Koizumi Yakumo’s ‘The Reconciliation’.English.ver

When did you come back to Kyōto? How did you find your way here to me, through all those black rooms?"
Koizumi Yakumo's 'The Reconciliation'.　

(この記事は英訳のみです）日本語は別サイト掲載のコラムとなります。→

There are various accounts of how Lafcadio Hearn, also known as Koizumi Yakumo, lost the vision in his left eye. Some claim that a rope from a swinging carousel struck his eye, while others attribute it to a cricket incident. What is clear is that he lost his father at a young age, struggled to fit in at Catholic school, and always concealed his blind left eye by keeping his head down. He wrote a story that goes like this.　 A young samurai was impoverished by the fall of his lord. The woman he took as his wife was beautiful and kind, but he began to think that he wanted to marry a more respectable woman from a more respectable family and rise in the world. So he left his wife and took a new one, and achieved the position he longed for, but all he could think of was his former wife in Kyoto. Years went by, and when the term of his master, the provincial governor, expired, this man again selfishly left even his new wife and went to Kyoto to see his former wife. His former wife’s house was so dilapidated that it seemed uninhabitable, but when he reached her favourite room, the light was on and she was sewing.　

“When did you come back to Kyōto? How did you find your way here to me, through all those black rooms?”The woman greeted the man who had abandoned her, still as beautiful as the memories she held of him.

The man acknowledged his past mistakes and asked the woman to forgive him. The woman showed no sign of anger and quickly accepted the man, saying that he had left because he was ‘poor’ and that she was ‘happy’ with the time he had spent with him. The man decided that he would no longer be with anyone but her and lay down on the floor. The man and woman talked all night to make up for the time they had been apart. The man felt satisfied with their conversation and eventually fell asleep. However, when he woke up in the morning, he was shocked to find himself in a dilapidated mansion. He realized that the woman he thought he had been talking to was, sadly, a rotting corpse.

When the man pretended to be a stranger to his neighbour and asked “what had happened to his wife’s house”he person questioned said.”It used to belong to the wife of a Samurai who left the city several years ago. He divorced her in order to marry another woman before he went away; and she fretted a great deal, and so became sick. She had no relatives in Kyōto, and nobody to care for her; and she died in the autumn of the same year,—on the tenth day of the ninth month….”

The death of his wife represents the transience of this world. The critic Kobayashi Hideo wrote: ‘Because memories rescue us from becoming mere animals.’ This young samurai, being self-centered, also abandons his wife for the sake of his career, but he suffers from it and longs for the beautiful memories, thinking he can regain them. However, he comes to understand the impermanence when he realizes that his wife has long since become a rotting corpse. This is how I came to know the transience of the world. In contrast to transience, this could be called grace in Christian terms, as some people die without having the chance to learn about impermanence.

There is an anecdote in Buddhism that when the Buddha entered Vesali, he became aware of the rapid decline of life. However, he was willing to live beyond the normal human lifespan by divine power if his disciples and the people desired it. He told Ananda that he would live longer and serve others−if only they truly wished it.However, Ananda seemed somewhat preoccupied. He could not understand the Buddha’s true intentions. Apparently, an evil spirit had attached itself to Ananda, and his mind was being deceived by it. Upon seeing Ananda’s attitude, the Buddha decided to enter Nirvana after three months.

Just as the young samurai in the story chose to leave his beloved wife for his own benefit, so Arnanda remained selfish and did not try to understand the Buddha’s true intentions. It is this selfishness that hinders the understanding of impermanence. Koizumi Yakumo’s blindness in his left eye signifies loss and absence, while simultaneously reminding us of the ever-changing nature of things. He likely wanted to leave behind the ‘moment’ of his first wife’s life, which he had to cherish.

People tend to realize the importance of something after they have lost it and often forget their responsibilities. We must be prepared to understand the extent of our betrayal towards others.

However, I chose this story because this woman waited for her husband even while she was a ‘phantom’ (ayakashi). Some of the ghosts in Yakumo’s ‘Ghost Stories and Strange Tales’ are stories of demons who have become evil spirits. The woman had a tragic fate like that of Gretchen in Goethe’s Faust or Ophelia in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, mentally trapped but devoted. It may be true that true beauty and eternal love reside in the soul, as the Lord said to Samuel in the Old Testament: “For man sees those things that are apparent, but the Lord beholds the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7). The being that became a phantom was not embellished or poisoned by “time”, but in a preserved state, “reconciled” with the man who abandoned her and remained in the world. The shadow of the phantom was there to remind the samurai of the impermanence of the world. Love encompasses feelings of jealousy and attachment, but it also possesses a selfless aspect that is not solely driven by personal gain and selfish desires.Therefore, love is always seeking direction as it carries significance for the soul.To others, this phantom may seem pathetic. Yet this is why it may bring grace to places overlooked by human perception.

“To me, this story was a delicate gear—driven by love, memory, and loss..”

Note on Koizumi Yakumo:
Born as Lafcadio Hearn in 1850, Koizumi Yakumo was a writer of Greek-Irish descent who later naturalized as Japanese. His blindness in one eye, troubled youth, and eventual fascination with Japanese folklore deeply informed his ghost stories. Though rooted in Buddhism and Shinto traditions, Yakumo’s work often reflected a universal longing for grace, memory, and the unseen. His vision—both physical and literary—remains a powerful lens through which impermanence and devotion continue to resonate.