ma
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 IN MEMORY OF 
 
 CARROLL ALCOTT 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 CARROLL ALCOTT MEMORIAL 
 LIBRARY FUND COMMITTEE
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 A Glance at the Literature 
 of Japan 
 
 By 
 
 Roger Riordan 
 
 and 
 
 Tozo Takayanagi 
 
 Charles Scribner's Sons 
 New York j* j* 1896
 
 Copyright, 1896, by 
 Charles Scribner's Sons
 
 DEDICATED TO 
 HIS EXCELLENCY S. KURINO 
 
 His Imperial Japanese Majesty's Envoy Extraordinary 
 
 and Minister Plenipotentiary to the 
 
 United States of America 
 
 by the Authors
 
 Preface 
 
 WHAT is best in the literature of Japan does not 
 bear translation. It is a literature of form without 
 much substance, and, when pressed into the mould of 
 a foreign language, its peculiar beauties are apt to 
 disappear like the opal tints from a squeezed jelly- 
 fish. Handled as carefully as may be, the results are 
 much more likely to excite curiosity than to gratify it, 
 and to send the reader back to those ballads in blue 
 porcelain, those sonnets in chased silver, those poems 
 in old gold lacquer that first drew the attention of 
 westerners to the Land of the Sunrise. Art, whose 
 words are things, whose symbols types, whose gram- 
 mar beauty, is the universal language that needs no 
 interpreter. 
 
 But even the slightest acquaintance with the litera- 
 ture of Japan is likely to add much to one's enjoy- 
 ment of her art. One cannot miss at least learning 
 something of its subjects, its moods, its history, its 
 relations with the life out of which it has sprung. 
 And a sort of perfume of refinement clings to every 
 idea that has once been given form in classical Japan-
 
 Preface 
 
 ese. Nor are more important interests entirely want- 
 ing. Historical facts, though not so stubborn as most 
 other facts, and though included here because they are 
 the basis of many fictions, cannot properly be made 
 light of. Myths are now a department of science ; 
 the religions of the Far East are no longer spoken of 
 as merely foolish and degrading superstitions; and 
 the songs of Nara, the romances of old Yedo, add to 
 our knowledge of, and pleasure in, humanity. 
 
 Still, the reader must not expect to find here much 
 solid instruction. The true inwardness of Shintd, 
 the nature of Nirvana, the import of the irruption of 
 Japan into the charmed circle of Aryan interests, such 
 problems as these must be left to others better able to 
 cope with them. We have to deal more with fancy 
 than with fact, with the brilliant and amusing surface, 
 all foam and glitter, rather than with what may lie 
 below, whether weeds or pearls. 
 
 M. de Rosny's " Cours de Langue Japonaise " is, 
 so far as we are aware, the only work in any European 
 language that aims to give a general view of Japanese 
 literature; but it is intended for students of Japanese, 
 and, even in France, is read by few others. It is 
 arranged with little regard to historical development. 
 Within our limited field we have tried to follow the 
 course of past events and to illustrate the history 
 of Japan from its literature, and the literature from
 
 Preface 
 
 the circumstances of the times in which it was pro- 
 duced. 
 
 Without including the present, four great periods 
 may be distinguished in the history of the country, 
 each of which has had its special literary expression. 
 The first period may be said to have ended at the 
 beginning of the eighth century A.D., when the wan- 
 dering court of the Empress Jito was fixed at Nara. 
 The second, the period of the early civilization of 
 Nara and Kioto, lasted until the end of the twelfth 
 century. From the thirteenth to the seventeenth cen- 
 tury was the period of the civil wars, closed by the 
 battle of Sekigahara, in 1600. Lastly, the period of 
 the Tokugawa Shogunate may be considered to have 
 begun at that date, and to have ended at the restora- 
 tion of the Mikado's government in 1867. 
 
 The Japanese possess an uncommonly interesting 
 account of their early legends and beliefs in the 
 "Kojiki," or "Book of Old Traditions," which 
 was reduced to writing at Nara in 712. There is an 
 excellent translation by Professor Basil Hall Cham- 
 berlain, which, however, has as yet been published 
 only as a supplement to Vol. X. of the ' ' Transactions 
 of the Asiatic Society of Japan." The " Nihongi," 
 or "Book of Chronicles of Japan," though written 
 only a few years later and dealing mainly with the 
 same traditions, already shows the influence of ad-
 
 Preface 
 
 vancing civilization in the softening or omission of 
 barbaric traits given without reserve in the older work. 
 Of this a French translation, by M. de Rosny, has 
 been published, together with the original text, in 
 two volumes. A translation into English by Mr. 
 Aston is promised. 
 
 The compilation of these two books of traditions 
 was followed by that of the most celebrated collec- 
 tions of Japanese lyric poetry, by the study of the 
 Buddhist scriptures and the Chinese classics, and, from 
 the ninth century, by an abundant prose literature. 
 Unhappily, there are few translations from which 
 European or American readers can gain even a slight 
 idea of this literature. The best we owe to the 
 scholars already named. Mr. Chamberlain's " Clas- 
 sical Poetry of the Japanese," M. de Rosny's " An- 
 thologie Japonaise," Mr. Suyematsu Kenchio's par- 
 tial translation of the " Genji Monogatari " (Romance 
 of Genji), Lieutenant Dickens's of the "Taketori 
 Monogatari," and Dr. August Pfizmaier's of the "Is6 
 Monogatari " are the only works worthy the atten- 
 tion of the general reader. 
 
 The succeeding period, marked by the adoption of 
 many Chinese words into the language, by the rise of 
 a new Buddhist literature, largely didactic and con- 
 troversial, and by many attempts to apply Chinese 
 ethics to Japanese social needs, is yet more poorly
 
 Preface 
 
 represented in translation. But the popular literature 
 of the Tokugawa regime has fared somewhat better. 
 A few novels, not all of the first class, have been 
 translated into various European languages by Dr. 
 Pfizmaier, F. Turretini, Mr. Greey, Mr. Dickens, 
 and others. The remarkable histories and biographies 
 written during this period have been often drawn 
 upon by European writers, and some notion of the 
 work of the great Shinto apologist, Motoori, may be 
 derived from Mr. Ernest Satow's interesting essay on 
 the " Revival of Pure Shinto." * Since the Restora- 
 tion Japan has been too much occupied with neces- 
 sary reforms to produce much original literary work. 
 
 We have made use not only of the books and arti- 
 cles just mentioned, but of others, for which due credit 
 is given elsewhere. But we have constantly endeavored 
 to bring out the spirit of the originals, to the extent 
 in many cases of making entirely new versions, 
 and we have avoided making drafts upon books with 
 which the general reader may be supposed to be fa- 
 miliar. 
 
 Our thanks are due to Mr. H. Shugio, Mr. L. 
 Wertheimber, and Mr. Van Westrom for valuable as- 
 sistance and advice. 
 
 'Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, Vol. III.
 
 Contents 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Preface, v 
 
 I. The Dance Introductory, . . . x v / 
 
 //. The Myth of the Mirror, . ... 5 
 
 ///. The Children of the Sun, . . . 12 
 
 IV. Buddhism, 25 
 
 V. Your Choice of Miracles, . . . 34 
 
 VI. Songs of Two Cities Nara, . . . 47 
 
 Vll Songs of Two Cities Kioto, . . 69 
 
 Vlll The Voyage Home from Tosa. Mono- 
 
 gatari, 81 
 
 IX. A Rainy Night Entertainment, . . 94 
 
 X. Further Adventures of Prince Genji, . 106 
 
 XI. Horrific Exploits of Yorimitsu, . . 123
 
 Contents 
 
 XII Fortunes of the Gen, . 
 
 XIII Kamo No Chomei's "Story of My Hut," 151 
 
 X1Y. The Fighting Monks and their Strange 
 
 Diversions, . . . 163 
 
 XY. The Golden Calabashes, . .181 
 
 XYl The Piping Times of the Tokugawa, . 188 
 
 XYll The Drama, . 202 
 
 . XYlll The Forty-seven Free Lances, . 221 
 
 XIX. Adventures of a Vagabond Priest, . 244 
 
 XX. Conclusion, 268
 
 f 
 
 Sunrise Stories
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 THE DANCE INTRODUCTORY 
 
 THE Japanese, if no other people, have danced 
 their way into literature and art. The ancient 
 dance masks preserved at Nara, beautifully carved 
 and painted and inlaid, as are at this day those of 
 Pacific tribes barbarous in all things else, represent 
 the beginnings of painting and sculpture; and the 
 oldest poetry of the race seems to have been that of 
 motion. "When words, and sighs, and exclama- 
 tions fail to show forth the depth and strength of our 
 emotions," says Confucius, "we break out at last, 
 and all at once, in music, poetry, and dancing." 
 And dancing was the principal means of expression. 
 The chanted words and dress in character only ex- 
 plained the meaning of the dance. 
 
 A less cheerful origin for the plastic arts has been 
 suggested in the ancient manufacture of images to
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 take the place of the human victims which in primi- 
 tive Japan were buried alive about the graves of their 
 lords, until the Emperor Suinin (B.C. 29) put an end 
 to this barbarous custom. Numerous stone and terra- 
 cotta figures have been recovered of much earlier 
 date than the oldest masks at Nara; but, as the 
 masks are of wood, it is easy to account for the fact 
 that none more ancient than the seventh century re- 
 main, and there is no question that some of the 
 dances in , which they were used are older by many 
 centuries than the date of Suinin' s merciful edict. 
 
 Song was the natural accompaniment of the dance ; 
 but, when it was thought worthy of being handed 
 down to posterity, it was usually necessary to recount 
 in plain prose the exciting occurrence that had given 
 rise to it. Hence the prose narrative, which, in 
 Japan, long preserved its original form of a running 
 commentary on the songs embedded in it. In read- 
 ing many of the chapters of the " Kojiki," the ballad 
 poetry of Nara, the "Ise Monogatari," one con- 
 stantly finds that the story is about a song, that 
 the song was made to dance to, that the dance 
 was the first, unpremeditated expression in art of 
 the feeling awakened by some unwonted occurrence. 
 The entire literature of Japan teems with allusions to 
 the legend which is the subject of the next chapter 
 the legend of the dance that celebrated the yearly
 
 The Dance Introductory 
 
 return of the sun. From other dances have been 
 evolved the lyric dramas of the Middle Ages. And, 
 even in recent works, the reader is frequently re- 
 minded, not so much of ordinary human actions, as of 
 those actions intensified and reduced to rule by the 
 actor's art, which is but a form of dancing. 
 
 The Miko, the "darling of the gods," still at 
 this day performs the sacred mirror dance before 
 many a village shrine ; half a thousand dancers may 
 still be seen circling with waving arms in the dance 
 of Thanksgiving under the harvest moon ; and, on 
 the festival of the dead, white-robed girls, issuing 
 from the cemetery, perform the dance of the Ghosts. 
 At the temple of the Green Lotus, in Kioto, Mr. John 
 La Farge witnessed the Butterfly dance, welcoming 
 the summer, and the pilgrim bands dance the Ondo 
 by the roadside, every spring, on their way to the 
 shrine of the sun-goddess in Ise. But many of the 
 ancient dances are falling into disfavor; many are 
 quite forgotten, like the Genroku Odori, danced 
 about that symbol of royalty, the umbrella, and the 
 dance to the creators, Izanami and Izanagi, on the 
 double summit of Mount Tsukuba, which Mushimaro, 
 in the eighth century, celebrated in the following ode 
 as a quaint survival of old-time communism :
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 THE DANCE OF TSUKUBA. 
 
 On the crest of Tsukuba 
 
 Eagles build their eyries ; 
 On the crest of Tsukuba 
 
 Pilgrims dance in couples. 
 " Here is neither yours nor mine," 
 
 Thus they sing in chorus, 
 " But the gods dispose of all 
 
 In any way that suits them. 
 I'm decreed to win your maid, 
 
 You to woo my mistress ; 
 And, surely aught that is, is right, 
 
 Here, on the sill of heaven."
 
 n 
 
 THE MYTH OF THE MIRROR 
 
 IN some of the more out-of-the-way parts of Eu- 
 rope where the sun still dances on Easter morning, 
 in honor of the Resurrection, children are awakened 
 early to see it glide across the floor of their chamber, 
 skip from wall to wall, and leap from skirting-board 
 to ceiling. The miracle is wrought with a piece of 
 looking-glass, by means of which a ray is thrown 
 through the window. Though, now, a Christian 
 signification is given to it, the custom is doubtless 
 much older than Christianity ; for our pagan ances- 
 tors were wont to celebrate the return of the sun 
 with dancing ; and, reflected from bits of shell or 
 polished metal, they made the sun dance with them. 
 
 Such was, most likely, the origin of Uzume's 
 dance, the story told to account for which is one of 
 the most transparent of sun myths. There are pas- 
 sages in the Japanese, as in other mythologies, which 
 might be cited in support of the theory of Mr. An- 
 drew Lang and Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea, that 
 myths are " inventions of wild and bestial folk; " 
 5
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 but there are also imaginings as graceful as the 
 poetic fancies of the Greeks, and of these is the 
 Story of the Mirror. 
 
 The earliest gods (so the old traditions say), who 
 had sprung up like reeds out of the shallow water 
 when heaven was separated from earth, had " hidden 
 away their bodies" and died, or become extra- 
 mundane spirits, when there appeared a divine 
 couple whose mission it was to create the habitable 
 world.* Standing upon the "Floating Bridge of 
 Heaven " (the rainbow), Izanami brought up from the 
 bottom of the sea, with his coral-pointed spear, the 
 materials with which he formed the first dry land. 
 Descending with his consort, Izanagi, they set out, 
 right and left, to make the tour of the island ; and 
 when they met, the goddess, speaking first, cried, 
 " How delightful it is to encounter a beauteous 
 male! " But at this Izanami took offence, for he 
 thought it unbecoming that the female should be 
 the first to speak. So they made the circuit of the 
 isle a second time, and, when they met again, Iza- 
 
 * The only one to be regretted of these vanished deities is the 
 microscopic Sukuna-bikona-no-mikoto, the lord of scarecrows. In 
 his anxiety to see how the first rice ears were ripening, this little 
 divinity climbed one of the stalks. But a passing breeze bent it 
 for an instant, and, straightening up again, it shot him off into 
 unknown space. Still, he is supposed to take an interest in the 
 growing grain, and in some occult way to protect it. 
 6
 
 The Myth of the Mirror 
 
 nami said, " How pleasant it is to meet a lovely 
 woman ! ' ' 
 
 The precedence of the male thus happily estab- 
 lished, and an example set for the future race of men, 
 the divine pair set about to create other islands, and 
 gods to people them. 
 
 After this Izanagi died, and her husband followed 
 her to Hades ; but, dismayed by the horrors of the 
 place, was obliged to return without her. While 
 making his ablutions at a stream on the island of 
 Awaji, gods were born from each article of his cloth- 
 ing, and from each part of his body. Among them, 
 the sun-goddess, "The Shining in Heaven," and 
 the moon-god, " The August Possessor of the Night," 
 were born of his eyes, and from the breath of his 
 nostrils was produced the " Impetuous Male Divin- 
 ity," to whom was given the rule over wind, and 
 cloud, and sea. In the myths as they have reached 
 us, this impetuous Susanoo is confounded with the 
 moon-god, and has become quite a complex personal- 
 ity, fond of darkness and storms, violent and ungov- 
 ernable, but not without some redeeming traits in his 
 character. Disliking the manner of the production 
 of the wild fruits and game which the earth-goddess 
 set before him, he slew her, whereupon, from her 
 wounded body, sprang rice, and barley, and cattle, 
 and the mulberry-tree. For desiring to visit the 
 7
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 under-world of abominations he was expelled from 
 the creator's presence. Then, in his role as god of 
 storm-cloud and eclipse, he quarrelled with the sun- 
 goddess, Amaterasu, and frightened her by throwing 
 the skin of a piebald horse over the bright loom at 
 which she sat weaving. For this last misdeed he was 
 banished to Izumo, where we shall find him later in 
 more becoming employment. 
 
 But, meanwhile, his pranks had so alarmed Ama- 
 terasu that she fled for refuge to a great cavern in 
 the mountains, and, shutting the door of rock upon 
 herself, left the world in darkness. Straightway 
 space was filled with the buzzing of wicked gods plan- 
 ning mischief ; and the better -disposed children of Iza- 
 nami, assembled in the dry, sandy bed of the Stream 
 of Heaven (the Milky Way), consulted together as 
 to how best they might induce the goddess to return. 
 
 In a similar quandary, when it was a question how 
 to bring Hephaistos back to heaven, the Greek gods, 
 it may be remembered, first tried force of arms, and 
 then the power of wine. But the gods of Japan were 
 dealing with a woman, and the plan they hit upon 
 was adapted to the case. They planted hemp and 
 paper mulberry, and made from their fibres and bark 
 beautiful inner and outer garments for the goddess. 
 They polished gems, and pierced them for necklaces 
 and ear-rings. In brief, all the arts of adornment
 
 The Myth of the Mirror 
 
 were invented on this occasion. So, it appears, was 
 the art of architecture, for the carpenter-god raised a 
 splendid palace for Amaterasu. But last, and most 
 important of all, che heavenly blacksmith, Amat- 
 sumori, hammered out from meteoric iron a large 
 and shining mirror. Neither heaven nor earth had 
 seen the like. 
 
 So provided, they had recourse to divination, 
 burning the shin-bone of a deer in a fire of cherry 
 wood. Needless to say, the bone cracked in the 
 luckiest manner possible, and, confident of success, 
 the assembled deities set out for Amaterasu's cavern. 
 Plucking up a tree by the roots, they hung upon its 
 branches the mirror, the jewels, and the coarse and 
 fine raiment. Then the god Strong-arms was posted 
 close to the rock-door. The other gods, ranged 
 round about, started a glorious bonfire and struck up 
 a pleasing melody. The first harp, of six bows 
 placed side by side with their strings uppermost, and 
 the first flute, of bamboo, were sounded, and, to the 
 music of these primitive instruments the merry god- 
 dess, Uzume, springing on to a hollow platform 
 which resounded under her feet, began the sacred 
 mirror dance. 
 
 As she danced she improvised an august song, 
 each word of which is a numeral, as in certain 
 counting-verses repeated by children in their games. 
 9
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 But the words have also another meaning which may 
 be translated thus : 
 
 The rift behold, ye gods, 
 Where, to your delight, 
 Shall majesty appear ; 
 So excellent my charms. 
 
 It happened, moreover, that, as Uzume" danced, 
 her dress, instead of the rock-door, came open, giv- 
 ing still another meaning to the song ; so that the 
 eight hundred thousand gods laughed mightily, till 
 heaven and earth rang with their laughter. 
 
 Their tremendous merriment excited the curiosity 
 of Amaterasu. Cautiously opening the door a little, 
 she asked why Uzume danced, and why the gods 
 rejoiced in such unseemly fashion, when, owing to 
 her retirement, the high plain of heaven and reed- 
 growing Japan were plunged in darkness. Uzum6 
 answered that it was because they had found an hon- 
 orable divinity more glorious than herself. At the 
 word she held up the mirror, and the Shining One, 
 looking in it, was dazzled by the reflection of her 
 own brightness. Astonished, she stepped forth from 
 the cavern. Strong-arms immediately improved the 
 opportunity, and drew her forward ; and, then, a 
 straw rope was quickly passed behind her, and the 
 gods made it taboo, saying " You must not go back
 
 The Myth of the Mirror 
 
 behind this ! ' ' They then led her to her palace ; 
 and from that time to this, the Sun has never stayed 
 in the great cave of winter, but, when she sees the 
 straw rope, turns back betimes to give light to reed- 
 growing Japan, and all the world besides. 
 
 ii
 
 Ill 
 
 THE CHILDREN OF THE SUN 
 
 THE people who thus accounted for the invention 
 of the arts by the necessity of pleasing womankind 
 dwelt anciently at the southern extremity of the large 
 island of Kiushiu, which, itself, is the southernmost of 
 the main group of the Japanese archipelago. They 
 worshipped Amaterasu, not only as a nature Goddess, 
 but in a special way as their ancestress.* For, after 
 she had again begun to shine in heaven, the earth was 
 still given over to violent and evil-minded deities ; 
 and her son, Ninigi, born to her by the intervention 
 of her necklace, was made mortal, and was sent down 
 to Japan to found a race which should forever govern 
 that favored country justly. He took with him his 
 mother's famous mirror, as evidence of the godship 
 in the family. 
 
 The neighbors with whom his descendants had to 
 
 * Rather than think of themselves as other than descendants of 
 the Sun-goddess, modern rationalizing Japanese speak of her as 
 a mortal queen deified after death. They can consistently take 
 this view, as no strict distinction appears to have ever been made 
 in the national belief between nature gods and deified souls. 
 1 2
 
 The Children of the Sun 
 
 deal in Kiushiu could boast of no such glorious origin, 
 but regarded the wild mountain gods, or (anticipating 
 Darwin) bears and other animals, as their first par- 
 ents. The Sun-folk, therefore, undertook to rule 
 over them ; but their right to do so was sometimes 
 contested. Pit-dwellers, bear-worshippers, bird-men, 
 earth-spiders, and gods with tails fought with and 
 were conquered by them. At length they overran 
 all of Kiushiu, and, taking ship under their first Mi- 
 kado, the third in descent from Ninigi, they sailed to 
 the nearest shore of the main island. 
 
 Before following them on this expedition, it is in 
 order to relate the strange adventures of Prince Fire- 
 Shine and Prince Fire-Subside, the first- and the last- 
 born sons of Ninigi. Fire-Shine was a fisherman ; 
 Fire-Subside was a hunter. One day they exchanged 
 implements and occupations, and the hunter was so 
 unfortunate as to break the line that he had received 
 from his brother, and to lose the hook. Fire-Shine 
 refused to be comforted by the promise of a thousand 
 new fish-hooks for the one that had been lost ; and 
 his brother was bewailing his unreasonable conduct 
 by the seashore, when there came to him a deity who 
 advised him to seek the Sea-god's palace, built of fish- 
 scales, to climb into a cassia-tree that grew by the 
 well before the gate, and there await what might 
 happen. 
 
 13
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 So Fire-Subside built him a boat, and sailed away 
 to the " Nether Distant Country " in which the Sea- 
 god dwelt, and, having arrived there, did as he had 
 been instructed. In a little while a princess, coming 
 out to draw water from the well, saw the stranger in 
 the cassia-tree, and offered him a drink from her 
 pitcher. The prince, without drinking, put a gem 
 from his necklace into his mouth and let it fall into 
 the vessel ; and the gift was so well received that he 
 was invited to enter the palace. There, in quick 
 order, the Sea-god made a feast for him, and gave 
 him the princess in marriage. 
 
 For three years Fire-Subside was so happy that he 
 never once thought of the unlucky fish-hook, or of 
 his home in distant Kiushiu. But at the end he 
 heaved a sigh, and the unwonted occurrence threw 
 everybody in that happy land into a state of conster- 
 nation. His new relations, gathering about him, 
 anxiously inquired the cause of his sadness, and, 
 learning of the lost fish-hook, hastily summoned all 
 the fishes of the ocean. They came, thronging the 
 sea, and, in some manner not related, the hook was 
 found sticking in the Tai's throat, and was restored 
 to the prince, who was permitted to depart for his 
 own country in order to return it to his brother. 
 His wise father-in-law presented him, moreover, with 
 two jewels endowed with properties that he foresaw 
 14
 
 The Children of the Sun 
 
 would be useful. One of them caused the tide to 
 flow, and the other made it to ebb. 
 
 Fire-Shine's immoderate anger was not appeased 
 by the return of his hook. He sought to kill his 
 younger brother, who at once produced the flood-tide 
 jewel, and made the sea to flow in upon the would-be 
 assassin. Fire-Shine's light was in imminent danger 
 of being quenched forever ; but, on his promising to 
 make amends for his unfraternal conduct, and sur- 
 rendering his claim to the inheritance, the younger 
 brother drew the ebb-tide jewel from his bosom, and 
 the waters retreated as fast as they had risen. Thus 
 it came to pass in course of time that Fire-Subside 
 succeeded his father, Ninigi, and, after a reign of five 
 hundred years, was himself succeeded by his son, 
 born of the sea-princess; whose son, again, it was 
 that led the tribe on their venturesome expedition. 
 
 On the western coast of the main island, over 
 against Korea, dwelt another powerful people, with 
 whom the Children of the Sun were obliged to reckon 
 soon after their landing, near where now stands, deep 
 in the water at high tide, the great torii of Itsukus- 
 hima. A high range of mountains cuts the land in 
 two ; and, owing to this fortunate circumstance, they 
 had time to grow acquainted without much fighting. 
 A pact was arranged by which the over-lordship was 
 assured to the new-comers. In return, they left the 
 15
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 original proprietors in peaceful possession of their 
 land, and built a temple at Kitsuki "with stout 
 pillars and high rafters, reaching up to heaven," 
 to their god Okuninushi, the Master of the Great 
 Land. 
 
 These western folk had their own tales of the 
 nether distant country, and their own notions of the 
 gods, which are now, because of their not having 
 fought to a finish, inextricably entangled with the 
 myths of the conquerors. The Master of the Great 
 Land is to modern and less reverent worshippers 
 known as Daikoku, or "Big-Bag," and his son, 
 Kotoshironushinokami, is more widely celebrated as 
 Ebisu, god of fishermen and market-places. Both 
 are great favorites with those droll fellows, the artists. 
 They correspond, it will be seen, to the Kiushiii 
 princes of land and sea, the hunter and the fisherman. 
 Ebisu, like Fire-Shine, is extremely prone to anger. 
 For the smallest matter he is like to raise a storm ; so 
 that the good people of Mionoseki, where is his chief 
 shrine, are anxious that he should spend as much 
 time as possible in sleep ; and for that reason, as 
 their song tells, cocks are not permitted to exist 
 there. The place boasts its eastern exposure, not 
 common on the west coast, its wedded pine-trees, 
 and its lack of poultry as among 
 
 16
 
 The Children of the Sun 
 
 THE WONDERS OF MIONOSEKI. 
 
 Seki is a charming town, 
 
 The morning sun it faces, 
 It clambers up and tumbles down 
 
 In unexpected places. 
 
 And Seki's pines that, four a-row, 
 
 (An odd one fell) in couples grow, 
 
 Sound drowsily, when zephyrs blow 
 
 Softly, oh ! so softly. 
 
 Seki is the sailors' town, 
 
 Its god doth rule the weather ; 
 And if you would not swamp and drown, 
 
 Bring there nor fowl nor feather. 
 In Seki's streets no cock may crow ; 
 The breed was banished long ago ; 
 So that the god may sleep, you know, 
 Softly, oh ! so softly. 
 
 Still, the ungrateful god sometimes blows big guns off 
 Mionoseki, and the coast is a terrible one to approach 
 in rough weather. 
 
 Myth-hunters also trace some connection between 
 Inari, Lord of Rice and of Foxes (a very popular god 
 in the west country), Daikoku, and the August Spirit 
 of Food, whom Susanoo slew, as is related in the 
 last chapter. But Inari is said to be only a sort of 
 Reineke Fuclis, a clever, rice-stealing fox, first hu- 
 manized and then deified ; and the conception of the 
 17
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 Deity of the Great Land, with his enormous meal- 
 bag and his pile of rice bales, corresponds more 
 closely to that of the Kiushiu Earth-goddess. Both 
 are personifications of the earth as provider of food 
 for man and beast ; and the entire group of stories 
 may signify simply the conquest of the coast peoples 
 by the more settled agricultural tribes. That the 
 story of Amaterasu and her violent brother was 
 known in the west before the coming of the Sun 
 clans appeai-s from a legend, which bears evident 
 marks of western origin. 
 
 Susanoo, it will be remembered, when he was ex- 
 pelled from heaven for his misconduct, retired to this 
 land of Iztuno, which was then a wilderness. One 
 day, while rambling in the mountains, he saw float- 
 ing down the river Hi a pair of chop-sticks ; from 
 which he concluded that there must be people living 
 farther up the stream. He traced it, therefore, to its 
 source, where he met an old man and an old woman, 
 with a young girl for the third, and all three of them 
 weeping bitterly. Susanoo, who was not all a bad 
 lot, was much affected, and drew from the old man that 
 he was an earth-god, Ashi-nazuchi by name, and that 
 the old woman was his wife, and the young girl their 
 daughter. They wept because of their eight daugh- 
 ters, she was the last, and now she was about to be 
 taken from them. A huge, eight-headed centipede 
 
 18
 
 The Children of the Sun 
 
 had come up yearly from the sea and devoured one, 
 and the time was at hand that he should come for the 
 youngest, who was called the Princess Inada. A 
 godly indignation was kindled in Susanoo's breast 
 on hearing this story, and he asked what manner of 
 creature this monstrous centipede might be. " It has 
 only one body," replied the Earth-god ; " but it has 
 eight heads, and eight tails, and forests grow upon 
 its back, and it trails its length across eight valleys 
 and eight mountains." Thereupon Susanoo, coming 
 to the point, valiantly asked the old pair for their 
 daughter if he should succeed in delivering them 
 from the monster. When they learned that their 
 champion was the younger brother of the Sun, the 
 princess was at once surrendered to him; and he 
 promptly put her out of harm's way and prevented 
 her being a hindrance to him in his movements by 
 cleverly transforming her into a wooden comb, which 
 he stuck in his top-knot. 
 
 With the help of the old couple, Susanoo now 
 
 brewed a quantity of sake,* distilling it eight times ; 
 
 and with it they filled eight great jars, and set them 
 
 before a gate in an eightfold fence that they put up 
 
 about the top of the mountain. They had not waited 
 
 long before the monster appeared and at once began 
 
 drinking out of all the eight jars of sake. Soon it 
 
 * Rice spirits. 
 
 19
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 was overcome with the liquor. The eight heads lay 
 down to sleep on this side and on that of the moun- 
 tain ; and Susanoo, striding from head to head, with 
 his sharp sword neatly severed them from the body. 
 All that day, the legend tells, a torrent of blood 
 rolled down the valley of the river Hi. The victor 
 erected a palace for himself and his wife. Eight 
 clouds arose about it, and he composed an ode on the 
 matter, as follows : 
 
 Eight clouds arise, 
 The eightfold fence of Izumo ; 
 They make an eightfold screen 
 For the lovers to retire within. 
 
 The shrine is maintained to this day at Yayegaki. 
 At Hinomisaki is also a shrine to Susanoo, and a 
 splendid temple to Amaterasu. But the most re- 
 nowned god of Izumo is the Deity of the Great Land, 
 who still at Kitsuki, once a year, mounts his bronze 
 horse and rides through every street in the city, the 
 inhabitants keeping carefully indoors on pain of be- 
 ing transformed into dogs.* His progress over, he 
 enters the house of the High Pontiff, his descendant, 
 and remains there for the night ; while in a solitary 
 place on the seashore another high functionary per- 
 forms a mysterious rite, the nature of which he must 
 
 * See Hearn's Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan. 
 20
 
 The Children of the Sun 
 
 not reveal while he lives, even to his successor. The 
 son (for the office is hereditary) is instructed in his 
 duties by his father's ghost. 
 
 Leaving their new allies to shape all those pleasant 
 stories as they would, the Children of the Sun once 
 more set sail northward, through the green islands of 
 the Inland Sea. They landed near Osaka, where 
 they encountered yet other tribes so far advanced in 
 civilization as to be able to offer a stubborn resist- 
 ance. Attributing the check which they received to 
 their having sailed against the sun from their last 
 station, they put to sea, and again approached their 
 landing-place from the east. This time they were 
 unopposed. One of the native gods, in the form of 
 a raven (probably the Sun-god in a new shape, sug- 
 gested by the evening flight of the birds to their nests), 
 guided them through the mountain passes into the se- 
 cluded province of Yamato, where, after more fight- 
 ing and miraculous victories, they established them- 
 selves, and made the district the centre of their em- 
 pire. Professor Chamberlain recognizes three cycles 
 of legends in the " Kojiki," or Book of Old Traditions, 
 those of Yamato, Izumo, and Kiushiu ; but all belong 
 to the same mythological stock ; going to show that, 
 at the time of the conquest, the southern half of 
 Japan was occupied by related tribes, which had 
 probably crossed over from Korea. At Kashiwabara,
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 in Yamato, the leader of the Sun-folk, Kan I ware 
 Hiko - no - Mikoto, better known by his canonical 
 name of Jimmu Tenno, ascended the throne as the 
 first Emperor of Japan, February 19, B.C. 660, ac- 
 cording to a modern computation from the data 
 given in the chronicles. 
 
 Gradually the empire was extended north and 
 east. A temple was founded at Is6 to the Sun-god- 
 dess. An expedition was sent out which conquered 
 part of Korea. Little by little the elements of a 
 higher civilization were introduced from the main- 
 land and were spread by force or by persuasion 
 among the subject tribes. We read of many rebel- 
 lions, dynastic quarrels, and local wars in which the 
 wicked aboriginal gods opposed the descendants of 
 Ninigi and mimicked the state and circumstance of 
 the Mikado. But the stories of the " Kojiki " and the 
 "Nihongi" become more commonplace and more 
 credible as we read. There are no more palaces of fish- 
 scales, and fewer miraculous births no more coming 
 and going by the Floating Bridge of Heaven ; and, 
 with the advent of Buddhist missionaries some time 
 in the sixth century of the Christian era, truth may 
 be said to have gained the upper hand of fiction. 
 But, let us hasten to add that in Japan she has 
 never, until our -own times, made a tyrannical use of 
 her advantage. 
 
 22
 
 IV 
 
 BUDDHISM 
 
 FOR a thousand years from the founding of the 
 Empire myths and legends still fill the pages of the 
 " Kojiki " and " Nihongi." By that time the con- 
 querors had settled down among their tributary villages 
 and become a nation. The empire was still being ex- 
 tended by wars against the savages of the north and 
 east, and, for a time, included part of Korea; but a 
 few of the Children of the Sun sufficed to lead the 
 levies that put down rebellions and kept the peace 
 along the frontier. The Court shifted about from 
 place to place in Yamato and the neighboring 
 provinces, as convenience or caprice dictated ; but 
 these periodical Sittings, indicating ingrained' habits 
 of camp life, offered no satisfactory outlet for the 
 restless spirit which they betrayed. Many felt ill at 
 ease in a life of turbulent idleness and gross or child- 
 ish pleasures, no longer seasoned by toil and danger. 
 The view of intoxicated maids of honor hopping 
 about like sparrows in the palace-yard no longer ap- 
 peared to them a picture of unalloyed felicity. The 
 23
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 gods of the August Kitchen, God Pot, and Goddess 
 Kettle, though duly invoked and guarded against de- 
 monic interference by plentiful sprinklings of conse- 
 crated salt and dried peas, could not preserve even 
 the divine Mikado from the saddening effects of an 
 inactive mode of life. A consciousness of evil too 
 profound to be washed away in the river, or to be 
 banished by fumigations, grew upon the people of the 
 Court, and they fell a prey to that melancholy that 
 comes upon communities as well as upon individuals 
 when old ideals are found wanting and the time is 
 ripe for rapid change and development. 
 
 To these troubled consciences certain Buddhist 
 monks from Korea brought the remedy that Gautama 
 had proclaimed in India when the Sun-folk were still 
 at the outset of their work of conquest and explora- 
 tion. The new teachers began by emphatically de- 
 claring that ground for discontent is to be found in 
 the very nature of existence. Life, at the best, they 
 said, is change, and change implies imperfection, and 
 consciousness of imperfection, suffering. But life is 
 transitory and unreal. What is real is the One Di- 
 vine Essence, calm and immovable, existing in sun 
 and earth, conscious in man and beast, aspiring in 
 the saint, enjoying an immortality of bliss in Buddha. 
 But to Buddhahood all creatures may attain, when, in 
 passing through the bitter waters of experience, they 
 24
 
 Buddhism 
 
 have freed themselves from the illusions of sense and 
 the desire of selfish contentment. Gautama had 
 shown the way, through compassion, renunciation, 
 and abstraction. To make the path easier for other 
 creatures is to shorten it for one's self. The virtuous 
 man at each reincarnation advances on the road to 
 perfection, and may attain, while yet mortal, to a 
 contempt of earthly things, which is a foretaste of the 
 divine calm of Nirvana. 
 
 The doctrine had been profoundly modified in 
 China and Korea before it had been introduced in 
 Japan. The primitive scheme of society common to 
 the three countries, which proposed as supreme ends 
 peace, prosperity, and good fame, and as means, 
 submission to the wise government of divinely ap- 
 pointed rulers, had almost completely failed in China, 
 partly because authority was weak and unable to be- 
 stow the blessings that were expected of it, partly 
 because certain districts were already overpopulated. 
 The Chinese not only looked to Buddhism for spir- 
 itual consolation, but tried to draw from it a practi- 
 cal remedy for their temporal evils. The result was 
 to throw the idealistic philosophy of the Hindoos 
 into the background, and to bring forward problems 
 of practical morality. At the same time fantastic 
 legends were incorporated into the lives of the Buddha 
 and his saints ; images were substituted for ideas, and 
 25
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 the creed was brought down to the level of the com- 
 mon understanding. Nothing in this teaching wr.s 
 inconsistent with what was regarded as essential in the 
 old Shinto * belief of Japan. Along with its elaborate 
 system of morals, it provided powerful motives for 
 well-doing in its doctrines of the brotherhood of 
 creatures and progression toward an end which might 
 be variously conceived, but always in an elevated way. 
 For, if the mass of the people could raise their 
 thoughts no higher than to the legendary golden 
 paradise in the west, that, itself, was a conception far 
 above their ordinary wishes and aspirations. The 
 more active found a new field for their energies in 
 building monasteries and temples, adorning them 
 with statues and other works of art, and in protecting 
 their inmates. The more intellectual found occupa- 
 tion in the study of the sacred books, and in the 
 metaphysical speculations to which it led. With the 
 monks came artificers of all sorts, merchants, and 
 scholars. Chinese polite literature and rationalistic 
 philosophy were introduced, manners grew refined, 
 and the gross beliefs and practices of earlier days 
 were abandoned. 
 
 One figure stands out prominently among those 
 concerned in the great change that of the prince 
 
 * Shinto means the Way of the Gods, in contradistinction to the 
 Way of Buddha, 
 
 26
 
 Buddhism 
 
 Umayado, or, as he is more commonly called, 
 Shotoku Taishi, Great Doctor of the Divine Law. 
 He was son of the Emperor Yomei, and brother of 
 the Empress Suiko, during the greater part of whose 
 reign he acted as regent. Born of a Buddhist mother, 
 he is represented as having been from childhood pious 
 and fond of learning. A wooden statue preserved at 
 Nara, and which is strikingly like the charming re- 
 liefs of children by Luca della Robbia, shows him as 
 an infant with hands clasped in prayer. In his youth, 
 as general of the imperial forces, he quelled the re- 
 bellion of the Buddha-hater, Moroye. As regent, he 
 reformed the administration of the empire, establish- 
 ing governmental departments and sending out pro- 
 vincial rulers clothed with authority over the local 
 chiefs. For the guidance of these functionaries he 
 prepared a short code of laws, or rather precepts, ad- 
 vising them to act as peacemakers between chiefs of 
 adjoining districts and to teach the duty of honoring 
 Buddhism and obeying the Empress ; they were to 
 observe politeness in the conduct of official business, 
 and to promote capable officers ; bribe-taking, favor- 
 itism, and the levying of taxes for private use were 
 forbidden ; the winter season was indicated for the 
 carrying out of important public works, so as not to 
 interfere with agriculture; diligence, fidelity, and de- 
 votion to the public good were required of all officers. 
 27
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 Shotoku Taishi is venerated as the founder of the 
 monasteries of Koriuji at Kioto, and of Horiuji in the 
 hills near Nara, the Founder's Hall of which last 
 still exists, the oldest of Buddhist monuments in 
 Japan. It may help to establish him in the reader's 
 memory to note the year of his death, which was that 
 of Mahomet's Hegira, A.D. 622.* 
 
 The effect of Buddhism on the literature that soon 
 came into existence the classical literature of Japan 
 shows itself in a more intimate and trustful com- 
 merce with nature, in a greater refinement of taste 
 and sentiment, and in a tendency toward the ideal. 
 Its influence, in truth, was not very profound. For 
 this there were several reasons, chief of which was 
 the persistence of the ancient faith. Shinto stood as 
 a rock in the flood of new beliefs, neither submerged 
 nor swept away, as were, at the same period, the 
 pagan faiths of Western Europe. The new religion 
 simply took possession, on the whole peacefully, of the 
 large territory uncovered by the old. To the Western 
 reader nothing is stranger than the constant outcrop- 
 ping of Shinto sentiments in the writings of professed 
 Buddhists. In so far as regards the peculiar type 
 of patriotism which is the essence of Shinto, the 
 national character was already set when the Buddh- 
 
 * A Biography of Shotoku Taishi was written by Taira no Moto- 
 chika about A. u. 992. 
 
 28
 
 Buddhism 
 
 1st monks appeared upon the scene. One or 
 two attempts were indeed made to bring about a 
 complete revolution, but they proved utter failures. 
 Neither the zeal of an empress, nor the long anarchy 
 of the civil wars, could undo the work of the early 
 ages. Loyalty, family pride, religion, and patriotism 
 are all one in the Japanese soul. With people of 
 European stock these" sentiments may be said to be 
 naturally connected like the leaves in a bud; with 
 the Japanese the bud has hardened into a thorn, which 
 has always wounded the hand that has meddled 
 with it. 
 
 The habit of writing on all important matters in 
 Chinese left the cultivation of the native tongue to 
 the ladies, with whom an affectation of intellectuality 
 seems to have become as much the fashion as it is at 
 the present day. Now, they spoil their eyes reading 
 German text, and have abandoned their prayer-books 
 to study Mr. Herbert Spencer. Then, they learned 
 the Sutras by heart, wrote verses, kept diaries, and 
 criticised paintings. One can forgive these far East- 
 ern precieuses their little self-conscious airs and gri- 
 maces, for with all their learning they are seldom dull. 
 But they are in part to blame for the slightness of 
 the matter and the all-importance of form in the 
 ancient literature of their country. 
 
 The exclusiveness fostered by the new civilization, 
 29
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 which was for a long time confined to court circles, 
 gradually cut off the writers from real life and its 
 variety. There is much of natural feeling and frank 
 utterance in the earliest works ; but these were soon 
 superseded by such qualities as might be expected of 
 the uncommon aesthetic endowment of the race, kept 
 within strict bounds as to subject and treatment, and 
 forever driven to take refuge in new subtleties, new 
 refinement by a constant and well-founded dread of 
 ennui. Courtliness, ceremoniousriess, elegance, dis- 
 tinction are almost always present. Their poetry 
 is vague, dreamy, unsubstantial; a poetry in which 
 everything appears against a background of mist ; a 
 poetry of trees in blossom, of falling leaves, lapsing 
 waves ; a poetry which to attempt to imitate closely 
 in English were to take Boreas for a flute-player. 
 
 But in the plastic arts there was great and sudden 
 development distinctly due to Buddhism. The nat- 
 ural turn of the people for aesthetic pleasures must not 
 be forgotten. A long list might be made of the flower- 
 ing plants and trees mentioned in the " Kojiki." The 
 mortuary images already spoken of give evidence of a 
 sense of organic beauty usually not to be found ex- 
 cept among highly civilized peoples. But it cannot 
 be questioned that the main influence came from 
 China and Korea. The most famous of the early 
 sculptors, painters, and architects were foreigners; 
 30
 
 Buddhism 
 
 and, indeed, the little direct knowledge that we have 
 of ancient Chinese Buddhist art is confined to speci- 
 mens preserved in Japanese temples and treasuries. 
 It is usual to refer the rise of that art to the fountain- 
 head of Buddhism, India, * whose influence is, in- 
 deed, easily traceable ; but it is a mistake to describe 
 it as dominant. There is good reason to believe that 
 before Buddhism had penetrated into China, in the 
 first century of our era, the Chinese had already 
 brought the arts of design to a condition at least as 
 advanced as that which they had attained in ancient 
 Egypt. They had most likely proceeded much fur- 
 ther in the realistic painting of animals and plants, 
 and in a graphic style of sketching landscapes and 
 figures in ink. Hindoo art supplied them with 
 higher motives, a more solemn coloring, an enthu- 
 siasm which they probably lacked. The styles of 
 Chinese painting that were transferred to Japan com- 
 prised not only that of the Buddhist school of illumi- 
 nations in broad, flat tints, bounded by firmly drawn 
 outlines and set off by gold backgrounds, but also 
 the dexterous free sketching in black line and mass, a 
 result of the constant practice with the brush afforded 
 by Chinese ideographic writing, and a style of minia- 
 ture painting that soon branched into two schools, 
 
 * Some go farther and ascribe the beginnings of Indian art to 
 the Greeks of Alexander's army. 
 
 31
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 one stiff in form and conventional in color, the other 
 minutely realistic, except as to the avoidance of 
 shadows. In Japan, many other intermediate schools 
 appeared. New subjects were found in the national 
 legends and history. We learn from the romance of 
 Genji how paintings were criticised by the ladies and 
 gentlemen of the court. It was de rtgueur that the 
 decorative effect of the mounts and accessories should 
 first be passed upon, and, to enhance it, the pictures 
 were brought in by young girls whose dress repeated 
 the fundamental tones of the Kakemono. The nature 
 of the subject, whether more or less worthy, was 
 next considered ; and, these subordinate matters out 
 of the way, the prize was awarded to that painting 
 which was adjudged to render most faithfully the 
 sentiments inspired by natural beauty. 
 
 A Buddha by the first great native painter, Kose 
 no Kanaoka, who was a contemporary of the author 
 of Genji, was shown at the Paris Retrospective Ex- 
 hibition, and was remarked not more for its strange 
 technique, its strong outlines, its slight modelling, its 
 pale flesh tints starting out from intense dark reds of 
 drapery and background of tarnished gold, than for 
 its mysterious charm of expression, its majestic calm, 
 and quiet grace. But the paintings on the wall of 
 the Hondo at Koriuji, praised by La Farge for their 
 placid elegance, quiet refinement of line, and breadth 
 32
 
 Buddhism 
 
 of religious peace, are from the hand of the Korean, 
 Tori Busshi, to whom are also due the majestic statue 
 of the Healing Buddha, and various other works pre- 
 served there. The most celebrated piece of Buddhist 
 painting in Japan, or in the world, is the immense 
 kakemono on which the Chinese artist, Wu-tao-tse, 
 has depicted the eight scenes of the life of Buddha. 
 A central picture of the death of Gautama is sur- 
 rounded by others of his birth in heaven, his concep- 
 tion, his birth on earth, his retreat among the ascet- 
 ics, his temptation under the Boddhimanda fig-tree, 
 his preaching at Benares, the aerial flight of his coffin 
 around the walls of the city of Kousinagara, and his 
 reception into Nirvana. 
 
 The golden hall at Koriuji was built and decorated 
 when the mosaics of Ravenna were yet new, and 
 Kanaoka painted when Charlemagne was collecting 
 illuminated manuscripts and sitting up of nights to 
 learn his letters. In splendor and in depth of religi- 
 ous feeling the arts of the East and West were on an 
 equality. In power over form, the Buddhist art, 
 with all its shortcomings, was superior. 
 
 33
 
 YOUR CHOICE OF MIRACLES 
 
 THE change in religious ideas was accompanied by 
 the growth, in court circles, of a somewhat sceptical 
 and ironical spirit ; but the masses displayed a healthy 
 appetite for the marvellous, which, indeed, grew with 
 what it fed on. The legendary outcome of a thou- 
 sand years of Buddhism in India and China, added 
 to their native myths, did not suffice them. In the 
 age of faith that followed the establishment of the 
 new creed, a host of quaint fictions arose, which have 
 been gathered into many volumes of " Moral and 
 Amusing Tales," and brighten the pages of serious 
 biographies and histories.* 
 
 It were easy to find parallels among the contem- 
 porary Christian legends of Western Europe for most 
 of the Buddhist miracle stories. Pious fancy that 
 joins together what nature has held asunder is the 
 real wonder-worker ; and it was as easy for it to 
 
 * As. for example : Gukuansho (Buddhist Tales), by Ichin Osho, 
 1230; Shashe-Kishiu (Moral Stories), by Mujiu, 1279; and the 
 Biographies of Shotoku Taishi, Sugawara no Michizano. and 
 Kobd Daishi. 
 
 34
 
 Your Choice of Miracles 
 
 carry the Hovering Stone down Severn to Glaston- 
 bury "in the old time of the King Arthuir," as to 
 cause the convent bell to float like a big bubble when 
 thrown into the torrent of the Yodogawa. The doe 
 that came with full udder to St. Giles in his retreat, 
 " nosing her way through the branches," might pair 
 with the deer of five colors that regularly attended 
 the reading of the Buddhist Scriptures, The tale of 
 St. Benedict making whole the broken dish by prayer, 
 caps that of St. Kobo Daishi, who set a leaning 
 pagoda straight by the same means ; and Pope Greg- 
 ory's description of Benedict's sojourn in the Forest 
 of Sublacus might serve for companion-piece to that 
 which follows, about the mountaineering hermit, 
 Shodo Shonin. 
 
 The scene of the latter's retreat is now the most 
 famous Buddhist show-place in Japan, celebrated all 
 over the world, indeed, for the gorgeous shrines of 
 the two great Tokugawa rulers, lyeyasu and lyemitsu. 
 In the early Middle Ages it was an unknown and 
 inaccessible valley in the heart of a mountainous 
 wilderness. While in retreat in the caves of Izuru, 
 the future Abbot of Nikko saw in vision the four 
 great peaks dominating the hidden valley, and felt 
 himself irresistibly drawn to them. The whole way 
 (it was far to the north) lay over unnamed mountain 
 ridges. Chain succeeded chain, each trending di- 
 35
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 rectly across his path. They reared themselves against 
 him like a succession of enormous ramparts, and as it 
 was mid-winter the passes were deep in snow. Yet 
 the saint did not hesitate, but, following the prompt- 
 ings of the Spirit, he floundered on through the wide, 
 white, silent landscape until he reached a lofty sum- 
 mit from which he could see, still far away, the moun- 
 tains of his dream. So high they looked, so far, and, 
 in their covering of snow, so pure and unsullied, that 
 he felt himself unworthy to approach nearer. Here, 
 then, he spent three years in fasting and prayer, in 
 face of the object of his desire. The local divinity 
 waited on him and supplied his needs ; for the coun- 
 try gods in those delightful times everywhere became 
 the humble and devoted gillies of the rambling Buddh- 
 ist saints, and aided them to spy out the land. But, 
 at the end, he still thought himself unworthy, and 
 returned to Izuru. 
 
 The spirit of discovery, however, was strong within 
 him, and, after five years given to pious exercises, he 
 renewed his attempt. He had not proceeded far on 
 his second journey when he noticed that, right and 
 left, before and after, four clouds one black, one 
 blue, one white, one ruddy were travelling with 
 him. However far he was obliged to deviate 
 from the direct route, they kept their relative 
 positions at the four cardinal points, and so guided 
 36
 
 Your Choice of Miracles 
 
 him on his way. He passed his stopping-place of 
 eight years before. A little farther on the only 
 path was crossed by a swift torrent ; but, again, the 
 local deity came to his assistance and flung across 
 the chasm a bridge of living snakes, which disap- 
 peared the moment the saint set foot upon the oppo- 
 site bank. There he built him a cabin, and once 
 more betook himself to prayer and meditation. 
 
 In answer to his prayers the vision returned, and 
 the four gods that guarded the sacred mountains mani- 
 fested themselves to him as the Black Warrior, the 
 Blue Dragon, the Vermilion Bird, and the White 
 Tiger, and urged him to resume his journey. Their 
 colors corresponded with those of the clouds that had 
 guided him hitherto ; and when again these clouds 
 appeared, steadfast upon four great peaks, he knew 
 that he had at last reached the predestined scene of 
 his life's labors. A small lake lay in the hollow be- 
 tween the mountains. High in a cliff on the further 
 bank was the cave of a wind-god, who obligingly sur- 
 rendered it to the new-comer. Disciples gradually 
 made their way to the hermit and settled in the valley 
 below. Mite-dropping pilgrims followed, and, by 
 degrees, temples and monasteries arose in the wilder- 
 ness. 
 
 Shod5 ShOnin's successor as abbot was Kob5 Dais- 
 hi, of whose philosophical treatise on the " Teaching 
 
 37
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 of the Truth " M. de Rosny has published a transla- 
 tion. KobO Daishi was of St. Paul's advice that 
 there are "divers ministries," and he included the 
 concoction of pious fictions among them ; but it may 
 be doubted whether he would approve of all that are 
 current about himself. He is famous as calligrapher, 
 and as the inventor of the Japanese style of writing ; 
 and it is related that once, in a contest of penmanship 
 with the God of Wisdom, the latter wrote the char- 
 acter for ' ' dragon ' ' upon the river Ujigawa, but for- 
 got to dot it. Then, at his request, Kobo Daishi sup- 
 plied the dot, and the character became a living 
 dragon, and in a great commotion of winds and waters 
 ascended from the river into the clouds. There are 
 tales of other Rishis producing waterspouts, horses, 
 and dragons from their drinking-bowls, but the fol- 
 lowing little apologue seems intended to carry a 
 moral, and that moral appears to be that a steadfast 
 faith is better than skill in controversy. 
 
 At Tosa, where Kobo Daishi passed his novitiate, 
 it was customary to try the constancy and the cour- 
 age of the applicant for holy orders by posting him to 
 keep watch for a night at the monastery gate. The 
 rocky platform on which the building stood looks out 
 over the Pacific Ocean ; and, especially at night, the 
 vague immensities of sea and sky may well have had an 
 unsettling effect even on minds thoroughly grounded 
 38
 
 Your Choice of Miracles 
 
 in the holy Sutras. Shadowy doubts came to tor- 
 ment the novice in the first hours of his vigil. The 
 wind that whispered in the gloomy cryptomeria-trees, 
 the waves dashing upon the rocks far below, seemed 
 to give voice to his uncertainties. The spirits of in- 
 credulity and misbelief at length took form as goblins 
 that started out from the recesses of the wood, and as 
 dragons that writhed up from the abyss, and assailed 
 him on all sides with taunts and outrageous proposi- 
 tions. They propounded unanswerable questions, 
 they hedged him in with sophistries, they opened out 
 distracting side-issues, stunned him with blatant as- 
 sertions ; they howled at him, roared at him, threat- 
 ened him, insulted him. Every weapon in the armory 
 of unbelief was brought to bear. Like Luther, he 
 was rendered desperate ; but, unlike Luther, he had 
 no ink-bottle at hand to hurl at his tormentors. In 
 this situation, unable to confute a hundred assailants 
 at once, he could think of no better way of showing 
 his contempt for the rabble than by spitting upon 
 them. At the moment the rays of the evening star 
 shone full into his mouth, and the demons, to whom 
 it appeared that the holy youth expectorated starlight, 
 were filled with a sudden fear that worse might be- 
 fall them. The miracle, though but a lucky chance, 
 was too much for them, and they gave up the contest 
 and retired to the depths out of which they had come. 
 39
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 There is one notable difference between these 
 Buddhist stories and the legends of Christian saints 
 and missionaries. We nowhere read of these latter 
 making compacts with pagan gods or taking them 
 into their service, as appears to have been the rule 
 with the apostles of Buddhism in Japan. Every 
 Buddhist monastery has, in fact, its barbarian god for 
 guardian or protector. And Shintd, Taoist, and 
 Buddhist miracles make room for one another, so to 
 speak, as did the myths of Kiushiu, Izumo, and Ya- 
 mato. There are cases in which the Buddhist serpent 
 has swallowed the Shint6 snakes, but these are 
 plainly to be seen, alive and wriggling in its belly. 
 ShodO ShOnin's four clouds are manifestly a Shintd 
 invention. The "eternal polity" of the Japanese 
 was, and is, bound up with their primitive concep- 
 tions, and in accepting Buddhism, they made sure 
 that the divinely established order of -society was not 
 endangered thereby. The doctrine of transmigration 
 made it easy for the missionaries to adopt the ances- 
 tral gods of Japan as temporary manifestations of the 
 Buddha. Thus, when the abbot and sculptor, Gyogi, 
 was referred to the Sun-goddess at Is6 for authority 
 to erect the colossal statue of Buddha at Nara, 
 Amaterasu (probably in the shape of her priestess) 
 appeared to him on the seventh night of his watch- 
 ing to say that she was herself, in reality, Amida 
 40
 
 Your Choice of Miracles 
 
 Buddha the Buddha of enlightenment. To this 
 Buddha, therefore, the great bronze statue was dedi- 
 cated. 
 
 A curious consequence of this mingling of beliefs 
 is seen in prayers of devout nuns and priests, that 
 these Protean divinities would deign to manifest 
 themselves in their true form. A certain artist 
 monk, desiring to paint a true likeness of Gautama, 
 earnestly entreated him to reveal himself, and at day- 
 break saw the great teacher's countenance in the 
 sun's disk as it rose between the two green crests 
 that fronted on his monastery. Since all Buddhas 
 are one, this miracle is plainly confirmatory of the 
 doctrine laid down by Gyogi. It was in answer to 
 a similar prayer of the Princess Taema that Kuanon * 
 wove the famous mandaraf of lotos fibres, miracu- 
 lously dyed of many hues in the clear water of the 
 convent well, in which appeared the portraits of the 
 divine weaver, and of all the Buddhist saints and 
 deities. Unfortunately but a small scrap of this 
 famous tapestry now exists. 
 
 These Buddhist stories, we may say, are white lies, 
 like the efforts of children to put this and that to- 
 
 * God or Goddess of Mercy. A manifestation of Buddha usu- 
 ally represented as a female, but sometimes as a male. 
 
 t A picture of the earthly and celestial spheres, with a Buddhist 
 pantheon.
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 gather. They never deceived nor were intended to 
 deceive, and they pleased and instructed a people 
 avid of wonders. But pure Shinto miracles had not 
 ceased, and some of them are of another stamp, such 
 as the tale of the clever young woman who demon- 
 strated that her clandestine lover was a god by ty- 
 ing the end of a ball of yarn to his robe, and so 
 tracking him to his shrine. As a rule, the Shinto 
 miracle is less presentable or less picturesque than the 
 Buddhist. 
 
 The powers attributed to the artists of the time are 
 hardly less miraculous than those ascribed to the 
 saints, which is the less remarkable as saint and 
 artist were often one and the same. But the old and 
 widespread superstition that regarded the painter as 
 in the fullest sense a creator, is answerable for the 
 stories told of Kanaoka's horses, and of the passing 
 of Wu-tao-tse. 
 
 Kanaoka, the greatest painter of the Buddhist 
 school, occasionally amused himself by excursions 
 into a branch of art which permitted freer handling. 
 He chose the painting of horses, a genre which in his 
 day was much admired in both China and Japan. 
 Some of his steeds, it appears, were in the habit of 
 leaving the paper on which they were painted to 
 gallop at night about the country. To one was 
 brought home the crime of having destroyed the 
 42
 
 Your Choice of Miracles 
 
 Mikado's lespediza beds ; and another was convicted 
 of having in his nocturnal gambols trampled down 
 the growing rice in the fields near by. The former 
 was merely tethered by a strong chain to a pillar ; 
 but the angry farmers who detected the latter by the 
 mud upon his hoofs, took revenge for their losses by 
 scratching out his eyes. 
 
 Some account has been given in the last chapter 
 of Wu-tao-tse's great painting of the Eight Scenes. 
 He was even more famous as a landscape painter than 
 as a painter of religious subjects. After a brilliant 
 artistic career in Japan, where his only authentic 
 pictures are now preserved, he was recalled to China 
 by the Emperor, for whom he decorated several pa- 
 vilions with landscapes in the romantic style of the 
 Flowery Kingdom. On a certain painting of a se- 
 cluded glen between two rocky and wooded moun- 
 tains, he expended much time and labor, and was un- 
 willing that any one, even the Emperor, should see 
 it while in progress ; a fact that was remarked upon 
 ill-naturedly by several of the courtiers. At last the 
 picture was finished, and his Imperial Majesty was 
 told that he would be admitted. He went with his 
 customary retinue, which included some critics more 
 disposed to display their knowledge than to appreci- 
 ate a work of genius. These distressing persons be- 
 gan at once to discover defects in the painting. The 
 43
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 rocks were out of drawing ; the foliage was stiff and 
 labored ; the clouds were too sharply defined ; the 
 little chalet hidden among the trees should be more 
 conspicuous, they thought, and its architecture of a 
 less commonplace order. The rivulet did not flow ; 
 the air did not circulate ; in short, every part of the 
 picture was conceived and executed in defiance of 
 all the rules of art and laws of nature. They ended 
 by convincing the Emperor that it was a mediocre 
 affair, unworthy of his inspection, and that the 
 painter had lost his cunning. To all this the latter 
 listened in silence. But, when they had quite fin- 
 ished, and the Emperor was about to depart, Wu- 
 tao-tse, who had created that particular paradise 
 to be his own eternal abode, politely bade his Majesty 
 farewell, and, calmly stepping into his landscape, 
 disappeared among the trees. Then the picture 
 faded away like a mirage, and neither it nor the 
 painter has been seen again. 
 
 Numberless examples might be brought forward of 
 the miracle pour rire. In Japan those objects that 
 we somewhat hastily term " inanimate " do not need 
 to be bewitched. Umbrellas, lanterns, and bowls of 
 rice may be goblins in their own right, as in the 
 interesting family gathering depicted in a novelette 
 by Bakin. But one may also be the victim of de- 
 monic abuse, and be needlessly terrified by things 
 44
 
 Your Choice of Miracles 
 
 really innocent. The story of the emperor Uda and 
 the demon is a favorite subject with artists in lacquer. 
 His Augustness was on his way, one stormy night, to 
 a place which he should not have frequented,* when 
 he was surprised in a narrow passage by a shaggy and 
 misshapen being which rushed at a furious pace upon 
 him, emitting flashes of fire. The Emperor would 
 have fled, but his attendant, Takamochi, promptly 
 knocked the goblin down, who turned out to be a 
 poor old priest, clad in a straw storm-coat, who was 
 running to relight a votive lantern that had been 
 blown out by the gale. It is not said what was done 
 for the priest, but Takamochi, for his bravery, was 
 promoted to an honorable position, and became the 
 ancestor of the famous Taira clan. 
 
 The jolly abbot Toba was a famous creator of 
 comic wonders. Come of a fighting stock the Min- 
 amoto, later the chief antagonists of the Taira he 
 caricatured both warriors and clergy. He is said to 
 be the inventor of the Japanese ghost, that astonish- 
 ing bogy made up of a wisp of hair, a shroud, and a 
 wraith of mist, that ascends from some neglected grave 
 at dusk to frighten the penitent widower who comes 
 to offer up a prayer long overdue. From him are 
 all rough sketches of comic intent called Toba-ye. 
 M. Gonse publishes a drawing of his in which a 
 * Gion Street, the Yoshiwara of Kioto. 
 45
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 doughty warrior, mounted on a mouse, his face to the 
 tail of his charger, overturns, while in full retreat, 
 two of his pursuers with a prod of his lance. Toba's 
 men and women are only amusing creations of an 
 irresponsible brush, but he is said to have rivalled 
 Kanaoka as a draughtsman of horses. He seems to 
 have found something hugely comic in the play of 
 these beasts when full-fed and at liberty. 
 
 Perhaps those Chinese paintings already referred to, 
 and of which we see copies on Ming vases, may have 
 stimulated his fancy. The present Emperor of Japan 
 is the owner of a screen decorated by him with twelve 
 horses of the size of life, spiritedly drawn in India- 
 ink. The virtues of the herb Pantagruelion must 
 assuredly have been known to this good Buddhist 
 abbot, whose harmless humor, like that of the later 
 comic artists of his race, may be truly described as 
 consisting mainly in " une certaine galeti d* esprit con- 
 fit en mepris de chosesfortuites." 
 
 46
 
 VI 
 
 SONGS OF TWO CITIES NARA 
 
 Now " a ruin in the rice-fields," through which still 
 extend its long avenues of ancient chamsecyparis- 
 trees, and across which for twenty miles around the 
 booming of its great bell still resounds at evening, 
 above the croaking of a myriad frogs, Nara grew 
 up about the monasteries founded by Shotoku Taishi. 
 The great temples of Todaiji and Koriuji, splendid 
 with richly colored wall-paintings and images of 
 gilded bronze, situated with their many dependencies 
 on the verge of a cultivable plain surrounded by 
 mountains, determined the Empress Jito to fix her 
 wandering court there. It became the first settled 
 capital in which the conditions of city life defini- 
 tively replaced those of the camp. 
 
 Jito was a remarkable woman, even for old Japan. 
 Daughter of one emperor and consort of another, she 
 assumed the regency after the latter's death, setting 
 aside and causing to be executed as a rebel the 
 prince Ohotsuno, who had been named for regent 
 by her husband. Her son, who was to have suc- 
 47
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 ceeded to the throne, died at an early age, and she 
 had herself proclaimed as reigning Empress A.D. 
 690. Six years later she resigned the throne in favor 
 of her grandson, Mommu; but he also died, and 
 Jito resumed the crown at Nara in 708. From that 
 date until 784, Nara remained the capital of the 
 empire. 
 
 There, under Jito, was compiled and published the 
 "Book of Old Traditions," begun by order of her 
 husband, Tenmu. This first step toward the crea- 
 tion of a national literature was followed, in 720, 
 under her daughter and successor, Gensho, by the 
 publication of the Nihongi, or " Chronicles of Japan." 
 But Nara owed its greatest glories to a third imperial 
 consort, who, though she never actually reigned, is 
 known in history as the Empress Glorious par excel- 
 lence. This was the spouse of the Mikado Shomu, 
 who succeeded Gensho in 724. 
 
 She it was who filled Japan with monasteries in 
 every province, each with its school and hospital, 
 each with its little band of scribes and artists con- 
 stantly occupied in copying and ornamenting the 
 Buddhist scriptures, in carving and painting the 
 images of the saints. Her own copy of one of the 
 holy books is still preserved, and is noted for the 
 beauty of its calligraphy and illuminations. It was 
 owing to the enthusiasm inspired by her that the 
 48
 
 Songs of Two Cities Nara 
 
 colossal bronze statue of Buddha the Enlightener 
 was set up, dreaming with open eyes above the groves 
 and housetops of the city. 
 
 Society at Nara followed a course not altogether in 
 accordance with the teachings of its tutelary divinity. 
 A sumptuous and refined civilization grew up among 
 the population of idle warriors and courtiers, as the 
 chief result of the labors of foreign scholars, artists, 
 and ecclesiastics. Nara became the home of luxuri- 
 ous arts, of emotional poetry and polite learning. 
 Academies were opened for the instruction of the sons 
 of government officials, where, besides the useful 
 sciences of mathematics and medicine, music, astrol- 
 ogy, and Chinese philosophy and poetry were taught. 
 And, though unprovided with special schools, the 
 ladies of the Court were often better instructed than 
 the men, and exercised much influence in every walk 
 of life. The richer among them dressed in gorgeous 
 brocades, their furniture was of costly lacquer, they 
 amused themselves with games played on inlaid 
 checker-boards, and carried their illuminated books 
 of prayers in cases ornamented with gold and amber. 
 The poorer prepared themselves the yarn that hung 
 to bleach on the bamboo fence of the door-yard, and 
 wove it into the coarse cloth of which they made 
 their garments. But distinction seems to have been 
 little based on wealth, and the whole of the Yamato 
 49
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 nation, as distinguished from the subject tribes, ap- 
 pears to have been accounted noble. The women 
 generally were taught the music of China, Koma, 
 Kudara, Shiragi, and Kora.* They were allowed a 
 great deal of freedom. They had dances in the fields 
 near the city, and concerts in the open air under the 
 cherry-trees. Masquerading in male attire was per- 
 mitted on certain festivals, even within the precincts 
 of the palace. 
 
 Women had their special superstitions. Their hus- 
 bands and lovers were often away in garrison on the 
 frontier, or on government business in distant prov- 
 inces, and, when no newer flame had sprung up to 
 console them, they would consult the "Evening 
 Oracle " as to the return of the absent one, and draw 
 hope or resignation from the first chance words heard 
 while promenading at dusk upon the street. Some 
 charitable neighbor, acquainted with the case, would 
 be pretty sure to hint that the wanderer was already 
 on the road, or was only detained by his desire to 
 complete a string of pearls, a present for his lucky 
 inamorata. " Two days at least, seven days at most, ' ' 
 would see him home again. But, at the moment, 
 the unfortunate might be lying slain by treacherous 
 
 "Kudara, Shiragi, and Kora were petty kingdoms of Korea, 
 and Koma is believed to have been a general appellation for that 
 country. 
 
 50
 
 Songs of Two Cities Nara 
 
 savages or overwhelmed by an avalanche in some un- 
 known mountain pass. 
 
 Unhappily there is abundant evidence, too, that 
 the ladies sometimes turned to account their oppor- 
 tunities for flirtation. It is not surprising, therefore, 
 the capital being such a pleasant place of abode, and 
 absence from it in more than one way dangerous, that 
 to be sent to govern an outlying island or province 
 was looked upon as a misfortune. Ambitious cour- 
 tiers did not covet missions of the sort, and on the 
 Buddhist priests and hermits devolved a large share 
 of the work of extending the civilization which they 
 had done so much to create. These intrepid men 
 opened up new routes in the wilderness, penetrated 
 into regions believed to be guarded by jealous and 
 vindictive gods, and established their hermitages in 
 places where the prayer-sticks of the aborigines testi- 
 fied to their dread of the demons of storm and flood. 
 Meanwhile, in the intervals of pleasure or of fighting, 
 the nobles occupied their leisure in putting into verse 
 the sentiments with which their life of alternate lux- 
 ury and danger inspired them. The generation that 
 witnessed the establishment of the capital at Nara 
 produced much of the best lyric poetry of Japan. 
 
 The first and most esteemed of many collections of 
 verse was made at the instigation of Shomu and his 
 Empress Glorious. The odes and ballads of the 
 51
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 " Myriad Leaves," like the stories of the " Kojiki " 
 and the " Nihongi," were largely drawn from the tra- 
 ditions of the more important families, which often 
 took the form of pithy sayings in verse, accompanied 
 by tales or legends relating the circumstances of their 
 composition. The collection includes poems cen- 
 turies older than the date of its publication ; but the 
 time was one of enormous productivity in this way, 
 and may well be called the lyric age of Japan. Hito- 
 maro, the prince of Japanese poets, may have been 
 still alive when the collection was undertaken.* He 
 and many of his contemporaries are represented in it. 
 The number includes its editor, Yakamochi, as an 
 example of whose skill in turning a compliment we 
 give his ode addressed to the Empress Jito, one snowy 
 New-Year's morning, during her first reign at Kashi- 
 wabara. 
 
 A NEW-YEAR'S GREETING. 
 
 TO THE EMPRESS. YAKAMOCHI. 
 
 Ceaselessly the snow 
 From cloudy treasuries falls, 
 
 Inexhaustible. 
 So may all graces on thee 
 
 Descend, this first spring morning. 
 
 * He died in 737. The exact date of the Myriad Leaves is 
 unknown, but it was begun in Shomu's reign, which extended 
 from 724 to 749. 
 
 52
 
 Songs of Two Cities Nara 
 
 It is a peculiarity of Japanese poetry that frequent- 
 ly certain words are made to do double duty, and to 
 become as it were the hinge or pivot upon which the 
 thought turns. Thus in the original of this little 
 piece, the ' ' inexhaustible heavens ' ' are the source at 
 once of the snow-fall described and of the divine 
 favors called down upon the empress. Thus image 
 and idea are fused, the two making one ; but the con- 
 struction is, of course, illogical. If a literal transla- 
 tion had been given, the effect would be that of a 
 mere play upon words. Yet there is an essential dif- 
 ference between the " pivot- word," as it has been 
 called, and the pun, for the latter consists in the pres- 
 entation simultaneously, and as though they were one 
 and the same, of two radically different ideas, while 
 the pivot-words of Japanese poetry are but a con- 
 densed form of the parallels in which Chinese as well 
 as Hebrew poetry abounds. In another little ode, 
 written after the removal of the capital from Nara to 
 Kioto, the idea turns upon a comparison between the 
 ninefold enclosures of the new palace, and the many- 
 petalled flowers of the emperor's cherry-tree that had 
 bloomed beside the steps to the throne-hall at Nara, 
 and had been transplanted to his new residence. This 
 meaning will appear, if we consider the words in Ital- 
 ics to refer to both those that precede and those that 
 follow them. To repeat these " pivot-words " would 
 53
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 be to convert the little piece into a formal parallel 
 between the flowers and the palace.* 
 
 THE CHERRY-TREE TRANSPLANTED. 
 
 Nara's eightfold bloom, 
 Now ninefold walls surround it, 
 
 Fair and strong, new built ; 
 And sweeter far than ever 
 Its well-remembered fragrance. 
 
 The contrivance certainly conduces to brevity, 
 which, we are told, is the soul of wit ; but it has a 
 grotesque effect in English, and, along with other 
 peculiarities,. usually makes it impossible to give any- 
 thing like a close translation of Japanese poems. The 
 versification seems, at first sight, singularly easy to 
 imitate. The common form is in unrhymed verses 
 of five and seven syllables, alternating with an extra 
 line of seven syllables at the end. But Japanese is 
 practically without accent, which has so important an 
 
 * It was customary that the residence of the monarch should be 
 surrounded by those of the court nobles, the emperor's guards, 
 and personal attendants, disposed in various courts divided from 
 each other by walls. Thus the palace continued to resemble a 
 walled camp and to recall the stockade erected by Susanoo in 
 Izumo. This was eight-walled, it may be remembered, and it is 
 to be inferred from the poem that the palace at Nara had only 
 eight enclosures the canonical number while that later built at 
 Kioto had nine. The poem feigns that the transplanted cherry- 
 tree had also a new circle of petals added to its blossoms. 
 
 54
 
 Songs of Two Cities Nara 
 
 effect on English metres, and no recognized English 
 rhythm reproduces the cadence of Japanese verse. 
 For these reasons a wider license than ordinary is 
 claimed for the imitations that follow. 
 
 But there is another sort of poetical composition, 
 more curious still than the regular Japanese ode. 
 This is written in Chinese ideograms, according to 
 the elaborate rules of Chinese versification ; but, pro- 
 nounced as Japanese, it is only a sort of rhythmical 
 prose. In explanation it may be enough to say that 
 the Chinese signs have been used from a very early 
 period in Japan to represent, not Chinese, but Japan- 
 ese words. In the sort of composition referred to, 
 the characters are arranged as in Chinese verse and 
 can be read as such, but would often not be under- 
 stood by a Chinaman because of the novel significa- 
 tions imposed upon many of them ; while, read as 
 Japanese, the meaning may be clear, but the piece is 
 without poetic form. To those learned in both lan- 
 guages it is prose and poetry at once. But the 
 privilege is inalienable ; our alphabet makes any- 
 thing of the sort impossible to us. 
 
 Apart from this, the following ode is strange 
 enough to merit a moment's attention. It was writ- 
 ten by the princely victim of the Empress Jito, be- 
 fore mentioned, on the evening of his execution, and 
 gives us a curious insight into the beliefs that were 
 55
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 current at Nara in the eighth century. The transla- 
 tion is close as to the sense, though not as to the 
 form. 
 
 LINES WRITTEN BEFORE HIS EXECUTION, BY PRINCE 
 OHOTSUNO. 
 
 See, the Golden Crow doth fly 
 To his hut beneath the West. 
 Hark, the drum ! This hour I die. 
 
 Where nor landlord is nor guest, 
 This hour I take the lonely road, 
 And enter on a hopeless quest. 
 
 Leaving for aye my soft abode, 
 Blindly, I seek the Fount unknown, 
 Whence first the Stream of Being flowed. 
 
 The Golden Crow is explained to mean the sun. 
 The regular evening flight of the birds to their dis- 
 tant nests may have suggested the image ; and it is 
 worth noting that, according to a legend in the 
 "Kojiki," it was a friendly god in the form of a 
 crow that led the Children of the Sun to the conquest 
 of Yamato. It may be, therefore, that Ohotsuno in- 
 tended some allusion to a version of the sun myth 
 peculiar to that province. The torii, or so-called 
 " gates," erected before Shinto temples, are believed 
 to have been originally intended as perches for the 
 56
 
 Songs of Two Cities Nara 
 
 sun, conceived as a great bird, to roost upon. The 
 "soft abode " that the prince was about to quit was, 
 of course, his body ; and by the Unknown Fount he 
 means the universal source of life to which, according 
 to the Buddhist belief, all souls return at death, and 
 from which they reissue in new shapes, until, at last, 
 they attain Nirvana. 
 
 Such very cold comfort as might be derived from 
 this philosophy was, it is pleasant to know, warmed 
 for poor Ohotsuno by agreeable recollections. He 
 had been a mighty hunter in his day, and could fe- 
 licitate himself on the fact that he would die facing 
 the scene of many of his exploits, the Lake of Iware, 
 in the neighborhood of which he had been defeated 
 and taken prisoner. As he neared the place of his 
 execution the moon, on the point of being hidden 
 behind the clouds, touched with a last ray the waters 
 of the lake. The circumstance impressed him from 
 its likeness to his own situation, and from it he drew 
 this impromptu in the Japanese fashion : 
 
 Iware, O beloved ! 
 Ere dark clouds close about me, 
 
 Let my last glance fall 
 On flocks of wild-fowl feeding, 
 Where, in thy reeds, they gather. 
 
 He had often, we may suppose, gone hawking at 
 nightfall upon the lake like the sportsmen in Hoku- 
 
 57
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 sai's picture. The hawk was the only animal used in 
 the chase. The dog, so far from being the hunters' 
 friend, was hunted himself for practice when better 
 game was lacking, a proceeding which may be com- 
 mended to the attention of our Nimrods, who, when 
 they have killed off every harmless wild creature, may 
 perhaps make amends by killing their curs. Large 
 game was stalked, or despatched with arrows, jave- 
 lins, and hunting-knives, not without danger to life 
 and limb at the finish ; and a great hunt was a battue 
 on a royal scale. In another Chinese poem of 
 Ohotsuno that has come down to us, he describes a 
 hunter's feast at evening in the forest. 
 
 THE RENDEZVOUS AFTER THE CHASE. 
 OHOTSUNO. 
 
 This morn we made a choice of men, 
 This eve a thousand mats we spread ; 
 For now, the moon lights up the glen, 
 And clouds enwrap the mountain's head. 
 But still the topmost summits shine 
 All purple, 'gainst the evening blue : 
 Ho ! comrades ; here is meat and wine, 
 And merry be our rendezvous. 
 
 Love-songs and elegies form a large proportion of 
 the odes of the " Myriad Leaves." The emotion ex- 
 pressed in them always has the ring of sincerity, but 
 does not appear to have been very profound. A 
 
 58
 
 Songs of Two Cities Nara 
 
 simple natural feeling was matter enough ; to voice it 
 in few and fit words, the highest aim of art. The 
 lyric might occasionally be spun out into a ballad ; 
 but no attempt was ever made to connect ballad with 
 ballad to form an epic. 
 
 Anything like a philosophical idea was repugnant 
 to the Japanese muse, and was left to students of the 
 Chinese mode like Ohotsuno, as a contrast to whose 
 death-song may be given the simple elegy, affecting 
 from its very simplicity, addressed by his enemy, 
 Jito, to her deceased husband. The confusion of 
 tenses, natural when one is moved by strong emotion, 
 is in the original. 
 
 TO THE DEAD EMPEROR. 
 JITO TENNO. 
 
 Dread lord and master : 
 At evening thou wouldst gaze 
 
 Again at daybreak 
 Upon the Hill of Ghosts, 
 
 Red with the maple : 
 To-day thou'dst gaze on it 
 
 Again to-morrow. 
 
 I, now, when evening falls, 
 
 Lifting my eyes there, 
 Am overcome with sorrow ; 
 
 Alone, at dawning, 
 The sleeve of my coarse robe 
 
 Is never dry an instant. 
 
 59
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 The following (which may have been written on 
 the same occasion) contains an allusion to the Buddh- 
 ist doctrine that the soul, in separating finally from 
 the body, gains admission to the world of real exist- 
 ences, this material world being essentially void and 
 worthless. But it is altogether cast in a conventional 
 mould, and is therefore inferior to Jito's simple cri 
 du cceur. 
 
 THE EMPTY CHRYSALIS. 
 ANON. 
 
 Thou the spirit flown, 
 The empty shell am I, and 
 
 Cannot follow thee. 
 Last night in dream I saw thee, 
 But had no strength to follow. 
 
 Oh ! wert thou a gem 
 I'd set thee in my bracelet ; 
 
 Wert thou robe of serge 
 I never would disrobe me. 
 
 But last night, my prince, 
 I saw, but could not follow, 
 And had no joy in seeing. 
 
 It is time to turn to the chief poet of the " Myriad 
 Leaves," the only one to whom Europeans would 
 apply the epithet "great." Hitomaro is so much 
 admired by his own countrymen that he has been 
 made a god one of the three gods of poetry. Yet 
 60
 
 Songs of Two Cities Nara 
 
 more, he is incontestably the master-spirit of the 
 trinity ; for, of the other two, one is the genius of 
 the pine-tree of Sumiyoshi, who, if he has inspired 
 innumerable verses and kakemono in honor of con- 
 jugal fidelity, has written nothing himself, and the 
 other is the Princess Sotoori, of whom little more is 
 known than that she revealed herself as a goddess to 
 some good people of the province of Kii in 724, 
 three hundred years after her death. The circum- 
 stantial account which we have of Hitomaro's apothe- 
 osis reveals to us one of the ways in which public 
 opinion made itself felt in old Japan. The poet, 
 though accounted noble, was of low grade and ob- 
 scure birth. A native of the province of Iwami, on 
 the western seaboard, he appears to have been re- 
 ceived at the court of the Empress Jito in the capac- 
 ity of tutor to the heir-apparent, Prince Hinami, and, 
 after the latter's early death, as a retainer of Prince 
 Takaichi. In the latter's service he must have re- 
 sided some time at Nara, where he may have listened 
 to the first notes of the great bell, and witnessed the 
 erection of the colossal Buddha. Late in life he re- 
 turned to his province, where he had been provided 
 with a comfortable post. He died there A.D. 737. 
 
 His fame, at first overshadowed by that of the 
 princely and imperial poets of his time, continued to 
 grow for centuries after his death. Toward the 
 61
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 close of the classic period his songs, distinguished for 
 their natural flow of feeling and their original and 
 often striking imagery, were the models most appre- 
 ciated by the tasteful but less gifted writers of the 
 day. To one of these admirers, Fujiwara no Kane- 
 fusa, more celebrated as an artist than as a poet, Hito- 
 maro condescended to appear in a dream, and the 
 enthusiastic disciple, well knowing that no authentic 
 likeness existed, painted the vision from memory and 
 presented the " portrait " to the emperor. Another 
 enthusiast, Akisuye, obtained permission to have 
 a copy made for him, and instituted a yearly festival 
 in its honor on the anniversary of Hitomaro's death. 
 Before this, legend had been busy with the scanty 
 records of the poet's life. It was fabled that he was 
 sprung from some mikado of the mythical period ; 
 and that when found by his foster-father (a common 
 soldier) under a persimmon-tree, the babe lisped in 
 numbers and claimed to be able, by song, to make the 
 winds and the tides move at his pleasure. The em- 
 peror, himself an admirer of Hitomaro, and perhaps 
 influenced by this legend, when he heard of the honors 
 rendered by Akisuye, set aside the taxes of a village 
 to defray the cost of a more imposing annual cere- 
 mony, and formally recognized the poet as a god. A 
 shrine was built and dedicated, which was in time 
 replaced by the fine temple at Akashi near Kob6, 
 62
 
 Songs of Two Cities Nara 
 
 where his worship is still maintained with yearly rites 
 and sacrifices. 
 
 The little that is really known of Hitomaro is de- 
 rived from the notes to his poems in the " Myriad 
 Leaves. ' ' The subject of the following lines appears 
 to have been a pretty waitress at an inn in Karu, at 
 that time a noted pleasure resort near the capital. It 
 is a pity that we cannot fancy her, like her successors 
 of to-day, bringing to her courtly customer seated 
 under the wistarias, a tiny porcelain cup of fragrant 
 tea; for neither porcelain nor the tea-shrub had as 
 yet been introduced into Japan. The divine Hitoma- 
 ro's august tipple was doubtless hot rice whiskey. 
 
 THE WELL-TROD WAY TO KARU. 
 HITOMARO. 
 
 Oftener had I gone 
 The well-trod way to Karu, 
 
 All for the dear sake 
 Of a fair maid who dwelt there, 
 
 But, if folk had seen 
 Me morning, noon, and night there, 
 
 The tale had spread apace, 
 For many a friend had borne it. 
 
 So I hid my heart, 
 Like hermit in a valley. 
 
 " Tendrils of the vine 
 Will twine again when parted," 
 
 63
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 Thought I. But my love 
 Fell like a leaf in autumn 
 
 Sank like sun at eve, 
 Or moon behind a cloud bank. 
 
 Ah ! when came the news, 
 No word nor motion had I, 
 
 Till, urged by despair, 
 I took the way to Karu. 
 
 Once more I passed her gate, 
 But heard no whispered welcome ; 
 
 Nowhere in the throng 
 Saw I the face I craved for. 
 
 Oh ! then, the crowd forgot, 
 Her treasured name escaped me, 
 As I my sleeve stood waving. 
 
 The nature of the indiscretion into which grief had 
 led our poet was at once understood by his contem- 
 poraries, who used the flowing sleeve, worn by both 
 sexes, to express their emotions, which appear to have 
 been much more lively with the ancient Japanese 
 than with their descendants. It was the sleeve that 
 was wet with tears, " like the rock in the open sea," 
 when the wearer gave way to grief. It was with a 
 wave of the sleeve that friends and lovers bade one an- 
 other farewell at parting. Hitomaro, therefore, could 
 not have more plainly published the state of his 
 heart. But we need not suppose that flirtations of this 
 sort led often to serious love-making. That they 
 64
 
 Songs of Two Cities Nara 
 
 were lightly begun, the subjoined ode shows; and, 
 no doubt, they were often as lightly ended. 
 
 RED LACQUER BRIDGE. 
 ANON. 
 
 O'er Red Lacquer Bridge, 
 Across the Katashiha, 
 
 Goes a fair maid dressed 
 All in blue and crimson. 
 
 Alone ! I wish I knew 
 If she's ever lonely, 
 
 And where she lives ; but, hold ! 
 I'll ask herself to tell me. 
 
 Nothing great is to be expected of an affair begun 
 in that fashion. But Hitomaro, though it is known 
 that he had left behind him in his native Iwaki an- 
 other mistress, whom he also celebrated in song, was 
 evidently deeply smitten by the pretty girl of Karu ; 
 and it may have been she who caused him the sleep- 
 less night described in one of the most admired of 
 his short odes. 
 
 The Yamadori, or mountain pheasant, it may be 
 well to say, is noted in poetry as an image of anxious 
 affection and solicitude. The male bird is said to 
 walk slowly to and fro, dragging its long wing-feath- 
 ers as if wounded, to attract the attention of the 
 sportsman when its nest is in danger. As used here 
 65
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 it is to suggest that in the long night hours the same 
 moments seem to return over and over again. The 
 word here translated " foot -sore " is the "pivot 
 word " of the original. It means to drag the feet, to 
 be fatigued ; but, as applied to mountains it also con- 
 veys the notion of the long succession of the foot-hills. 
 
 As the trailing wings 
 Of the wounded pheasant 
 
 On the foot-sore hills, 
 Pass and repass the moments 
 Of the weary vigil. .. 
 
 But Hitomaro had possibly other causes for sleep- 
 lessness. He cannot but have seen at Nara that 
 Buddhism, along with many benefits, had brought 
 not a few troubles upon the country. His doubts 
 seem to be painted in his little picture of a moonrise, 
 which, nevertheless, is nothing but a succession of 
 images. 
 
 GOOD AND EVIL. 
 HITOMARO. 
 
 O'er yon shadowy Alp, 
 Serene, the full moon rises. 
 
 Rises yon dun cloud, 
 Upon the night- breeze soaring, 
 To reach and overcast it ? 
 
 In fact, in Hitomaro's day the cloud had already 
 risen that was to overshadow the glories of Nara.
 
 Songs of Two Cities Nara 
 
 The daughter of Shomu and his consort, Koken, who 
 became empress in 749, was born in 716. Once on 
 the throne, she appears to have set out deliberately to 
 copy the Empress Jito. After a reign of ten years 
 she placed on the throne the Emperor Junnin, only 
 to depose him a few years later and exile him to the 
 island of Awaji, where he was killed in an attempt at 
 escape. During her second reign, her relations with 
 certain Buddhist priests caused immense scandal, from 
 which both religion and the Court suffered. One of 
 her favorites she wished to make emperor ; but these 
 plans were balked, and threats of rebellion brought 
 the empress to her senses. Still, it is believed that 
 it was partly on this account that Nara was deserted 
 by her successor, Kuanmu, who in 795 removed the 
 capital to the neighboring province of Yamashiro. 
 The poet Sakimaro's verses on the occasion give 
 voice to the regrets of the inhabitants, who had come 
 to look upon Nara as the permanent capital of the 
 country. 
 
 THE LAMENT FOR NARA. 
 SAKIMARO. 
 
 Ne'er has Yamato 
 Been kingless or lawless 
 
 Since gods came from heaven 
 To rule in her borders. 
 
 67
 
 Sunrise Stories ; 
 
 Never, so deemed we, 
 Should Nara be kingless 
 
 While ages unnumbered 
 Passed over her dwellings. 
 
 Spring on Mikasa 
 Saw cherry-trees blooming, 
 
 White, where the mist wreath 
 Lay dim on the mountain. 
 
 Autumn, Ikoma 
 Made white with the hoar frost. 
 
 And heard the stag belling 
 In flowering copses. 
 
 Would that forever 
 The hills might look down on 
 
 Thy broad streets laid out for 
 Brave warriors to dwell in. 
 
 Would that thy glory 
 Might, lasting as heaven's, 
 
 Fail but when faileth 
 The frame universal. 
 
 But Majesty speaketh, 
 
 And Nara's deserted. 
 Men flee her gates 
 
 As the birds flee ere winter. 
 No more voice of herald 
 
 Or neighing of horses 
 Resounds in the streets 
 
 Of the desolate city. 
 
 68
 
 VII 
 
 SONGS OF TWO CITIES KIOTO 
 
 No great statue of Buddha, like that at Nara, pre- 
 sided over the Emperor Kuanmu's City of Peace, as 
 he, at first, called his new capital. Instead, an ef- 
 figy of a full-armed warrior was buried in a hill out- 
 side the walls, to act as protecting deity. This cu- 
 rious reversion to barbaric usages shows that Buddh- 
 ism had encountered a notable check. It recovered, 
 however, and its priests soon regained most of the 
 power that they had enjoyed in civil as well as in re- 
 ligious matters. The new city, lying in a fertile 
 plain, agreeably watered by many little streams, all 
 running into the Yodogawa, the outlet of Lake Biwa, 
 was, in time, surrounded by a complete girdle of 
 monasteries and temples. On the western outskirts, 
 not far from the palace, lay the monastery of Omuro, 
 which became a favorite place of retreat for descend- 
 ants of the imperial house. Near by was the already 
 ancient temple of Koriuji, founded by Shotoku 
 Taishi. A little farther afield was the great temple of 
 Saga. To the south lay the temple of Toji, where 
 envoys from China and Korea were lodged, and 
 69
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 where KobO Daishi preached and wrought miracles. 
 To the east was Kiomidzudera, built over the cas- 
 cade where the goddess of Mercy had visited the 
 hermit Enshin in his hut. Shotoku Taishi's pagoda, 
 and Kodaiji, whose Founder's Hall is now ceiled 
 with panels from Hideyoshi's war -junk and his wife's 
 travelling-carriage, lay in the same direction. On 
 the hills overlooking Lake Biwa had been established, 
 more than a century before, the famous rival monas- 
 teries of Miidera and Hieisan. Literature, which had 
 begun to show symptoms of decline toward the end of 
 the Nara period, revived, and was zealously cultivated 
 in these institutions and at the Court, which now began 
 to form itself into an exclusive and over-refined society, 
 apart from the more active elements of the nation. 
 
 The invention of a new style of phonetic writing 
 (attributed to Kobo Daishi) made it possible to write 
 Japanese without any knowledge of either the spoken 
 or the written language of China. Hence, in addi- 
 tion to the continuations of the national chronicles, 
 still written in the Chinese manner, an abundant 
 prose literature in the form of diaries, " mirror his- 
 tories/' that is, minute and faithful records of every- 
 day occurrences, and monogatari, or prose romances, 
 mostly the work of women, began to appear. 
 
 The earliest of these romances were built up, on 
 the system already described, about short poetical 
 70
 
 Songs of Two Cities Kioto 
 
 pieces which they professed to explain. Thus the 
 " Romance of Ise," so called because its author was 
 daughter of a governor of that province, is simply a 
 more or less fanciful commentary on the odes of the 
 poet Narihira, relating in detail the adventures which 
 are supposed to have given rise to the poems. The 
 ode itself gradually became restricted to the thirty- 
 one syllable form, and lost in emotional warmth, but 
 gained in point and brilliancy. 
 
 What the "Myriad Leaves" is to the poetry of 
 Nara, the " Collection of Songs, Old and New," is to 
 that of Kioto. It was undertaken, at the instance of 
 the Emperor Daigo, by the poet Tsurayuki and three 
 assistants. Tsurayuki 's preface is of considerably 
 more interest than his own poems, in which he rings 
 without end the changes on "snow blossoms" and 
 "blossom snow," "foam blossoms," and so on. 
 He endeavored to classify the Japanese odes in the 
 categories recognized by the Chinese, and, more suc- 
 cessfully, to characterize shortly the peculiar manner 
 of each poet. Narihira's verse, according to this first 
 of Japanese critics, is laden with meanings which 
 the words hardly suffice to express. It is like a 
 closed blossom that holds its color and its fragrance 
 in reserve for him who will give it patient attention. 
 The Lady Komachi's style is querulous and delicate, 
 " like a pretty woman worn away by illness." On 
 71
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 the other hand, the devotion to verse of the good 
 Bishop Henzeu seems to him but an artificial flame 
 for a mere painted image ; and Kuromochi, a famous 
 poet in his day, is rated for his clumsy archaisms as 
 a "beggarly fagot-gatherer, resting by chance under 
 the shadow of the blossoms. ' ' 
 
 The modern student will be inclined to think that 
 the qualities for which Narihira is praised are common 
 to many other artificers of the short ode. In Chinese 
 didactic poetry * the idea is first suggested vaguely, 
 in a sort of prefatory stanza, by some pleasing image 
 frequently drawn from natural scenery, and, the mind 
 thus prepared to receive it, the moral, which is every- 
 thing to the practical Chinese, is stated in plain and 
 vigorous terms. But their more artistic cousins 
 elaborate the image and give but the faintest and 
 politest hint of a moral lesson. And in number- 
 less instances the aim ot the poet is, like that of the 
 musician, merely to induce a certain mood in the 
 hearer. The difference is to be ascribed to the 
 elasticity of the Japanese mind, which more easily 
 reaches the plane of ideas than the Chinese ; and to 
 a peculiar dislike of what is superfluous and redun- 
 dant. To pass lightly and quickly from point to point 
 and leave the reader in a mood to dwell upon the 
 subject, seems to be their usual aim. In the sub- 
 * See Dr. Legge's translation of the Shih King. 
 72
 
 Songs of Two Cities Kioto 
 
 joined ode of Narihira's, the poet ironically declares 
 that spring would be indeed delightful if there were 
 no blossoms, for to the stress of production he as- 
 cribes the storms and rain that accompany the sea- 
 son. The reader is credited with penetration enough 
 to discover the hidden meaning, which is that the 
 poet's spring-time would also have to be deprived of 
 its bloom, if aged censors, fond of quiet and deco- 
 rum, had to be satisfied. 
 
 THE SPRING LIKE ITS POET. 
 
 NARIHIRA. 
 
 Charming were the Spring, 
 Unmarred by tears or tempests, 
 If the flowers ne'er bloomed. 
 Unfeared were, then, its coming ; 
 Its going unregretted. 
 
 Henzeu, whom Tsurayuki held in such slight es- 
 teem, was very successful in this way, putting a ser- 
 mon into a few pleasant verses. That he also had 
 original ideas in theology is certain, if our interpre- 
 tation of his ode on the lotus be correct. 
 
 GRACE AND GOOD -NATURE. 
 HENZEU SOZYO. 
 
 Pure as pure can be, 
 The flower of the lotus ! 
 
 Say not, fairer shines 
 The dew that falls from Heaven, 
 Into its open chalice. 
 
 73
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 It is not always easy to seize the elusive thought 
 which these little pieces denote rather than express. 
 Here the dew signifies supernatural grace, while the 
 lotus-flower, springing from the black mud of the 
 ditch, is a perfect symbol of natural goodness of 
 heart unaffected by evil conditions, which the Bishop 
 appears to have prized as highly. Henzeu was 
 grandson of the founder of Kioto. His ordination 
 took place late in life, and his son, born before his 
 entry into religion, became the noted abbot and poet, 
 Sosei. Some of the best effusions of the latter may 
 compare with Herri ck's for delicate and kindly 
 humor. His thoughts run mostly on his garden and 
 his convent. The chattering of those " little monks," 
 the sparrows, and the mischief that they work among 
 the flowers, inspired him with the idea of reading a 
 lesson to those under his charge, who, like monks and 
 children everywhere, were always ready to lay the 
 blame at others' doors that properly belonged to them- 
 selves. Accordingly, in remonstrating with the cul- 
 prits, he is really conveying a sly hint to his bonzes. 
 
 TO THE BIRDS THAT SCATTERED THE BLOSSOMS. 
 
 SOSEI HOSHI. 
 Whom, now, so noisily, 
 Would ye incriminate ? 
 None but yourselves it was, 
 Restlessly fluttering, 
 Shook do-ivn the blossoms. 
 
 74
 
 Songs of Two Cities Kioto 
 
 But the rough -winds work even worse havoc among 
 the plum- and cherry-trees than the birds, and, in 
 launching anathemas against them, the brave abbot 
 imagines himself one of the militant saints of an ear- 
 lier age, when there were not only unruly monks, but 
 blood-thirsty bandits also, to deal with. In a com- 
 panion piece to the last, he humorously pictures him- 
 self a valiant champion of the Church, like the great 
 Kobo Daishi, who once put to rout the brigands that, 
 in his day, infested the environs of Kioto, as will be 
 told in another chapter. 
 
 ON THE WINDS THAT RAVISHED THE BLOSSOMS. 
 SOSEI. 
 
 What wild cave hides them, 
 Robber winds, plunderers ? 
 
 Tell me ! I'll face them 
 And lecture them soundly, 
 For raiding my garden. 
 
 Though the thirty-one syllable ode was the form 
 preferred by most of the poets of Kioto,* the Chinese 
 style of versification was not abandoned. In fact, it 
 was more than ever cultivated, owing to the acceler- 
 ated influx of Buddhist monks driven out of China 
 
 * In some of the imitations here given the crime, unpardonable 
 in Japanese, is committed of making the stanza consist of only 
 twenty-eight syllables. 
 
 75
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 by the persecutions of the Thang emperors. Forty- 
 five thousand temples and monasteries are said to 
 have been destroyed in a single reign. These persecu- 
 tions sent many, who might otherwise have chosen a 
 conventual life, into the wilds, to live as hermits. 
 Sometimes, keeping together in little bands, they 
 were known as the ' ' Friends of the Bamboo Grove. ' ' 
 The custom was extended to Japan, and we may as- 
 sume that this kind of life was not without its at- 
 tractions. Its praises are sung by the bonze ChizO, 
 a contemporary of Sosei : 
 
 THE LAND OF RIGHT REASON. 
 CHUZ5. 
 
 Would you know the place where Reason flourishes ? 
 
 Go seek it in the Land of Humanity and Wisdom. 
 
 There, the air is pure, the hills and the streams are pleasant, 
 
 Strong is the breeze and laden with pleasant odors. 
 
 Now the small birds' nests show through denuded branches. 
 The wild-geese on their pond intone their chants autumnal ; 
 The Friends to the Grove retired rejoice in the changing sea- 
 sons 
 And reck not of shifting tides of men's esteem and censure. 
 
 There is a legend, often illustrated by artists, of a 
 
 Friend who became an out-and-out recluse, retiring to 
 
 a small island, the bridge leading to which he vowed 
 
 never to recross. But two of his former companions 
 
 76
 
 Songs of Two Cities Kioto 
 
 visiting him, engaged him in a conversation which he 
 found so agreeable that he unconsciously prolonged 
 his walk with them beyond the fateful bridge. Upon 
 which the two old cocks fell a-laughing, and the would- 
 be anchorite, laughing also, returned to the community. 
 For the terror of the wilderness shown in the an- 
 cient stories, Buddhism had succeeded in substituting 
 a feeling of intimacy with wild nature. Much of our 
 modern enjoyment of landscape may be traced to 
 monachism. In Japan, the feeling profoundly influ- 
 enced all the later literature and art of the country. 
 The majority of the nation were, however, as yet, 
 far from showing this love of retirement and of wild- 
 ness. The old pagan dislike and dread of solitude 
 was still uppermost at the time of which we are now 
 writing. A member of the Minamoto warrior clan, 
 whom the departure of his comrades to winter quar- 
 ters had left alone at his post in a snow-bound moun- 
 tain village, is the author of an ode which may serve 
 as a contrast to ChizO. 
 
 WINTER SOLITUDE. 
 
 MUNEYUKI. 
 Hateful is this life 
 Cut off by winter's hosts, in 
 
 Lonely hamlet penned ; 
 Green leaves and friendly faces 
 All withered, all departed ! 
 
 77
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 Even the hermit and the wanderer by choice some- 
 times found that they paid too much for their ad- 
 vantages, as appears to have been the case with the 
 anonymous author of the two following odes, which 
 appear to belong together : 
 
 THE EXILE. 
 
 All alone, I sang 
 'Til sickness came upon me, 
 
 In my little den, 
 Wanned with a stick of charcoal. 
 
 Now the exile fain 
 Would to his own land turn, 
 But, still, the wind blows onward. 
 
 Pleasant 'twere to wake, 
 Although from pleasant slumber, 
 
 With the joyous sound, 
 The sound of water rushing 
 
 'Gainst the speedy ship, 
 To see the bright waves pass, 
 The dear, dark hills draw nearer ! 
 
 But a lighter and more cheerful turn of mind, and 
 a delight in natural beauty of a quiet sort, had be- 
 come general. Narihira might see portents dire in 
 the reflection of the crimson foliage of the maples in 
 the stream swollen by autumn floods, and be re- 
 minded of Susanoo's slaying of the Dragon : 
 78
 
 Songs of Two Cities Kioto 
 
 Tats'ta, brimming: full, 
 Rolls between drenched banks, reddened 
 
 As though with slaughter huge, 
 A grimmer sight, I ween, than 
 Izumo's bloodied river. 
 
 But to Michizane the maples of Mount Tamuke sug- 
 gest but a novel reason for not paying his temple 
 dues. It was customary, each autumn, to bring 
 offerings of figured silks to the Shinto shrine upon the 
 mountain, which was celebrated for the beauty of its 
 maple forests at that season ; and Michizane, who 
 was too honest to grow rich, hints that the gods 
 might very well content themselves with the produc- 
 tions of nature's loom. 
 
 THE MAPLES. 
 SUGAWARA NO MICHIZANE. 
 
 'Tis hardly for poor me 
 To bring a beggar's gift, when 
 
 Tam'keyama spreads 
 Miles of red maple damask 
 Before the glad immortals. 
 
 The poet is now himself an immortal, having been 
 deified by an admiring people, not, like Hitomaro, 
 for his poetry, nor for his services to the Empire as a 
 statesman, but for his skill in calligraphy. It does 
 not appear that he will take autumn leaves for Kioto 
 brocade from his worshippers. 
 79
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 The taste for natural beauty had already led to a 
 considerable development of landscape-gardening. 
 Monasteries and palaces had their grounds laid out in 
 artful imitation of natural scenery. Most of them 
 had their " Moon-gazing arbors," where enthusiasts 
 often passed half the night composing verses and sip- 
 ping sake. To this custom we owe some verses in 
 the Chinese style by the Emperor Montoku, which 
 may (not inappropriately) end this sketch of the 
 poets of Kioto. 
 
 THE VOYAGE OF THE MOON. 
 MONTOKU TENNO. 
 
 A sycamore boat on a sea of mist, 
 
 The moon sails, coasting by isles of amber ; 
 
 And trembles, now, in my cup, I wist, 
 
 And now stands poised o'er my leafy chamber. 
 
 The shadows break on the wave, afar, 
 
 Cool blows the breeze from the forest, yonder ; 
 
 And forth, convoyed by many a star, 
 In the open heaven, she goes a wonder ! 
 
 80
 
 VIII 
 
 MONOGATARI 
 
 TSURAYUKI, who edited the songs of old Kioto, 
 has another claim to recognition as author of a serio- 
 comic narrative of a short voyage, which has never 
 ceased to be admired as a model of classical Japan- 
 ese. Of prose compositions of its kind, the " Tosa 
 Diary " is first both in point of date and of merit. 
 It is a lively account of a tedious journey. The 
 slow progress and rough accommodations of Lamb's 
 "Old Margate Hoy" were as steam and a first- 
 cabin passage to those that Tsurayuki's chartered 
 junk afforded. The delays and discomforts of the 
 voyage would hardly be found amusing by a trav- 
 eller of to-day ; but, like Horace on his journey to 
 Brundusium, our author was competent to extract 
 pleasure out of misery, and wit out of dulness. 
 
 Taking advantage of the new phonetic characters, 
 
 at first used by the ladies of the Court, he sets up 
 
 the pretence that his diary is written by a woman. 
 
 In this way he finds occasion to praise his adminis- 
 
 81
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 tration, now at an end, of the affairs of the province 
 of Tosa, and to speak of himself as a man of consider- 
 able ability, who had known how to win the hearts 
 of his people. By this ingenious mystification he is 
 also enabled to quote his own poetry, and, in general, 
 to advertise his good qualities of mind, heart, and 
 person. To strike a balance, he mentions, with 
 feminine circumlocution, that on his taking leave of 
 the new governor appointed to succeed him, "their 
 parting utterances were exceedingly amusing, owing 
 to the fact that both were somewhat maudlin from 
 over-conviviality." * 
 
 The journey began, nominally, on the twenty- 
 first day of the twelfth month, at eight o'clock in the 
 evening. But all of the next day was taken up in 
 praying to the gods for a safe passage, and in a feast 
 on the beach at which everybody, both high and 
 low, became tipsy. The next day and the three 
 following were spent in the same manner, and every- 
 body belonging to the ship, even to the children, 
 roamed unsteadily about the beach, their feet con- 
 tinually making the sign for ten (x). In the midst 
 of this disorder, Tsurayuki's little daughter, who had 
 made the outward voyage with him, died suddenly, 
 and the actual separation from Tosa was saddened by 
 
 * Log of a Japanese Journey. By Flora Best Harris. Mead- 
 ville. Pa. 1891. 
 
 82
 
 The Voyage Home from Tosa 
 
 the thought that she would never again behold her 
 home at the capital, where she was born. The 
 brother of the new governor and some friends, gal- 
 loping along the shore, overtook the ship on the 
 evening of the first day's voyage, and all went ashore 
 to feast and compose verses. The parting speeches 
 were interminable. The guests became more and 
 more emotional, and found it more and more diffi- 
 cult to express their feelings in suitable language. 
 But the rude sailors, incapable of understanding their 
 state of mind and heart, cut matters short, and, call- 
 ing out that the company must surely have drunk 
 sufficiently, and that they must take advantage of the 
 fair wind and high tide, summoned the passengers 
 aboard. But they continued to sing so melodiously 
 that they shook the dust from the ceiling of the 
 cabin, and the clouds in heaven, pausing in their 
 course, rocked themselves gently to and fro, in time 
 to the measure. 
 
 On the twenty-eighth day they put into a port 
 where they passed New-Year's-Day and several days 
 thereafter. The people of the place brought them 
 presents of fresh provisions, which put them in a 
 quandary, for they had nothing on board with which 
 to make a return. So well victualled were they, 
 nevertheless, that " the vulgar crew made drums of 
 their overfull stomachs, and went about beating 
 
 83
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 them," and cut such other grotesque antics that the 
 sea, mother of monsters, had never beheld the like. 
 The better-behaved passengers, guests of the master 
 of the vessel, passed their time in moon-gazing and 
 composing verses. 
 
 On the ninth day of the New Year, the friends 
 who had been following them along the shore took 
 leave in earnest, and the ship put out to sea, to make 
 the passage to Awa. That night, being out of sight 
 of land, the women and children, lying in the hold, 
 were greatly alarmed, and the author, in his assumed 
 character, feigns to have shared in their distress. 
 But the sailors kept their courage up, singing comic 
 songs, and toward morning they got into harbor. 
 There they stayed a day, putting to sea again by 
 moonlight, while the passengers slept. The thir- 
 teenth day, again passed in harbor, turning out fine, 
 though it had been stormy in the morning, they 
 went ashore, dressed (that is to say, the women) in 
 their best scarlet robes, which they had not dared to 
 wear on shipboard for fear of exciting the jealousy of 
 the sea-gods. 
 
 They did not get under way again until the seven- 
 teenth, when they rowed out by morning twilight, 
 Tsurayuki remarking on the beauty of the shifting 
 tints of sky and sea in the blended light of dawn and 
 the full moon. But, just after daybreak, a black 
 84
 
 The Voyage Home from Tosa 
 
 cloud came up, and the sailors insisted on turning 
 back. A snow-storm that lasted for several days 
 followed, and the miserable passengers were fain to 
 beguile the time by composing verses as wretched as 
 their condition. 
 
 On the twenty-first, the numerous vessels detained 
 by the storm put out together, looking like autumn 
 leaves strewn over the face of the ocean. The sight 
 of the waves breaking on some rocks in the distance, 
 led the writer (Tsurayuki still playing the part of a 
 woman) to conjure up visions of shipwreck and pi- 
 rates, and all sorts of ocean perils. In mockery, 
 doubtless, of some well-known effusion of the sort, he 
 fancies his hair turning white with terror : 
 
 Headman, oh ! headman 
 Of the island, out yonder, 
 
 Tell me, I pray you, 
 If my hairs be the whiter, 
 Or the foam on the billows ? 
 
 he writes, and playfully asks the skipper to deliver 
 the ode to the person addressed, and bring back an 
 answer. 
 
 The fear of pirates seems to have spread among the 
 crew, and prayers were offered up to the gods and to 
 Buddha. From the twenty-third to the twenty-sixth 
 the vessel was in some port of the province of Awa ; 
 but, getting word that pirates were actually planning 
 85
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 to seize them, they set sail at midnight. Passing a 
 small shrine, situated on a promontory, bits of bright- 
 colored silks were scattered on the waves, as offerings 
 to the sea-gods. An old woman of Awaji, one of 
 the passengers, awakened by the flapping of the sails, 
 composed a stanza in which they were said to be 
 clapping their hands in their joy at being hoisted. 
 But they were hauled down again next day, and the 
 poor passengers, out of all patience, snapped their 
 fingers in disgust, as well they might, and, their 
 poetic vein being quite exhausted, were driven to 
 take refuge in sleep. 
 
 On the first day of the second month, having 
 crossed the strait from Awa, they reached the coast 
 of Izumi, and, the wind failing, the sailors were 
 obliged to drag the junk along the shore by ropes. 
 Even this slow progress they were soon obliged to 
 relinquish by a return of stormy weather, which the 
 sailors attributed to some caprice of the god of Sumi- 
 yoshi. Silk shreds were again scattered abroad, but 
 the tempest did not abate ; on the contrary, the 
 waves grew higher and threatened to drive the vessel 
 ashore. It was plain that the god was not to be 
 appeased except by the sacrifice of something of more 
 value. In this emergency the author threw into the 
 sea a mirror, an object which, to a woman, is dearer 
 than one of her eyes. " A sorrowful thing it was to 
 86
 
 The Voyage Home from Tosa 
 
 do," but the sea at once became as smooth as the 
 polished metal. 
 
 It was on the sixth that they entered the mouth of 
 the Yodogawa; but now the shallows in the river 
 detained them, and the vessel had to be lightened. 
 They themselves left her at Yamazaki, and travelled 
 the remaining five miles to the capital by the more 
 expeditious bullock cart. Tsurayuki noticed that 
 the pictures on the articles for sale in the shops were 
 the same as when he left. It was night when he en- 
 tered Kioto, after having been fifty-four days in mak- 
 ing a journey of less than two hundred miles. His 
 house and garden, which he had left in the care of a 
 neighbor, were in ruins. The dismal sight, and the 
 thought of the little girl who was born in the place, 
 and whose fate it was never to return there, over- 
 whelmed him with grief, made more poignant by the 
 indifference of his shipmates, who now left him with 
 a few careless expressions of sympathy. In his de- 
 jection he records the intention to destroy the manu- 
 script of his diary ; but, since the resolution was not 
 carried out, we are perhaps justified in regarding it 
 as part of the fiction so ingeniously kept up through- 
 out the narrative. 
 
 The "Tosa Nikki" was followed by a multitude 
 of efforts in the same manner, diaries and "mirror 
 histories," of the greatest value to the antiquary from 
 87
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 i 
 
 their numerous and detailed descriptions of ancient 
 manners, but which need not detain us from a con- 
 sideration of the more generally interesting mono- 
 gatari. 
 
 Various forms of prose narrative are included under 
 this term, but in all an element of fiction is openly 
 admitted. Some of the more celebrated are but 
 artistically embellished biographies ; others are fairy- 
 tales; still others are historical romances, in which 
 the fiction sometimes serves only as a setting for au- 
 thentic documents. Written as a rule by women, 
 they often betray the slightness of the hold that seri- 
 ous continental beliefs had obtained on the minds of 
 their authors and readers. The facts of contempo- 
 rary life and history, the refinements of Chinese light 
 literature, and the crudities of native legend, furnish 
 the matter of these romances, which usually display 
 a critical and ironical turn of mind, a somewhat 
 affected appreciation of beauty, and a very real dis- 
 like of being bored by stock phrases and situations 
 known in advance. 
 
 "The Bamboo Cutter,"* the most ancient of 
 these compositions, is referred by some authorities to 
 the first half of the ninth century, which would make 
 it antedate Tsurayuki's Diary and the collection of 
 " Songs, Old and New." It is a fairy -story, possibly 
 * Taketori Monogatari.
 
 The Voyage Home from Tosa 
 
 of Chinese origin, but told in a spirit of raillery that 
 reminds one of the ' ' Moral Tales ' ' of the witty 
 Count Hamilton. 
 
 An old bamboo-cutter, who had finished his day's 
 work on the hills near Lake Biwa, and tied up his 
 fagot, bethought him to cut an extra cane to serve 
 for a staff on his way down the snow-clad slopes of 
 the mountain. Astonished to see light streaming 
 from the incision made by his knife, he carefully 
 laid open the hollow joint and found within it an 
 infant from whose tiny body came the supernatural 
 radiance. He took the prodigy home, and she grew 
 to be a famous beauty. Suitors came from all direc- 
 tions, and even from the Imperial City. But not 
 caring to accept the addresses of any of them, the 
 Bamboo Maiden set them impossible tasks to per- 
 form, pretending that her object was to test the sin- 
 cerity of their professions. One soon returned with 
 an old silver cup, gray from oxidation, which he had 
 bought at an extravagant price from a Buddhist monk 
 as the legendary vessel that he had been required to 
 discover. But the sharp-witted maiden immediately 
 scoured it, and brought out an inscription showing 
 that it was of comparatively modern manufacture. 
 Another had been despatched to seek an enchanted 
 island where grew a golden tree bearing jewels for 
 fruit. This gentleman came back, after a longer in- 
 89
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 terval, with a moving tale of shipwreck and disaster 
 and a branch which he had had made by a jeweller 
 in Kioto. His golden branch had not the requisite 
 magic virtues, however, and a sharp cross-examina- 
 tion developed serious flaws in his story. A third, 
 himself deceived by a merchant into buying for a 
 great price a blue-fox skin, said to be uninflammable, 
 saw his gift consigned to the flames, where it per- 
 ished in an instant ; and a fourth, the only suitor 
 who had honestly attempted the task assigned him, 
 had the worst luck of all, for he fell from the sheer 
 rock that he was to scale and broke his neck. 
 
 The fame of the wise but dangerous beauty at last 
 reached the Emperor, and he set out in his august 
 bullock cart to visit her. A flame at once sprang 
 up between the two ; but the maiden was proof 
 against even the attractions of love in a palace. Hav- 
 ing fulfilled the period of her exile, she returned to 
 the moon, whence she had come, leaving an example 
 of obstinate virtue, which, unfortunately, is "unap- 
 proachable by mortal women." 
 
 "The Uninhabited Forest" is a collection of 
 tales of a similar kind, ascribed to the same period. 
 In it there appear talking beasts, and a magic harp, 
 and a mysterious stranger who teaches the hero the 
 secrets of the instrument. The wit of some of the 
 tales is of a broader character. The hero of Torikai- 
 90
 
 The Voyage Home from Tosa 
 
 baya (" What if I Were to Change Them ? ") is a per- 
 plexed father who brings up his effeminate son as a 
 girl, and his tomboy daughter as a boy, with results 
 more amusing than edifying. There is a strong fam- 
 ily likeness between these early tales and those of the 
 " Arabian Nights," and it is possible that some of the 
 plots may have made their way to Japan from Per- 
 sia. But in their present dress they are as thoroughly 
 Japanese as the odes of the "Myriad Leaves." As 
 a rule, however little we may admire the conduct of 
 the heroes and heroines, their adventures are related 
 with the utmost propriety of expression. This 
 is pre-eminently the case with the "Romance of 
 Genji," the most celebrated of them all. 
 
 Madame Murasaki, its author, was of the Fujiwara 
 family, the noblest, after the Imperial House, in 
 Japan. While serving as maid of honor to the Em- 
 press, she was commanded to write an interesting 
 story for a princess who had been sent to fill the place 
 of High Priestess at the shrine of Amaterasu in Ise. 
 This little person the " Sacred Virgin " was usually 
 of a tender age had exhausted all the limited stock 
 of fiction then in existence, and had written to her 
 Majesty to procure her something new. The subject 
 of Prince Genji's amatory adventures was rather a 
 curious choice to make in the circumstances ; but, as 
 we have said, no objection can be taken to the 
 91
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 author's treatment of it. Her choice of a retreat 
 throws a still more curious light on the manners of 
 the day, for she retired to a Buddhist monastery to 
 write her romance, and, being apparently short of 
 parchment, used the back of one of the Sacred Rolls, 
 the Mahaprajnaparamita,* on which to jot down 
 two of her chapters. The identical roll which she 
 later copied out to replace the one she had desecrated 
 is still preserved in the room where it was written, at 
 Ishiyamadera. The place overlooks the narrows 
 where Lake Biwa issues in the Yodogawa. 
 
 Murasaki had advanced ideas of the utility and 
 importance of fiction, and her work may almost be 
 spoken of as "a novel with a purpose." "His- 
 tories, ' ' she makes her hero say, ' ' are but dry records 
 of events, and are usually partisan and one-sided ; 
 but romances furnish a true and vivid picture of 
 social conditions. They are fictions, but not alto- 
 gether ; the essential thing about them being that 
 their authors, not pretending to historical accuracy, 
 are at liberty to put before us only what is best in 
 life, when their object is to display the good, and the 
 most comical when they wish to amuse." She is 
 credited by some of her admirers with uncommon 
 political insight ; but her understanding of politics is 
 that of most of her sex, who believe in their hearts 
 * Or, rather, the Chinese translation. 
 93
 
 The Voyage Home from Tosa 
 
 that the sole object of human society is to support a 
 court. She had the good sense not to attempt many 
 male characters, and those she has introduced are 
 treated frankly from the feminine point of view; but 
 her sketches of the women who succeed one another 
 so rapidly in the affections of her fickle hero are alto- 
 gether admirable. The book begins with an account 
 of the hero's birth and childhood, which we pass 
 over, and begin with the chapter celebrated by Sir 
 Edwin Arnold, which describes a conversation be- 
 tween Genji and his intimates one rainy night in the 
 palace. 
 
 93
 
 IX 
 A RAINY NIGHT ENTERTAINMENT 
 
 THE " Splendid Genji " was the son of the Em- 
 peror Seiwa, little mentioned in history, who reigned 
 peacefully from A.D. 859 to 877. Already, at this 
 date, the more powerful of the noble families shared 
 the administrative orifices between them, and had es- 
 tablished the principle that no member of the Impe- 
 rial house should take an active part in affairs ; a most 
 convenient rule for faineant princes and ambitious 
 subjects. Genji's mother came of a clan which could 
 muster but few adherents ; and, as a pretender to the 
 throne, he would be a mere pawn in the game played 
 by these unscrupulous intriguers. For this reason, 
 and because he showed signs of uncommon talent, his 
 careful father cut him off from the succession, and, 
 with admirable foresight, had him married at a very 
 early age, and solemnly set apart to found a new 
 family. In the main, his previsions turned out to be 
 correct. Genji, though on the surface of a careless 
 and pleasure-loving disposition, showed some ability 
 as a general, and a remarkable aptitude for political 
 94
 
 A Rainy Night Entertainment 
 
 wire-pulling, and rose, some years after his father's 
 death, to be the actual ruler, as regent, of the Empire. 
 Three centuries later the Gen, or Minamoto, clan, of 
 which he is regarded as the founder, furnished to 
 Japan its first dynasty of hereditary shoguns. Mura- 
 saki portrays her hero as a reckless seeker of advent- 
 ures, a sort of Japanese Don Juan, whose numerous 
 and devoted friends, whose good luck, patience, and 
 address barely suffice to bring him safely through the 
 numerous scrapes in which he involves himself. In 
 one of her best chapters, she shows him, at the outset 
 of his career, surrounded by his companions, to whose 
 good advice he turns a deaf ear, but whose question- 
 able experiences he finds highly interesting.* 
 
 It was a stormy night in May ; the Court was keep- 
 ing a fast ; and Genji and his brother-in-law, Chiujio, 
 were amusing themselves by looking over old letters 
 in the former's apartment in the palace. The two 
 were fast friends, owing in good part to the fact that 
 they were in very much the same situation ; each 
 having been married, for reasons of state, to a lady 
 for whom he felt no affection. Chiujio, older than 
 Genji, and freer in his movements, had already found 
 means of distraction. But he desired that his penny- 
 worth of observation might be of service to his sister's 
 
 * What follows is much condensed A few details necessary to 
 an understanding of the context have been added. 
 
 95
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 husband, and he sometimes made his company bur- 
 densome by volunteering good advice, based on his 
 own experience, which, however, he was usually dis- 
 creet enough to keep to himself. 
 
 " Truly," said he, on this occasion, as he returned 
 the letters that he had been glancing over, " perfec- 
 tion is hard to find in the sex. Every woman has her 
 failing, and pursuit, even when successful, but leads 
 to disappointment. ' ' 
 
 " But, at least, you will allow to each of them a 
 good trait or two," suggested Genji. To which Chi- 
 ujio gallantly replied that if such were not the case 
 no one would ever be deceived ; and, seeing that 
 Genji was more than usually attentive, he went on to 
 divide all womankind into classes, and to demonstrate 
 categorically that in none of them could man hope to 
 discover the ideal object of his desires. " Those best 
 favored, and of the highest birth," he remarked, "are 
 so strictly guarded as to be unavailable as subjects of 
 experiment and comparison. The low-born and ugly 
 are hardly worth the trouble. Thus the field is nar- 
 rowed to the middle class, which, indeed, contains 
 individuals who may, for a time, captivate a man's 
 reason, but which, in the nature of things, can really 
 produce only middling specimens." 
 
 "Admirable," cried Genji. "But, tell me this. 
 In which of your three divisions would you put the 
 96
 
 A Rainy Night Entertainment 
 
 decayed gentlewomen, and the parvenues ? It seems 
 to me that, from different points of view, both may 
 appear to belong to the highest." 
 
 Chiujio was about to reply, but, just at this point, 
 the sliding screens were pushed apart, and the Master 
 of the Horse and the Secretary to the Master of the 
 Ceremonies * entered the room, and he referred the 
 question to the former. 
 
 After meditating for a moment, the Master of the 
 Horse seated himself upon a cushion, and with be- 
 coming gravity delivered his opinion. " Poor gentle- 
 women, and those newly ennobled, belong," said he, 
 " to Chiujio's middle class, in which class, too, I 
 would include the daughters of deputy-governors of 
 provinces, who are now and then introduced at Court, 
 and are frequently not without attractions. But, as 
 for perfection, if found at all, it will perhaps be in 
 the most unlikely conditions. Within some ruinous 
 enclosure, choked with weeds, and forgotten by the 
 world," he opined, "there may possibly be dis- 
 covered a charming creature, of unimagined beauty, 
 refined and gentle, an accomplished poetess and 
 musician. But then, her father may be a robust and 
 stern old man, and her brothers truculent and repul- 
 sive bullies. Still, should such an one exist, she 
 
 * Most of the characters in the book are spoken of by their titles, 
 not by their names. 
 
 Q7
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 would," he thought, " deserve the attention of all but 
 the most exalted young gentlemen." 
 
 At this, Mr. Secretary, who also had taken a seat 
 by the lamp, was observed to change countenance. 
 In fact, he imagined that he detected in the speech a 
 covert allusion to his own pretty sisters, who were 
 suffered by him to vegetate in poverty. Genji, per- 
 ceiving his embarrassment, and divining the cause, 
 set him at ease by uttering a few words about the ex- 
 traordinary conditions attached to this supposititious 
 case ; and then, seeing that the speaker was prepar- 
 ing to launch forth upon a long moral discourse, shut 
 his eyes and composed himself to sleep. 
 
 But the Master of the Horse was now mounted upon 
 his hobby, and nothing could shake him off. He 
 gravely pursued his course, and described in turn the 
 mock-modest woman, the over-sentimental, the dull 
 and unsympathetic. He pictured the virago who 
 fiercely berates her wretched partner for some fancied 
 inconstancy, and her rarer opposite, who instead of 
 complaining of the annoyances to which a thoughtless 
 husband may have subjected her, runs away to the 
 mountains, or, worse yet, to a convent, where she 
 soon learns to regret the world she has left behind. 
 
 Carried away by his own eloquence, the speaker, 
 who had shortly before been made Doctor of Litera- 
 ture, and who was " showing off his fine feathers,"
 
 A Rainy Night Entertainment 
 
 announced the novel principle that, in women as in 
 the arts, mere cleverness, fashionable extravagance, 
 and display should not be accounted admirable, and, 
 having lost himself in the mazes of his rhetoric, sud- 
 denly stopped short. To cover his confusion, he 
 asked permission to relate an adventure of his own. 
 Anticipating assent, he moved forward his cushion, 
 and Genji opportunely awoke* 
 
 "At a time," began the Master of the Horse, 
 " when I was in a yet more humble position than that 
 which I now unworthily occupy, I loved a girl who 
 was such as I have described not at all points ad- 
 mirable. For that excellent reason, coxcomb that I 
 was, I did not think of her as a life companion, but 
 considered my intercourse with her an agreeable 
 pastime, which I was free to vary by seeking similar 
 amusement elsewhere. She, however, was of a 
 fiercely jealous temper, which, in the circumstances, 
 I could not but regard as a serious blemish. Still, 
 she was so devoted to me, notwithstanding my pov- 
 erty, that I forgave her everything. In time I be- 
 came really attached to her, and then, instead of 
 mending my manners, I began to entertain the idea 
 that perhaps she might be cured of her jealousy. 
 Surely, thought I, devoted as she is, if I pretend to 
 grow cooler, she will take warning. I therefore be- 
 haved rather worse than usual, to which she objected 
 99
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 with more than her customary warmth. That gave 
 me the opportunity that I had desired, and I read 
 her a solemn lecture on the propriety of patience, and 
 followed it up with a threat never again to see her if 
 her jealous rages continued. On the other hand, if 
 she would only act as I wished, as she would then be 
 perfection itself, I could not think of straying from 
 her. And, as my circumstances were likely to im- 
 prove, we might be completely happy. 
 
 " To my surprise, this just and reasonable proposi- 
 tion, the result of much careful thought, she rejected 
 with indignation. It was a small matter, she said, to 
 put up with my mean condition ; but to be obliged 
 to wait from day to day for me to return to a sense 
 of what was due to her was more than she could 
 longer undertake to bear. Few words were best ; if 
 I did not at once reform, she would be driven to the 
 conclusion that we had better part. This was so con- 
 trary to what I had expected and desired, that it 
 threw me into a fit of anger. I had but wished to 
 correct her one great failing, I declared, and, giving 
 way to my emotions, I overwhelmed her with re- 
 proaches. The vixen responded by flying into a yet 
 more violent passion ; then, becoming quite beside 
 herself, she suddenly seized my hand, and, before I 
 could guess her intention, bit off a joint of my little 
 finger." 
 
 IOO
 
 A Rainy Night Entertainment 
 
 Needless to say, the unlucky Master of the Horse 
 gave over his experiment. He left his too vivacious 
 charmer, and, though he afterward made an unsuc- 
 cessful attempt to reclaim her, he contrived, for a 
 time, to find consolation with the one on whose ac- 
 count she had given way to such a regrettable fit of 
 passion. 
 
 " My second flame," he continued, "was a poet- 
 ess and a musician of talent, both gifts that I appre- 
 ciate highly. Indeed, I may say she was no ordinary 
 person. Still, she had her faults, and they were yet 
 more serious than those of my first love. You shall 
 judge. I had long been on excellent terms with her, 
 and was becoming a little careless, when, one fine 
 autumn evening, I happened to be driving out on a 
 visit to a high official, and was joined on the way by 
 a young nobleman of my acquaintance. The youth 
 confided to me that he was in a hurry, for ' it would 
 not do to keep a lady waiting.' The road skirted a 
 park in which was her residence, and an ornamental 
 lake that reflected the moonlight shone through the 
 embrasures of the wall. The scene was one which 
 might well awaken sentiment. I could not shut my 
 heart against its seductions ; I forgot my errand, dis- 
 mounted, and entered the gateway. Within, in a 
 sort of portico, my young friend was seated on a 
 mat, rapt in a poetic reverie. His eyes were raised
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 to the stars, his nostrils inhaled the rich perfume of 
 the chrysanthemums in the garden, while a gentle 
 breeze caused to flutter down about him the reddened 
 leaves of the maples. I might have been miles away ; 
 he was unaware of my presence. I, for my part, 
 was equally lost in amazement when, taking a flute 
 from his bosom, he began to play the air of a love- 
 song with which I had good reason to be familiar. 
 He paused. In a moment the air was taken up from 
 a distance with a soft strain upon the koto, so admir- 
 ably played that there could be no room for doubt as 
 to the performer. 
 
 "Quitting his seat, the youngster moved forward 
 with an air of mingled timidity and assurance that, 
 somehow, made me quite angry, stopping every now 
 and then to pluck a flower, to repeat a stanza, or to 
 gaze, like one entranced, upon the moon ; while the 
 unseen fair one exchanged the koto for a more seduc- 
 tive instrument, and played more passionate, more 
 languorous melodies. At last he disappeared among 
 the shadows of the garden, like a spirit in a dream. 
 Well ! He was in the right to be happy ; she was an 
 admirable musician. But though I, too, am a lover 
 of the art, I derived little pleasure from it on that 
 occasion. I can conceive that one might still keep 
 up a flirtation with such a woman if she were one of 
 those of the Court, whom we have seldom an oppor- 
 
 102
 
 A Rainy Night Entertainment 
 
 tunity to meet in private ; but, even in that case, we 
 should not regard her as approaching our ideal. 
 
 "Think, then," he continued, " how little reliance 
 is to be placed in women. Either they are too jeal- 
 ous, or they themselves furnish grounds for jealous 
 suspicions. Like lotus leaves floating before the wind, 
 like dew on the lespedeza blossom, or hailstones among 
 the bamboo grass, they delight us for a moment, but 
 their charm disappears as soon as they are touched. 
 The wisest course is to avoid them altogether. If you 
 do not now believe me, you will when another seven 
 years shall have passed over your heads. You will 
 then know, perhaps but too well, that these romantic 
 escapades of youth result in nothing but a damaged 
 reputation." 
 
 Chiujio nodded, as one competent to bear witness 
 to the justice of the speaker's remarks ; and forgetting 
 his usual caution, volunteered to support them with a 
 story of his own. Nothing could have more delighted 
 Genji, who had in vain essayed to draw him out. 
 But he had not proceeded far before his feelings over- 
 powered him, and he utterly broke down. In his 
 case the lady had been neither jealous nor fickle ; she 
 had never bit his finger nor listened to another ad- 
 mirer. In fact, she had shown such unfailing 
 patience with his irregularities that they had insen- 
 sibly become such as he himself could not excuse. 
 103
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 At last she had sent him as a farewell gift a bunch of 
 wild pinks, and had departed, leaving no clew by 
 which he might hope to discover her. When he had 
 sufficiently recovered himself, "Who, indeed, are we 
 to select?" he sadly asked. "All this variety, all 
 this perplexing difficulty of choice ; and yet, it seems 
 to be inevitable that, whatever choice we make, it 
 turns out for the worse. Are we, then, to fix our 
 thoughts upon some heavenly goddess ? Alas ! that, 
 again, were only superstitious folly." 
 
 A general outburst of laughter greeted this last ob- 
 servation ; and the Secretary was asked to relate 
 something in his turn. He was loath to respond, and 
 had to be spurred on by repeated solicitations ; but, 
 when he had finished "Fie! What a devil of a 
 woman," cried Genji ; and, snapping their fingers, 
 the company unanimously demanded ' ' a better 
 story." The Secretary, however, had no other to 
 tell, and the conversation relapsed into generalities. 
 
 While the rain drummed upon the tiles and plashed 
 in the broad gravelled spaces without, the trio of con- 
 noisseurs decided upon the accomplishments, the vir- 
 tues, the beauties that they would require were they 
 called upon to select from all creation the most perfect 
 woman. She should have some learning, but not 
 enough to be vain of. She should be gentle, but not 
 too submissive. She should be able to turn a verse, 
 104
 
 A Rainy Night Entertainment 
 
 but should not be constantly scribbling when more 
 important matters claim her attention. Above all, 
 she should never, like the Secretary's strong-minded 
 sweetheart, assert a right to ignore the elementary 
 rules of propriety. Genji, meanwhile, occupied him- 
 self in mentally picturing a fair creature in whom all 
 these various attributes were happily united, and de- 
 termined that, as soon as the special fast was over, he 
 would begin to search for her in that middle class of 
 poor gentlewomen, parvenues, and daughters of dep- 
 uty-governors, of which his brother-in-law and the 
 Master of the Horse had spoken, and with which so 
 far he had had little or no acquaintance. 
 
 105
 
 FURTHER ADVENTURES OF PRINCE GENJI 
 
 A FIRST search made Genji acquainted with a lady 
 who repelled all his advances in such a way as to leave 
 him no excuse for further pursuit. He endeavored to 
 console himself with the reflection that he would out- 
 live her husband, who was an old and ugly deputy- 
 governor ; but the man persisted in living, survived 
 Genji's passion, and won his esteem. He was more, or, 
 as it turned out, less fortunate in another quarter, and 
 got in the way of driving out to the Rokujio suburb 
 to visit a lady who had a magnificent residence there. 
 
 On one of these occasions it occurred to him that 
 he had not for a long time seen his old nurse, who, 
 he had been informed, had entered upon a life of re- 
 ligious retirement in her son's house, in the vicinity. 
 He therefore abandoned his projects for the even- 
 ing, and turned in that direction. No one expecting 
 him, the gate was closed, and it was some time before 
 the key could be found. Meanwhile, Genji, looking 
 about him from his carriage, saw behind the lattices 
 of a neighboring dwelling some young women who 
 106
 
 Further Adventures of Prince Genji 
 
 were evidently, on their side, observing him. The 
 house was of the poorer sort, but a white-flowered 
 convolvulus grew luxuriantly over the trellis, and 
 beautified the squalid place with its blossoms. Genji 
 hummed a verse of an old song : 
 
 " Tell me, traveller, 
 What flower is't that blossoms 
 Beside you, yonder ? " 
 
 " Sir, it is the evening glory," replied one of his 
 attendants ; and Genji promptly sent the man to ask 
 for some. He returned with a fan on which was laid 
 a bunch of the white flowers ; and Koremitz, the 
 nurse's son, coming at the moment with the key, the 
 carriage was driven into the court-yard. 
 
 In conversation with his old nurse, Genji forgot 
 about the blossoms ; but, on taking leave, he remem- 
 bered that he had noticed some writing on the fan 
 that had been sent with them, and, looking at it in 
 the lamplight, he found some verses in a delicate 
 handwriting traced on the white paper. The circum- 
 stance surprised him, for there was nothing to indi- 
 cate that the house was inhabited by people of refine- 
 ment. It may well be, thought he, that here lives the 
 ideal fair one described by the Master of the Horse, and 
 he sent a suitable reply by Koremitz, whom he com- 
 missioned to find out all he could about his neighbors. 
 107
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 Koremitz was zealous, as much from a native love 
 of intrigue as from a desire to please Genji. He soon 
 discovered that a young lady, with a maid and a little 
 girl, were staying at the house, and learned something 
 of their history. He told Genji (but this was his own 
 invention) that they were often visited by a gentle- 
 man; a general it appeared; and, in short, from one 
 circumstance and another, he had established his iden- 
 tity, and it was no other but Chiujio. ''What ! " 
 cried Genji, "the fellow has better luck than he de- 
 serves ; for, plainly, he has found his runaway ; " and 
 his interest in the case was, as Koremitz intended it 
 should be, greatly increased. He began, then, taking 
 the most elaborate precautions against discovery 
 (which greatly amused the sly Koremitz) to pay court 
 to the lady, and soon thought he had reason to 
 felicitate himself upon the progress he was making, 
 never dreaming, all the while, that there was really 
 no Chiujio in the way. He invariably delayed his 
 visits until after dark, and came so carefully disguised 
 that everybody about the place knew he was some 
 great personage. But they humored his evident de- 
 sire to remain incognito, being satisfied with Kore- 
 mitz's assurances that he was a young gentleman of 
 means and position who was not yet at liberty to 
 choose for himself. 
 
 But the very fact that Chiujio never appeared to 
 1 08
 
 Further Adventures of Prince Genji 
 
 trouble him, and that nobody spied upon him or asked 
 him inconvenient questions, gave rise in Genji's mind 
 to more extravagant fears of detection. There was 
 no telling when he might run against his rival, who 
 might create a scandal, or wait his time and take a 
 sudden vengeance. Genji was, indeed, so careful 
 to preserve appearances that, as our authoress re- 
 marks, " he can hardly be said to have accomplished 
 anything downright marvellous : a fact which would 
 have moved to scorn the heroes of earlier romances. ' ' 
 He resolved, then, to remove Evening Glory, as he 
 called her, to some place where they would be less 
 open to observation. 
 
 It was late one night in August when he came to 
 carry out this resolution. The moon shone through 
 the cracks in the old paper screens that served for 
 walls to the cottage. The neighboring farmers were 
 already up, though it was yet long before dawn, and 
 were talking to one another about the weather, the 
 crops, and the markets on their way to work. From 
 a distance came the noise of flails, and of the bleacher's 
 mallet. The light foliage of a tuft of bamboos, in 
 the space before the door, glistened with dew. A 
 cricket was singing in some cranny, and, overhead, a 
 flock of wild-geese was heard flying past. 
 
 These unwonted sights and sounds so impressed 
 Genji, to whom life outside the palace walls was an 
 109
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 unopened book, and the girl, in her cheap purple 
 dress, looked so frail, and so much in harmony with 
 her surroundings, that he thought it a pity to take 
 her away. " Will she bear transplanting ? " he asked 
 himself. But she had consented to go with him, and 
 he could not withdraw from the arrangement. The 
 maid was to go with them. 
 
 They were getting into the carriage, when an old 
 man in a neighboring hut began to pray aloud. 
 " What can he be praying for? " asked Genji ; "his 
 day will soon be over." " O ! Divine Guide of the 
 Future, ' ' muttered the old fellow, invoking Buddha ; 
 and it seemed like a reply to his question. Genji fell 
 into a reverie on the limitless round of existences that 
 lies before us ; but the incident appeared to give rise 
 to serious reflections on the part of his fair companion 
 also, and, rousing himself, he pressed her to exchange 
 vows of eternal love and fidelity. She, however, 
 could not be stimulated to cheerfulness, and would 
 give no promise. 
 
 They were not far on their way when the moon set 
 in a fog which had risen from the rice fields and hid 
 the embankment along which they were travelling. 
 The carriage blinds had been drawn up, and their 
 sleeves were wet with the mist. Genji began to feel 
 depressed ; and the girl was sunk in melancholy. He 
 plied her with questions as to her past, which did not
 
 Further Adventures of Prince Genji 
 
 tend to raise her spirits, but the contrary. The 
 only answer he could gain was a verse of an old bal- 
 lad, which she repeated in a low tone : 
 
 " Like the lonely moon 
 I wander o'er the mountains ; 
 
 Whether true or false 
 My love be, now, I know not, 
 For clouds have come between us." 
 
 It was the first time she had alluded (so Genji 
 imagined) to Chiujio ; and he pressed her no further. 
 
 The steward, who was in charge of the house that 
 Genji had selected, had received no notice of their 
 coming. The few domestics were asleep, and they 
 could get nothing but rice gruel for breakfast. The 
 place was encircled by gloomy pine woods; the 
 garden had been suffered to grow wild, and the pond 
 was filled with weeds. The day wore away. 
 Toward evening the air became oppressively still. 
 Genji, more than ever distracted, thought, " Now the 
 Emperor is asking for me ; now the Lady of Rokujio 
 is expecting me; could she know where I am and in 
 what company, how furious she would be ! " He 
 grew more and more restless and apprehensive, and 
 the girl remained "sad as the weed in the creek." 
 
 Night came on, and Genji fell asleep to dream of 
 the jealous woman of Rokujio, threatening and up-
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 braiding him. He awoke in a tremor, with a feeling 
 that some one had actually entered the room. He 
 drew his sword, and called the maid. Her mistress's 
 sleep appeared to be disturbed, she said : she was 
 often troubled with nightmare. Genji aroused two 
 of his men, one of whom went to procure a light, 
 while the other paced through the corridors, twang- 
 ing his bowstring and shouting " Look out for fire ! " 
 to scare off the demon. 
 
 Meanwhile the poor girl had grown rapidly worse, 
 and, at last, had sunk into unconsciousness. Genji, 
 to whom this experience was totally new, could think 
 of nothing but foxes and demons, and wished that a 
 priest were by to exorcise them. He sent for Kore- 
 mitz and his brother, who was in orders ; but 
 neither came. Suddenly the girl grew rigid; and, 
 at the same moment, the figure of the Lady of Roku- 
 jio, that he had seen in his dream, passed before his 
 eyes. "Oh!" he cried, "this is like the wicked 
 phantoms in old tales!" He took the girl's hand 
 and called to her. She was dead. 
 
 Neither Koremitz nor his brother had yet appeared. 
 The maid, Ukon, had fallen upon the mats, crying ; 
 and Genji began to fear that the mysterious apparition 
 might claim her, also, as a victim. The night was 
 stormy. The wind sighed among the pines and made 
 the lamp flicker ; and he fancied that the sliding 
 112
 
 Further Adventures of Prince Genji 
 
 screens that formed the walls of the room opened and 
 closed of themselves to admit ghostly visitors. He 
 was sure that the apparition which he had seen was 
 the revengeful double of his other mistress. This 
 sort of phantom, he had been told, could leave the 
 sleeping body to which it belonged, and put in action 
 malicious thoughts of which the owner was scarcely 
 conscious. 
 
 Day, at last, dawned, and Koremitz arrived, but 
 without the priest, who had returned to his monas- 
 tery. The man was as young as his master, and as 
 new to such a situation. Between them, they could 
 contrive no better than to take the corpse, while it 
 was yet dusk, and without awaking the steward or 
 his family, to a convent in the mountain close by, 
 where the nuns were accustomed to receive the dead, 
 and where Koremitz had an acquaintance upon 
 whom he could rely. This Koremitz undertook to 
 do by himself, making use of Genji's carriage ; he 
 packed his master off home, where the latter denied 
 himself to all comers on the plea that he had become 
 "unclean" by unwittingly passing too near a dead 
 body. 
 
 The next day he could not be restrained from 
 
 proceeding to the convent. Koremitz guided him 
 
 there, by an unfrequented path, after nightfall. 
 
 They forded the river Kamo, passed the lonely grave- 
 
 113
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 yard of Toribeno, and approached the convent, which 
 was perched on a steep eminence at a considerable 
 height above the plain. A few lights shone dimly 
 through the paper walls, which made the place look 
 like a huge lantern lost amid the trees and rocks. 
 The services were over in the neighboring temples, 
 and in the deep stillness they could hear distinctly 
 each word of the prayers for the dead which a female 
 voice was repeating. 
 
 It was Ukon who was reading beside the body with 
 her back to the lamp. From her Genji learned the 
 facts of Evening Glory's short existence. She was 
 daughter of a general who had squandered his fortune 
 in trying to advance his ambition. After his death 
 she had fallen in with Chiujio ; but the threats which 
 his family had secretly conveyed to her alanned her 
 so that she had concealed herself from him where 
 Genji had found her. So much Koremitz had been 
 told ; he added that Chiujio had re-discovered her 
 in order to inflame Genji's curiosity and incite him 
 to rivalry. Genji's carriage had been mistaken for 
 Chiujio's by the maid ; hence the present of flowers. 
 She had never varied in her affections, and had re- 
 garded Genji only as a friend and protector. Her 
 reticence had been due to his own absurd pre- 
 cautions ; he had not seen fit to discover himself, 
 and she but imitated his reserve. 
 114
 
 Further Adventures of Prince Genji 
 
 There was about this time at Court a lively maiden 
 named Tayu, who was aware of Genji's liking for 
 extraordinary acquaintances, and who had a friend, 
 poor, proud, ugly, timid, and unprotected, to whom 
 the prince's favor, could she gain it for her, might 
 prove a beginning of good fortune. Tayu, as clever 
 as she was disinterested, readily excited Genji's curi- 
 osity by telling him of the Princess Hitachi's modest 
 bearing, her skill in music and other accomplish- 
 ments, and her beauty, which appeared all the 
 brighter from its contrast with her sad condition. 
 She dwelt alone in an old mansion fast falling into 
 decay, in the midst of grounds once beautiful, now 
 wild enough to be the abode of a wood devil. 
 Newly enriched ex -governors, anxious to cut a figure 
 at the capital, had made her excellent offers for the 
 estate, but her pride would not suffer her to part with 
 it. Neither would she sell her ancient furniture, 
 much of which was so old as to be valuable from its 
 rarity. She despised as lowborn upstarts the fash- 
 ionable people who tried to induce her to sell them 
 her treasures. Her only visitor was her brother, an 
 eccentric old priest, as poor and proud as herself; 
 and the two would beguile the time together by read- 
 ing over the old treatises, the ancient romances, and 
 poems with which her mouldering book-shelves were 
 stocked.
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 Here was a romantic case, indeed ! What more 
 could a professed seeker of adventures desire ? But 
 the termination of the affair with Evening Glory was 
 still too fresh in Genji's mind for him to be easily led 
 into a new scrape of the sort. 
 
 The artful Tayu, however, was not discouraged. 
 She kept on sounding her friend's praises at every 
 opportunity, and when, at length, Genji expressed a 
 desire to see the princess, began to throw difficulties 
 in the way ; but when he seemed willing to drop the 
 matter, she spurred him on with fresh inducements. 
 She had quite as much trouble with her princess, 
 whose consciousness of her own awkward manners 
 and want of even ordinary attractions, made her a 
 peculiarly difficult subject to manage. When, at last, 
 the two were brought together, Tayu contrived that 
 her friend's shortcomings should not be too obvious. 
 Still, it was long before she could prevail upon 
 Genji to go a second time. One evening, after she 
 had been teasing him to no purpose, the fancy seized 
 him to make a call alone. Snow had begun to fall, 
 and the foolish princess, with no Tayu to guide her, 
 stepped out upon the balcony to watch it. Genji 
 followed, and had a good opportunity to notice the 
 defects of figure, face, and carriage which Tayu, on 
 their first meeting, had skilfully concealed. She 
 was, indeed, the type of those meagre princesses of 
 1x6
 
 Further Adventures of Prince Genji 
 
 Japanese popular art, whose long, expressionless faces 
 are ornamented with noses of startling proportions 
 tinged at the extremity with pink. Genji mentally 
 compared this feature to the trunk of the elephant of 
 Fugen, * which, the holy books say, is like a red 
 lily. Her movements were stiff and constrained, and 
 her tall and languid figure seemed scarcely able to 
 bear the weight of her old-fashioned garments of silk 
 and sable. " But why be so critical ? " thought he, 
 ' ' and why not rather seek out her good points ? 
 She is not without them. It cannot be denied, for 
 instance, that her modesty is so great as to be almost 
 embarrassing. ' ' His resentment at the trick that had 
 been played upon him gave way to pity. " You are 
 a lucky girl," he soliloquized on his departure, " for, 
 if I were like other people, I should have little sym- 
 pathy for you ; ' ' and he determined to send her, at 
 once, workmen to put the place in repair, brocade 
 for dresses, and some rolls of cloth for her servants. 
 "I must see to it also," thought he, " that an allow- 
 ance is made to her by the Emperor. There are 
 many less deserving recipients of his bounty." 
 
 In this mood, a wild orange-tree near the broken 
 
 gate, which the starved porter had some difficulty in 
 
 opening, caught his eye. It was laden with the snow 
 
 that had fallen heavily during his stay, and the frail 
 
 * Samatabhadra, a disciple of Buddha. 
 
 117
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 branches threatened to break beneath the weight. 
 He ordered one of his men to shake it off. The 
 motion communicated itself to the branches of a pine- 
 tree that was standing by, and from them also the 
 snow slid off "like a wave." To the apt reader, 
 the incident conveys a moral. Genji's kindness to 
 the ugly princess which was " as the reflection of the 
 starry heavens in a bowl of water," had relieved him 
 in like manner of the load of remorse that he had in- 
 curred by his thoughtless dealings with Chiujio's 
 sweetheart, and showed him in some degree worthy 
 of the supreme good fortune that was in store for him. 
 When Tayu took him in hand, he was but just 
 recovered from a severe illness brought on by his 
 exposure to the night-air on the occasion of his visit 
 to the convent. To complete his cure, a famous 
 hermit of Mount Kurama, who was said to be more 
 successful than others in casting out the evil spirits 
 that cause disease, was sent for. But he excused 
 himself on the score of his great age, being now too 
 old and feeble to travel to Kioto. The prince, there- 
 fore, went to the hermit, and, out of regard for the 
 holy man's reputation, which might suffer if he failed 
 to effect a cure, he took but a few attendants with 
 him, and set out as privately as possible. Up to 
 this time, Genji had never been so far from the city, 
 and the mountain scenery was a revelation to him. 
 118
 
 Further Adventures of Prince Genji 
 
 The cherry-trees were still in bloom, though it was 
 past their flowering season in the capital. They 
 found the saint in his cave ; he received them 
 warmly, and gave his patient a talismanic prescrip- 
 tion to swallow. That done, Genji enjoyed the 
 view from the terrace before the cave, while the her- 
 mit proceeded with his exorcisms. 
 
 The scene included a great part of the plain as 
 well as a distant view of the city, but Genji was most 
 attracted by a pretty cottage on the side of the 
 mountain, a little below where he stood. It was 
 surrounded by a picturesque garden in which a lady 
 and a little girl were taking the air. After spending 
 the day in prayer, the hermit desired him to stay 
 that night at the temple, close by, and be further 
 prayed for. To this Genji assented, but the evening 
 was long, and the conversation of the good monks 
 was tedious ; so, making some excuse, he stole out 
 again, and, under cover of the increasing darkness, 
 took a nearer view of the cottage and its garden. A 
 room at the western end of the house was open to 
 the air, and before an image of Buddha a nun was 
 reading aloud the evening service. Though appar- 
 ently only about forty years of age, her voice trem- 
 bled, and she looked like one at the point of death. 
 The child that Genji had already noticed ran in and 
 out, and the nun occasionally interrupted her devo- 
 119
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 tions to speak to her. From what he overheard of 
 their talk Genji gathered that the nun was anxious 
 about the little one's future. The master of the 
 house who was a priest attached to the temple, came 
 in to announce that he had just heard of the prince's 
 arrival, and was about to pay his respects to him ; so 
 Genji, determining that the interview should not 
 end without his securing an invitation, returned as 
 quickly as possible to the monastery. 
 
 The priest was proud to conduct him back again, 
 and to show him all the windings of a little stream 
 that ran through his garden, now lit up with lanterns. 
 The good man talked by the way so eloquently of 
 great things and little, that he touched his hearer's 
 heart. " How much better it were to live simply 
 and calmly like this priest, than as I have been liv- 
 ing," said Genji to himself; " especially if I had 
 such a pretty girl as I have seen this evening to edu- 
 cate." He had unconsciously hit upon the only way 
 in which he might secure his ideal. 
 
 The priest gave him some account of the little 
 one's parentage, and of the reasons that had led his 
 sister, the nun, to take charge of her. In brief, her 
 mother was dead, and her father, a prominent man 
 at Court, was both unfit and disinclined to care for 
 her properly. Remembering the nun's feeble con- 
 dition, Genji thought he might possibly gain posses- 
 
 120
 
 Further Adventures of Prince Genji 
 
 sion of the child, and sounded her guardians on the 
 matter ; but they politely declined his offers of pro- 
 tection. He felt, however, that it would be wrong 
 to permit her father to assume authority over her. 
 The nun dying, some weeks later, he secretly carried 
 her away. In the young Violet, as her character un- 
 folded itself, Genji found united all the qualities that 
 he had admired, or the lack of which he had re- 
 gretted in so many others. In short, she grew to be 
 the ideal woman pronounced undiscoverable by the 
 philosophers, his friends. As the name of this para- 
 gon is the same as the author's,* some cynical com- 
 mentators have supposed that in Genji's Violet she 
 has presented us with a picture of her own perfections. 
 Murasaki does not quit her hero at this point in 
 his career. The great length of her romance was, 
 doubtless, one of its chief recommendations in an age 
 of few books. She follows Genji in his voluntary 
 exile at Suma, made necessary by many indiscretions, 
 of which his abduction of the young Violet was the 
 least; and in his triumphant return when, his first 
 wife having died, he married her ; and all through 
 his later life of ambition and public usefulness. His 
 character, as she draws it, is consistently inconsist- 
 ent. Genji is clever, but vacillating ; patient in mis- 
 fortune, but reckless in prosperity; generous to his 
 * Murasaki = Violet.
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 friends and bearing no malice against his enemies, 
 yet unjust at times to both alike ; open to high in- 
 fluences, yet more often ruled by others of an unwor- 
 thy nature. This fidelity to real life is shown also 
 in her sketches of other characters, in the pious old 
 gentleman at Akashi, who so long rejected all offers 
 of marriage for his daughter that it was supposed he 
 expected some god to take pity on her, and in the 
 cold and haughty lady Hollyhock, and the vindictive 
 lady of Rokujio quarrelling over places from which 
 to view a court procession. It is what gives her 
 work its lasting value, and will yet, perhaps, gain 
 her a place among the world's greatest female writers. 
 
 122
 
 XI 
 
 HORRIFIC EXPLOITS OF YORIMITSU 
 
 A POPULAR tale, as distinct from myth and from 
 literary fiction, cannot arise until there is a populace. 
 Japan does not appear to have produced anything of 
 the sort until the cultivated society of the Court had 
 become widely separated from the mass of settled and 
 more or less intelligent citizens. At Nara the entire 
 population seems to have held practically the same 
 beliefs, prejudices, and opinions, to have been ani- 
 mated by the same sentiments, and possessed of the 
 same tastes. As yet, citizen and courtier were al- 
 most convertible terms, and no general fusion of the 
 dominant race with the aborigines had occurred. In 
 the literature of Kioto we find for the first time fre- 
 quent references to class distinctions, and expressions 
 of surprise at any appearance of refinement in the 
 lower grades of society. But by the end of the tenth 
 century the people had begun to form a literature of 
 their own, which continued slowly to develop as that 
 of the Court sank into decay. A few of the earlier 
 folk-tales have survived, loaded with many additions, 
 123
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 but unchanged in essence. The most celebrated of 
 these has for its hero Yorimitsu of the Minamoto, a 
 descendant of Genji and contemporary of Madame 
 Murasaki. It exhibits a vulgar ideal whose elements 
 are derived, indeed, from the more grewsome of the 
 ancient myths, from Buddhist legends, and the more 
 artistic fictions that amused the Court, but which on 
 the whole differs greatly from anything that appears 
 in them. There is in it no effort to make fable sub- 
 serve a serious purpose ; no ironical criticism of cur- 
 rent beliefs and assumptions. The story is told for 
 pure delight in the grotesque. The hero is known 
 to have been employed by the Emperor Murakami, in 
 A.D. 947, to exterminate a powerful band of brigands 
 who had their headquarters in the wooded and moun- 
 tainous province of Tamba, not far from the capital. 
 On this fact the principal legend connected with him 
 is founded. But like many of our heroes of chivalry, 
 Yorimitsu is but a shadowy figure, who generally 
 remains in the background while one or other of 
 his four squires performs deeds of desperate valor in 
 the foreground. Each of these is, or has been, the 
 centre of a group of legends ; and we hear of Kintoki 
 as a boy in the forest of Ashigara amusing himself by 
 pulling a fat bear about by the tail ; and of Tsuna how 
 he once delivered his chief out of the toils of a demon 
 spider. Of Suyetada and Sadamichi we hear com- 
 124
 
 Horrific Exploits of Yorimitsu 
 
 paratively little. Tsuna has evidently been the favor- 
 ite with the story-tellers, and has succeeded to most 
 of the tales invented for the others. The legend of 
 the spider betrays a singular and refined taste in the 
 horrific that would charm z. fin-de-siecle story-teller. 
 
 It happened on a day that master and man Yori- 
 mitsu and Tsuna were riding across the moor of 
 Rendai, thinking, belike, of nothing, when they sud- 
 denly became aware of a small white cloud floating in 
 the azure sky above them. Now, it is nothing un- 
 common to see a single cloud in a clear summer sky ; 
 but this one had features that might well attract the 
 notice of a knight-errant and his squire out of a job. 
 Two shadowy cavities, like empty eye-sockets, opened 
 below its domed and glistening summit. Two other 
 openings appeared close together beneath, and under 
 these depended a fringe of shining cloudlets that 
 looked exactly like a row of teeth. In short, it was 
 as well-shaped a death's head as was ever carved in 
 ivory or drawn upon a Buddhist scroll. To go where 
 glory led them was the sole aim in life of our two 
 heroes. They lost not a moment in changing their 
 course and following the promising token. Toward 
 evening it brought them to a ruined habitation, sur- 
 rounded by many leagues of moor and fen, and above 
 the lonely house it melted out in air. Tsuna knocked. 
 In answer to his summons, there hobbled out an old, 
 125
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 old woman so old that she was obliged to prop her 
 drooping eyelid with her staff to take a look at them, 
 and then to support her pendant lip in the same fash- 
 ion ere she could mumble forth a welcome. But, 
 though it was with the utmost difficulty that she 
 spoke, the old lady hardly needed an invitation to tell 
 her tale. 
 
 " Here, in this house," she said," I have served 
 five generations of a great family long since extinct. 
 Oh ! I have seen many changes in my time, and this 
 was once a resplendent mansion, where heroes like 
 yourselves were sure of a hospitable welcome. Now, 
 for these many years, no one has come this way but 
 demons, who make the ruin their half-way house in 
 their nightly journeys across the waste. I doubt not 
 that some god has sent the token that you have fol- 
 lowed, in order that ye, brave gentlemen, may rid the 
 world of the monsters that have depopulated the dis- 
 trict, and enable this poor old woman to end her days 
 in peace." 
 
 Yorimitsu, on hearing this, instantly dismounted. 
 Tsuna had already done so. Demons were their 
 game ; so they hobbled their horses at some distance, 
 and let the old woman lead them to the kitchen, the 
 only room that was in tolerable repair. Here they 
 took up their quarters for the night, and awaited what 
 fate might send them in the way of an adventure. 
 126
 
 Horrific Exploits of Yorimitsu 
 
 Scarcely had they made themselves comfortable when 
 night came suddenly with a storm of wind and rain ; 
 and soon, to the distant drumming of the thunder, 
 they heard as it were the tramping of a countless army 
 marching through the dark. A goblin army : bat- 
 talions of reanimated corpses ; brigades of skeletons ; 
 legions of murdered men. All night it denied before 
 the ruin to the music of the storm ; but the Knight 
 and Squire kept their post undaunted. 
 
 The thing had grown monotonous, and they had 
 begun to consider the chances of a sortie, when toward 
 morning, a spirit left the ranks and came toward 
 them. It was attired like a nun, but its diminutive 
 body carried a head of enormous size, and two long, 
 white, thread-like arms. Yorimitsu and Tsuna put 
 themselves in a posture of defence, but the goblin only 
 laughed at them and vanished. At the same time, the 
 rearguard of the demon army swept by ; the storm 
 was dying out in the distance ; and our two adventu- 
 rers, believing their trial over, prepared for sleep. 
 
 But now appeared another spectre, not a bit re- 
 pulsive or alarming ; beautiful, on the contrary, as 
 a dream. A dream it, in fact, appeared to both of 
 them, especially to Yorimitsu, whose eyes closed upon 
 the delightful vision as it floated softly toward them. 
 But the prudent Tsuna, though sorely tempted to fol- 
 low his example, roused himself, and saw, out of the 
 127
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 corner of an eye, the lovely apparition transform it- 
 self into a huge spider, which proceeded with un- 
 imaginable celerity to weave a web of steel about his 
 sleeping master. One does not, when confronted 
 with such a sight, ask one's self or others what it may ( 
 possibly mean ; Tsuna whipped out his sword and 
 hacked away at the meshes. Yorimitsu awoke, and 
 with a lucky blow, wounded the monster. It disap- 
 peared, but left a trail of white blood behind it, fol- 
 lowing which across the threshold and out into the 
 moor, they came to the creature's den, where it 
 writhed its jointed legs convulsively over a heap of 
 human bones ; and, even while they looked, from a 
 tremendous wound in the abdomen, the work of 
 Yorimitsu's sabre, there rolled out a ghastly mass of 
 skulls. Then the cocks crew in farms far away, the 
 sun rose, and our two heroes sought the ancient dame 
 to bid her farewell. She was nowhere to be found, 
 however, and with dark surmises that she might have 
 been herself the goblin, the two resumed their journey. 
 
 It was the same Tsuna who, according to the story- 
 tellers and the blind shampooers, had the fight with 
 the ogre at the gate called Rashomon, in Kioto, which 
 cut out work for all the four squires and their chief, 
 and led to the greatest of their exploits. 
 
 In the province of Omi, which runs as a border 
 128
 
 Horrific Exploits of Yorimitsu 
 
 about Lake Biwa, there had lived a very handsome 
 but dissipated fellow whose robberies and misdeeds 
 of all sorts grew to be intolerable, so that his father- 
 in-law was forced to put an end to him. He left a son, 
 who, as soon as he was able to crawl, began where 
 his worthy father had left off. He manifested, while 
 still an infant, a tremendous capacity for drinking 
 sake, and displayed thereafter such a villainous spirit 
 that his mother took him, at seven years old, and lost 
 him in the forest of Higashi. The youngster made 
 himself quite at home there, and did not lack for 
 nurses. The tengu, wild creatures with beak -like 
 noses, dwelling in nests, and provided with wings and 
 claws, were delighted to take charge of him ; and he 
 daily grew in strength and villainy to the admiration 
 of all the ogres, wood-spirits, and outlaws lurking in 
 the wilderness. Admitted to their society, he became 
 in a short time their leader, plundering the villages 
 all about, and terrorizing the country. Driven from 
 mountain to mountain by the guardian gods, the band 
 at length settled for a while at Nishigata near Kioto. 
 But, unluckily for them, Saint Kobo Daishi, then 
 just returned from his studies in China, had been 
 commissioned by the Empress to build his monastery 
 there.* The ogres at first attempted to oppose him. 
 They caused big trees to spring up over night in the 
 * This is an anachronism, as Kobo Daishi died in 834. 
 129
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 ground that he had cleared during the day. But 
 the holy man prayed to Buddha, and the trees van- 
 ished. Forced to migrate once more, the band re- 
 tired to the mountains of Tamba, where they forti- 
 fied the approaches to their cave and recommenced 
 their depredations. 
 
 By degrees they grew so bold as to enter by night 
 the streets of the Imperial City, and carry off young 
 women and rob belated pedestrians. None knew 
 how they gained admittance. The guards appeared 
 to be vigilant, and every measure was taken for se- 
 curity ; but the brigands continued their attacks, and 
 the people became afraid to leave their houses after 
 nightfall. So matters stood when Yorimitsu came to 
 pay his respects to the new Emperor. His four 
 squires accompanied him as usual, and Tsuna, hear- 
 ing of the doings of the ogres, determined in his 
 heart that he would have a brush with them. So he 
 asked and obtained permission to keep watch at the 
 south gate, the farthest from the palace, near which 
 most of the crimes that had so alarmed the citizens 
 had been committed. At the usual hour for chang- 
 ing watch he took up his post in the guard-house. 
 Nothing happened until about midnight, when he 
 was aware of a strange drowsiness stealing over him. 
 As it grew upon him the wind blew up furiously, 
 and, nine parts asleep, he felt himself being lifted 
 130
 
 Horrific Exploits of Yorimitsu 
 
 bodily into the air by the top-knot. Notwithstand- 
 ing, the drowsy feeling gained on him so that he had 
 great difficulty in shaking it off. Making a supreme 
 effort, he succeeded in drawing his long sword, and 
 striking blindly, he was so fortunate as to lop off his 
 captor's arm clean from the shoulder. He and the 
 arm fell to the ground together. The ogre fled 
 howling through the storm, and, for that night, Kioto 
 slept in peace. 
 
 Following the advice of a wise old priest, well 
 versed in demonology, Tsuna enclosed the frightful 
 trophy in a stone coffer securely locked, while for 
 seven days and seven nights he propitiated the gods, 
 to whom the ogre might be related, by fasting and 
 prayer, in strict silence and seclusion. He had al- 
 most accomplished his penance when, on the seventh 
 night, there came a knocking at the door. " Who is 
 it ? " cried Tsuna. ''It is your poor old mother," re- 
 plied a voice without. "I have heard of your fine 
 deed of arms, and have come to congratulate you. 
 Pray let me in." Tsuna explained the necessity he 
 was under of finishing his vigil in silence and alone ; 
 but the old mother continued her entreaties. He 
 could not find it in his heart to turn her away after 
 her long journey. 
 
 Soon as admitted, however, she began to show her- 
 self extremely curious about the arm in the box.
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 " Was it real? Was it actually there ? " She had 
 often heard of such matters, but, old woman as she 
 was, she had never seen nor touched an ogre's arm. 
 Would not her brave son accord her the pleasure to 
 examine such a rare curiosity ? 
 
 Tsuna yielded. He rashly opened the chest, and 
 delivered the monstrous arm into the bony hand 
 stretched out for it. As he did so he remarked, what 
 he had not noticed before, that his mother was one- 
 handed. But he had no time to ask for an explana- 
 tion. The old woman, who was really no other than 
 the ogre, started up, and cleverly fitting the arm-bone 
 into its socket, laughed loudly, and flew out in an 
 eddy of wind by the smoke-hole. 
 
 Who then was crestfallen but our brave Tsuna ? He 
 reported the untoward occurrence to Yorimitsu, who 
 reported it to the Mikado, who ordered Yorimitsu to 
 lead at once an expedition against the ogres, and ex- 
 terminate them. It was easy talking ; but Yorimitsu 
 knew that if he set out with a large following, the 
 band would not fail to hear of his mission and would 
 decamp. Strategy was requisite in dealing with the 
 monsters. So, taking only his four lieutenants, he 
 disguised himself and them as Buddhist pilgrims, and, 
 leaving the Rashomon gate early in the morning, 
 without making known his errand to any one, he 
 struck out for the land of Tamba. Each man car- 
 132
 
 Horrific Exploits of Yorimitsu 
 
 ried in addition to his staff and bell, a bamboo bucket 
 full of sake, and instead of the priest's pack of holy 
 books, his arms stowed away in a knapsack. 
 
 They wandered for some days in the mountains 
 without finding any trace of the robbers. They 
 were beginning to think of abandoning the enterprise 
 when they were joined by a well-disposed forest god 
 in the guise of a woodcutter, who, ashamed probably 
 of the uncivil doings of his wilder relatives, guided 
 them as far as to the foot of Oeyama, where the band 
 had established their fortress. There, they presently 
 discovered a young woman washing some bloodied rai- 
 ment in a stream. She was thrall to the ogres, and, 
 after much persuasion she led them to their cavern. 
 
 Now, the demons know that priests belong in a 
 measure to the supernatural world, like themselves ; 
 and, as these priests made no preparations to begin a 
 spiritual warfare against them, but, on the contrary, 
 offered to share with them the contents of their sake 
 buckets, they were amicably received. Priests and 
 ogres held a grand carouse until the buckets were 
 emptied ; and then commenced an earth-shaking bal- 
 let. Tengu and horned demons, priests and out- 
 laws, black robe and hairy mantle, flew round and 
 about the cavern. The young woman that the 
 brigands had stolen furnished the music. 
 
 The fun was at its height, when Tsuna, engaging in 
 133
 
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 a friendly wrestling match with the chief ogre, caught 
 his hands and held them, laughing, while Yorimitsu, 
 who unperceived had got out his weapon, with a 
 sweeping stroke severed the wretch's head from his 
 neck, so neatly that the couple danced on again for 
 some seconds, the ogre with his head still in place, 
 and no whit aware of what had happened. 
 
 While the attention of the company was directed 
 to Tsuna and his partner, the other companions of 
 Yorimitsu had had time to exchange their priests' 
 gowns for armor, and to draw their weapons. And 
 now befel a slaughter great and memorable. The 
 five champions rushed upon the demons, who, though 
 numerous, were in poor condition for fighting, as 
 they had drunk the greater portion of the sake. 
 Here, an ogre's head shot up to the ceiling on a jet 
 of blood, and fell with gnashing teeth on Yorimitsu's 
 helmet. There, lay others of the band cut and 
 carved in every style. Not one escaped. The rob- 
 bers who had been left on guard by the stockade, 
 ran in to aid their comrades. Their throats were 
 cut, ribs pierced, heads broken as they came. Last, 
 the victorious knights cut down the two guards of the 
 charnel house, who had not stirred from their posts. 
 The robbers' fastness was set on fire, and, lighted by 
 its flames, and taking with them the rescued captives 
 laden with booty, they returned triumphantly to Kioto. 
 134
 
 Horrific Exploits of Yorimitsu 
 
 Such is the legend ; but now for the truth of his- 
 tory ! 
 
 Beside the bare fact of his expedition against the 
 robbers of Tamba, about the only thing known with 
 certainty concerning Yorimitsu is that he died in his 
 bed, at a good old age, in A.D. 1021. 
 
 135
 
 XII 
 FORTUNES OF THE GEN 
 
 BY the beginning of the twelfth century the two 
 great military families had completely tranquillized 
 the country, and a short period of unexampled pros- 
 perity succeeded. The Taira, the descendants of 
 the Emperor Uda's favorite, Takamochi, had cleared 
 the Inland Sea of pirates, and had restored order 
 among the turbulent southern clans, while their rivals 
 of the Gen, or Minamoto, completed the conquest of 
 northern Japan. The five Home Provinces, Yama- 
 shiro, Yamato, Kawachi. Izumi, and Settsu, had long 
 enjoyed the most profound peace. Whatever the 
 faults of the Court, the country under its immediate 
 protection was, as a rule, well governed and lightly 
 taxed. In times of dearth taxes were wholly re- 
 mitted, and we read how, on one such occasion, the 
 Emperor took up his residence in a countryman's 
 grass hut to set an example of economy to his subor- 
 dinates. In more prosperous seasons, the happy 
 peasants might be seen trotting into Kioto with their 
 tribute of rice, or silk, or yarn, bells jingling at their 
 136
 
 Fortunes of the Gen 
 
 horses' tails, and themselves arrayed in holiday at- 
 tire. 
 
 But the time was already at hand when this Uto- 
 pian state of things was to give way for over four 
 centuries to ever-increasing disorder. It was no 
 longer against Aino savages, "grass rebels;"* or 
 hunted outlaws that the warrior had to fight, but 
 against men of his own race and condition, often of 
 his own sept. The control of the Court was to be 
 the prize of contention, and the Home Provinces the 
 most frequent scene of warfare. 
 
 Excepting a few battle hymns in the " Kojiki," the 
 Japanese have no war -songs, properly so called ; but 
 the following idyls may bring before the reader, more 
 clearly than would pages of description, the nature of 
 the feudal contests that so long distressed the coun- 
 try. The sentiment of profound melancholy that 
 appears in the first is more touching than anything 
 in the earlier literature. It reveals the growth of 
 the feudal spirit, and brings us so far nearer to 
 modern feelings and ideas. The warder complains 
 at being left behind in garrison when his chief de- 
 parts on a distant and dangerous expedition. He 
 thinks of the coming winter, when the snow will 
 block the mountain-passes and cut off communication 
 
 * So called because they hid in the long grass with which the 
 moors are covered in summer. 
 
 137
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 between the castle and the force in the field. The 
 allusion in the first stanza is to the Sacred Virgin, 
 always a princess of the Imperial house, sent from 
 Kioto to the temple of Yamada, in Ise, accompanied 
 by a splendid retinue, on the accession of a new 
 Mikado. It appears that she went most of the way 
 by sea. 
 
 WAR IN AUTUMN. 
 
 Saw'st thou Ise's maid 
 
 O'er stormy seas, to exile 
 
 Carried, sick at heart ? 
 As sad the tints of Autumn 
 Through drifts of rain appearing. 
 
 Bitter is the time 
 That friend from old friend severs, 
 
 Forced to dwell apart, 
 Nor one the other aiding ; 
 
 Bitter is the day 
 That sends the loved guest homeward ; 
 
 But, of all days worst, 
 That when the faithful clansman 
 
 Sees his lord march forth. 
 
 Long, long the empty spaces 
 Wistfully he scans ; 
 For ring of armor listening, 
 Hears but the wild duck calling. 
 
 " War in Spring " describes the joy of the farmer 
 at the prospect that the scene of war is to be re- 
 138
 
 Fortunes of the Gen 
 
 moved to other fields, and that he will be permitted 
 to reap the crop that he has sown. We must 
 imagine that the bowmen and spearmen of Yoshit- 
 sune's army have just marched by along the muddy 
 roads, under the rain-filled blossoms, in hot pursuit 
 of the enemy. 
 
 WAR IN SPRING. 
 
 Sowing wide the rain, 
 The soft gray clouds foregather 
 
 In the chilly air ; 
 And weeps the ice-clad willow 
 Into the misty river. 
 
 Minamoto's lord 
 Kawadzura's routed forces 
 
 Drives through Yoshino ; 
 And, now, our heart rejoices 
 
 In the growing Spring. 
 Up on the mountain ridges, 
 
 Down the hollow glens, 
 A host of blossoms greets him. 
 
 Every wind that blows 
 Wafts far and wide their fragrance 
 And Yoshitsune's fame. 
 
 Of prose narratives of the wars there is an abun- 
 dance. The Heike Monogatari, or " Story of the 
 Heike " (Taira), and the Hogen Monogatari, or 
 "Story of the Gen," are the principal sources for 
 the historian who would treat of the first period of 
 139
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 the civil wars, that of the contest between these two 
 great families. 
 
 Among the causes that led to the outbreak was 
 the predominance in civil affairs of the Fujiwara. 
 Claiming to be as ancient as the Imperial house, 
 that family had long monopolized all the important 
 civil offices throughout the Empire, leaving the mili- 
 tary control to the Minamoto in the north, and the 
 Taira in the south. But after the complete pacifi- 
 cation of the Empire, the chiefs of both the military 
 clans came to reside in Kioto. Each was accom- 
 panied by a large following, and, their former oc- 
 cupation gone, they continually encroached on the 
 privileges of the Fujiwara. The latter had developed 
 the astute policy of inducing each successive Emperor 
 to resign and enter a monastery after a reign of a few 
 years. The occupant of the throne was seldom more 
 than a mere youth, often a child, and, though 
 theoretically his will was law, he was completely 
 under the control of his guardians and advisers, who 
 were nearly all selected from the different branches 
 of the Fujiwara. The Emperor Shirakawa, who as- 
 cended the throne at the age of twenty-one, was 
 forced to retire at thirty-five, in favor of his son, 
 Horikawa, who was made Emperor at the mature 
 age of nine. Horikawa was followed by Toba, who 
 began to reign at six, and abdicated at sixteen. 
 140
 
 Fortunes of the Gen 
 
 Shiutoku succeeded him at four years old and re- 
 tired at twenty-four, to be succeeded by Konoye, 
 also four years old, who died at seventeen. Konoye 
 adopted as his heir his elder brother, Go-Shirakawa, 
 thus threatening the dominant position of the Fuji- 
 wara. The latter, aided by part of the Minamoto, 
 endeavored to enthrone the lineal heir in disregard 
 of the late Emperor's wishes ; but the Taira espoused 
 the cause of Go-Shirakawa, and, defeating their 
 enemies in a pitched battle, seated him upon the 
 throne. Thus began the long feud between the clans. 
 
 But the new Emperor was allowed to wield no 
 more actual authority than his predecessors. Kiyo- 
 mori, the head of the Taira, following the tactics of 
 the deposed Fujiwara, usurped all the powers of the 
 government. Go-Shirakawa reigned but three years, 
 when he, also, was packed off to a monastery. An- 
 other succession of child Emperors followed. Nijo, 
 aged at his accession eighteen, died at twenty-four ; 
 Rokujo, proclaimed Emperor when scarcely one year 
 old, was deposed at four, and, after an interregnum, 
 was succeeded by Takakura, aged eight, who abdi- 
 cated at twenty-one. Antoku, the last of the puppet 
 Emperors under the Taira, began to reign at three 
 and was drowned at the sea fight of Dan-No-Ura, 
 which brought the Taira usurpation to an end. 
 
 His power established, Kiyomori treated the con- 
 141
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 quered with such excessive severity, that even those of 
 the Minamoto who had fought on his side were 
 driven to conspire against him. Their plans were 
 not allowed to ripen. The Taira set upon them in 
 the streets of Kioto, and slaughtered them almost 
 to a man. The Minamoto chieftain, Yoshitomo, 
 fled to Owari, where he was assassinated. Kiyo- 
 mori again snowed the heavy hand of the novice 
 in his measures against the remnant of the clan, and 
 filled most of the Court offices with members of his 
 family. His daughter became the consort of the 
 Emperor Takakura. His relations were appointed to 
 rule over thirty provinces. But he lived to see his 
 work almost completely undone, and the fallen fort- 
 unes of his rivals restored as by magic. 
 
 In the rout of the Minamoto one of the young sons 
 of the vanquished chieftain, Yoritomo, became sepa- 
 rated from the rest of the family. He was discovered 
 by a captain of the Taira and brought to Kioto, but 
 was saved by the intercession of Kiyomori's mother. 
 The man who had found him, one Hojo Tokimasa, 
 was permitted to rear and educate the boy, and was 
 held responsible for his conduct. Tokimasa retired 
 with his ward to his own fief at Idzu. There Yori- 
 tomo fell in love with the pretty daughter of his cap- 
 tor, Masago. But he was a politic young man, and, 
 knowing that her father intended Masago for a prom- 
 142
 
 Fortunes of the Gen 
 
 inent noble of his own clan, he deemed it prudent to 
 transfer his affections to her older sister. His letters, 
 however, were delivered by his servant to the young- 
 er, and chance and inclination together determined 
 Yoritomo upon risking an elopement with her. 
 Masago had a strong hold upon her father's affections, 
 and she quickly obtained forgiveness for herself and 
 her husband. More than that, she brought Hojo 
 over to the cause of the Minamoto. Together with 
 Yoritomo, he entered into correspondence with the 
 scattered survivors of the clan, of which his son- 
 in-law was now the head, and with the ex-Emperor 
 Go-Shirakawa, who had been sent into exile by 
 Kiyomori. 
 
 A rendezvous was appointed in the Hakone Moun- 
 tains, but only a few hundred men answered the 
 summons. They were attacked by the Taira and 
 easily defeated. Yoritomo and a few of his adher- 
 ents took refuge the night after the battle in a hollow 
 tree. He was again saved by an enemy, who, being 
 sent to search the tree, pronounced it empty. A 
 wood pigeon which had its nest in its branches, and 
 which had not been disturbed by the fugitives, flew off 
 at the approach of the searching party, and the leader 
 took that for sufficient proof that no one had preceded 
 them. A few days later Yoritomo was again in im- 
 minent danger of capture, and would have been
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 taken, had not a priest hidden him in his closet. At 
 last he got away by sea to the peninsula of Awa, 
 where he gathered a small band, and, returning to 
 the mainland, again took the field in the very scene 
 of his defeat. 
 
 Among the first to enter into Yoritomo's plans had 
 been his younger half-brother, Yoshi-Tsune. Son of 
 the murdered Yoshitomo by his mistress, a peasant 
 girl of extraordinary beauty, the tyrant at Kioto had 
 spared his life for her sake. Kiyomori thought to put 
 him out of the way by sending him to the monastery 
 of Kuramayama, near Kioto, to be educated as a 
 priest. But the "Young Ox," as the monks nick- 
 named him because of his strength and insubordi- 
 nation, refused to join their order. He escaped, 
 and, in the company of a pedlar, made his way to 
 the province ofMutsu, in the extreme north of Japan, 
 where the governor, a Fujiwara, received him into 
 his service. He now came forward to Yoritomo's 
 aid with what following he could muster among the 
 many enemies that Kiyomori's grasping policy had 
 made for him in the northern provinces. Yoritomo, 
 so reinforced, found himself at the head of a consider- 
 able army. Taught prudence by his recent reverses, 
 he intrenched himself at Kamakura, not far from the 
 site of the present capital, Tokio ; and having now 
 a secure base of operations, made ready for a forward 
 144
 
 Fortunes of the Gen 
 
 movement on Kioto. In the midst of these prepara- 
 tions, Kiyomori died, beseeching his son and suc- 
 cessor to waste no time in funeral ceremonies, but 
 lay the head of Yoritomo of the Minamoto on his 
 tomb. 
 
 At the opening of the campaign, the younger of 
 the two brothers, Yoshitsune, was in command at 
 Kamakura; Yoritomo had returned to his old re- 
 cruiting ground at Awa, east of the bay of Tokio ; 
 and his cousin, Yoshinaka, was posted with a large 
 band in the mountains of Shinano, between Kamakura 
 and the capital. At the news of Kiyomori's death, 
 Yoshinaka, without waiting for orders or reinforce- 
 ments, marched at once on Kioto. In a pitched 
 battle outside the city he defeated the much larger 
 army sent against him, and entered the capital in 
 triumph. Kiyomori's son, Munemori, the young 
 emperor, Antoku, and most of the Court escaped, and 
 Yoshinaka, construing this retreat to be equivalent to 
 an abdication, put Antoku's brother, Go-Toba, then 
 seven years old, upon the throne. His easy success 
 turned Yoshinaka's head. He arrogated to himself 
 the title of shogun (commander in chief), assumed 
 to be the power behind the throne, and prepared to 
 put down his cousins, Yoshitsune and Yoritomo. 
 The former was therefore sent from Kamakura against 
 him, Yoritomo occupying the stronghold with his 
 i45
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 new levies. Yoshinaka moved out to Fushimi, a 
 marshy place on the banks of the Yodogawa, a little 
 south of Kioto, to engage Yoshitsune's army. He 
 was defeated; and in flying from the battle-field, 
 his horse becoming mired in a rice swamp, he was 
 shot in the forehead with an arrow. 
 
 Yoshitsune was now master of the situation. He 
 did not rest upon his laurels. He turned his arms 
 against the Taira that still held out at Fukuwara, near 
 Kobe, to which place Kiyoinori had at one time re- 
 moved the capital. The place was carried by assault. 
 Munemori, who commanded, fled to the castle of 
 Yashima, which Yoshitsune also took and burned. 
 Munemori then joined his partisans of the Court in 
 Shikoku, but, fearing attack, fled by sea to Kiushiu. 
 Yoshitsune promptly collected a larger fleet and fol- 
 lowed. The Taira were overtaken at Dan-No-Ura 
 in the Straits of Shimonoseki. The battle that en- 
 sued is one of the most famous in the annals of Japan. 
 The Taira fleet was annihilated. The widow of Kiyo- 
 mori drowned herself and the boy Emperor, her 
 grandson, in order to disappoint the victors who 
 wished to take them alive. The few hundred sur- 
 vivors who managed to escape hid themselves in the 
 mountains of Kiushiu. There their descendants can 
 still be moved to tears by the itinerant story-teller 
 who recites from memory the rhythmic prose of 
 146
 
 Fortunes of the Gen 
 
 the " Heike Monogatari," the story of their great 
 disaster. 
 
 Yoshitsune was ill rewarded for his brilliant victo- 
 ries. Yoritomo seems to have feared that he might 
 play the same game as Yoshinaka, and with better 
 success. He commanded him, on his return, not to 
 enter Kamakura, but to deliver up his trophies at a 
 temple without the walls. He was obeyed, and, 
 Yoshitsune returned to Kioto. Deprived of his 
 command and followed by spies, he lived in constant 
 dread of assassination. From Kioto he retired to 
 Yoshino, and thence, with many adventures by the 
 way, fled to his old place of refuge at Mutsu. He 
 was, at first, well received, but his former protector 
 died soon after his arrival ; and his son, thinking to 
 ingratiate himself with Yoritomo, barbarously mur- 
 dered his guest. Instead of the promotion which he 
 expected, the assassin was punished for his crime by 
 Yoritomo, who, however, is not held guiltless of 
 complicity in it. 
 
 Legends still current among the Aino of Yezo as- 
 sert that Yoshitsune made good his escape to that isl- 
 and ; and thence, some believe, he passed to the 
 mainland and became famous all over Asia as the 
 great Mongol conqueror, Genghis Khan. A number 
 of circumstances lend some color of probability to 
 this belief the similarity of the names Gen and 
 i47
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 Genghis, the correspondence of dates, the Mongol 
 conqueror first becoming prominent a little after 
 Yoshitsune's disappearance, and the fact that, at the 
 height of his power, he sent an army to invade Japan. 
 But history rejects this opinion. 
 
 The battle of Dan-No-Ura was fought in A.D. 
 1185. Yoritomo died of the effects of a fall from his 
 horse in 1199. In the interval he had entirely re- 
 organized the military and judicial administration of 
 the Empire, and controlled all practical affairs of 
 government from his own stronghold, Kamakura. 
 He had obtained from the Emperor the title of 
 shogun, with the right of transmitting it to his de- 
 scendants. But scarcely was he dead when a new 
 and unlooked-for change took place. He was suc- 
 ceeded as shogun by his son, Yoshiiye, under the 
 guardianship of his grandfather, the former Taira 
 captain, Hojo Tokimasa. The latter kept a firm 
 hand on the machinery created by Yoritomo, and 
 treated his ward as the Emperors had long been 
 treated, that is to say, he ignored him in all matters 
 of importance. When Yoshiiye insisted on having a 
 share in the government, Tokimasa exiled him to a 
 monastery and there had him assassinated. His 
 younger brother, Sanetomo, was appointed shogun in 
 his stead, but Yoshiiye's son, a mere lad, murdered 
 him in revenge for his father's death, and for this was 
 148
 
 Fortunes of the Gen 
 
 himself executed. Thus ended the main line of the 
 Minamoto. 
 
 Hojo and his descendants now openly took to 
 themselves the supreme power. Still, they did 
 not assume the shogunate, but compelled the child 
 Emperors at Kioto to appoint " shadow sho- 
 guns " at Kamakura, in whose name they governed 
 the country as regents. In several cases, to secure 
 still greater freedom from responsibility, the old 
 game of resignation was resorted to, and an ex- 
 regent, from some secure monastic retreat, directed 
 the policy of the regent, who controlled the shogun, 
 who was supposed to govern as representative and 
 agent of the Emperor. 
 
 Thus the influence of the Court at Kioto was re- 
 duced to the shadow of a shade. The arts flourished 
 in the new capital of the Hojo, especially the art of 
 metal- working connected with the fabrication of arms 
 and armor. The colossal Buddha of Kamakura, 
 erected at this period, is the greatest triumph of the 
 bronze founders' art in Japan. The Mongol inva- 
 sion, already referred to, was repelled, and, on the 
 whole, the country prospered under the revived Taira 
 despotism. But literature fell almost wholly into the 
 hands of the monks, who brought into use many 
 Chinese terms, leading the way to the modern Japan- 
 ese, which is largely composed of foreign idioms. 
 149
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 Purists reject this later literature in toto, yet it in- 
 cludes some of the most characteristic products of 
 Japanese genius. To it belong the drama, the novel, 
 the principal histories ; and, in the period of the civil 
 war, the lyrical drama, evolved by the monks from the 
 old Court dances, and many curious personal narra- 
 tions like that which is reviewed in the following 
 chapter. 
 
 150
 
 XIII 
 
 KAMO NO CHOMEI'S "STORY OF MY HUT" 
 
 THE troubles and disasters of the latter half of the 
 twelfth century were nowhere more severely felt than 
 at Kioto. The unfortunate capital was frequently the 
 scene of sanguinary battles between the Taira and 
 the Minamoto. The city suffered, besides, from mis- 
 fortunes of its own. In 1177 a great conflagration de- 
 stroyed thousands of houses and part of the imperial 
 palace. A hurricane in 1180 was followed by the re- 
 moval of the Court by Kiyomori to his fortress city of 
 Fukuwara. Pestilence and famine ravaged the dis- 
 trict after the usurper's death in 1181. The year 
 of the Taira overthrow at Dan-No-Ura, 1185, was 
 marked at the capital by a tremendous earthquake. 
 Through most of these events Kamo no Chomei, son 
 of a Buddhist priest of the neighborhood, was a 
 resident in Kioto. Having lost most of his property, 
 owing to the wars, and being disappointed in his 
 hopes of preferment, he retired to the village of 
 Owari, where, he complains, he was reduced to live 
 in a cottage that could not boast of a gateway, and
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 that was scarcely a tenth as large as his ancestral 
 dwelling. There he appears to have stayed for ten 
 or a dozen years, and to have derived consolation 
 from that ready resource of the unpractical, the culti- 
 vation of the Muse. During this time Yoshinaka 
 seized Kioto, the Taira were destroyed, Yoritomo 
 became shogun, and died, leaving the power in the 
 hands of the old Hqjo Tokimasa. Chomei became 
 celebrated as a poet, and was invited in that capacity 
 to Kamakura by the shadow-shogun, Sanetomo. But 
 this good fortune came too late, or he soon tired of 
 being a witness of his patron's dissolute mode of life. 
 At the age of sixty he again left the world to pass 
 the remainder of his days in a hut that he built for 
 himself on the side of Toyama, or West Mountain, in 
 the province of Etchu. There he wrote his ' ' Hojoki ' ' 
 a most curious and interesting account of his life as 
 a hermit in that mixture of Chinese and Japanese 
 abominated by latter-day critics. 
 
 In Japan it is more respectful because less famil- 
 iar to speak of a person by the name of his dwell- 
 ing than by his proper name or title. Thus the 
 Emperor is the " Dairi," that is, "the great gate" 
 of the palace; and in Tsurayuki's journal, he, the 
 owner, is referred to as " the Ship." The custom is 
 not unknown elsewhere. In similar fashion Chomei 
 humorously identifies himself with his hut. Later 
 152
 
 Kamo no Chomei's "Story of My Hut" 
 
 the metaphor became a commonplace, and the word 
 Hojo came to be applied indifferently to a small and 
 mean dwelling or to a Buddhist priest. The " Story 
 of My Hut " is the story of Kamo no Chomei's life. 
 
 Thoreau speaks somewhere of the house as the man's 
 outer garment ; but to Chomei it was a second self. 
 He dwells on the similarity of the destinies of domi- 
 cile and inmate. Of the multitudinous roofs of the 
 great city, some, indeed, last for generations, but 
 finally fall into decay, and are torn down to make 
 room for new buildings. Their fate is shared by the 
 great families, their owners. More often the master 
 and the dwelling may be compared to a drop of dew 
 in the cup of a morning-glory flower ; no one can 
 say whether the dew will evaporate or the blossom 
 wither first ; but, in any case, what is certain is that 
 neither will long outlast the dawn. 
 
 In his account of the memorable disasters wit- 
 nessed by him (with which he points this moral) 
 occursa description of the great fire of April 28, 1177. 
 It started at night in a shed used as a temporary hos- 
 pital, and, a strong gale blowing from the south, 
 swept northward in the shape of an open fan, and 
 before morning had destroyed half the palace, the 
 college for officials, and innumerable dwellings. 
 Clouds of black smoke and showers of sparks veiled 
 the more distant parts of the city, and through them
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 the flames could be seen to leap whole blocks at a 
 time, setting new quarters in a blaze. Thousands per- 
 ished, suffocated by the smoke, crushed by falling tim- 
 bers, or burned to death, and those that survived had 
 lost all their possessions. "Foolish, indeed!" he 
 exclaims, " the man who expects to find safety in so 
 dangerous a place as a city." 
 
 The cyclone of February 28, 1180, affords him an- 
 other example of the unstable fortunes of men and 
 houses. Advancing hundreds of yards while one 
 might draw a breath, it wrecked every building in its 
 path. In some cases both walls and roof were flat- 
 tened out upon the ground ; in others the bare posts 
 only were left standing. Thatch and tiles were 
 whirled through the air like dead leaves in autumn. 
 Meanwhile the sky was obscured with dust, and the 
 roaring of the storm drowned the outcries of the vic- 
 tims, reminding him of " the wind called Go, which, 
 on the last day, will sweep all created things before it 
 into the abyss. ' ' 
 
 The removal of the Court in 1180, by the all-pow- 
 erful Kiyomori, the famine and pestilence in the fol- 
 lowing year, and the earthquake in 1185, supply 
 Chomei with further matter to moralize upon. No- 
 where could there be secure contentment so long as 
 one had anything to lose. To be in favor with the 
 powerful was to live in continual fear, "like the
 
 Kamo no Chomei's "Story of My Hut" 
 
 sparrow that builds too near the eagle's eyry." On 
 the other hand, the poor man was insulted by his 
 wealthier neighbors, and was wretched because he 
 could not afford to gratify the desires of his wife and 
 family. The townsman was exposed to such dangers 
 as he had described ; but, should he remove to the 
 country, he suffered many privations because of the 
 bad roads and the numerous robbers. All social rela- 
 tions were but further sources of injury and annoy- 
 ance. The strong oppressed the weaker ; the weak 
 undermined the stronger. One's neighbor is one's 
 enemy. To be charitable was but to surround one's self 
 with parasites. " To pursue your own way quietly is 
 to be treated like a madman ; but to be obliged to 
 act exactly as others do is not to be borne. ' ' These 
 arguments led him to the conclusion that it was best 
 to quit the world, since he could neither reconcile 
 himself to its ways nor change them for the better. 
 
 This was after his experience at Kamakura, where, 
 while he and the young shogun were composing 
 verses and laying out gardens, the crafty old Toki- 
 masa was gathering the reins of power into his own 
 hands. It was no place for an honest man who had 
 eyes in his head. He fled to the mountains, and at 
 first not feeling quite safe anywhere, wandered about 
 in the provinces of Mino and Etchu. His hut was 
 built of planks that hooked together, so that it might
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 be readily taken down and moved from place to place. 
 The floor was of earth, the roof of thatch to be ob- 
 tained everywhere. Two hired carts took him, his 
 house, and his furniture wherever he wished to go. 
 
 But when he began his book he had settled on 
 Mount Toyama, part of the wildest mountain range in 
 all Japan. He had been broken in health before 
 leaving the capital of the shogun, but now " the dew 
 of sixty years, that had been on the point of evapo- 
 rating, congealed again as on a tiny blade of grass." 
 Here, then, is an end of complaining and repining. 
 He has no idea, he says, of composing a tract for the 
 times, or of satirizing the vices and follies of the 
 world. What he writes is a simple record of years 
 passed in unaffected piety and communion with 
 nature, while in the cities about him everything 
 seemed relapsing into barbarism. 
 
 His hut, he tells us, was but ten feet square and 
 seven feet high like nothing so much as the shelter 
 that a belated traveller might knock together for the 
 night ; but it fitted him as the cocoon fits the silk- 
 worm. Other houses are constructed to suit every- 
 body but their owners ; family and servants, even 
 horses and cattle, have their share in them, but his 
 was built for him alone. 
 
 Having chosen a permanent site, he had added a 
 few conveniences. A bamboo mat, supported from 
 156
 
 Kamo no Chomei's "Story of My Hut" 
 
 the southern side of the hut, served as an awning 
 under which to take the air. A shelf attached to the 
 inner wall held an image of Buddha, placed where 
 the morning sun might strike upon its forehead. Pict- 
 ures of Fugen and Fudo * hung upon the leaves of 
 the door, and certain black boxes held his Buddhist 
 books of devotion and some volumes of old Japanese 
 poetry. Close by leaned against the wall a biwa and 
 a koto ; and, though he was but an indifferent per- 
 former, there was no one to criticise him, and he 
 could at least remind himself of the pleasure he had 
 formerly experienced in listening to the most cele- 
 brated musicians of the day. He puns upon the name 
 of one of them. " When the wind accompanies me 
 in the foliage of the cinnamon-trees," he says, "I 
 can even fancy I hear the very notes of Cinnamon 
 Dainagon." Close by his window stood his writing- 
 table. A brazier and a wooden pillow complete the 
 inventory of his furniture. 
 
 It is interesting to compare it with Thoreau's. The 
 Concord hermit encumbered himself with " a bed, a 
 table, a desk, three chairs, a looking-glass three inches 
 in diameter, a pair of tongs, and a pair of andirons, a 
 kettle, a skillet, and a frying-pan, a dipper, a wash- 
 bowl, two knives and forks (sic), three plates, one 
 cup, one spoon, a jug for oil, a jug for molasses, and a 
 * Personifications of Meditation and Wisdom. 
 157
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 japanned lamp." All this for the body, which to re- 
 duce to what was absolutely necessary was the object 
 of his experiment. And, for the spiritual man, there 
 was no Buddha with the morning sun on his forehead, 
 no pictures nor music, nothing but books and " Nat- 
 ure." Nature, too, seems to have had more to say 
 to Chomei than to the New England philosopher. 
 
 Our hermit cultivated a few herbs in a small gar- 
 den, watered from a reservoir supplied by a bamboo 
 pipe from a spring near by. The forest of Toyama 
 furnished wild fruits and plenty of fuel. Across the 
 shrubby valley opening on the Sea of Japan he could 
 gaze at evening toward the home of the blessed, and 
 see in the clouds of sunset the glories of the Western 
 Paradise. "In Spring," he writes, "the purple 
 wistaria blossoms wave around my hut ; in summer I 
 listen to the plaintive call of the cuckoo ; in autumn 
 the shrill voice of the cicada sounds like a dirge in 
 my ears ; in winter the heaped-up snow accumulates 
 like the mountain of human iniquity, which melts 
 away as quickly before the sun of virtuous en- 
 deavor. ' ' 
 
 Unlike those monks that dwelt together in com- 
 munities, Chomei no man of routine was happy 
 that when indisposed there was no superior to call him 
 to account for failure to perform his devotions. He 
 did as the spirit moved him. On the other hand, 
 158
 
 Kamo no Chomei's "Story of My Hut" 
 
 the discipline of silence, to which he was by nature 
 averse, was made easy to him by the absence of 
 chattering companions. And in most other things 
 he was out of the reach of temptation. 
 
 The warden of the mountain, living in a cottage at 
 its foot, had a boy who sometimes accompanied the 
 hermit at his work of gathering kaya blossoms (used 
 for food), wild parsley, and wild potatoes, and in 
 weaving straw mats which he sold to supply his other 
 necessities. " I sixty, he sixteen," he observes, 
 "we are often occupied with the same matters, the 
 same thoughts." 
 
 In fine weather he would climb to the summit of 
 the mountain, whence he could see the peaks of his 
 native province. Or he would make a longer pil- 
 grimage to the shrines of Iwami or to Ishiyamadera,* 
 or to the moor of Awazu, to muse over the ruins of 
 " old Suminari's (a former hermit's) cottage." Re- 
 turning, he would stop to pluck by the way some par- 
 ticularly fine bunch of fern or branch of maple or of 
 cherry, which he would take along with him to offer 
 at some wayside shrine. By night, in lonely places 
 among the mountains, he admired the fireflies light- 
 ing up the recesses of the woods like torches, and the 
 monkeys crying to one another across the glen would 
 
 *A tramp overland to Iwami and back must have taken the 
 entire summer. 
 
 159
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 bring to mind some lines from the "Myriad 
 Leaves : ' ' 
 
 Bright rays of the moon 
 Of shining deeds remind me, 
 
 Of the men of old ; 
 The monkeys' piteous wailing 
 With sadness deep affects me. 
 
 But the morning showers, the rustling of boughs in 
 the wind, would rouse him to more cheerful thoughts, 
 and the cry of the pheasant, or a deer coming fear- 
 lessly to greet him, would show that degenerate hu- 
 manity was far from his track. 
 
 After five years' use his hut was, at the time of his 
 writing (March, 1212), somewhat the worse for wear. 
 Moss covered part of the floor and dead leaves filled 
 the hollows in the roof. From time to time he hears 
 of the death of some man of note, and tries to guess 
 how many of less consequence must have passed away 
 since he came to his retreat. Palaces and hovels not 
 a few have perished in the many conflagrations ; yet 
 he and his hut remain. In the wilderness his lean 
 and thinly clad figure excites no ridicule. A tunic 
 of wistaria fibre, and a bed of leaves covered with 
 hempen cloth, with a few kaya flowers and wild fruits 
 suffice him. His lifelong desires are satisfied. He is 
 free from envy, fear, and regret, and enjoys the beau- 
 ties of nature, which are no man's private property. 
 160
 
 Kamo no Chomei's "Story of My Hut" 
 
 His conclusion may serve as a specimen of Buddhist 
 practical philosophy. All the three worlds of matter, 
 feeling, and idea constitute one great unity which the 
 quiet soul may apprehend and, in a way, appropriate. 
 Of what use, in comparison, are treasures, palaces, 
 and horses to him whose mind is not at rest ? Peace 
 has come to him nowhere but in his hut. In the city 
 he might be made ashamed of his poverty ; in the 
 mountains he feels only pity for those who toil to so 
 little purpose in its hot and dusty streets. "A fish 
 never wearies of the water, nor a bird of the forest, 
 none but themselves can tell why. Neither can he 
 who has not experienced them judge of the pleas- 
 ures of the solitary." Still, one fails of perfection so 
 long as his heart is attached to anything of this 
 world. To love even his poor hut and the security it 
 affords may be wrong. "This quiet morning, hav- 
 ing written down these reflections, I ask myself: Ad- 
 mitting that my aim is good to calm my passions 
 and to reduce to practice the principles I have always 
 professed yet, can I say that I have succeeded, that 
 I am a sage or a good man, more than in appearance ? 
 Does not my conduct fall short of that of the weakest 
 of Buddha's disciples ? Of what is this the fault ? Of 
 natural incapacity, or of some remnant of vrorldliness 
 not yet eradicated ? " He leaves these questions un- 
 answered and ends with a simple prayer for light. 
 161
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 Chomei is believed to have died in 1218, a year 
 before the murder of his sometime patron, Sanetomo. 
 He has been compared with Rousseau, Wordsworth, 
 Thoreau. Their aim was indeed much the same to 
 secure opportunity and leisure for building up the 
 spiritual man. The result in his case, if less striking, 
 is more pleasing. He is free from Rousseau's moral 
 weakness, and from Wordsworth's harsh and narrow 
 egotism. He enjoyed nature after a more artistic, 
 that is, a more advanced and human fashion, than 
 Thoreau, who must have spoiled many a fine sensa- 
 tion in his haste to make a note of it. As to the 
 final outcome of their philosophizing, it may be that 
 it is not very satisfactory in any case. 
 
 162
 
 XIV 
 
 THE FIGHTING MONKS AND THEIR STRANGE 
 DIVERSIONS 
 
 IN the long period of the civil wars, which were 
 only interrupted for a time by successful HojO state- 
 craft, those to whom fortune was unkind did not all, 
 like Kamo no Chomei, flee to the mountains. There 
 were the monasteries, which furnished, if not a safer, 
 at least a more comfortable, retreat. Most of those 
 who, either from choice or necessity, were out of the 
 game of life had recourse to them. They were a 
 refuge for the proscribed, a home for the impover- 
 ished, an asylum for deposed rulers, a place of de- 
 tention for prisoners of state. All sorts of interesting 
 people might be found within their walls penitent 
 thieves, and warriors sick of slaughter, delicately 
 reared sons of noble families, and waifs of unknown 
 parentage. The worse the anarchy in the world out- 
 side their gates, the more the monasteries grew in 
 wealth, intelligence, discipline, and power. But their 
 holy character did not always preserve them from 
 assault and pillage. It was not unusual for men, 
 163
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 who, weary of fighting, had embraced the monastic 
 life in the hope to end their days in peace, to be 
 obliged to take up arms again in defence of their 
 convent. Their - fellow monks were often no whit 
 behind these ex-soldiers in courage. In the general 
 melee a warlike abbot would even sometimes take 
 the aggressive, either to wipe off an old score or to 
 acquire new privileges or territory. Thus, the life of 
 a bonze was not without some spice of danger ; and, 
 for the gentle quietist, Chomei, the hut on Toyama 
 was, indeed, the only possible sanctuary. 
 
 The abbots and monks of the ancient foundation 
 of Hieisan were noted above others for their militant 
 spirit. The monastery occupied the slope of the 
 mountain between Kioto and Lake Biwa, and over- 
 looked the lake. It had added to its domains until 
 they included thirteen arable valleys and the hills 
 and forests between ; and hundreds of shrines and 
 temples were hidden in the groves or perched boldly 
 upon the summits. A feud of long standing existed 
 between it and the monastery of Miidera in the low- 
 lands near the outlet of the lake. A well-known 
 legend relates how Benkei, the gigantic squire of Yo- 
 shitsune, stole the big bell of Miidera and trundled 
 it uphill to Hieisan, where the theft was looked upon 
 as a highly meritorious action and a sufficient repara- 
 tion for many former misdeeds. But the bell re- 
 164
 
 The Fighting Monks 
 
 fused to give a sound when rung, and Benkei, dis- 
 gusted, flung it back again. 
 
 The monks of Hieisan took a famous part in the 
 war between the Taira and the Minamoto. Go- 
 Shirakawa, whose accession had furnished the pretext 
 for war, had been noted as a prince of dissolute 
 habits, to which fact he doubtless owed the prefer- 
 ence which the Taira chieftain, Kiyomori, accorded 
 him. But hardly had he been placed upon the 
 throne when he developed a surprising desire for 
 power and capacity for intrigue ; so that the wary 
 prime-minister thought it safest to depose him and 
 pack him off to a convent. But Go-Shirakawa was 
 not so easily to be disposed of. As " cloistered em- 
 peror," with zealous monks for ministers and emis- 
 saries, he continued secretly to have a hand in affairs, 
 and he is believed to have been instrumental in pro- 
 moting Yoritomo's successful revolt. At any rate 
 he welcomed his lieutenant, Yoshinaka, to Kioto, 
 and was prompt to recognize his nominee, Go-Toba, 
 as emperor. But when Yoshinaka undertook to usurp 
 the supreme executive power, Go-Shirakawa marched 
 against him at the head of several thousand sturdy 
 bonzes. They were met by Yoshinaka' s troops in 
 the outskirts of Kioto and, though the monks laid 
 about them valiantly with their staves, numbers and 
 superior armament carried the day ; they were routed 
 165
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 with great slaughter, the abbot of Hieisan was taken 
 and beheaded, and the ex-Emperor himself was put 
 in prison. But the affair aroused intense indignation 
 against Yoshinaka, which imperilled his position in 
 Kioto and so contributed to the loss of the battle of 
 Fushimi in which he was slain. Go-Shirakawa was 
 released by the victorious Yoshitsune, and, until his 
 death, in 1192, retained a considerable influence in 
 politics. 
 
 The chief cause of the continued disturbances was 
 the lack of real statesmanship among the men who 
 by one means or another acquired control of the 
 nation. Leader after leader fought or intrigued his 
 way to the surface with no other idea than to keep 
 his legitimate superiors in a position of dependence 
 while he lived, and to transmit his titles and offices 
 to his descendants when he died. No attempt was 
 made to conciliate rival interests ; no scope was pro- 
 vided for legitimate ambitions. There were but two 
 ways to attain or to keep in place to abuse the con- 
 fidence of the lawful ruler, or to rebel against him. 
 It was to the interest of the actual wielder of the 
 power that the nominal head of the nation should be 
 a child or a weak and effeminate youth, who might 
 easily be led or, at worst, might be compelled to ab- 
 dicate by a mere show of force. But the Imperial 
 house never quite lost its hold on the loyalty of the 
 166
 
 The Fighting Monks 
 
 people; and, spite of all precautions, the occupant 
 of the throne would occasionally assert his right to 
 govern. The emperors could not be permanently 
 reduced to the position of merely spiritual rulers, like 
 the high-priests of Izumi. When compelled to ab- 
 dicate, their advice might yet be followed by the 
 new incumbent, who had then to be prevailed upon 
 to abdicate in his turn. And disaffected clans could 
 usually find a "cloistered emperor" to sanction a 
 rebellion, if not to incite and lead one. 
 
 In this manner Go-Toba and his successor, Tsuchi- 
 mikado, had been forced into retirement by the first 
 of the Hojo, and were succeeded in 1211 by the Em- 
 peror Juntoku, who again proved unsubmissive, and 
 actually " conspired " against the regent then govern- 
 ing in the name of the shogun, Chomei's patron, Sane- 
 tomo. The attempt failed. Go-Toba was exiled to 
 the islands of Old, off the western coast, where he 
 died ; Juntoku was banished to Sado, and Tsuchi- 
 mikado to Shikoku. Chukyo, who succeeded Juntoku, 
 died within a year ; and the reign of Go-Horikawa, 
 who followed him, is chiefly remarkable for a renew- 
 al of the " war " between Hieisan and Miidera. 
 
 For about a century after these events the Hojo 
 maintained a qualified ascendancy. Fighting was con- 
 stantly going on in one portion or another of the 
 country, but there was no general disturbance. But, 
 167 '
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 at the end, the Hojo themselves fell into the prevail- 
 ing vice (for such it had become) of abdication ; and 
 regents, shoguns, and emperors, all alike children 
 or weaklings, were controlled by guardians or tutors, 
 or, more often, by some irresponsible ex-regent who 
 pulled the strings that moved all these puppets from 
 the seclusion of some monastic retreat. The monks 
 were, in fact, the nerves, brains, and heart of the na- 
 tion, and he who would rule effectively must make 
 use of them. But they were not won over to the 
 Hojo. Most of them remained stanch Imperialists. 
 
 In 1318 Go-Daigo, who had acquired the neces- 
 sary reputation of being a weak and pleasure-loving 
 prince, was raised to the throne. It turned out that 
 he had dissembled his real character, and that he was 
 a man of courage and ability. The Hojo took 
 alarm ; and, finding that he could not raise a suffi- 
 cient force to hold Kioto, he retreated to the monas- 
 tery of Kasagi in the romantic valley of Yoshino, not 
 far from Nara, the ancient capital. The monks had 
 already fortified the place. It was surrounded by 
 mountains and appeared able to hold out until distant 
 partisans of the Emperor might arrive to his aid. 
 The movement was, however, premature. A Hojo 
 army laid siege to Kasagi. The fortifications were 
 carried by assault and were demolished, and the Em- 
 peror was sent prisoner to Oki, with the heads of his 
 1 63
 
 The Fighting Monks 
 
 chief advisers fixed on the sill of his palanquin, to 
 bear him company on the way. 
 
 From his island prison, where Go-Toba had died 
 some eighty years before, the more fortunate Go- 
 Daigo managed to communicate with his son, Mori- 
 yoshi, who had become a priest, but was at the time in 
 hiding in a cave in the mountains opposite Oki. 
 Through Moriyoshi he corresponded from time to 
 time with the most determined of his military sup- 
 porters, Kusunoki Masashige, Avho had contrived to 
 keep the field with a devoted band of followers, and 
 with some among the Hojo adherents who were dis- 
 posed to come over to the Imperial cause. When 
 all was prepared he escaped from the islands in a 
 fishing-boat. The boat was pursued and overhauled, 
 but his pursuers saw nothing of the Emperor. He 
 lay in the bottom of the boat covered over from head 
 to foot with an evil-smelling heap of dried cuttle-fish. 
 On landing he found himself at the head of a small 
 army, with which, taking the Hojo generals unawares, 
 he made a forced march on Kioto and captured the 
 city. The troops sent against him under the com- 
 mand of Nitta Yoshisada and Ashikaga Takauji came 
 over to his side. This determined many who had 
 been wavering to take the same course and, after a 
 short campaign, Nitta, who had been appointed to 
 the chief command, advanced against the regent's 
 169
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 capital, Kamakura. The town was divided into 
 wards, each separately fortified. It was taken by as- 
 sault, ward after ward, with the most desperate hand- 
 to-hand fighting. The ex-regent Takatoki, who, 
 though "retired," was the leading spirit of the 
 Kamakura government, committed suicide, the town 
 was burned, and the Hojo domination was forever 
 ended. But not the sorrows of Go-Daigo. War 
 broke out afresh between the victors. The see-saw 
 of events had brought the Minamoto again upper- 
 most, for both Nitta and Ashikaga were of that race. 
 But they were of very different dispositions. Ashi- 
 kaga, not content with having secured the lion's share 
 in the division of the spoils, denounced Nitta and 
 Moriyoshi to Go-Daigo, charging them with conspir- 
 ing to dethrone him. Moriyoshi was put in prison 
 and there murdered, but Nitta succeeded in establish- 
 ing the innocence of both, and was commissioned to 
 punish Ashikaga. He was defeated, and the Em- 
 peror was again compelled to flee to Yoshino. 
 
 Ashikaga made no great effort to dislodge him. 
 Nitta and Kusunoki, though defeated, still held out, 
 and gave him other work to do. At length Nitta 
 was killed in a desperate fight against overpowering 
 odds in Echizen, and Kusunoki, after three times 
 taking and losing Kioto, was finally routed at Hiogo, 
 and committed hara-kiri. But the Ashikaga forces 
 170
 
 The Fighting Monks 
 
 were worn out with the struggle. Go-Daigo was al- 
 lowed to die peaceably at Kasagi and to transmit the 
 Imperial insignia to his successors, Go-Murakami and 
 Go-Kameyama, who reigned like little kings of 
 Yvetot over monks and peasants in their happy val- 
 ley, and had doubtless a much pleasanter life of it 
 than the new line of puppets set up at Kioto by the 
 Ashikaga. For half a century there were two dynas- 
 ties in the land, and a desultory warfare was carried 
 on between the ' ' northern emperors ' ' at Kioto and 
 those of the legitimate line at Kasagi. It was ended 
 by the southern emperor, Go-Kameyama, abdicating 
 in favor of the northern emperor, Go-Komatsu ; but 
 this resulted in only a temporary cessation of hos- 
 tilities. 
 
 The Ashikaga shoguns, with few exceptions, were 
 even worse rulers than the Hojo. They built 
 "golden" and "silver" palaces for themselves at 
 Kioto, while the emperors, their near neighbors, 
 were sunk in poverty. Go-Tsuchimikado, who died 
 in 1500, had to be buried by charity. The military 
 governors were permitted to usurp all authority in 
 the provinces and to establish themselves as heredi- 
 tary princes. Toward the end of the period Japan 
 was broken up into semi-independent states, each 
 chief warring for his own hand, or, if it seemed 
 worth the trouble, setting up an opposition shogun. 
 171
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 Robbers infested the highways, pirates the seas and 
 inland waters. In many parts the land lay untilled ; 
 and Kioto was several times sacked by hordes of 
 vagabond monks, and masterless soldiers. 
 
 Yet never had the great monasteries flourished so. 
 Never had they attained such a pitch of military 
 power. The "fighting abbot," Takeda Shingen, 
 conquered the two important provinces of Kai and 
 Shinano ; the bonzes had made of Osaka the strong- 
 est fortress in Japan, and the Court dared refuse no 
 demand of the monks of Hieisan. But for their 
 quarrels among themselves, it is impossible to say- 
 that a Buddhist theocracy might not, at least tem- 
 porarily, have been established. But this was the 
 period of the rise of the great sects, and arguments 
 about the Way often led to hostile raids and pitched 
 battles. Because of some doctrinal dispute Hieisan 
 arose in all her thirteen valleys and went forth to 
 smite Kobukuji ; and ardent followers of Nichiren 
 and of Shinran forgot the teachings of Buddha and 
 mauled one another for the honor of their respective 
 founders. Matters were at their worst when St. 
 Francis Xavier and his successors came to fight fire 
 with fire. The southern princes whom they con- 
 verted needed little urging to drive the Buddhist 
 monks of all sects from their territories. St. Francis 
 preached in Kioto, which was falling into ruin, to a 
 172
 
 The Fighting Monks 
 
 populace rendered dull and reckless by many dis- 
 asters. But his disciples had wonderful success in 
 Kiushiu and the nearest provinces of the main island. 
 It is doubtful how the new religion was regarded by 
 the first great pacificator of Japan. He certainly 
 favored it in a material way, and even gave money 
 to build churches, but it may have been only be- 
 cause he found in Christianity a valuable auxiliary in 
 his war against the militant Buddhists. 
 
 Nobunaga was, himself, son of a village priest 
 whom the fortunes of war had elevated to be lord of 
 the province of Owari. By hard fighting he added 
 the neighboring provinces of Mino, Ise, and Omi, to 
 that domain. His control of the latter province 
 brought him within striking distance of Kioto ; and 
 the murder of the shogun, an incident in itself of 
 little importance, gave him an occasion. He entered 
 the capital, ostensibly to punish the assassins, and to 
 secure the murdered man's brother, Ashikaga Yosh- 
 iaki, in the shogunate, but he claimed as a reward 
 for his services the position of vice-shogun, with all 
 the power belonging of right to the higher office. 
 In a few years he brought the greater part of the 
 empire under some sort of control. The princely 
 abbots of the great monasteries were the hardest of 
 his opponents to subdue. He lay for months before 
 Osaka, which was defended by five large castles con- 
 
 '73
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 nected by intervallations. Three of these were cap- 
 tured, but still the other two held out. The monks, 
 threatened by famine, tried to break through the 
 besiegers' lines in a night sortie, but were driven 
 back with terrible loss. While still held in check at 
 Osaka, Nobunaga was threatened by the lord of 
 Echizen and the monks of Hieisan, who made an 
 unsuccessful descent on the garrison that he had left 
 at Kioto. He hastened to the relief of the capital, 
 defeated the confederates, expelled the monks, and 
 gave the great monastery to the flames. It was re- 
 vived later, but never regained a tenth part of its 
 former importance. Osaka surrendered, and its five 
 castles were razed to the ground. 
 
 But we are not to suppose that the monks in the 
 day of their greatness were wholly occupied in deal- 
 ing out to right and left apostolic blows and knocks. 
 They not only found time to preach and teach, but 
 on the dancing stages in the temple grounds a new 
 style of entertainment was evolved from the ancient 
 miracle plays and court dances. 
 
 Mikados in exile, cloistered emperors, regents in 
 retreat did not follow a very ascetic mode of life. 
 To amuse their monastic leisure a more dramatic 
 form was given to the choric songs accompanying the 
 old dances, then personages from ordinary life were 
 introduced, next these alone held the stage, and the
 
 The Fighting Monks 
 
 dramatic mime became the farce. The monks used 
 these new forms of literature to convey moral and 
 patriotic ideas. 
 
 The " Pillow of Kantamu " * is adapted from 
 some Chinese Buddhist legend. Rosei, a native of 
 the feudal state of Shiyoku (Chinese Shu), has passed 
 the greater part of his life indifferent to the teachings 
 of religion. Now he has turned pilgrim, and for 
 many days and nights has tramped it toward the 
 holy mountain of Yauhi, in the land of Ibara, to 
 learn the true doctrine. At the gate of Kantamu he 
 is met by the chorus bearing the celebrated pillow, on 
 which whoever lays his head dreams that he has ar- 
 rived at the summit of earthly felicity. He lies 
 down to sleep while dinner is getting ready, and the 
 vision at once begins. 
 
 A magnificently clad individual approaches. He 
 is an ambassador from the King of Ibara, who makes 
 known that his Majesty, moved by the consideration 
 of the extraordinary worth of the pilgrim Rosei, has 
 abdicated the throne in his favor. This Rosei hears, 
 dreaming. Dreaming he mounts the jewelled palan- 
 quin and is borne to the palace, the glories of which, 
 sung by the chorus, are otherwise left to his and the 
 
 *Of many attempted translations those only that are given by 
 Mr. Chamberlain, in his " Classical Poetry of the Japanese," can 
 be considered successful. 
 
 '75
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 spectators' imagination. The chorus sings of portals 
 wrought with jade, of crowds of gift-bearers passing 
 through, of courtiers in silk, and armed vassals pacing 
 the great halls within. East of the palace rises a 
 silver hill under a golden sun, and to the west a sil- 
 ver moon shines down upon a mount of gold. 
 
 Rosei is now understood to have entered the won- 
 derful palace, and, in the winking of an eye, fifty years 
 have passed. He fears he may be growing old. But 
 now he discovers what a treasure he has in his prime 
 minister, who has prepared an elixir calculated to pro- 
 long his life for a millennium. Rosei drinks the po- 
 tion, and, inspired by it, begins his dance. 
 
 Each round of the dance represents a thousand 
 years ; but, at the end, the happy Rosei has only to 
 drink another cup and shake his leg again. Mean- 
 while, the magic vessel circulates among the guests ; 
 the poorest of his people drink long life and happi- 
 ness from it ; the sun and moon and stars renew their 
 youth at its overflowing fountain ; and all dance away 
 as merrily as gnats in a sunbeam. The seasons pass 
 so quickly, each treads on the other's heels. 
 
 CHORUS. " "Pis Spring, for, hark ! the birds are calling." 
 ROSEI. " "Pis Autumn ; see the leaves are falling." 
 CHORUS. "Nay, Summer, 'tis." 
 ROSEI. " Nay, 'tis not so ; 
 
 For all the world is white with snow." 
 176
 
 The Fighting Monks 
 
 Faster and faster move the dancers. At last Rosei 
 forgets the cup. He wakes and finds that his age-long 
 reign has been but 
 
 The dream of a sinner 
 While waiting for dinner. 
 
 The chorus draw the moral life is a dream ; and 
 Rosei, bethinking himself that this is the very heart 
 of Buddhist doctrine, and that all the sages of the 
 holy mountain can teach him no more, abandons his 
 pilgrimage and returns home. 
 
 The farces that serve as interludes between the No 
 or mimes deal also frequently with Buddhist themes, 
 but from a comic point of view. The chorus is ab- 
 sent, and the piece usually begins with an explana- 
 tory speech by the principal actor. 
 
 The husband in the farce of ' ' Abstraction ' ' an- 
 nounces that he is in a difficulty from which he can 
 see no way of extricating himself save by deceiving 
 his wildly jealous ''mountain spirit " of a wife. On 
 a journey from Kioto into Mino he had made the 
 acquaintance of a pretty girl named Hana (Flower), 
 and the charming creature had taken so deep an inter- 
 est in him that she had followed him to the capital. 
 He had arranged to meet her that same evening, but 
 his wife was in a devil of a temper, and, he feared, 
 suspected something. He calls her. 
 177
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 HUSBAND. ' ' My dear, I must immediately go on pilgrim- 
 age, and not only to the temples and shrines within the walls, 
 but also to those in the country round about, to all of them, big 
 and little. So I will be away for a long while. I have had 
 such bad dreams " 
 
 WIFE. "Pooh! Dreams! Do not trouble about them. A 
 slight indigestion. Or, if you must take to prayers and pen- 
 ance, kneel down here at home, then, and burn incense on your 
 bare fore-arm. I have heard it is very effectual against bad 
 dreams." 
 
 HUSBAND. " So it may be with some persons. But to each 
 his own physic. The penance you propose might do for a 
 priest ; but for the likes of me a layman if ever there was 
 one pilgrimages have been instituted." 
 
 WIFE. ' ' I will not hear of it. Not out of this door do you 
 go. Content yourself with some devotion that can be per- 
 formed at home." 
 
 Thus put to it, the husband chooses what he calls 
 "a most difficult and meritorious sort of devotion, 
 invented of old by Saint Daruma," and which con- 
 sists in covering one's self up with an " abstraction 
 blanket" and forgetting all things, past, present, and 
 to come. Since the merit is the greater the longer 
 he holds out, he thinks he will require a week or 
 two ; but the wife cuts him down to a day and a 
 night. He warns her not to come near him nor make 
 any noise during that time, because, if she should, 
 his efforts would be ineffectual. " No one can prac- 
 tise abstraction when there is a row in the kitchen." 
 178
 
 The Fighting Monks 
 
 The wife retires ; he calls his servant. He is cer- 
 tain that, notwithstanding her promise, his wife will 
 not be able to restrain her curiosity; it is therefore 
 necessary to have somebody under the blanket. But 
 the servant dreads his mistress's tongue so much that 
 his master's stick has to be produced to persuade him. 
 He is finally induced to cover himself with the 
 blanket, and the husband joyfully hastens away to 
 keep his engagement with Hana. Hardly is he gone 
 when the wife peeps in "to see what it looks like." 
 It looks very uncomfortable ; and, excusing herself on 
 the score of her anxiety, she proffers a cup of hot tea. 
 Taro, under the blanket, shakes his head, by way of 
 an answer. She suggests that he at least take off the 
 blanket for a moment, and Taro shakes his head more 
 vigorously than before. At this she gets angry, 
 snatches away the blanket, and discovers the servant. 
 To save himself Taro makes a clean breast of it, and 
 the angry wife commands him to let her take his 
 place. By the time the change is effected the hus- 
 band returns, singing and slightly intoxicated. Upon 
 entering he sits down and gives the supposed Taro a 
 full account of the clever sayings and doings of the 
 pretty Hana ; how she had pressed him to drink ; 
 how she had felt sorry for the poor little Tarokaja left 
 at home under a nasty old blanket ; how she had 
 blamed the heartless priests who set the temple bells 
 179
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 a-ringing so early in the morning. Finally, having 
 finished his story, he tells Taro to uncover himself. 
 There is no response. He begs, he commands, he 
 tears away the blanket and is driven from the stage 
 with resounding thwacks by his justly indignant 
 spouse. 
 
 180
 
 XV 
 THE GOLDEN CALABASHES 
 
 THE work of pacification and consolidation begun 
 by Nobunaga was continued by his lieutenants, Hide- 
 yoshi and leyasu, and finished by the latter. 
 
 Hideyoshi, one of the most remarkable characters 
 in history, was the son of a peasant of the village of 
 Nakamura. He entered Nobunaga' s service as a betto 
 or stable - boy ; but in the petty wars which that 
 chieftain was then carrying on against his neighbors 
 of Omi and Mino his cunning and intrepidity gained 
 him a small command. His skill in strategy grew 
 with the extent of the field of his operations. The 
 soldier's water-gourd, which he had hoisted for his 
 ensign in place of the aristocratic mon, was joined 
 by another after every victory ; and the portentous 
 bunch of calabashes grew and grew until it might be 
 thought a happy symbol of the union into which he 
 was to bind the struggling principalities. 
 
 He was of diminutive stature, ugly and ill-formed, 
 but had fine eyes, and at times a pleasant smile over- 
 came the evil impression produced by his physical 
 181
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 defects. His soldiers were never tired of inventing 
 affectionate nicknames for him ; his enemies, after he 
 had become their master, called him the " crowned 
 monkey." He himself, having never had a family 
 name, indulged in a profusion of aliases. The name 
 by which he is best known was adopted in 1562. In 
 1591, on his retirement to private life, he took the 
 title of Taiko, and is often referred to as Taiko Sama, 
 or My Lord Taiko. Examples of the peasant humor 
 which endeared him to his men are preserved in 
 numerous anecdotes. When the superstitions of his 
 followers proved an obstacle to his plans he was ac- 
 customed to address a confidential letter to some su- 
 perior divinity, requesting him to be so good as to 
 see that none of his subordinates were permitted to 
 make trouble. One of these epistles, addressed to the 
 God of Rice, is still preserved at the Todaiji, at Nara. 
 It throws a curious light on a superstition which still 
 exists in country places in Japan. Foxes, which are 
 supposed to be the servants and messengers of the rice 
 god, are believed also to have the power of bewitch- 
 ing people. One of Hideyoshi's servants imagined 
 herself a subject of vulpine possession, and occasioned 
 much trouble in the household ; and the letter asks 
 the god to institute strict inquiries into the matter 
 and to arrest and punish the particular fox inculpated, 
 should it appear that he had no good reason to offer 
 182
 
 The Golden Calabashes 
 
 for his conduct. This, no doubt, had the effect of 
 calming the woman's fears and so expelling the demon. 
 On another occasion, some boatmen employed to 
 transport a number of cavalry horses across an arm 
 of the sea demurred, saying that the sea-god, Ryugu, 
 would be angry. Hideyoshi, instead of resorting to 
 force, as Nobunaga would have done, had a letter in- 
 dited to the " Honorable Mr. Ryugu," informing 
 him that the men were acting in the service of the 
 Mikado, and asking him to take measures to insure 
 their safe passage across his domain. After having 
 been read to the seamen, the letter was thrown into 
 the water ; and, confident that the god would not 
 now molest them, the men performed the required 
 service cheerfully and without compulsion. 
 
 The death of Nobunaga was the turning-point in 
 Hideyoshi's career. The former was on his way to aid 
 Hideyoshi in the siege of a rebel castle in Chikugo 
 when, learning of a commotion in the palace at Kioto, 
 he turned aside with a small escort to restore order. 
 He lodged for the night at the monastery of Honnoji. 
 Ake'chi Mitsuhide, one of his captains, whom he had 
 mortified by making him the victim of some ill-timed 
 horse-play, took this opportunity to have revenge. 
 He, too, left the line of march with the contingent 
 under his command, all probably his own clansmen, 
 surrounded the Honnoji in the night, and set the 
 183
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 buildings on fire. Seeing that escape was impossible, 
 Nobunaga committed hara-kiri. 
 
 Hideyoshi, immediately on receiving the news, 
 transmitted it to the chiefs who were opposing him. 
 They might, he said, have either a temporary or a 
 permanent peace. In any case he was obliged to 
 raise the siege in order to punish the traitor, Akdchi ; 
 but, should they fail to come to terms with him then, 
 he would return later with all Japan at his back. 
 His frankness had the desired effect. The beleaguered 
 chiefs, who would undoubtedly have fallen upon his 
 rear had they been left to guess the reason for his re- 
 treat, saw that they could not prevent his effecting a 
 junction with Nobunaga's army, and that, therefore, 
 his threat was no idle one. They accepted his over- 
 tures, and joined his party. 
 
 Eager to reach Kioto, Hideyoshi hurried on in ad- 
 vance of his army, and narrowly escaped being trapped 
 like Nobunaga. Near a small Shinto temple, called 
 Nishi-no-miya, he stumbled upon an advanced post 
 of Akechi's force, and in the fight was separated 
 from his body-guard. A narrow causeway led through 
 rice-swamps to the temple. He urged his horse 
 along it, and, when near the enclosure, dismounted 
 and sent the animal, mad with pain from a stab in 
 the hindquarter, galloping back upon the enemy. 
 Having thus gained a few moments' time, he ran into 
 184
 
 The Golden Calabashes 
 
 the temple, where the priests were taking their daily 
 bath. Disrobing, he plunged in among them, and 
 his pursuers, failing to recognize him, continued their 
 search in other quarters. Meanwhile, the main body 
 of his guards came up, and Akechi's men were obliged 
 to flee. 
 
 Akechi ruled but twelve days at Kioto. Hide- 
 yoshi's army met his on the banks of the Yodogawa 
 and administered a crushing defeat. The traitor es- 
 caped from the field, but only to be mortally wounded 
 by a peasant with a pitchfork. He committed hara- 
 kiri, and his head was taken to Kioto, where it was 
 impaled on the spot where Nobunaga had died. A 
 number of successful campaigns against his former 
 brothers-in-arms, who thought themselves better quali- 
 fied than he to exercise the supreme command, ended 
 in the submission of most of them. Hideyoshi was 
 honored by the Emperor with the highest titles in his 
 gift, and for a few years Japan was at peace under 
 the bunch of calabashes, now wrought in gold and 
 figured among the crests of the great families. 
 
 Recent events give uncommon interest to Hide- 
 yoshi's invasion of Korea, which he undertook in 
 1592, probably with the idea of keeping his trouble- 
 some subordinates employed at a distance. But his 
 boast that he could conquer China and Korea as 
 easily as a man could roll up an old mat and carry it 
 185
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 off under his arm shows little respect for the fighting 
 capacity of the continentals. At first the Japanese 
 invaders carried all before them, but dissensions 
 broke out between their generals, one of whom, Ko- 
 nishi, was a Christian, and another, Kato Kiyomasa, 
 a determined Christian hater. These two tried in 
 everything to hamper and interfere with one another, 
 with the result that their armies were beaten in de- 
 tail by the large Chinese forces sent against them. 
 Hideyoshi was compelled to negotiate a peace. But 
 his wrath was excited by an attempt of the Chinese 
 to set up a sort of suzerainty over Japan by pretend- 
 ing to invest him with the title of king. He tore up 
 the precious document which would have made him 
 China's vassal, sent the envoys home in disgrace, and 
 despatched reinforcements to Korea. He died while 
 the success of his ambitious scheme was still doubtful, 
 and his brother-in-law, Tokugawa leyasu, recalled the 
 troops. The invasion of Korea had no further result 
 to Japan (if we disregard the continuance of peace 
 within her own borders) than the acquisition of nu- 
 merous skilled Korean potters and other artisans, 
 who were induced by their conquerors to settle in 
 the southern provinces. The establishment of the 
 first kilns for porcelain and for the highly prized 
 faience of Satsuma is attributed to these Koreans ; 
 and the politic Taiko provided a market for their 
 186
 
 The Golden Calabashes 
 
 wares, and at the same time promoted his policy of 
 internal peace by instituting an elaborate tea-drinking 
 ceremonial. He also encouraged his warriors to pass 
 their leisure in writing verses; nevertheless, Hide- 
 yoshi's generals sent across from Chemulpo a junk- 
 load of pickled ears and noses of Chinese soldiers, 
 which were buried at a spot still called the " Ear 
 Mound ' ' at Kioto. Other times, other manners. 
 Japanese armies of to-day carry civilization to China 
 and Korea and send home no ghastly trophies of 
 their victories. 
 
 187
 
 XVI 
 
 THE PIPING TIMES OF THE TOKUGAWA 
 
 THOUGH claiming descent from a branch of the 
 Minamoto, leyasu, at the outset of his career, was 
 but the laird of the small border castle of Matsudaira. 
 After Nobunaga's death he had at first opposed Hide- 
 yoshi, but made peace at a moment so opportune 
 that the Taiko rewarded him with the hand of his 
 peasant sister and the government of the Kuanto, the 
 rich plain surrounding the bay of Yedo. When at 
 the point of death he appointed him guardian of his 
 young son, Hideyori, naming, at the same time, a 
 council, with whose assistance leyasu was to govern 
 the empire. His opponents in the council, charging 
 him with disloyalty, took up arms against him, but 
 were routed at the decisive battle of Sekigahara, in 
 October, 1600, by which he became sole ruler of 
 Japan. Named shogun in 1603, he captured and 
 burned the castle of Osaka, rebuilt by Hideyoshi, in 
 1615, and his young ward and rival, Hideyori, is 
 believed to have perished in the flames. Such was 
 the origin of the great Tokugawa dynasty of shoguns 
 188
 
 The Piping Times of the Tokugawa 
 
 which, profiting by work accomplished by Nobunaga 
 and Hideyoshi, consolidated feudal Japan and ruled 
 the country down to our own days. 
 
 The frightful state of the empire at the beginning 
 of the Tokugawa regime is naively portrayed in the 
 true tale of Granny Hikone,* as written down from 
 memory by her grandson. Her father was a gentle- 
 man who had seen service in the wars of Hideyoshi. 
 His holding, which would have provided a comfort- 
 able living in later and more peaceful times, owing 
 to high prices and the frequent disturbances which 
 prevented his reaching a market for his produce, did 
 not suffice to keep his family from the direst poverty. 
 The daughter grew up to womanhood with but one 
 cotton frock to wear, which at last "did not cover 
 her shins." After Sekigahara, their feudal lord still 
 held out against leyasu. His castle was invested, 
 and the family, with those of the other samurai, was 
 shut up within it. The women and children were 
 permitted to occupy the lookout tower. Cannon 
 were by that time in use, and notice was regularly 
 given them when the guns were about to be fired, 
 that they might not be frightened by the noise. At 
 first the besiegers were not supplied with artillery, 
 but after a week or so they mounted a battery, and 
 
 *See " Mistress An's Narrative," translated by Professor Cham- 
 berlain in Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, vol. viii. 
 189
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 one day, after the usual assurance had been given 
 that there was nothing to fear, this battery opened 
 fire in reply to a shot from the castle, a ball came 
 crashing through the tower wall and killed Granny's 
 younger brother, who was standing by her side. 
 
 The women were not without occupation, but it 
 was seldom of a cheerful character. They cast bullets 
 and prepared lint; and, after a sortie, the soldiers 
 would bring them the heads they had taken to wash 
 and prepare them for the commandant's inspection. 
 Sometimes they would be requested to secretly 
 blacken the teeth that the head might be taken for 
 that of a person of distinction ; for this curious cus- 
 tom, usually confined to married women, was prac- 
 tised at the time, as a piece of foppery, by the men 
 of some of the leading families. " We were not in 
 the least afraid of the heads," quoth Granny, "and 
 used to sleep with a number of them on the floor and 
 the room full of the smell of blood." 
 
 A big breach was at last made in the outer walls 
 of the castle ; it was assaulted in the night and taken, 
 and the garrison put to the sword. But Mistress An 
 (such was Granny's proper appellation) was spared 
 the distressing sight. The old samurai, her father, 
 had been leyasu's writing master, and his pupil held 
 him in affectionate remembrance. The day before 
 the assault, he was warned by a letter tied to an ar- 
 190
 
 The Piping Times of the Tokugawa 
 
 row, and was assured of safety for himself and his 
 family, could he manage to leave the castle in time. 
 They escaped at midnight, crossing the moat in a 
 tub, and spent the night wandering in the rice- 
 swamps. "Yes, indeed," would Granny say, "such 
 were the good old times ! ' ' 
 
 The real life-work of leyasu began after the battle 
 of Sekigahara, and was continued and completed by 
 his successors, Hidetada and lyemitsu. He took care 
 not to make desperate enemies of those that he had 
 conquered, leaving them some of their possessions ; 
 but he confiscated territory enough to reward his own 
 adherents. Japan under the feudal system, as finally 
 settled by the three first Tokugawa rulers, was divided 
 into about nine thousand petty fiefs and two hundred 
 and sixty greater, the rulers of which had absolute 
 power within their own boundaries, but were obliged 
 to pay tribute and to furnish troops to the shogun. 
 lyemitsu, in addition, imposed the obligation upon 
 the feudal lords, or daimio, of residing part of each 
 year at Yedo, where they were required to maintain 
 residences. The governed were divided into the 
 four classes of samurai, or gentlemen soldiers, who 
 held lands by military service and had many privi- 
 leges, farmers, artisans, including artists, and, in the 
 lowest grade, merchants. Each lord was guaranteed 
 aid against any other who might seek to rob him of 
 191
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 his possessions, so long as he on his side remained 
 in obedience to the shogun. 
 
 Strictly speaking, leyasu established no code of 
 laws to govern the relations of the ruling class with 
 the common people, but in his celebrated book of 
 Institutes he advises his successors in the shogunate 
 to care for the well-being of the people at large, to 
 put down the practice of suicide, which was becoming 
 extremely prevalent, to restrict foreign commerce, 
 and to suppress Christianity. The right of a subject 
 of a daimio to petition the shogun was acknowledged, 
 but it was always dangerous to exercise it. In civil 
 cases, a body of precedents gradually grew up and 
 ruled judicial procedure until the adoption of the 
 Napoleonic Code in recent years. 
 
 This may seem a crude form of government, but 
 under it the state of the country rapidly improved. 
 Daimios were no longer permitted to make war upon 
 one another, and to drive even their own vassals to 
 rebellion by harsh treatment might bring down upon 
 them the heavy hand of the shogun. Internal com- 
 merce therefore prospered, though foreign trade was 
 confined to the single port of Nagasaki. The lower 
 classes grew in wealth and intelligence. The idle 
 samurai turned, some of them, to evil courses, but the 
 majority to study and martial exercises. The lesser 
 arts received a degree of development seldom matched 
 192
 
 The Piping Times of the Tokugawa 
 
 elsewhere. The government sedulously encouraged 
 the study of the Confucian books, which taught the 
 rule of absolute obedience to master, father, and 
 husband ; but there still were here and there, even in 
 the Tokugawa family itself, students of the old classics 
 of Japan, who made reverence of the almost forgotten 
 Mikado the one rule of life. 
 
 With such matters the populace of the large cities 
 had little concern. They were nearly all Buddhists, 
 and they had no interest in politics. But they had, 
 in common with those above them in station, a pas- 
 sionate desire for amusement, excitement, and aesthet- 
 ic enjoyment, and with the advance in general pros- 
 perity they found means to gratify it. A new and 
 popular literature grew up. The romantic drama and 
 the novel of adventure made their appearance, and 
 scores of clever artists devoted their talents to por- 
 traying the most noted actors in their favorite roles, 
 to illustrating the novels of Bakin, the laborious life 
 of the common people, and every -day scenes in Yedo 
 and along the great routes. The characteristic lit- 
 erature of the time is the subject of the next three 
 chapters. In this it may be well to show the re- 
 lation to that literature of those artists of the popular 
 school who, beyond all others, have made Japan 
 known to Western peoples. 
 
 Like the dramatists and the novelists, their con-
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 temporaries, these artists worked for the masses. 
 Still, as to technique, the only change from the 
 practice of the more ancient schools was toward 
 greater refinement. In design the three distinct 
 manners already noted continued to prevail. There 
 were the bold effective illuminations of the Buddhist 
 school, the brush play of the Chinese, and the minute 
 and delicate miniature style associated more especially 
 with the Yamato-Tosa school, but which originated 
 also in China. But as to subjects, they were wholly 
 taken from common life, and direct comparison with 
 nature tended to soften and break down traditional 
 distinctions, to fuse styles and genres and to loosen 
 the hold of established conventions on the artistic con- 
 science. Artists went all lengths to study their chosen 
 subjects from nature. There are stories of a painter 
 of moonlight scenes, Buson, who, to observe his 
 favorite luminary more at his ease, burned a hole in 
 the thatch of his hut, and, failing to check the fire in 
 time, set half Kioto in a blaze; and of another, 
 Sosen, who dwelt for a whole year with the monkeys 
 in the forest of Osaka, adopting, so the story goes, 
 their mode of life, the better to portray them. This 
 character of naturalism and refined technique is com- 
 mon to all the art of the period. Works in metal, 
 lacquer, porcelain, ivory, the sculpture of the friezes 
 of Nikko, and netsukes an inch in diameter, alike 
 194
 
 The Piping Times of the Tokugawa 
 
 share it ; but it is principally evident in the paint- 
 ings and books of images, the designs of which were 
 indeed the originals that were followed by sculptors, 
 potters, and metal - workers. That sympathy with 
 nature which is one of the best results of Buddhist 
 teaching in the far East took an unexpected turn in 
 these productions. The artists of the Tokugawa 
 time were not given to melancholy musings. The 
 stream of life seemed to them to flow on its myste- 
 rious course merrily enough. Commonplaces about 
 the shortness of life they answered with the assertion 
 that life is good while it lasts. What they loved 
 above all in nature were the manifestations of that 
 life which appeared to them so bright, so amusing, 
 so well worth living. 
 
 The writer of the preface to one of Hokusai's 
 volumes of sketches tells us that all that attracted 
 and interested that versatile artist, the features and 
 the gestures of men, the aspects of mountains and 
 waterfalls, of trees and flowers, each with its physiog- 
 nomy, its individual expression, birds, reptiles, fishes, 
 each living its proper life, appeared to him to show 
 such an abundance of happiness that it rejoiced his 
 heart. It was true all was fated to pass away, but 
 the thought only spurred him to attempt to transmit 
 to posterity some image of the joy which appeared to 
 him to fill the universe.
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 Another preface-writer testifies to the naturalness 
 of Hokusai's drawings. 
 
 "The young folk, who are continually tramping 
 about," he writes, " tell me how they crossed yester- 
 day the Fukagawa, how to-day they have been to 
 hear the cuckoos on the heath of Asajihara, and 
 they rattle off the names of many other pleasant 
 places ; and now they would have me rise from my 
 seat by the window where I have been lazily spend- 
 ing the morning to go with them on some other ex- 
 cursion. Softly, my young friends ! I may have a 
 manner of voyaging of my own. Behold ! I have 
 already set out. Already I see the foliage of the trees 
 a-tremble; the soft white clouds in the blue sky 
 grouping themselves fantastically. I ramble here and 
 there, aimless, without an object. Now I cross the 
 monkey's bridge over the chasm, and listen to the 
 echo repeat the cry of the wild stork. Now I am in 
 the cherry-groves of Owari. Above the mists that 
 ride on the waves of Miho I see the dark forms of the 
 famous pine-trees of Suminoye. Again, I stand 
 trembling on the narrow bridge of Kaneji, or heark- 
 en to the roaring of the cataract of Ono. I start. It 
 is but a dream that I have dreamt, with this volume 
 of Hokusai under my head for a pillow." 
 
 Tt is plain that the artists were on very good terms 
 with their publishers and with the writers who fur- 
 196
 
 The Piping Times of the Tokugawa 
 
 nished these enthusiastic prefaces, and who invented 
 such taking titles for picture books as " The Sparrows 
 of Yedo," " The Dust of Yedo " (a book of street- 
 scenes), "Nature in White" (snow-scenes), and 
 "Actors on a Holiday." Often the designer lived 
 in his publisher's house as a member of his family, as 
 did Utamaro, for many years of his life. Others, like 
 Hokusai and Hiroshige, wandered about a great deal, 
 sketching as they went. One of the former's hosts, 
 a preface-writer, is authority for the statement that 
 during a visit of a few days Hokusai turned out more 
 than three hundred sketches. In return for their 
 clever puffs and other good offices, the artists illus- 
 trated the authors of the time, and so have kept alive 
 many a mediocre book of poems, many a pointless 
 essay and trifle light as air. It was a time of collec- 
 tions and books of elegant extracts, to which the 
 compilers gave fanciful names, such as " A Thousand 
 Roses, Ten Thousand Violets," "The Maple Leaf 
 Brocade of Poetry," and " Little Garret Library of 
 Song. ' ' Authors were strictly forbidden to take their 
 characters from real life or to refer to any public event 
 of the day. The more serious were thrown back on 
 the moving scenes of the civil wars, or upon the 
 glories of the ancient Empire, the less talented or less 
 learned turned to the lightest of light literature, to 
 essays about nothing, " Memoirs of a Grasshopper," 
 197
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 almanacs, guide-books, all with some pretensions to a 
 literary style, and all profusely illustrated. But the 
 artists were comparatively free. They might poke 
 fun with the point of their brush at priest and daimio, 
 hold up the mirror of art to contemporary life, both 
 public and private, pass from the Yoshiwara to the 
 Yashiki, from the temple to the tea-house, picture the 
 black-hooded geisha on her way to an all-night enter- 
 tainment, the nun at her prayers, the woman of the 
 people at her daily tasks, the poetess at her writing- 
 table. For the manners of the period one must turn, 
 not to its literature, but to these books of sketches 
 and albums of colored prints. Hiroshige pictures the 
 "Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido," the great 
 highway between Yedo and Kioto; Hokusai, " The 
 Hundred Views of Fujiyama; " Harunobu, the 
 " Manners and Customs of Women ; " Utamaro, the 
 twenty-four hours of the day in the Yoshiwara ; 
 Kiyonaga, the "Festivals of Yedo; " Toyokuni, the 
 antics of a company of actors on a holiday. Innu- 
 merable were the picture-books of plants and flowers, 
 birds and insects, shells and fishes, landscapes, illus- 
 trations of manufactures, agriculture, and industries. 
 Silk-worm raising and the silk manufacture, dyeing 
 and embroidering, the manufacture of arms and ar- 
 mor, the raising of the staple crops of rice, tea, to- 
 bacco, millet, all furnished themes for the artist's 
 198
 
 The Piping Times of the Tokugawa 
 
 nimble pencil. And when at a loss for new subjects, 
 he might turn to the processes of his own craft and 
 illustrate, as Utamaro has done, the " Cultivation of 
 the Picture Crop at Yedo." Many of these impres- 
 sions are among the finest examples of color-printing 
 that the world has known, and the effect was often 
 heightened by artistic goffering of the paper. But 
 the hundreds of offhand sketches, "done with one 
 stroke of the brush," offer the most amusing, and of- 
 ten the most valuable, records of the time. Hokusai's 
 " Mangwa," in especial, enjoys a richly deserved rep- 
 utation as the most astonishing collection of artis- 
 tic jottings that has ever been produced. Grotesque 
 illustrations of the ancient legends, dreams of the 
 smoker, fancies of enormous glow-worms descend- 
 ing to the earth as flashes of lightning, of mon- 
 strous eels escaping from their captors, of gigantic 
 cuttle-fish pursuing terrified farmers, who throw down 
 their hoes and run for their lives, alternate with 
 comic incidents of ordinary life : the fisher whose 
 hook catches in his attendant's hair, the burgher who 
 takes a girdle hung out to dry on a bamboo for a ghost, 
 the school-girl whose papers are carried away by the 
 wind, the servant detected in stealing a toothsome 
 morsel by her shadow being thrown upon the paper 
 screen behind which she is hiding. The imaginings 
 of foolish minds are frequent sources of merriment to 
 199
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 Hokusai. The lazy rice-grinder, as he lifts his pestle, 
 feels it grow heavier and heavier ; surely it has stuck 
 fast to the rice, and the rice to the mortar, and, if 
 his wife does not exert all her strength to keep the 
 latter down, he will never get it clear ! The tea- 
 house servant chopping up eels for dinner sees them 
 sprout from the willow branches ; the lone widower, 
 as his tea-pot boils over, sees the pool expanded into 
 a lake, across which sails the Ship of Good Fortune 
 with a new bride surrounded by bales of silk and 
 boxes of ointments, while a pair of sake jars, with 
 cups for wings, fly on in advance to herald her 
 coming. 
 
 Political and religious freedom were unknown, for- 
 eign commerce was prohibited, education was con- 
 fined to the old Chinese-Japanese curriculum, the 
 swords of the samurai grew rusty; but no nation 
 ever enjoyed a more materially happy and amusing 
 existence than did the Japanese during the two cen- 
 turies and a half of the Tokugawa s\vay. Toward 
 the end of the period the blessings of peace began to 
 be followed by the curses. The country was centu- 
 ries behind the rest of the world in the arts of govern- 
 ment and of war ; most of the ruling class were sunk 
 in sloth and incapacity, and the more energetic 
 among them secretly advocated a return to the an- 
 cient constitution of the Empire. But the arts profited 
 
 200
 
 The Piping Times of the Tokugawa 
 
 to the last by the long peace, and every handicraft 
 had become artistic. In the cities, the year was one 
 round of festivals. Every month had its special 
 flower-show, every trade its saint's or god's day, 
 every temple its particular ceremony. It was a true 
 Land of Cocaigne, watched over by its seven jolly 
 household gods, Yebisu, the fisherman ; Daikoku, the 
 farmer ; Eenten, Bishamon, Jurojin, Hotei, and Fu- 
 kurokuju. 
 
 201
 
 XVII 
 
 ONCE upon a time, a pretty dancing-girl named 
 Okuni, belonging to the great temple at Kitsuki, fell 
 in love with a swaggering soldier, and ran away with 
 him to Kioto. The man was a sort of free lance, a 
 ronin, or " wave-man." * Perhaps his chief had been 
 slain, his clan broken up and scattered in the course 
 of the civil wars ; perhaps he had been dismissed his 
 lord's service in disgrace ; perhaps he had voluntarily 
 embraced a roving life, in order that those to whom 
 he owed fealty might not be held accountable for 
 some foolhardy act of his. At any rate, he was ready 
 with his sword. On their way to Kioto, the pair fell 
 in with another member of the class, who travelled 
 for a while in their company, until vagabond number 
 one grew jealous of vagabond number two, and ran 
 him through the body. At Kioto, from time im- 
 memorial, part of the gravelly bed of the river Kamo 
 had been reserved as a place for fairs and popu- 
 
 "The term is the literal equivalent of our " vagabond." But 
 a ronin was always a ci-devant gentleman. 
 
 202
 
 The Drama 
 
 lar assemblies. There the couple set up a dancing 
 platform, and Okuni gave the old sacred mirror 
 dance for the amusement of the crowd. There is 
 nothing to show whether she did or did not add other 
 dances. She may possibly have appeared in some of 
 the classic mimes, or in the part of the princess Joruri, 
 Yoshitsune's mistress, whose romantic adventures had 
 already been made the subject of a tragedy. Later, 
 at Yedo, we find the pair proprietors of a regular 
 theatre, and Okuni's swashbuckler husband become 
 famous as an actor in the romantic drama, then first 
 emancipated from Buddhist and classic conventions. 
 Such, according to tradition, was the origin of the 
 modern Japanese stage. 
 
 The species of tragedy to which Joruri has given 
 her name " The Pure Blue Glaze " * is a connect- 
 ing link between the mime and the modern drama. 
 Like the No, the Joruri requires the services of a 
 chorus which chants the story while the actors, 
 masked and dressed in rich brocades, fall into pict- 
 uresque attitudes suggested by the incidents of the 
 narrative. We have here but a modification of the 
 primitive religious dance with its accompanying 
 chant. But the later drama, in which dialogue com- 
 pletely takes the place of narrative, arose, most likely, 
 
 *In allusion to the rare and precious old blue porcelain of 
 China. 
 
 203
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 about the beginning of the Tokugawa period, out of 
 the farces which served as interludes in the classical 
 No performance. 
 
 A Japanese play is the most plastic, the least sta- 
 ble, literary product imaginable, if, indeed, it can be, 
 strictly speaking, called literature at all. For only 
 the most important speeches are committed to writ- 
 ing, and actors like the famous Danjuro make more 
 free with their text than ever did Garrick or Mac- 
 ready with that of Shakespeare. If there is a book 
 of the play, it is a mere summary of the leading in- 
 cidents. The subjects are usually taken from the 
 traditions of the civil wars, and the plays themselves 
 might be called acted histories. One set of charac- 
 ters succeeds another, and, as in the example to be 
 given, there may be on the stage in the last act not a 
 single person who figured in the first. The plot 
 branches out in all directions, and what is to-day a 
 minor episode, may to-morrow become the leading 
 incident. There would, doubtless, be as many ver- 
 sions as companies but for the fact that a play is a 
 family possession, transmitted from father to son like 
 a house or an estate ; but this hardly lessens the 
 number of changes to which it is subjected, for the 
 owners are constantly revising and adapting it to new 
 conditions. In short, the play as given is commonly 
 the creation of the company which produces it, and 
 204
 
 The Drama 
 
 which has selected from the mass of dramatic material 
 the parts best suited to the capacity of its members. 
 This work of selection is generally well done from a 
 purely theatrical point of view ; there is never any 
 lack of action, and the stage setting is often superb. 
 The impression produced on the foreign spectator if 
 he sits out an entire performance, which frequently 
 takes a whole day, is that he has been witnessing 
 parts of several melodramas, pantomimes, and specta- 
 cles arbitrarily combined into some strange imperfect 
 unity. But there is usually a leading idea or senti- 
 ment which dominates the piece from first to last, 
 and the effect is artistically worked up from possibly 
 tame beginnings to an overpowering climax. 
 
 The theatre is a large, rectangular wooden building. 
 In that part of the auditory that we call the pit, 
 divided by low partitions into family stalls, the spec- 
 tators sit on cushions and, between the acts, smoke, 
 take tea, and entertain their friends. One or more 
 galleries run about three sides of the house. The 
 stage, which occupies the fourth, is but little elevated, 
 and is contrived to revolve, so that while one scene is 
 on that which is to follow is being set, and there are 
 no waits. Two long platforms adjoin the stage, right 
 and left, suggesting the parodoi of the Greek theatre 
 by the use to which they are put ; for, at times, it is 
 by them that the actors reach the stage. 
 205
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 Let us suppose that we have arrived early and have 
 taken seats in one of the shallow boxes. The play is 
 to be " The House of the Blossoming Plum Trees " 
 a title which leaves everything to the imagination. 
 The actor who reads the prologue, appearing sud- 
 denly from under the striped curtain, instead of en- 
 lightening us, makes a quantity of comical blunders, 
 and leaves us as much in the dark as ever. As he 
 disappears, the curtain is drawn aside and reveals the 
 stage, crowded with people dressed in antique cos- 
 tume. The time is surmised to be that of the Ashi- 
 kaga shoguns. A tournament is in progress, and two 
 of the retainers of my lord, Asama, are engaged in a 
 fencing-bout, which is to be the final contest of the 
 day. They wax warm, foul blows are dealt, and they 
 have to be separated. Yakuro, who was the first to 
 break the rules, insolently gives himself the airs of a 
 victor. He is reproved by his lordship, who intimates 
 that, had the fight been allowed to proceed, the prize 
 would have fallen to his opponent, Hanagaki ; and 
 Yakuro retires grumbling, and vowing to be revenged 
 for the slight put upon him. 
 
 The crowd departs ; the stage revolves ; it is now 
 night in the rice-fields near a small Shinto temple. 
 The theatre has been darkened, and in the obscurity 
 we dimly see, staggering along the narrow pathway, 
 a wounded man, vainly endeavoring to stanch the 
 206
 
 The Drama 
 
 blood that flows from a gash in his side. His assail- 
 ant follows and renews his attack. A flash of light- 
 ning enables the combatants to recognize one an- 
 other. The wounded man is Issai, Master of the 
 Ceremonies to Asama; the assassin is a former re- 
 tainer of the daimio, Hoshikage, who, having been 
 dismissed for some fault, has become a ronin, and has 
 taken to the highway for a means of subsistence. 
 The old man falls under repeated blows from the 
 ruffian, who takes his purse and decamps. A light 
 trembles in the distance in the direction opposite to 
 that taken by the robber. It is Issai 's two daughters 
 and servant who, coming to meet him, stumble over 
 his body in time to receive his dying injunction to 
 pursue the assassin and exact vengeance for the murder. 
 Again the stage revolves ; it is once more day, on 
 the banks of a little river. There is again a great 
 throng of people samurai, husbandmen, artisans, 
 peddlers gathered to witness the distribution of the 
 prizes won by the victors in the tournament. On 
 the edge of the crowd some ruffians turn to annoy a 
 poorly dressed girl ; and the daimio sends two of his 
 men, Yakuro and another, to her assistance. The 
 crowd falls back. Hototogisu (The Cuckoo) is led 
 forward between the two samurai, and from the long 
 set speech which she delivers we learn her history 
 and guess that she is to be the heroine of the play. 
 207
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 When, once or twice in a lifetime, we hear, at 
 midnight, the song of the hototogisu, sounding from 
 the darkest recesses of the wood, we know that it is 
 a message from beyond the grave ; for the bird has 
 its home in the trackless mountains that divide this 
 world from the next, and never leaves them but on 
 some ghostly errand. Such, as the heroine describes 
 it, has been her life, as obscure and lonely, hiding in 
 the woods by day, venturing at dusk into the vil- 
 lages, and wandering from place to place by night, 
 led by a vague hope, which springs afresh after every 
 new disappointment, to seek the kinsfolk from whom 
 she has been separated when a child. 
 
 While she speaks, giving a long account of her 
 wanderings, the daimio and his suite disappear ; and 
 Yakuro, who has listened attentively, and who ap- 
 pears to be revolving in his mind some elaborate 
 plot, leads her after to the castle. 
 
 The first act is now over, and three distinct mo- 
 tives are apparent which we naturally expect to see 
 developed in the following scenes Yakuro's resent- 
 ment, the vengeance vowed by the daughters of 
 Issai, and the quest undertaken by Hototogisu. 
 But the second act, as it proceeds, does not seem to 
 advance any one of these motives. 
 
 It opens with a scene on Mount Iwata. It is 
 winter, and the ground is covered with snow. Sev- 
 208
 
 The Drama 
 
 eral men appear, dressed like hunters, carrying be- 
 tween them a curiously shaped box. They set it 
 down to rest, and fall to chatting and laughing about 
 its contents and the use to which Magohei, their 
 leader, intends to put them. The coffer, which they 
 have stolen from the shrine of the mountain god, 
 holds the dress and mask used by the priest when he 
 impersonates the divinity.* It is Magohei 's plan to 
 array himself in these and, entering Issai's house, 
 frighten the servants, while his band, of whom the 
 murderer, Hoshikage, is one, make off with the two 
 young girls, Oju and Wasuragi. 
 
 One of the robbers is posted to intercept any 
 chance traveller, the others take up their burden and 
 depart. Unluckily for the worthy left on guard, a 
 young samurai approaches, with whom he picks a 
 quarrel, but who proves an expert swordsman, and 
 pushes his adversary, step by step, to the brink of the 
 precipice. At last a false move on his part and he 
 is over. 
 
 The stage revolves. Yukieda, the victor in the 
 last scene, arrives at the shrine of the mountain god 
 farther down the slope. The body of the robber, 
 fallen from the cliff, lies in his path. While he is 
 
 * Shinto has no idols, but its gods are represented in religious 
 dances by their priests the oldest form, probably, of religious 
 ceremonial. 
 
 209
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 engaged in pushing it aside, Wasuragi, the younger 
 of Issai's daughters, arrives to beseech the god to aid 
 her in discovering her father's murderer. As she 
 prays, the door of the shrine is suddenly flung open 
 and Hoshikage and Magohei, who have been hiding 
 there, rush upon her escort. Yukieda comes to the 
 rescue and puts the robbers to flight; but Wasuragi, 
 alarmed for his safety and forgetting her vow of ven- 
 geance, detains him, and they are permitted to es- 
 cape. Another disaster impends over the house of 
 Issai, and now we begin to see the true drift of the 
 play, the real subject of which is the misfortunes of 
 the fated family. 
 
 The third act is an example of those contrasts be- 
 tween the action and the scene in which Japanese 
 playwrights are unsurpassed. It is now April ; we 
 are in the gardens of the daimio's palace; plum 
 and cherry trees are in full bloom, and under their 
 masses of pink and white blossoms the young wife of 
 Asama and her mother, Yuri-no- Kata, confide to one 
 another their jealousy and hatred of the new favorite, 
 Hototogisu, who has stolen the daimio's affections. 
 Yakuro appears, and the ladies pretend that they have 
 no other concern than to admire the flowers. But 
 Yakuro skilfully leads the conversation back to the 
 old channel and expresses the most profound indigna- 
 tion at his lord's conduct in transferring his atten-
 
 The Drama 
 
 tions from their legitimate object to a mere strolling 
 singer of unknown extraction. For a remedy, he de- 
 clares he can see none but to put the adventuress out 
 of the way by poison. The two women eagerly seize 
 on the suggestion. Asama is away in Kioto ; the 
 work must be accomplished before his return. The 
 prudent Yakuro has already provided the means and 
 leads forward a physician who has brought the poison 
 with him. The ladies examine the phial narrowly 
 and question him minutely about its effects. Satis- 
 fied with his answers, they reward and dismiss him. 
 But Yakuro whispers that he cannot be depended on 
 to keep the secret, and Yuri-no-Kata calls him back. 
 Pretending that a service so important cannot be paid 
 for with money only, she proposes to raise him to 
 the rank of a samurai, and borrows Yakuro's sword 
 for the purpose. As the doomed man, taking hold of 
 the scabbard, bows profoundly in acknowledgment 
 of the honor, she suddenly unsheaths the weapon and 
 strikes his head from his shoulders. 
 
 The stage revolving shows now a yet more exquis- 
 ite garden scene. In the background is the pavilion 
 occupied by Hototogisu. In front a rivulet winds 
 through the grounds, crossed by a rustic bridge, and 
 pours over a ledge of rocks into a ravine. The favor- 
 ite is suffering from the effects of the poison. Night 
 falls ; she dismisses her servants, who withdraw re- 
 
 211
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 luctantly. A bluish flame rises from the floor of the 
 pavilion, dies away, and a ghostly something hovers 
 in its place. It is the spirit of the slain physician, 
 who appears to warn her and to tell her of an anti- 
 dote for the poison. The phantom disappears. Hoto- 
 togisu tries the remedy and, delighted with the re- 
 sult, prepares for sleep, shutting to the sliding screens 
 of the pavilion. 
 
 In the meantime, from opposite sides of the gar- 
 den two furies armed with naked swords advance 
 stealthily from bush to bush. They spring upon the 
 veranda, burst the slight fastenings of the paper walls, 
 and, rushing upon the astonished girl, cut her down 
 like a reed. Yuri-no-Kata enters from the rear. She 
 had tired of waiting for the poison to take effect, and 
 considering that steel is quicker and surer had sent 
 the two viragos upon this errand. She congratulates 
 them upon their success, and calmly seats herself on 
 the mat beside her victim. Torches now light up 
 the house, which is visible to the audience through the 
 broken screens. The wounded woman revives and 
 charges Yuri-no-Kata with the crime, who coldly 
 acknowledges her share in it, orders tea and tobacco 
 to be brought, and, sipping and smoking, looks on 
 while the servants accomplish their task. 
 
 They are bunglers ; Hototogisu only faints from 
 loss of blood ; but thinking her dead they prepare to 
 212
 
 The Drama 
 
 withdraw. Regaining a little strength, she crawls 
 painfully from the pavilion and has reached the mid- 
 dle of the garden before one of them, turning, discov- 
 ers her. Yuri-no-Kata runs forward, seizes her by 
 the hair, and dragging her across the bridge, gives the 
 coup de grace ; after which the body is thrown into the 
 ravine. The two young servants of the favorite, 
 who have come upon the scene, and have watched 
 the murder trembling, are treated likewise ; and the 
 three beldames again make ready to depart. 
 
 But, now one of the castle watch approaches, mak- 
 ing his rounds. He slips in the blood, examines the 
 traces of the murder, follows them to the ravine, and, 
 holding out his lantern at arm's length, discovers the 
 bodies. He returns toward the pavilion. Yuri-no- 
 Kata, seeing no way of escape, and satisfied with hav- 
 ing attained her purpose, pierces her side with the 
 sword with which she had despatched her victim. 
 
 The fourth act passes at a tea-house in the environs 
 of Kioto. Asama is making a visit, incognito, to one 
 of the inmates. Hoshikage, who has become the lead- 
 er of a band of thieves in the metropolis, rudely jos- 
 tles him and is pushed aside. He demands the name 
 of the daimio, who refuses to gratify him. Three 
 or four other thieves spring to Hoshikage' s assistance. 
 Swords are drawn, but the daimio disdains to un- 
 sheath his weapon. With a few smart blows of his 
 213
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 fan he puts the robbers to rout, and further to show 
 his contempt for such cowardly assailants, he fans the 
 air, tainted by their presence, away from him. The 
 loyal Hanagaki and his servant come up. They cry 
 out against the daimio's folly in thus going about un- 
 attended, and try to dissuade him from paying the in- 
 tended visit, but in vain. The party enters the tea- 
 house and reappears a moment after at the end of one 
 of the long passages already described that run along 
 the sides of the theatre and connect it with the 
 stage. At the same time there appears on the other 
 side the beautiful Oju, magnificently dressed, and led 
 along by a servant, on whose shoulders she leans. 
 Elaborate compliments fly back and forth from one 
 balcony to the other over the heads of the spectators. 
 Meanwhile the scene is changed and discloses the gar- 
 den of the tea-house, a pavilion lit by many-colored 
 lanterns at the end. A supper is laid there. The two 
 parties proceed to the pavilion, bow ceremoniously 
 to one another, and take their places, the principals 
 within, the attendants at a respectful distance outside 
 on the veranda. Everything proceeds according to 
 the strictest etiquette. The supper is cleared away, 
 and Oju takes a koto and begins to play. 
 
 At this moment, in the darkest corner of the gar- 
 den, a little flame shoots up, vanishes, and Hototo- 
 gisu appears in its place. The face only is plainly 
 214
 
 The Drama 
 
 visible, the black hair floating about it is scarcely 
 distinguishable from the background. For an instant 
 it holds a folded letter between its lips ; but the letter 
 is dropped among the bushes, and the apparition 
 plays on the short flute used by wandering musicians 
 an accompaniment to Oju's music. She is heard in 
 the pavilion, but not seen. Oju ceases playing in 
 order to listen. 
 
 The apparition now tries another air, one with 
 which Asama is familiar. He comes forward to the 
 veranda and recognizes the vision, which he imagines 
 to be the living Hototogisu. Amazed, he asks what 
 can be the purpose of her visit. " To see you," she 
 returns, " and also my elder sister. In the other 
 world I have found the parents I was so long seek- 
 ing; Issai was my father." Oju, it now appears, 
 had been carried off by the brigands and sold to the 
 proprietor of the tea-house. To Asama the spirit 
 complains of the cruel treatment she had received 
 and vanishes ; he signs to the attendants to follow ; 
 they discover only the letter in the grass, which con- 
 tains a circumstantial account of the murder, and 
 urges upon her sister the duty of taking vengeance 
 upon Hoshikage, the first cause of all their misfort- 
 unes. 
 
 The opening scene of the next act is again at the 
 tea-house, but seven years are supposed to have passed 
 215
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 away. Oju is now well known in Kioto to be 
 Asama's favorite. Two new characters appear, Go- 
 rojo, an old-time retainer of the daimio, now a ronin, 
 and his wife. Gorojo is sickly, and in debt. He 
 has many dependants, who prey upon the little sub- 
 stance that remains to him. His wife no longer loves 
 him. She wishes to join Hoshikage, who appears with 
 a bag of money and offers to buy her from her hus- 
 band ; but Gorojo is not yet reduced to that point 
 and rejects the proffered purse with indignation. 
 His wife laughs at him for a fool, and tells him that 
 she means to leave him in any case. Hoshikage de- 
 parts, clinking his money, and Gorojo follows threat- 
 ening him. 
 
 The woman remains, and to her now comes Oju, 
 who has overheard the altercation, and who sees an 
 opportunity to bring the old robber to an accounting 
 at last. She persuades the creature, who has a sort of 
 fondness for her, to tell her of Hoshikage's hiding- 
 place, to exchange dresses with her, and to remain 
 for the night at the tea-house. 
 
 The scene changes to the street. An oil-lamp is 
 burning at the corner, and near by is the scaffold of 
 a fire lookout, with shelves for buckets. Gorojo en- 
 ters, climbs up and extinguishes the light, then de- 
 scends again and hides behind the water- buckets. If 
 his wife and Hoshikage are to meet, one or the other 
 216
 
 The Drama 
 
 must pass this place, and he has determined to slay 
 whichever is the first to arrive. Hark ! He hears 
 footsteps. It is Oju, who comes attired in his wife's 
 kimono. With a single blow of his sabre he takes off 
 her head, then rips the loose, hanging sleeve from 
 her dress, wraps the head in it, slings it over his 
 shoulder and departs. Turning the corner he stum- 
 bles against Hoshikage ; but his desire for blood is 
 sated ; the two ronin glare at one another, and each 
 goes his way. 
 
 The last act is laid at Gorojo's house in the least 
 reputable quarter of old Kioto. The screens forming 
 the front of the house have been removed so that the 
 interior is visible ; and the scene also includes part of 
 the street without. It is noon ; Gorojo's idle and 
 hungry hangers-on are gathered discussing the news 
 of the murder. The body has been found, and, 
 though the head is missing, it has been identified as 
 that of the famous beauty, the favorite of the daimio, 
 Asama. Gorojo enters, stretching his limbs and 
 yawning. He listens to the gossip at first with in- 
 difference there is nothing to connect him with the 
 murder then, as Oju's name is mentioned, with sur- 
 prise, which he endeavors to conceal. Every inci- 
 dent connected with the murder is recounted ; Oju 
 has disappeared ; her servants have identified the 
 body by certain marks upon it; the evidence is con- 
 217
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 elusive that she is the victim. But Gorojo refuses to 
 be convinced. He says not a word, but his attitude 
 shows that he weighs each statement as with loaded 
 scales, and regards the proof which satisfies the others 
 as contemptible. The police have blundered, that 
 is all. Still, he dismisses his people in order to make 
 doubly sure by examining the head, which he has 
 hidden away. 
 
 But his blind mother enters, and he turns back 
 from the closet which he was about to open. The 
 old woman offers up a prayer for his happiness and 
 goes out. It makes him melancholy to be prayed 
 for, and he is slow about returning to the closet. 
 He goes to the door and closes it, and changes the 
 position of one small article after another. Pshaw ! 
 What is this feeling that is creeping over him ? He 
 plucks up nerve, opens the door of the recess and 
 takes out the packet. Of course ! It is just as he 
 thought ! This is the sleeve of his wife's kimono. 
 Why ! how could it be otherwise ? What idiots 
 those people were who thought he had slain Oju in- 
 stead. He had a right to kill his wife, she was un- 
 faithful ; but to kill the favorite of his lord that 
 would be a crime little short of treason. True, he 
 had left Asama's employ ; he was a ronin. But he 
 was still a member of the clan, and owed fealty to its 
 head. No, no ! If such a deed had been done by 
 218
 
 The Drama 
 
 him, even in mistake He removes the wrappings 
 and recoils, stupefied ; returns once, twice, incredu- 
 lous ; it is hard for him to believe, even now, that 
 the error has really been his, and that the police 
 were not at fault. 
 
 But at last no doubt remains ; nor does he for a 
 moment hesitate as to what he must do. He must 
 make reparation and die the honorable death. He 
 sits down to write his last testament. 
 
 As he does so his wife enters brimming over with 
 tears and with gossip about the dead Oju. GorojS 
 rises and flings her out of the house. The blind 
 mother returns, anxious, having heard the noise of 
 the scuffle, and she also is summarily put into the 
 street. Then GorojO closes the screens and piles 
 chests and boxes against them that he may not again 
 be disturbed. He finishes writing, takes a small 
 table from the recess, puts Oju's head upon it, lights 
 candles and places vases of flowers beside it. He 
 draws his sword and feels its edge and point. Then, 
 seating himself opposite the sort of altar that he has 
 improvised, he thrusts the point of the sword into his 
 bowels. 
 
 Meanwhile the faithless wife poignards herself in the 
 
 street. Her body lies in the gutter. The blind 
 
 mother, distracted, understanding nothing but that 
 
 her son is in trouble, tries to force her way into the 
 
 219
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 house. The barricade at last yields, but Gor5jO has 
 already dealt himself the finishing stroke. He is not 
 yet dead when some of his cronies return with further 
 news to impart, and blurt it out while stupidly trying 
 to seize the meaning of the scene before them. In 
 their search for the murderer of Oju the authorities 
 have laid hands on Hoshikage, whom they have long 
 sought to apprehend for his numerous crimes. There 
 is no question that he will be condemned to death. 
 Gorojo turns on his side. ' ' You have done well to 
 bring the good news," he says. " It is an acceptable 
 farewell gift." 
 
 220
 
 XVIII 
 THE FORTY-SEVEN FREE LANCES 
 
 THAT private vengeance is not favored by heaven 
 is evidently the moral which the exemplary author of 
 " The House of the Blossoming Plum Trees " desired 
 to enforce. But this was far from being a universal 
 sentiment in old Japan ; and the most celebrated of the 
 popular romances of the Tokugavva period has for its 
 aim the glorification of that excessive loyalty to family 
 and chief which too often gave rise to savage blood - 
 feuds. " The Treasury of Loyalty " (Chiushin-gura) 
 relates how Yenya Takasada, a lord of Hakushiu, 
 having been compelled to commit hara-kiri, and his 
 fief having been confiscated as a punishment for at- 
 tempting the life of an insulting court official, the karo 
 (chief councillor) of the clan and a number of retain- 
 ers took an oath to slay the enemy of their lord, whose 
 insults had brought this fate upon them, and suc- 
 ceeded, in spite of the latter's watchfulness and their 
 own weak and impoverished condition. 
 
 Yenya, with the lord of Wakasa, a baron of lesser 
 rank, and Moronao, the court officer referred to, had
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 been appointed by the shogun, Ashikaga Takauji, to 
 attend upon his brother, on the occasion of the latter 's 
 visit to inaugurate a new shrine to the war -god at 
 Tsurugaoka. Moronao was to instruct the two younger 
 men, his coadjutors, in the etiquette proper to the oc- 
 casion, but confined his instructions to Wakasa, whose 
 councillor, Honzo, had secretly taken the precaution 
 of bribing him. Yenya, on the contrary, he treated 
 with contempt, and so enraged by his insults that he 
 was with difficulty prevented by Honzo from slaying 
 his tormentor. But merely to draw sword within 
 the precincts of the palace was a capital offence, and 
 though Moronao escaped with a slight wound, Yenya 
 was condemned to disembowel himself, and his castle 
 and estates were seized by the shogun. His retain- 
 ers were compelled to seek other service or become 
 ronin. 
 
 After Yenya had died by his own hand in the 
 presence of his family and fighting men, the kar<5 
 Kuranosuk6 called the latter together in the great hall 
 of the castle and divided equally among them the 
 contents of the treasury. There were loud cries on 
 the part of some of the younger men for resistance to 
 the decree of expulsion, while others, knowing how 
 futile such resistance must be, desperately counselled 
 self-despatch. Meanwhile, those who preferred life 
 to either course quietly slunk away, and one KudayQ
 
 The Forty-seven Free Lances 
 
 (of whom more hereafter), not content to follow their 
 example, bitterly reviled Kuranosuk6 for his equal 
 division of the funds, claiming that he should have 
 received a share proportioned to his salary as one of 
 the council. Forty-seven of the samurai remained ; 
 and Kuranosuke, seeing that the good grain had been 
 winnowed from the chaff, made known his real plan, 
 which was that they should deliver up the castle 
 quietly to the shogun's commissioners, but should 
 undergo no new obligations until such time as they 
 might find an opportunity to compass the death of 
 Moronao in return for that of their lord. To this all 
 assented and signed the agreement that he had pre- 
 pared with their blood. They then separated, Ku- 
 ranosuke going to Yamashina, a village near Kioto, 
 where he hired a small cottage. The wife of Yenya, 
 Kawoyo, took up her residence in the capital. 
 
 The first task of the conspirators was to set Moro- 
 nao's fears at rest and remove all suspicion of their de- 
 sign. That worthy, they learned, had shut himself 
 up in his yashiki and had doubled the number of his 
 retainers, rightly judging that the quiet submission 
 of the clan was proof that there was a plot on foot 
 against his life. It was certain that he would employ 
 spies to watch them, and especially the karo, Kura- 
 nosuke. Wherefore, after the manner of other famous 
 heroes in like circumstances, Kuranosuke began to 
 223
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 lead a double life, squandering his money recklessly, 
 drinking deep and often, frequenting the Yoshiwara, 
 quarrelling with his wife and son and abusing his ser- 
 vants all this openly and with the most scandalous 
 disregard of public opinion, like a man whose princi- 
 ples and character had been completely unsettled by 
 misfortune ; while, when no one was looking, he re- 
 mained a model husband and father, a careful guar- 
 dian of the funds intrusted to him by Yenya's wife, 
 and above all a tireless laborer for Moronao's destruc- 
 tion. 
 
 The anniversary of Yenya's death came about while 
 each party was thus engaged in watching the other's 
 movements. Moronao had begun to find a life of 
 constant care and suspicion prey upon his spirits and 
 was disposed to believe, if he only dared, in the re- 
 ports that reached him through his spies of Kurano- 
 suk^'s dissolute habits. But Kudayu, who was now 
 in his service, knew too well the character of his old 
 comrade to believe in such a complete transformation. 
 He offered to accompany a retainer of Moronao, one 
 Bannai, to Yamashina and probe the matter to the 
 bottom. 
 
 At Yamashina, where they had learned Kuranosuk6 
 
 resided, the precious pair discovered that the old 
 
 karo really spent most of his time in the Yoshiwara, 
 
 in Kioto, and was in very bad repute with his neigh- 
 
 224
 
 The Forty-seven Free Lances 
 
 bors. Making their way to the tea-house in Gion 
 Street which they heard was frequented by Kurano- 
 suke', they found the latter, tipsy and blindfolded, 
 making excellent fun for a lot of girls, the waitresses 
 of the establishment, who were having with him a 
 game of blind-man's buff. The two emissaries of 
 Moronao were obliged to put up with a room on the 
 second floor, the entire ground floor of the inn having 
 been taken by Kuranosuke for the day. 
 
 While the two spies sipped their sake upstairs, 
 three of the ronin approached, with a fourth man, 
 one Heiyemon, who, though only a common soldier, 
 wished to be allowed to enroll himself among the 
 conspirators. Kuranosuke", rushing about blindfold 
 in pursuit of the girls, stumbled against one of the 
 men. " Caught ! caught ! " he cried. " Bring the 
 sake ; she must pay forfeit by drinking a good cup 
 of it." 
 
 "What means this foolery, Kuranosuke?" asked 
 the new-comer, rudely disengaging himself. " I am 
 Yazama Jiutaro, and here are two or three friends ; 
 we must speak with you." 
 
 "What about?" inquired the karo. " Namu ! 
 girls, the game is ended." 
 
 " We seek to know," said Yazama, after the girls 
 had withdrawn, " when we are to set out for Kama- 
 kura?" 
 
 225
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 " Kamakura ! ' ' echoed the karo. " That is a long 
 way off, is it not ? Wait, a scrap of verse occurs to 
 me ; but, now I remember, it is about Yedo. Per- 
 haps some one of you gentlemen will kindly enlight- 
 en me as to what on earth we are talking about." 
 
 The exasperated ronin were about to draw upon 
 their chief when Heiyemon interposed to prefer 
 his request, 
 
 " Fool ! " cried the kar5. " Of what use should 
 vengeance be to you or me? Do you not know that 
 whether the attempt failed or succeeded our deaths 
 must follow ? Then why be at the pains to conspire ? 
 One does not take medicine when in the hands of 
 the executioner." 
 
 Heiyemon continued to implore his permission to 
 join the band ; but as the karo for sole answer 
 stretched himself upon the mats and fell asleep, the 
 samurai withdrew, cursing their old chief. 
 
 Hours slipped by. It was near dawn when the 
 karo's son, Rikiya, entered, awoke his father and 
 handed him a packet. " It is from Lady Kawoyo," 
 he said. " Moronao is about to leave Kamakura for 
 his country seat. There it will be more difficult 
 than ever for us to reach him. We must strike 
 quickly or it will be too late. ' ' 
 
 "Go back to Yamashina," said the karo, "and, 
 when night falls, send me here a covered litter." 
 226
 
 The Forty-seven Free Lances 
 
 He was about to open Lady Kawoyo's letter when 
 Kudayu, who had not spent much time in sleep, en- 
 tered the room. Kuranosuke quickly concealed the 
 packet in his bosom. 
 
 "Well met," he called. "It is a year, I think, 
 since we parted, and we have each acquired some 
 wrinkles. A good occasion this to smooth them 
 out." 
 
 "What! Sir Kura," Kudayu returned. "Well, 
 well ! It does not answer to pick holes in a good 
 doublet ; but this is a strange way to set about your 
 enterprise against Moronao. ' ' 
 
 " Hard words," said Kura. " I do not know of 
 what you speak. ' ' 
 
 The two called for sake, but Kudayu, who, traitor 
 as he was, reverenced in his way his lord's memory, 
 superstitiously avoided taking any solid food ; and 
 was horror-stricken to see the karo devour the fish 
 that was set before him. 
 
 "I have not heard," said he, "that Yenya has 
 been changed into a devil-fish ; nor for that matter, 
 into a pullet, which is better eating. I will go order 
 one." 
 
 Bannai entered while Kuranosuk6 was seeing about 
 
 the fowl, and the two spies exchanged notes and 
 
 agreed that Moronao had nothing to fear from such a 
 
 heartless and conscienceless scoundrel. Their litter 
 
 227
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 was in waiting. The two rogues each politely re- 
 quested the other to enter first. " By your leave 
 then," said Kudayu, and, seized by a sudden in- 
 spiration, he passed through the curtained kago and 
 picking up a large stone that happened to be at 
 hand he deposited it in the place that he should 
 have occupied, then quickly disappeared under the 
 flooring of the veranda. 
 
 "Go your way," he whispered to Bannai. "I 
 am not yet convinced and must learn in some way 
 the contents of the letter that Rikiya just now brought 
 to his father." 
 
 As Kudayu had expected, Kuranosuk6, seeing the 
 kago depart, apparently heavy laden, came out to the 
 light to read Kawoyo's letter. It was a long epistle 
 which, as the karo unrolled it, reached the planks, 
 and Kudayu had little difficulty in drawing part of it 
 through one of the open joints of the floor. He read 
 sufficient to confirm his suspicions. But he might 
 not be believed : it was necessary to have some proof 
 to show that the conspiracy was a fact, otherwise he 
 might yet lose his lucrative occupation. He care- 
 fully tore away the portion of the letter that had 
 reached his hands. 
 
 But at the same time, on the balcony above, one 
 of Kuranosuke's playmates of the previous evening, 
 prompted by feminine curiosity, was endeavoring by 
 228
 
 The Forty-seven Free Lances 
 
 the means of her metal hand-mirror to get at the 
 contents of the letter without being herself observed. 
 The mirror slipped from her grasp, and Kuranosuke, 
 looking up, recognized her. " Karu," he called, 
 " Karu, I have taken a great fancy to you. Come 
 down, then, and leave this place with me. See ! I 
 will pay your score and set you free from service. ' ' 
 
 The girl, though puzzled and a little afraid, was, 
 on the whole, well pleased with the offer, and did as 
 she was bid. Kuranosuke, rolling up the scroll, re- 
 entered the tea-house to pay his reckoning. But 
 Kudayu still found no chance for escape ; for now 
 Heiyemon, who was Karu's brother, came out to in- 
 quire about her bargain with Kuranosuke. Learning 
 from her that she had read the contents of the 
 letter, " You are a dead woman," said he. " And, 
 worse, my chance of being received as a member of 
 the band is lost by your fault. Why do you suppose 
 the councillor should trouble himself about you ? 
 He means to kill you to make certain of your si- 
 lence." 
 
 Karu protested that she was willing to die if her 
 living in any way endangered the success of the plot. 
 Upon this Kuranosuk^ returned, having discovered 
 ihe loss of part of the scroll, and reassured them, 
 saying that he had only intended to keep Karu out of 
 the way until the affair was over. 
 229
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 " But there is a traitor here who will not get off so 
 easily," he added. And, with Heiyemon's aid, he 
 dragged Kudayu from his hiding-place. The un- 
 fortunate spy was gagged and bound, and, to avoid 
 discovery, was taken and cast into the river. 
 
 Kawoyo's letter, that had caused all this coil, con- 
 tained but one important item of information that 
 had not been confided to Rikiya : Moronao, reckon- 
 ing on leaving Kamakura, had dismissed most of his 
 hired guards. It was doubly important, therefore, 
 to strike without delay. All was ready. The arms- 
 merchant, Gihei, of Sakai, had procured armor, 
 weapons, and uniforms, and had two fishing-junks in 
 readiness to take the conspirators to their destination. 
 One thing only remained with which they were not 
 yet provided a plan of their enemy's residence; 
 and that Kuranosuk6 obtained in an unexpected 
 manner before the day had ended. 
 
 The daughter of Honzo, the councillor of Wakasa, 
 who had prevented Yenya from slaying Moronao, 
 had been betrothed to Rikiya, Kuranosuke's son, 
 but owing to the misfortunes that had come upon the 
 latter's family, the affair had been allowed to drop. 
 Honzo and his daughter, however, had set their 
 hearts upon the union ; and the former, knowing 
 that nothing would be more likely to lead to a re- 
 newal of the engagement, had been at great pains to 
 230
 
 The Forty-seven Free Lances 
 
 obtain from the architect a detailed plan of Moronao's 
 yashiki, which he intended to offer as his daughter's 
 marriage portion. But he feared he would be ill- 
 received if he presented himself too abruptly ; so he 
 had his wife and daughter precede him to Yamashina 
 to open the negotiations, while he followed disguised 
 as a wandering musician. 
 
 In Kuranosuke's absence, his wife, Ishi, received 
 the travellers with becoming friendliness until the 
 subject of the marriage was broached, when she put 
 on a cold and haughty demeanor. Though her hus- 
 band and son were now ronin, she said they had not 
 dishonored themselves by offering bribes to Moronao, 
 and they could never forgive Honzo for having saved 
 that monster's life. On one condition only would 
 she listen to their request that they bring her the 
 head of their father and husband. 
 
 HonzO in his mendicant's garb arrived just in time 
 to overhear this outrageous proposal. He had an- 
 ticipated a refusal, but the excess of hatred mani- 
 fested by Ishi made him furious. Throwing off his 
 disguise, " Here is my head," he cried ; " take it ! 
 Your precious husband, I hear, is become a drunkard 
 and a madman, as well as a ronin ; and, doubtless, 
 the son follows in the father's footsteps. My head is 
 safe enough from their rusty swords, I'll warrant." 
 
 "You shall pay for your insolence," cried Ishi, 
 231
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 also beside herself; and taking a long spear from the 
 rack, she let drive at him with all her strength. 
 Honzo caught the weapon by the shaft and wrested 
 it from her. Brushing his wife and daughter aside, 
 and casting the spear to a distance, he brought Ishi 
 to the ground and held her down. At this moment 
 Rikiya and Kuranosuke arrived, and the former, pick- 
 ing up the spear and heedless of his father's orders 
 to stay his hand, ran Honzo through the body. 
 
 Everybody now stood horror-struck at the bloody 
 termination of the affray; while the dying man, 
 recollecting too late the purpose for which he had 
 come, explained that his object had been to bring 
 about an understanding as to the marriage, had not 
 Ishi's and his own unguarded temper led to this un- 
 fortunate result. "But all will be well if you grant 
 me my desire," he concluded, addressing Kuranosuk6. 
 " You will now surely not let my journey have been 
 in vain." 
 
 The karO, for an answer, pushed back the screens 
 that hid the small garden at the rear of the cottage 
 where, that morning, playing the mad-man, he had 
 heaped up and fashioned two tombs of snow. The 
 visitors understood him. The tombs were for himself 
 and his son, whose lives would be at an end before the 
 snow could melt. " You see," said Ishi, " that if I 
 imposed impossible conditions it was not to insult or 
 232
 
 The Forty-seven Free Lances 
 
 grieve you. Moronao must die, and my son and 
 husband must therefore perish. Why would you 
 speak of marriage when the bride must so soon be 
 widowed ? ' ' 
 
 " Still, let my wishes be fulfilled," urged HonzO, 
 feebly, " and accept from me the bridal gifts that 
 you will find set down here in this document." 
 
 He drew the architect's scroll from his bosom and 
 handed it to Rikiya, who exclaimed, in astonishment : 
 " Why, this is no list, but itself the best of gifts ! It 
 is the plan of Moronao's yashiki, with gate-house and 
 postern, barracks and private quarters, everything, 
 even to the stores and outhouses, set down in their 
 proper places. ' ' 
 
 "Thanks, HonzO," said Kuranosuke. "You 
 could not have brought a better peace-offering ; for 
 this removes the final difficulty from our way." 
 
 "Let me see the plan," gasped HonzO; "you 
 must know how to use it. The best places to gain 
 entrance are here, and here, near the water-gate and 
 the main gate. From these points two separate par- 
 ties will have each a clear path to the great hall and 
 Moronao's private rooms. And now let the desire 
 of my heart be granted and the marriage proceed, 
 though it be but for a day." 
 
 " So let it be," said Kuranosuke. " For my part, 
 I must leave at once for Sakai, to arrange with the 
 233
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 merchant, Gihei, who is to furnish our arms. But 
 you, Rikiya, can join me to-morrow. I will make 
 vise of Honzo's disguise." So saying, he put on the 
 cloak and deep-brimmed hat, and picked up the bam- 
 boo flute that Honzo had thrown aside. 
 
 But the latter was now at the point of death ; his 
 wife and daughter were prostrate by his body ; and 
 Kuranosuke delayed yet a moment to put up a prayer 
 in his behalf to Buddha. Soon the last agony was 
 over ; the thread of life was broken ; and while the 
 women and Rikiya began the prayers for the dead, 
 Kuranosuke set out upon his journey. 
 
 Gihei, who was to furnish arms and transportation 
 for the ronin, had been in former times the factor for 
 the clan, who had disposed of their produce and 
 bought and forwarded the goods of which they stood 
 in need. At the first hint of the conspiracy he had 
 offered his services ; and his only regret was that, 
 being a citizen, he could not take a personal share in 
 the enterprise. The matter was forever in his mind, 
 and he spent many an hour trying to think of some 
 means of advancing Kuranosuke's designs ; but being 
 a dull-witted fellow, nothing ever occurred to him 
 until it was suggested by the karo, who himself de- 
 signed the " bat's-wing " uniforms that were to en- 
 able the ronin to recognize one another in the con- 
 fusion of the attack, selected the weapons, and 
 234
 
 The Forty-seven Free Lances 
 
 arranged all the details. The only stroke of policy 
 that commended itself to him was to send his wife, 
 Sono, out of the way, lest some news of the ex- 
 pedition might leak out through her, or any harm 
 befall her if his house were searched by the author- 
 ities. 
 
 Gihei lived and did business at the sign of the 
 Stream of Heaven (Ama-gawa) in Sakai, the seaport 
 of Kioto ; and in his wife's absence had for company 
 in the house only his young son and a single serving- 
 man. On the evening before the sailing of the ex- 
 pedition he was aroused about midnight by a loud 
 knocking at his door, and, opening it, half a dozen 
 men dressed and armed like members of the city 
 watch rushed in upon him. Their leader placed him 
 under arrest, and told him he was charged with com- 
 plicity in the conspiracy against Moronao. 
 
 "We are acting on authority," he continued. 
 "You will be put to the torture if you do not answer 
 our questions truly. You had better confess at once, 
 and tell us all that you know about the plot. It is of 
 no use your denying your connection with it. The 
 contents of this box, which we have seized, will suf- 
 fice to confound you if you do. ' ' 
 
 The box Gihei recognized as having been shipped 
 by him that day, full of chain-mail and weapons, on 
 board one of the junks that were to convey Kurano- 
 =35
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 suke's men to Kamakura. " All is lost," thought 
 he ; but determined that no information about the 
 plans or the doings of the conspirators would be ob- 
 tained from him, he broke away from his captors, and 
 putting his knee upon the chest dared them to come on. 
 
 "Tush!" said the leader; "we do not suppose 
 that anything can be got from you by killing you. 
 But we have other means which we think will prove 
 efficacious. ' ' 
 
 At a sign from him one of the pretended officers 
 brought in Gihei's child, a boy about a year old ; and 
 the spokesman of the party made as though ready to 
 thrust the point of his sword into the child's throat. 
 But Gihei was to all appearance unmoved. 
 
 "Come ! " cried his tormentor, "you do not 
 mean to tell me that that chest does not contain chain 
 armor, surcoats, spears, and matchlocks furnished by 
 you to Kuranosuke and his fellow-conspirators ! Out 
 with the truth or we will hack you in pieces." 
 
 "The truth is," retorted Gihei, " that I deal in 
 arms as well as in other things. There is nothing in 
 that for which one should be hacked in pieces. But 
 if there is, fall to and practice the six cuts on me," 
 and quitting the chest he made a dash upon his 
 captors. 
 
 "Hold!" cried Kuranosuke, throwing off the 
 cover and springing from the chest. " No one, 
 236
 
 The Forty-seven Free Lances 
 
 Gihei, can ask further proof of your faithfulness and 
 constancy." All of his associates, some of whom 
 had doubted Gihei might play them false, were 
 now of the same opinion, and had lowered their 
 weapons and were bowing, with expressions of their 
 admiration of his courage and loyalty, to the aston- 
 ished Gihei. The object of the ruse was explained, 
 and all but three of the party returned to the junks. 
 
 At this time Sono (who had been sent back to her 
 father without a word of explanation, and had been 
 persecuted all day by that worthy person with orders 
 to consider her dismissal as equivalent to a divorce 
 and to hold herself in readiness to accept a new 
 spouse), terrified by the prospect held out to her and 
 anxious about her husband and child, had returned, 
 and while Gihei was entertaining his remaining guests, 
 had prevailed upon the servant to admit her. Gihei, 
 hearing her voice, went out to persuade her to go back 
 to her father's ; but as he could not tell her his actual 
 reasons and was too dull to invent others, he did not 
 readily succeed. He was perplexed, moreover, about 
 the matter of the divorce, as there was no doubt that, 
 in the circumstances, her father could compel Sono 
 to re-marry. Sono left the house, but would go no 
 farther than the doorstep. 
 
 The three samurai could not but hear something of 
 the dispute, and Kuranosuke, whispering some instruc- 
 237
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 tions to the others, they passed out at the rear of the 
 house and, getting around to the front as Gihei shut 
 the door, caught the disconsolate Sono by her gar- 
 ments and, cutting off her long black hair, ran away 
 with it, laughing. 
 
 Sono's outcries brought Gihei again upon the scene, 
 and Kuranosuke and the two ronin, who had re- 
 entered the house, followed. The difficulty was laid 
 before them, Sono not daring to believe her eyes that 
 the two ronin who appeared as her husband's guests 
 were the same who had robbed her of her hair. But 
 when Kuranosuke made a parting gift of the lost 
 tresses to her husband and accompanied it by the ad- 
 vice to Sono to take temporary vows as a religious, 
 the matter was made clear. It was, indeed, an effec- 
 tual way of getting rid of unwelcome suitors. 
 
 "The separation need not be for long," said Kura- 
 nosuke, as the ronin took deave of Sono and her hus- 
 band. "You will hear of us before Sono's hair has 
 had time to grow ; and I promise you that when we 
 rush to the attack our battle-cry will be ' Ama- 
 gawa.' Would that you, Gihei, were a samurai. You 
 might then be one of us ; none more brave. ' ' 
 
 The two junks with the forty-six ronin on board 
 
 (for, owing to a series of unfortunate mistakes one had 
 
 died by his own hand) , slipped out of Sakai harbor 
 
 before dawn, and in due course arrived at Kamakura- 
 
 238
 
 The Forty-seven Free Lances 
 
 Moronao's house, flanked on either side by the 
 residences of other nobles, stood on a spit of land 
 that ran out into the bay. It could be approached 
 both by land and by water. 
 
 The night chosen for the attempt was overcast, but 
 the ground was white with snow. Rikiya, with half 
 the band, was ordered to scale the wall by the front 
 entrance. Kuranosuke, with the remainder of the 
 ronin, were to force the water-gate, which was 
 weaker. A signal was agreed on by which Rikiya 
 might know that his father's men had gained an 
 entrance. 
 
 Rikiya was the first in position. His party heard 
 the sentry's rattle as he went his rounds within, but 
 waited what seemed to them an age for Kuranosuke's 
 whistle. Growing impatient, two of them climbed 
 the wall, and let themselves drop on the inside. Be- 
 fore long the sentry returned, and as he passed the 
 clump of bushes behind which they lay concealed, 
 the two ronin sprang out upon him, and, throwing 
 him to the ground, pinioned his arms tightly. Thus 
 placed at their mercy the man was forced to con- 
 tinue his rounds led by his two captors, one of whom 
 gave, at intervals, the customary signal with the 
 clappers. At length, Kuranosuke's whistle from the 
 rear told them that the water-gate had been forced, 
 and shouting "Amagawa," they slid back the bolts 
 239
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 of the great gate and let in the twenty men com- 
 manded by Rikiya. 
 
 The shutters of the main building were tightly 
 closed ; but Kuranosuke had provided for that. Two 
 of his followers carried large bundles of tall and stout 
 bamboos strung like enormous bows, and these were 
 now inserted between the grooved beams in which 
 the shutters slid. When the strings were simultane- 
 ously cut, the bamboos straightening pried the beams 
 apart, so that the shutters fell clattering in upon the 
 veranda, and were trampled by the ronin springing to 
 the assault. The guards and domestics, awakened by 
 their shouts and the noise of the falling shutters, were 
 slaughtered as they came. Bannai, who had clam- 
 bered up among the rafters that supported the roof 
 of the great hall, was descried and followed, and his 
 dead body fell to the floor in the midst of the fleeing 
 defenders of the yashiki. 
 
 Kuranosuk^, who had seated himself on a camp 
 stool in the garden to direct the attack, had his atten- 
 tion distracted for some moments by the servants and 
 retainers of the two neighboring houses, who, aroused 
 by the tumult, now swarmed upon the roofs with lan- 
 terns and torches, and demanded to know the cause 
 of the uproar. He was obliged to explain to them 
 his grievance against Moronao, and assured them that 
 vengeance was the only object in view, that every 
 240
 
 The Forty-seven Free Lances 
 
 precaution had been taken against fire, and that no 
 damage could ensue to their dwellings. But if they 
 thought themselves bound to come to their neighbor's 
 assistance, he was ready for them. They replied that 
 they were not concerned about Moronao, and with- 
 drew. 
 
 In the few minutes taken by this parley the melee 
 was over. Moronao's guards had surrendered or had 
 been cut down, and the ronin were dispersed every- 
 where about the building seeking its master. But he 
 was nowhere to be discovered, and it began to look 
 as though he had escaped. The karo gave orders to 
 guard the gates, and began a systematic search of the 
 grounds and outhouses. In one of the latter, where 
 charcoal was stored, the unlucky nobleman was found, 
 and, his face and dress black with the coal, was 
 dragged through the snow to Kuranosuke. 
 
 Bowing in acknowledgment of his captive's rank 
 and briefly recounting the miseries that he had 
 brought upon the clan, the karo politely begged him 
 to commit hara-kiri and thus, in a manner honorable 
 to himself and becoming his high station, to place his 
 head at their disposal. 
 
 "You say well," Moronao replied. "My head 
 is at your service." And, drawing his short sword, 
 he made as if about to disembowel himself. But, in- 
 stead, rising to his feet, he aimed a blow at Kurano- 
 241
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 suke", which the latter avoided, and caught his treach- 
 erous assailant by the wrist. " A clever trick ! " he 
 cried, " but it has not served your purpose." And, 
 throwing his enemy to the ground : " Have at him, 
 men," he shouted, "he is yours." 
 
 " O, happy hour ! " the ronin cried, as each bur- 
 ied his sword in the body of their enemy. " O, blest 
 event ! For this have we abandoned parents, wives, 
 and children, and lived as homeless outcasts. For this 
 have we refused to take honorable service, that we 
 might be free to wreak vengeance upon our destroyer. 
 Could we live to see the udonge * bloom, never again 
 might we hope to meet the like good fortune." 
 
 Day had dawned unnoticed. The head was now 
 severed from the body, and after having been care- 
 fully washed, was placed upon a stand at the upper 
 end of the hall before the mortuary tablet of Yenya, 
 which Kuranosuke had set up there. Each ronin in 
 turn burned incense before the tablet and called upon 
 the soul of their dead lord to regard their act with 
 favor. Then, forming in procession, the ronin passed 
 out through the streets of Kamakura, already ringing 
 with the news of their exploit, to lay the head upon 
 Yenya's tomb and there forestall the shogun's justice 
 by dying " the honorable death." 
 
 * A sort of wild fig which (the flowers being hidden within the 
 fruit) is fabled to bloom only once in three thousand years. 
 
 242
 
 The Forty-seven Free Lances 
 
 Such, all minor incidents omitted, is the story of 
 the Faithful Ronin, which, in some of its many ver- 
 sions, was read by every Japanese brought up to the 
 old ideas and aspirations. In one edition or another 
 the adventures of every one of the forty-seven are re- 
 counted, and, taken together, they may almost be 
 said to have been the Bible of feudal Japan. The 
 tale, in its main features, is founded upon fact. The 
 Yenya of the story was Asano, Lord of Harima, in 
 Aki, who, having drawn sword upon one Kira Kod- 
 suke, a court official, was compelled to commit hara- 
 kiri, as is related of Yenya, March 14, 1702. The 
 murder of Kodsuke (Moronao in the story) took place 
 nine months later, at his yashiki in Yedo. With the 
 exception of these and similar changes of name, place, 
 and date, designed to evade the decree against the 
 publication of events of importance to the government, 
 the narrative follows the actual facts pretty closely. 
 It furnishes the most striking and faithful picture of 
 the society of the Tokugawa shogunate, with its exag- 
 gerated loyalty to family and chief to which all other 
 sentiments were made to bow, now happily replaced 
 by a broader and more enlightened patriotism.* 
 
 * Mr. Mitford, in his " Tales of Old Japan," gives an account of 
 the actual occurrence. Of the different versions of the ''Chiush- 
 ingura," two have been translated into English : Bakin's, the most 
 artistic, by the late Edward Greey and S. Saito, and an earlier 
 text by Mr. F. V. Dickens. 
 
 243
 
 XIX 
 ADVENTURES OF A VAGABOND PRIEST 
 
 THE illustrations to one of the numerous pot-boil- 
 ers thrown off by the prolific Bakin, show the author 
 listening with an air of pleased attention to the tales 
 told him by all manners and conditions of beings. 
 He sits in open-mouthed admiration on his cushion 
 embroidered with spider-webs, while Lady Ben ten, 
 Buddha with his ringed staff, Hachiman with his 
 quiver, the elemental deities of storm and thunder, 
 and Gongen Sama,* carved in granite, recount their 
 histories ; he chuckles over a friend's " good story," 
 good-humoredly gives a hearing to the principals in 
 the celebrated case of Fox vs. Melon, and looks up 
 delighted from his manuscript, while the candle burns 
 low in the socket, to hearken to some quaint bit of 
 gossip related by his pudding-faced servant. It is his 
 ability to draw upon both the actual life of his own 
 day and the legends and traditions of the past, that 
 gives Bakin his peculiar place as the Walter Scott of 
 Japan, and makes him the most considerable figure in 
 * lyeyasu. 
 244
 
 Adventures of a Vagabond Priest 
 
 the popular literature of the Tokugawa times. He is 
 at his best when his imagination moves freely in a 
 tale of his own invention. Hence his romance, 
 "The Stormy Moon," is one of the best examples of 
 his genius, for, though the time of the story is thrown 
 back to the fourteenth century, the few historical 
 characters introduced are but slightly sketched in the 
 background and the more important might have be- 
 longed to the Japan of his own day. 
 
 Some time after the death of Nitta Yoshisada, and 
 during the war of the rival dynasties, * there dwelt 
 in the mountains to the west of Lake Biwa a rough 
 fellow who had been a soldier in Nitta's army, and 
 who now gained a scant living by hunting. This 
 distressed the good Buddhist, his wife, exceedingly. 
 She often remonstrated with him, and pointed out 
 the sin fulness of his calling, for who could tell but 
 that human souls might be imprisoned in the wild 
 animals that he killed ? But her arguments served 
 only to amuse him. "I will believe those priests' 
 tales of yours," he would say, "when I become old 
 and feeble-witted, and can no longer draw a bow or 
 tell sake from water. ' ' 
 
 Not far from Amada's hovel a hermit had raised 
 
 his grass hut on the site of an ancient temple. 
 
 Where thousands had formerly worshipped there was 
 
 * See Chapter XIV. 
 
 245
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 now a vast solitude : a wild doe no other creature- 
 came at the sound of the hermit's bell, and listened 
 to his prayers. The hunter had many times seen 
 her, and remarked her coat spotted with five distinct 
 colors, each of which betokened a magical virtue. 
 " What a price that hide would bring from the curio 
 collectors of Kioto ! ' ' said he as often as he saw her, 
 and many a day he lay hid by her path, but never 
 got her within bow-shot. One evening, the hermit 
 being absent, Amada borrowed his book and bell, 
 and reading the services (for he was an educated 
 man) the doe came, as usual, to listen. The hunter 
 dropped the book, picked up his bow and arrows, 
 which he had hidden, and shot her. That night his 
 poor wife was taken suddenly ill ; the horror of his 
 deed weighed upon her ; and with her dying breath she 
 begged her husband to have their infant son brought up 
 as a priest, whose prayers might atone for both their 
 failings. This Amada promised, and then forgot; 
 but at his death, some years later, the headman of 
 the nearest village, who was obliged to take charge of 
 the orphan, readily remembered having heard Amada 
 speak of it, and disembarrassed himself of the young- 
 ster at the nearest temple, belonging to his sect. 
 Saikei, * as he was called in religion, proved 
 
 * l< Illumined from the West," that is, from India, the birth- 
 place of Buddhism. 
 
 246
 
 Adventures of a Vagabond Priest 
 
 clever and obedient, and became a favorite with the 
 monks. He learned readily, and was eager to ob- 
 lige. But, as he grew up, there came a time when 
 strange desires began to trouble him. At first, he 
 was tormented by ambition ; he would fain be mas- 
 ter of a fine temple and have many pupils to listen to 
 his instructions ; and, fearing that where his humble 
 origin was so well known this could never come to 
 pass, he applied to be transferred to another temple. 
 His request was granted, and he was sent, well rec- 
 ommended, to Kanzaki in Settsu. 
 
 In his new situation Saikei was at first as well liked 
 as in the old. But pride trod on the heels of ambi- 
 tion, and he grew intolerable to his companions. 
 Moreover, as soon as he felt assured that he might 
 attain the prize at which he aimed, he began to look 
 more closely into its value, and was surprised to find 
 how little he really cared for it. At this juncture, 
 he began to take an interest in a young singing girl 
 from a neighboring tea-house, who worshipped at 
 the temple. She wore a robe of five colors, and was 
 very pretty. It was a sin, he knew, for him to oc- 
 cupy himself with such matters ; besides, it made 
 him miserable ; he did penance, and succeeded, after 
 a while, in expelling the image of the pretty geisha 
 from his mind. But every now and then the worth- 
 lessness of his life without an aim would come home 
 247
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 to him, and, harassed by a hundred doubts, he would 
 ask himself, in despair : ' ' What profit is there in 
 being a bozu ? " 
 
 One afternoon, having passed the day in study, 
 Saikei took a stroll into the hills. It was autumn : 
 the woods were gay with the five colors of the maples. 
 From a rock where he had seated himself, he saw a 
 stag and his mate start up from their lair and plunge 
 deeper into the thicket. All nature appeared to him 
 gracious and womanly. The sun was setting : " Oh, 
 radiant goddess! " cried Saikei, and checked him- 
 self on the instant. In his creed the sun was ruled 
 not by the Shinto goddess, Amaterasu, but by the 
 Buddha of Enlightenment. Still, not only the sun 
 but the universe in its entirety, according to the 
 philosophers, was governed by love. Why, then, 
 did Buddhism war against it? "If only those idle 
 villagers had not been so bent on taking a long walk, 
 they might have dropped me at the convent of the 
 Shin," thought he. "Then I might be permitted 
 to marry. But, now, my vows are taken, and I am 
 in a net from which there is no escape." 
 
 So reasoning with himself, and paying little atten- 
 tion to the course that he was taking, Saikei de- 
 scended the mountain. It was soon dark in the val- 
 ley, and in his agitation he missed the way. The 
 road which he took led him by the rear of the tea- 
 248
 
 Adventures of a Vagabond Priest 
 
 house gardens of Kanzaki. A geisha was singing to 
 a party of gentlemen in one of the small pavilions. 
 Her voice was fresh and sweet, and Saikei, though it 
 was late, felt compelled to stop and listen. It was 
 only when the music ceased, and the gentlemen arose 
 and departed, leaving presents for the singer, that he 
 came to himself with a start, and again took what he 
 conceived to be the nearest way for the convent. In 
 a few minutes he was brought to a halt on the brink 
 of a deep ravine where the road suddenly came to an 
 end, and was obliged to retrace his steps. A little 
 girl came out of the cottage and ran to meet him. 
 " Mistress Lotusleaf," she said, " desires to see you. 
 She is rich, and would give you money for the tem- 
 ple. " "But I am not a begging priest," objected 
 Saikei. Still he suffered himself to be led into the 
 pavilion, which was dimly lit by a lantern screened 
 by a branch of maple. 
 
 It was the same pretty girl he had noticed in the 
 temple, that was seated on the mats in the little 
 building. She had need of religious consolation, she 
 said ; but something in her manner displeased him. 
 " Come, then, to the temple at the proper hour," he 
 returned. "Nay," said Lotusleaf, "now, this mo- 
 ment, I must confess that ever since I was sixteen 
 I have admired and loved you." In brief, Saikei 
 found her the most interesting of penitents. Her 
 249
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 contrition, when he was about to take his departure, 
 would move the most hardened old bozu to stay and 
 comfort her ; but when he consented to remain, she 
 laughed at her peccadilloes and his scruples. " A 
 little sake will not hurt you," she cried. " Come, 
 share this cup with me ! " And Saikei, who had 
 never tasted liquor before, was an easy conquest once 
 the wine had passed his lips. 
 
 At daybreak, the innkeeper found him fast asleep 
 upon the mats and, taking him for a robber, bought 
 from him a roll of silk that the girl had left for him 
 with a metal hand-mirror and a note in which 'she 
 asked him to accept these present and expressed the 
 hope that they might meet again. The innkeeper, 
 who was not a temple-goer, praised his disguise, and 
 offered to buy all that he might steal while in the 
 vicinity. " I am no blabber," quoth he, "and do 
 not publish my guests' affairs. But, at present, you 
 seem to need another cup of the liquor you had last 
 night." Saikei pocketed these compliments and the 
 money, swallowed the sake, hid the mirror in his 
 bosom as a keepsake, and, to the clinking of the 
 rings upon his staff, which had quite a new sound for 
 him, took the first road that led away from Kanzaki. 
 
 It was yet early morning when he entered a little 
 village and seated himself in the temple yard to think 
 over his situation. He had broken his vows; he 
 250
 
 Adventures of a Vagabond Priest 
 
 could not return to his monastery. For all his shaven 
 head and black gown he felt himself an outcast. His 
 life was shattered like a cup upon a stone. He might 
 profess repentance ; he would be forgiven, and might 
 in time retrieve his reputation. But the very thought 
 of such hypocrisy sickened him ; and he could not 
 now give up the hope of again meeting Lotusleaf. He 
 decided at last to revisit his old home. 
 
 He journeyed in a leisurely way through Yamashiro 
 into Omi, but there he overheard his story gleefully 
 related by one blind shampooer to another as he sat 
 at breakfast, and he determined to seek a livelihood 
 elsewhere. At Kamakura he would be far enough from 
 all who knew him, and he might find some chance to 
 make his fortune. The question was how to get there? 
 His money had given out. 
 
 In this strait, he remembered having seen on the 
 road an ox laden with salt that had licked the hand 
 of the driver. An ingenious idea occurred to him, 
 and revolving it in his mind, he paid his reckoning 
 with his last coin and departed from the inn. Later 
 in the day he met an old market woman whom he 
 frightened by threats of hell fire into giving him as 
 alms all the money that she had with her. It pro- 
 cured him a night's lodging and a bath at the next vil- 
 lage, where he had learned the salt dealer lived. He 
 threw a handful of salt in the hot water and dipped 
 251
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 his clothes in it as well as his body. When they were 
 dry, he took his way to the merchant's with an ex- 
 traordinary story of how his father, who had been a 
 wicked hunter, was now in the hell of beasts, im- 
 prisoned in the body of an ox. The poor soul had 
 appeared to him in a dream, and he had left his dis- 
 tant convent to seek him ; for, surely he thought, his 
 owner, whoever he might be, would show compassion, 
 and would treat kindly one who had been a man and 
 was now an ox. Ere the dealer or his wife, stupefied 
 but nowise convinced, could interpose an objection, 
 Saikei had drawn near the stable, where the ox, it be- 
 ing a holiday, was resting. The beast readily licked 
 his salted hands, followed him into the yard, and to 
 the amazement of the good people, proceeded to eat 
 the priest's garments. These proofs of affection were 
 received with every demonstration of joy by Saikei, 
 who wept abundantly, and reminded the ox of many 
 little incidents of his boyhood, retreating the while to 
 save his robe, the animal eagerly following him. No 
 scepticism could withstand this affecting scene. The 
 miracle made a profound impression upon the old 
 couple, who gave Saikei a good dinner, presented him 
 with a bag of money, and permitted him to lead 
 away the ox. At the cattle fair at Otsu, Saikei sold 
 him to a wretched-looking countryman for a few dol- 
 lars. His purse was now well lined, and. after a 
 252
 
 Adventures of a Vagabond Priest 
 
 night at the best inn, he bought a new pilgrim's out- 
 fit, stowed away in his knapsack some bottles of sake 
 and the mirror that Lotusleaf had given him, and set 
 forth for Kamakura, alternately praying from habit 
 and singing comic songs. 
 
 We must now turn for a little to the luckless pur- 
 chaser of the ox. This was one Takeakira, of Seta, 
 a man who had been, like Saikei's father, a soldier in 
 Nitta's army, and who, instead of dying with his chief 
 on the scarped rock in Echizen, had taken to his 
 heels, and had since gained a miserable subsistence for 
 himself, his feeble wife and two children by working as 
 a driver for merchants of the towns along Lake Biwa. 
 By extraordinary self-denial Takeakira had saved 
 the purchase-money for the beast that he now led 
 proudly home, happy in the fact that he had, at last, 
 six legs instead of two, and could make a start on his 
 own account as a carrier. Yet, greater luck, as it ap- 
 peared, was in store for him. He had scarcely reached 
 home and received the congratulations of his family 
 on his purchase, when there arrived a man from 
 Sagami with a message from his brother, of whom he 
 had always believed that he had been killed in Nitta's 
 last battle. But Takeyasu had also made use of his 
 legs, and, when the country had settled down after 
 the wars, had obtained employment as a falconer with 
 a Lord Kaga, of Sagami. His lordship, on a journey to 
 =53
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 Kioto, had obtained information of Takeakira' s where- 
 abouts and condition, and, through his brother, now 
 offered to take him, also, into his service. The poor 
 man, overjoyed at the good news, took down the two 
 swords, which he had carefully put away out of sight 
 since the day when he had disgraced himself, and 
 thrust them into his girdle. He was once more a 
 gentleman. He could not be prevailed upon to wait 
 until the morrow. He would part at once to thank 
 his brother and Lord Kaga, and make arrangements 
 for the moving. 
 
 Let us leave him also on his way east, and see how 
 his good fortune turned to evil. One day, in his 
 absence, an unlucky shower drove Tomosada, the salt 
 dealer, to take refuge in his hut. There he discov- 
 ered the ill-omened ox ; and concluding that he had 
 been deceived and that Takeakira was a party to the 
 fraud, he procured the assistance of the headman of 
 Otsu and his officers, and, since he could discover 
 neither of the culprits, had Takeakira' s children ar- 
 rested. He would have had the mother arrested also, 
 but she died as they were dragging her to the door. 
 The children were put to the torture, but nothing 
 could draw from them an admission of their father's 
 guilt nor make them disclose his whereabouts. 
 
 Unconscious of these consequences of his rascality 
 Saikei, meanwhile, continued on his way to Kamakura, 
 254
 
 Adventures of a Vagabond Priest 
 
 by the Eastern main road, along which Takeakira 
 was also journeying, some stages in the rear. But, 
 well supplied with money, the former took life easily. 
 It was winter when he reached the Hakone Moun- 
 tains, and Takeakira was then well on his way home, 
 having arranged matters satisfactorily with his brother 
 and Lord Kaga. One evening, Saikei found himself 
 at nightfall in a gloomy mountain pass and far from 
 any inn. A wood-cutter, of whom he inquired where 
 he might find lodging, pointed out to him the way 
 to a temple, but assured him that the place was 
 haunted by the spirit of the late master. Saikei put 
 on a bold countenance, and advanced, jingling the 
 metal rings attached to his staff. It was a likely 
 enough place for ghosts. The road led through the 
 recesses of a pine forest and its sides were bordered 
 with tombstones, for a great battle had been fought 
 in the neighborhood. " I should like well enough 
 to see a light," thought he. On the instant a flame 
 shot up at the end of the avenue, and showed him 
 the outlines of the temple with two crouching figures 
 which he at once recognized for priests. Then, 
 again, all was darkness. Our hero renewed his cour- 
 age by a draught from one of his earthenware bottles, 
 and charged blindly on the temple, bursting into the 
 area through a postern. One of the priests had by 
 this time lighted a lantern, and over an intervening 
 255
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 fence he could see into the interior. Its two occu- 
 pants, in the extreme of terror, were huddled close 
 together, and gripped each other's arms like crabs ; 
 and, as he gazed, a momentary flame rose from be- 
 hind the image of Buddha, and the two priests, with 
 howls of dismay, sprang to their feet and ran from 
 the temple. 
 
 Seized with panic, Saikei ran also. He brought 
 up on the bank of a little stream, and again had re- 
 course to his bottle. It was now midnight ; the 
 moon had come out and lit the wintry scene like 
 day ; but the liquor had made him maudlin, and, ob- 
 livious of the cold and of his recent fright, he drew 
 Lotusleaf s mirror from his bosom, and gazed at it 
 long and tenderly. However, he was not yet at the 
 end of the night's adventures. A face appeared 
 suddenly upon the polished metal, that of a man. 
 bearded and scowling. " Thousand gods !" cried 
 Saikei. " Hae ! " called out the new-comer. "I 
 will have your black robe, at least, my reverend 
 friend," and fell at him with a two-handed sword. 
 
 Seeing that it was only a robber, Saikei acquitted 
 himself manfully, warding off the fellow's blows with 
 his staff; then, finding an opportunity, he delivered 
 a swinging stroke on the animal's shins, which gave 
 way from under him. But, though floored, he was 
 not disabled, and, a second thief coming up, Saikei 
 256
 
 Adventures of a Vagabond Priest 
 
 was fain to try the effect of a magic formula which 
 he had learned at the convent. To his surprise, as 
 he repeated it, his assailants' limbs grew stiff and 
 they stood rooted to the ground, powerless to move 
 as a stone image.* 
 
 Reduced to helplessness, the two scoundrels were 
 forced to confess their sins, to the amusement of 
 Saikei, who could hardly keep from laughing at their 
 protestations of repentance. " But, where do you 
 live?" he demanded, as it occurred to him that 
 even a robber's den might be a better retreat for the 
 remainder of the night than the snowy bank of the 
 river. 
 
 The two worthies appeared to have been stricken 
 dumb. Each nudged the other. "Bear with us, 
 your holiness," cried the taller of the two. " But 
 promise to absolve us beforehand and everything shall 
 be made known." 
 
 Saikei having granted them plenary absolution in 
 advance, the two thieves, helping one another out, 
 told him how, prowling about the temple while the 
 late master was on his death-bed, they had heard 
 him several times complain of being robbed by one 
 of his priests of the money with which he had in- 
 tended to endow the temple. Later, after the master 
 
 * Numerous instances are known of paralysis induced by fear 
 of magic spells. 
 
 257
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 had died, the nights growing cold, they began to 
 make use of one of the outhouses of the temple to 
 sleep in. But the smaller of the two, Shirobaye, 
 snored so loudly that the tall fellow, Kurobaye, fear- 
 ing they might be discovered, went out to recon- 
 noitre. The priests were awake, and much more 
 frightened than he at Shirobaye's roarings. Finding 
 them such cowards, they then conceived the scheme 
 of personating the ghost of the master, and, that 
 night, had finished by driving the priests out of their 
 temple. 
 
 " Pardon ! " cried Shirobaye. " We have sinned. 
 But if Buddha will have mercy this time, we will 
 never more molest a holy bozu." 
 
 Saikei could no longer contain himself. " Ha ! 
 ha! " he laughed, "you are as green as young rice 
 and need careful tending. Listen ! I knew of your 
 proceedings at the temple and trapped ye both be- 
 cause I have need of ye. Both must go to Sokokura 
 and exchange your swords for priests' gowns, shave 
 your heads, fast, and practise good manners. Do 
 this for a month and then return here. Ye will find 
 me master of the temple, and ye shall be my assist- 
 ants. That will be pleasanter and more profitable 
 than lying in wait for travellers by the river-bank 
 these cold nights." 
 
 He gave the rascals a little money, and, for him- 
 258
 
 Adventures of a Vagabond Priest 
 
 self, went on to the next village, where he put up at 
 the best inn and spent the month in making himself 
 familiar with the doctrines of the Shin sect, which 
 enjoined on its ministers a much less rigorous disci- 
 pline than that in which he had been educated. 
 
 The frightened priests had really abandoned the 
 temple, and he found little difficulty in having the 
 position of master thrust upon him, and in winning 
 over his congregation to the tenets he had himself 
 adopted. His two rogues returned, and spite of their 
 rude manners made passable acolytes. On the day 
 of his appointment Saikei laid the ghost of his pre- 
 decessor and recovered the stolen money, which the 
 absconding priests had left with a lay confederate. 
 This exploit established his reputation, and his fame 
 as a preacher and miracle- worker was extended day 
 by day until it attained even to Sagami. 
 
 When Take"akira had reached that town he found 
 his elder brother married to a young woman not al- 
 together unknown to him or to the reader, namely 
 Lotusleaf. His good lord, who had been of the 
 party that had enjoyed her music on that evening in 
 Kanzaki when Saikei made her acquaintance, remem- 
 bering Takeyasu's lonely condition, had sent for the 
 koto-player, who was happy to be so comfortably 
 provided for. But Takeakira had heard of her affair 
 with the young priest, and was by no means pleased 
 259
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 to have such a notorious beauty for a sister-in-law. 
 However, he said nothing to his brother, but took an 
 opportunity to privately threaten Lotusleaf that he 
 would take vengeance with his own hand should he 
 find at any time that her intimacy with Saikei was 
 renewed. 
 
 Soon after Takeakira had left for home Lotusleaf 
 discovered that the new priest at the neighboring 
 temple was no other than Saikei. The woman had 
 her scruples, and the priest his brand new reputation 
 to maintain ; but the husband was old and ailing, 
 and might at any time make straight their way by 
 dying. An accident hastened the desired consum- 
 mation, and while Takeakira, burning for revenge on 
 the man who had caused the destruction of his home, 
 was on his second journey from Otsu, Takeyasu en- 
 tered on another state of existence. 
 
 On the evening of the seventh day after the funeral, 
 Saikei called at the house to read the prayers for the 
 dead. The services were in progress when Takeakira 
 returned. He had found at Otsu his cottage ruined, 
 his wife dead, his children imprisoned, himself out- 
 lawed because of Saikei's crime in the affair of the 
 ox. He had come back determined to reject the 
 offer of Lord Kaga and to devote his life, if need be, 
 to tracking out and punishing the priest. Entering 
 the house, he recognized his enemy by the light of 
 260
 
 Adventures of a Vagabond Priest 
 
 the funeral candles, and, snatching his dead brother's 
 sword from the rack, ran in upon him. But Saikei 
 dodged his blow and, picking up a bronze incense 
 burner, felled him with it. He then overturned the 
 lights and escaped. Lotusleaf entering with a tray 
 of sweetmeats, came in Takeakira's way in the dark, 
 and met the doom intended for Saikei. For this 
 crime Tak6akira was sentenced to disembowel him- 
 self. As for Saikei, he at once took to his heels, 
 carrying away the temple funds, and his two accom- 
 plices returned to their old avocation. 
 
 From this point on an element of the supernatural 
 enters into the story, and gods and spirits take part 
 in determining Saikei's fate. Making his way back 
 to his native Omi, Saikei was caught in a thunder- 
 storm upon Kagami-yama.* A bolt fell near him 
 splitting a huge tree and leaving a small black animal 
 imprisoned in the cleft. He thrust his staff between 
 the halves of the trunk and prying them apart set the 
 creature free. It vanished in the storm. Searching 
 himself, Saikei found that he had lost his treasured 
 mirror, and, turning back to look for it, was soon 
 lost, himself, in the windings of the mountain paths. 
 The sun went down, and he was left in darkness. 
 
 After walking until he was tired, he sat down to 
 rest at the mouth of a deep glen, and presently was 
 * Mirror Mountain. 
 261
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 aware of a light shining far ahead. Stumbling on 
 toward it, he arrived in a few minutes at a great stone 
 gateway, such as might be the entrance to a splendid 
 palace; at which he wondered, for he thought he 
 knew the position of every considerable building in 
 those parts. The gate opened readily to his sum- 
 mons, and he was admitted, not to palace or mon- 
 astery, but to an enormous cavern that ran far back 
 into the heart of the mountain. The whole interior 
 was filled with a dim white light that radiated from 
 the garments of a lady who stood awaiting him ; and 
 beside her, wrapped in silk, lay the animal that he had 
 set free from the thunder -stricken tree that morning. 
 
 The lady received him graciously and arranged a 
 screen and pillow for his bed, but he could not sleep 
 for the strangeness of the adventure and the misty 
 light that filled the place. About midnight there 
 came a knocking at the gate, and he heard his hostess 
 go out to answer the summons. Apparently, the 
 customs of the place were most primitive, yet its mis- 
 tress seemed a very great lady, such as the consort of 
 one of the early emperors might have been. Impelled 
 by an unconquerable curiosity, Saikei arose and fol- 
 lowed her. She stood in the dewy grass on the sum- 
 mit of the hill, against which rested a dense gray 
 cloud that hid the distant landscape. For a moment, 
 Saikei distinguished the form of a water-sprite, a 
 262
 
 Adventures of a Vagabond Priest 
 
 messenger from the sea-god ; and he heard these 
 words : " It is your stint. To-morrow, rain must 
 pour from Obata to Musa." 
 
 Plainly his hostess was a rain-goddess ; for the 
 deities, he knew, were ordered much like earthly 
 daimios, who were bound to render service in rota- 
 tion to the shogun. The lady turning beheld Saikei, 
 and seeming not in the least offended, said, smiling- 
 ly : " Listeners must join in the plot. Now, promise 
 that, in addition to what you have already done for 
 me, you will take my husband's place to-morrow. 
 That is he on the mats, within. You freed him from 
 the cleft tree ; but his arm is broken, and he cannot 
 carry out the sea-god's instructions. You will ride 
 the clouds in his place and take care that the rain 
 falls where it is needed ? ' ' 
 
 "I am not a holy hermit," muttered Saikei. "I 
 cannot perform such wonders." 
 
 But the lady, still smiling, promised to instruct 
 him. "It is nothing," said she. " You have only 
 to maintain your balance, direct the cloud by your 
 will, and shake the bamboo sprinkler with discretion. 
 And I will teach you other magic means of control- 
 ling springs, and streams, and every form of water. 
 But you must promise to use your knowledge for good 
 ends." 
 
 Saikei promised, telling himself that magical power 
 263
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 might somehow restore to him Lotusleaf and secure 
 him against Takeakira, little dreaming that both 
 were dead. 
 
 The following day he guided the clouds and dis- 
 tributed the rain over the growing rice fields. But 
 as he grew accustomed to the position the business 
 seemed a dull one ; therefore he raised the sprinkler 
 aloft and shook it vigorously. Immediately lightning 
 issued from beneath him, the thunder-drums rattled, 
 and a furious storm of wind and rain broke over Omi. 
 
 Saikei turned his attention to the dwelling of his 
 old friend, the salt dealer, stripped off its roof, and 
 sent the lightning dancing about his premises. But in 
 the midst of his sport he slipped from the cloud and 
 fell heavily into the ruined stable. There he was 
 caught by one of the servants, and, while insensible 
 from his fall, was bound hand and foot. Next day, 
 he was bundled into a hamper and taken to the 
 castle. 
 
 When brought before his judges, Saikei recovered 
 his senses and bethought him of the lessons in magic 
 that he had received from the Lady of Kagami-Yama. 
 He threw off the cords that bound him, and, rising in 
 air, passed from the view of his accusers uninjured by 
 the arrows, javelins, and other missiles shot or hurled 
 after him. Drawing a cloud about him, he willed 
 himself carried in the direction of Mount Iwato, and 
 264
 
 Adventures of a Vagabond Priest 
 
 looking down, he perceived, cowering over a little 
 fire of leaves and brushwood, where they were heating 
 some sake, his two companions in roguery, Shirobaye 
 and Kurobaye, whose ragged garments and sunken 
 cheeks showed that the world had gone badly with 
 them since their palmy days in Sagami. At his de- 
 sire the cloud deposited him near them unperceived. 
 He was the subject of their talk. 
 
 "A very hard nut to crack, indeed," said Kuro- 
 baye. "Yet Madame Lotusleaf's brother-in-law was 
 too much for him. Hae ! It rejoices me to know 
 that such a man could be made to feel the effects of 
 fear, and be taught to run like another." 
 
 " Well, he has no more to fear from that hungry 
 Takeakira," replied the giant. " What a blessing," 
 he continued, " to be born a samurai, to be permitted 
 to rip one's belly open and save one's honor when 
 caught in a little felony, instead of dying a dog's 
 death by the headsman or on the cross, as will you 
 and I." 
 
 "True," answered his companion. "But, if the 
 old fellow be dead, his son and daughter are expert 
 with their weapons, the boy with bow and arrow, the 
 girl with spear and poniard. Let the master look 
 out." 
 
 " I do not fear them," said Saikei. It was how- 
 ever his dread of a blood feud that now determined 
 265
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 him to retire to the spot where, when he was a child, 
 had stood the hermit's grass hut. The place was dif- 
 ficult of access ; and he posted his two assistants on 
 the only pathway by which it might be approached, 
 with orders to allow no one to come near him. It 
 was his intention, by means of the spells taught him 
 by the rain-goddess, to dry up the springs and cut off 
 the water-supply of the province until the governor 
 and his protegees should come to terms and guarantee 
 him immunity for the past. He would then abjure 
 magic, seek out and marry Lotusleaf, and live there- 
 after as a respectable layman. But the gods with- 
 draw their favor from those who do evil that good 
 may come of it. The children of his enemy were in- 
 formed by a vision where to find him. Taye, dis- 
 guised as Lotusleaf, ascended to his retreat, led by the 
 tinkling of his bell through the fog with which he 
 had encompassed the mountain. The robbers, be- 
 lieving her the koto-player's ghost, retreated before 
 her, and Saikei, also deceived, allowed her to ap- 
 proach him; again, as at Kanzaki, he lost his self- 
 control, and with it, his magic power ; and he was 
 beheaded by her brother who, with a party of armed 
 men, had followed. 
 
 From a note appended by the author we learn the 
 curious scheme of retributive justice that underlies 
 his plot. That the sacrilegious hunter might not 
 266
 
 Adventures of a Vagabond Priest 
 
 benefit by his son's prayers, the latter was permitted 
 to be seduced from virtue by Lotusleaf, who was no 
 other than the deer of five colors that Amada had 
 slain. Takeakira and Takeyasu were punished not 
 only for their desertion of their chief, but because it 
 was their father's impious curiosity that had led to 
 the hunter's crime. Thus evil produces evil until its 
 gathering clouds are dispelled by some act of devotion 
 like that of the children of Takeakira. 
 
 Elsewhere Bakin hesitates before the mysteries of 
 fate and free will ; but retails from old books much 
 curious information about healing plants, about arrows 
 of mugwort of magical virtues, thunder animals, cocks 
 that swallow live coals and rats that live in fire ; but, 
 he adds, there is nothing to show that such tales are 
 true, at present. His views on such matters would 
 be commended by the Society for Psychical Research. 
 " Strange happenings should be investigated, and 
 should not be made light of because they are not easy 
 to understand," he writes, and he gives as the result 
 of his investigations into the nature of thunder, that it 
 is caused by vapors of saltpetre and sulphur which 
 uniting, explode like gunpowder ignited by the heat 
 of the sun. But however much at fault Bakin's nat- 
 ural philosophy may be, his characters are real and 
 human, and since his day Japan has seen no writer of 
 fiction to equal him. 
 
 267
 
 XX 
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 WITH Bakin we may close our survey of the imag- 
 inative literature of Japan. The present generation 
 and the last have been busy making history and lay- 
 ing foundations of fact for future novelists and poets to 
 build upon and have had no time for artistic creation. 
 But before drawing any general conclusions from the 
 past, before attempting to characterize in a few words 
 the national genius that has expressed itself in the 
 dramatic dances and quaint legends of the "age of 
 the gods," in the Buddhist stories of saints and her- 
 mits, the courtly poetry of Nara and Kioto, the nar- 
 ratives of the civil wars, and the popular plays and 
 novels of the Tokugawa period, it is necessary to pass 
 quickly in review the momentous changes which have 
 made the present the most striking and the most glor- 
 ious reign in the annals of Japan. If the past throws 
 light upon the present, much more does the present 
 illumine the past, and it were as unwise to give a pict- 
 ure drawn exclusively from the literature of the past 
 as it is to look upon the progressive Japan of to-day 
 268
 
 Conclusion 
 
 as wholly a product of modern external conditions. 
 For this reason the outlines at least of the history of 
 the revolution must be given, in order that the more 
 recent events, which are in everybody's memory, and 
 which have raised Japan to the position of a first-rate 
 power and to be the foremost agent of modern civil- 
 ization in the far East, may be seen in their true rela- 
 tions with the historic background. 
 
 Few Japanese who have had a share in the revo- 
 lution have written about the extraordinary scenes 
 through which they have passed ; but the story of 
 these scenes has often been told from a European or 
 American standpoint by authors, sometimes preju- 
 diced, but more frequently ignorant of the most 
 important forces at work. To a young Japanese re- 
 garding the movement from the inside and sharing in 
 the ideas and aspirations involved in it, it naturally 
 presented quite another aspect from that shown in the 
 pages of these writers. In its later stages the move- 
 ment has been represented as a sudden and irrational 
 surrender to ideas entirely foreign to the national 
 character, as a movement which must end in national 
 self-effacement. It is now abundantly evident that it 
 never had any such tendency, but was from the start 
 impelled and guided by a lofty and far-seeing patriot- 
 ism. History is full of such apparently sudden 
 changes ; but it is found that they were always pre- 
 269
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 ceded by long periods of silent preparation. So was 
 it with Japan, where the movement toward a new 
 order of things may be said to have begun with the 
 Tokugawa regime itself. 
 
 The Japan that Bakin knew and drew so well, 
 feudal Japan in kimono and hakama, two-sworded, 
 Chinese-lettered, with its wealth of art and legend 
 and its happy ignorance, protected from the outer 
 world, as by a thick and thorny hedge, by the Toku- 
 gawa policy of non-intercourse, lives still in the mem- 
 ories of many who witnessed all the changes that cul- 
 minated in the great revolution in 1868. Brought up 
 in a southern castle town (Saga in Hizen), the present 
 writer,* remembers well the mediaeval customs then 
 in force. Each day, awakened by the noise of a uni- 
 versal clapping of hands the entire population of the 
 city greeting the morning sun he has risen to an 
 early breakfast of tea and salt prunes, intended more 
 as a sort of sacrament to purify the soul than as food 
 to nourish the body. After the daily hot bath and 
 worship at the household shrine of Buddha came a 
 more substantial meal of bean soup, boiled rice, and 
 pickled radishes ; and then the walk to school through 
 the fields and gardens of the walled samurai quarter, 
 a belt of cultivated ground and scattered dwellings 
 drawn close about the castle, and itself enclosed on all 
 
 * T. Takayanagi. 
 270
 
 Conclusion 
 
 sides by the multitudinous roofs of the city. Each 
 house stood in its own rice-fields and vegetable-gar- 
 dens, irrigated by channels drawn from the river, 
 which here came out to the light after a subterranean 
 course through the lower town. The stream circled 
 through the castle moat, gay in summer with the huge 
 pink blossoms of the lotus, and passed out again in 
 darkness, running under crowded streets and close- 
 packed houses. The citizens were required to show 
 their wooden pass-tickets at the gates before they were 
 permitted to enter the castle precincts. 
 
 At school we were taught to read and write Chinese 
 as well as Japanese ; and on cold winter nights, in a 
 big annex to the school building, we practised fenc- 
 ing with bamboo swords and wooden spears, and 
 also wrestling in the Japanese manner, calculated to 
 give strength and suppleness to every portion of the 
 body. In summer we had games of polo, and were 
 taught to shoot with bow and arrow from horseback. 
 In fact we were trained as though we were still in the 
 Middle Ages. 
 
 On summer holidays the limits of our excursions 
 were Kitayama (North Mountain) on the north, and 
 Kawakami (River Head) and the harbor town of 
 Hayatsuye, or Morodomi, some three miles to the 
 east, where Prince Nabeshima kept a man-of-war. 
 But oftener we spent the day in fishing for eels or 
 271
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 clamming, up to the thighs in the black mud of the 
 river flats at low tide. Returning at night, the farm- 
 ers' drums and gongs resounding from far and near 
 and their countless lanterns swaying at the end of 
 long bamboo poles as they paced about their fields 
 would make the whole country-side seem at times as 
 though it were held by an armed force ; but the only 
 warfare that was waged was against the in6 mushi, 
 the rice insect, which, if not thus disturbed and 
 frightened, would devour the growing crop. Noth- 
 ing could really be more peaceful or more antiquated 
 than were all our surroundings. 
 
 Yet. at this time, the revolutionary sentiment was 
 coming to a head and soon there was to be real 
 clashing of arms, and marching and countermarch- 
 ing, and bloody battles. 
 
 The restrictions imposed by the Tokugawa upon 
 foreign commerce and the discussion of current events 
 had had among other results that of turning a large 
 share of the mental activity of the time into anti- 
 quarian channels. The literature of the ancient em- 
 pire was studied and annotated. Scholars like Mo- 
 toori contrasted the simplicity of the Shinto rites with 
 the corruptions that had crept into later Buddhist 
 practice, and the unity and strength of the ancient 
 imperial organization with the divisions and the 
 weakness of the feudal system. Thus the edicts in- 
 272
 
 Conclusion 
 
 tended to prevent the very possibility of a public 
 opinion adverse to the government had exactly the 
 opposite effect, and there grew slowly up during the 
 seventeenth and eighteenth centuries a party which, 
 while making no overt sign of opposition, exerted a 
 powerful pressure in favor of the court at Kioto and 
 correspondingly weakened the authority of the Yedo 
 government. Strangely enough, the head and front 
 of this movement had been the Prince of Mito, the 
 head of one of the three great Tokugawa families en- 
 titled to share in the succession to the shogunate. 
 In the beautiful garden of his castle, now the public 
 park of the town, the stone bench is shown where, 
 on the bank of a small ornamental pond, the anti- 
 quarian prince was in the habit of receiving and 
 chatting with the scholars that he had gathered about 
 him to aid in the compilation of his great work, the 
 "Dai Nihongi," a huge collection of biographies, 
 still the chief book of reference for the history of the 
 ancient empire and the Middle Ages. 
 
 His son and successor saw further reason for dislik- 
 ing the dual system of government in the failure of 
 the authorities at Yedo to resist the foreign demand 
 that the country be thrown open to commerce. In 
 a memorial to the shogun he pointed out that the 
 general policy of the European powers in Asiatic 
 countries was first to obtain concessions as traders 
 273
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 and then to foment disorder and conquer the country 
 piecemeal. He reminded the government of Eng- 
 land's opium war against China, of the disadvantages 
 under which the Japanese would have to enter into 
 competition with other nations, and of the danger 
 of disappointing the samurai, who were convinced that 
 if there must be a war with the foreigners, it had bet- 
 ter begin at once. And he followed up his memo- 
 rial by confiscating the bells of the Buddhist temples 
 in his province and casting them into cannon. In 
 fact, both Kioto and Yedo were crowded with samu- 
 rai, some of whom had accompanied their lords, who 
 offered their services to repel the threatened invasion, 
 while others had left their homes singly or in small 
 groups, and had journeyed to one or the other capital 
 for the same purpose. 
 
 Some of these last, belonging to the Mito clan, 
 soon found work cut out for them that was much 
 to their mind. 
 
 The leading man in the shogun's government was 
 li Kamon no Kami, Daimio of Hikone". He had 
 become convinced of the danger of longer withstand- 
 ing the demands of England, France, and the United 
 States, and set about putting down the opposition to 
 his policy with a high hand. He banished Mito 
 from the capital and made him prisoner in his own 
 castle. For this he was set upon by eighteen ronin 
 274
 
 Conclusion 
 
 of the clan, as he was going from his own residence 
 in Yedo to the shogun's palace, on the morning of 
 March 23, 1860. His guard was overpowered, 
 he was dragged from his palanquin and despatched, 
 and the head was taken to Mito, where it was dis- 
 played on a pike over the castle gate. This was fol- 
 lowed by attacks on the foreign embassies by other 
 ronin, by the murder of the bully Richardson * by a 
 Satsuma man, the attempt of the Prince of Choshu 
 to close the Straits of Shimonoseki, and by the bom- 
 bardment of that place by English, Dutch, French, 
 and American men-of-war, and of Satsuma' s capital, 
 Kagoshima, by the English. The destruction of Ka- 
 goshima, a city of 180,000 souls, took place in Au- 
 gust ; that of Choshu's batteries and ships at Shimo- 
 noseki in September, 1863. 
 
 These actions made it more than ever apparent 
 that Japan in its feudal condition could not cope 
 with nor secure justice from the western powers. But 
 the clans that had suffered were by no means cowed. 
 In the south, owing to the proximity of the Dutch 
 settlement at Nagasaki (the only open port under the 
 
 * Richardson was an English merchant of Shanghai who, visit- 
 ing Japan on his way to England, insulted the Daimio of Satsuma 
 by forcing his way through the latter's guard, one of whom cut 
 him down. He had been warned by his companions that the act 
 would be regarded as an outrage, but, in a spirit of bravado, 
 spurred his horse into the ranks of the procession. 
 275
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 feudal regime), were many who had got a glimpse of 
 the great world beyond the Tokugawa hedge. Long 
 before the arrival of Commodore Perry or the bom- 
 bardment of Shimonoseki, it had been known there 
 that Japan was far behind Europe and America in 
 the sciences, and in the art of war. The result of the 
 bombardments, therefore, was that the southern and 
 western clans came to a common understanding to 
 effect the overthrow of the shogunate and the restora- 
 tion of the empire ; they bought new ships and can- 
 non, hired foreign military instructors and sent 
 abroad parties of picked students to report on the 
 reforms necessary to enable Japan to hold her own 
 against the rest of the world. It was at this time 
 that the writer, then twelve years old, was sent from 
 Saga to the school maintained by Prince Nabeshima 
 at Nagasaki, to be instructed in English. 
 
 Rev. Dr. G. F. Verbeck, the first American mis- 
 sionary in Japan, was the teacher, and it may fairly 
 be said that he had remarkable success, considering 
 that he was obliged to teach English through the 
 medium of Dutch, there being then no English- 
 Japanese dictionary or grammar in existence. We 
 had also French military instructors, and it was our 
 chief delight to visit at houses in the foreign settle- 
 ment that were opened to us, and the foreign men of 
 v/ar in the bay. To the old dislike of foreign things 
 276
 
 Conclusion 
 
 and foreign ways, which had been very strong even 
 at the south, had succeeded by this time a great en- 
 thusiasm, because we desired (but without rancor) to 
 be able to thrash the foreigners, if necessary, in our 
 turn. 
 
 Suddenly the older boys were called north, and 
 next we heard of battles at Kioto and at Osaka, in 
 which the troops of the southern coalition, though 
 outnumbered almost ten to one, had beaten those of 
 the shogun's party. It was demonstrated that Jap- 
 anese soldiers could profit by discipline and modern 
 weapons. 
 
 The fight was now no longer against the treaties, 
 which had received the imperial sanction : it was to 
 unify the country under the Emperor Mutsuhito, who 
 had just succeeded to the throne. The shogun, lye- 
 mochi, had died, and had been succeeded by the son 
 of the old Prince of Mito, Tokugawa Yoshinobu. 
 Imbued as the latter was with the traditions of his 
 race, the leaders of the imperial party had had little 
 difficulty in inducing him to resign all his powers 
 into the hands of the new emperor. But his parti- 
 sans, who by this act were themselves deprived of 
 place and power, had precipitated a conflict. They 
 had attempted to enter Kioto with ten thousand men, 
 but had been repulsed by a force of fifteen hundred 
 gathered from the Satsuma, Choshiu, Tosa, Hizen, and 
 277
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 other imperialist clans. The capture of Osaka and 
 Yedo and the deposition of the last of the shoguns 
 followed, and the emperor entered Yedo, henceforth 
 known as Tokio, in November, 1869. 
 
 By that time I was a student in the university 
 (then called Kaiseijo) at Tokio, and witnessed the 
 entrance of the Mikado, the last great function in the 
 ancient manner, with daimios in black lacquered pa- 
 lanquins, samurai marching afoot, and runners at the 
 head of each division of the procession tossing from 
 hand to hand long bamboo poles tipped with globu- 
 lar masses of black or white paper ribbons. There 
 were still after that many fluctuations of popular sen- 
 timent, which did not come over all at once to the 
 new order of things ; and twice we students were 
 compelled, to avoid provoking unpleasant remarks, 
 to resume the historic samurai dress, hakama, two 
 swords, and top-knot. But in the same year came 
 the abolition of the daimioates, the last and crown- 
 ing act of the revolution. Feudal Japan was no 
 more. 
 
 Nothing can be farther from the truth than the 
 notion that the revolution was the consequence of the 
 foreign ministers' demands. Their action undoubt- 
 edly had the effect, wholly unlocked for by them, of 
 precipitating a crisis which was sure to occur in any 
 case. The country required to be more closely 
 278
 
 Conclusion 
 
 united, more systematically organized, and even if it 
 had remained cut off from the rest of the world the 
 feudal organization was doomed. Nor should the 
 anxiety of the Japanese to conform to modern ways 
 be put down to a sudden epidemic of imitativeness. 
 It was due to the desire of self-preservation. The 
 national existence was felt to depend on Japan being 
 enabled to take her place among the most progressive 
 people of the earth. Here, indeed, a desire to fore- 
 stall compulsion was active ; but not in the restora- 
 tion of the empire, which was an absolutely sponta- 
 neous act, and was carried out against the desires of 
 the European ministers, who had become accustomed 
 to obtain from the shogun's government whatever 
 they wanted, and were, of course, desirous that it 
 should be confirmed in power. 
 
 One who knows something of the early history of 
 the country can in a measure account for the revo- 
 lution and for the startling progress subsequently 
 made. The Japanese first appear in history as a 
 proselytizing and conquering people, spreading by 
 force of arms and diplomacy their nascent civilization 
 and anthropomorphic creed among the fetish-wor- 
 shipping barbarians of the main island. Later we 
 find them welcoming the mild teachings of Buddha, 
 and incorporating them with their own belief, and 
 with renewed zeal pushing the frontiers of their 
 279
 
 Sunrise Stories 
 
 empire northward. The main cause of the long and 
 desolating civil wars was the lack of an apparent out- 
 let for the energies of the righting class, and of an 
 ideal higher than fealty to clan and chief. And now 
 that Japan is once more provided with a mission, 
 and is called upon to lead in the civilization of the 
 far East, we see revived the eagerness to learn and to 
 teach, the unanimous determination to advance, that 
 marked the palmy days of the ancient empire. 
 
 There is another marked characteristic to be noted 
 a tendency to go lightly laden and to throw off 
 and reject whatever is found to be unassimilable. In 
 Japanese literature and art this trait is more marked 
 than any other. There is much in both that has 
 been unquestionably borrowed from the Chinese, but 
 it has been sublimated and spiritualized, has been 
 freed of Chinese sensuousness and of Chinese didac- 
 ticism. 
 
 In more practical matters we have seen how the 
 militant sects, both Christian and Buddhist, were put 
 down when it became plain that they but tended to 
 add to the turmoil from which the country was suf- 
 fering; and in our own days the feudal edifice of 
 lyeyasu, become a hindrance, has been completely 
 swept away. But the military skill and endurance 
 acquired during centuries of warfare, the altruistic 
 spirit and the love of nature fostered by Buddhism, 
 280
 
 Conclusion 
 
 remain, along with the original endowment of the 
 race, its courage, loyalty, its love of light and puri- 
 ty, its belief in its high mission. 
 
 A readiness to take the higher way and to show it 
 to others, and a proneness to relieve the springs of 
 action, thought, and feeling of all unnecessary weight, 
 are the leading characteristics of the Japanese, as 
 shown both in their literature and in their history. 
 It is not without reason that Japan x has adopted the 
 morning sun, the source of light and standard of pu- 
 rity, for the emblem upon her banners. It is not 
 quite the fact that " Japanese civilization is based 
 upon altruism," as a recent traveller, Mr. Henry T. 
 Finck, has put it ; but it comes perhaps as near to 
 that ideal condition as is possible in this imperfect 
 world. 
 
 281
 
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