Japanese Ghost Stories by Lafcadio Hearn

Author:Lafcadio Hearn [Hearn, Lafcadio]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
ISBN: 9780241381281
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2019-07-24T16:00:00+00:00

Before the Supreme Court

The great Buddhist priest, Mongaku Shōnin, says in his book Kyō-gyō Shin-shō:1 ‘Many of those gods whom the people worship are unjust gods [jajin]: therefore such gods are not worshipped by persons who revere the Three Precious Things.fn1 And even persons who obtain favors from those gods, in answer to prayer, usually find at a later day that such favors cause misfortune.’ This truth is well exemplified by a story recorded in the book Nihon-Rei-Iki.2

During the time of the Emperor Shōmufn2 there lived in the district called Yamadagori, in the province of Sanuki, a man named Fushiki no Shin. He had but one child, a daughter called Kinumé.fn3 Kinumé was a fine-looking girl, and very strong; but, shortly after she had reached her eighteenth year, a dangerous sickness began to prevail in that part of the country, and she was attacked by it. Her parents and friends then made offerings on her behalf to a certain Pest-God, and performed great austerities in honor of the Pest-God – beseeching him to save her.

After having lain in a stupor for several days, the sick girl one evening came to herself, and told her parents a dream that she had dreamed. She had dreamed that the Pest-God appeared to her, and said: ‘Your people have been praying to me so earnestly for you, and have been worshipping me so devoutly, that I really wish to save you. But I cannot do so except by giving you the life of some other person. Do you happen to know of any other girl who has the same name as yours?’ ‘I remember,’ answered Kinumé, ‘that in Utarigori there is a girl whose name is the same as mine.’ ‘Point her out to me,’ the God said, touching the sleeper; and at the touch she rose into the air with him; and, in less than a second, the two were in front of the house of the other Kinumé, in Utarigori. It was night; but the family had not yet gone to bed, and the daughter was washing something in the kitchen. ‘That is the girl,’ said Kinumé of Yamadagori. The Pest-God took out of a scarlet bag at his girdle a long sharp instrument shaped like a chisel; and, entering the house, he drove the sharp instrument into the forehead of Kinumé of Utarigori. Then Kinumé of Utarigori sank to the floor in great agony; and Kinumé of Yamadagori awoke, and related the dream.

Immediately after having related it, however, she again fell into a stupor. For three days she remained without knowledge of the world; and her parents began to despair of her recovery. Then once more she opened her eyes, and spoke. But almost in the same moment she rose from her bed, looked wildly about the room, and rushed out of the house, exclaiming: ‘This is not my home! – you are not my parents!’ …

Something strange had happened.

Kinumé of Utarigori had died after having been stricken by the Pest-God.

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