Page:A History of Japanese Literature (Aston).djvu/101

Rh ravages of time, so that the text, as we now have it, is in a very unsatisfactory condition.

The title of the first story, "Toshikage," is taken from the name of the hero. It is the best known of the series, and has been published separately, as if it were the entire work. Like the Taketori Monogatari, it belongs to the class of fiction best described as Mährchen.

The hero is a son of a member of the Fujiwara family by an Imperial Princess. In other words, he has in his veins the bluest blood in Japan. His parents purposely allow him to grow up without any teaching, but he nevertheless learns with astonishing quickness, and at seven years of age holds a correspondence in the Chinese written character with a stranger from Corea [sic] who is on a visit to Japan. The Mikado, hearing of his remarkable talent, holds an examination, at which Toshikage far surpasses all his competitors. He subsequently receives an official appointment at the court, and later, at the age of sixteen, is made Ambassador to China. Two of the three ships in which the embassy sailed are lost during a storm, and Toshikage's own vessel drives ashore in a strange country, everybody (apparently) being drowned but Toshikage himself. On landing, he puts up a prayer to the Buddhist goddess Kwannon. A black horse, ready saddled, makes his appearance, and carries him to a spot where there are three men under a sandal-tree seated on tiger-skins and playing on lutes (koto). The horse vanishes. Toshikage remains here until the following spring, when hearing in the west the sound as of men felling trees, he resolves to follow it. Taking a courteous leave of his three hosts, he sets out on his quest. Seas and rivers, mountains and valleys are crossed, but it is not until the spring of the next year but one that