Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things

UBAZAKURA

Three hundred years ago, in the village called Asamimura, in the
district called Onsengōri, in the province of Iyō, there lived a good
man named Tokubei. This Tokubei was the richest person in the district,
and the _muraosa_, or headman, of the village. In most matters he was
fortunate; but he reached the age of forty without knowing the
happiness of becoming a father. Therefore he and his wife, in the
affliction of their childlessness, addressed many prayers to the
divinity Fudō Myō Ō, who had a famous temple, called Saihōji, in
Asamimura.

At last their prayers were heard: the wife of Tokubei gave birth to a
daughter. The child was very pretty; and she received the name of
Tsuyu. As the mother’s milk was deficient, a milk-nurse, called O-Sodé,
was hired for the little one.

O-Tsuyu grew up to be a very beautiful girl; but at the age of fifteen
she fell sick, and the doctors thought that she was going to die. In
that time the nurse O-Sodé, who loved O-Tsuyu with a real mother’s
love, went to the temple Saihōji, and fervently prayed to Fudō-Sama on
behalf of the girl. Every day, for twenty-one days, she went to the
temple and prayed; and at the end of that time, O-Tsuyu suddenly and
completely recovered.

Then there was great rejoicing in the house of Tokubei; and he gave a
feast to all his friends in celebration of the happy event. But on the
night of the feast the nurse O-Sodé was suddenly taken ill; and on the
following morning, the doctor, who had been summoned to attend her,
announced that she was dying.

Then the family, in great sorrow, gathered about her bed, to bid her
farewell. But she said to them:—

“It is time that I should tell you something which you do not know. My
prayer has been heard. I besought Fudō-Sama that I might be permitted
to die in the place of O-Tsuyu; and this great favor has been granted
me. Therefore you must not grieve about my death... But I have one
request to make. I promised Fudō-Sama that I would have a cherry-tree
planted in the garden of Saihōji, for a thank-offering and a
commemoration. Now I shall not be able myself to plant the tree there:
so I must beg that you will fulfill that vow for me... Good-bye, dear
friends; and remember that I was happy to die for O-Tsuyu’s sake.”

After the funeral of O-Sodé, a young cherry-tree,—the finest that could
be found,—was planted in the garden of Saihōji by the parents of
O-Tsuyu. The tree grew and flourished; and on the sixteenth day of the
second month of the following year,—the anniversary of O-Sodé’s
death,—it blossomed in a wonderful way. So it continued to blossom for
two hundred and fifty-four years,—always upon the sixteenth day of the
second month;—and its flowers, pink and white, were like the nipples of
a woman’s breasts, bedewed with milk. And the people called it
_Ubazakura_, the Cherry-tree of the Milk-Nurse.