84
In Ghostly Japan
“Now as for my mistress,”—she continued, turning towards O-Tsuyu, who had all the while remained demure and silent, half-hiding her face with her sleeve,—“as for my mistress, she actually says that she would not mind being disowned by her father for the time of seven existences,[1] or even being killed by him, for your sake! … Come! will you not allow her to stay here to-night?”
Shinzaburō turned pale for joy. He answered in a voice trembling with emotion:—
“Please remain; but do not speak loud—because there is a troublesome fellow living close by,—a ninsomi[2] called Hakuōdō Yusai, who tells people’s fortunes by looking at their faces. He is inclined to be curious; and it is better that he should not know.”
- ↑ “For the time of seven existences,”—that is to say, for the time of seven successive lives. In Japanese drama and romance it is not uncommon ta represent a father as disowning his child “for the time of seven lives.” Such a disowning is called shichi-shō madé no mandō, a disinheritance for seven lives,—signifying that in six future lives after the present the erring son or daughter will continue to feel the parental displeasure.
- ↑ The profession is not yet extinct. The minsomi uses a kind of magnifying glass (or magnifying-mirror sometimes), called tengankyō or ninsomégané.
