Japanese Fairy Tales
The light streamed from the bamboo in which you were hid and led me to
you. So I have always thought that you were more than mortal woman.
While I am alive it is right for you to remain as you are if you wish
to do so, but some day I shall cease to be and who will take care of
you then? Therefore I pray you to meet these five brave men one at a
time and make up your mind to marry one of them!”
Then the Princess answered that she felt sure that she was not as
beautiful as perhaps report made her out to be, and that even if she
consented to marry any one of them, not really knowing her before, his
heart might change afterwards. So as she did not feel sure of them,
even though her father told her they were worthy Knights, she did not
feel it wise to see them.
“All you say is very reasonable,” said the old man, “but what kind of
men will you consent to see? I do not call these five men who have
waited on you for months, light-hearted. They have stood outside this
house through the winter and the summer, often denying themselves food
and sleep so that they may win you. What more can you demand?”
Then Princess Moonlight said she must make further trial of their love
before she would grant their request to interview her. The five
warriors were to prove their love by each bringing her from distant
countries something that she desired to possess.
That same evening the suitors arrived and began to play their flutes in
turn, and to sing their self-composed songs telling of their great and
tireless love. The bamboo-cutter went out to them and offered them his
sympathy for all they had endured and all the patience they had shown
in their desire to win his foster-daughter. Then he gave them her
message, that she would consent to marry whosoever was successful in
bringing her what she wanted. This was to test them.
The five all accepted the trial, and thought it an excellent plan, for
it would prevent jealousy between them.
Princess Moonlight then sent word to the First Knight that she
requested him to bring her the stone bowl which had belonged to Buddha
in India.
The Second Knight was asked to go to the Mountain of Horai, said to be
situated in the Eastern Sea, and to bring her a branch of the wonderful
tree that grew on its summit. The roots of this tree were of silver,
the trunk of gold, and the branches bore as fruit white jewels.
The Third Knight was told to go to China and search for the fire-rat
and to bring her its skin.
The Fourth Knight was told to search for the dragon that carried on its
head the stone radiating five colors and to bring the stone to her.
The Fifth Knight was to find the swallow which carried a shell in its
stomach and to bring the shell to her.
The old man thought these very hard tasks and hesitated to carry the
messages, but the Princess would make no other conditions. So her
commands were issued word for word to the five men who, when they heard
what was required of them, were all disheartened and disgusted at what
seemed to them the impossibility of the tasks given them and returned
to their own homes in despair.
But after a time, when they thought of the Princess, the love in their
hearts revived for her, and they resolved to make an attempt to get
what she desired of them.
The First Knight sent word to the Princess that he was starting out
that day on the quest of Buddha’s bowl, and he hoped soon to bring it
to her. But he had not the courage to go all the way to India, for in
those days traveling was very difficult and full of danger, so he went
to one of the temples in Kyoto and took a stone bowl from the altar
there, paying the priest a large sum of money for it. He then wrapped
it in a cloth of gold and, waiting quietly for three years, returned
and carried it to the old man.
Princess Moonlight wondered that the Knight should have returned so
soon. She took the bowl from its gold wrapping, expecting it to make
the room full of light, but it did not shine at all, so she knew that
it was a sham thing and not the true bowl of Buddha. She returned it at
once and refused to see him. The Knight threw the bowl away and
returned to his home in despair. He gave up now all hopes of ever
winning the Princess.
The Second Knight told his parents that he needed change of air for his
health, for he was ashamed to tell them that love for the Princess
Moonlight was the real cause of his leaving them. He then left his
home, at the same time sending word to the Princess that he was setting
out for Mount Horai in the hope of getting her a branch of the gold and
silver tree which she so much wished to have. He only allowed his
servants to accompany him half-way, and then sent them back. He reached
the seashore and embarked on a small ship, and after sailing away for
three days he landed and employed several carpenters to build him a
house contrived in such a way that no one could get access to it. He
then shut himself up with six skilled jewelers, and endeavored to make
such a gold and silver branch as he thought would satisfy the Princess
as having come from the wonderful tree growing on Mount Horai. Every
one whom he had asked declared that Mount Horai belonged to the land of
fable and not to fact.
When the branch was finished, he took his journey home and tried to
make himself look as if he were wearied and worn out with travel. He
put the jeweled branch into a lacquer box and carried it to the
bamboo-cutter, begging him to present it to the Princess.
The old man was quite deceived by the travel-stained appearance of the
Knight, and thought that he had only just returned from his long
journey with the branch. So he tried to persuade the Princess to
consent to see the man. But she remained silent and looked very sad.
The old man began to take out the branch and praised it as a wonderful
treasure to be found nowhere in the whole land. Then he spoke of the
Knight, how handsome and how brave he was to have undertaken a journey
to so remote a place as the Mount of Horai.
Princess Moonlight took the branch in her hand and looked at it
carefully. She then told her foster-parent that she knew it was
impossible for the man to have obtained a branch from the gold and
silver tree growing on Mount Horai so quickly or so easily, and she was
sorry to say she believed it artificial.
The old man then went out to the expectant Knight, who had now
approached the house, and asked where he had found the branch. Then the
man did not scruple to make up a long story.
“Two years ago I took a ship and started in search of Mount Horai.
After going before the wind for some time I reached the far Eastern
Sea. Then a great storm arose and I was tossed about for many days,
losing all count of the points of the compass, and finally we were
blown ashore on an unknown island. Here I found the place inhabited by
demons who at one time threatened to kill and eat me. However, I
managed to make friends with these horrible creatures, and they helped
me and my sailors to repair the boat, and I set sail again. Our food
gave out, and we suffered much from sickness on board. At last, on the
five-hundredth day from the day of starting, I saw far off on the
horizon what looked like the peak of a mountain. On nearer approach,
this proved to be an island, in the center of which rose a high
mountain. I landed, and after wandering about for two or three days, I
saw a shining being coming towards me on the beach, holding in his
hands a golden bowl. I went up to him and asked him if I had, by good
chance, found the island of Mount Horai, and he answered:”
“‘Yes, this is Mount Horai!’”
“With much difficulty I climbed to the summit, here stood the golden
tree growing with silver roots in the ground. The wonders of that
strange land are many, and if I began to tell you about them I could
never stop. In spite of my wish to stay there long, on breaking off the
branch I hurried back. With utmost speed it has taken me four hundred
days to get back, and, as you see, my clothes are still damp from
exposure on the long sea voyage. I have not even waited to change my
raiment, so anxious was I to bring the branch to the Princess quickly.”
Just at this moment the six jewelers, who had been employed on the
making of the branch, but not yet paid by the Knight, arrived at the
house and sent in a petition to the Princess to be paid for their
labor. They said that they had worked for over a thousand days making
the branch of gold, with its silver twigs and its jeweled fruit, that
was now presented to her by the Knight, but as yet they had received
nothing in payment. So this Knight’s deception was thus found out, and
the Princess, glad of an escape from one more importunate suitor, was
only too pleased to send back the branch. She called in the workmen and
had them paid liberally, and they went away happy. But on the way home
they were overtaken by the disappointed man, who beat them till they
were nearly dead, for letting out the secret, and they barely escaped
with their lives. The Knight then returned home, raging in his heart;
and in despair of ever winning the Princess gave up society and retired
to a solitary life among the mountains.
Now the Third Knight had a friend in China, so he wrote to him to get
the skin of the fire-rat. The virtue of any part of this animal was
that no fire could harm it. He promised his friend any amount of money
he liked to ask if only he could get him the desired article. As soon
as the news came that the ship on which his friend had sailed home had
come into port, he rode seven days on horseback to meet him. He handed
his friend a large sum of money, and received the fire-rat’s skin. When
he reached home he put it carefully in a box and sent it in to the
Princess while he waited outside for her answer.
The bamboo-cutter took the box from the Knight and, as usual, carried
it in to her and tried to coax her to see the Knight at once, but
Princess Moonlight refused, saying that she must first put the skin to
test by putting it into the fire. If it were the real thing it would
not burn. So she took off the crape wrapper and opened the box, and
then threw the skin into the fire. The skin crackled and burnt up at
once, and the Princess knew that this man also had not fulfilled his
word. So the Third Knight failed also.
Now the Fourth Knight was no more enterprising than the rest. Instead
of starting out on the quest of the dragon bearing on its head the
five-color-radiating jewel, he called all his servants together and
gave them the order to seek for it far and wide in Japan and in China,
and he strictly forbade any of them to return till they had found it.
His numerous retainers and servants started out in different
directions, with no intention, however, of obeying what they considered
an impossible order. They simply took a holiday, went to pleasant
country places together, and grumbled at their master’s
unreasonableness.
The Knight meanwhile, thinking that his retainers could not fail to
find the jewel, repaired to his house, and fitted it up beautifully for
the reception of the Princess, he felt so sure of winning her.
One year passed away in weary waiting, and still his men did not return
with the dragon-jewel. The Knight became desperate. He could wait no
longer, so taking with him only two men he hired a ship and commanded
the captain to go in search of the dragon; the captain and the sailors
refused to undertake what they said was an absurd search, but the
Knight compelled them at last to put out to sea.
When they had been but a few days out they encountered a great storm
which lasted so long that, by the time its fury abated, the Knight had
determined to give up the hunt of the dragon. They were at last blown