1
00:00:00,200 --> 00:00:08,560
Yuki Ona by Lefkadio Hearne, in
a village of Musashi Province. They lived

2
00:00:08,599 --> 00:00:14,480
two woodcutters, Mosaku and Minokichi.
At the time of which I am speaking,

3
00:00:14,919 --> 00:00:19,120
Mosaku was an old man, and
Minokichi, his apprentice, was a

4
00:00:19,199 --> 00:00:24,679
lad of eighteen years. Every day
they went together to a forest situated about

5
00:00:24,760 --> 00:00:28,839
five miles from their village. On
the way to that forest, there is

6
00:00:28,879 --> 00:00:33,359
a wide river to cross, and
there is a ferry boat. Several times

7
00:00:33,359 --> 00:00:37,079
a bridge was built where the ferry
is, but the bridge was each time

8
00:00:37,159 --> 00:00:41,880
carried away by a flood. No
common bridge can resist the current there when

9
00:00:41,920 --> 00:00:47,600
the river rises. Mosaku and Minokichi
were on their way home one very cold

10
00:00:47,640 --> 00:00:52,640
evening when a great snow storm overtook
them. They reached the ferry and they

11
00:00:52,640 --> 00:00:56,520
found that the boatman had gone away, leaving his boat on the other side

12
00:00:56,560 --> 00:01:00,799
of the river. It was no
day for swimming, and the woodcutters took

13
00:01:00,799 --> 00:01:04,239
shelter in the ferryman's hut, thinking
themselves lucky to find any shelter at all.

14
00:01:04,879 --> 00:01:08,079
There was no brazier in the hut, nor any place in which to

15
00:01:08,120 --> 00:01:12,079
make a fire. It was only
a two matte hut with a single door

16
00:01:12,640 --> 00:01:19,000
but no window. Mosaku and Minokichee
fastened the door and lay down to rest,

17
00:01:19,319 --> 00:01:23,239
with their straw raincoats over them.
At first, they did not feel

18
00:01:23,319 --> 00:01:26,159
very cold, and they thought that
the storm would soon be over. The

19
00:01:26,239 --> 00:01:32,280
old man almost immediately fell asleep,
but the boy, Minokichee, lay awake

20
00:01:32,319 --> 00:01:36,879
a long time, listening to the
awful wind and the continual slashing of the

21
00:01:36,920 --> 00:01:41,319
snow against the door. The river
was roaring, and the hut swayed and

22
00:01:41,359 --> 00:01:45,680
creaked like a junk at sea.
There was a terrible storm, and the

23
00:01:45,799 --> 00:01:51,599
air was every moment becoming colder,
and Minokichi shivered under his raincoat. But

24
00:01:51,840 --> 00:01:57,040
at last, in spite of the
cold, he too fell asleep. He

25
00:01:57,079 --> 00:02:00,719
was awakened by a showering of snow
in his face. The hut of the

26
00:02:00,760 --> 00:02:05,879
door had been forced open, and
by the snow light Yuki Akari he saw

27
00:02:05,879 --> 00:02:09,719
a woman in the room, a
woman all in white. She was bending

28
00:02:09,719 --> 00:02:15,120
above Mosaku and blowing her breath upon
him, and her breath was like a

29
00:02:15,240 --> 00:02:20,319
bright white smoke. Almost in the
same moment, she turned to Minokichi and

30
00:02:20,400 --> 00:02:23,960
stooped over him. He tried to
cry out, but found that he could

31
00:02:23,960 --> 00:02:29,319
not utter any sound. The white
woman bent down over him, lower and

32
00:02:29,479 --> 00:02:34,159
lower, until her face almost touched
him, and he saw that she was

33
00:02:34,400 --> 00:02:38,759
very beautiful, though her eyes made
him afraid. For a little while she

34
00:02:38,840 --> 00:02:44,960
continued to look at him. Then
she smiled, and she whispered. I

35
00:02:45,120 --> 00:02:49,879
intended to treat you like the other
man, but I cannot help feeling some

36
00:02:49,960 --> 00:02:54,159
pity for you because you are so
young. You are a pretty boy,

37
00:02:54,240 --> 00:03:00,199
Minokichi, and I will not hurt
you now. But if you ever tell

38
00:03:00,280 --> 00:03:05,759
anybody, even your own mother,
about what you have seen this night,

39
00:03:06,520 --> 00:03:12,120
I shall know it, and then
I will kill you. Remember what I

40
00:03:12,280 --> 00:03:16,120
say. With these words, She
turned from him and passed through the doorway.

41
00:03:16,680 --> 00:03:20,800
Then he found himself able to move, and he sprang up and looked

42
00:03:20,800 --> 00:03:24,120
out, But the woman was nowhere
to be seen, and the snow was

43
00:03:24,199 --> 00:03:30,400
driving furiously into the hut. Minokichi
closed the door and secured it by fixing

44
00:03:30,439 --> 00:03:34,120
several billets of wood against it.
He wondered if the wind had blown it

45
00:03:34,120 --> 00:03:38,439
open. He thought that he might
have been only dreaming and might have mistaken

46
00:03:38,479 --> 00:03:40,560
the gleam of the snow light in
the doorway for the figure of a white

47
00:03:40,599 --> 00:03:46,039
woman, but he could not be
sure. He called to Mosaku and was

48
00:03:46,080 --> 00:03:50,000
frightened because the old man did not
answer. He put out his hand in

49
00:03:50,039 --> 00:03:58,199
the dark and touched Mosaku's face and
found that it was ice. Mosaku was

50
00:03:58,360 --> 00:04:04,520
stark dead. By dawn, the
storm was over, and when the ferryman

51
00:04:04,599 --> 00:04:10,879
returned to his station a little after
sunrise, he found Minokichi lying senseless beside

52
00:04:10,919 --> 00:04:15,040
the frozen body of Mosaku. Minokichi
was promptly cared for and soon came to

53
00:04:15,120 --> 00:04:19,399
himself, but he remained a long
time ill from the effects of the cold

54
00:04:19,480 --> 00:04:24,600
of that terrible night. He had
been greatly frightened also by the old man's

55
00:04:24,680 --> 00:04:28,079
death, but he said nothing about
the vision of the woman in white.

56
00:04:28,639 --> 00:04:31,000
As soon as he got well again, he returned to his calling, going

57
00:04:31,040 --> 00:04:35,120
alone every morning to the forest and
coming back at nightfall with his bundles of

58
00:04:35,120 --> 00:04:40,879
wood, which his mother helped him
to sell. One evening in the winter

59
00:04:40,920 --> 00:04:44,480
of the following year, as he
was on his way home, he overtook

60
00:04:44,519 --> 00:04:47,360
a girl who happened to be traveling
by the same road. She was a

61
00:04:47,399 --> 00:04:53,279
tall, slim girl, very good
looking, and she answered Minokichi's greeting in

62
00:04:53,319 --> 00:04:57,279
a voice as pleasant to the ear
as the voice of a songbird. Then

63
00:04:57,319 --> 00:05:00,600
he walked beside her and they began
to talk. The girl said that her

64
00:05:00,680 --> 00:05:04,439
name was O Yuki, that she
had lately lost both of her parents,

65
00:05:04,680 --> 00:05:08,680
and that she was going to Yedo, where she happened to have some poor

66
00:05:08,759 --> 00:05:14,000
relations who might help her to find
a situation as a servant. Minokichi soon

67
00:05:14,079 --> 00:05:16,839
felt charmed by this strange girl,
and the more that he looked at her,

68
00:05:17,279 --> 00:05:20,959
the handsomer she appeared to be.
He asked her whether she was yet

69
00:05:21,000 --> 00:05:27,079
betrothed, and she answered laughingly that
she was free. Then, in her

70
00:05:27,120 --> 00:05:30,160
turn, she asked Minokichi whether he
was married or pledged to marry, and

71
00:05:30,240 --> 00:05:34,439
he told her that although he had
only a widowed mother to support, the

72
00:05:34,519 --> 00:05:40,160
question of an honorable daughter in law
had not yet been considered, as he

73
00:05:40,279 --> 00:05:45,079
was very young. After these confidences, they walked on for a long time

74
00:05:45,120 --> 00:05:53,720
without speaking. But as the proverb
declares, kiga reba memokuchi hodo ni mono

75
00:05:54,040 --> 00:05:58,000
wo i u, when the wish
is there, the eyes can say as

76
00:05:58,079 --> 00:06:00,759
much as the mouth. By the
time they reached the village, they had

77
00:06:00,800 --> 00:06:05,879
become very much pleased with each other, and then Minukichi asked Oyuki to rest

78
00:06:05,920 --> 00:06:12,079
awhile at his house. After some
shy hesitation, she went there with him,

79
00:06:12,120 --> 00:06:15,560
and his mother made her welcome and
prepared a warm meal for her.

80
00:06:15,199 --> 00:06:20,360
Oyuki behaved so nicely that Minukichi's mother
took a sudden fancy to her and persuaded

81
00:06:20,399 --> 00:06:25,439
her to delay her journey to Yedo. And the natural end of the matter

82
00:06:25,720 --> 00:06:30,120
was that Yuki never went to Yodo
at all. She remained in the house

83
00:06:30,560 --> 00:06:35,680
as an honorable daughter in law.
Oyuki proved a very good daughter in law.

84
00:06:36,120 --> 00:06:41,480
When Minukichi's mother came to die some
five years later, her last words

85
00:06:41,519 --> 00:06:45,639
were words of affection and praise for
the wife of her son. And Oyouki

86
00:06:45,759 --> 00:06:50,199
bore Minokichi ten children, boys and
girls, handsome children all of them,

87
00:06:50,279 --> 00:06:56,480
and very fair of skin. The
country folk thought Oyuki a wonderful person by

88
00:06:56,560 --> 00:07:00,639
nature, different from themselves. Most
of the peasant women ate, but Oyuki,

89
00:07:01,079 --> 00:07:04,920
even after having become the mother of
ten children, looked as young and

90
00:07:05,040 --> 00:07:10,120
fresh as on the day when she
had first come to the village. One

91
00:07:10,199 --> 00:07:14,519
night, after the children had gone
to sleep, Oyuki was sewing by the

92
00:07:14,600 --> 00:07:18,759
light of a paper lamp and Minokichi, watching her, said, to see

93
00:07:18,759 --> 00:07:23,959
you sewing there with the light on
your face makes me think of a strange

94
00:07:24,000 --> 00:07:28,560
thing that happened when I was a
lad of eighteen. I then saw somebody

95
00:07:28,600 --> 00:07:32,600
as beautiful and white as you are
now. Indeed, she was very like

96
00:07:32,800 --> 00:07:39,639
you. Without lifting her eyes from
her work, Oyuki responded, tell me

97
00:07:39,720 --> 00:07:44,839
about her. Where did you see
her? Then? Minokichi told her about

98
00:07:44,839 --> 00:07:47,560
the terrible night in the ferryman's hut, and about the white woman that had

99
00:07:47,560 --> 00:07:53,480
stooped above him, smiling and whispering, and about the silent death of old

100
00:07:53,519 --> 00:07:59,079
Mosaku. And he said, asleep
or awake, that was the only time

101
00:07:59,160 --> 00:08:03,000
that I saw a bee being as
beautiful as you. Of course, she

102
00:08:03,079 --> 00:08:05,519
was not a human being, and
I was afraid of her, very much

103
00:08:05,600 --> 00:08:11,079
afraid. But she was so white. Indeed, I have never been sure

104
00:08:11,120 --> 00:08:16,040
whether it was a dream that I
saw or the woman of the snow.

105
00:08:16,319 --> 00:08:20,720
O Yuki flung down her sewing and
arose and bowed above Minokichi where he sat,

106
00:08:20,920 --> 00:08:26,439
and shrieked into his face. It
was I, I I Yuki,

107
00:08:26,519 --> 00:08:28,680
it was. And I told you
then that I would kill you if you

108
00:08:28,720 --> 00:08:33,480
ever said one word about it.
But for those children asleep there. I

109
00:08:33,519 --> 00:08:37,399
would kill you this moment, and
now you had better take very, very

110
00:08:37,440 --> 00:08:39,840
good care of them, for if
ever they have reason to complain of you,

111
00:08:41,000 --> 00:08:43,720
I will treat you as you deserve. Even as she screamed, her

112
00:08:43,799 --> 00:08:48,840
voice became thin, like a crying
of wind. Then she melted into a

113
00:08:48,919 --> 00:08:52,159
bright white mist that spired to the
roof beams, and shut it away through

114
00:08:52,159 --> 00:09:00,559
the smoke hole. Never again was
she seen. And of yuki Ye honor