Tales of Old Japan - Maybe You Like It

een recollected chiefly for the ludicrous events which it gave rise to.
The mounted escort of the British Legation executed a brilliant charge of
cavalry down an empty road; a very pretty line of skirmishers along the
fields fired away a great deal of ammunition with no result; earthworks
were raised, and Kôbé was held in military occupation for three days,
during which there were alarms, cutting-out expeditions with armed
boats, steamers seized, and all kinds of martial effervescence. In fact, it
was like fox-hunting: it had "all the excitement of war, with only ten per
cent. of the danger."
The first thought of the kind-hearted doctor of the British Legation
was for the poor old woman who had been wounded, and was bemoaning
herself piteously. When she was carried in, a great difficulty arose,
which, I need hardly say, was overcome; for the poor old creature belonged
to the Etas, the Pariah race, whose presence pollutes the house
even of the poorest and humblest Japanese; and the native servants
strongly objected to her being treated as a human being, saying that the
Legation would be for ever defiled if she were admitted within its sacred
precincts. No account of Japanese society would be complete without a
notice of the Etas; and the following story shows well, I think, the position
which they hold.
Their occupation is to slay beasts, work leather, attend upon criminals,
and do other degrading work. Several accounts are given of their origin;
the most probable of which is, that when Buddhism, the tenets of which
forbid the taking of life, was introduced, those who lived by the infliction
of death became accursed in the land, their trade being made hereditary,
as was the office of executioner in some European countries. Another
story is, that they are the descendants of the Tartar invaders left behind
by Kublai Khan. Some further facts connected with the Etas are given in
a note at the end of the tale.
Once upon a time, some two hundred years ago, there lived at a place
called Honjô, in Yedo, a Hatamoto named Takoji Genzaburô; 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 Genzaburô crossed the bridge, the Eta used always
to bow to him. This struck him as rather strange; but one day when
Genzaburô was out alone, without any retainers following him, and was
passing the Adzuma Bridge, the thong of his sandal suddenly broke: this
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