Kotto: Being Japanese Curios, with Sundry Cobwebs. Lafcadio Hearn

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       Lafcadio Hearn

      Kotto: Being Japanese Curios, with Sundry Cobwebs

      Published by Good Press, 2019

       [email protected]

      EAN 4057664633712

Table of Contents

       Old Stories

       The Legend of Yurei-Daki

       In a Cup of Tea

       Common Sense

       Ikiryō [1]

       Shiryō [1]

       The Story of O-Kamé

       Story of a Fly

       Story of a Pheasant

       The Story of Chūgorō

       A Woman's Diary

       Heiké-gani

       Fireflies

       A Drop of Dew

       Gaki

       A Matter of Custom

       Revery

       Pathological

       In the Dead of the Night

       Kusa-Hibari

       The Eater of Dreams

      TO

      SIR EDWIN ARNOLD

      IN

      GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE

      OF

      KIND WORDS

      Contents

       Old Stories:

       The Legend of Yurei-Daki In a Cup of Tea Common Sense Ikiryō Shiryō The Story of O-Kamé Story of a Fly Story of a Pheasant The Story of Chūgorō A Woman's Diary Heiké-gani Fireflies A Drop of Dew Gaki A Matter of Custom Revery Pathological In the Dead of the Night Kusa-Hibari The Eater of Dreams

Old Stories

       Table of Contents

      The following nine tales have been selected from the "Shin-Chomon-Shū" "Hyaku Monogatari," "Uji-Jūi-Monogatari-Shō," and other old Japanese books, to illustrate some strange beliefs. They are only Curios.

The Legend of Yurei-Daki

       Table of Contents

      Near the village of Kurosaka, in the province of Hōki, there is a waterfall called Yurei-Daki, or The Cascade of Ghosts. Why it is so called I do not know. Near the foot of the fall there is a small Shintō shrine of the god of the locality, whom the people name Taki-Daimyōjin; and in front of the shrine is a little wooden money-box—saisen-bako—to receive the offerings of believers. And there is a story about that money-box.

      *

      One icy winter's evening, thirty-five years ago, the women and girls employed at a certain asa-toriba, or hemp-factory, in Kurosaka, gathered around the big brazier in the spinning-room after their day's work had been done. Then they amused themselves by telling ghost-stories. By the time that a dozen stories had been told, most of the gathering felt uncomfortable; and a girl cried out, just to heighten the pleasure of fear, "Only think of going this night, all by one's self, to the Yurei-Daki!" The suggestion provoked a general scream, followed by nervous bursts of laughter. … "I'll give all the hemp I spun to-day," mockingly said one of the party, "to the person who goes!" "So will I," exclaimed another. "And I," said a third. "All of us," affirmed a fourth. … Then from among the spinners stood up one Yasumoto O-Katsu, the wife of a carpenter;—she had her only son, a boy of two years old, snugly wrapped up and asleep upon her back. "Listen," said O-Katsu; "if you will all really agree to make over to me all the hemp spun to-day, I will go to the Yurei-Daki." Her proposal was received with cries of astonishment and of defiance. But after having been several times repeated, it was seriously taken. Each of the spinners in turn agreed to give up her share of the day's work to O-Katsu, providing that O-Katsu should go to the Yurei-Daki. "But how are we to know if she really goes there?" a sharp voice asked. "Why, let her bring back the money-box of the god," answered an old woman whom