Ugetsu Monogatari or Tales of Moonlight and Rain (Routledge Revivals)

by Ueda Akinari

  Masuda Nagamori (1546-1615), native of Owari; lord of Kōriyama Castle, in Yamato, and trusted advisor to Hideyoshi. At Sekigahara he fought against Ieyasu, and consequently his lands were reduced. During the Seige of Osaka, in 1615, he again supported Hideyori's cause, and in defeat he committed suicide. See Taikōki, p. 423.

  350 ‘The first signs of dawn’ Shino-no-me no: literally, ‘shoots of thin bamboo,’ a pillow-word for aku, ‘to open,’ or ‘to grow light.’

  351 ‘The Mound of Beasts’ Akugyaku- [3, 8b] zuka: The common grave of the victims of Hideyoshi's purge against his nephew, his family, and his followers. A marker still stands at the Zuisenji temple, near Kawara-machi Sanjō, in Kyoto.

  6 The Caldron of Kibitsu

  352 Title: The Kibitsu Shrine is in the town of Magane, district of Kibitsu, Okayama Prefecture, on the Hakubi rail line, west of the city of Okayama. The principal deity of the shrine is Okibitsuhiko-no-mikoto, identified as the Emperor Korei's son, who was responsible for subjugating the land of Kibi. Especially venerated during the Heian period, and experi encing a revival of its fortunes in the 15 th century, when Akinari's tale is set, the shrine's importance declined in early modern times. After the Meiji Restoration, however, it once again benefited from imperial patron age. It is famed for two sacred kettles, one of which is the singing caldron that figures in the tale.

  Among Akinari's literary sources, ‘The Chronicles of Ingyō,’ in the Nihon shoki, deserves special mention. First of all, it contains the central idea of Akinari's tale - the eternal triangle and the suffering it causes when a man takes a wife and later falls victim to the charms of another woman, thereby arousing his mate's jealousy. Ingyō, the emperor, much to the empress's vexation, took the maid Otohime, just as Shōtarō established Sode in a new household. Secondly, the same chronicle also mentions the use of caldrons with boiling water, though here they are used with trial by ordeal. Also, a number of points in Akinari's diction reveal considerable indebtedness. See Aston, Nihongi, I, 317, 318-22; and NKBT, vol. 67, pp. 438-9, 440-6.

  353 ‘You may hate the clamours of a jealous wife,’ etc. Tofu no yashinai-gataki mo, etc.: from Wu tsa tsu, 8, 7b-12a; cf. Howard Levy, Warm-Soft Village: Chinese Stories, Sketches and Essays (Tokyo: Dai Nippon Insatsu, 1964), pp. 10-4.

  354 ‘She can wreak her fury with a thunderbolt’ Hatatagami wo furūte urami wo mukuu: Among the various sources, the idea for the tale also appears in a story about a certain high official in the Chinese state of Shu, where there were many singing girls. While the official's wife was alive he dared not cast a glance at them, but as soon as she died he summoned one of them for his pleasure. A great thunderbolt struck the place where the pair slept and frightened them so that they took ill and finally lost their lives. See Wu tsa tsu, 8, l1b.

  355 ‘Mincemeat’ Shishibishio: wood-block, shishibishi, a misprint.The first emperor of the Ming dynasty did this to the wife of one of his generals. He ordered that her body be dismembered, salted, and dried. Ibid., p. 12a; Levy, Warm-Soft, p. 13; and also the Ming shih, biography of Ch'ang Yü-ch'un.

  356 ‘His wife's jealous nature’ Onna no kadamashi- [3, 9a] ki saga,

  357 ‘Province of Kibi,’ etc. Kibi no kuni Kaya no kōri Niise no sato: the modern Niwase, now the name of a railroad station and a part of the town of Kibi, district of Tsukubo, in Okayama, between the cities of Okayama and Kurashiki.

  358 Harima: now part of Hyōgo Prefecture. For the Akamatsu family, which was descended from the Murakami Genji, see Introduction, and also the medieval chronicle, Kakitsu-ki, in Gunsho ruijū, vol. 13, pp. 308-17. See also Varley, Imperial Restoration, pp. 88, 123.

  359 ‘Kamowake of Kibi’ Kibi no Kamowake [3, 9b]: one of the oldest families in the region. When the Emperor Ōjin went to Kibi, Mitomowake, together with his brothers, his children, and his grandchildren, entertained him and afforded him great pleasure. As a reward, the emperor granted the lands of the province to the family. One of the younger brothers, known as Kamowake, was the founder of the Kasada line. See Aston, Nihongi, I, 155, 267; and NKBT, vol. 67, pp. 243, 374-7, 626, n. 21.

  360 ‘Our house hardly compares with theirs’ Monko teki subekaraneba: cf. ‘Ts'ui-ts'ui chuan,’ in New Tales for Lamplight, 3, 24b; and Kokuyaku, p. 105.

  361 ‘Now, people who worshipped’ Nao saiwai wo kami ni [3, 10a] inoru to te,

  362 ‘Once the scarlet cord is tied,’ etc. Kano sekijō ni tsanagite wa etc.: from a Chinese tale of the T'ang dynasty about a person named Wei Ko, who when travelling met an old man reading a book under the moonlight. The old man revealed that he was the god of marriage, and that when he bound a couple's legs with the scarlet cord that he carried in his purse, they could never be parted, even though their families were enemies or they came from different countries.

  363 ‘She can hardly wait’ Machi waburu mono [3, 10b] wo,

  364 ‘Thousand years of the crane and the myriad ages of the tortoise’ Tsuru no chitose, kame no yorozu yo: proverbial of long life. The literary source may be traced ultimately to a Chinese Taoist work, the Huai nan tzu. See also the no play, Tsurukame.

  365 ‘Arose early,’ etc. Tsuto ni oki, osoku fushite: as a dutiful member of the family should, according to the teachings of the Hsiao ching, or Confucian classic of filial piety.

  366 ‘Habit of playing around with women’ Tawaketaru saga: reflecting the diction of ‘The Chronicles of Ingyō,’ Aston, Nihongi, I, 324 (‘illicit intercourse’); and NKBT, vol. 67, pp. 448-9.

  367 ‘Port of Tomo’ Tomo no tsu: mentioned in the Man'yōshū, NKBT, vol. 5, pp. 220, 221 (no. 1182), and identified with present-day Tomoe-chō, in the city of Fukuyama, Hiroshima Prefecture, about twenty miles south of the urban centre.

  368 ‘She accused him of being an unreliable fellow’ Ada naru kokoro wo urami kakotedomo [3, 11 a].

  369 ‘Confinement’ Oshikome: a type of punishment during early modern times, consisting of imprisonment for a set period in one's quarters or in a certain room.

  370 Inamino: the strip of coast between Akashi and Takasago, from the mouth of the Akashi River to that of the Kako River, in Hyōgo; a place name appearing in Man'yōshū, NKBT, vol. 5, pp. 220-1 (nos. 1178, 1179).

  371 ‘How can we get’ Ta ga hakarigoto [3, 11b] shite ataen: wood-block, hakarikoto.

  372 ‘Arai’ Arai-chō, in the city of Takasago.

  373 ‘Make a living together’ Tomo [3, 12a] ni watarai.

  374 ‘She lay,’ etc. Tada ne wo nomi nakite, mune semari taegatage ni: cf. The Tale of Genji, p. 162; and NKBT, vol. 14, p. 329, where Lady Aoi's fits of weeping are described in similar terms, as she suffers from possession by the jealous spirit of the Lady Rokujō, with whom Genji has had an affair.

  375 ‘Swearing that he would follow Sode in death’ Tomo ni mo to mono-kuruwashiki wo [3,12b].

  376 ‘He had no means for summoning Sode's spirit’ Chōkon no hō wo mo motomuru sube naku: Ritual invocations to the dead might be carried out by a variety of means, such as hiring a shaman to call the soul and coax it back with descriptions of the pleasures that awaited it on earth. See Keene, Essays in Idleness, p. 174; NKBT, vol. 30, p. 259; and also David Hawkes, Ch'u Tz'u: The Songs of the South, An Ancient Chinese Anthology (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1959), pp. 101-9.

  377 ‘Each moment of the day,’ etc. Hiru wa shimira ni: cf. the verse on jealousy in the Man'yōshū, ‘Each moment of the whole long day,/ Each moment of the darkest night,/ I weep and wait . . .,’ NGSK, p. 309; NKBT, vol. 6, pp. 360-1 (no. 3270); and also Man'yōshū miyasu hosei, 2,50b.

  378 ‘Lost in the reveries brought on by this lonely autumn’ Kono aki no wabishiki wa waga mi hitotsu zo; cf. Kokinshū, NKBT, vol. 8, p. 140 (no. 193).

  379 ‘A similar sorrow existed under the heavens’ Amakumo no yoso ni mo onaji nageki arite: cf. McCullough, The Tales of Ise, p. 83; and NKBT, vol. 9, p. 123, Amakumo no yoso ni mo hito no. . . .

  380 ‘Coming here each evening to worship’ Yoi-yoi goto ni mōde [3, 13a] haberu.

  381 ‘S
he’ Toji: literally, ‘ladyship’; see Man'yōshū miyasu hosei, 3, 22b, where a Chinese expression from ‘The Chronicles of Ingyō’ is cited. The commentary explains that toji is the proper reading and that it means the lady or mistress of a house.

  382 ‘On the edge of the moors’ Kono no no [3, 14b] kuma ni.

  383 ‘Renowned for her beauty’ Kao-yo-bito naru: perhaps coined by analogy with ‘The Chronicles of Ingyō,’ NKBT, vol. 67, p. 445, kao-yoki-onna wo etari.

  384 ‘By a shadowy grove,’ etc. Oguraki hayashi no uchi ni, etc.: This and the following description are particularly indebted to The Tale of Genji, pp. 63-78, 317-21, passim; and NKBT, vols 14, pp. 139-71, 15, pp. 151-8 (see also notes 222 and 528).

  385 ‘A small garden, which had been left to neglect’ Hodo naki niwa no aretaru sae miyu: cf. Genji, p. 63, and NKBT, vol. 14, p. 140.

  386 ‘Peer into the house’ Mi-iru ni [3, 15a].

  387 ‘Black lacquer cupboard’ Kurotana; used mainly for decoration and for displaying such items as incense burners and other small objects. Similar to zushi (see note 423).

  388 ‘Thin, blue finger’ Te no aoku ho- [3, 15b] soritaru.

  389 Hamlet of Toda: perhaps the Kokurinji temple, of the Tendai sect, in Kakogawa. This institution is also known as Toda-san.

  390 ‘Soothsayer’ On'yōji: formerly an official of the On'yōryō, or Bureau of Divination; later, any person skilled in matters of astronomy, the calendar, fortune telling, divination, and spells.

  391 ‘For the next forty-two’ Yonjū-ni nichi ga aida [3, 16a]: According to Buddhist belief, the spirit wanders in a purgatory-like state for forty-nine days; forty-two of these are yet to pass.

  392 ‘Characters in the style of ancient seals’ Tenchū no gotoki moji; wood-block, tenryū; the ancient form of Chinese characters dating from the Chou and Ch'in dynasties, which were traditionally used on seals.

  393 ‘Slips of paper with spells inscribed on them in vermillion ink’ Shufu amata kami ni shirushite: cf. ‘Mu t'an teng chi,’ in New Tales for Lamplight, 2, 29a; and Kokuyaku, p. 65. In China a fu was originally a bamboo tally slip, the two halves of which were matched for verification. Later, soothsayers used similar slips, on which they wrote charms with vermilion ink, and the word shufu came to mean an amulet or spell. For the early use of such seals and charms among Taoists and Buddhists and on their role in the development of the art of printing, see Thomas Francis Carter and L. Carrington Goodrich, The Invention of Printing in China and Its Spread Westward, 2nd ed. (New York: Ronald Press, 1955), PP. 12-18, 48-9, 202.

  394 ‘Third watch’ Sankō: see note 234. This episode takes place in autumn, when there were ‘long hours of darkness.’

  395 ‘Wind howled through the pine trees, as if to topple the very trunks’ Matsu fuku kaze mono wo taosu ga gotoku [3, 16b]: cf. The Tale of Genji, p. 69; and NKBT, vol. 14, p. 151, where a violent storm sweeps through the pine trees around the deserted mansion to which Genji has taken Yugao. Akinari's passage also reveals indebtedness to ‘Mu t'an teng chi,’ and ‘Yung chou yeh miao chi,’ New Tales for Lamplight, 2, 33b; 3, 8b; and Kokuyaku, pp. 70, 87.

  396 ‘Seemed more than a thousand years in passing’ Chitose wo suguru yori mo hisashi: cf. The Tale of Genji, p. 69, ‘It seemed to him that this night was lasting a thousand years,’ and NKBT, vol. 14, p. 151, Chiyo wo sugusan kokochu

  397 ‘Imprudent fellow’ Yōi [3, 17a] naki otoko.

  398 ‘Nothing else than a bleeding head, torn and mangled’ Otoko no kam ino motodori bakari kaka- [3, 17b] rite,

  7 The Lust of the White Serpent

  399 Title: This is the longest tale in the collection, and it is the most complex in terms of structure and style. For the most part, Akinari remains faithful to a Chinese story set in the famous West Lake region of Hang-chou, entitled, ‘Pai Niang-tzu yung chen Lei-feng-ta’ (‘Madam White Is Forever Buried at Thunder-Peak Pagoda’), in the Ching shih t'ung yen, one of the San yen collections. But Akinari's ‘White Serpent’ also reveals his close familiarity with classical Japanese texts, such as the Kojiki, the Man'yōshū, and The Tale of Genji. The legend of Anchin and Kiyohime, immortalised in the no drama, Dōjōji, similarly figures in the tale. The result is a literary mosaic dealing with the archetypal idea of a serpent who assumes the guise of a beautiful woman and tries to tempt a man.

  400 ‘Once upon a time, though it matters not exactly when’ Itsu no tokiyo nari ken: cf. opening passage of The Tale of Genji, p. 7; and NKBT, vol. 14, p. 27, izure no on-toki ni ka.

  401 ‘Cape of Miwa’ Miwa ga saki: at the southern tip of the Kii Peninsula in Wakayama Prefecture; now part of the city of Shingu. This area was formerly known as Kumano, and it is situated south of the Yoshino region of Nara Prefecture.

  402 Ōya: a variation of a surname appearing in the Shinsen shōjiroku, compiled in AD 815, a genealogical record of 1,182 surnames from the time of the Emperor Jimmu to that of Saga.

  403 ‘Rich in the luck of the sea,’ etc. Umi no sachi arite, etc.: cf. Philippi, Kojiki, p. 148; and NKBT, vol. 1, pp. 134-5.

  404 ‘Become a scholar’ Hakase ni mo nare [4, lb] kashu

  405 Shingu Shrine: popular name for the Kumano Hayatama Jinja, in Shingu; one of the three holy places of Kumano. Ever since ancient times pilgrims worshipped at the holy spots of the Kumano Nimasu Jinja (Kumano Hongu) and the Kumano Nachi Jinja (Nachi Gongen) before proceeding to the Shingu shrine, the deities of which early Japanese emperors had revered.

  406 ‘Around the end of the Ninth Month’ Nagazuki suetsukata: Japanese gloss meaning the ‘Long Month,’ with the Chinese characters for 9th month, last 10 days. Nagazuki is a poetic designation for the month, and suetsukata, literally, ‘last part,’ is an elegant but archaic word appearing in such works at The Tale of Genji.

  407 ‘Southeast’ Tatsumi: Japanese gloss, meaning the direction of the dragon and the snake, with the Chinese characters for ‘southeast’ - the locality noted for producing especially severe storms.

  408 ‘A light drizzle began to fall’ Kosame sobo furi kuru: wood-block, soho furi; cf. Man'yōshū, NKBT, vol. 7, pp. 162-3 (no- 3883), kosame sobo furu.

  409 Asuka Shrine: in present-day Kami-Kumano, in Shingu.

  410 ‘Very beautiful’ Ito nioiyaka- [4, 2a] ni.

  411 ‘A pattern representing distant mountains’ Toyama-zuri no: typical of autumn; this particular design is mentioned in several of the imperial anthologies of waka verse.

  412 ‘The pair looked drenched and bedraggled’ Shitodo-ni nurete wabishige-naru ga: wood-block, Shitoto-ni; cf. McCullough, Tales of he, p. 142; and NKBT, vol. 9, 174, shitodo-ni nurete madoi ki ni keri.

  413 ‘Three Holy Places’ Mitsu yama; see note 405.

  414 ‘On your way to the Minenoyu Hot Springs’ Minenoyu ni ya ide tachi tamōran [4,2b]: Yunomine Hot Springs, in the town of Hongu, district of Higashi-muro, where pilgrims often used to bath and rest.

  415 Verse: from the Man'yōshū; see NKBT, vol. 4, 154-5 (no. 265) Miwagasaki is now part of Shingu.

  416 ‘Your thoughtfulness makes me feel as if I were already dry’ Sono mi-omoi ni hoshite mairi nan: i, of omoi (hi, in the traditional kana orthography), is an engo, poetically associated with ‘flame’ or ‘fire.’ It therefore leads to hosu, ‘to dry.’ Cf. McCullough, Tales of Ise, p. 148; and NKBT, vol. 9, p. 179.

  417 Nachi: see note 405.

  418 ‘Please tell me where you live’ Sate [4, 3a] mi-sumai wa izube zo.

  419 ‘Afternoon came’ Hiru katabuku made [4, 4b]: wood-block, katqfuku; literally, ‘until the sun slanted.’

  420 ‘Blocking Toyoo's way’ Tachi-fusagarite [4, 5 a].

  421 ‘Southern front room’ Minami omote no tokoro; the main room of the house, which traditionally faces south in Japanese architecture (cf. note 168).

  422 ‘Curtains’ Kichō; to seclude the place where a person of nobility sat. A pair of vertical poles with a horizontal rod was attached to a stand, and silk curtains in the style of the season were then hung.

  423
‘The articles in the cabinet’ Mizuchi no kazari; the honorific mi- with zushi (cf. note 387).

  424 ‘Drapery’ Kabeshiro; silk or damask tapestry used to divide the portion of a room reserved for sleeping from the space needed for other activities.

  425 ‘Lovely as a garland of cherry-blossoms’ Hana-guwashi sakura; traditional metaphor for a beautiful woman, as in ‘The Chronicles of Ingyō,’

  Hana-guwashi She was as lovely

  sakura no mede As the cherry-blossoms,

  koto mede wa That girl whom I loved,

  hayaku wa medezu And though I had no business loving her,

  waga mezuru ko ra I loved her all the same.

  Also cf. Man'yōshū,

  Hana-guwashi Beyond a reed fence

  ashi-kaki-goshi ni I first caught a glimpse of her,

  tada hitome As lovely as the cherry-blossoms;

  aimishi ko yue Though it was but a single glance,

  chitabi nagehitsu I sighed for her a thousand times.

  NKBT, vol. 6, pp. 200-1 (no. 2565); vol. 67, pp. 444-5 (also see note 252 and cf. note 462, na-guwashi no).

  426 ‘Soaring and flitting among the trees’ Kozue tachi-guku: cf. Man'yōshū,

  Ashibiki no In a forest grove

  ko no ma tachi-guku Soaring and flitting among the trees,

  hototogisu The cuckoo bird sang;

  kaku kikisomete That was when I heard it first,

  nochi koimu kamo And that is why I love it so.

  NKBT, vol. 5, pp. 304-5 (no. 1495).

  427 ‘Something that I must tell you,’ etc. Iwade yami nan mo; yamu wood-block, iwate; has the double meaning of ‘to stop’ and ‘to fall ill.’ The passage means both, ‘I can't stop myself from telling you,’ and ‘If I don't tell you, perhaps I'll fall ill.’

  428 ‘What innocent god might have to endure unjust accusations’ Izure no kami ni naki na ōu suran kashi: cf. McCullough, Tales of Ise, p. 132; and NKBT, vol. 9, p. 165.

  429 ‘You mustn't take me to be inconstant in my affections’ Yume ada-[4, 5 b] naru koto.