Chapter VII: Funa-Y=ur'e:i

The spirits of the drowned are said to follow after ships, calling for a bucket or a water-dipper (_hishaku_). To refuse the bucket or the dipper is dangerous; but the bottom of the utensil should be knocked out before the request is complied with, and the spectres must not be allowed to see this operation performed. If an undamaged bucket or dipper be thrown to the ghosts, it will be used to fill and to sink the ship. These phantoms are commonly called _Funa-Y[=u]r['e][:i]_ ("Ship-Ghosts").

The spirits of those warriors of the H['e][:i]k['e] clan who perished in the great sea-fight at Dan-no-ura, in the year 1185, are famous among Funa-Y[=u]r['e][:i]. Ta[:i]ra no Tomomori, one of the chiefs of the clan, is celebrated in this weird r[^o]le: old pictures represent him, followed by the ghosts of his warriors, running over the waves to attack passing ships. Once he menaced a vessel in which Benk['e][:i], the celebrated retainer of Yoshitsun['e], was voyaging; and Benk['e][:i] was able to save the ship only by means of his Buddhist rosary, which frightened the spectres away....

Tomomori is frequently pictured as walking upon the sea, carrying a ship's anchor on his back. He and his fellow-ghosts are said to have been in the habit of uprooting and making off with the anchors of vessels imprudently moored in their particular domain,--the neighborhood of Shimonos['e]ki.

Erimoto y['e]
Mizu kak['e]raruru
Kokochi seri,
"Hishaku kas['e]" ch[=o]
Fun['e] no kowan['e] ni.

[_As if the nape of our necks had been sprinkled with cold
water,--so we felt while listening_ _to the voice of the
ship-ghost, saying:--"Lend me a dipper!"_[39]]

[Footnote 39: _Hishaku_, a wooden dipper with a long handle, used to transfer water from a bucket to smaller vessels.]

Y[=u]rei ni
Kasu-hishaku yori
Ichi-hayaku
Onor['e] ga koshi mo
Nuk['e]ru sench[=o].

[_The loins of the captain himself were knocked out very much
more quickly than the bottom of the dipper that was to be
given to the ghost._[40]]

[Footnote 40: The common expression _Koshi ga nuk['e]ru_ (to have one's loins taken out) means to be unable to stand up by reason of fear. The suggestion is that while the captain was trying to knock out the bottom of a dipper, before giving it to the ghost, he fell senseless from fright.]

Benk['e][:i] no
Zuzu no kuriki ni
Tomomori no
Sugata mo ukamu--
Fun['e] no y[=u]r['e][:i].

[_By the virtue of Benk['e][:i]'s rosary, even_ _the
ship-following ghost--even the apparition of Tomomori--is
saved._]

Y[=u]r['e][:i] wa
Ki naru Izumi no
Hito nagara,
A[:o]-umibara ni
Nadot['e] itsuran?

[_Since any ghost must be an inhabitant of the Yellow Springs,
how should a ghost appear on the Blue Sea-Plain?_[41]]

[Footnote 41: The Underworld of the Dead--_Yomi_ or K[=o]sen--is called "The Yellow Springs;" these names being written with two Chinese characters respectively signifying "yellow" and "fountain." A very ancient term for the ocean, frequently used in the old Shint[=o] rituals, is "The Blue Sea-Plain."]

Sono sugata,
Ikari wo [=o]t['e],
Tsuki-mato[:u]
Fun['e] no h['e]saki ya
Tomomori no r['e][:i]!

[_That Shape, carrying the anchor on its back, and following
after the ship--now at the bow and now at the stern--ah, the
ghost of Tomomori._[42]]

[Footnote 42: There is an untranslatable play upon words in the last two lines. The above rendering includes two possible readings.]

Tsumi fukaki
Umi ni shidzumishi,
Y[=u]r['e][:i] no
"Ukaman" tot['e] ya!
Fun['e] ni sugar['e]ru.

[_Crying, "Now perchance I shall be saved!" The ghost
that sank into the deep Sea of Sin clings to the passing
ship!_[43]]

[Footnote 43: There is more weirdness in this poem than the above rendering suggests. The word _ukaman_ in the fourth line can be rendered as "shall perhaps float," or as "shall perhaps be saved" (in the Buddhist sense of salvation),--as there are two verbs _ukami_. According to an old superstition, the spirits of the drowned must continue to dwell in the waters _until such time as they can lure the living to destruction_. When the ghost of any drowned person succeeds in drowning somebody, it may be able to obtain rebirth, and to leave the sea forever. The exclamation of the ghost in this poem really means, "Now perhaps I shall be able to drown somebody." (A very similar superstition is said to exist on the Breton coast.) A common Japanese saying about a child or any person who follows another too closely and persistently is: _Kawa de shinda-y[=u]r['e][:i] no yona tsur['e]-hoshigaru!_--"Wants to follow you everywhere like the ghost of a drowned person."]

Ukaman to
Fun['e] we shita[:e]ru
Yur['e][:i] wa,
Shidzumishi h['i]to no
Omo[:i] naruran.

[_The ghosts following after our ship in their efforts to rise
again (or, "to be saved") might perhaps be the (last vengeful)
thoughts of drowned men.[44]]

[Footnote 44: Here I cannot attempt to render the various plays upon words; but the term "_omo[:i]_" needs explanation. It means "thought" or "thoughts;" but in colloquial phraseology it is often used as a euphemism for a dying person's last desire of vengeance. In various dramas it has been used in the signification of "avenging ghost." Thus the exclamation, "His _thought_ has come back!"--in reference to a dead man--really means: "His angry ghost appears!"]

Uram['e]shiki
Sugata wa sugoki
Yur['e][:i] no,
Kaji we jama suru
Fun['e] no Tomomori.

[_With vengeful aspect, the grisly ghost of Tomomori
(rises) at the stern of the ship to hinder the play of her
rudder._[45]]

[Footnote 45: There is a double meaning given by the use of the name _Tomomori_ in the last line. _Tomo_ means "the stern" of a ship; _mori_ means "to leak." So the poem suggests that the ghost of Tomomori not only interferes with the ship's rudder, but causes her to leak.]

Ochi-irit['e],
Uwo no ['e]jiki to
Nari ni ken;--
Funa-y[=u]r['e][:i] mo
Nama-kusaki kaz['e].

[_Having perished in the sea, (those H['e][:i]k['e]) would
probably have become food for fishes. (Anyhow, whenever) the
ship-following ghosts (appear), the wind has a smell of raw
fish!_[46]]

[Footnote 46: _Namakusaki-kaze_ really means a wind having a "raw stench;" but the smell of bait is suggested by the second line of the poem. A literal rendering is not possible in this case; the art of the composition being altogether suggestive.]