Who but Hearn would have chosen this ghastly scene, and described it with such terrible reality?
With the parents we have unravelled the mystery of Kinumé, whose spirit belonged to one family, and whose body was the child of the other.
Perhaps we still see the famous picture of Kwashin Koji, which had a soul, for "it is well known that some sparrows, painted upon a sliding screen (fusuma) by Hōgen Yenshin, once flew away, leaving blank the spaces which they had occupied upon the surface. Also it is well known that a horse painted upon a certain Kakémono, used to go out at night to eat grass." So the water in the picture on the screen of Kwashin overflowed into the room, and the boat thereon glided forth, but not a ripple from the oar was heard. Then Kwashin Koji climbed into the boat, and it receded into the picture, and the water dried in the room. Over the painted water slipped the painted vessel until all disappeared, and Kwashin was heard of no more.
And we remember too the strange brave way that Umétsu Chūbei won the gift of great strength for his children, and their children's children.
The Athenæum finds the story of Kwashin the best of this collection. Speaking of the study, "On a Bridge," it says:—
"The author narrates a personal experience of a riksha man who drew him across an old bridge near Kumamoto. It was in the time of the Satsuma muhon (rebellion), some twenty-two years earlier, that the Kurumaya (riksha man) was stopped on the bridge by three men, who were dressed as peasants, but had very long swords under their raincoats. After a time a cavalry officer came along from the city.
The moment the horse got on the bridge the three men turned and leaped:—and one caught the horse's bridle; and another gripped the officer's arm; and the third cut off his head—all in a moment.... I never saw anything done so quickly.
"The seeming peasants then waited, and presently another cavalry officer came and was murdered in like manner. Then came a third, who met a similar fate. Lastly, the peasants went away, having thrown the bodies into the river, but taking the heads with them. The man had never mentioned the matter till long after the war—why? 'Because it would have been ungrateful.'
"No doubt this is a true story." (301.)
It was probably during the ensuing year that Hearn contributed to the Japanese Fairy Tale Series (15), published in Tōkyō, his renditions of four of these stories.