About two hundred years ago, there lived in Kyoto a
merchant named Kazariya Kyubei. His shop was in the street
called Teramachidori, a little south of the shimabara thoroughfare.
He had a maid-servant named Tama, -a native of the province
of Wakasa.
Tama was kindly treated by Kyubei and his wife, and appeared to be sincerely attached to them. But she never cared to dress nicely,
like other girls; and whenever she had a holiday she would go out in
her working- dress, notwithstanding that she had been given several
pretty robes. After she had been in the service of Kyubei for about five
years, he one day asked her why she never took any pains to look neat.
Tama blushed at the reproach implied by this question,
and answerdrespectfully:-
"When my parents died, I was a very little girl; and, as they had no other
child, it became my duty to have the Buddhist services performed on their
behalf. At that time I could not obtain the means to do so; but Iresolved
to have theor ihai[mortuary tablets] placed in the temple called Jorakuji, and to
have the rites performed, so soon as I could earn the money required. And
in order to fulfil this resolve I have tried to be saving of my money and my
clothes ; --perhaps I have been too saving, as you have found me negligent of
my person. But I have already been able to put by about one hundred momm'e
of silver for the purpose which I have mentioned; and hereafter I will try
to appear before you looking neat. So I beg that you will kindly excuse my
past negligence and rudeness."
Kyubei was touched by this simple confession; and he spoke to the girl
kindlly, --assuring her that she might consider herself at liberty thenceforth
to dress as she please, and commending her final piety.
Soon after this conversation, the maid Tama was able to have the tablets
of her parents placed in the temple Jorakuji, and to have the appropriate servicesperformed. Of the money which she had saved she thus expended
seventy momm'e; and the remaining thirty momm'e she asked her mistress
to keep for her. But early in the following winter Tama was suddenly
taken ill; and after a brief sickness she died, on the eleventh day of the
first month of the fifteenth year of Genroku [1702]. Kyubei and his wife
were much grieved by her death.
Now, about ten day latter, a very large fly came into the house, and
began to fly round and round the head of Kyubei. This surprise Kyubei,
because no flies of any kind appear, as a rule, during the Period of
Greatest Cold, and the larger kind of flies are seldom seen except in the
warm season, The fly annoyed Kyubei so persistently that he took the
trouble to catch it, and put it out of the house, --being careful the
while to injure it in no way; for he was a devout Buddhist. It soon
came back again, and was again caught and thrown out; but it entered a
third time. Kyubei's wife thought this a strange thing.
"I wonder," she said, "if it is Tama."
[For the dead--particularly those who pass to the state of Gaki
--sometime return in the form of insects.]
Kyubei laughed, and made answer, "Perhaps we can find out by marking it."
He caught the fly, and slightly nicked the tips of its wings with a
pair of scissors, --after which he carried it to a considerable
distance from the house and let it go. Next day it returned.
Kyubei still doubted whether its return had any ghostly significance.
He caught it again, painted its wings and body with beni(rouge),
carried it away from the house to a much greater distance than
before, and set it free. But, two days latter. it came back,
all red; and Kyubei ceased to doubt. "I think it is Tama," he said.
"She wants something; --but what dose she want?"
The wife responded:-- "I have still thirty momm'e of her saving. Perhaps she
wants us to pay that money to the temple, for a
Buddihist service on behalf of her spirit. Tama
was always very anxious about her next birth."
As she spoke, the fly fell from the paper window
on which it had been resting. Kyubei picked it up,
and found that it was dead.
Thereupon the husband and wife resolved to go to
the temple at the temple at once, and to pay
the girl's money to the priests. They put the body
of the fly into a little box, and took it along
with them. Jiku Shonin, the chief priest of the
temple, on hearing the story of the fly, decided
that Kyubei and his wife had acted rightly in
the matter. Then Jiku shonin performed a
S'egaki service on behalf of the spirit
of Tama; and over the body of the fly
were recited the eight rolls of the
sutra Myoten. And the box containing
the body of the fly was buried in
the grounds of the temple; and
above the place a sotoba was set
up, appropriately inscribed.
蠅
蠅
蠅
蠅
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