I recently visited the Cloud Forest temple, where the ceremony of explaining the sutra of the Flower of the Law took place, and I met two amazing old men there, they were older than ordinary people. One was one hundred and ninety years old, the other one hundred and eighty. The temple was crowded with many people, monks and lay people, servants and servants, important gentlemen and common people. But the mentor-interpreter of the sutras did not appear, and everyone patiently expected. Here word for word, and the elders began to remember the past - because they survived thirteen imperial reigns and saw and remembered all the courtiers and emperors. All those present moved closer to listen to stories about antiquity too. When else do you hear this! The elders, and their names were Yotsugi and Shigeki, really wanted to remember what happened in the old days, they said that in ancient times people, if they wanted to talk, but could not, dug a hole and told them their secrets.

How amusing it was to look at the old man Yotsugi when he opened a yellow fan with ten planks of ebony persimmon and laughed importantly. He was going to tell the audience about the happy fate of his lordship Mr. Mitinagi from the powerful family of Fujiwara, who surpassed everyone in the world. This is a difficult and great matter, and therefore he will have to tell one after another about many emperors and empresses, ministers and high dignitaries. And then the course of things in the world will become clear. And Yotsugi will only talk about what he heard and saw.

The assembled in the temple rejoiced and moved even closer to the elders. And Yotsugi broadcast: “From the very creation of the world, one after the other to the current reign, sixty-eight generations of emperors have changed, except for seven generations of gods. The first was Emperor Lzimmu, but no one remembers those distant times. I myself am a witness of the time when, on the first day of the third moon of the third year, Kajo, in the year of the younger brother of fire and horse, Emperor Montoku ascended the throne and ruled the world for eight years. His mother, Empress Gojo, was dedicated to the wonderful poems of the famous poet Arivar Narikhir. How beautiful and graceful life was in the old days! Not like now. ”

Shigaki said: “You brought a mirror, and it reflected the many fates of the noble and famous people. We have the feeling that the morning sun shone brightly on us, facing the darkness of many years. I am now like a mirror in the crest box that lies abandoned in the women's chambers. It’s hard to see anything. When we stand against you, like a polished mirror, we see the past and the future, fates, characters and forms. ”

Yotsugi put it this way: "I am an old mirror, / And the emperors are seeing in me / The Emperors, their descendants - / In a row - / None is hidden.

Yotsugi recounted: “The Left Minister Morotada was the fifth son of the noble Tadahira. He had a daughter of inexplicable charms. When she was going to the palace and getting into the carriage, her hair stretched across the entire courtyard to the main pillar in the reception hall, and if white paper was put under her hair, then not a single piece would be visible. The corners of her eyes were a little down, which was very elegant. Once the emperor found out that this young lady knows by heart the famous anthology, “Collection of Old and New Songs of Japan,” and decided to try it out. He hid the book and recited the opening lines of the Preface, “Yamato Songs ...” by heart, and she easily continued and then read verses from all sections, and there were no discrepancies with the text. Hearing about this, the noble lord her father, the left minister of Morotada, put on ceremonial clothes, washed his hands and ordered to read the sutras everywhere and prayed for her himself. And the emperor fell in love with Morotada’s daughter with an unusual love, personally taught her to play the zither, but then, they say, his love completely passed. She gave birth to a son; to all, the son was good and beautiful to himself, but mourned by the head. So the son of the great ruler and grandson of the glorious husband of the left minister Morotada turned out to be moronic - this is truly amazing! ”

Yotsugi said: “When the emperor-monk Sanjou was still alive, then everything was fine, but when he passed away, everything changed for the disgraced prince and it was not like it used to be. The courtiers did not come to him and indulge in entertainment with him, no one served him. There was no one to share the hours of boredom with him, and he could only absentmindedly indulge in memories of better times. The courtiers became fearful and, fearing the wrath of the new emperor, avoided the prince's chambers. And the residents of the house felt that it was difficult to serve him, and the lowest servants of the palace order considered it shameful to clean in his chambers, and therefore the grass grew densely in his garden, and his house was dilapidated. The rare courtiers who sometimes visited him advised him to renounce his inheritance and relinquish his dignity before being forced to do so. And when the messenger of the powerful Mitinagi from the Fujiwara clan appeared to the prince, he informed him that he decided to get a monk's haircut: “I have not been given the time of my stay in the dignity of the crown prince and my fate in this world. Having laid down my dignity, I will quench my heart and become an ascetic on the path of the Buddha, go on a pilgrimage and remain in peace and tranquility. "

The rally, fearing that the prince might change his mind, appeared to him, accompanied by his sons and a large brilliant retinue, with walkers and advanced horsemen. His way out was crowded and noisy, and it must have been restless in his heart, though he had made up his mind. Mr. Mitinaga understood his feelings and served him at the table, served dishes, and wiped the table with his own hands. Having lost his high rank, the former prince grievously mourned the loss and soon died. ”

Yotsugi said: “One senior adviser was naturally skilled at making things. The sovereign at that time was still very young for years, and he deigned to somehow command his courtiers to bring him new toys. And everyone rushed to look for different wonders - gold and silver, lacquered and carved - and brought the young emperor a whole mountain of beautiful toys. The senior adviser made a spinning top, and attached cords of purple to him, and twisted in front of the emperor, and he began to run after the top in circles and have fun. And this toy became his constant amusement, and he did not even look at the mountain of expensive wonders, And the courtiers also made fans of gold and silver paper with sparkles, and the planks of fragrant wood with different fancy, wrote rare verses on incredibly beautiful paper. The senior adviser, however, took a simple yellowish paper with a watermark for the fan and, “holding back his brush,” amazingly wrote a few poetic words in “grassy writing”. And everyone was delighted, and the sovereign put this fan in his hand casket and often admired it. "

Yotsugi said: “Once upon a time, the sovereign went on a horseback trip and took a young page from the Fujiwara clan with him, the sovereign deigned to amuse himself with playing the zither, and played it with the help of special claws put on his fingers. So, the emperor deigned to drop these claws somewhere along the way, and no matter how they looked for them, they could not find them. And while traveling, there were no other claws to get, and then the sovereign ordered the page to remain in that place and the claws would certainly be found. And he turned his horse and went to the palace. The poor page put a lot of work to find those claws, but they were nowhere to be found. It was impossible to return with nothing, and the boy vowed to the Buddha that he would build a temple in the place where the claws were found. How could such a desire have arisen in such a young heart? It can be seen that all this was predetermined: that the emperor dropped his claws, and that he ordered the page to look for them. This is the story of Gorakuji Temple. He was planning to build a very young lad, which, of course, is surprising. ”

Yotsugi said: “Two boys were born from the prince’s daughter, like two slender trees, beautiful and smart, they grew up and became junior military leaders at the court, gentlemen,“ picking flowers ”. Once, in the year of the elder brother of the Tree and the Dog, a cruel weather broke out, and the elder brother died in the morning, and the younger brother in the evening. One can only imagine what the feelings of the mother were, in which two children died during the day. The younger brother zealously obeyed the laws of Buddha for many years and, while dying, said to his mother: “When I die, do nothing with my body that is appropriate in such cases, just read the Flower of the Law sutra above me and I will certainly return.” His mother didn’t forget this testament, but since she was not inside herself after the death of two, someone else from home turned the headboard to the west and all that was supposed to, and therefore he could not return. Later, he dreamed of a dream of his mother and addressed her with verses, for he was a wonderful poet: “She promised me firmly, / But how could you forget / That I will be back soon / From the banks of the River / Crossed”.

And how did she regret it! The youngest son was of rare beauty, and in future generations it is unlikely that anyone superior to him will appear. He was always slightly sloppy in clothing, but much more elegant than all those who tried their best. He did not pay attention to people, but only mumbled under his nose the sutra of the Flower of the Law, but with what unsurpassed grace he fingered crystal beads! The older brother was also handsome, but much ruder than the younger. Once, after death, they appeared in a dream to a certain learned monk, and he began to question them about their fate in the death chamber and tell how his mother grieved for her younger brother, and he answered, smiling affectionately: “What we call rains, / These are lotuses scattered on the carpet. / Why / Sleeves are wet from tears / In my hometown? ”

The courtiers remembered how once during a snowfall the younger brother visited the left minister and broke a plum branch weighed in snow in his garden, he shook it, and the snow slowly showered flakes on his dress, and since the back of his dress was faded yellow, and the sleeves when he plucked a branch, turned inside out, the snow stained them, and all of it in the snow shone with such beauty that some even wept. It was filled with such a sad charm!

Yotsugi said: “One emperor was possessed by an evil spirit and often was in a bad mood and sometimes could completely forget himself and appear in a ridiculous form before his subjects, but he knew how to compose beautiful songs, people passed them by word of mouth, and no one could compare with him in poetry. He surrounded himself only with exquisite things, I was honored to see his tushenik, which he donated for reading the sutras, when the Sixth Prince fell ill: on the seashore was depicted Mount Khorai, long-armed and long-legged creatures, and everything was done with extraordinary art. The magnificence of his utensils is beyond description. His shoes were carried out to show the people. He very skillfully painted, knew how to draw the rolling wheels of the crew with the inimitable art of ink, and once he depicted the customs adopted in rich houses and commoners, so much so that everyone was in love. ”

There was no end to Yotsugi's stories, another elder Shigeki echoed him, and other people, servants, monks, servants, also remembered the details and added what they knew about the life of the wonderful people of Japan. And the elders did not stop repeating: “How happy we met. We opened the bag, which remained closed for years, and tore all the holes, and all the stories burst out and became the property of men and women. There was such a case. Once, a man of holy life, who wanted to devote himself to serving the Buddha, but hesitated, arrived in the capital and saw the minister appear in the shiny clothes to the court, the servants and bodyguards running in front of him, and his subjects marching around, and thought that it was obvious first person in the capital. But when the minister appeared before Mitinaga from the Fujiwara clan, a man of extraordinary will and mind, powerful and unyielding, the holy man realized that he was the one who excels everyone. But then a procession appeared and announced the arrival of the emperor, and by the way he was expected and received and how the holy palanquin was brought in, how he was respected, the holy man realized that the first person in the capital and in Japan was a Mikado. But when the emperor, having descended to the earth, knelt before the face of Buddha in the hall of Amida and made a prayer, the saint said: "Yes, there is no one who would be higher than Buddha, my faith has now become immeasurably strengthened."