THE MOUNTAIN ROSE
Ota Dakwan was a noble daimio.[17] His castle was filled with retainers who waited upon him, at his least word flying to obey his commands. Men vied with each other to do him honor, bowing low before him as he passed and saying “Behold Ota Dakwan, the Daimio!”
Young maidens blushed at his name and when the moon shone through the lattice, sighed to the nightingale to sing the praises of this splendid warrior.
Honors crowded thick upon him, but of it all he wearied and often sought the forest, there to hunt in solitude. Where the great trees spread their branches and the bamboos and the pines talked together he spent many hours, returning to his castle at night, weary, but with his game bag full.
Often people said to him, “What do you find so wonderful in the forests of the hill country?”
“Sunlight and shade,” he answered, “everglade and waterfall, game to hunt and no one to say me nay; above all, the mighty mountain, cool and aloof as is the spirit of the great;” and at his answer men wondered.
One day Ota Dakwan hunted long upon the mountain-side, so long that he wandered far from home and a great storm of rain came upon him, from which there was no shelter. He was glad, therefore, when in a lonely spot he saw a tiny cottage beside a grove of great bamboos, and he ran to it for shelter.
Within was a young maiden who smiled upon him, but spoke not. She was beautiful as a dream though poorly clad, and he said to her, “Will you lend me a straw rain coat? for every tree in the forest sends down her showers and I shall be drenched before I can reach my home.”
The maiden blushed deeply and without a word hastily left the room. In a moment she returned, her delicate cheeks flushed pink, carrying a yamabuki[18] blossom which she placed in his hand, still with no word, only a sigh and a blush.
“What means this?” he asked, much puzzled. “I ask protection from the rain and you give me a flower. Were you not as fair as the first cherry blooms of spring, I could find it in my heart to be angry with you. Speak!” But she only shook her head and sighed, and, angry at last, he turned on his heel and left her, going forth into the rain, the flower still in his hand.
“SHE RETURNED CARRYING A YAMABUKI”
He, the adored of all Yedo, to be laughed at by a mere country maiden who would not even speak to him! At this thought his heart rose within him, but remembering how sweetly she smiled and how like a rose she blushed, his anger melted away.
“She was as the flower she gave me, a mountain rose,” he thought to himself. Then he raised the delicate blossom to his face and its sweet scent was as the breath of morning, fresh and kind. The rain ceased, and hurrying homeward he was met by his head man who greeted him anxiously. To him he told his strange adventure, and the head man said, “The poet says ‘the mountain rose has many petals but it has no seed.’[19] The maiden meant to tell you in poetic vein that she possessed no rain coat. She is the fair, dumb daughter of your lordship’s keeper, and they are very poor.”
“They shall be so no longer,” said the daimio. “For one with so fair a soul should have fairer surroundings, and one upon whom the gods have laid a finger should have kindness from those of this world.”
Then he showed much kindness to her father, and to the maiden, sending to them gifts of rice and tea and rich garments. And oftentimes, when tired with his morning’s hunt, he would rest within the little lonely hut, and Yamabuki would serve him a cup of tea with a shy grace. Whenever he spoke to her it was with kindness and she would smile and blush and sigh a little, while he murmured to himself, “The god of silence laid his finger upon your lips, Yamabuki, little silent one.”