Shank's Mare

by Ikku Jippensha

  'I thought they were cheats from the first?' said another. 'Get out before we throw you out.'

  'Throw us out?' said Yaji. 'Don't be ridiculous.'

  'Look here, Yaji,' said Kita. 'Don't let's have a row. We're in the wrong. Let's go somewhere else and stop, even at a cheap lodging house. We're very sorry if we've done anything wrong.'

  Kita thus went on repeating apologies to the landlord, who was half angry and half amused.

  While they were getting ready to start, all the people in the house came to see them off and jeered and laughed and clapped their hands. Yaji, with a very angry face and a dignified air, walked out followed by Kita.

  It was now past ten and everybody had gone to bed. Yaji and Kita walked on, but they could not see any inn, nor anybody in the street to ask, the only things astir being the dogs under the eaves of the houses, and they only barked at them.

  'These curs!' said Yaji. 'I'll serve them out,' and he picked up a stone and threw it at the dogs. This only made them more angry, and they ran after the travellers, barking furiously.

  'Don't take any notice of them,' said Kita. 'Even the dogs despise us. What are you making those strange signs for?'

  'When you're attacked by dogs,' said Yaji, 'if you make the character for tiger in the air and show it to them they'll run away. They don't seem to run away here, though. Perhaps the dogs in this town can't read. Here, shoo, shoo!'

  In one way and another they managed to get rid of the dogs, and then went on. Very soon they unexpectedly came to the end of the town.

  'We're in a fix now,' said Yaji. 'I'll tell you what. Let's walk all night. That would show our mettle. Come on.'

  'Don't be a fool,' said Kita. 'It isn't midnight yet. There must be some place to stop at.'

  'There isn't a house where they haven't gone to bed,' said Yaji. 'Yes, there is. You can see a faint light over there. Let's go and ask there where there's an inn.'

  'That's a good idea,' said Kita. 'But isn't it a lantern?'

  'What nonsense,' said Yaji. 'The light's coming through the cracks of a door.'

  'Yes, it's a light in a house,' said Kita. 'At any rate we'll ask'

  They walked along faster, but as they drew nearer they were startled to see that the light was moving along in front of them.

  'Halloa!' said Yaji. 'That house seems to be walking along too.'

  'So it does,' said Kita. 'That's funny,'

  'I don't see anything funny about it,' said Yaji. 'It seems to me rather queer. Did you ever hear of a country where the houses walked?'

  'It's like what happened when we stopped at Akasaka,' said Kita, 'when the foxes bewitched us. If we don't put a brave face on it they'll bewitch us again. Let's walk faster and not take any notice.'

  So they plucked up their courage and walked faster and faster until they caught up to the light, which proved to be only a brazier on a cripple's barrow, where he had lit a fire to make himself some tea. He was pushing the barrow along while the water was getting hot. They laughed over their mistake and passed him, but the loneliness of the road soon made them fearful. Sometimes the moon came out of the clouds for a little, but generally it was dark, and to walk in the dead of night, with no one out on the road and everything silent, made them tremble, however bold they pretended to be.

  At last they heard someone coming up behind them, and Yaji turning round to look saw that he was a tall man wearing a long sword.

  'There's a suspicious-looking man behind us,' whispered Yaji to Kita. 'Let's get on a bit faster.'

  But the faster they walked the faster the man behind came on.

  'Wait, wait,' cried Kita. 'I shall burst unless I relieve myself.' But when he stopped to do this the man behind also stopped.

  'I say,' called out Yaji in a trembling voice, 'where are you going?'

  'I'm going back to Matsuzaka,' said the man in an unexpectedly mild voice, 'but I was so afraid of the dark that I was thinking what I should do when I heard you coming along. Then I thought I should have good company, so I was trusting in you.'

  'Well, you don't seem very brave by your voice,' said Kita. 'But why are you wearing that long thing stuck in your sash?'

  'Oh this?' said the man 'This is a bamboo stick I picked up,' and he pulled it out of his girdle and showed them that it was a cane.

  'Oh, it isn't a sword then,' said Yaji. 'You seemed so frightened that we've been wondering for a long time what sort of man you were. Really, you are a coward, —quite different to me.'

  'There's three of us now,' said Kita, 'so it's perfectly safe.'

  'But there's something dreadful ahead,' said the man.

  'What sort of thing?' asked Yaji.

  'I'll tell you,' said the man. 'I had to go as far as Edo Bridge to-day, and going back I got such a fright. A little further on there's a pinewood, and when I got up to that I saw a great white thing standing there. It was swaying backwards and forwards and shivering and shaking. I tell you it gave me a real fright. I thought I should have died. I was too frightened to go on so I turned round and came back to see if I could meet anyone to go with me, and then I saw you.'

  'Eh!' said Yaji. 'Where did you see this great white thing?'

  'It's just a little further along,' said the man.

  'What can it be?' said Yaji. 'I'll go along and see. You come with me.'

  They went along all together till they came to the pinewood.

  'There,' cried the man suddenly. 'Don't you see it?' and he began trembling violently.

  By the pale light of the moon they could see a strange white thing right in the middle of the path. What it could be they could not guess. Sometimes it looked big and sometimes it looked small, and sometimes it disappeared altogether.

  'Whatever can it be?' said Yaji.

  'It's not got any feet, so it must be a ghost,' said Kita.

  'Yes,' said the man. 'However can we pass it?'

  'his way,' said Yaji. 'We'll have to turn back. It gives me the creeps to see it.'

  'I had to turn back before,' said the man, 'because I was too frightened to pass it by myself. Now I've got you with me you're frightened too, so if we turn back to find others we may spend the whole night going backwards and forwards.'

  'It's all in white, so it must be a ghost,' said Yaji.

  'Do you see that blue light?' said Kita.

  'It looks as if it was coming this way,' said the man.

  'What shall we do?' said Yaji. 'We can't go on.'

  As the three stood there trembling, with pale faces, occasionally looking behind them to see if anybody was coming, they heard a sound of singing.

  The load of love!

  Ah, who can say

  What weight it does

  Upon them lay?

  Soon they distinguished three workmen coming along the road.

  'Where have you come from?' asked Yaji in a trembling voice.

  'Oh, we live in the neighbourhood,' replied one of them, 'and we're just going to Tsu on business.'

  'However did you come this way?' asked Yaji.

  'What's the matter with the man?' they replied. 'Didn't we say we were going to Tsu?'

  'You're not ghosts, are you?' asked Yaji. 'I don't see how living beings could come through it.'

  'What are you talking about?' they cried. 'We can't understand you.'

  'Look here,' said Kita. 'There's a ghost along the road you came. How did you pass it?'

  'You've been bewitched by the fox of Miwatari,' they cried.

  'Well, see for yourself,' said Kita.

  'See what?' they asked.

  'That white thing there,' said Kita.

  'White thing?' they said. 'Oh, that. That's a fire smouldering in the middle of the road. The smoke looks white by the light of the moon.'

  'Ha-ha-ha!' laughed Yaji. 'That's it, is it? Thank you, thank you,' and breathing a sigh of relief they went on. When they got to the place they found that somebody had swept up a quantity of rubbish and had set it alight, and it was the smoke rising
from the fire that they had seen.

  Continuing on their way the two travellers arrived at Matsuzaka, where, as it was very late and they did not want the expense of going to an inn, they got their companion to show them to a cheap lodging-house, where they spent the night.

  Starting off early next morning, the two travellers went on till they came to Myōjō, where they took a rest at a teahouse. Here they found a Westcountryman who was bargaining with a postboy for a ride. He was dressed in a broadstriped cloak of a gay pattern, and carried an account book and a bundle on his back.

  'Masters' said the postboy, 'wouldn't you like to let this horse carry your baggage and one of you ride with this gentleman?'

  'You gentlemen are bound for the Grand Shrine, I suppose,' said the countryman. 'I myself am going as far as Furuichi to collect a bill. If one of you would ride with me no doubt we could have some pleasant talk.'

  'I do feel a bit tired after last night,' said Yaji. 'I think I'll ride, Kita.'

  'Then carry the baggage too,' said Kita.

  After they had fixed a price with the postboy, Yaji and the countryman, with all the baggage, got on the horse.

  'Hin-hin-hin!' whinnied the horse, and off they started.

  'You are from Edo, I suppose,' said the countryman.

  'Yes,' said Yaji.

  'Edo's supposed to be a fine place,' said the countryman, 'but I had a bad time of it when I went there last year. It didn't suit me at all because wherever I went I found the closets so dirty. I must have gone a hundred days without doing anything, and then when I was leaving Edo I got to a place called Suzu-ga-mori, I think. I was glad. I'll do it here, I thought, and I poured into the sea all that I had saved up. I must have done seven gallons at one go. It was a relief. It was the prettiest and largest jakes ever seen. Ha-ha-ha!'

  'Nowadays it's in such demand that they exchange vegetables for it,' said Yaji. 'Pity you wasted it in the sea. You could have exchanged it for five or six horseloads of vegetables. Also, when you want to break wind you ought to run out into the garden and break it over the vegetables to make them grow.'

  'Yes,' said the countryman. 'Vegetables treated like that are sliced up and mixed with plaster, when they call it wind-vegetable-plaster.'

  'Kyōto people are generally frightfully stingy,' said Yaji. 'Last time I went there was in March, when all the flowers were in full bloom. The people were all sitting outside surrounded by curtains and admiring the flowers, and eating out of magnificent embossed lacquer boxes. But what do you think they were eating? Pickles and bean-powder. I was astonished.'

  'Well, when I was up in Edo,' said the countryman, 'they were boasting about the beautiful cherry-blossoms at Yoshiwara. So I went to Yoshiwara on purpose to see them, but I couldn't find any cherry-blossoms there at all.'

  'At what time of the year did you go?' asked Yaji.

  'It was in October,' said the countryman.

  'Whoever heard of cherry trees being in flower in October?' cried Yaji.

  'Yes, but at Omuro and Arashiyama in Kyōto,' said the countryman, 'we have cherries ail the year round.'

  'That would be only the trees,' said Yaji. 'The flowers don't bloom all the year round.'

  'Well, I don't know about that,' said the countryman. 'And then at Edo they're very fond of those long songs, but they don't compare with the Kyōto Miyazono and Kunidaiyu.'

  'What sort of a song do you call a Kunidaiyu?' asked Yaji.

  'It's like this,' said the countryman, and he began to sing very solemnly:—

  When I am free,

  If you'll marry me,

  We'll live together

  In close company.

  'That's good,' said Yaji, when he had finished. 'I must get you to teach me.'

  'Oh, that's easy,' said the countryman. 'You've only got to imitate me.'

  Kita, who was following behind, here stopped and picked up a bamboo wand that was lying by the side of the road. He thought that the countryman was boasting too much and he had an idea of paying him back. The countryman, however, was quite lost to the world, and, unconscious of what Kita was intending to do, sang another song:—

  That women are spiteful is quite true,

  For after death they'll torment you;

  As demons there among the dead,

  They'll raise their wands to strike your head.

  Then, just at the end of the song, Kita brought down his stick on the countryman's head with a tremendous whack.

  'Hi! Hi!' shouted the countryman. 'What's that? You'll break my head.'

  'Ha-ha-ha!' laughed Yaji. 'Just sing it again.'

  The countryman was persuaded to sing it again, but again, just at the end, Kita brought his stick down on his head.

  'Oh! Oh!' yelled the countryman. 'Stop it. Stop it.'

  He turned round to see who it was, but Kita had hidden himself on the other side of the horse and he could see no one.

  'That's a good song,' said Yaji, 'but the tune's awfully difficult. Just sing it once more.'

  'I don't mind singing it as many times as you like,' said the countryman, 'if you don't hit me on the head.'

  'Of course,' said Yaji. 'I'll take care of that.'

  'Then I'll sing it again,' said the countryman.

  That women are spiteful is quite true,

  For after death they'll follow you,

  Tormenting demons in hell they'll be

  To use their whips on you and me.

  Kita was going to hit him again on the head at the end of the song, but somehow he missed his aim and instead hit Yaji.

  'Oh! Oh!' yelled Yaji. 'That's my head, Kita. What are you doing?'

  'It was you that hit my head, was it?' said the countryman. 'What did you want to do that for?'

  'I don't remember doing it,' said Kita.

  'You can't deny it,' said the countryman.

  'I don't know anything about it, I tell you,' said Kita. 'What an obstinate chap you are.'

  'Who are you calling chap?' asked the countryman. 'You're very free with your tongue.'

  'Get out, you old fool,' said Kita. 'It's you that have been talking big. I'll throw you off the horse if you say much.'

  'Oh, indeed,' said the countryman. 'Let's see you do it.'

  'All tight, I'll make you turn head over heels,' said Kita, and he gave the horse a whack on the loins which made it rear up.

  'Oh, oh!' yelled the countryman. 'What are you doing?'

  'Oh, oh, oh!' yelled Yaji in turn.

  'Woa! Woa!' cried the postboy.

  By this time they had got to Kobata, where Yaji and the countryman got off the horse and they all went into a teahouse.

  'What do you mean by hitting me on the head?' said the countryman to Kita.

  'There, there,' said Yaji soothingly. 'All sorts of things happen to you when you're travelling. Just make it up and I'll buy you some saké.' He called to the maid to bring out some sake.

  This started a drinking bout, in the course of which the countryman got very mellow.

  'I'm awfully drunk,' he said. 'But, Master Yaji, I like you, though I don't like your friend, —don't like him at all. But as you're travelling together that can't be helped. I'll tell you what we'll do. We'll stop in Myōkenchō at Yamada and then go on to Furuichi together and enjoy ourselves. They know me well there. I'll show you the Tambourine Chamber at the Chizukaya and the Pine Chamber at the Kashiwaya. Won't you come? What do you think?'

  This is a boastful old chap, thought Yaji. I'll encourage him in his boasting and go with him. 'That's splendid,' he said aloud. 'Come on, let's go together.'

  'We'll have a meal at the Matsuzakaya at Sako,' said the countryman, 'and then go on to the Fujiya at Myōkenchō. Come along, come along.'

  'Yes, let's go,' said Yaji.

  Paying for the sake they started off and soon arrived at Yamada.

  THIRD PART

  HE town of Yamada, a name which is stated in the Kawasaki Ondo, the song which they sing at Yamada in Ise, to be derived from the n
ame Yoda, has twelve streets and nine thousand houses, all neatly arranged and showing great simplicity of structure and dignity of style. Naturally, as residents in the capital of the gods, the people have a suavity and calmness which distinguish them from those of other parts, and as the town is visited by a constant stream of travellers, it is, of course, exceedingly prosperous. As Yajirobei, Kitahachi and the countryman went through the streets they saw that each house had a tablet at the door bearing the name of a Shinto priest, this giving the houses the air of being places of business. A number of samurai, assistants of the priests, in full ceremonial dress, were riding rapidly backwards and forwards to meet the travellers as they came through the streets. One of them drew near to Yaji.

  'May I ask where you are going?' he said.

  'We're going to the Grand Shrine, of course,' replied Yaji.

  'No, I mean to what priest,' said the man.

  'Lord Gidayu Takemoto,' said Yaji.

  'Gidayu?' said the samurai. 'Where is he?'

  'Oh, he's in Dotombōri, in Osaka,' said Yaji.

  'He's well known also at Shijō in Kyōto and at Fukiyachō in Edo,' put in Kita.

  'Are you beggars then?' asked the samurai.

  'If we have any of your insolence you'll get a beating,' said Kita.

  'Listen to the boaster,' said the samurai. 'Ha-ha-ha!'

  'Let's go and have a rest somewhere,' said the countryman.

  's awfully dirty,' said Kita. 'It looks as if all the priests were engaged in doing some business for themselves.'

  'Get out,' said Yaji. 'Ha-ha-ha!'

  The three then went into a teahouse for a short rest. While they were sitting there a party of Westcountry people, both men and women, all dressed in the same style, came along singing, and following them was a band of twenty pilgrims, riding in kago sent from a temple, with one of the priests' assistants as a guide.

  'Here it is,' he called. 'Here it is. Everybody will alight here and take a rest.'

  At this all the pilgrims got out of the kago and came into the teahouse. Apparently they were from Edo. Each of them wore a tight-sleeved kimono and carried a short sword. Among them was a man who immediately accosted Yaji when he saw him.

  'Halloa, Master Yaji,' he said. 'Have you come to Isé?'