Akiko

Behind the cemetery at the Shōzan-ji temple, in a suburb of the capital, there once stood a small, solitary house where an old man named Takahama lived. Due to his calm and friendly nature, all the neighbors loved the old man, though they considered him slightly eccentric. For it is expected of a man who performs all Buddhist ceremonies to marry and continue his lineage. But he had lived there completely alone for more than twenty years. No one had ever succeeded in persuading Takahama to take a wife into his home. And no one had ever noticed him having romantic relations with anyone.

One summer, Takahama fell ill and realized that his life was nearing its end. He sent for his only surviving sister, a widow, and her son—a young man of about twenty, to whom he was very attached. When they arrived, they did everything they could to ease the old man's final days.

It was a sweltering noon. The widow and her son were at the bedside of the dying man. Takahama had fallen asleep. At that moment, a very large butterfly flew into the room and settled on the pillow of the sick man. The nephew shooed it away with a fan, but it returned to the same spot. The butterfly was shooed away again—and it returned once more. The nephew grew angry and chased it into the garden, but it refused to fly away, and the young man, waving his fan, pursued the beautiful insect through the garden. Through the open gates to the cemetery near the temple. The butterfly fluttered before him as if it could not fly further on its own, behaving so strangely that the young man began to fear it might be a spirit that had temporarily taken on the form of this lovely, airy creature. He kept chasing it and chasing it, and before he knew it, he found himself deep within the cemetery. There, in the dense shade of the thicket, the butterfly flew up to a gravestone and vanished without a trace. No matter how hard he tried to find it, his efforts were in vain. Then the young man turned his attention to the tombstone. On it was the name "Akiko," carved alongside an unknown family name, and the inscription informed him that Akiko had died at the age of eighteen. In the crevices of the characters, lush moss had grown, and it seemed the tombstone had been erected at least twenty years ago. Yet, strangely, it was well-maintained: fresh flowers lay before it, and the water vessel had been filled quite recently.

Upon returning home, the young man received the news: his uncle had passed away. Death had come to the sleeping man unnoticed, and his lifeless face wore a smile. The nephew told his mother about where he had been and what he had discovered at the cemetery.

"Ah!" she exclaimed. "That is the very Akiko!"

"But who is this Akiko, Mother?!" he asked.

The widow replied:

"When your kind uncle was young, he was betrothed to a charming girl named Akiko, the daughter of a neighbor. But she died of a chest illness shortly before the day set for their wedding, and the would-be husband grieved deeply. After the girl was buried, he vowed never to marry again or even look at another woman. Then your uncle built this little house close to the cemetery so that he could always be near her grave. All this happened more than twenty years ago. And every single day of all those long years, whether in winter or summer, your uncle would go to the cemetery and pray at her grave. He himself disliked it greatly when anyone mentioned this, and he never spoke of it to anyone..."

But Akiko had finally come for him: the large white butterfly was her soul.

Once, I saw a fallen flower return to its branch. But alas! It was only a butterfly taking flight...

↑ To the top

Akiko

More fairy tales