Twice ToldGayū kidan, vol. 2, "Biwa hikyoku yūrei wo nakashimu" (1782): the opening, the gate, the abbot's warning, the ears and the ending
- Language
- Japanese
- Reading
- transcribed from the page image
- Translation
- ours
- Retrieved
- 10 October 2026
Gayū kidan (臥遊奇談, “Talks to travel by while lying down”, our rendering) is a five-volume book of strange tales by Isseki Sanjin (一夕散人), published in Kyoto by Kikuya Yasubee in 1782. Volume 2 opens with the tale of the blind biwa player Hōichi, “Biwa hikyoku yūrei wo nakashimu” (琵琶秘曲泣幽霊, roughly “A secret biwa piece makes the ghosts weep”). The copy photographed here is Lafcadio Hearn’s own, now in the Hearn Library of the University of Toyama (shelf numbers 2246 to 2250; hdl.handle.net/10110/2541). The pages carry the seals 文学 and 小泉八雲. The text is woodblock-printed in a running hand with readings printed beside the characters.
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[p. 1 lines 1 to 7] 長州赤間関は古源平戦争の地にて千載の遺恨をとゞむ。幽魂中々消する事能はず。月明かなれば海面にあやしき声をきく。雨しきる夜は平砂に鬼火を飛す。後世にいたつて一宇を建立し幽霊を慰する。其名を阿弥陀寺と名づく。一門の縉紳及び兵士多少の古墳を連ぬ。爰に阿弥陀寺の近邊に瞽者あり。芳一といふ。幼少より琵琶に習熟して長ずるに随ひ其妙を極む。
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[p. 3 lines 4 to 7] 芳一心に思ひけるは。かゝる高貴の御方我を召出さるこそ道の冥加に叶ひたるといふべしと自ら悦びつゐに是人に随ひ出けり。やがて一つの門を過ぎて殿中にいたり。芳一こそ召れゝ。ひらけと云入給へば官女とおぼしく多く立出てをり
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[p. 8 line 9 to p. 9 line 6] 和尚大に驚き是必定幽魂汝が名曲を賞じむとて弾せしむる成べし汝連夜彼地に至らば恐らくは陽気陰気に壓れて命を害するに及ぶべし。芳一これを聞て色青ざめ後悔す。和尚差久しく計較してうれふることなかれ。これをまぬかる一計あり。汝宜く我云ことばを用ふべし。背かバ命を落すならんと芳一を裸體にして和尚自ら筆をとり又衆僧にも命じ芳一が身に明所なく般若心経を寫せしむ
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[p. 10 lines 3 to 8] 芳一＼／と呼ぶ。こゝぞと直に琵琶をさし置。黙然としてひそミ居けるに是人縁下に至り。あやしむべし声なしと直に殿にのぼりいつもの所に座しぬるに。今夜いかなれバ其人なし。只両耳のミ[おとしけるぞ?]。[知覚かたく候?]。耳を証見に上へ訴へ申べし。と両の耳朶に諸手をかけ何気なく引ちぎり殿を下つてかへりぬ
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[p. 11 lines 6 to 8] 和尚大きにあきれ。我誤つて耳を落して経文を書せず。汝にかゝる難をかけたり。しかれども之より後来るまじけれバ命恙なかるべし。と示して尚芳一に養生を加へられけるに
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[p. 11 line 9 to p. 12 line 2] 其後寺中夜更て芳一を呼ぶ者なし。あやふき命を拾ひける。琵琶ハ尚々妙をきハめて世に耳きれ芳一が琵琶と称じけるとぞ
Translation
1. The opening. Akamagaseki in Chōshū is the old ground of the war between the Genji and the Heike, and a grudge that endures through the ages is lodged there. The ghosts cannot fade away at all. When the moon is bright, strange voices can be heard over the sea. On nights of steady rain, demon-fires fly over the flat sand. In a later age a temple was built to console the ghosts, and it was named Amidaji. A number of old graves of the clan’s court nobles and soldiers stand in a row there. Near Amidaji there lived a blind man called Hōichi. He had trained in the biwa since childhood, and as he grew up he brought his art to its height.
2. The gate. Hōichi thought it a blessing on his art that so exalted a person should send for him. Delighted, he went off after the man. Soon they passed through a gate and reached the noble residence. “Hōichi has been sent for,” the man said, calling inside, “open up,” and a crowd of women who looked like court ladies came out.
3. The abbot’s warning. The abbot was greatly startled. “Surely the spirits of the dead want to enjoy your fine playing, and that is why they have you play. If you go to that place every night, I fear your yang energy will be overcome by yin energy, to the point of costing you your life.” Hōichi turned pale at this and was sorry. The abbot thought for a good while. “Do not be troubled. There is a way to escape this. You must do as I tell you. If you go against it, you will probably lose your life.” He had Hōichi stripped bare, took up a brush himself, and ordered the monks too to write the Heart Sūtra on Hōichi’s body, leaving no bare place.
4. The ears. “Hōichi! Hōichi!” the voice called. This is the moment, he thought, and he immediately set down his biwa and kept still and silent. The visitor came to the foot of the veranda, found, strangely, no voice, went straight up into the residence and sat in the usual place, but tonight, for some reason, there was nobody there. “Only the two ears [are left?]. [Meaning of the next words uncertain: 知覚かたく候.] I will take the ears as proof and report to those above.” He took both earlobes in his hands, and casually tore them off, went down from the residence and left.
5. The abbot’s confession. The abbot was dumbfounded. “By my mistake I left out the ears and did not write the scripture on them. I have brought this trouble on you. But from now on he will not come, so your life will be safe.” So he said, and went on giving Hōichi care.
6. The ending. After that, nobody came to the temple late at night to call Hōichi. He had escaped with his life. His biwa grew ever more wonderful, and in the world it is said to have been called “the biwa of ear-cut Hōichi”.
Notes
The reading follows Kondō Sugaye’s 2020 transcription (聖霊女子短期大学紀要 48, pp. 49 to 55), which was made from this same copy. I compared the passages above with the page images (views 2, 3, 7 and 8) and found no difference in what they say, but single characters in the running hand are small and I did not independently re-read each one. Punctuation (full stops) is Kondō’s; the print has none. Variant kana are given in modern forms except ハ and ミ, which the print uses as written; the readings printed beside the characters, and the repetition marks, are not reproduced.
Uncertain: in passage 4, the words printed 只両耳のミおとしけるぞ and 知覚かたく候 are given as Kondō reads them, but we are not sure what they mean. We read the sense as the visitor finding only the ears, and have left the second phrase untranslated. 召れゝ in passage 2 is taken as “has been sent for”. The word 耳きれ (“ear-cut”) in passage 6 is printed in kana; Kondō notes that modern editions of older tellings write 耳切れ.
Passage 2 matters because Hearn’s version has the samurai call out “Kaimon!”; here the man says only ひらけ. Passage 3 shows the abbot’s warning in the 1782 wording, which says nothing of the dead tearing him apart. Passage 6 is where the name comes from: Hearn’s “Mimi-nashi” does not appear in this text.
The book gives no date for the events and does not name the lord who sends for Hōichi.