The story of Mimi-Nashi-Hoichi
It begins with a story about a battle between Heike and Genji clan in the Straits of Shimonoseki. The battle made the entire Heike clan perish. Centuries after there lived a blind man named Hoichi who was famous for his recital and biwa playing skills. He especially was famous by his recitations about Heike and Genji battle. He was poor and a Buddhist priest gave him a home in his temple. One night a voice of a samurai called him and told him to follow. He did and the samurai brought him to a house here the august assembly is playing. Hoichi was ordered to play and recite and the audience was in awe which made him even more confident. He was then told that he will come there to play for the next six nights. The next night priest noticed about his nightly adventures and on the third night ordered servants to follow Hoichi. They followed him to the Heike cemetery and found him in front of the memorial tomb of Antoku Tenno who was Heike's royalty. The servants managed to wake him up and told him that he was bewitched. He came to the priest and told him everything. The priest wrote holy texts over his body and told him not to go with the samurai the next evening or the souls will take him with them. The next night Hoichi sat on the temple veranda and put himself into meditative state. The samurai came to fetch him but Hoichi didn't budge. The samurai approached him and cut off his ears but Hoichi remained silent. In the morning the priest came and found Hoichi in a calm state still with blood poring down the sides of his head. Hoichi became famous for this story but more so he became famous as Mimi-Nashi-Hoichi which means Hoichi the Earless.
Analysis- It is a story about the dangers of being involved with the spiritual world. Hoichi's passion for the Heike and Genji battle story brought his life into danger which probably means that he shouldn't have messed with it because it literally raised the dead.
Oshidori
It is a story about a hunter killing a male oshidori (a mandarin duck); the female escaped. That night the hunter had a dream about a woman coming to his pillow and weeping and asking him why he killed her husband. She warns him that when he goes to Akanuma, the place where he killed the oshidori, he will see what he's done. The next morning hunter goes to Akanuma and sees the female oshidori. It approaches him and tears its body with its beak making it die. The event makes the hunter shave his head and become a priest.
Analysis- It is a short but impactful story. Oshidori are considered sacred and it is not good to kill one and the hunter first-hand witnesses the results of killing one.
The story of O-Tei
The story begins with Nagao Chosei, a physician in teaching who was promised as a husband to a daughter of one of his father's friends. The girl's name is O-Tei. Unfortunately, O-Tei becomes ill at the age of sixteen and dies. But before her death she promised Nagao that they will meet again in this life if he wishes to and then marry. Nagao makes a memorial spot for O-Tei and writes a promise to one day make O-Tei's wish come true. With time the memory of O-Tei fades and Nagao marries but is struck with misfortune-he loses both his parents and wife and child. Alone he goes to the mountains and there sees a girl that is very similar to O-Tei. He asks the girl if she is related to O-Tei and the spirit of O-Tei takes over the girl and tells him that this is her reincarnation. The girl faints after. Nagao marries the girl and they live happily but she never remembered that incident.
Analysis- It is a haunting story of love. Even though love is a positive thing the way that O-Tei makes the promise on her death bed has a dark haunting feeling to it. It makes one question as well if the misfortune that struck Nagao had something to do with it, because his wife and child die around the time O-Tei promised to come back.
Ubazakura
The story is placed three hundred years ago in a place called Asamimura. There lived a good rich man called Tokubei. He had all the riches of the world except one-being a father. He and his wife prayed and eventually got a daughter. The girl got sick at the age of sixteen and the doctors thought she would die. Her milk mother, a woman who breastfed her beside her mother, loved her as her own daughter. She prayed long and hard for the girl's life and her prayers were answered-the girl survived. But soon after the woman got sick and was on death bed. The parents of the girl visited her and she told them that she made a deal with divinity to exchange her life for the girl's. She also tells them that she made a promise to plant a cherry tree in garden of Saihoji. After her death girl's parents planted the most beautiful cherry tree and it was named Ubazakura which means the Cherry-tree of the Milk-Nurse.
Analysis- It is a story about motherly sacrifice.
Diplomacy
It is a story about a man being executed. Before the samurai cut his head off he threatened them with revenge in death. The samurai challenged him after he cuts his head off to make his head bite the stone nearby. The man was set on doing it and samurai made his sword move. The man's head indeed rolled to the stone and bit it. Everyone was scared except the samurai. They were expecting ghost's revenge for days. When they came to the samurai and asked him why he's unconcerned he answered that they should not worry because the man already had his revenge when he bit the stone so his ghost probably forgot about the other part. Indeed, the ghost never gave them any trouble.
Analysis- It is a short grotesquely humorous story about a samurai executioner outsmarting the ghost of the man he killed.
Of a mirror and a bell
It is a story about mugen kane which means a bell of mugen. The priests of a place called Mugenyama called for people to contribute building a bell by giving away their bronze mirrors. One woman regretted giving away her mirror and when priests started melting the mirrors they couldn't melt hers. The woman drowned herself out of shame but before she did she left a note saying that they will be able to melt the mirror now and whoever breaks the bell by ringing it gets a huge amount of wealth. People were coming in rows trying to break the bell. Frustrated, priests rolled the bell into a lake and it was gone forever. The narrator then explains the meaning of the verb nazoraeru which means to substitute. In connection to that he continues the story. A woman called Umegae took a basin of bronze to substitute the bell and broke it in desperation. She was presented with wealth she needed. There was another similar story where a man got gifted a jar but the narrator doesn't want to reveal what the jar contained.
Analysis- It is yet again a story about the supernatural power of a dying person's wish. A story about if you believe in something very strongly then it will surely come true.
Jikininki
A priest and a traveller called Muso stumbles upon a house of a hermit priest. He asks the priest for a lodge but he refuses and directs him to the village where he will find one. Muso arrives at a hamlet and is given a room and food. Around midnight he gets awoken by the owner's son. The owner died and all the people there are getting ready to leave the house as it is a custom that they should leave the night of a person's death. There are rumours of something horrible happening if one chooses to stay. Muso is a priest and doesn't get scared easily so he chooses to stay. He witnesses a dark shape come into the dead man's room and devour the body and offerings around it. The next morning he tells the residents of the house of this. They don't seem surprised, they expected it. Muso asks them why they don't call a priest; he mentions the one he saw. They don't know what he's talking about as there weren't a priest there for years. Muso goes on his way but comes by to the hermit priest's house to make sure it's really there. Indeed it is and the priest invites him in and apologises because he's seen him in his other shape last night. The hermit priest is jikininki- the eater of human flesh. He was greedy in his past life so as a punishment he was reborn like this and has to feed on dead human flesh. The priest and the house suddenly disappear and Muso sees a tomb before him.
Analysis- It is a strange story about supernatural superstition being real. Most of these stories appear to revolve around karma just like the story of the hermit priest being greedy and then punished for that by being turned into jikininki.
Mujina
It is a strange and scary story retold by the narrator. There was a man who told the story how he went up the Slope of the Province of Kii. The place is thought to be cursed because of Mujina who roam there. The man saw a woman weeping and he approached her telling her not to cry. She turned to face him and she had neither mouth nose nor eyes. Scared the man ran and ran until he saw some lamp of a seller. He approached him for help. The seller rubbed his face and it became the same like the girl's, no mouth, nose or eyes.
Analysis- It is a grotesque scary story. Unusual things scare people. The question is why the man is so scared of the egg-like faces. He was in no direct danger and he obviously survived hence we as able to tell the story. This could be interpreted with the connection to the theory that people look for faces everywhere, make a face shapes out of ordinary things (that is why you sometimes see a face in the wood pattern). Seeing a face where it is not supposed to be can produce fear, but in this story seeing no face where it is supposed to be has the same effect. People are usually empathetic and reshaping the image of what they are used to see in their bodies makes a grotesque and frightening image.
Rokuro-Kubi
The narrator retells another story. It is about a samurai turned travelling priest called Kwairyo. On one of his travels he encounters a woodcutter who invites him to his home. There are also four other people in the woodcutter's home. The priest gets up in the middle of the night to witness a sight of headless bodies. He realises that the woodcutter and others aren't people but rokuro-kubi or goblins and that they are preparing to attack him. He remembers the instructions to move the bodies of rokuro-kubi and then the head will kill itself because it can't connect again. He throws one of the bodies out of the window and goes out. Outside he sees the head chatting about killing the priest. The soon see the priest and the woodcutter pretending goblin realises that his body's been moved. He attacks Kwairyo and before he dies attaches himself to his sleeve. Kwairyo goes to the village with the attached head and is soon facing trial and is in danger of execution. An old man familiar with the case of rokuro-kubi saves him. On one of his other travels the priest sells the goblin head to a robber. Afraid of the curse robber buries the head where it died and the tomb can be still seen to this day according to the story-teller.
Analysis- It is yet another bizarre story that has to do with the distortion of the physical body. Head being the main part of the body is here taken into a literal sense where bizarrely the head is completely functional detached from it.
A dead secret
It is a story about a woman dying and then her spirit coming back to her room to look at her chest of drawers. The family completely emptied the drawers and sent the contents to the temple but it was useless. They asked a priest for help and he came to see what the spirit is looking for. He found a letter hidden in one of the drawers and promised the spirit to burn it. O-Sono never came back and priest burned the letter after reading it. It was a love letter.
Analysis- It is a story about a spirit being restless about her secret and desperately trying to hide it even after death.
Yuki-Onna
Two woodcutters Minokichi and old Mosaku get trapped by the snow storm one night and decide to find shelter in an abandoned hut by the river. In the middle of the night the young Minokichi suddenly wakes up because of the cold. The door has been opened and he saw a woman leaning over Mosaku and breathing cold particles into his face. The woman turns to Minokichi but takes pity on him because he is young and handsome but if he ever tells anyone what happened she will kill him and the woman leaves. Minokichi is in a trance state and when he calls for Mosaku he sees that his face had been turned to ice. Many years pass and one day Minokichi meets a girl on the road. Her name is O-Yuki. He marries the girl and they have ten children. O-Yuki is very pale and beautiful and even after so many years and giving birth to so many children she remained fresh and youthful. One night she is at a sewing machine. Minokichi upon looking at her and her pale face is reminded of that horrible night and the woman leaning over him. O-Yuki suddenly screams at him that it was her and that she should kill him but will spare him for the sake of their children. O-Yuki turns to white mist and the mist disappears through the smoke-hold. She was never seen again.
Analysis- It is a story about a demon pale lady falling in love with an ordinary guy and the guy foolishly breaks the promise that should cost him his life. It is again a story about why the extraordinary should not be taken lightly.
The story of Aoyagi
It is a story about a samurai falling in love with a poor girl. The samurai on his travels stumbles upon a poor cottage on a hill. There is a snow storm and he has no other choice but to stop by to see if he can find shelter. There is an old couple living in a cottage with their young daughter named Aoyagi. Tomotada falls in love with Aoyagi and with the permission of her parents takes her with him to marry her. When he comes back to the town he knows he will get in trouble. Soon Aoyagi is discovered and taken by the prince. In a last attempt to get back Aoyagi Tomotada writes her a letter to ask her to escape with him. He is called to the palace and the prince has arranged Tomotada and Aoyagi's marriage upon finding out about their love. The couple lives happily for many years but one day Aoyagi feels a pain in her midsection and tells Tomotada that she will die. Then she tells him the truth about herself. She is a soul of a willow tree and at that moment someone cut her tree and therefore she will die. Her body then disappears. Tomotada becomes a priest and goes back to the cottage where he found Aoyagi. There he only discovers three tree stumps-two old and one young between them. There Tomotada erected memorial tomb for the souls of Aoyagi and her parents.
Analysis- It is a very educational story that grew on the notion that nature and things in nature have souls as well. And it literally shows the soul die when a tree has been cut. It is a story that makes one think and reflect. The love story is overshadowed by this overall message.
Jiu-Roku-Zakura
It is a story about an old man having nothing left in his life but his old cheery tree that has been in his family for many years. When that tree died as well the man decided to sacrifice his life for it. He died in front of the tree on the sixteenth day of the first month and his soul went into the tree and made it bloom again. That cheery tree to this day blooms every year on the same day-the sixteenth of the first month.
The dream of Akinosuke
It is a story about a landowner named Akinosuke who has a dream about being summoned by the king and marrying his daughter and becoming a governor of a province. After many years of marriage Akinosuke's wife dies and king orders him to go back to his place. His children will be taken care of. After this Akinosuke wakes up and tells his friends that were sitting with him what happened. They said that he only slept for a few moments but something strange happened. A butterfly was hovering above Akinosuke and then it got swallowed into a hole in the ground near the tree. Just before he woke up the butterfly was flying again over his face and then disappeared. The men inspect the hole and find out that it is an ants' empire that resembles the one from Akinosuke's dream. He even found his house and near the house a mound that resembles a tomb and underneath buried a body of a female ant.
Analysis- It is a literal allegory of human civilization in the form of ants. It feeds on the notion of all things in nature having a soul, that even such small insects have an order, a civilization resembling that of humans.
Riki Baka
It is a story about a boy called Riki which means strength but because of his mental disability was called Baka which means stupid. Growing up he kept the mental age of a child of two. Eventually Riki died and upon his death his mother wrote his name on each palm of her hand-on one Riki and other Baka and prayed that he would be reborn in a better life. Some time later a child was born with marks on his palms that read Riki Baka. The family found the mother of Riki and she led them to his graveyard. They took some clay from the place because the mark on the baby's palm can only be removed with the clay from the graveyard of his previous body.
Analysis- It is a story about resurrection and supernatural power of a prayer. Prayers and beliefs aren't taken lightly in all of these stories.
Hi-Mawari
The narrator recalls a time from his childhood when he was looking for fairy-rings with his friend Robert. A Harper came to the door of his house and started singing a song about sunflowers that made the narrator cry. Many years later in a Japanese village he sees a flower himawari which means sun turning and it reminded him of that time and his old friend.
Analysis- In this story we get a more personal view of the narrator. It is a story from his childhood.
Horai
It is a story about an ancient place called Horai where it is said that there is no winter, that people eat rice out of a bowl which never gets empty and drink wine from small glasses which are the same. This is a romanticized version of a place. The truth is that Horai winters are very cold and that the wine glasses and rice bowls do get empty. What makes the place is the atmosphere which seems to be made out of souls that lived in that place. It makes a person forget about sorrow and grief and makes a person think the same way those old souls did. The atmosphere is shrinking under the influence of West until it becomes only available in poems and pictures and dreams.
Analysis- It is a story about the corruption of a pure place being touched by the influence of civilization.
Insect Studies:
Butterflies- The narrator talks about butterflies in Japanese literature and how most of the literature has a Chinese origin. Butterflies represent hope, luck, souls of people dead or alive...
Mosquitoes- The narrator talks about how one could get rid of mosquitoes. In Tokyo where he lives the mosquitoes mostly come from water tanks in graveyards. There is a belief that the mosquitoes are souls of bad people. The narrator realises the cost of destroying the mosquitoes and decides they are better left alone. He then talks about wanting to be buried in a Buddhist cemetery because it is ancient and not disturbed by the modern influences. He wouldn't mind being reborn a mosquitoes and singing his tune bite some people he knows.
Ants- The narrator talks about the system that the ants created similar to that of humans or rather even more advanced as it relies on the absence of egotism. The common wealth is above individualism and the narrator talks about the possibility of humans using this system as well. But it is a long and bumpy road and far in the future to even consider these possibilities.
Analysis- In the insect studies the narrator discusses them in relation to humans. People naturally like to relate to their surroundings and the possibility of these creatures having some divine or supernatural connection to them is an appealing possibility.
