OSHIDORI: By Lafcadio Hearn

There was a falconer and hunter, named Sonjo, who lived in the district called Tamura-no-Go, of the province of Mutsu. One day he went out hunting, and could not find any game. But on his way home, at a place called Akanuma, he spotted a pair of oshidori[1] (mandarin ducks), swimming together in a river that he was about to cross.  To kill oshidori is not good; but Sonjo happened to be very hungry, and he shot at the pair. His arrow pierced the male: the female escaped into the rushes of the further shore, and disappeared. Sonjo took the dead bird home, and cooked it.

That night he dreamed a dismal dream. It seemed to him that a beautiful woman came into his room, stood by his pillow, and began to weep. So bitterly she wept that Sonjo felt as if his heart were being torn out as he listened.

The woman cried to him, "Why…oh!  Why did you kill him?  Of what wrong was he guilty?  At Akanuma we were so happy together…and you killed him!  What harm did he ever do you? Do you even know what you have done?  Oh!  Do you know what a cruel, what a wicked thing you have done?  Me too you have killed, for I will not live without my husband!  Only to tell you this I came."  Then again she wept aloud, so bitterly that the voice of her crying pierced into the marrow of the listener's bones.  And she sobbed out the words of this poem:

Hi kurureba

Sasoeshi mono wo

Akanuma no

Makomo no kure no

Hitori-ne zo uki!

("At the coming of twilight

I invited him to return with me!

Now to sleep alone

In the shadow of the rushes of Akanuma –

Ah!  What misery unspeakable!")[2]

      After having spoken these verses she exclaimed, "Ah, you do not know!  You cannot know what you have done!  But tomorrow, when you go to Akanuma, you will see, you will see..." So saying, and weeping very heartbreakingly, she went away.

      When Sonjo awoke in the morning, the dream remained so vivid in his mind that he was greatly troubled. He remembered the words:  "But tomorrow, when you go to Akanuma, you will see.  You will see!"  And he decided to go there immediately, so that he could learn whether his dream was anything more than a dream.

      He went to Akanuma; and there, when he came to the riverbank, he saw the female oshidori swimming alone. In the same moment, the bird saw Sonjo, but instead of trying to escape, she swam straight towards him, looking at him all the while in a strange fixed way. Then, with her beak, she suddenly tore open her own body, and died before the hunter's eyes.        

      Sonjo shaved his head, and became a priest.

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[1] Author’s Footnote:  From ancient time, in the Far East, these birds have been regarded as emblems of conjugal affection.

[2] Author’s Footnote:  There is a pathetic double meaning in the third verse; for the syllables composing the proper name Akanuma ("Red Marsh") may also be read as akanu-ma, signifying "the time of our inseparable (or delightful) relation." So the poem can also be thus rendered:   "When the day began to fail, I had invited him to accompany me! Now, after the time of that happy relation, what misery for the one who must slumber alone in the shadow of the rushes!"  The makomo is a short of large rush, used for making baskets.

From The Annotated Kwaidan By Lafcadio Hearn, Edited and Illustrated By Hayato Tokugawa, Copyright 2009 by Shisdei-Do Publications. All rights reserved.

JUGOYA (Harvest Moon Festival)

o-tsukimi* night

two eyes watching from the grass

tanuki views me

(*Moon viewing)

TSUKIMI THOUGHTS (The Japanese Moon Viewing Festival)

TSUKIMI THOUGHTS

white light through the glass

kitty lying on his back

time for a moon bath

white light through the glass

cat meditates in the beam

becoming more strange

tsumiki evening

bunny and panda watching

different angles*

(*Aoi and I are on different sides of the Pacific tonight)

HERON MAIDEN A variation by Kitano Tsunetomi

HERON MAIDEN

     A variation by Kitano Tsunetomi (1880-1947) of his famous "Umekawa" print, dated 1925. The title refers to a one-act kabuki play and dance by the same name.

Kitano Tsunetomi was a well known bijin-ga printmaker and painter. Although woodblocks, his prints have a painterly quality, and look very similar to the scroll paintings on which they were based. In 1880, he was born in Kanazawa with the name Tomitaro. As a young man, Tsunetomi worked as an apprentice to a woodblock carver after which he became a print carver for the newspaper Hokkoku Shinpo. He later moved to Osaka to study nihon-ga style painting under Inano Toshitsune, a student of Yoshitoshi. In 1901, he began working as an illustrator for the newspaper Osaka Shinbun.

     Beginning in 1910, Tsunetomi began to exhibit paintings in the Bunten shows, and he won a prize in the 5th Bunten (1911) for his bijin-ga painting "Rain during Sunshine". He published a folio of four prints in 1918 titled "Spring and Autumn in the Licensed Quarter" (Kuruwa no shunju). These designs were self-carved and printed. In 1924, Tsunetomi founded an art school and publishing house called Hakuyodo. His students included the bijin-ga artists Kotani Chigusa and Shima Seien, who like Tsunetomi, designed woodblocks for the 1923 series, The Complete Works of Chikamatsu.

     Around 1925, Tsunetomi's most famous woodblock print, Heron Maiden (Sagi musume), was published by Nezu Seitaro in a limited edition of 100 prints. Featuring a striking silvery mica background and gofun snowflakes, this print is a masterpiece of minimalist design. The carved lines in the woman's clothing and face capture the spontaneous quality of Tsunetomi's original brushstrokes while the rather stark colors — primarily white, gray, and black, punctuated by small areas of bright red — underscore both the feeling of winter and the otherworldliness of the subject matter. During the 1980s, the Japanese publisher Ishukankokai recarved the blocks for Heron Maiden and issued a posthumous edition, also limited to 100 prints.

SOME OF MY FAVORITE NEIGHBORS

     On this past Sunday, Hayao Miyazaki, Japan's premier animated film director officially announced his retirement.Thank you Miyazaki-san for all the laughter, tears, and dreams you have given us, not to mention the inspiration, and all the little characters, from the dust gremlins to Totoro, and even the house that I would so much like to live in. Thank you for giving so many of us the opportunity to be kids again. Sometimes it is good to rest however.

ELEPHANT ROCKS II

ALONG THE NATURAL TRAIL: Oniwa Park, Mitake, Gifu-ken.

ELEPHANT ROCKS I

     "ELEPHANT ROCKS" along the nature trail to Matsuno Lake at Oniwa Park, Mitake, Gifu Prefecture.