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Baron Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford Redesdale. Tales of Old Japan
Tales of Old Japan
Table of Contents
PREFACE
TALES OF OLD JAPAN
THE FORTY-SEVEN RÔNINS
THE LOVES OF GOMPACHI AND KOMURASAKI
KAZUMA'S REVENGE
A STORY OF THE OTOKODATÉ OF YEDO;
BEING THE SUPPLEMENT OF
THE STORY OF GOMPACHI AND KOMURASAKI
NOTE ON ASAKUSA
NOTE ON THE GAME OF FOOTBALL
THE WONDERFUL ADVENTURES OF FUNAKOSHI JIUYÉMON
THE ETA MAIDEN AND THE HATAMOTO
NOTE
FAIRY TALES
FAIRY TALES
THE TONGUE-CUT SPARROW
THE ACCOMPLISHED AND LUCKY TEA-KETTLE
THE CRACKLING MOUNTAIN
THE STORY OF THE OLD MAN WHO MADE WITHERED TREES TO BLOSSOM
THE BATTLE OF THE APE AND THE CRAB
THE ADVENTURES OF LITTLE PEACHLING
THE FOXES' WEDDING
THE HISTORY OF SAKATA KINTOKI
THE ELVES AND THE ENVIOUS NEIGHBOUR
THE GHOST OF SAKURA
THE GHOST OF SAKURA.60
NOTE
HOW TAJIMA SHUMÉ WAS TORMENTED BY A DEVIL OF HIS OWN CREATION
CONCERNING CERTAIN SUPERSTITIONS
CONCERNING CERTAIN SUPERSTITIONS
THE VAMPIRE CAT OF NABÉSHIMA
THE STORY OF THE FAITHFUL CAT
HOW A MAN WAS BEWITCHED AND HAD HIS HEAD SHAVED BY THE FOXES
THE GRATEFUL FOXES
THE BADGER'S MONEY
THE PRINCE AND THE BADGER
JAPANESE SERMONS
JAPANESE SERMONS
SERMON I
(THE SERMONS OF KIU-Ô, VOL. I)
SERMON II
(THE SERMONS OF KIU-Ô, VOL. I)
SERMON III
(THE SERMONS OF KIU-Ô, VOL. 1)
APPENDICES
APPENDIX A
AN ACCOUNT OF THE HARA-KIRI
(FROM A RARE JAPANESE MS.)
ON THE PREPARATION OF THE PLACE OF EXECUTION
ON THE CEREMONIES OBSERVED AT THE HARA-KIRI OF A PERSON GIVEN IN CHARGE TO A DAIMIO
ON CERTAIN THINGS TO BE BORNE IN MIND BY THE WITNESSES
CONCERNING SECONDS (KAISHAKU)
APPENDIX B
THE MARRIAGE CEREMONY
(FROM THE "SHO-REI HIKKI"—RECORD OF CEREMONIES.)
NOTE
ON THE BIRTH AND BEARING OF CHILDREN
(FROM THE "SHO-REI HIKKI.")
FUNERAL RITES
(FROM THE "SHO-REI HIKKI.")
NOTE
THE END
Отрывок из книги
Baron Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford Redesdale
Published by Good Press, 2019
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The occupation of a swordsmith is an honourable profession, the members of which are men of gentle blood. In a country where trade is looked down upon as degrading, it is strange to find this single exception to the general rule. The traditions of the craft are many and curious. During the most critical moment of the forging of the sword, when the steel edge is being welded into the body of the iron blade, it is a custom which still obtains among old-fashioned armourers to put on the cap and robes worn by the Kugé, or nobles of the Mikado's court, and, closing the doors of the workshop, to labour in secrecy and freedom from interruption, the half gloom adding to the mystery of the operation. Sometimes the occasion is even invested with a certain sanctity, a tasselled cord of straw, such as is hung before the shrines of the Kami, or native gods of Japan, being suspended between two bamboo poles in the forge, which for the nonce is converted into a holy altar.
At Osaka, I lived opposite to one Kusano Yoshiaki, a swordsmith, a most intelligent and amiable gentleman, who was famous throughout his neighbourhood for his good and charitable deeds. His idea was that, having been bred up to a calling which trades in life and death, he was bound, so far as in him lay, to atone for this by seeking to alleviate the suffering which is in the world; and he carried out his principle to the extent of impoverishing himself. No neighbour ever appealed to him in vain for help in tending the sick or burying the dead. No beggar or lazar was ever turned from his door without receiving some mark of his bounty, whether in money or in kind. Nor was his scrupulous honesty less remarkable than his charity. While other smiths are in the habit of earning large sums of money by counterfeiting the marks of the famous makers of old, he was able to boast that he had never turned out a weapon which bore any other mark than his own. From his father and his forefathers he inherited his trade, which, in his turn, he will hand over to his son—a hard-working, honest, and sturdy man, the clank of whose hammer and anvil may be heard from daybreak to sundown.
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