does it matter about your appearance? I pray you come and greet His Majesty, for he will soon be returning to the capital.”[1]
THE PASSING AWAY OF THE FORMER EMPRESS
The boom of the bell of the Jakkō-in proclaimed the closing day as the evening sun began to sink in the west. His Majesty, full of regret at saying farewell, set out on his return journey with tears in his eyes. The former Empress, her mind occupied in spite of herself with thoughts of bygone days and shedding tears she could not restrain, stood watching the Imperial procession until she could see it no more. Again entering her cell, she prostrated herself before the Buddha. …
The former Empress continued to live on unhappily for some years, till at length she fell ill and took to her bed. She had been awaiting death for a long time, and now she took in her hand the cord of five colors that was fastened to the hand of the Buddha[2] and repeated the nembutsu, “Hail Amida Buddha, Lord who guides us to the Paradise of the West; in remembrance of thy Great Vow, I beseech thee receive me into the Pure Land.” As she thus prayed, the daughter of Korezane and the nun Awa no Naiji, standing on either side of her couch, lifted up their voices in lamentation at their sad parting. As the sound of her prayer grew weaker and weaker, a purple cloud of splendor unknown grew visible in the west, and an unknown perfume of wondrous incense filled the cell, while celestial strains of music were heard from above. Thus, in the middle of the second month of 1213, the former Empress Kenreimon’in breathed her last.
- ↑ The meeting between the former Empress and the Priestly Sovereign, here omitted, consists almost entirely of a recounting, by the Empress, of the events of the past few months.
- ↑ In Jōdo Buddhism, the believer on his deathbed grasps a cord attached to a picture of the Buddha, and is supposed thus to be drawn into Paradise.
