Chapter 7: 7

Evening, the next day. Four humans stood beneath the Rajomon gate. Needle-thin rain fell from the soft shadowy sky. Seimei, Hiromasa, and a man and woman stood in the rain.

 

The man was a samurai, named Kashima Takatsugu. At his waist he wore a sword, in his left hand a bow, and in his right several arrows. Two years before, it was Kashima's bow that shot and killed a cat monster [1] who appeared in the imperial palace.

 

The woman was Tamakusa, a beautiful woman with large eyes and a high nose. As for age, she was eighteen or nineteen.

 

As for Seimei, he was the same as the night before, though he had no sake.

 

Hiromasa was the same as the night before, though he did not carry his bow and arrows.

 

The biwa was ringing above the four people, who silently listened. Eventually, the biwa stopped.

 

"I couldn't wait." A voice came from above. The same voice as the day before, but it couldn't hide a gleeful tone.

 

"It's as we promised," Hiromasa said.

 

"One man has changed."

 

"Semimaru stayed behind. Even though we've come as promised, I don't know if tonight will go well. So I brought another person -"

 

"Is that so?"

 

"Well then, we'll hand over the woman, and receive the biwa."

 

"The woman, first," The voice said. From above, a rope descended smoothly.

 

"She's holding the rope. If you pull it up and find there's no mistake, then go on and lower the biwa."

 

The voice said, "Ok."

 

Hiromasa came forward with the woman, and she grabbed the rope. As soon as she took hold of the rope, it ascended, and the woman climbed the gate, and disappeared. Soon, a voice was heard saying, "Oh -"

 

"Surya!" The voice trembled with delight. "Surely this woman..."

 

Soon after, a black shape came down smoothly from above, tied to the rope.

 

Hiromasa untied the rope. "It's the Genjou"

 

Carrying the rosewood shell of the biwa, Hiromasa returned to where the others stood, showing the instrument to Seimei.

 

It was at that moment, an ominous voice came from above. The voice of a beast, howling in pain as it died.

 

"I've been tricked," said the beast's voice. There was the slight sound of struggling with each other.

 

Then, the shivering figure of the woman gave a horrifying scream - which was immediately interrupted. The sound of something wet hitting the ground. Like the sound of water splashing out of a tub. It was dripping on the ground. A warm, fishy smell filled the night air. A bloody smell.

 

"Tamakusa!"

 

Seimei, Hiromasa and Takatsugu screamed at once, and ran beneath the gate, where a black stain was seen. When the lamp was held above it as, as expected, red blood.

 

Swish, swish, [2] the sound of fluttering hair came from overhead. A heavy sound reverberated and something fell from above. It was the bloodstained upper arm of a woman, with only the wrist remaining.

 

"I'm done!" Takatsugu shouted.

 

"What's wrong?" Hiromasa grabbed his shoulder.

 

"Tamakusa has failed."

 

"What!?"

 

"She attempted to strike the beast's neck with a small blade charged with a monk's energy, but it seems she failed." While he spoke, Takatsugu put an arrow to his bow. "Tamakusa is my younger sister. This was the idea we came up with. What a shame it would be for the world to know that a demon had assaulted my sister -"

 

"What?" Hiromasa said, and at that moment a green light erupted, creating a hollow in the dark air. Takatsugu drew his bow and shot an arrow into the center of the light.

 

Awo, [3] a dog-like voice howled, and the light fell, and there stood a naked man with a strange appearance. [4] His complexion was sallow and dark, his nose high. His ribs were visible through his thin chest. A set of glittering eyes were glaring at the group, and both ends of his lips were cut, revealing fangs. 

 

That mouth, was clamped around the woman's wrist. The woman's blood colored his lips bright red. Hair covered his body from the waist down, and he had the legs of a beast. In the beast's hair, his phallus was extended towards heaven. From his forehead sprouted an arrow, dug deep like a horn.

 

He was truly a demon.

 

Tears of blood flowed down the demon's face. With a slurp, the demon swallowed the wrist down. Sad eyes full of hatred glared at the three of them.

 

Takatsugu shot another arrow. Again the arrow dug into the demon's forehead.

 

"No!" Seimei shouted, at the moment the demon pounced at Takatsugu. Just as he was about to loose his next arrow, the demon tore the flesh from his throat with his fangs. Takatsugu fell upon his back, the arrow sent off into the dark heavens.

 

The demon looked at the two of them with sad eyes. Hiromasa pulled the sword at his waist from its sheath.

 

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"Don't move, Hiromasa," the demon said. "Or you, Masanari," he said to Seimei. Hiromasa froze with his sword drawn.

"It's sad," The demon murmured with a husky voice. A green flame slipped from the demon's lips. "Alas, alas..." With every murmur, flickering green flames slipped from his lips into the darkness.

 

Sweat poured from Hiromasa's forehead. With his sword in one hand and the Genjou in the other, he was unable to move even if he tried.

 

"I'm going to eat your flesh and leave with the Genjou..."

 

When the demon said this, Seimei replied, "I can't give you flesh." A cool smile appeared on his face, and he stepped forward and carelessly took the sword from Hiromasa's hand.

 

"You tricked me, Masanari," the demon said. Seimei merely smiled and did not reply.

 

Even if, for instance, you give the wrong name, if you answer to it, you will still be cursed. The night before, Hiromasa gave his own name, and furthermore he answered to it, and thus received a curse.

 

Seimei gave a fake name.

 

The demon's hair stood on end.

 

"Don't move, Kantata," Seimei said. With his hair on end, the demon - Kantata stood still, and Seimei casually slipped the blade into his stomach, gouging him. Blood overflowed. From inside Kantata's stomach, Seimei retrieved something soaked in blood and viscera.

 

It was the head of a living dog. It tried to snap its jaws and bite Seimei.

 

"It was a dog after all," Seimei murmured. "This is the body of a demon. Somewhere, the spirit of Kantata found a dog about to die, and become a 'demon'." Before he could finish, the body of Kantata began to change. The shape of his face transformed, growing hair. What had appeared to be a face was a dog's rear end, with two arrows in the buttocks. Suddenly, Hiromasa was freed.

 

"Seimei!" Hiromasa's voice was high and trembling.

 

Where Kantata had been standing, the shriveled body of a dog now lay. Only the dog's head in Seimei's hands was moving.

 

"The Genjou -" When Seimei said this, Hiromasa came with the biwa. "Let this inanimate being, the biwa, possess you this time." In his right hand he held the dog's head, and in his left the neck. With a snap of it's fangs, the dog's neck bit his hand. At that moment, he moved his right hand and covered the dog's eyes. However, the neck that was just barely gnawing on Seimei's left hand did not fall.

 

"Place the genjou on the ground," Seimei said. Hiromasa placed it down. Kneeling, Seimei placed the head of the dog sucking on his hand atop the Genjou. Blood spilled from the bite on his hand. From above, Seimei looked down upon the dog with a serious glance. In a gentle voice, he said, "Hey, hey,"

 

"I loved the sound of that biwa," the dog said. Seimei slowly moved his hand from the dogs eyes, which were now closed. He pulled his left hand out of the dog's teeth, and it bled.

 

"Seimei..." Hiromasa said.

 

"Kantata was cursed by the genjou."

 

"You put a spell on him."

 

"Yes." Seimei murmured.

 

"With those words..."

 

"Don't you know, Hiromasa? There is no curse that works better than kind words. If the speaker is a woman, all the better." Seimei said, a faint smile on his lips.

 

With a scruntinizing glance, Hiromasa looked at Seimei. "You're a strange man, you..." he said.

 

 

The head of the dog sitting on the instrument had turned into white bone.

 

It was an old, yellowed dog skull.

 

-

 

 

The genjou was like a person. [5] If you play it poorly, it will sound angry, and if you don't, it will still be angry. That is how it seemed. At a certain time in the imperial palace, a clever person broke in and took the genjou from the garden. That is the story that's told, and it's also the story of this tale.

 

| Volume 24 of the Konjaku Monogatari, Gensho Biwa Tameoni Hitorigo 24 |

 

 

- End of Section One -

 

 

[1] The words used are 猫の妖物, neko no yaowu, with the last phrase being a Chinese term meaning supernatural monster. It doesn't seem to be referring to any specific monster or creature, just some kind of cat beast.

 

[2] Two different onomatopoeia sounds are used in this section:  こり, こり, or kori kori, which is a word that can mean 'foxes' or 'badgers', or implies stiffness. くちゃ, くちゃ, or kucha, kucha, is the sound for paper crumbling, or indicates doing something in a confused or frantic manner.

 

[3] It seems another onomatopoeia word is being used, though I couldn't find this one in a dictionary: ぎゃん. The sentence says it's "dog like" so I used awo.

 

[4] I had trouble translating 異相: it's the combination of the symbol for strange or unusual and the symbol for phase. The same word with a different symbol means 'strange or unusual clothing', so I think unusual appearance is a close approximation.

 

[5] I had a really hard time with the closing of this chapter. It uses a lot of archaic Japanese words and I've had a lot of trouble making sense of it. I will definitely have to come back and clean this up, but I didn't want to sit on it for another couple of months, so I'm posting it anyway.

 

I think the general sense is a summary of how the genjou had a spirit of its own, and connecting this story to the historical tale he's retelling.

 

Here's the full version in Japanese, which perhaps others will be able to help me understand better:

 

弊く弾て不弾負れば、腹立ちて鳴らぬなり、亦塵居て不わざる時にも、腹立ちて鳴らぬなり。 其気色現にぞ見ゆるなり。 或る時には内裏に焼亡有るにも、人不取出と云へども、玄象自然ら出でて庭に有り。 奇異の事供也、となむ語り伝へたるとや。 『今昔物語』巻第二十四「玄　象　琵琶為　鬼被取　語第二十四」

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