Part 20

That day she returned home and thought—“I wonder who he can be? I know not where he lives and I have no means of tracing him. However much I may pine for my loved one my power of will is not powerful enough to reach to him and thus fulfil my desires. I think myself that I am foolish, but although I strive to banish my thoughts as vain and silly, yet I cannot for a moment relieve my heart of its trouble.” Thus time passed wearily for her, and the days and months flew by until it had become the season of the summer rains, with its intermittent showers. Her thoughts were melancholy and she did not even have her hair dressed, but allowed it to fall dishevelled over her shoulders. She had been taken sick sometime previously, and therefore her parents were very anxious about her. One day her father, addressing her mother, said—“On thinking over the matter of our daughter’s illness very carefully, she drinks no medicine and she dislikes the doctor, and there is something about it which I cannot understand. From what I heard accidentally the other day from a neighbour, it seems that at the time of viewing the cherry-blossoms our daughter met some young gentleman at Mihashi and she cannot forget about him. I don’t know who he was, but it seems that he was a very handsome youth. I have heard that at that time she spoke about the young man to her friends, but I did not think anything about it, and yet it appears that our daughter returned home and from that time she has been moping and miserable. Lately her sickness has increased, and become very serious, and she is wasting away and looks wretched. If you will quietly sound her on the subject she will probably tell you the facts of the case.” Being thus addressed the wife spoke quietly with her daughter that evening about the matter, but she only buried her face in her pillow and made no reply. In a short time however, she thought that after all now things had come to such a pass there was no use in concealing anything further, so she told everything saying—“At the time of flower-seeing this Spring—&c., &c.,—.” Then she went on to confess the whole matter to her mother, while her eyes were streaming with tears, and as she cried and fretted in a half apologetic manner she looked very miserable and pitiful, and she finished by imploring her mother, with averted face, not to laugh at her. Then the mother drew nearer to her daughter and asked her in a low gentle voice—“Do you know the name of the young man and his residence? Have you heard something about it?” But her daughter raised her head and replied—“I had no means of knowing his name or residence. The only thing I remember is that he had on a garment on the sleeves of which there was a pattern, and I am thinking lovingly about him.” The mother nodded and said—“Well then, if I have a dress dyed with the pattern which you then saw, and place it at the side of your pillow, it may give you some comfort and relief.” On hearing this the daughter seemed very happy, and the parents enquired minutely about the pattern and the colouring of the water-wheel design, then they consulted together and calling in their regular dyer made no agreement about the price but simply hurried him up saying “Please be quick and dye this at once.” So, without any waste of time the material was very prettily dyed, and they hurried up the tailor likewise, making him work night and day until the garment was finished. They were indulgent parents and had reared their child very tenderly, so that this trouble caused their hearts to become as black as the black _ko-sodé_ they had ordered. The pattern was composed of water-wheels in the midst of waves, and they revolved and revolved until at last they caused disaster and calamity to the world. The parents brought this garment quickly and showed it to their daughter, who, when she had seen it said “Indeed that’s it, that’s it!” and feeling as if she had ascended into Paradise, she clasped the dress in her arms and appeared like a demented creature. Then after four or five days had elapsed her illness became more and more severe, and she soon expired, still clasping the _ko-sodé_ to her bosom: and as she thus lay in death, holding this garment in her arms, the sight was indeed a most pitiable and touching one. Well, after her death the parents had to part with their child, and the funeral took place with the usual rites in the burial ground of the “Hommyō-ji” (temple) in the district of Hongo. As to the dyed _ko-sodé_, as the poor girl had loved it so dearly, they put it on her coffin as a _kakemuku_ (pall) and sent it forth to the temple. Sometime afterwards, the priests of the Hommyō-ji sold the garment to their regular second-hand clothing store, and during the ninth month of the same year this figured dress was again brought to the temple covering a coffin as a _kakemuku_, but the priests paid no particular attention to it, and again sold it off to the second-hand clothing store as usual. Again the identical figured garb was sent in as a _kakemuku_ (pall) from a certain parishioner at daybreak on the 18th day of the 1st month of the 3rd year of Meireki (2nd March, 1657), and as this was the third time the same garment had been sent into this temple, it attracted the eyes of the _nasshō_ (the priest who transacts the business of the monastery) and _bansō_ (assistant priest) who thought—“How miraculous! There must be something mysterious in this event, and it is certainly no mere chance-work that this _ko-sodé_ (long-sleeved garment) should have come round three times in succession to our temple”—and they told the Father Superior of their impressions. The Father Superior, after pondering the matter for a short time, said—“It is indeed a very important case. It is exceedingly mysterious that the garment should have passed through the hands of our parishioners not once but twice and thrice, and it is more mysterious that the deceased persons have all been young girls. I will myself interrogate the _seshu_ (person who orders everything relating to the funeral) about the matter.” Thus, prior to the funeral service, he interviewed the _seshu_, and enquired about the history of the _ko-sodé_ (long sleeved garment). The _seshu_ answered—“I am deeply ashamed by reason of your enquiries in that way, but our daughter went out one day to the neighborhood of Asakusa on certain business, when she saw this garment hung up in the shop of a certain cast-off-clothing dealer, and she was importunately anxious to get it. We bought it according to her earnest desire, and from that very night she was taken ill with a raging fever and not only that, but she talked deliriously like a lunatic, tightly embracing the garment the while. All my family together endeavoured very hard to take the garment away, but she would not allow it to be removed. Since then she became thinner and thinner and finally expired.” The priest nodded to the speaker and then related in detail all about the mysterious garment, and how it had come into the temple twice before as a _kakemuku_ (pall) from two of their parishioners. The _seshu_ (person ordering the funeral) on hearing this story was struck with terror and said—“Then, if you should sell this _ko-sodé_ again this time, the same calamity will fall upon another unfortunate individual. This is not my wish, and I think it will be proper to put it on the fire and burn it up after the funeral ceremony is finished.” The Father Superior nodded several times and replied—“Indeed that is the wisest course,—yes—yes.” Then after the funeral ceremony was over, and the people all gone, the priests brought out a brazier of three feet square in order to burn the garment, and crumpling up the _ko-sodé_ they cast it on the fire, all chanting the prayer in chorus “_Oh let the souls of the three women quickly enter into Paradise. We adore thee Oh blossom of doctrine!—thou salvation bringing book of the wonderful Law!_” Immediately after they had flung the garment into the flames a sudden whirlwind arose which came sweeping from the North, blowing up sand and dust to such an extent that in an instant the sky was entirely blotted out by a cloud of grit and dust, which threatened to envelope the whole universe with a darkness as black as a raven’s wing. The people in the temple looked at each other in horror, saying in their agitation that this was no chance event, when suddenly at that very moment, the burning ga