"i asked a charming japanese girl: 'how can a doll live?' 'why,' she answered, 'if you love it enough, it will live!'"
lafcadio hearn.
the english and japanese doll
our english dolls, with their flaxen hair, blue eyes, and simpering faces, are certainly not a credit to the toy-maker's art if they are to be regarded as bearing even a remote likeness to living children. put in a horizontal position, something will click in their little heads and their blue eyes will close, or more correctly roll backward; a pinch will make them emit a tolerable imitation of the words "papa!" "mamma!" and yet in spite of these mechanical devices they have nothing more to their credit than a child's short-lived love. they are speedily broken, or liable at any moment to be decapitated by a little brother who has learnt too well the story of lady jane grey!
in japan, however, the doll is not merely a play-thing by which little children may become make-believe mothers, but in earlier days it was regarded as a means to make a wife a mother. lafcadio hearn writes: "and if you see such a doll, though held quite close to you, being made by a japanese mother to reach out its hands, to move its little bare feet, and to turn its head, you would be almost afraid to venture a heavy wager that it was only a doll." it is this startling likeness that is perhaps accountable for the quaint and beautiful love connected with japanese dolls.
[pg 215]
live dolls
at one time certain dolls were actually said to become alive, to take to their small bodies a human soul, and the belief is merely an echo of the old idea that much love will quicken to life the image of a living thing. in old japan the doll was handed down from one generation to another, and sometimes remained in an excellent condition for over a hundred years. a hundred years spent in little children's arms, served with food, put to bed regularly every night, and the object of constant endearments, will no doubt work wonders in the poetic imagination of a happy and childlike people.
the tiny doll known as o-hina-san does not come within the region of our present study; it was simply a toy and nothing more. it is the life-size dolls we must deal with, those dolls so cunningly representing little children two or three years old. the girl doll of this class is known as o-toku-san and the boy doll as tokutaro-san. it was believed that if these dolls were ill-treated or neglected in any way they would weep, become angry, and bring misfortune upon their possessors. they had in addition many other supernatural powers.
in a certain old family there was a tokutaro-san which received a reverence almost equal to that shown to kishibojin, the goddess to whom japanese wives pray for offspring. this tokutaro-san was borrowed by childless couples. they gave it new clothes and tended it with loving care, assured that such a doll which had a soul would make them happy by answering their prayers for a child. tokutaro-san, according to legend, was very much alive, for when the house caught fire it speedily ran into the garden for safety!
[pg 216]
a doll's last resting-place
what happens to a japanese doll when after a very long and happy life it eventually gets broken? though finally regarded as dead, its remains are treated with the utmost respect. it is not thrown away with rubbish, or burned, or even reverently laid upon running water, as is often the case with dead japanese flowers. it is not buried, but dedicated to kojin, frequently represented as a deity with many arms. kojin is supposed to reside in the enoki tree, and in front of this tree there is a small shrine and torii. here, then, the remains of a very old japanese doll are reverently laid. its little face may be scratched, its silk dress torn and faded and its arms and legs broken, but it once had a soul, once had the mysterious desire to give maternity to those who longed for it.
on march 3 the girls' festival takes place. it is known as jomi no sekku, or hina matsuri, the feast or dolls.
butterflies
"where the soft drifts lie
of fallen blossoms, dying,
did one flutter now,
from earth to its brown bough?
ah, no! 'twas a butterfly,
like fragile blossom flying!"
arakida mortitake.
(trans. by clara a. walsh.)
it is in china rather than in japan that the butterfly is connected with legend and folk-lore. the chinese scholar rosan is said to have received visits from two spirit maidens who regaled him with ghostly stories about these bright-winged insects.
it is more than probable that the legends concerning[pg 217] butterflies in japan have been borrowed from china. japanese poets and artists were fond of choosing for their professional appellation such names as "butterfly-dream," "solitary butterfly," "butterfly-help," and so on. though probably of chinese origin, such ideas naturally appealed to the æsthetic taste of the japanese people, and no doubt they played in early days the romantic game of butterflies. the emperor genso used to make butterflies choose his loves for him. at a wine-party in his garden fair ladies would set caged butterflies free. these bright-coloured insects would fly and settle upon the fairest damsels, and those maidens immediately received royal favours.
butterflies of good and evil omen
in japan the butterfly was at one time considered to be the soul of a living man or woman. if it entered a guest-room and pitched behind the bamboo screen it was a sure sign that the person whom it represented would shortly appear in the house. the presence of a butterfly in the house was regarded as a good omen, though of course everything depended on the individual typified by the butterfly.
the butterfly was not always the harbinger of good. when taira-no-masakado was secretly preparing for a revolt kyoto was the scene of a swarm of butterflies, and the people who saw them were much frightened. lafcadio hearn suggests that these butterflies may have been the spirits of those fated to fall in battle, the spirits of the living who were stirred by a premonition of the near approach of death. butterflies may also be the souls of the dead, and they often appear in this form in order to announce their final leave-taking from the body.
[pg 218]
"the flying hairpin of kocho"
the japanese drama contains reference to the ghostly significance of butterflies. in the play known as the flying hairpin of kocho, the heroine, kocho, kills herself on account of false accusations and cruel treatment. her lover seeks to discover who has been the cause of her untimely death. eventually kocho's hairpin turns into a butterfly and hovers over the hiding-place of the villain who has caused all the trouble.
the white butterfly
there is a quaint and touching japanese legend connected with the butterfly. an old man named takahama lived in a little house behind the cemetery of the temple of sozanji. he was extremely amiable and generally liked by his neighbours, though most of them considered him to be a little mad. his madness, it would appear, entirely rested upon the fact that he had never married or evinced desire for intimate companionship with women.
one summer day he became very ill, so ill, in fact, that he sent for his sister-in-law and her son. they both came and did all they could to bring comfort during his last hours. while they watched takahama fell asleep; but he had no sooner done so than a large white butterfly flew into the room, and rested on the old man's pillow. the young man tried to drive it away with a fan; but it came back three times, as if loth to leave the sufferer.
at last takahama's nephew chased it out into the garden, through the gate, and into the cemetery beyond, where it lingered over a woman's tomb, and then mysteriously disappeared. on examining the tomb the young man found the name "akiko" written upon it,[pg 219] together with a description narrating how akiko died when she was eighteen. though the tomb was covered with moss and must have been erected fifty years previously, the boy saw that it was surrounded with flowers, and that the little water-tank had been recently filled.
when the young man returned to the house he found that takahama had passed away, and he returned to his mother and told her what he had seen in the cemetery.
"akiko?" murmured his mother. "when your uncle was young he was betrothed to akiko. she died of consumption shortly before her wedding-day. when akiko left this world your uncle resolved never to marry and to live ever near her grave. for all these years he has remained faithful to his vow, and kept in his heart all the sweet memories of his one and only love. every day takahama went to the cemetery, whether the air was fragrant with summer breeze or thick with falling, snow. every day he went to her grave and prayed for her happiness, swept the tomb and set flowers there. when takahama was dying, and he could no longer perform his loving task, akiko came for him. that white butterfly was her sweet and loving soul."
just before takahama passed away into the land of the yellow spring he may have murmured words like those of yone noguchi:
"where the flowers sleep,
thank god! i shall sleep to-night.
oh, come, butterfly!"[1]
[1] legends concerning other insects will be found in chapter xxiii.
