The Romance of the Milky Way, and Other Studies & Stories

The Will-o'-the-wisp is called kitsuné-bi ("fox-fire"), because the goblin-fox was formerly supposed to create it. In old Japanese pictures it is represented as a tongue of pale red flame, hovering in darkness, and shedding no radiance upon the surfaces over which it glides.

To understand some of the following kyōka on the subject, the reader should know that certain superstitions about the magical power of the fox have given rise to several queer folk-sayings,-one of which relates to marrying a stranger. Formerly a good citizen was expected to marry within his own community, not outside of it; and the man who dared to ignore traditional custom in this regard would have found it difficult to appease the communal indignation. Even to-day the villager who, after a long absence from his birthplace, returns with a strange bride, is likely to hear unpleasant things said,-such as: "Wakaranai-mono we hippaté-kita!... Doko no uma no honé da ka?" ("Goodness knows what kind of a thing he has dragged here after him! Where did he pick up that old horse-bone?") The expression uma no honé, "old horse-bone," requires explanation.

A goblin-fox has the power to assume many shapes; but, for the purpose of deceiving men, he usually takes the form of a pretty woman. When he wants to create a charming phantom of this kind, he picks up an old horse-bone or cow-bone, and holds it in his mouth. Presently the bone becomes luminous; and the figure of a woman defines about it,-the figure of a courtesan or singing-girl.... So the village query about the man who marries a strange wife, "What old horse-bone has he picked up?" signifies really, "What wanton has bewitched him?" It further implies the suspicion that the stranger may be of outcast blood: a certain class of women of pleasure having been chiefly recruited, from ancient time, among the daughters of éta and other pariah-people.

Hi tomoshité

Kitsuné no kwaséshi,

Asobimé26 wa-

Izuka no uma no

Honé ni ya aruran!

[-Ah the wanton (lighting her lantern)!-so a fox-fire is kindled in the time of fox-transformation!... Perhaps she is really nothing more than an old horse-bone from somewhere or other....]

Kitsuné-bi no

Moyuru ni tsukété,

Waga tama no

Kiyuru yō nari

Kokoro-hoso-michi!

[Because of that Fox-fire burning there, the very soul of me is like to be extinguished in this narrow path (or, in this heart-depressing solitude).27]

The term Rikombyō is composed with the word rikon, signifying a "shade," "ghost," or "spectre," and the word byō, signifying "sickness," "disease." An almost literal rendering would be "ghost-sickness." In Japanese-English dictionaries you will find the meaning of Rikombyō given as "hypochondria;" and doctors really use the term in this modern sense. But the ancient meaning was a disorder of the mind which produced a Double; and there is a whole strange literature about this weird disease.

It used to be supposed, both in China and Japan, that under the influence of intense grief or longing, caused by love, the spirit of the suffering person would create a Double. Thus the victim of Rikombyō would appear to have two bodies, exactly alike; and one of these bodies would go to join the absent beloved, while the other remained at home. (In my "Exotics and Retrospectives," under the title "A Question in the Zen Texts," the reader will find a typical Chinese story on the subject,-the story of the girl Ts'ing.) Some form of the primitive belief in doubles and wraiths probably exists in every part of the world; but this Far Eastern variety is of peculiar interest because the double is supposed to be caused by love, and the subjects of the affliction to belong to the gentler sex.... The term Rikombyō seems to be applied to the apparition as well as to the mental disorder supposed to produce the apparition: it signifies "doppelg?nger" as well as "ghost-disease."

* * *

-With these necessary explanations, the quality of the following kyōka can be understood. A picture which appears in the Kyōka Hyaku-Monogatari shows a maid-servant anxious to offer a cup of tea to her mistress,-a victim of the "ghost-sickness." The servant cannot distinguish between the original and the apparitional shapes before her; and the difficulties of the situation are suggested in the first of the kyōka which I have translated:-

Ko-ya, soré to?

Ayamé mo wakanu

Rikombyō:

Izuré we tsuma to

Hiku zo wazuraü!

[Which one is this?-which one is that? Between the two shapes of the Rikombyō it is not possible to distinguish. To find out which is the real wife-that will be an affliction of spirit indeed!]

Futatsu naki

Inochi nagara mo

Kakéga? no

Karada no miyuru-

Kage no wazurai!

[Two lives there certainly are not;-nevertheless an extra body is visible, by reason of the Shadow-Sickness.]

Naga-tabi no

Oto we shita?té

Mi futatsu ni

Naru wa onna no

Sāru rikombyō.

[Yearning after her far-journeying husband, the woman has thus become two bodies, by reason of her ghostly sickness.]

Miru kagé mo

Naki wazurai no

Rikombyō,-

Omoi no hoka ni

Futatsu miru kagé!

[Though (it was said that), because of her ghostly sickness, there was not even a shadow of her left to be seen,-yet, contrary to expectation, there are two shadows of her to be seen!28]

Rikombyō

Hito ni kakushité

Oku-zashiki,

Omoté y d?asanu

Kagé no wazurai.

[Afflicted with the Rikombyō, she hides away from people in the back room, and never approaches the front of the house,-because of her Shadow-disease.29]

Mi wa koko ni;

Tama wa otoko ni

So?né suru;-

Kokoro mo shiraga

Haha ga kaihō.

[Here her body lies; but her soul is far away, asleep in the arms of a man;-and the white-haired mother, little knowing her daughter's heart, is nursing (only the body).30]

Tamakushigé

Futatsu no sugata

Misénuru wa,

Awasé-kagami no

Kagé no wazurai.

[If, when seated before her toilet-stand, she sees two faces reflected in her mirror,-that might be caused by the mirror doubling itself under the influence of the Shadow-Sickness.31]

In the old Chinese and Japanese literature the toad is credited with supernatural capacities,-such as the power to call down clouds, the power to make rain, the power to exhale from its mouth a magical mist which creates the most beautiful illusions. Some toads are good spirits,-friends of holy men; and in Japanese art a famous Rishi called "Gama-Sennin" (Toad Rishi) is usually represented with a white toad resting upon his shoulder, or squatting beside him. Some toads are evil goblins, and create phantasms for the purpose of luring men to destruction.

A typical story about a creature of this class will be found in my "Kottō," entitled "The Story of Chugōrō."

Mé wa kagami,

Kuchi wa tarai no

Hodo ni aku:

Gama mo késhō no

Mono to kosō shiré.

[The eye of it, widely open, like a (round) mirror; the mouth of it opening like a wash-basin-by these things you may know that the Toad is a goblin-thing (or, that the Toad is a toilet article).32]