The Record of Tool Specters
2009; Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture; Volume: 36; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
0304-1042
Autores Tópico(s)Japanese History and Culture
ResumoTRANSLATION (ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.) According to Miscellaneous Records of Yin and Yang,1 after a span of one hundred years, utsuwamono or kibutsu ... (containers, tools, and instruments) receive souls and trick people. They are called tsukumogami. In view of that, every year people bring out the old tools from their houses and discard them in the alleys before the New Year. This event, called susuharai ... (lit. sweeping soot, year-end house cleaning), is carried out to avoid misfortune caused by tsukumogami tool specters but a year short of a hundred. This custom of renewing the hearth fire, drawing fresh water, and renewing everything from clothing to furniture at the New Year is thought to have started from the proud extravagance of the well-to-do, but now we understand the custom is meant to prevent the calamities caused by tsukumogami. Around the era of Koho ... (964-967) perhaps, according to the usual custom of Sweeping Soot, old tools were thrown away from houses both inside the capital and in the surrounding area. Those abandoned instruments got together to discuss their fate: have faithfully served the houses as furniture and utensils for a long time. Instead of getting the reward that is our due, we are abandoned in the alleys to be kicked by oxen and horses. Insult has been added to injury, and this is the greatest insult of all! Whatever it takes, we should become specters and exact vengeance. In the middle of these heated discussions, a Buddhist rosary named Ichiren Novice (Ichiren nyudo ...) cut into the debate: Everyone, it must be our karma to be discarded like this. We should return hostility with benevolence. Hearing the Novice, a club named Rough John (Arataro ...) became angry and yelled, You meddling Novice! Generally speaking, it is halfbaked Buddhist priests that people can't stand to look at. Go away! Arataro then beat Ichiren so badly that the Novice's rosary knot was nearly severed. Ichiren Novice was near to death, and only by the help of his disciples did he escape. Thus, the discussion went on and each was asked to voice an opinion. Professor Classical Chinese Literature (Kobun sensei ...) said: beginning of Creation is chaos and there is no form for humans, grasses, or trees. But because of yin-yang energy and the heavenly furnace, things are given temporary shapes. If we chance upon the art of yin-yang and heavenly craft, we, inanimate beings, will surely be given souls. Aren't such stories as the old pebbles' talking2 and Mr. Gu's turning into a carriage3 testimony to the transformation of beings at the time of yin-yang change? So let us wait for the setsubun ... (the lunar New Year's Eve), when yin and yang change their places and shapes are formed out of entities. At that time we must empty ourselves and leave our bodies to the hands of a creation god (zokashin ...). Then we will surely become Everyone wrote down what the professor said on pieces of cloth and left. Meanwhile, although Ichiren Novice was a pious man, he could not help but feel bitter and he insisted on going back to vent his anger. His disciples were able to restrain him, just barely, but he continued to seethe with resentment. Hitosuji ni / omoi mo kiranu / tama no o no / musuhoboretaru / waga kokoro kana Like a string of rosary beads, my mind cannot be severed from angry thoughts. Deshi to tada / ochite kienamu / michi no e no / kusaba no tsuyu no / inochi nariseba I wish I could fall and disappear with my disciples, for my life is momentary, just like dew on the grass in an alley. New Year's Eve arrived at last. The old tools emptied themselves as Professor Classical Chinese Literature had told them, and entered into the bosom of the creation god. Since the tools lived meritoriously for more than one hundred years and the creation god had the power of transformation, no sooner did the two forces combine than the old tools became vengeful specters. …
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