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Page 3
* * * * *
To understand the romance of this old festival, you must know the
legend of those astral divinities to whom offerings used to be made,
even by, the Imperial Household, on the seventh day of the seventh
month. The legend is Chinese. This is the Japanese popular version of
it:--
The great god of the firmament had a lovely daughter, Tanabata-tsum�,
who passed her days in weaving garments for her august parent. She
rejoiced in her work, and thought that there was no greater pleasure
than the pleasure of weaving. But one day, as she sat before her loom
at the door of her heavenly dwelling, she saw a handsome peasant lad
pass by, leading an ox, and she fell in love with him. Her august
father, divining her secret wish, gave her the youth for a husband.
But the wedded lovers became too fond of each other, and neglected
their duty to the god of the firmament; the sound of the shuttle was
no longer heard, and the ox wandered, unheeded, over the plains of
heaven. Therefore the great god was displeased, and he separated the
pair. They were sentenced to live thereafter apart, with the Celestial
River between them; but it was permitted them to see each other once
a year, on the seventh night of the seventh moon. On that
night--providing the skies be clear--the birds of heaven make, with
their bodies and wings, a bridge over the stream; and by means of that
bridge the lovers can meet. But if there be rain, the River of Heaven
rises, and becomes so wide that the bridge cannot be formed. So the
husband and wife cannot always meet, even on the seventh night of
the seventh month; it may happen, by reason of bad weather, that they
cannot meet for three or four years at a time. But their love remains
immortally young and eternally patient; and they continue to fulfill
their respective duties each day without fault,--happy in their hope
of being able to meet on the seventh night of the next seventh month.
* * * * *
To ancient Chinese fancy, the Milky Way was a luminous river,--the
River of Heaven,--the Silver Stream. It has been stated by Western
writers that Tanabata, the Weaving-Lady, is a star in Lyra; and the
Herdsman, her beloved, a star in Aquila, on the opposite side of the
galaxy. But it were more correct to say that both are represented, to
Far-Eastern imagination, by groups of stars. An old Japanese book puts
the matter thus plainly: "Kengy[=u] (the Ox-Leader) is on the west
side of the Heavenly River, and is represented by three stars in a
row, and looks like a man leading an ox. Shokujo (the Weaving-Lady)
is on the east side of the Heavenly River: three stars so placed as
to appear like the figure of a woman seated at her loom.... The former
presides over all things relating to agriculture; the latter, over all
that relates to women's work."
* * * * *
In an old book called Zatsuwa-Shin, it is said that these deities
were of earthly origin. Once in this world they were man and wife,
and lived in China; and the husband was called Ishi, and the wife
Hakuy[=o]. They especially and most devoutly reverenced the Moon.
Every clear evening, after sundown, they waited with eagerness to see
her rise. And when she began to sink towards the horizon, they would
climb to the top of a hill near their house, so that they might be
able to gaze upon her face as long as possible. Then, when she at last
disappeared from view, they would mourn together. At the age of ninety
and nine, the wife died; and her spirit rode up to heaven on a magpie,
and there became a star. The husband, who was then one hundred and
three years old, sought consolation for his bereavement in looking at
the Moon and when he welcomed her rising and mourned her setting, it
seemed to him as if his wife were still beside him.
One summer night, Hakuy[=o]--now immortally beautiful and
young--descended from heaven upon her magpie, to visit her husband;
and he was made very happy by that visit. But from that time he
could think of nothing but the bliss of becoming a star, and joining
Hakuy[=o] beyond the River of Heaven. At last he also ascended to the
sky, riding upon a crow; and there he became a star-god. But he could
not join Hakuy[=o] at once, as he had hoped;--for between his allotted
place and hers flowed the River of Heaven; and it was not permitted
for either star to cross the stream, because the Master of Heaven
(_Ten-Tei_) daily bathed in its waters. Moreover, there was no bridge.
But on one day every year--the seventh day of the seventh month--they
were allowed to see each other. The Master of Heaven goes always
on that day to the Zenh[=o]do, to hear the preaching of the law of
Buddha; and then the magpies and the crows make, with their hovering
bodies and outspread wings, a bridge over the Celestial Stream; and
Hakuy[=o] crosses that bridge to meet her husband.
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