“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.”
Footnotes
[17] Lord or knight.
[18] Wild rose.
[19] Mino, the Japanese word for “seed,” means also a rain coat.