Nori's blog----Novels, Poems, Essays, from Japan

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As usual, the monk chanted a sutra in front of the Jizou.
Then he turned back quietly towards the dungeon with his Buddhist
rosary in his hand after he finished chanting the sutra. As usual,
behind the monk was the culprit sitting on his knees in the dun-
geon. He was praying for the Jizou with his clapsed hands and with
his closed eyes even after the monk finished chanting the sutra.
Seeing the culprit in the dungeon, the monk also closed his eyes
for a moment. Then the monk turned back and gazed the little Jizou.
There were some flower leafs of sakura(cherry blossoms), which were
brought there by wind, scattered in front of the Jizou carved on rock.
Those flower leafs looked like a decoration on the soil. It was as if
those flower leafs were dedicated for the Jizou by somebody.
Looking the flower leafs of sakura on the soil, the monk noticed
spring has come again and was pleased about it in his mind.
The monk was reminded of the morning he attempted to let the
culprit flee, but did not mention it to the culprit. Instead,
the monk clapsed his hands in his mind for the Jizou he carved
on rock in the spring, and prayed the culprits' two children
to bring flower leafs of sakura to their father here.
Then, it blew. The low cliff on which the dungeon is made has
a thick bush on its top. While those trees of the bush kept
green leaves in winter as well, the wind swayed the trees and
the trees made sounds mimic of the sea.
The sound of trees amazed the monk. He was amazed by the sound
because he thought wind had stopped, though it was a windy day
since the morning.　The sound occurred when the wind seemed to
have stopped. The sound of wind made the monk look upwards.
Then he found the branches of trees moving in the wind and the
blue sky above the net of fine branches of trees. And he saw
two pieces of white clouds, which looked like a pair of sagi
(snowy herons), changing their figures as if they are playing
in heaven, without sound, cross the sky from south to north.
Looking up the white clouds, the monk was surprised by the
height of the sky. Then the monk, standing on the bottom of
the sky, noticed flower leafs of sakura, which were at the
foot of the Jizou when he prayed for the dead children to
bring flower leafs to their father in dungeon, have been
already brought away by the wind and have disappeared from
the foot of the Jizou.

(To be continued)

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　　To his mystery, there was an odd sentiment of pleasure
in the monk's mind about the culprit's choice. The monk
had odd pleasure that the culprit did not come out of
the dungeon in the morning since he doesn't know when.
Considering the monk's passion to release the culprit
at the risk of his own life, this sentiment in his mind
was surely odd sentiment. But this sentiment of hidden
pleasure was growing in the monk's mind gradually, as
time passed on, and the odd sentiment was getting a
natural sentiment in his mind. The sentiment was odd
enough to make an illusion as if the monk opened the
dungeon to certify the culprit would not run away from
the dungeon. The monk was moved that the culprit did not
come out of the dungeon regardless of the situation his
dungeon was opened. This deepened the monk's awe to the
culprit while the monk became proud he lives near this
culprit, as the result. This was very the reason the
monk feels secret pleasure about the culprit's choice
of not coming out of the dungeon and stayed near him.
The monk, since then, never urged the culprit to get out
of the dungeon again. It was nothing but an expression
of awe to the culprit the monk had. Instead, the monk
began to appear in front of the dungeon every day,
without a word, and sat there with his chisel to carve
a statue of Buddha on the natural rock in front of the
dungeon. Several months later, the rock became a statue
of Bussha--a Jizou, the guardian deity of children in the
world of the dead. Looking the newly carved Jizou, the
guardian deity of children in Buddhism, the culprit clas-
ped his hands in prayer, without a word, in his dungeon.
Obviously, it was a statue of Jizou the monk carved on
the rock for the culprit's two small children who were
killed by the lord. Since then, the culprit made it his
daily life to confront the statue of Jizou every morning
and evening, and chanted a prayer to Jizou in his dungeon.
It was obvious that the monk carved the statue of Jizou
and layed it in front of the dungeon to enable the culprit
to pray for his dead children in his dungeon, clasping his
hands in his dungeon against the Jizou in the outside of
the dungeon, after the monk was convinced that the culprit
has no intention to get out of his dungeon at all and he
would never pray for his children in the outside world of
the dungeon.
Looking the face of the Jizou, the culprit had an illusion
as if it is not his children killed by the lord but the
culprit himself, who continues to live in the dungeon,
that stays on the riverside of the river Styx. The culprit
wondered that his choice of staying in this dungeon and
not to get out of it, which was opend by the monk, might
resemble to an act of dead children who stay on the river-
side of the Styx and who, according to the Buddhism tale,
pile marbles on the riverside of the Styx have refuse
the mercy of Jizou, who save children in the world of the
dead, repeatedly.
The culprit continued to experience spring repeatedly
in the dungeon, with such thoughts. Then again, the wind
has brought cherry flowers(sakura) in front of the dungeon.

(To be continued)

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