Page:Anthology of Japanese Literature.pdf/226

222, and sent a man with the message, “You must let me make you an archbishop, or at least let me bestow a manor on your temple.”

When the holy man received the message, he answered, “I cannot possibly become an archbishop or a bishop, and if a manor were made over to my temple, it would certainly entail having an intendant and other people to manage it. That would be as unwelcome to me as being tormented for my sins. Let me remain as I am.” And so the matter was dropped.

Now this holy man had an elder sister. She had not laid eyes on him since he went to Nara to be ordained and, being worried over how he had fared during the long years of their separation, she went to look for him. She made inquiries all around the neighborhood of the Tōdaiji for a man named Mōren, but not a soul knew of him. Though she grew weary with searching, she told herself, “I will not go home until I have found out what has become of him.” That evening she prayed all night long before the Great Buddha of the Tōdaiji, asking that she be shown where Mōren was. At last she fell into a doze, and in her dream Buddha said to her, “The priest whom you seek lives on a mountain southwest of here. Go there and look for him on the side of the mountain from which a cloud is trailing.”

When she awoke it was already close to dawn, and she waited impatiently for the day to break. As soon as the first pale light appeared, she gazed off to the southwest, and could see the faint outlines of a mountain from which trailed a purple cloud. Overjoyed, she made her way in that direction. When she arrived, she found that there really was a temple at the very spot indicated, and going over to a building which looked as if it might be inhabited, she called out, “Is Mōren there?”

“Who is it?” asked the holy man, coming out of his hut. What was his surprise to discover his elder sister from Shinano! “How did you ever find me?” he asked. “I never expected to see you.”

She told him all that had happened, adding, “You must be suffering terribly from the cold. Here is something for you to wear.” She took out what she had brought, a kind of padded underjacket. It