The Yellow Butterfly

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 865, 8 January 1930, Page 6

The Yellow Butterfly

A TALE OF OLD JAPAN

Kunisada lived long , ago in old Japan. He was a samurai, a nobleman of proud and ancient descent, but for all that misfortune came to visit him, as it does to meaner folk, and stayed with him. An earthquake destroyed his inheritance and slew his wife and sons. Fire followed the earthquake. It was all Kunisada could do to escape from the ruins with a few personal belongings and the one child left to him, a daughter. Also he received injuries which led to the loss of his sight. The proud samurai came away from the spot where he had been rich and honoured. He went to live where no one knew him in a two-mat house on the outskirts of Kyoto. So that the rice bowjs should be full in his poor dwelling Kunisada learned the trade which belongs to the blind in his country, the rubbing and kneading of the limbs of the sick. Though Fortune had frowned on him so far the old man had one blessing left, his daughter Tekona. Tiny, graceful, and merry, she was eyes to her father and his unfailing staff as well. Though she was lovely as a flower her charm exceeded her beauty. At the Feast of the Cherry Blossom the butterflies followed her. In the water-lilied pool the golden carp came at her call. She could tempt the squirrel from the pine bough to feed from her hand. .One hot afternoon, being very weary, she fell asleep over her loom. Her comrade maidens whispered together. Said Plum Blossom to Green Willow, “Look! Tekona sleeps, and a pale yellow butterfly is fanning itself on her lips!” Even as she the insect took flight, soaring high in the direction of the city. “Let her sleep her sleep out till it returns,” answered Green Willow; “it would not be safe to waken her. Who knows? The butterfly may be the spirit of Tekona—does her name not signify a butterfly?—leaving her body for. a while on a brief adventure.” That very day the young Emperor Hwang descended from his throne in his secluded palace in Kyoto. Followed by counsellors and noblemen in high black caps and gold and purple robes, he made his way to his principal guestroom, the Chamber of the Inspiring View, empty at that time being, as he wished to refresh himself by the sight of the distant snow-clad peaks, the pine woods, and the cataract hanging down the face of the cliffs like a silver sword. As the august company entered, .a pale yellow butterfly came winging its way in the sunshine through the open sliding screen, and poised itself, all aquiver, on an enamel bowl in the alcove. “What omen should the lovely creature’s coming portend?” asked the Emperor of his courtiers. “A good one, I am sure.” “Sire, the saying is in Japan that when a butterfly flies thus into an empty guest-room the person one loves best will shortly visit it,” an old counsellor replied. “But I love no one at all,” said Hwang, unsmiling. “My mind has always: been set on matters of State.” He paused, considering, while the butterfly rose from the bowl, circled gracefully round the Imperial head, then perched for a moment on the tip of the Emperor’s fan before it took flight 1:o the outer world again. Hwang watched it go with a strange stir of the heart, a gush of tenderness. The happy winged thing had something which he lacked and needed. He felt that though he loved no one he had it in him to love deeply when the right time came. His next words gave joy and surprise to his court. “It is time there was an Empress in the Land of the Rising Sun,” said he. “I must choose worthily.” Two or three days after this the blind Kunisada returned home in a state of great excitement. “News, Tekona!” he exclaimed. “The Emperor is giving a'great feast in the

Imperial gardens today, and he has summoned all the samurai in the neighbourhood and their young daughters to attend. It is said that he means to choose an august bridge from among them. You, dear one, shall come with me to the feast. You have every right. Poor though I may be, for generations my ancestors have been samurai. Go now and bring to me the things which were saved in the square mud treasure tower which the earthquake spared and the fire swept by, the lacquer chest containing your mother’s raiment. Bring me as well my knightly garb as a samurai.” Tekona obeyed. She helped to robe her father in his high black cap, his shirt of fine steel mail, the silken girdle for carrying the swords, the warcoat embroidered with dragons and corded with gold, No one in the twomat houses would have known the blind man again in his past magnificence. “Now for your own adoring, winged blossom,” said Kunisada. “Look in the lacquer chest. You must go brightly dressed. You are tiny as your mother was, and little insects must wear gay colours, else they escape being seen. Take from the drawer the purple haori with the crimson lining and embroideries of azalea flowers, the golden kimono and the rich obi, blush pink as a peony on the wane. Have you the clothes, my daughter?” “Oh, Father, they are above my humble appearance,” meekly she- replied. The sad truth which she was concealing from the blind man was that the lacquer chest held no clothes for her at all. She had sold them all for the bare needs of life, in the days before the two found work, keeping her father’s samurai garb, and knowing that her mother would have wished it so. Never had she dreamed th&t an occasion could arise for her to wear them. Still, she had a primrose-yel-low haori and a pure white kimono that might pass, and she must keep unnoticed in the shadow of her splendid father. That afternoon the Imperial gardens were full of dignified men and beautiful women. Water was sparkling in the fountains, lanterns were swinging on the trees, musicians were playing big drums, biwas and samisens, all was joy and princely hospitality, when Tekona timidly led her father to make his reverence to the Emperor. Hwang’s dark, inscrutable eyes rested first on the magnificent wreck of the blind samurai, then dwelled on the little daughter supporting him. For one minute Tekona longed with all her heart for the beautiful clothes that had vanished from the lacquer chest so that she might appear more worthy of notice in the eyes of the great one; then the two passed on. Hark! A herald was speaking. “Be it known to all the honourable company that the spirit of the Emperor’s future bride visited the palace three days ago. In the shape of a butterfly she came, and the butterflies are to choose her now from the beautiful maidens assembled here.” He waved his wand and many attendants came forward carrying cages full of gorgeous butterflies. Their doors were, opened and the captives set free. In a rainbow cloud they rose in the air, as if to make their choice from aloft, dancing and sparkling in the sunshine. In the rapture of the sight Tekona forgot all else. She slipped away from her father's side and flitted about the lawn beneath the swarm, circling in rings, clapping her hands, fluttering her sleeves, dancing as airy a measure as her namesakes above. Presently the butterflies swirled together, swayed in a glittering column, and sank like a shower of blossoms over the danghter of the blind samurai. One only remained hovering above her, a Purple Emperor, but in a moment he settled proudly on her amber hairpin. The butterflies had shown who was to be Empress. But they were not the first, for the Emperor Hwang had chosen her for himself not ten minutes before.