Bakemono Yashiki, page 259 by James S. de Benneville
<< Return to Title Details & Download260
entered; in this tiny place to take a seat close by. Apparently he was well known thereabouts. In bringing wine the host sat down beside him to talk--almost into the ear of Sampei.--"Toku no Ichi San, you are early abroad. Does illness or luxurious idleness summon the honoured Amma San to the couch?... But yourself, you do not look well. Work late into the night goes not with early rising. This is going to excess." The man coughed and drank, turned his sightless eyes on Sampei. What he said made this latter all attention.
"It is no early call brings out this Ichibei. Ah! What a night this last!"--"Truly so," replied the matter of fact host. "And no sign of the storm's cessation." He looked out for a moment on the flakes of snow, again coming down thick and heavy. "Drink your wine, Ichibei Dono. In truth you are as white as yonder falling flakes which you do not see. And 'tis said your kind cannot see ghosts."--"See them; no. To those whose eyes are darkened by the night of blindness the gods have granted grace against such visions. But alas! Other faculties have been sharpened. He who cannot see, can hear. Listen Jiro[u]bei San. Last night this Ichibei was called to the yashiki of O[u]kubo Sama. The okugata was in pain and needed his treatment for the limbs. It is a kindly house, one good to go to. The storm kept Ichibei in the yashiki: Food and the mat was granted, for his lordship would not send a cur, once granted shelter, out into storm and darkness. But next door it is very different. Here is the yashiki of Aoyama Shu[u]zen Sama--the Yakujin of Edo. Jiro[u]bei San knows of him. His lordship took the yashiki for the old well of the Yoshida Goten. 'Tis said at nights he takes wine and pipe, sits by the well, and in his hardiness and defiance of weather and season challenges the ghosts to appear. Last night.... Ah! The scene rung into the ears appears before the eyes even of the blind. It was the sound of blows--as of a wet cloth striking bare flesh.