III. THE EXCHANGE OF LETTERS
Only a little while after the banishment of Kane-uji, a traveling merchant, seeking to sell his wares, visited the house of the exiled prince at Hitachi.
And being asked by the Hangwan where he lived, the merchant made answer, saying:—"I live in Kyoto, in the street called Muromachi, and my name is Goto Sayemon.
"My stock consists of goods of one thousand and eight different kinds which I send to China, of one thousand and eight kinds which I send to India, and yet another thousand and eight kinds which I sell only in Japan.
"So that my whole stock consists of three thousand and twenty-four different kinds of goods.
"Concerning the countries to which I have already been, I may answer that I made three voyages to India and three to China and this is my seventh journey to this part of Japan."
Having heard these things, Oguri-Hangwan asked the merchant whether he knew of any young girl who would make a worthy wife, since he, the prince, being still unmarried, desired to find such a girl.
Then said Sayemon: "In the province of Sagami, to the west of us, there lives a rich man called Tokoyama Choja, who has eight sons.
"Long he lamented that he had no daughter, and he long prayed for a daughter to the August Sun.
"And a daughter was given him; and after her birth, her parents thought it behoved them to give her a higher rank than their own, because her birth had come to pass through the divine influence of the August Heaven-Shining Deity; so they built for her a separate dwelling.
"She is, in very truth, superior to all other Japanese women; nor can I think of any other person in every manner worthy of you."
This story much pleased Kane-uji; and he at once asked Sayemon to act the part of match-maker(1) for him; and Sayemon promised to do everything in his power to fulfill the wish of the Hangwan.
Then Kane-uji called for inkstone and writing-brush, and wrote a love-letter, and tied it up with such a knot as love-letters are tied with.
And he gave it to the merchant to be delivered to the lady; and he gave him also, in reward for his services, one hundred golden ryo.
Sayemon again and again prostrated himself in thanks; and he put the letter into the box which he always carried with him. And then he lifted the box upon his back, and bade the prince fare-well.
Now, although the journey from Hitachi to Sagami is commonly a journey of seven days, the merchant arrived there at noon upon the third day, having traveled in all haste, night and day together, without stopping.
And he went to the building called Inui-no-Goshyo, which had been built by the rich Yokoyama for the sake of his only daughter, Terute-Hime, in the district of Soba, in the province of Sagami; and he asked permission to enter therein.
But the stern gate-keepers bade him go away, announcing that the dwelling was the dwelling of Terute-Hime, daughter of the famed Choja Yokoyama, and that no person of the male sex whosoever could be permitted to enter; and furthermore, that guards had been appointed to guard the palace—ten by night and ten by day—with extreme caution and severity.
But the merchant told the gate-keepers that he was Goto Sayemon, of the street called Muromachi, in the city of Kyoto; that he was a well-famed merchant there, and was by the people called Sendanya; that he had thrice been to India and thrice to China, and was now upon his seventh return journey to the great country of the Rising Sun.
And he said also to them: "Into all the palaces of Nihon, save this one only, I have been freely admitted; so I shall be deeply grateful to you if you permit me to enter."
Thus saying, he produced many rolls of silk, and presented them to the gate-keepers; and their cupidity made them blind; and the merchant, without more difficulty, entered, rejoicing.
Through the great outer gate he passed, and over a bridge, and then found himself in front of the chambers of the female attendants of the superior class.
And he called out with a very loud voice: "O my ladies, all things that you may require I have here with me!
"I have all jorogata-no-meshi-dogu; I have hair-combs and needles and tweezers; I have tategami, and combs of silver, and kamoji from Nagasaki, and even all kinds of Chinese mirrors!"
Whereupon the ladies, delighted with the idea of seeing these things, suffered the merchant to enter their apartment, which he presently made to look like a shop for the sale of female toilet articles.
(1) Nakodo. The profession of nakodo exists; but any person who arranges marriages for a consideration is for the time being called the nakodo.
But while making bargains and selling very quickly, Sayemon did not lose the good chance offered him; and taking from his box the love-letter which had been confided to him, he said to the ladies:—
"This letter, if I remember rightly, I picked up in some town in Hitachi, and I shall be very glad if you will accept it,—either to use it for a model if it be written beautifully, or to laugh at if it prove to have been written awkwardly."
Then the chief among the maids, receiving the letter, tried to read the writing upon the envelope: "Tsuki ni hoshi—ame ni arare ga—kori kana,"—
Which signified, "Moon and stars—rain and hail—make ice." But she could not read the riddle of the mysterious words.
The other ladies, who were also unable to guess the meaning of the words, could not but laugh; and they laughed so shrilly that the Princess Terute heard, and came among them, fully robed, and wearing a veil over her night-black hair.
And the bamboo-screen having been rolled up before her, Terute-Hime asked: "What is the cause of all this laughing? If there be anything amusing, I wish that you will let me share in the amusement."
The maids then answered, saying: "We were laughing only at our being unable to read a letter which this merchant from the capital says that he picked up in some street. And here is the letter: even the address upon it is a riddle to us."
And the letter, having been laid upon an open crimson fan, was properly presented to the princess, who received it, and admired the beauty of the writing, and said:—
"Never have I seen so beautiful a hand as this: it is like the writing of Kobodaishi himself, or of Monju Bosatsu.
"Perhaps the writer is one of those princes of the Ichijo, or
Nijo, or Sanjo families, all famed for their skill in writing.
"Or, if this guess of mine be wrong, then I should say that these characters have certainly been written by Oguri-Hangwan Kane-uji, now so famed in the province of Hitachi…. I shall read the letter for you."
Then the envelope was removed; and the first phrase she read was Fuji no yama (the Mountain of Fuji), which she interpreted as signifying loftiness of rank. And then she met with such phrases as these:—
Kiyomidzu kosaka (the name of a place); arare ni ozasa (hail on the leaves of the bamboo-grass); itaya ni arare (hail following upon a wooden roof);
Tamato ni kori (ice in the sleeve); nonaka ni shimidzu (pure water running through a moor); koike ni makomo (rushes in a little pond);
Inoba ni tsuyu (dew on the leaves of the taro); shakunaga obi (a very long girdle); shika ni momiji (deer and maple-trees);
Futamata-gawa (a forked river); hoso tanigawa-ni marukibashi (a round log laid over a little stream for a bridge); tsurunashi yumi ni hanuki dori (a stringless bow, and a wingless bird).
And then she understood that the characters signified:—
Maireba au—they would meet, for he would call upon her. Arare nai—then they would not be separated. Korobi au—they would repose together.
And the meaning of the rest was thus:—
"This letter should be opened within the sleeve, so that others may know nothing of it. Keep the secret in your own bosom.
"You must yield to me even as the rush bends to the wind. I am earnest to serve you in all things.
"We shall surely be united at last, whatever chance may separate us at the beginning. I wish for you even as the stag for its mate in the autumn.
"Even though long kept apart we shall meet, as meet the waters of a river divided in its upper course into two branches.
"Divine, I pray you, the meaning of this letter, and preserve it. I hope for a fortunate answer. Thinking of Terute-Hime, I feel as though I could fly."
And the Princess Terute found at the end of the letter the name of him who wrote it,—Oguri-Hangwan Kane-uji himself,—together with her own name, as being written to her.
Then she felt greatly troubled, because she had not at first supposed that the letter was addressed to her, and had, without thinking, read it aloud to the female attendants.
For she well knew that her father would quickly kill her in a most cruel manner, should the iron-hearted Choja(1) come to know the truth.
Wherefore, through fear of being mingled with the earth of the moor Uwanogahara,—fitting place for a father in wrath to slay his daughter,—she set the end of the letter between her teeth, and rent it to pieces, and withdrew to the inner apartment.
(1) Choja is not a proper name: it signifies really a wealthy man only, like the French terms "un richard," "un riche." But it is used almost like a proper name in the country still; the richest man in the place, usually a person of influence, being often referred to as "the Choja."
But the merchant, knowing that he could not go back to Hitachi without bearing some reply, resolved to obtain one by cunning.
Wherefore he hurried after the princess even into her innermost apartment, without so much as waiting to remove his sandals, and he cried out loudly:—"Oh, my princess! I have been taught that written characters were invented in India by Monju Bosatsu, and in Japan by Kobodaishi.
"And is it not like tearing the hands of Kobodaishi, thus to tear a letter written with characters?
"Know you not that a woman is less pure than a man? Wherefore, then, do you, born a woman, thus presume to tear a letter?
"Now, if you refuse to write a reply, I shall call upon all the gods; I shall announce to them this unwomanly act, and I shall invoke their malediction upon you!"
And with these words he took from the box which he always carried with him a Buddhist rosary; and he began to twist it about with an awful appearance of anger.
Then the Princess Terute, terrified and grieved, prayed him to cease his invocations, and promised that she would write an answer at once.
So her answer was quickly written, and given to the merchant, who was overjoyed by his success, and speedily departed for Hitachi, carrying his box upon his back.