Lafcadio Hearn's Japan

by Hearn, Lafcadio; Richie, Donald;

  15. The expression yanagi-goshi, “a willow-waist,” is one of several in common use comparing slender beauty to the willow-tree.

  16. Peonia albiflora . The name signifies the delicacy of beauty. The simile of the botan (the tree peony) can be fully appreciated only by one who is acquainted with the Japanese flower.

  17. Some say keshiyuri (poppy) instead of himeyuri. The latter is a graceful species of lily, Lilium callosum .

  18. “Standing, she is a shakuyaku; seated, she is a botan; and the charm of her figure in walking is the charm of a himeyuri.”

  19. In the higher classes of Japanese society to-day, the honorific O is not, as a rule, used before the names of girls, and showy appellations are not given to daughters. Even among the poor respectable classes, names resembling those of geisha, etc., are in disfavor. But those above cited are good, honest, every-day names.

  20. Mr. Satow has found in Hirata a belief to which this seems to some extent akin,—the curious ShintM doctrine “according to which a divine being throws off portions of itself by a process of fissure, thus producing what are called waki-mi-tama,—parted spirits, with separate functions.” The great god of Izumo, Oho-kuni-nushi-no-Kami, is said by Hirata to have three such “parted spirits:” his rough spirit (ara-mi-tama) that punishes, his gentle spirit (nigi-mi-tama) that pardons, and his benedictory or beneficent spirit (saki-mi-tama) that blesses. There is a ShintM story that the rough spirit of this god once met the gentle spirit without recognizing it.

  21. Perhaps the most impressive of all the Buddhist temples in KyMto. It is dedicated to Kwannon of the Thousand Hands, and is said to contain 33,333 of her images.

  22. Daidaimushi in Izumo. The dictionary word is dedemushi . The snail is supposed to be very fond of wet weather; and one who goes out much in the rain is compared to a snail,— dedemushi no yona .

  23. “Snail, snail, put out your horns a little: it rains and the wind is blowing, so put out your horns, just for a little while.”

  24. A Buddhist divinity, but within recent times identified by Shintō with the god Kotohira.

  25. See Professor Chamberlain’s version of it in the Japanese Fairy-Tale Series, with charming illustrations by a native artist.

  26. “Butterfly, little butterfly, light upon the na leaf. But if thou dost not like the na leaf, light, I pray thee, upon my hand.”

  27. Bōshi means “a hat”; tsukeru, “to put on.” But this etymology is more than doubtful.

  28. Some say “Choko-choko-uisu.” “Uisu” would be pronounced in English very much like “weece,” the final u being silent. “Uiōsu” would be something like “we-oce.”

  29. Pronounced almost as “geece.”

  30. Contraction of kore naru .

  31. A kindred legend attaches to the shiwan, a little yellow insect, which preys upon cucumbers. The shiwan is said to have been once a physician, who, being detected in an amorous intrigue, had to fly for his life. But as he went his foot caught in a cucumber vine, so that he fell and was overtaken and killed, and his ghost became an insect, the destroyer of cucumber vines.

  In the zoological mythology and plant mythology of Japan there exist many legends offering a curious resemblance to the old Greek tales of meta-morphoses. Some of the most remarkable bits of such folk-lore have originated, however, in comparatively modern time. The legend of the crab called heikegani, found at Nagato, is an example. The souls of the Taira warriors who perished in the great naval battle of Dan-no-ura (now Seto-Naikai), 1185, are supposed to have been transformed into heikegani. The shell of the heikegani is certainly surprising. It is wrinkled into the likeness of a grim face, or rather into exact semblance of one of those black iron visors, or masks, which feudal warriors wore in battle, and which were shaped like frowning visages.

  32. “Come, firefly, I will give you water to drink. The water of that place is bitter; the water here is sweet.”

  33. By honzon is here meant the sacred kakemono, or picture, exposed to public view in the temples only upon the birthday of the Buddha, which is the eighth day of the old fourth month. Honzon also signifies the principal image in a Buddhist temple.

  34. “A solitary voice! / Did the moon cry? / ’Twas but the hoto-togisu.”

  35. “When I gaze towards the place where I heard the hototogisu cry, lo! there is naught save the wan morning moon.”

  36. “Save only the morning moon, none heard the heart’s-blood cry of the hototogisu.”

  37. A sort of doughnut made of bean flour, or tofu.

  38. “Kite, kite, let me see you dance, and to-morrow evening, when the crows do not know, I will give you a rat.”

  39. “O tardy crow, hasten forward! Your house is all on fire. Hurry to throw water upon it. If there be no water, I will give you. If you have too much, I will give it to your child. If you have no child, then give it back to me.”

  40. The words papa and mamma exist in Japanese baby language, but their meaning is not at all what might be supposed. Mamma, or, with the usual honorific, O-mamma, means “boiled rice.” Papa means “tobacco.”

  Three Popular Ballads (Kokoro, 1896)

  1. Read before the Asiatic Society of Japan, October 17, 1894.

  2. Since the time this letter to the Mail was written, a primary school has been established for the yama-no-mono, through the benevolence of Matsué citizens superior to prejudice. The undertaking did not escape severe local criticism, but it seems to have proved successful.

  3. Daikoku is the popular God of Wealth. Ebisu is the patron of labor. See, for the history of these deities, an article (translated) entitled “The Seven Gods of Happiness,” by Carlo Puini, vol. iii. Transactions of the Asiatic Society . See, also, for an account of their place in ShintM worship, Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, vol. i.

  In the Cave of the Children’s Ghosts (Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, 1894)

  1. Such are the names given to the water-vessels or cisterns at which Shintō worshipers must wash their hands and rinse their mouths ere praying to the Kami. A mitarashi orō-chōzubachi is placed before every Shintō temple. The pilgrim to Shin-Kukedo-San should perform this ceremonial ablution at the little rock-spring above described, before entering the sacred cave. Here even the gods of the cave are said to wash after having passed through the sea-water.

  2. “The August Fire-Lady;” or, “the August Sun-Lady,” Ama-terasu-ohomi-Kami.

  A Letter from Japan (The Romance of the Milky Way, 1905)

  Horai (Kwaidan, 1904)

  Bits of Life and Death (Out of the East, 1895)

  1. A sort of small silver carp.

  2. A hollow wooden block shaped like a dolphin’s head. It is tapped in accompaniment to the chanting of the Buddhist sutras.

  3. At the great temple of Tennōji, at Ōsaka, all such bones are dropped into a vault; and according to the sound each makes in falling, further evidence about the Gōsho is said to be obtained. After a hundred years from the time of beginning this curious collection, all these bones are to be ground into a kind of paste, out of which a colossal statue of Buddha is to be made.

  4. “Thy previous life as for,—what was it? Honorably look [or, please look ] and tell.”

  5. The meaning is, “Give to the beloved one a little more [wine].” The “Ya-ton-ton” is only a burden, without exact meaning, like our own “With a hey! and a ho!” etc.

  6. The meaning is about as follows: “If from the ōeido it be possible to send letters or telegrams, I shall write and forward news of our speedy safe arrival there.”

  Of Women’s Hair (Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, 1894)

  1. Formerly both sexes used the same pillow for the same reason. The long hair of a samurai youth, tied up in an elaborate knot, required much time to arrange. Since it has become the almost universal custom to wear the hair short, the men have adopted a pillow shaped like a small bolster.

  2. It is an error to suppose that all Japanese have blue-black hair. There are two distinct racial types. In one the hair is a deep
brown instead of a pure black, and is also softer and finer. Rarely, but very rarely, one may see a Japanese chevelure having a natural tendency to ripple. For curious reasons, which cannot be stated here, an Izumo woman is very much ashamed of having wavy hair—more ashamed than she would be of a natural deformity.

  3. Even in the time of the writing of the Kojiki the art of arranging the hair must have been somewhat developed. See Professor Chamberlain’s introduction to translation, p. xxxi.; also vol. i. section ix.; vol. vii section xii; vol. ix. section xviii., et passim .

  4. An art expert can decide the age of an unsigned kakemono or other work of art in which human figures appear, by the style of the coiffure of the female personages.

  5. The principal and indispensable hairpin (kanzashi), usually about seven inches long, is split, and its well-tempered double shaft can be used like a small pair of chopsticks for picking up small things. The head is terminated by a tiny spoon-shaped projection, which has a special purpose in the Japanese toilette.

  6. The shinjōchō is also called ichōgaeshi by old people, although the original Ichōgaeshi was somewhat different. The samurai girls used to wear their hair in the true ichōgaeshi manner; the name is derived from the ichō-tree (Salisburia andiantifolia), whose leaves have a queer shape, almost like that of a duck’s foot. Certain bands of the hair in this coiffure bore a resemblance in form to ichō-leaves.

  7. The old Japanese mirrors were made of metal, and were extremely beautiful. Kagami ga kumoru to tamashii ga kumoru (“When the Mirror is dim, the Soul is unclean”) is another curious proverb relating to mirrors. Perhaps the most beautiful and touching story of a mirror in any language is that called “Matsuyama-no-kagami,” which has been translated by Mrs. James.

  A Street Singer (Kokoro, 1896)

  Kimiko (Kokoro, 1896)

  1. “To wish to be forgotten by the beloved is a soul-task harder far than trying not to forget.”— Poem by Kimiko.

  2. Oni mo jiuhachi, azami no hana . There is a similar saying of a dragon: ja mo hatachi (“even a dragon at twenty”).

  Yuko: A Reminiscence (Out of the East, 1898)

  On a Bridge (A Japanese Miscellany, 1901)

  The Case of O-Dai (A Japanese Miscellany, 1901)

  1. Prêta.

  Drifting (A Japanese Miscellany, 1901)

  1. The word Fukuju signifies “Fortunate Longevity.”

  2. That is to say the first, or coronation-year, of the Period Manyen,— 1860–1861.

  3. “Come this way!”

  4. This invocation, signifying “Salutation to the Buddha Amitâbha,” is commonly repeated as a prayer for the dead.

  5. As we should say, “Hey! hey!”—to call attention.

  6. That is to say, about sixty-three English miles.

  7. The distance is more than one hundred and fifty miles.

  Drifting (A Japanese Miscellany, 1901)

  Diplomacy (Kwaidan, 1904)

  A Passional Karma (In Ghostly Japan, 1899)

  1. The hatamoto were samurai forming the special military force of the ShMgun. The name literally signifies “Banner-Supporters.” These were the highest class of samurai,—not only as the immediate vassals of the ShMgun, but as a military aristocracy.

  2. Perhaps this conversation may seem strange to the Western reader; but it is true to life. The whole of the scene is characteristically Japanese.

  3. The invocation Namu Amida Butsu! (“Hail to the Buddha Amitâbha!”),—repeated, as a prayer, for the sake of the dead.

  4. Komageta in the original. The geta is a wooden sandal, or clog, of which there are many varieties,—some decidedly elegant. The komageta, or “pony-geta,” is so-called because of the sonorous hoof-like echo which it makes on hard ground.

  5. The sort of lantern here referred to is no longer made. It was totally unlike the modern domestic hand-lantern, painted with the owner’s crest; but it was not altogether unlike some forms of lanterns still manufactured for the Festival of the Dead, and called Bon-dōrō . The flowers ornamenting it were not painted: they were artificial flowers of crêpe-silk, and were attached to the top of the lantern.

  6. “For the time of seven existences,”—that is to say, for the time of seven successive lives. In Japanese drama and romance it is not uncommon to represent a father as disowning his child “for the time of seven lives.” Such a disowning is called shichi-shō madé no mandō, a disinheritance for seven lives,— signifying that in six future lives after the present the erring son or daughter will continue to feel the parental displeasure.

  7. The profession is not yet extinct. The ninsomi uses a kind of magnifying glass (or magnifying-mirror sometimes), called tengankyō or ninsomégané .

  8. The color and form of the dress, and the style of wearing the hair, are by Japanese custom regulated according to the age of the woman.

  9. The forms of speech used by the samurai, and other superior classes, differed considerably from those of the popular idiom; but these differences could not be effectively rendered into English.

  10. The Japanese word mamori has significations at least as numerous as those attaching to our own term “amulet.” It would be impossible, in a mere footnote, even to suggest the variety of Japanese religious objects to which the name is given. In this instance, the mamori is a very small image, probably enclosed in a miniature shrine of lacquerwork or metal, over which a silk cover is drawn. Such little images were often worn by samurai on the person. I was recently shown a miniature figure of Kwannon, in an iron case, which had been carried by an officer through the Satsuma war. He observed, with good reason, that it had probably saved his life; for it had stopped a bullet of which the dent was plainly visible.

  11. From shiryō, a ghost, and yokeru, to exclude. The Japanese have two kinds of ghosts proper in their folk-lore: the spirits of the dead, shiryō; and the spirits of the living, ikiry ō . A house or a person may be haunted by an ikiryō as well as by a shiryō .

  12. A special service,—accompanying offerings of food, etc., to those dead having no living relatives or friends to care for them,—is thus termed. In this case, however, the service would be of a particular and exceptional kind.

  13. The name would be more correctly written Uhō-Darani-Kyō . It is the Japanese pronunciation of the title of a very short sutra translated out of Sanscrit into Chinese by the Indian priest Amoghavajra, probably during the eighth century. The Chinese text contains transliterations of some mysterious Sanscrit words,—apparently talismanic words,—like those to be seen in Kern’s translation of the Saddharma-Pundarika, ch. xxvi.

  14.O-fuda is the general name given to religious texts used as charms or talismans. They are sometimes stamped or burned upon wood, but more commonly written or printed upon narrow strips of paper.O-fuda are pasted above house-entrances, on the walls of rooms, upon tablets placed in household shrines, etc., etc. Some kinds are worn about the person;—others are made into pellets, and swallowed as spiritual medicine. The text of the larger o-fuda is often accompanied by curious pictures or symbolic illustrations.

  15. According to the old Japanese way of counting time, this yatsudoki or eighth hour was the same as our two o’clock in the morning. Each Japanese hour was equal to two European hours, so that there were only six hours instead of our twelve; and these six hours were counted backwards in the order,—9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4. Thus the ninth hour corresponded to our midday, or midnight; half-past nine to our one o’clock; eight to our two o’clock. Two o’clock in the morning, also called “the Hour of the Ox,” was the Japanese hour of ghosts and goblins.

  16. En-netsu or Shō-netsu (Sanscrit “Tapana”) is the sixth of the Eight Hot Hells of Japanese Buddhism. One day of life in this hell is equal in duration to thousands (some say millions) of human years.

  17. The Male and Female principles of the universe, the Active and Passive forces of Nature. Yusai refers here to the old Chinese nature-philosophy,—better known to Western readers by the name Feng-shui.

  Survivals
(Japan: An Attempt at Interpretation, 1904)

  1. That is to say, he cannot separate himself from the family in law; but he is free to live in a separate house. The tendency to further disintegration of the family is shown by a custom which has been growing of late years,— especially in Tōkyō: the custom of demanding, as a condition of marriage, that the bride shall not be obliged to live in the same house with the parents of the bridegroom. This custom is yet confined to certain classes, and has been adversely criticised. Many young men, on marrying, leave the parental home to begin independent housekeeping,—though remaining legally attached to their parents’ families, of course. . . . It will perhaps be asked, What becomes of the cult in such cases? The cult remains in the parental home. When the parents die, then the ancestral tablets are transferred to the home of the married son.

  2. Except as regards the communal cult, perhaps. The domestic cult is transplanted; emigrants who go abroad, accompanied by their families, take the ancestral tablets with them. To what extent the communal cult may have been established in emigrant communities, I have not yet been able to learn. It would appear, however, that the absence of Ujigami in certain emigrant settlements is to be accounted for solely by the pecuniary difficulty of constructing such temples and maintaining competent officials. In Formosa, for example, though the domestic ancestor-cult is maintained in the homes of the Japanese settlers, Ujigami have not yet been established. The government, however, has erected several important Shintō temples; and I am told that some of these will probably be converted into Ujigami when the Japanese population has increased enough to justify the measure.

  Chronology

  1850 Born in Greece, the son of a Greek woman and an Anglo-Irish surgeon in the British army.

  April 1890 Arrives in Yokohama.

  August 1890 Arrives in Matsue.

  September 1890 Begins teaching at Matsue Jinjō Chūgakkō (Ordinary Middle School) and Shihan Gakkō (Normal School).

  January 1891 Marries Koizumi Setsuko.

  June 1891 Moves to house in Kitabori in Matsue.