The Romance of the Milky Way Part 7

[_Who set the house-pillar upside-down? Surely that must have been the work of a man with a knot in his heart._]

Hidayama we Kiri-kite tateshi Saka-bashira-- Nanno tak.u.mi[51] no Shiwaza naruran?

[_That house-pillar hewn in the mountains of Hida, and thence brought here and erected upside-down--what carpenter's work can it be? (or, "for what evil design can this deed have been done?")_]

[Footnote 51: The word _tak.u.mi_, as written in _kana_, may signify either "carpenter" or "intrigue," "evil plot," "wicked device." Thus two readings are possible. According to one reading, the post was fixed upside-down through inadvertence; according to the other, it was so fixed with malice prepense.]

Ue s.h.i.ta wo Chigaete tateshi Hashira ni wa Sakasama-goto no Ure aranan.

[_As for that house-pillar mistakenly planted upside-down, it will certainly cause adversity and sorrow._[52]]

[Footnote 52: Lit., "upside-down-matter-sorrow." _Sakasama-goto_, "up-side-down affair," is a common expression for calamity, contrariety, adversity, vexation.]

Kabe ni mimi Arite, kike to ka?

Sakashima ni Tateshi hashira ni Yanari suru oto!

[_O Ears that be in the wall![53] listen, will ye? to the groaning and the creaking of the house-post that was planted upside-down!_]

[Footnote 53: Alluding to the proverb, _Kabe ni mimi ari_ ("There are ears in the wall"), which signifies: "Be careful how you talk about other people, even in private."]

Uri-iye no Aruji we toeba, Oto arite: Ware me ga kuchi wo Aku saka-bashira.

[_When I inquired for the master of the house that was for sale, there came to me only a strange sound by way of reply,--the sound of the upside-down house-post opening its eyes and mouth![54] (i.e. its cracks)._]

[Footnote 54: There is a pun in the fourth line which suggests more than even a free translation can express. _Ware_ means "I," or "mine,"

or "one's own," etc., according to circ.u.mstances; and _ware me_ (written separately) might be rendered "its own eyes." But _wareme_ (one word) means a crack, rent, split, or fissure. The reader should remember that the term _saka-bashira_ means not only "upside-down post," but also the goblin or spectre of the upside-down post.]

Omokiya!

Sakasa-bashira no Hashira-kake Kakinis.h.i.t uta mo Yamai ari to wa!

[_Who could have thought it!--even the poem inscribed upon the pillar-tablet, attached to the pillar which was planted upside-down, has taken the same (ghostly) sickness._[55]]

[Footnote 55: That is to say, "Even the poem on the tablet is up-side-down,"--all wrong. _Hashira-kake_ ("pillar-suspended thing") is the name given to a thin tablet of fine wood, inscribed or painted, which is hung to a post by way of ornament.]

XI. BAKe-JIZo

The figure of the Bodhi-sattva Jizo, the savior of children's ghosts, is one of the most beautiful and humane in j.a.panese Buddhism. Statues of this divinity may be seen in almost every village and by every roadside. But some statues of Jizo are said to do uncanny things--such as to walk about at night in various disguises. A statue of this kind is called a _Bake-Jiz[=o]_[56],--meaning a Jiz[=o]; that undergoes transformation. A conventional picture shows a little boy about to place the customary child's-offering of rice-cakes before the stone image of Jiz[=o],--not suspecting that the statue moves, and is slowly bending down towards him.

[Footnote 56: Perhaps the term might be rendered "Shape-changing Jiz[=o]." The verb _bakeru_ means to change shape, to undergo metamorphosis, to haunt, and many other supernatural things.]

Nanige naki Ishi no Jiz[=o] no Sugata sae, Yo wa osoroshiki Mikage to zo naki.

[_Though the stone Jiz[=o] looks as if nothing were the matter with it, they say that at night it a.s.sumes an awful aspect (or, "Though this image appears to be a common stone Jiz[=o], they say that at night it becomes an awful Jiz[=o]; of granite."_[57])]

[Footnote 57: The j.a.panese word for granite is _mikage_; and there is also an honorific term _mikage_, applied to divinities and emperors, which signifies "august aspect," "sacred presence," etc.... No literal rendering can suggest the effect, in the fifth line, of the latter reading. _Kage_ signifies "shadow," "aspect," and "power"--especially occult power; the honorific prefix _mi_, attached to names and attributes of divinities, may be rendered "august."]

XII. UMI-B[=O]ZU

Place a large cuttlefish on a table, body upwards and tentacles downwards--and you will have before you the grotesque reality that first suggested the fancy of the _Umi-B[=o]zu_, or Priest of the Sea.

For the great bald body in this position, with the staring eyes below, bears a distorted resemblance to the shaven head of a priest; while the crawling tentacles underneath (which are in some species united by a dark web) suggests the wavering motion of the priest's upper robe.... The Umi-B[=o]zu figures a good deal in the literature of j.a.panese goblinry, and in the old-fashioned picture-books. He rises from the deep in foul weather to seize his prey.

Ita hitoe s.h.i.ta wa Jigoku ni, Sumizome no B[=o]zu no umi ni Deru mo ayashina!

[_Since there is but the thickness of a single plank (between the voyager and the sea), and underneath is h.e.l.l, 'tis indeed a weird thing that a black-robed priest should rise from the sea (or, "'tis surely a marvelous happening that,"

etc.!_[58])]

[Footnote 58: The puns are too much for me.... _Ayashii_ means "suspicious," "marvelous," "supernatural," "weird," "doubtful."--In the first two lines there is a reference to the Buddhist proverb: _Funa-ita ichi-mai s.h.i.ta wa Jigoku_ ("under the thickness of a single ship's-plank is h.e.l.l"). (See my _Gleanings in Buddha-Fields_, p. 206, for another reference to this saying.)]

XIII. FUDA-HeGASHI[59]

Homes are protected from evil spirits by holy texts and charms. In any j.a.panese village, or any city by-street, you can see these texts when the sliding-doors are closed at night: they are not visible by day, when the sliding-doors have been pushed back into the _tobukuro_.

Such texts are called _o-fuda_ (august scripts): they are written in Chinese characters upon strips of white paper, which are attached to the door with rice-paste; and there are many kinds of them. Some are texts selected from sutras--such as the Sutra of Transcendent Wisdom (Pragna-Paramita-Hridaya-Sutra), or the Sutra of the Lotos of the Good Law (Saddharma-Pundarika-Sutra). Some are texts from the dharanis,--which are magical. Some are invocations only, indicating the Buddhist sect of the household.... Besides these you may see various smaller texts, or little prints, pasted above or beside windows or apertures,--some being names of Shinto G.o.ds; others, symbolical pictures only, or pictures of Buddhas and Bodhi-sattvas.

All are holy charms,--_o-fuda_: they protect the houses; and no goblin or ghost can enter by night into a dwelling so protected, unless the _o-fuda_ be removed.

[Footnote 59: _Hegashi_ is the causative form of the verb _hegu_, "to pull off," "peel off," "strip off," "split off." The term _Fuda-hegashi_ signifies "Make-peel-off-august-charm Ghost." In my _Ghostly j.a.pan_ the reader can find a good j.a.panese story about a _Fuda-hegashi_.]

Vengeful ghosts cannot themselves remove an _o-fuda_; but they will endeavor by threats or promises or bribes to make some person remove it for them. A ghost that wants to have the _o-fuda_ pulled off a door is called a _Fuda-hegashi_.

Hegasan to Rokuji-no-fuda wo, Yure mo Nam'mai d[=a] to Kazoete zo mini.

[_Even the ghost that would remove the charms written with six characters actually tries to count them, repeating: "How many sheets are there?" (or, repeating, "Hail to thee, O Buddha Amitabha!"[60])_]

[Footnote 60: The fourth line gives these two readings:--

_Nam'mai da?_--"How many sheets are there?"

_Nam[u] A[m]ida!_--"Hail, O Amitabha!"

The invocation, _Namu Amida Butsu_, is chiefly used by members of the great Shin sect; but it is also used by other sects, and especially in praying for the dead. While repeating it, the person praying numbers the utterances upon his Buddhist rosary; and this custom is suggested by the use of the word _kazoete_, "counting."]

Tada ichi no Kami no o-fuda wa Sasuga ni mo Norike naku to mo Hegashi kanekeri.

[_Of the august written-charms of the G.o.d (which were pasted upon the walls of the house), not even one could by any effort be pulled off, though the rice-paste with which they had been fastened was all gone._]

XIV. FURU-TSUBAKI

The old j.a.panese, like the old Greeks, had their flower-spirits and their hamadryads, concerning whom some charming stories are told. They also believed in trees inhabited by malevolent beings,--goblin trees.

Among other weird trees, the beautiful _tsubaki_ (_Camellia j.a.ponica_) was said to be an unlucky tree;--this was said, at least, of the red-flowering variety, the white-flowering kind having a better reputation and being prized as a rarity. The large fleshy crimson flowers have this curious habit: they detach themselves bodily from the stem, when they begin to fade; and they fall with an audible thud.

To old j.a.panese fancy the falling of these heavy red flowers was like the falling of human heads under the sword; and the dull sound of their dropping was said to be like the thud made by a severed head striking the ground. Nevertheless the tsubaki seems to have been a favorite in j.a.panese gardens because of the beauty of its glossy foliage; and its flowers were used for the decoration of alcoves. But in samurai homes it was a rule never to place tsubaki-flowers in an alcove _during war-time_.

The reader will notice that in the following _ky[=o]ka_--which, as grotesques, seem to me the best in the collection--the goblin-tsubaki is called _furu-tsubaki_, "old tsubaki." The young tree was not supposed to have goblin-propensities,--these being developed only after many years. Other uncanny trees--such as the willow and the _enoki_--were likewise said to become dangerous only as they became old; and a similar belief prevailed on the subject of uncanny animals, such as the cat--innocent in kittenhood, but devilish in age.

Yo-arashi ni Chishiho itadaku Furu tsubaki, Hota-hota ochiru Hana no nama-kubi.