Chapter II: Rikomby=o

The term _Rikomby[=o]_ is composed with the word _rikon_, signifying a "shade," "ghost," or "spectre," and the word _by[=o]_, signifying "sickness," "disease." An almost literal rendering would be "ghost-sickness." In Japanese-English dictionaries you will find the meaning of _Rikomby[=o]_ given as "hypochondria;" and doctors really use the term in this modern sense. But the ancient meaning was _a disorder of the mind which produced a Double_; and there is a whole strange literature about this weird disease. It used to be supposed, both in China and Japan, that under the influence of intense grief or longing, caused by love, the spirit of the suffering person would create a Double. Thus the victim of _Rikomby[=o]_ would appear to have two bodies, exactly alike; and one of these bodies would go to join the absent beloved, while the other remained at home. (In my "Exotics and Retrospectives," under the title "A Question in the Zen Texts," the reader will find a typical Chinese story on the subject,--the story of the girl Ts'ing.) Some form of the primitive belief in doubles and wraiths probably exists in every part of the world; but this Far Eastern variety is of peculiar interest because the double is supposed to be caused by love, and the subjects of the affliction to belong to the gentler sex.... The term _Rikomby[=o]_ seems to be applied to the apparition as well as to the mental disorder supposed to produce the apparition: it signifies "doppelg[:a]nger" as well as "ghost-disease."

* * * * *

--With these necessary explanations, the quality of the following _ky[=o]ka_ can be understood. A picture which appears in the _Ky[=o]ka Hyaku-Monogatari_ shows a maid-servant anxious to offer a cup of tea to her mistress,--a victim of the "ghost-sickness." The servant cannot distinguish between the original and the apparitional shapes before her; and the difficulties of the situation are suggested in the first of the _ky[=o]ka_ which I have translated:--

Ko-ya, sor['e] to?
Ayam['e] mo wakanu
Rikomby[=o]:
Izur['e] we tsuma to
Hiku zo wazura[:u]!

[_Which one is this?--which one is that? Between the two
shapes of the Rikomby[=o] it is not possible to distinguish.
To find out which is the real wife--that will be an affliction
of spirit indeed!_]

Futatsu naki
Inochi nagara mo
Kak['e]ga[:e] no
Karada no miyuru--
Kage no wazurai!

[_Two lives there certainly are not;--nevertheless an extra
body is visible, by reason of the Shadow-Sickness._]

Naga-tabi no
Oto we shita[:i]t['e]
Mi futatsu ni
Naru wa onna no
S[=a]ru rikomby[=o].

[_Yearning after her far-journeying husband, the woman has
thus become two bodies, by reason of her ghostly sickness._]

Miru kag['e] mo
Naki wazurai no
Rikomby[=o],--
Omoi no hoka ni
Futatsu miru kag['e]!

[_Though (it was said that), because of her ghostly sickness,
there was not even a shadow of her left to be seen,--yet,
contrary to expectation, there are two shadows of her to be
seen!_[28]]

[Footnote 28: The Japanese say of a person greatly emaciated by sickness, _miru-kag['e] mo naki_: "Even a visible shadow of him is not!"--Another rendering is made possible by the fact that the same expression is used in the sense of "unfit to be seen,"--"though the face of the person afflicted with this ghostly sickness is unfit to be seen, yet by reason of her secret longing [for another man] there are now two of her faces to be seen." The phrase _omoi no hoka_, in the fourth line, means "contrary to expectation;" but it is ingeniously made to suggest also the idea of secret longing.]

Rikomby[=o]
Hito ni kakushit['e]
Oku-zashiki,
Omot['e] y d[:e]asanu
Kag['e] no wazurai.

[_Afflicted with the Rikomby[=o], she hides away from people
in the back room, and never approaches the front of the
house,--because of her Shadow-disease._[29]]

[Footnote 29: There is a curious play on words in the fourth line. The word _omot['e]_, meaning "the front," might, in reading, be sounded as _omott['e]_, "thinking." The verses therefore might also be thus translated:--"She keeps her real thoughts hidden in the back part of the house, and never allows them to be seen in the front part of the house,--because she is suffering from the 'Shadow-Sickness' [of love]."]

Mi wa koko ni;
Tama wa otoko ni
So[:i]n['e] suru;--
Kokoro mo shiraga
Haha ga kaih[=o].

[_Here her body lies; but her soul is far away, asleep in the
arms of a man;--and the white-haired mother, little knowing
her daughter's heart, is nursing (only the body)._[30]]

[Footnote 30: There is a double meaning, suggested rather than expressed, in the fourth line. The word _shiraga_, "white-hair," suggests _shirazu_, "not knowing."]

Tamakushig['e]
Futatsu no sugata
Mis['e]nuru wa,
Awas['e]-kagami no
Kag['e] no wazurai.

[_If, when seated before her toilet-stand, she sees two faces
reflected in her mirror,--that might be caused by the
mirror doubling itself under the influence of the
Shadow-Sickness._[31]]

[Footnote 31: There is in this poem a multiplicity of suggestion impossible to render in translation. While making her toilet, the Japanese woman uses two mirrors (_awas['e]-kagami_)--one of which, a hand-mirror, serves to show her the appearance of the back part of her coiffure, by reflecting it into the larger stationary mirror. But in this case of Rikomby[=o], the woman sees more than her face and the back of her head in the larger mirror: she sees her own double. The verses indicate that one of the mirrors may have caught the Shadow-Sickness, and doubled itself. And there is a further suggestion of the ghostly sympathy said to exist between a mirror and the soul of its possessor.]

III. [=O]-GAMA

In the old Chinese and Japanese literature the toad is credited with supernatural capacities,--such as the power to call down clouds, the power to make rain, the power to exhale from its mouth a magical mist which creates the most beautiful illusions. Some toads are good spirits,--friends of holy men; and in Japanese art a famous Rishi called "Gama-Sennin" (Toad Rishi) is usually represented with a white toad resting upon his shoulder, or squatting beside him. Some toads are evil goblins, and create phantasms for the purpose of luring men to destruction. A typical story about a creature of this class will be found in my "Kott[=o]," entitled "The Story of Chug[=o]r[=o]."

M['e] wa kagami,
Kuchi wa tarai no
Hodo ni aku:
Gama mo k['e]sh[=o] no
Mono to kos[=o] shir['e].

[_The eye of it, widely open, like a (round) mirror; the mouth
of it opening like a wash-basin--by these things you may know
that the Toad is a goblin-thing (or, that the Toad is a toilet
article)._[32]]

[Footnote 32: There are two Japanese words, _kesh[=o]_, which in _kana_ are written alike and pronounced alike, though represented by very different Chinese characters. As written in _kana_, the term _kesh[=o]-no-mono_ may signify either "toilet articles" or "a monstrous being," "a goblin."]