Kaguya-hime, hearing of his unfortunate condition, sent a poem of inquiry: “The years pass, but the waves do not return to the pines of Suminoe, where I wait in vain; you have failed to find the charm, I am told, is it true?”
He asked that her poem be read to him. Then he lifted his head very feebly, barely able to write in great pain while someone else held the paper: “My efforts were in vain, and now I am about to die in despair; but will you not save my life?” With these words he expired. Kaguya-hime was rather touched.
From this time something slightly pleasurable has been said to have a modicum of charm.
The Imperial Hunt
The emperor, learning of Kaguya-hime’s unrivaled beauty, said to a maid of honor, Nakatomi no Fusako by name, “Please go and discover for me what kind of woman Kaguya-hime is, this beauty who has brought so many men to ruin and refuses to marry.”
Fusako, obedient to his command, departed. When she arrived at the Bamboo Cutter’s house the old woman deferentially showed her in. The maid of honor said, “I have been ordered by His Majesty to ascertain whether Kaguyahime is as beautiful as people say. That is why I am here now.”
“I shall tell her,” said the old woman and went inside. “Please,” she urged Kaguya-hime, “Hurry out and meet the emperor’s messenger.”
Kaguya-hime replied, “How can I appear before her when I am not in the least attractive?”
“Don’t talk nonsense! Do you dare to show such disrespect to someone sent here by the emperor?”
“It doesn’t make me feel especially grateful to think the emperor might wish to summon me,” answered Kaguya-hime. She showed no sign of relenting and meeting the lady. The old woman had always considered Kaguya-hime as being no different from a child she had borne herself, but when the girl spoke so coldly, it much embarrassed her, and she could not reprimand Kaguya-hime as she would have liked.
The old woman returned to the maid of honor and said, “I must apologize, but the girl is terribly obstinate and refuses to see you.”
The maid of honor said, “I was ordered by His Majesty to verify her appearance without fail. How can I return to the palace without seeing her? Do you think it proper for anyone living in this country to be allowed to disobey a royal command? Please do not let her act so unreasonably!” She intended these words to shame Kaguya-hime, but when the latter was informed, she refused all the more vehemently to comply. “If I am disobeying a royal command, let them execute me without delay,” she declared.
The maid of honor returned to the palace and reported what had happened. The emperor listened and said merely, “You can see she’s quite capable of causing the deaths of a great many men.” He seemed to have given up all thought of summoning Kaguya-hime into his service, but he still had his heart set on her, and refused to accept defeat at her hands. He sent for the old man and stated, “I want this Kaguya-hime you have at your place. Word has reached me of the beauty of her face and figure, and I sent my messenger to look her over, but she returned unsuccessful, unable to obtain so much as a glimpse of the girl. Did you bring her up to be so disrespectful?”
The old man humbly replied, “The girl absolutely refuses to serve at court. I am quite at a loss what to do about her. But I’ll go back home and report Your Majesty’s command.”
The emperor asked, “Why should a child you have raised with your own hands refuse to do what you wish? If you present the girl for service here, you can be quite sure I will reward you with court rank.”
The old man returned home, overjoyed. He related this conversation to Kaguya-hime, concluding, “That was what the emperor told me. Are you still unwilling to serve him?”
Kaguya-hime answered, “I absolutely refuse to serve at the court. If you force me, I’ll simply disappear. It may win you a court rank, but it will mean my death.”
“Never do such a dreadful thing!” cried the old man. “What use would position or rank be to me if I couldn’t behold my child? But why are you so reluctant to serve at the court? Would it really kill you?”
“If you still think I am lying, send me into service at the court and see if I don’t die. Many men have showed me most unusual affection, but all of them in vain. If I obey the emperor’s wishes, no sooner than he expresses them, I shall feel ashamed how people will consider my coldness to those other men.”
The old man replied, “I don’t care about anyone else. The only thing that disturbs me is the danger to your life. I’ll report that you are still unwilling to serve.” He went to the palace and informed the emperor, “In humble obedience to Your Majesty’s command, I attempted to persuade the child to enter your service, but she told me that if I forced her to serve in the palace, it would surely cause her death. This child was not born of my body. I found her long ago in the mountains. That is why her ways are not like those of ordinary people.”
The emperor commented, “She must be a transformed being. There’s no hope, then, of having her serve me, but at least I should like somehow to get a glimpse of her.”
“I wonder how this could be arranged,” said the old man.
The emperor said, “I understand, Miyakkomaro, your house is near the mountains. How would it be if, under pretext of staging an imperial hunt, I stopped by for a look at her?”
“That is an excellent plan,” said the old man. “If Your Majesty should happen to call at a time when she does not expect a visitor, you can probably see her.” The emperor at once set a date for the hunt.
During the course of the hunt the emperor entered Kaguya-hime’s house and saw there a woman so lovely she shed a radiance around her. He thought, this must be Kaguya-hime, and approached. She fled into the adjoining room, but the emperor caught her by the sleeve. She covered her face, but his first glimpse was enough to convince him that she was a peerless beauty. “I won’t let you go!” he cried. But when he attempted to take her away with him, Kaguyahime declared, “If I had been born on earth I would have served you. But if you try to force me to go with you, you will find you cannot.”
The emperor said, “Why can’t I? I’ll take you with me!” He summoned his palanquin, but at that instant Kaguya-hime suddenly dissolved into a shadow. The emperor realized to his dismay and disappointment that she was indeed no ordinary mortal. He said, “I shall not insist any longer that you come with me. But please return to your former shape. Just one look at you and I shall go.” Kaguya-hime resumed her original appearance.
The emperor was still too entranced with Kaguya-hime’s beauty to stifle his feelings, and he displayed his pleasure with the old man for having brought about the meeting. Miyakkomaro, for his part, tendered a splendid banquet for the emperor’s officers. The emperor was bitterly disappointed to return to the palace without Kaguya-hime, and as he left the Bamboo Cutter’s house he felt as though his soul remained behind. After he had entered his palanquin he sent this verse to Kaguya-hime: “As I go back to the palace my spirits lag; I turn back, I hesitate, because of Kaguya-hime, who defies me and remains behind.”
To this she wrote in reply, “How could one who has lived her life in a house overgrown with weeds dare to look upon a jeweled palace?”
The emperor felt there was less reason than ever to leave when he saw this poem, but since he could not spend the night with Kaguya-hime, he had no choice but to return. When he saw again the palace ladies who usually waited on him they seemed unworthy even to appear in Kaguya-hime’s presence. Indeed, the very ladies he had always considered more beautiful than other women, when compared to Kaguya-hime, seemed scarcely worthy of the name of human beings. He ceased visiting his consorts, finding no pleasure in their company. He wrote letters only to Kaguya-hime, and her answers were by no means unkind. He used also to send her poems attached to flowers or branches that struck him as especially attractive.
The Celestial Robe of Feathers
They passed some three years in this way, each consoling the other. At the beginning of the next spring Kaguya-hime seemed more pensive th
an usual as she watched the moon rise in all its splendor. Someone nearby admonished her, “People should avoid staring the moon in the face.” But when no one was around, Kaguya-hime would often gaze at the moon and weep bitterly. At the time of the full moon of the Seventh Month she sat outside, seemingly lost in thought. Her maidservants informed the Bamboo Cutter: “Kaguya-hime has always looked with deep emotion at the moon, but she has seemed rather strange of late. She must be terribly upset over something. Please keep an eye on her.”
The old man asked Kaguya-hime, “What makes you look so pensively at the moon?”
She answered, “When I look at the moon the world seems lonely and sad. What else would there be to worry me?”
He went over to Kaguya-hime and looked at her face. She definitely appeared melancholy. He asked, “My dear one, what are you thinking of? What worries you?”
“I am not worried about anything. But everything seems so depressing.”
“You shouldn’t look at the moon,” the old man said. “Whenever you do, you always seem so upset.”
“How could I go on living if I didn’t look at the moon?” Each night, as the moon rose, she would sit outside, immersed in thought. On dark moonless nights she seemed to emerge from her reverie, but with the reappearance of the moon she would sometimes sigh and weep. Her maids whispered to one another, “There really does seem to be something disturbing her,” but no one, not even her parents, knew what it was.
One moonlit night toward the middle of the Eighth Month Kaguya-hime, sitting outside, suddenly burst into a flood of tears. She now wept without caring whether or not people saw. Her parents, noticing this, asked in alarm what was troubling her. Kaguya-hime answered, still weeping, “I have intended to tell you for a long time, but I was so sure I would make you unhappy that I have kept silent all this while. But I can be silent no more. I will tell you everything. I am not a creature of this world. I came from the Palace of the Moon to this world because of an obligation incurred in a former life. Now the time has come when I must return. On the night of the full moon people from my old country will come for me, and I will have no choice but to go. I was heartbroken to think how unhappy this news would make you, and that is why I have been grieving ever since this spring.” She wept copiously.
The old man cried, “What’s that you say? I found you in a stick of bamboo when you were no bigger than a poppy seed, and I have brought you up until now you stand as tall as I. Who is going to take my child away? Do you think I’ll let them?” He added, “If they do, it will kill me.” His distraught weeping was really unbearable to behold.
Kaguya-hime said, “I have a father and mother who live in the City of the Moon. When I came here from my country I said it would be just for a short while, but already I have spent many years in this land. I have tarried among you, without thinking of my parents on the moon, and I have become accustomed to your ways. Now that I am about to return I feel no great joy, but only a terrible sadness. And yet though it is not by my choice, I must go.” They both wept uncontrollably. Her maids, who had been in her service for years, thought how unspeakable parting would be, and how much they would miss her noble and lively disposition, to which they had grown so familiar. They refused all nourishment and grieved no less than the others.
When the emperor learned what had occurred, he sent a messenger to the Bamboo Cutter’s house. The old man went out to receive him, weeping profusely. His beard had turned white from sorrow, his back was bent, and his eyes were swollen. He was just fifty this year, but his troubles seemed to have aged him suddenly. The imperial messenger transmitted the emperor’s words: “I am informed that you have been afflicted by a grave misfortune—is it true?”
The Bamboo Cutter, weeping, answered the message, “On the night of the full moon men are coming from the City of the Moon to fetch Kaguya-hime. I am deeply honored by His Majesty’s kind enquiry, and beg him to send soldiers here on that night, to catch anyone who may arrive from the moon.”
The messenger departed and, after reporting to the emperor on the old man’s condition, repeated his request. The emperor said, “If I, who had but a single glimpse of Kaguya-hime, cannot put her from my thoughts, what must it be like for her parents, who are used to seeing her day and night, to lose her?”
On the fifteenth, the day of the full moon, the emperor issued orders to the different guards headquarters, and, designating as his official envoy the junior commandant of the Palace Guards, Takano no Okuni, sent a force of some two thousand men from the Six Headquarters to the Bamboo Cutter’s house. No sooner did they arrive than a thousand men posted themselves on the wall and a thousand on the roof. Together with the numerous members of the household they formed a defense that left no openings. The defenders were equipped with bows and arrows, and inside the main house the womenfolk were stationed, guarding it.
The old woman sat in the strong-room of the house, holding Kaguya-hime in her arms. The old man, having tightly barred the door, stood on guard at the entrance. He declared, “Do you think anybody, even if he comes from the moon, is going to break through our defenses?” He called to the roof, “Shoot to kill if you see anything flying in the sky, no matter how small!”
The guards answered, “With defenses as strong as ours we’re sure we can shoot down even a mosquito. We’ll expose its body as a warning to the others.” Their words greatly reassured the old man.
Kaguya-hime said, “No matter how you lock me up and try to guard me, you won’t be able to resist the men from the moon. You won’t be able to use your weapons on them. Even if you shut me up in this room, when they come everything will open before them. Resist them though you may, when they come even the bravest man will lose heart.”
“If anyone comes after you, I’ll tear out his eyes with my long nails,” cried the old man. “I’ll grab him by the hair and throw him to ground. I’ll put him to shame by exposing his behind for all the officers to see!” He shouted with anger.
“Don’t talk in such a loud voice,” cautioned Kaguya-hime. “It would be shocking if the men on the roof heard you. I am very sorry to leave you without ever having expressed my gratitude for all your kindnesses. It makes me sad to think that fate did not permit us to remain together for long, and I must soon depart. Surely you know it will not be easy for me to leave without ever having shown in the least my devotion to you, my parents. When I have gone outside and have sat looking at the moon I have always begged for just one more year with you, but my wish was refused. That was what made me so unhappy. It breaks my heart to leave you after bringing you such grief. The people of the moon are extremely beautiful, and they never grow old. Nor have they any worries. Yet, I am not at all happy to be returning. I know I shall miss you and keep wishing I could be looking after you when you are old and helpless.” She spoke in tears.
“Don’t talk of such heartrending things!” the old man exclaimed. “No matter how beautiful those people may be, I won’t let them stand in my way.” His tone was bitter.
By now the evening had passed. About midnight the area of the house was suddenly illuminated by a light more dazzling than that of high noon, a light as brilliant as ten full moons put together, so bright one could see the pores of a man’s skin. Then down from the heavens men came riding on clouds, and arrayed themselves at a height some five feet above the ground. The guards inside and outside the house, seemingly victims of some supernatural spell, quite lost their will to resist. At length they plucked up their courage and tried to ready their bows and arrows, but the strength had gone from their hands, and their bodies were limp. Some valiant men among them, with a great effort, tried to shoot their bows, but the arrows glanced off harmlessly in all directions. Unable to fight boldly, like soldiers, they could only watch, stupefied.
Words cannot describe the beauty of the raiment worn by the men who hovered in the air. With them they had brought a flying chariot covered by a parasol of gauzy silk. One among them, apparently their king, called out, “Miyakkoma
ro, come here!” The old man, who had assumed such an air of defiance, prostrated himself before the stranger, feeling as if he were in a drunken stupor. The king said, “You childish old man! We sent the young lady down into the world for a short while, in return for some trifling good deeds you had performed, and for many years we have bestowed riches on you, until you are now like a different man. Kaguya-hime was obliged to live for a time in such humble surroundings because of a sin she had committed in the past. The term of her punishment is over, and we have come, as you can see, to escort her home. No matter how you weep and wail, old man, you cannot detain her. Send her forth at once!”
“I have been watching over Kaguya-hime for more than twenty years,” the old man answered. “You speak of her having come down into this world for ‘a short while.’ It makes me wonder if you are not talking about some other Kaguya-hime living in a different place.” He added, “Besides, the Kaguya-hime I have here is suffering from a serious illness and cannot leave her room.”
No answer met his words. Instead, the king guided the flying chariot to the roof, where he called out, “Kaguya-hime! Why have you lingered such a long time in this filthy place?” The door of the strong room flew open, and the latticework shutters opened of their own accord. The old woman had been clutching Kaguya-hime in her arms, but now the girl freed herself and stepped outside. The old woman, unable to restrain her, could only look up to heaven and weep.
Kaguya-hime approached the Bamboo Cutter, who lay prostrate, weeping in his bewilderment. “It is not by my own inclination that I leave you now,” she said. “Please at least watch as I ascend into the sky.”
“How can I watch you go when it makes me so sad? You are abandoning me to go up to Heaven, not caring what may happen to me. Take me with you!” He threw himself down, weeping.
Traditional Japanese Literature Page 17