Japanese Tales

by Royall Tyler

28.

  VERY KIND OF HIM, NO DOUBT

  An epidemic sickness that caused a terrible cough was once going round, and everyone from peasant to emperor caught it.

  A cook had finished working in his employer’s kitchen and left for home late in the evening after the household had retired. At the gate he met a haughty, frightening gentleman in a red cloak and formal headdress. The cook had no idea who the gentleman was, but since there was no doubting his quality he knelt and bowed.

  “Do you know who I am?” the gentleman asked.

  “No, sir.”

  “I used to be a major counselor named Ban no Yoshio, and I died in exile in Iyo province. Then I became a god of pestilence and disease. I’d committed a serious offense against His Majesty, you see, and I was quite justly punished. But I owe my country a great deal for the favor I enjoyed while I still served at court, and when it turned out that this year there was to be a wave of sickenss which would kill everyone, I petitioned to have the epidemic commuted instead to coughing. That’s why everyone is down with a cough. I was waiting here because I wanted to let people know. Don’t be afraid.” When he had spoken, he vanished.

  The cook fearfully continued on his way and told others what he had seen and heard. That was how people found out that Ban no Yoshio was now a god of pestilence.

  But why did Ban choose that cook to talk to? He could have chosen anyone else. Well, no doubt he had his reasons.

  29.

  THE DOG AND HIS WIFE

  A young man of the Capital once went for a walk in the mountains that rise so attractively north of the city. As the sun sank in the sky, he became more and more lost and ended up with no idea how to get back. There seemed to be no shelter anywhere, a problem which worried him greatly till at last he glimpsed a hut far down in a hollow. It was a human dwelling, at least, and he gratefully made his way to it.

  A pretty girl of twenty came out when she heard him, and the sight of her gladdened his heart still more. She, on the other hand, seemed troubled and asked what he was doing there. He explained. “I couldn’t find any shelter for the night,” he said, “and I was very glad to see your place!”

  “No one ever comes here,” she answered. “The master will be back soon, and when he finds you he’ll be sure you’re some boyfriend of mine. What’ll you do then?”

  “I’ll think of something. The thing is that I can’t possibly get home tonight. I just have to stay.”

  “All right, if you must. I’ll tell him you’re an older brother I haven’t seen for years. You were walking in the mountains when you got lost and came here by chance. Remember that. And when you get back to town, don’t tell anyone about us.”

  “I understand,” said the young man. “Thank you very much. I won’t tell a soul, if that’s the way you want it.”

  She led him inside and spread him a mat to sit on. Then she came very close. “Actually,” she whispered, “I’m a gentleman’s daughter from the Capital. This creature stole me, and for years now he’s done with me as he pleases. He’ll be back any minute. You’ll see what I mean. Not that he doesn’t give me everything I need.” She sobbed pathetically.

  As far as the young man could tell, this “creature” of hers must be some sort of demon. He was terrified. Night fell. Outside, something howled.

  While the young man’s insides churned with fear, the girl went to open the door. In came an enormous white dog. Why, the girl was his wife!

  At the sight of the visitor the dog stopped short and howled again. The girl hastened to tell her story about the young man being her brother. “I’m so happy to see him!” she cried and burst into tears. The dog seemed to listen. Then he came in and lay down by the fire while the girl sat beside him spinning hemp. Shortly she served a very nice meal. When it was over, the young man lay down to sleep while the dog retired to an inner room and went to bed with the girl.

  The next morning the girl brought the young man breakfast and whispered to him again that he must never tell anyone. “Come back sometime, though,” she said, “now he believes you’re my brother. I’ll gladly do anything I can for you.” The young man promised silence and said he would return. Then he finished his breakfast and set off to town.

  He had no sooner arrived than he began blabbing the story to everyone. The word spread, and some spirited braves wanted right off to go and shoot the dog and bring his woman back. They got the young man to guide them.

  A couple of hundred set off, each well armed with bow, arrows, and club. They reached the place soon enough and spotted the hut down in the hollow.

  “There it is!” they shouted. The dog heard them, came out to see, and recognized the young man. Darting back inside, he reemerged in a moment, driving the girl before him. Both fled deeper into the mountains. The intruders shot many arrows at them but scored no hits. Next they tried pursuit, but the dog and the girl fairly flew, until the youths decided they must be supernatural and gave up.

  Once back in town, the man who had started all the trouble felt ill and lay down. In two or three days he was dead.

  The dog was surely a god, and the man who told about him was very foolish indeed. No one ever saw the dog again.

  30.

  AN OLD GOD RENEWED

  As soon as Taira no Korenobu reached Mutsu as the province’s new governor, he went around greeting all the local gods. By the roadside one day he came across a sparse little grove with a small shrine inside it. There was no sign that anyone ever came there.

  Korenobu asked the local officials with him whether any god was present here, and an old man who looked as though he might know many a tale replied. “Yes, sir, there used to be. He was powerful, too. But when General Tamura was governor, a violent quarrel broke out among the shrine priests. It got so bad that even the court heard about it. As a result the governor stopped sending his monthly offerings, and new governors never came to greet the god again. The shrine fell to pieces, and pilgrims practically disappeared. That’s what my grandfather told me he had heard, and he was eighty at the time. It must have happened a good two hundred years ago.”

  This was sad news. The quarrel had not been the god’s fault, after all. Korenobu declared that from now on he would honor the god just as people had done long ago. He lingered till the weeds could be cleared and the place tidied up, then left orders with the county administration that the shrine should be rebuilt on a generous scale. He had the shrine’s name inscribed on the official register of the sanctuaries of the province, and he sent formal offerings every month. He was sure the god would be pleased by all this attention, but during his term of office he noticed no special sign and had no special dreams.

  When his term was over, he started back to Kyoto. A few days later the official who had told him about the god in the first place did have a dream. Someone unknown to him entered his house and announced, “He is outside the gate and summons you to attend him. Go now.” The old man wondered who on earth could be “summoning” him now that the governor was gone, since no one else in the province could possibly “summon” someone like himself. The whole thing seemed so odd that at first he did not move, but the visitor insisted till the dreamer decided that he would just have a look.

  A big, beautiful ceremonial carriage, fit for an emperor, stood at his gate, and the gentleman inside it looked extremely distinguished. Rows of attendants stood nearby.

  “Perhaps there’s something to all this!” thought the old official as he knelt in awed greeting.

  “You, my man, come here!” called the gentleman in the carriage. The frightened dreamer froze for a moment, but when the gentleman called again he forced himself to obey.

  The gentleman moved the carriage blinds slightly aside. “Do you know who I am?” he asked.

  “How could I know Your Worship?”

  “I’m the god who was abandoned all those years. The governor gave me such joy that I’m seeing him back to the Capital. When he’s safely there I’ll return, of course, but not before I’ve ma
de sure he gets another good post. In the meantime I’ll be away. I’m letting you know because it occurs to me that you’re the one who originally told him about me.”

  The old official saw the carriage move off toward Kyoto and awoke in a sweat. When he realized it had been a dream, he was filled with gratitude toward the god, and all those who heard him tell the dream were similarly moved.

  In time the new governor arrived, and in the commotion the old official forgot all about his dream. Years later he dreamed again that “he” was at the gate and summoning him. He hurried out, wondering whether it was the same god as before. Sure enough, he saw the same ceremonial carriage. This time it seemed somehow less alarmingly awesome and so did the god. The official knelt as he had years ago and received the same summons to approach.

  “Do you remember me?” the god asked.

  “I haven’t forgotten you, Your Worship.”

  “Very well. For the last few years I’ve been with the former governor in the Capital, and I’ve been able to have him appointed governor of Hitachi. Now I’m back again. I just thought I should let you know.”

  The old official told the same colleagues as before about his dream, and they were impressed with the god’s kindness and power. Meanwhile the list of that year’s official appointments reached the province from Kyoto, and the former governor had indeed been posted to Hitachi.

  After that the people of the province served the god with increasing devotion, and the god, who was the soul of gratitude, rewarded them richly. The wonders he worked were many, and the old official prospered too.

  31.

  COME TO MY KASUGA MOUNTAIN!

  The god in this story is definitely male,

  but the intensely feminine quality of the medium

  makes this hard to remember.

  The Venerable Myōe had a genius for communication with the divine, and his link with the Kasuga God was truly exceptional. He was staying with relatives in the province of Kii when he decided that this was the time to act at last on his lifelong wish to visit India, where the Buddha lived and taught.

  This was a brave idea. Travel to China is dangerous enough, but India is so far from Japan, and the difficulties of the journey are so immense, that few Japanese can have reached it and fewer still, if any, have ever returned. Myōe knew this, and he must have known too that the Buddha’s Teaching is almost dead, alas, in the land of its birth. But his only thought was to seek out and honor the source of the Teaching, at whatever risk to himself.

  In the first moon of 1202, on the nineteenth day, his uncle’s wife began a total fast. She even stopped drinking. Although the family feared she was ill, she looked if anything more radiantly healthy than before. Every day she bathed, read the sutras, and called the Buddha’s holy Name. She could give no special reason why she was doing this. “It’s just that I’m so full of the perfection of the Teaching!” she said. “The things of this world no longer touch me at all.”

  At noon on the twenty-sixth, she threw a new mat over the beam under the ceiling of her room, then rose and sat on the beam.

  “I am the Kasuga God,” she said, addressing Myōe. “Good monk, I’m so sorry about the trip you’re planning that I’ve come to ask you not to go. You’re so much wiser than all the others, you see, that I protect everyone who has faith in you. Please visit me sometimes! My home is in Nara.”

  “I’ll give up my pilgrimage, then,” answered the awed Myōe.

  Although pregnant the lady descended, as she had risen, with the greatest of ease, like a moth fluttering its wings.

  Three days later she began fasting and purifying herself as before, then shut herself in her room, from where a marvelous fragrance spread to fill the whole garden. Myōe slid open her door and found her lying down with the covers over her face. She lifted her head and smiled at him. He asked about the fragrance.

  “I don’t know what it is either,” she replied, “but when I noticed it was coming from me I got ready to receive you. Now I want to sit up high again. Please leave a moment and close the door.”

  Myōe did so. When he opened the door again, there she was up near the ceiling. A ceiling plank had been removed so that she could sit comfortably. The fragrance was stronger than ever. He and his attendants prostrated themselves, saying, “Hail to the Kasuga God!”

  The lady began in a kind and gentle voice. “It’s rude of me, I know, to set myself above you by speaking from here,” she apologized, “but I’m afraid I’m so used to being high up that I’ve taken the liberty of raising the woman I’m addressing you through. After you’ve heard what I have to say, I’ll be happy to come down. I’m here, you see, because you don’t seem to be quite sure you believe what happened at our last meeting.”

  “You must stop prostrating yourselves to me!” she interrupted herself to protest, but Myōe and the others continued nonetheless. She insisted that their manners left much to be desired.

  “All the gods protect you, good monk,” she then went on, “especially the Sumiyoshi God and I. I’m always with you, you know, deep inside you, so even if you do go to India we won’t be parted and I won’t personally mind. But I can’t think of your trip without feeling sorry for all the people here in Japan whom you might have inspired to faith! I love all those who honor the Buddha’s Teaching, of course, but there’s no one I love quite as I do you!”

  When she was finished, she came down as silently as a swan’s feather falling. The fragrance was more pronounced than ever. It was not musk or any other such perfume of the human world, however rare, but it was very fine and rich.

  The people present were in ecstasy. They pressed in to lick her hands and feet, which were deliciously sweet. (One woman’s mouth had been hurting for days, but when she licked her the pain was gone.) She did not resist. On the contrary, she stayed perfectly still with an expression of pure love on her face. Though her eyes were wide open, rolled up to show far less pupil than white, she never even blinked. In fact, nothing about her was ordinary in any way. She was as clear and bright as crystal.

  “I’ve never come down into human presence this way before, in my true form,” she now continued, “and I never will again. Only my love for you, good monk, could have made me do it! It’s a wonderful thing, of course, for your own spiritual development, that you should have your heart set on this great pilgrimage of yours. But when you’re gone, you see, those you’d otherwise have a chance to touch will lose their opportunity to conceive, through you, their own faith in enlightenment. That’s what I find so sad!” She continued in this vein for some time.

  “This has been a long meeting!” she finally said. “I’d meant to leave earlier, but I was so happy to be with you that I couldn’t bring myself to go.” She pressed her palms together and bowed to Myōe. Myōe tried to avoid accepting this homage, but she bowed to him again anyway. Then she spoke briefly of another monk the god loved, an older friend of Myōe’s. “It’s extraordinary how much I care for him too,” she said, “but I can’t accept his living as a hermit. Please tell him so from me!”

  “Ah, but you!” she went on again. “Your ardor to adore the Buddha in the land where he actually lived makes you unique in all the world, and gives me such joy! I love you more than any parent loves an only son. But I must go now. Come to my Kasuga mountain! You won’t see me, but you can be sure I’ll be there and will come to greet you. Oh, it’s so late! Good-bye, good-bye!”

  She drew Myōe’s hands to her, and her fragrance grew still more intense. Everyone, including Myōe, was crying.

  “Don’t be sad!” she said. “The world has come into a degenerate age when no one follows the Buddha’s path heart and soul. Now that people love everything but the Teaching, there’s little hope that truth can prevail. Please don’t let time slip wastefully by! Study the sacred writings till you grasp their deepest meaning. Good monk, your wisdom is of the highest, but your learning is still not quite mature. If you’ll stop allowing your energy to be scattered hither and yon into
this worthy task and that, and keep your eyes on the Teaching alone, then you’ll come to know what the Buddha knew. Be willing to take on many students, a hundred or a thousand of them, even if all they mean to gain from their study is fortune and fame! And for yourself, simply weep that hearts can’t help being base in this present age!” The god’s grief and pain showed plainly in the tears that ran down her cheeks. She was pure compassion in visible form.

  After a moment of silence she lifted her head again. “Now I am going,” she said, “but I’ll leave my fragrance behind to remind you of me. You must all take comfort from it. Good monk, come soon to my Kasuga mountain! And I promise you this. If you’ll gather people together each year on this same night, and pass on to them the Buddha’s message, I’ll come down to be with you, wherever the place may be.”

  Of course Myōe never set off for India. Instead, he went to the Kasuga Shrine, which is below the god’s mountain. When he rode up, several dozen of the tame deer that roam there bent their forelegs to kneel before him and bowed their heads; and once again that marvelous fragrance floated on the air.

  When he returned to Kii, he learned through the same medium as before what had actually happened. “You know,” remarked the god in the course of a conversation, “the deer didn’t really bow to you, but to me. I was in the air over your head, you see. You didn’t know it, but they did.”

  “I had no idea!” answered Myōe. “If I’d realized what was happening I’d have dismounted. It was very rude of me not to. I’m so sorry!”

  “Never mind,” the god consoled him. “They say a beloved child can do no wrong. I certainly never thought of scolding you for it. Anyway, there was no harm done since I was already higher than you!”

  Myōe did hold the meetings the god had asked for. Much given to dreams and visions, and to intense spiritual struggle, he led an exemplary life and became one of the great figures of his time.