tion>Lafcadio Hearn
Kotto: Being Japanese Curios, with Sundry Cobwebs
Published by Good Press, 2019
EAN 4057664633712
Table of Contents
TO
SIR EDWIN ARNOLD
IN
GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE
OF
KIND WORDS
Contents
Old Stories:
The Legend of Yurei-Daki In a Cup of Tea Common Sense Ikiryō Shiryō The Story of O-Kamé Story of a Fly Story of a Pheasant The Story of Chūgorō A Woman's Diary Heiké-gani Fireflies A Drop of Dew Gaki A Matter of Custom Revery Pathological In the Dead of the Night Kusa-Hibari The Eater of Dreams
Old Stories
The following nine tales have been selected from the "Shin-Chomon-Shū" "Hyaku Monogatari," "Uji-Jūi-Monogatari-Shō," and other old Japanese books, to illustrate some strange beliefs. They are only Curios.
The Legend of Yurei-Daki
Near the village of Kurosaka, in the province of Hōki, there is a waterfall called Yurei-Daki, or The Cascade of Ghosts. Why it is so called I do not know. Near the foot of the fall there is a small Shintō shrine of the god of the locality, whom the people name Taki-Daimyōjin; and in front of the shrine is a little wooden money-box—saisen-bako—to receive the offerings of believers. And there is a story about that money-box.
*
One icy winter's evening, thirty-five years ago, the women and girls employed at a certain asa-toriba, or hemp-factory, in Kurosaka, gathered around the big brazier in the spinning-room after their day's work had been done. Then they amused themselves by telling ghost-stories. By the time that a dozen stories had been told, most of the gathering felt uncomfortable; and a girl cried out, just to heighten the pleasure of fear, "Only think of going this night, all by one's self, to the Yurei-Daki!" The suggestion provoked
