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Once upon a time, some two hundred years ago, there lived at a place called Honjo, in Yedo, a Hatamoto named Takoji Genzaburo; his age was about twenty-four or twenty-five, and he was of extraordinary personal beauty.  His official duties made it incumbent on him to go to the Castle by way of the Adzuma Bridge, and here it was that a strange adventure befel him.  There was a certain Eta, who used to earn his living by going out every day to the Adzuma Bridge, and mending the sandals of the passers-by.  Whenever Genzaburo crossed the bridge, the Eta used always to bow to him.  This struck him as rather strange; but one day when Genzaburo was out alone, without any retainers following him, and was passing the Adzuma Bridge, the thong of his sandal suddenly broke:  this annoyed him very much; however, he recollected the Eta cobbler who always used to bow to him so regularly, so he went to the place where he usually sat, and ordered him to mend his sandal, saying to him:  “Tell me why it is that every time that I pass by this bridge, you salute me so respectfully.”

[Illustration:  GENZABURO’S MEETING WITH THE ETA MAIDEN.]

When the Eta heard this, he was put out of countenance, and for a while he remained silent; but at last taking courage, he said to Genzaburo, “Sir, having been honoured with your commands, I am quite put to shame.  I was originally a gardener, and used to go to your honour’s house and lend a hand in trimming up the garden.  In those days your honour was very young, and I myself little better than a child; and so I used to play with your honour, and received many kindnesses at your hands.  My name, sir, is Chokichi.  Since those days I have fallen by degrees info dissolute habits, and little by little have sunk to be the vile thing that you now see me.”

When Genzaburo heard this he was very much surprised, and, recollecting his old friendship for his playmate, was filled with pity, and said, “Surely, surely, you have fallen very low.  Now all you have to do is to presevere and use your utmost endeavours to find a means of escape from the class into which you have fallen, and become a wardsman again.  Take this sum:  small as it is, let it be a foundation for more to you.”  And with these words he took ten riyos out of his pouch and handed them to Chokichi, who at first refused to accept the present, but, when it was pressed upon him, received it with thanks.  Genzaburo was leaving him to go home, when two wandering singing-girls came up and spoke to Chokichi; so Genzaburo looked to see what the two women were like.  One was a woman of some twenty years of age, and the other was a peerlessly beautiful girl of sixteen; she was neither too fat nor too thin, neither too tall nor too short; her face was oval, like a melon-seed, and her complexion fair and white; her eyes were narrow and bright, her teeth small and even; her nose was aquiline, and her mouth delicately