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Japanese fairy tales Oni Tengu Kitsune Tanuki Kami
Soul in the Form of a Butterfly
There stood a small house outside a little cemetery in one of the
capital’s suburbs where an old man named Takahama lived. Because
of his friendly nature all his neighbors loved him, though he still
felt lonely. For any man who constantly performs Buddhist ceremonies
should expect that he will marry and have posterity. But Takahama had
lived alone in that house from the time he was a young man, for twenty
years now for he refused to have any relationships with a woman.
One summer Takahama grew deathly ill and realized that the road of his
life was coming to an end. So he sent for his only sister who was a
widow and her son, a young man of twenty. They arrived in the hot
afternoon and began to do everything possible to somehow ease the last
days of the old man. Eventually Takahama fell asleep and a large
butterfly flew in and sat patiently on his pillow. Takahama’s
nephew used a fan to drive it away but it returned to the exact same
place. Again and again Takahama’s nephew drove the butterfly back
but again and again the butterfly returned. Growing angry the young man
drove the butterfly into the garden and waving the fan drove the insect
through the garden and through the open gates of the cemetery near the
temple. Eventually the butterfly was driven to the depths of the
graveyard before vanishing on a stone.
As the young man searched for the butterfly he noticed the tombstone
the butterfly had vanished on had the name “Akiko,” carved
into it and an inscription which made him aware that the 18 year old
Akiko had died twenty years earlier. Still despite how long ago
she’d died her stone was well maintained and had fresh flowers
and a recently filled water vessel.
When the young man returned to Takahama’s home and inquired about
his uncle he discovered that he’d died. As death crept across the
mans face he smiled. The young man told him mother abut what he’d
found in the cemetery.
“Oh,” the young man’s mother cried. “It must be the same Akiko!”
“But who is Akiko?” he asked her.
“When your uncle was young he was betrothed to a charming girl
named Akiko, the daughter of one of our neighbors. But she died of
breast cancer shortly before they were to be married. After she was
buried your uncle swore never to marry or look at another women. Then
he built a small house close to the cemetery so he could always be near
her grave. All this happened some twenty years ago. And every day all
these years your uncle visited the cemetery and prayed at her grave.
And Akiko finally came for him, her soul in the form of a big white
butterfly.
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