Bab Bab 2 · The Writing of Kobodaishi

. The Writing of Kobodaishi

Sec. 1

KOBODAISHI, most holy of Buddhist priests, and founder of the

Shingon-sho--which is the sect of Akira--first taught the men of Japan

to write the writing called Hiragana and the syllabary I-ro-ha; and

Kobodaishi was himself the most wonderful of all writers, and the most

skilful wizard among scribes.

And in the book, Kobodaishi-ichi-dai-ki, it is related that when he was

in China, the name of a certain room in the palace of the Emperor having

become effaced by time, the Emperor sent for him and bade him write the

name anew. Thereupon Kobodaishi took a brush in his right hand, and a

brush in his left, and one brush between the toes of his left foot, and

another between the toes of his right, and one in his mouth also; and

with those five brushes, so holding them, he limned the characters upon

the wall. And the characters were beautiful beyond any that had ever

been seen in China--smooth-flowing as the ripples in the current of a

river. And Kobodaishi then took a brush, and with it from a distance

spattered drops of ink upon the wall; and the drops as they fell became

transformed and turned into beautiful characters. And the Emperor gave

to Kobodaishi the name Gohitsu Osho, signifying The Priest who writes

with Five Brushes.

At another time, while the saint was dwelling in Takawasan, near to

Kyoto, the Emperor, being desirous that Kobodaishi should write the

tablet for the great temple called Kongo-jo-ji, gave the tablet to a

messenger and bade him carry it to Kobodaishi, that Kobodaishi might

letter it. But when the Emperor's messenger, bearing the tablet, came

near to the place where Kobodaishi dwelt, he found a river before him

so much swollen by rain that no man might cross it. In a little while,

however, Kobodaishi appeared upon the farther bank, and, hearing from

the messenger what the Emperor desired, called to him to hold up the

tablet. And the messenger did so; and Kobodaishi, from his place upon

the farther bank, made the movements of the letters with his brush;

and as fast as he made them they appeared upon the tablet which the

messenger was holding up.

Sec. 2

Now in that time Kobodaishi was wont to meditate alone by the

river-side; and one day, while so meditating, he was aware of a boy

standing before him, gazing at him curiously. The garments of the boy

were as the garments worn by the needy; but his face was beautiful. And

while Kobodaishi wondered, the boy asked him: 'Are you Kobodaishi, whom

men call "Gohitsu-Osho"--the priest who writes with five brushes at

once?' And Kobodaishi answered: 'I am he.' Then said the boy: 'If you be

he, write, I pray you, upon the sky.' And Kobodaishi, rising, took his

brush, and made with it movements toward the sky as if writing;

and presently upon the face of the sky the letters appeared, most

beautifully wrought. Then the boy said: 'Now I shall try;' and he

wrote also upon the sky as Kobodaishi had done. And he said again to

Kobodaishi: 'I pray you, write for me--write upon the surface of the

river.' Then Kobodaishi wrote upon the water a poem in praise of the

water; and for a moment the characters remained, all beautiful, upon

the face of the stream, as if they had fallen upon it like leaves; but

presently they moved with the current and floated away. 'Now I

will try,' said the boy; and he wrote upon the water the

Dragon-character--the character Ryu in the writing which is called

Sosho, the 'Grass-character;' and the character remained upon the

flowing surface and moved not. But Kobodaishi saw that the boy had not

placed the ten, the little dot belonging to the character, beside it.

And he asked the boy: 'Why did you not put the ten?' 'Oh, I forgot!'

answered the boy; 'please put it there for me,' and Kobodaishi then made

the dot. And lo! the Dragon-character became a Dragon; and the Dragon

moved terribly in the waters; and the sky darkened with thunder-clouds,

and blazed with lightnings; and the Dragon ascended in a whirl of

tempest to heaven.

Then Kobodaishi asked the boy: 'Who are you?' And the boy made answer:

'I am he whom men worship on the mountain Gotai; I am the Lord of

Wisdom,--Monju Bosatsu!' And even as he spoke the boy became changed;

and his beauty became luminous like the beauty of gods; and his limbs

became radiant, shedding soft light about. And, smiling, he rose to

heaven and vanished beyond the clouds.

Sec. 3

But Kobodaishi himself once forgot to put the ten beside the character O

on the tablet which he painted with the name of the Gate O-Te-mon of the

Emperor's palace. And the Emperor at Kyoto having asked him why he had

not put the ten beside the character, Kobodaishi answered: 'I forgot;

but I will put it on now.' Then the Emperor bade ladders be brought; for

the tablet was already in place, high above the gate. But Kobodaishi,

standing on the pavement before the gate, simply threw his brush at the

tablet; and the brush, so thrown, made the ten there most admirably, and

fell back into his hand.

Kobodaishi also painted the tablet of the gate called Ko-kamon of the

Emperor's palace at Kyoto. Now there was a man, dwelling near that

gate, whose name was Kino Momoye; and he ridiculed the characters which

Kobodaishi had made, and pointed to one of them, saying: 'Why, it looks

like a swaggering wrestler!' But the same night Momoye dreamed that a

wrestler had come to his bedside and leaped upon him, and was beating

him with his fists. And, crying out with the pain of the blows, he

awoke, and saw the wrestler rise in air, and change into the written

character he had laughed at, and go back to the tablet over the gate.

And there was another writer, famed greatly for his skill, named

Onomo Toku, who laughed at some characters on the tablet of the Gate

Shukaku-mon, written by Kobodaishi; and he said, pointing to the

character Shu: 'Verily shu looks like the character "rice".' And that

night he dreamed that the character he had mocked at became a man; and

that the man fell upon him and beat him, and jumped up and down upon his

face many times--even as a kometsuki, a rice-cleaner, leaps up and down

to move the hammers that beat the rice--saying the while: 'Lo! I am

the messenger of Kobodaishi!' And, waking, he found himself bruised and

bleeding as one that had been grievously trampled.

And long after Kobodaishi's death it was found that the names written

by him on the two gates of the Emperor's palace Bi-fuku-mon, the Gate of

Beautiful Fortune; and Ko-ka-mon, the Gate of Excellent Greatness--were

well-nigh effaced by time. And the Emperor ordered a Dainagon [1], whose

name was Yukinari, to restore the tablets. But Yukinari was afraid to

perform the command of the Emperor, by reason of what had befallen other

men; and, fearing the divine anger of Kobodaishi, he made offerings,

and prayed for some token of permission. And the same night, in a dream,

Kobodaishi appeared to him, smiling gently, and said: 'Do the work even

as the Emperor desires, and have no fear.' So he restored the tablets

in the first month of the fourth year of Kwanko, as is recorded in the

book, Hon-cho-bun-sui.

And all these things have been related to me by my friend Akira.