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    The Mirror of Matsuyama

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    Julieta Granada Asuncion
    The man brings back a mirror from his travels as a gift for his wife. After the wife passes away, she gives the mirror to her daughter and tells her that when she looks in it, she will see her mother's face. The stepmother later accuses the daughter of using witchcraft with the mirror. The father confronts the daughter, who explains that she looks in the mirror to see her deceased mother's comforting face. The father then understands and appreciates the daughter's filial piety.

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    The Mirror of Matsuyama

    Uploaded by

    Julieta Granada Asuncion
    549 views2 pages
    The man brings back a mirror from his travels as a gift for his wife. After the wife passes away, she gives the mirror to her daughter and tells her that when she looks in it, she will see her mother's face. The stepmother later accuses the daughter of using witchcraft with the mirror. The father confronts the daughter, who explains that she looks in the mirror to see her deceased mother's comforting face. The father then understands and appreciates the daughter's filial piety.

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    The man brings back a mirror from his travels as a gift for his wife. After the wife passes away, she gives the mirror to her daughter and tells her that when she looks in it, she will see her mother's face. The stepmother later accuses the daughter of using witchcraft with the mirror. The father confronts the daughter, who explains that she looks in the mirror to see her deceased mother's comforting face. The father then understands and appreciates the daughter's filial piety.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    549 views2 pages

    The Mirror of Matsuyama

    Uploaded by

    Julieta Granada Asuncion
    The man brings back a mirror from his travels as a gift for his wife. After the wife passes away, she gives the mirror to her daughter and tells her that when she looks in it, she will see her mother's face. The stepmother later accuses the daughter of using witchcraft with the mirror. The father confronts the daughter, who explains that she looks in the mirror to see her deceased mother's comforting face. The father then understands and appreciates the daughter's filial piety.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 2

    The Mirror of Matsuyama (Japanese Folktale)

    In ancient days there lived in a remote part of Japan a man and his wife, and they were blessed

    with a little girl, who was the pet and idol of her parents. On one occasion the man was called away on

    business in distant Kyoto. Before he went he told his daughter that if she were good and dutiful to her

    mother he would bring her back a present she would prize very highly. Then the good man took his

    departure, mother and daughter watching him go.

    At last he returned to his home, and after his wife and child had taken off his large hat and

    sandals he sat down upon the white mats and opened a bamboo basket, watching the eager gaze of his

    little child. He took out a wonderful doll and a lacquer box of cakes and put them into her outstretched

    hands. Once more he dived into his basket, and presented his wife with a metal mirror. Its convex surface

    shone brightly, while upon its back there was a design of pine trees and storks.

    The good man's wife had never seen a mirror before, and on gazing into it she was under the

    impression that another woman looked out upon her as she gazed with growing wonder. Her husband

    explained the mystery and bade her take great care of the mirror.

    Not long after this happy homecoming and distribution of presents the woman became very ill.

    Just before she died she called to her little daughter, and said: "Dear child, when I am dead take every

    care of your father. You will miss me when I have left you. But take this mirror, and when you feel most

    lonely look into it and you will always see me." Having said these words she passed away.

    In due time the man married again, and his wife was not at all kind to her stepdaughter. But the

    little one, remembering her mother's words, would retire to a corner and eagerly look into the mirror,

    where it seemed to her that she saw her dear mother's face, not drawn in pain as she had seen it on her

    deathbed, but young and beautiful.


    One day this child's stepmother chanced to see her crouching in a corner over an object she could

    not quite see, murmuring to herself. This ignorant woman, who detested the child and believed that her

    stepdaughter detested her in return, fancied that this little one was performing some strange magical art--

    perhaps making an image and sticking pins into it. Full of these notions, the stepmother went to her

    husband and told him that his wicked child was doing her best to kill her by witchcraft.

    When the master of the house had listened to this extraordinary recital he went straight to his

    daughter's room. He took her by surprise, and immediately the girl saw him she slipped the mirror into

    her sleeve. For the first time her doting father grew angry, and he feared that there was, after all, truth in

    what his wife had told him, and he repeated her tale forthwith.

    When his daughter had heard this unjust accusation she was amazed at her father's words, and she

    told him that she loved him far too well ever to attempt or wish to kill his wife, who she knew was dear to

    him.

    "What have you hidden in your sleeve?" said her father, only half convinced and still much

    puzzled.

    "The mirror you gave my mother, and which she on her deathbed gave to me. Every time I look

    into its shining surface I see the face of my dear mother, young and beautiful. When my heart aches--and

    oh! it has ached so much lately--I take out the mirror, and mother's face, with sweet, kind smile, brings

    me peace, and helps me to bear hard words and cross looks."

    Then the man understood and loved his child the more for her filial piety. Even the girl's

    stepmother, when she knew what had really taken place, was ashamed and asked forgiveness. And this

    child, who believed she had seen her mother's face in the mirror, forgave, and trouble forever departed

    from the home.

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