Shadowings Part 17

IV

IN the first part of this paper I suggested that the custom of giving very poetical names to _geisha_ and to _joro_ might partly account for the unpopularity of purely aesthetic _yobina_. And in the hope of correcting certain foreign misapprehensions, I shall now venture a few remarks about the names of _geisha_.

_Geisha_-names,--like other cla.s.ses of names,--although full of curious interest, and often in themselves really beautiful, have become hopelessly vulgarized by a.s.sociation with a calling the reverse of respectable. Strictly speaking, they have nothing to do with the subject of the present study,--inasmuch as they are not real personal names, but professional appellations only,--not _yobina_, but _geimyo_.

A large proportion of such names can be distinguished by certain prefixes or suffixes attached to them. They can be known, for example,--

(1) By the prefix _Waka_, signifying "Young";--as in the names _Wakagusa_, "Young Gra.s.s"; _Wakazuru_, "Young Stork"; _Wakamurasaki_, "Young Purple"; _Wakakoma_, "Young Filly".

(2) By the prefix _Ko_, signifying "Little";--as in the names, _Ko-en_, "Little Charm"; _Ko-hana_, "Little Flower"; _Kozakura_, "Little Cherry-Tree".

(3) By the suffix _Ryo_, signifying "Dragon" (the Ascending Dragon being especially a symbol of success);--as _Tama-Ryo_, "Jewel-Dragon"; _Hana-Ryo_, "Flower-Dragon"; _Kin-Ryo_, "Golden-Dragon".

(4) By the suffix _ji_, signifying "to serve", "to administer";--as in the names _Uta-ji_, _Shinne-ji_, _Katsu-ji_.

(5) By the suffix _suke_, signifying "help";--as in the names _Tama-suke_, _Koma-suke_.

(6) By the suffix _kichi_, signifying "luck", "fortune";--as _Uta-kichi_, "Song-Luck"; _Tama-kichi_, "Jewel-Fortune".

(7) By the suffix _giku_ (i. e., _kiku_) signifying "chrysanthemum";--as _Mitsu-giku_, "Three Chrysanthemums"; _Hina-giku_, "Doll-Chrysanthemum"; _Ko-giku_, "Little Chrysanthemum".

(8) By the suffix tsuru, signifying "stork" (emblem of longevity);--as _Koma-tsuru_, "Filly-Stork"; _Ko-tsuru_, "Little Stork"; _Ito-zuru_, "Thread-Stork".

These forms will serve for ill.u.s.tration; but there are others. _Geimyo_ are written, as a general rule, with only two Chinese characters, and are p.r.o.nounced as three or as four syllables. _Geimyo_ of five syllables are occasionally to be met with; _geimyo_ of only two syllables are rare--at least among names of dancing girls. And these professional appellations have seldom any moral meaning: they signify things relating to longevity, wealth, pleasure, youth, or luck,--perhaps especially to luck.

Of late years it became a fashion among certain cla.s.ses of _geisha_ in the capital to a.s.sume real names with the genteel suffix _Ko_, and even aristocratic _yobina_. In 1889 some of the Tokyo newspapers demanded legislative measures to check the practice. This incident would seem to afford proof of public feeling upon the subject.

Old j.a.panese Songs

[Decoration]

THIS New Year's morning I find upon my table two most welcome gifts from a young poet of my literary cla.s.s. One is a roll of cloth for a new kimono,--cloth such as my Western reader never saw. The brown warp is cotton thread; but the woof is soft white paper string, irregularly speckled with black. When closely examined, the black specklings prove to be Chinese and j.a.panese characters;--for the paper woof is made out of ma.n.u.script,--ma.n.u.script of poems,--which has been deftly twisted into fine cord, with the written surface outwards. The general effect of the white, black, and brown in the texture is a warm mouse-grey. In many Izumo homes a similar kind of cloth is manufactured for family use; but this piece was woven especially for me by the mother of my pupil. It will make a most comfortable winter-robe; and when wearing it, I shall be literally clothed with poetry,--even as a divinity might be clothed with the sun.

The other gift is poetry also, but poetry in the original state: a wonderful ma.n.u.script collection of j.a.panese songs gathered from unfamiliar sources, and particularly interesting from the fact that nearly all of them are furnished with refrains. There are hundreds of compositions, old and new,--including several extraordinary ballads, many dancing-songs, and a surprising variety of love-songs. Neither in sentiment nor in construction do any of these resemble the j.a.panese poetry of which I have already, in previous books, offered specimens in translation. The forms are, in most cases, curiously irregular; but their irregularity is not without a strange charm of its own.

I am going to offer examples of these compositions,--partly because of their unfamiliar emotional quality, and partly because I think that something can be learned from their strange art of construction, The older songs--selected from the antique drama--seem to me particularly worthy of notice. The thought or feeling and its utterance are supremely simple; yet by primitive devices of reiteration and of pause, very remarkable results have been obtained. What strikes me especially noteworthy in the following specimen is the way that the phrase, begun with the third line of the first stanza, and interrupted by a kind of burthen, is repeated and finished in the next stanza. Perhaps the suspension will recall to Western readers the effect of some English ballads with double refrains, or of such quaint forms of French song as the famous--

Au jardin de mon pere-- _Vole, mon coeur, vole!_ Il y a un pommier doux, _Tout doux!_

But in the j.a.panese song the reiteration of the broken phrase produces a slow dreamy effect as unlike the effect of the French composition as the movements of a j.a.panese dance are unlike those of any Western round:--

KANO YUKU WA

(_Probably from the eleventh century_)

Kano yuku wa, Kari ka?--kugui ka?

Kari naraba,--

(Ref.) _Hareya toto!_ _Hareya toto!_

Kari nara Nanori zo semashi;-- Nao kugui nari-ya!--

(Ref.) _Toto!_

That which yonder flies,-- Wild goose is it?--swan is it?

Wild goose if it be,--

_Hareya toto!_ _Hareya toto!_

Wild goose if it be, Its name I soon shall say: Wild swan if it be,--better still!

_Toto!_

There are many old lyrics in the above form. Here is another song, of different construction, also from the old drama: there is no refrain, but there is the same peculiar suspension of phrase; and the effect of the quadruple repet.i.tion is emotionally impressive:--

Isora ga saki ni Tai tsuru ama mo, Tai tsuru ama mo,--

Wagimoko ga tame to, Tai tsuru ama mo, Tai tsuru ama mo!

Off the Cape of Isora, Even the fisherman catching _tai_,[92]

Even the fisherman catching _tai_,--

[Works] for the sake of the woman beloved,-- Even the fisherman catching _tai_, Even the fisherman catching _tai_!

[92] _Chrysopbris cardinalis_, a kind of sea-bream,--generally esteemed the best of j.a.panese fishes.

But a still more remarkable effect is obtained in the following ancient song by the extraordinary reiteration of an uncompleted phrase, and by a double suspension. I can imagine nothing more purely natural: indeed the realism of these simple utterances has almost the quality of pathos:--

AGeMAKI

(_Old lyrical drama--date uncertain_)

Agemaki[93] wo Waseda ni yarite ya!

So omou to, So omou to, So omou to, So omou to, So omou to,--

So omou to, Nani-mo sezus.h.i.te,-- Harubi sura, Harubi sura, Harubi sura, Harubi sura, Harubi sura!

My darling boy!-- Oh! they have sent him to the ricefields!

When I think about him,-- When I think, When I think, When I think, When I think,--