Kokoro: Hints and Echoes of Japanese Inner Life Part 21

And he said also to them: "Into all the palaces of Nihon, save this one only, I have been freely admitted; so I shall be deeply grateful to you if you permit me to enter."

Thus saying, he produced many rolls of silk, and presented them to the gate-keepers; and their cupidity made them blind; and the merchant, without more difficulty, entered, rejoicing.

Through the great outer gate he pa.s.sed, and over a bridge, and then found himself in front of the chambers of the female attendants of the superior cla.s.s.

And he called out with a very loud voice: "O my ladies, all things that you may require I have here with me!

"I have all _jorogata-no-mes.h.i.+-dogu_; I have hair-combs and needles and tweezers; I have _tategami_, and combs of silver, and _kamoji_ from Nagasaki, and even all kinds of Chinese mirrors!"

Whereupon the ladies, delighted with the idea of seeing these things, suffered the merchant to enter their apartment, which he presently made to look like a shop for the sale of female toilet articles.

(1) Nakodo. The profession of nakodo exists; but any person who arranges marriages for a consideration is for the time being called the nakodo.

But while making bargains and selling very quickly, Sayemon did not lose the good chance offered him; and taking from his box the love-letter which had been confided to him, he said to the ladies:--

"This letter, if I remember rightly, I picked up in some town in Hitachi, and I shall be very glad if you will accept it,--either to use it for a model if it be written beautifully, or to laugh at if it prove to have been written awkwardly."

Then the chief among the maids, receiving the letter, tried to read the writing upon the envelope: _"Tsuki ni hos.h.i.+--ame ni arare ga--kori kana,_"--

Which signified, "Moon and stars--rain and hail--make ice." But she could not read the riddle of the mysterious words.

The other ladies, who were also unable to guess the meaning of the words, could not but laugh; and they laughed so shrilly that the Princess Terute heard, and came among them, fully robed, and wearing a veil over her night-black hair.

And the bamboo-screen having been rolled up before her, Terute-Hime asked: "What is the cause of all this laughing? If there be anything amusing, I wish that you will let me share in the amus.e.m.e.nt."

The maids then answered, saying: "We were laughing only at our being unable to read a letter which this merchant from the capital says that he picked up in some street. And here is the letter: even the address upon it is a riddle to us."

And the letter, having been laid upon an open crimson fan, was properly presented to the princess, who received it, and admired the beauty of the writing, and said:--

"Never have I seen so beautiful a hand as this: it is like the writing of Kobodais.h.i.+ himself, or of Monju Bosatsu.

"Perhaps the writer is one of those princes of the Ichijo, or Nijo, or Sanjo families, all famed for their skill in writing.

"Or, if this guess of mine be wrong, then I should say that these characters have certainly been written by Oguri-Hangwan Kane-uji, now so famed in the province of Hitachi.... I shall read the letter for you."

Then the envelope was removed; and the first phrase she read was _Fuji no yama_ (the Mountain of Fuji), which she interpreted as signifying loftiness of rank. And then she met with such phrases as these:--

_Kiyomidzu kosaka_ (the name of a place); _arare ni ozasa_ (hail on the leaves of the bamboo-gra.s.s); _itaya ni arare_ (hail following upon a wooden roof);

_Tamato ni kori_ (ice in the sleeve); _nonaka ni s.h.i.+midzu_ (pure water running through a moor); _koike ni makomo_ (rushes in a little pond);

_In.o.ba ni tsuyu_ (dew on the leaves of the taro); _shakunaga obi_ (a very long girdle); _s.h.i.+ka ni momiji_ (deer and maple-trees);

_Futamata-gawa_ (a forked river); _hoso tanigawa-ni marukibas.h.i.+_ (a round log laid over a little stream for a bridge); _tsurunas.h.i.+ yumi ni hanuki dori_ (a stringless bow, and a wingless bird).

And then she understood that the characters signified:--

_Maireba au_--they would meet, for he would call upon her.

_Arare nai_--then they would not be separated. _Korobi au_--they would repose together.

And the meaning of the rest was thus:--

"This letter should be opened within the sleeve, so that others may know nothing of it. Keep the secret in your own bosom.

"You must yield to me even as the rush bends to the wind. I am earnest to serve you in all things.

"We shall surely be united at last, whatever chance may separate us at the beginning. I wish for you even as the stag for its mate in the autumn.

"Even though long kept apart we shall meet, as meet the waters of a river divided in its upper course into two branches.

"Divine, I pray you, the meaning of this letter, and preserve it.

I hope for a fortunate answer. Thinking of Terute-Hime, I feel as though I could fly."

And the Princess Terute found at the end of the letter the name of him who wrote it,--Oguri-Hangwan Kane-uji himself,--together with her own name, as being written to her.

Then she felt greatly troubled, because she had not at first supposed that the letter was addressed to her, and had, without thinking, read it aloud to the female attendants.

For she well knew that her father would quickly kill her in a most cruel manner, should the iron-hearted Choja(1) come to know the truth.

Wherefore, through fear of being mingled with the earth of the moor Uwanogahara,--fitting place for a father in wrath to slay his daughter,--she set the end of the letter between her teeth, and rent it to pieces, and withdrew to the inner apartment.

(1) Choja is not a proper name: it signifies really a wealthy man only, like the French terms "un richard," "un riche." But it is used almost like a proper name in the country still; the richest man in the place, usually a person of influence, being often referred to as "the Choja."

But the merchant, knowing that he could not go back to Hitachi without bearing some reply, resolved to obtain one by cunning.

Wherefore he hurried after the princess even into her innermost apartment, without so much as waiting to remove his sandals, and he cried out loudly:--"Oh, my princess! I have been taught that written characters were invented in India by Monju Bosatsu, and in j.a.pan by Kobodais.h.i.+.

"And is it not like tearing the hands of Kobodais.h.i.+, thus to tear a letter written with characters?

"Know you not that a woman is less pure than a man? Wherefore, then, do you, born a woman, thus presume to tear a letter?

"Now, if you refuse to write a reply, I shall call upon all the G.o.ds; I shall announce to them this unwomanly act, and I shall invoke their malediction upon you!"

And with these words he took from the box which he always carried with him a Buddhist rosary; and he began to twist it about with an awful appearance of anger.

Then the Princess Terute, terrified and grieved, prayed him to cease his invocations, and promised that she would write an answer at once.

So her answer was quickly written, and given to the merchant, who was overjoyed by his success, and speedily departed for Hitachi, carrying his box upon his back.

IV. HOW KANE-UJI BECAME A BRIDEGROOM WITHOUT HIS FATHER-IN-LAW'S CONSENT

Traveling with great speed, the nakodo quickly arrived at the dwelling of the Hangwan, and gave the letter to the master, who removed the cover with hands that trembled for joy.

Very, very short the answer was,--only these words: _Oki naka bune_, "a boat floating in the offing."

But Kane-uji guessed the meaning to be: "As fortunes and misfortunes are common to all, be not afraid, and try to come unseen."