United States or Isle of Man ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
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.
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.
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.
Very, very short the answer was, only these words: Oki naka bune, "a boat floating in the offing." But Kane-uji guessed the meaning to be: "As fortunes and misfortunes are common to all, be not afraid, and try to come unseen." Therewith he summoned Ikenoshoji, and bade him make all needful preparation for a rapid journey. Goto Sayemon consented to serve as guide.
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.
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:
The long black tresses of each would uncoil and hiss and strive to devour those of the other and even the mirrors of the sleepers would dash themselves together for, saith an ancient proverb, kagami onna-no tamashii 'a Mirror is the Soul of a Woman. And there is a famous tradition of one Kato Sayemon Shigenji, who beheld in the night the hair of his wife and the hair of his concubine, changed into vipers, writhing together and hissing and biting.
Then Kato Sayemon grieved much for that secret bitterness of hatred which thus existed through his fault; and he shaved his head and became a priest in the great Buddhist monastery of Koya-San, where he dwelt until the day of his death under the name of Karukaya.
"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 for him; and Sayemon promised to do everything in his power to fulfill the wish of the Hangwan.
Word Of The Day