English
Then there came forth from amongst the hills a woman clothed like an inhabitant of heaven, | i be ae era TAKETORI MONOGATARI 79 and drew water in a silver vessel. When we saw her, we landed from the ship, and asked what might be the name of this mountain. The woman replied and said, ‘This is Mount Horai. Our joy was unbounded. ‘And who,’ we inquired, ‘is she who tells us so?’ ‘My name is Hokanruri,’ she said, and of a sudden went away in among the hills. “There seemed no way to climb this mountain, so we went round its side, where flowering trees unknown in this world were growing. Streams of golden, silver, and emerald hue flowed forth from it, spanned by bridges of all manner of jewels. Here stood shining trees, the least beautiful of which was that of which I brought away a branch, but, as it answered Kaguyahime’s description, I plucked it and came away. That mountain is delightful beyond measure, and there is nothing in this world to compare with it. But when I had got the branch, I became impatient to return ; so we embarked in our ship, and the wind being fair, arrived at Osaka after a voyage of over four hundred days. Urged by my great desire, I left for the capital yesterday, and now I present myself here without even changing my garments soaked with brine.” (I omit a verse of poetry in which the old man ex- presses his sympathy with the Prince’s sufferings, and also the Prince’s poetical reply.) At this juncture a party of six men appeared in the courtyard. One of them, who held in his hand a cleft stick, with a paper in it, said: “I, Ayabe no Uchimaro, the head smith of your workshop, beg humbly to state— For more than a thousand days I and my men have laboured with all our strength and most heedful care in making for you the jewel-branch, but yet have received 80 JAPANESE LITERATURE from you no wages. I pray you let me receive them, sa that I may pay my men.” So saying, he presented his paper. The old bamboo-cutter, with his head bowed down in thought, wondered what the words of this work- man might mean, while the Prince, beside himself with dismay, felt as if his heart were melting within him. © When Kagayuhime heard this, she said, “ Bring me that paper.” It read as follows :— “My Lord the Prince,—When you shut yourself up for more than a thousand days with us mean workmen, and made us fashion the wonderful jewel-branch, you promised to reward us with official appointments. As we were lately thinking over this, we remembered that you had told us that the branch was required by the lady Kaguyahime, whose lord you were to be, and it occurred to us that in this palace we should receive our reward.” Kaguyahime, whose heart had been growing sadder and sadder as the sun went down, bloomed into smiles. She called the old man to her and said, “ Truly I had thought that it was no other than the real tree of Mount Horai. Now that we know that it is but a sorry counter- feit, give it back to him at once.” Compared with the later literature of the Heian period, the style of the Zaketori is artless and unformed, but its naive simplicity accords well with the subject-matter, and is not without a charm of its own. The /se Monogatart is one of the most admired pro- ductions of the older Japanese literature. Its style is clear and concise, and far surpasses in elegance that of the Taketort Monogatari. It consists of a number of short chapters which have little connection with each other, except that they all ISE MONOGATARI 81 relate incidents in the life of a gay young nobleman of the court of Kidto, who is usually identified with a real personage named Narihira. Narihira lived about a cen- tury before the date when the /se J/onogatari was written, but he is supposed to have left diaries on which this work was founded. What truth there may be in this it is now impossible to ascertain, nor does it much concern us to know. The long series of love affairs in which the hero is involved are more suggestive of fiction than of fact, and the most plausible explanation of the title of the work points to the same conclusion. It seems that the men of Ise, like the Cretans of old, were not remarkable for veracity, so that the author, by calling his work Zales of Ise, probably meant to convey a broad hint to his readers that they must not take everything in it for truth. A free rendering of /se Monogatart would be Tales for the Marines—a title under which we should not expect to find a very conscientious adherence to actual fact. It is acaprice of the author to make all his chapters begin with the word Mukashi, the Japanese equivalent of the “a long time ago” of our fairy tales. Each serves as a setting for one or two little poems of more than average merit which are put into the mouth of the hero and his numerous inamoratas. The first few chapters relate some juvenile love ad- ventures of the hero. The following may serve as a specimen :— | ‘“‘A long time ago there dwelt a woman in the Western Pavilion which was occupied by the Empress in East Gojo.!. Here she was visited by one who loved her 1 The city of Kidto is divided into sections by parallel streets somewhat in the fashion of the “‘ Avenues” of New York. Gojé (fifth column) is one of these. It is the principal shopping street of Kioto at the present day. 82 JAPANESE LITERATURE deeply, though in secret. About the roth day of the first month she concealed herself elsewhere. He learned where she was living, but as it was a place where visits were impossible, he remained plunged in melancholy. In the first month of the following year, reminded of the previous spring by the flowering of the plum-trees before his house, he went to the Western Pavilion, and stood there gazing. But gaze as he might, there was to his mind no resemblance to the scene of the year before. At last he burst into tears, and laying himself down on the shattered floor, thought longingly of the bygone time until the moon went down. He composed this poem— “ Moon? There is none. Spring? ?Tis not the spring Of former days : Lt ts I alone Who have remained unchanged” \— and then took his way homeward as the night was break ing into dawn.” A Western writer would have expanded this into a sonnet at least, but within the narrow bounds of thirty- one syllables prescribed by custom to the Japanese poet, it is hardly possible to express more forcibly the blank feeling of despair at the sight of familiar scenes which are no longer brightened by the presence of the loved one. The moon and spring flowers are there before his eyes, but as they do not move him as they did formerly, + The following is an attempt to imitate as nearly as possible the metrical movement of the original, which, however, has no rhyme :— ‘© Moon? There ts none. “ Tsuki ya! aranu: Where are spring's wonted flowers ? Haru yal mukashi no T see not one. Haru naranu: All else is changed, but I Waga mt hitotsu wa Love on unalteringly.” Moto no mi ni shite.” ISE MONOGATARI 83 he boldly denies their existence, giving emphasis by the contrast to the declaration of his own unchanging love. His subsequent adventures, it must be confessed, do not speak highly for his constancy. After several other unfortunate love affairs, the hero found his life in Kidto intolerable, and set out on an ex- pedition to the east of Japan. His journey gives occa sion for the introduction of a number of stanzas descriptive of the remarkable sights on the way, such as the smok- ing summit of Mount Asama, and the snow on Fujiyama in the height of summer. He and his people crossed the river Sumida, where Tokio now stands, in a ferry- boat at nightfall. The dismal scene made them all feel as if they had come to the end of the world, and their thoughts went back with longing to their homes in Kidto. There were some birds on the river known to us as “oyster-catchers,” but to the Japanese by the more poetical name of Miyakodori, or “birds of the capital.” Narihira exclaims— “O thou bird of Miyako! Lf such be thy name, Come! this question I would ask thee— Ls she whom TL love Still alive, or ts she no more?” On hearing this, every one in the boat was moved to tears. But Narihira is not always so sentimental. Some of his adventures are intended to be more or less comical. We soon after find him in one of the northern pre- vinces, where a rustic beauty, eager to make the ac- quaintance of a fashionable young gentleman from Kidto, sends him a poem (of course in thirty-one syl- lables) of invitation. He condescends to visit her, but 84. JAPANESE LITERATURE takes his leave while it is still pitch-dark. As Juliet, under somewhat similar circumstances, reviles the lark, the lady, attributing his departure to the crowing of a cock, vents her displeasure in the following stanza, which still lingers in the popular memory :— “ When morning dawns L would that a fox Would devour that cock Who, by his unseasonable crowing, fas driven away my spouse!” I have before me two of the many editions of this work. One is by the eminent scholar and critic Ma- buchi, and contains much more commentary than text. The other (dated 1608) is perhaps worthy ofthe attention of book-collectors whose mental horizon is not bounded by Europe. It is in two volumes, block-printed on variously-tinted paper, and adorned with numerous full- page illustrations which are among the very earliest specimens of the wood-engraver’s art in Japan. The Utsubo Monogatart is conjectured to have been written by the same author as the Zaketori Monogatari, and the style and matter of the first of the fourteen stories of which it consists go far to confirm this supposi- tion, though it may perhaps be a question whether the whole collection is by the same person.