible that he should have accidentally
fallen in. When Matsumura heard of the fatality he went to inspect
the well. To his surprise the water stirred with a strange rocking
movement. When the motion lessened he saw reflected in the clear
water the form of a fair young woman. She was touching her lips with
_beni_. At length she smiled upon him. It was a strange smile that made
Matsumura feel dizzy, a smile that blotted out everything else save
the beautiful woman's face. He felt an almost irresistible desire to
fling himself into the water in order that he might reach and hold this
enchanting woman. He struggled against this strange feeling, however,
and was able after a while to enter the house, where he gave orders
that a fence should be built round the well, and that from thenceforth
no one, on any pretext whatever, should draw water there.
Shortly afterwards the drought came to an end. For three days and
nights there was a continuous downpour of rain, and the city shook
with an earthquake. On the third night of the storm there was a loud
knocking at Matsumura's door. The priest himself inquired who his
visitor might be. He half opened the door, and saw once more the woman
he had seen in the well. He refused her admission, and asked why she
had been guilty of taking the lives of so many harmless and innocent
people.
Thus the woman made answer: "Alas! good priest, I have never desired to
lure human beings to their death. It is the Poison Dragon, who lived
in that well, who forced me against my will to entice people to death.
But now the Gods have compelled the Poison Dragon to live elsewhere,
so that to-night I was able to leave my place of captivity. Now there
is but little water in the well, and if you will search there you will
find my body. Take care of it for me, and I shall not fail to reward
your goodness." With these words she vanished as suddenly as she had
appeared.
Next day well-cleaners searched the well, and discovered some ancient
hair ornaments and an old metal mirror.
Matsumura, being a wise man, took the mirror and cleaned it, believing
that it might reveal a solution to the mystery.
Upon the back of the mirror he discovered several characters. Many of
the ideographs were too blurred to be legible, but he managed to make
out "third month, the third day." In ancient time the third month used
to be called _Yayoi_, or Month of Increase, and remembering that the
woman had called herself Yayoi, Matsumura realised that he had probably
received a visit from the Soul of the Mirror.
Matsumura took every care of the mirror. He ordered it to be resilvered
and polished, and when this had been done he laid it in a box specially
made for it, and mirror and box were placed in a particular room in the
house.
One day, when Matsumura was sitting in the apartment where the mirror
reposed, he once more saw Yayoi standing before him, looking more
beautiful than ever, and the refulgence of her beauty was like summer
moonlight. After she had saluted Matsumura she explained that she was
indeed the Soul of the Mirror, and narrated how she had fallen into
the possession of Lady Kamo, of the Imperial Court, and how she had
become an heirloom of the Fujiwara House, until during the period of
Hōgen, when the Taira and Minamoto clans were engaged in conflict, she
was thrown into a well, and there forgotten. Having narrated these
things, and all the horrors she had gone through under the tyranny
of the Poison Dragon, Yayoi begged that Matsumura would present the
mirror to the Shōgun, the Lord Yoshimasa, who was a descendant of her
former possessors, promising the priest considerable good fortune if he
did so. Before Yayoi departed she advised Matsumura to leave his home
immediately, as it was about to be washed away by a great storm.
On the following day Matsumura left the house, and, as Yayoi had
prophesied, almost immediately afterwards his late dwelling was swept
away.
At length Matsumura was able to present, the mirror to the Shōgun
Yoshimasa, together with a written account of its strange history. The
Shōgun was so pleased with the gift that he not only gave Matsumura
many personal presents, but he also presented the priest with a
considerable sum of money for the rebuilding of his temple.
A Mirror and a Bell
When the priests of Mugenyama required a large bell for their temple
they asked the women in the vicinity to contribute their old bronze
mirrors for the purpose of providing the necessary metal.
Hundreds of mirrors were given for this purpose, and all were offered
gladly, except the mirror presented by a certain farmer's wife. As soon
as she had given her mirror to the priests she began to regret having
parted with it. She remembered how old it was, how it had reflected her
mother's laughter and tears, and even her great-grandmother's. Whenever
this farmer's wife went to the temple she saw her coveted mirror lying
in a great heap behind a railing. She recognised it by the design on
the back known as the _Shō-Chiku-Bai_, or the three emblems of the
Pine, Bamboo, and Plum-flower. She yearned to stretch forth her arm
between the railings and to snatch back her beloved mirror. Her soul
was in the shining surface, and it mingled with the souls of those who
had gazed into it before she was born.
When the Mugenyama bell was in course of construction the bell-founders
discovered that one mirror would not melt. The workers said that it
refused to melt because the owner had afterwards regretted the gift,
which had made the metal hard, as hard as the woman's selfish heart.
Soon every one knew the identity of the giver of the mirror that would
not melt, and, angry and ashamed, the farmer's wife drowned herself,
first having written the following: "When I am dead you will be able
to melt my mirror, and so cast the bell. My soul will come to him who
breaks that bell by ringing it, and I will give him great wealth."
When the woman died her old mirror melted immediately, and the bell
was cast and was suspended in its customary place. Many people having
heard of the message written by the deceased farmer's wife, a great
multitude came to the temple, and one by one rang the bell with the
utmost violence in the hope of breaking it and winning great wealth.
Day after day the ringing continued, till at last the noise became so
unbearable that the priests rolled the bell into a swamp, where it lay
hidden from sight.
The Mirror of Matsuyama
In ancient days there lived in a remote part of Japan a man and his
wife, and they were blessed with a little girl, who was the pet and
idol of her parents. On one occasion the man was called away on
business in distant Kyōto. Before he went he told his daughter that
if she were good and dutiful to her mother he would bring her back
a present she would prize very highly. Then the good man took his
departure, mother and daughter watching him go.
At last he returned to his home, and after his wife and child had
taken off his large hat and sandals he sat down upon the white mats
and opened a bamboo basket, watching the eager gaze of his little
child. He took out a wonderful doll and a lacquer box of cakes and put
them into her outstretched hands. Once more he dived into his basket,
and presented his wife with a metal mirror. Its convex surface shone
brightly, while upon its back there was a design of pine-trees and
storks.
The good man's wife had never seen a mirror before, and on gazing into
it she was under the impression that another woman looked out upon her
as she gazed with growing wonder. Her husband explained the mystery and
bade her take great care of the mirror.
Not long after this happy home-coming and distribution of presents the
woman became very ill. Just before she died she called to her little
daughter, and said: "Dear child, when I am dead take every care of
your father. You will miss me when I have left you. But take this
mirror, and when you feel most lonely look into it and you will always
see me." Having said these words she passed away.
In due time the man married again, and his wife was not at all kind to
her stepdaughter. But the little one, remembering her mother's last
words, would retire to a corner and eagerly look into the mirror, where
it seemed to her that she saw her dear mother's face, not drawn in pain
as she had seen it on her death-bed, but young and beautiful.
One day this child's stepmother chanced to see her crouching in a
corner over an object she could not quite see, murmuring to herself.
This ignorant woman, who detested the child and believed that her
stepdaughter detested her in return, fancied that this little one
was performing some strange magical art--perhaps making an image and
sticking pins into it. Full of these notions, the stepmother went to
her husband and told him that his wicked child was doing her best to
kill her by witchcraft.
When the master of the house had listened to this extraordinary recital
he went straight to his daughter's room. He took her by surprise, and
immediately the girl saw him she slipped the mirror into her sleeve.
For the first time her doting father grew angry, and he feared that
there was, after all, truth in what his wife had told him, and he
repeated her tale forthwith.
When his daughter had heard this unjust accusation she was amazed at
her father's words, and she told him that she loved him far too well
ever to attempt or wish to kill his wife, who she knew was dear to him.
"What have you hidden in your sleeve?" said her father, only hair
convinced and still much puzzled.
"The mirror you gave my mother, and which she on her death-bed gave
to me. Every time I look into its shining surface I see the face of my
dear mother, young and beautiful. When my heart aches--and oh! it has
ached so much lately--I take out the mirror, and mother's face, with
sweet, kind smile, brings me peace, and helps me to bear hard words and
cross looks."
Then the man understood and loved his child the more for her filial
piety. Even the girl's stepmother, when she knew what had really taken
place, was ashamed and asked forgiveness. And this child, who believed
she had seen her mother's face in the mirror, forgave, and trouble for
ever departed from the home.