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Lafcadio Hearn - Kokoro
This is the district of Soba, in the province of Sagami, the native land of Terute: how many beautiful and
how many sorrowful thoughts does it recall to their minds!
And here also are Yokoyama and his son, who killed Lord Ogiri with poison.
So Saburo, the third son, being led to the moor called Totsuka-no-hara, was there punished.
But Yokoyama Choja, wicked as he had been, was not punished; because parents, however bad, must be
for their children always like the sun and moon. And hearing this order, Yokoyama repented very greatly
for that which he had done.
Qnio and Oniji, the brothers, were rewarded with many gifts for having saved the Princess Terute off the
coast of Sagami.
Thus those who were good prospered, and the bad were brought to destruction.
Fortunate and happy, Oguri-Sama and Terute-Hime together returned to Miako, to dwell in the residence
at Nijo, and their union was beautiful as the blossoming of spring.
Fortunate! Fortunate!
THE BALLAD OF O-SHICHI, THE DAUGHTER OF THE YAOYA (1)
In autumn the deer are lured within reach of the hunters by the sounds of the flute, which resemble the
sounds of the voices of their mates, and so are killed.
Almost in like manner, one of the five most beautiful girls in Yedo, whose comely faces charmed all the
capital even as the spring-blossoming of cherry-trees, cast away her life in the moment of blindness
caused by love.
When, having done a foolish thing, she was brought before the mayor of the city of Yedo, that high
official questioned the young criminal, asking: "Are you not O-Shichi, the daughter of the yaoya? And
being so young, how came you to commit such a dreadful crime as incendiarism?"
Then O-Shichi, weeping and wringing her hands, made this answer: "Indeed, that is the only crime I ever
committed; and I had no extraordinary reason for it but this: -
"Once before, when there had been a great fire, - so great a fire that nearly all Yedo was consumed, - our
house also was burned down. And we three, - my parents and I, - knowing no otherwhere to go, took
shelter in a Buddhist temple, to remain there until our house could be rebuilt.
"Surely the destiny that draws two young persons to each other is hard to understand!... In that temple
there was a young acolyte, and love grew up between us.
"In secret we met together, and promised never to forsake each other; and we pledged ourselves to each
other by sucking blood from small cuts we made in our little fingers, and by exchanging written vows
that we should love each other forever.
"Before our pillows had yet become fixed(2), our new house in Hongo was built and made ready for us.
"But from that day when I bade a sad farewell to Kichiza-Sama, to whom I had pledged myself for the
time of two existences, never was my heart consoled by even one letter from the acolyte.
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