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The Legend of theGreatestMaster

EnglishTranslation
of Nakajima Atsushis f 46

Translators
Loretta
LORENZ Takumi KASHIMA

1909 1942 1909

1941

1942

12 4

12 12

Inthecapitalof KantanintheLandof Chothere

llved
a Man whose name wag Kisho
whose decpest
wish was tobecomethegreatest
archer in Inpusuitof this
theworld having
aim searched out allmanner of

teachers he could
settle on
no
other
thanHieithe most

renowned master of archery at thetime
It
was said
of

Hieithatout of a hundredshots atahundredpaces a willow leaf

hecould hit
targeta hundredtimes
And so it

was that Klsho le adistant Kantan and made hisway to Hiei

to commend himselfas pupil to the great Master

Hieiordered his
new pupjfirst
to learnhow not to b
inkhiseyes
With that
Kisho went
home
hiswife loom
laydown hisback
crawled under s weaving
on and stared upward He determined
to
fix his

eyes unblinkingly at the pointedwooden shaft moving swiftly up and down almost close enough to prickhis
eye
Hiswife had no ideawhat hewas up toand was quiteupset
First
of al1
she was disconcerted
thather

husband should placehimselfinthat outlandish

positionpeeringup from such

a peculiarangle
When she

grewirritated
byallthis
Kishoscolded herroundly and gotherreluctantly to goon weaving Day after day

inthe g
ame singular manner he
went on training himselfnot toblink
Two yearspassed
and thepointed
peg

moving rapidly up and down beneath

the loomcould
nleet hiseye lashes
without At last
producing a wink he

crawled out from under the loom

Even if
of a drill
thesharp point were topokehis hewould
eye not blink
even ifsudden sparks were toflyinhlseyes
or whiriing ash to blow over him
henever flinched
He had utterly

frgotten how towork themusc esof his

eyelids so that
even in a deepslumber theyremained wide open

It

was not untila tinyspider spun its

web across his

eye lashes he
that finally
mustered the

self confidence totell

histeacher Hiei

On hearing
this
Hieiretorted Merelykeeping
youreyes open doesnot amount

totruearchery

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The Legend of theGreatestMaster (English

Translation
of Nalcajima
Atsushi'sMcijinden)
rpegedirg.k.fig (LorettaLORENZ&TakumiKASHIMA)

Next you learnto see. When you have achieved that-which means
must to see blurred and indistinctobjects

enlarged and unequivocally clear

- then come back and tell me about it,"
'
Kisho went home again, caught up a louselodged in the seam of hisundershirt, and bound itfast
'
to a single hairof hishead which he hung from the top of a South window. He gazed at itall that day,and
continued day after day gazing at the louse stmng up in the window. At first,
of course, itwas no more than a

louse,and aftertwo or threemore days itwas, naturally, stilla louse. But after ten days-though itmay have

been only fancy-it seemed to have become a triflebigger. Anyway, after threemonths itappeared to him-he
had no doubt- as bigas a silkworrn. The scene outside the window from which the lousedangledalso changed

graduallywith theseasons. The laughing sunshine of spring changed to stinging summer heat, then wild geese
flew high across the clear autumn sky, soon fbllowedby frostycold and grey sleet falling
from above. Kisho
sti11patiently
watched the tiny crawling specimen of the insectfamily Arthropod as ithung from a hair. He

replaced the first

lousemore than ten times over, and so three years flewby. Then suddenly one day,the louse
on the window appeared as 1argeas a horse. "I've
done it!"he shouted, poundinghisknee, and burstfrom the

house. He could hardly believe his eyes. People looked as tall as pagodas, horses like mountains, pigs like
hills,and hens like watch-towers. Jumping fbrjoy,
he went intothehouse again and stationed himselfin front
of the window, With his strong, hartshorn-trimmed bow tightly strung, he drove a sharp arrow right through the

middle of the louse's

heart,
without so much as touching thehairfrornwhich itwas suspended,

Kisho took himselfforthwith

to report to histeacher.HieifairIy
danced with pleasure,
slapped him on

the chest, and lauded him with

"Ybu
did it!" Immediately he began to initiate
Kisho intoall the secrets of the

art of bowmanship.

SinceKisho had already spent five whole yearson nothing but eye training, his progresswas now

amazinglyrapid,

Only ten daysafter he had begun hisinitiation

into the art of the bow, Kisho attempted to hit a willow

leafat 1OO pacesand managed with 100 shots to hitthe mark every time. Twenty days later
he stood a sake cup

of water on hisright elbow, drew hisstout bow tightand shot. The arrow met itsmark without the slightest stir

of the water. Aftera month, when he attempted te shoot a hundred arrows at high speed, the firsthit the mark,

thenext thrustitself
preciselyintothe exact notch of the first
arrow, and thepoint of the third arrow whipped,

not a hair's
breadthto theleftor right, smack! intothe notch of the second one. Shaftupon shaft, shot upon

shot, stuck squarely in the groove of the precedingarrow, and not a single one fe11to the earth. In no time, a

hundred arrows fbrmed one straight ]ine,shaft to shaft, as though bound together,until thelastnotch of thelast
arrow could have been poisedon the bowstring itself.The Master Hiei, who had been watching from nearby,

t`Magnificent!"
murmured a spontaneous

On returning home two months later,

Kisho gotintoa quarrelwith hiswife. In order to frighten
her,
he laid an excellent arrow on his finebowstring, pulled ittaut and ]etthe shaft flypast her eyes. The arrow

neatly sliced away three of her eyelashes and flewintothe distance,butshe herself
noticed nothing. and without

so much as a wink went right on berating her husband. To this degree, owing to his skill, his speed, and his

had his aim

precision excelled.

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ft wh Si JI< :raX ag1OE-

One day, now that he had nothing leftto learn from his Master, a less than noble thought suddenly

floatedintohis head.
After Iengthybrooding oyer the matter, he came to the conclusion that out of Hiei he could gain
nothing more of worth forhisprowess in archery. Furthermore,to become thegreatest
archer on earth, he
would somehow have to get Hieiout of theway. Mulling over thispossibilityone day,he happenedto meet
Hiejall alone on a plain. Kisho snatched an arrow and drew, In the same instant,
Hieisensed the meaning of

hisexpression ancl answered theshot with hisown arrow. Each time they shot, theirtwo arrows met exactly at

midpointand wafted together to the ground, stirring up not a puffof dust,The superb mastery of the two was

an unearthly wondez At Iast}Iieihad used up all his arrows, while Kisho still had one left.Self-assured,he let

itfly.In that fractionof a second, Hiei broke off the branchof a briarbush, and with one sharp thorn deflected
Kisho's missile to the ground.Kisho now realized thathe had not attained the goal of his unbounded ambition

and felta sudden shame, Had he attained his end, he would not have been broughtso morally low as he now

was. Hiei was relieyed to have escaped the danger,and so pleased with his own part,that he lethis opponent's
hatredbe fbrgotten.
Master and disciple
ran toward each other and embraced in the middle of themeadow,
where stirTed by noble love, they wept. (Thiscannot be comprehended in the moral lightof today. One time

the gourmetKanko of Saiyearnedfbrsome novel delicacynot yetsavored, and hischef Ekiga took hisown son

and served him to his master, flesh and bone, in a broth.And there was yetanother time when a 16-year-old

youth, who was to become the firstEmperor of the [fsinDynasty, on the very night of his father'sdeath thrice

took forhimself the beloyed concubine of the deceased. Itisof such times as these thatwe tell,)

While they shed tears in each other's arms, Hiei was thinlcing that itwould be extremely perilous if
hispupil were again to consider such a move, which meant he would certainly have to give him a new goal,
to forestal1any bad outeome. He addressed his dangerous disciple: have shared "I
with you al1that was worth

sharing. Ifyou want to go further

intothis art, you will have to take yourself westward to the steep Taigyo

mountain range and elimb the peak of Kwaku. There dwellsOld Kanyoh, the greatestarcher of all time, To

him our bowmanship ismere child's play. There isno other teacher fitforyou than Kanyoh,"

Kisho set out without delay on his journey

to the West. That his teacher had said that their art up

to thispoint was child's play to thisold master had wounded hispride. Ifthatwere really true,he would still

have a iong way to go in order to become the greatest

bowman in the world. Was the actual state of hisart
really child's play? In that case, he would indeedhave to meet this man as soon as possible and challenge

him,and with thathe hastenedal1themore on hisway, He tore open the soles of hisfeetand strained hislegs,
but nevertheless scrambled up the perilous
peaksand traversed the steep mountain pathsunti1 after a month, he

finally
came to thesummit, his destination,

Whereupon the zealous Kisho was approached by a frai]and hoary old man with eyes as soft and

gentle as a lamb's. He could have been well over a hundredyears old. So bentwas he with age thathis white

beardbrushedtheground as he walked.
Kisho thought the old man was deafand announced hispurposein a loudvoice. Explaining thathe
wished to demonstratehisart, in hishastehe could not wait forthe old man to reply, but took hispowerfu1

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The Legend of the GreatestMaster (English

Ticanslation
of Nakajima Atsushi's
Meijinden)
pl]nstdi TE.NlikJ (LorettaLORENZ&TakumiKASHIMA)

bow from his shoulder and 1aidon an arrow with a sharp tip of stone, Justthen a fiock of migrating birdscame
flyinghigh in the heavens, and at thesehe took aim. He flexedthe bowstringand took out, in one shot, five
1argebirdsfrom the clear bluesky above.
"YOu
shoot very weli," said the old man with an amiable smile.
"Of
course, thatwas a shot with bow

and arrow, but you do not yet know how to shoot without a bow and arrow."

Kisho was incensed at these words, He was then ledby the old hermit to a steep cliff some two

hundredpaces away. At their feetwas a sharp precipice with straight walls almostlikea folding screen, and

far below one could discerna mountain stream as fineas a thread. Only a quickglancedown thatdeep abyss

would bring on a sharp vertigo. From thiswall the Old Man stepped right out onto a crag that hung halfway

in the air. He twisted himselfaround and said to Kisho:`CWell, how about it?Can you repeat your little
show

of art from here?" There was no turning back, As Kisho tread on the rock where the old man had stood, he
wavered slightly in hisresolve. Afterhe had stirred up hiscourage again and was about to positionhisarrow,
a small stone frem the edge of the cliff fell
away. Kisho'seyes fo11oweditand instinctively,
he threw himself
to the ground. His legs trembled and he broke into a sweat down to his very heels. The old man laughingly

reached out a hand and helpedhirnfrom theoverhanging rock shelf; then he mounted therock himself and said,
C`Shall
I driye a shot fbr you?" Kisho, still paleand trembling, noticed that he had no bow and said,
"But
what

about thebow? The bow.,,?"The old man stood with hispale hands empty, "A
bow?" said he smiling. "If

you need a bow, that'ssimply shooting with bow and arrow. With sufficient schooling of the spirit, you need no

lacqueredbow, no well-crafted arrow."

Directly
overhead, highin the air, a hawk was drawinga greatsweeping circle. Itlookedas small as

a sesame seed and for a short while Kanyoh looked up, contemplating it. Then he fittedan invisiblearTow to

hisformlessbow, fiexeditto the span of a fu11moon and shot, Behold, without a fiutter
of a wing, thehawk
dropped likea stone from the heights,

Kisho shivered. For the first

time he saw and was struck by the unfathomable beauty and depths of

Art sublime.

Nine years longKisho remained at the side of thisaged Master,thoughnone could say what training

he underwent,

When, after those nine years,Kisho returmed from the mountains, the people were astonished at his

aspect, His fOrmer unyielding and fearless

mien had vanished and hisfaceseemed as blank and empty as a

figure carved from wood-or a simpleton, After some time, Kisho visited his old teacher Hiei, wbo with one

glanceat the former'sface,called in wonderment. indeedisthe greatestMaster on Earth;people

`tHere
out

such as we are not worthy to stand befbrehim!"

The city of Kantan welcomed Kisho,who had now become the GreatestMaster in the World, The

peopleglowed inanticipation of Kisho'snow performingbeforeall eyes hissupreme ski11,

However, Kisho did not offer the least promisetoward their expectations, No, not even once did

he take up a bow, That stout bow which he had canied with him to the mountains, he must have cast away

somewhere. When someone asked him about it,he gaveonly a languorous reply.

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ft es et Ji< ge. x ng10E

"Action
fbrthe sake of action amounts to noth{ng; wise speech needs no words; and the bestarcher

needs no bow."
"That
makes sense," said the good people of Kantan who were able to understand. They were proud
of theirbowmaster who needed no bow. The glory of his invincibilitycovered all, however long he did not

touch a bow.
There were various reports that spread among the people. Every midnight someone would hear the

sound of arrows against theroof

pattering of Kisho'shouse.They said thatwhile Kisho slept, thegod of archers

who lived inside such Masters, would slip out of his body, undertake a nightwatch and drive away the ghosts.
A merchant who livedin the neighborhood that one night he had seen Kisho atop a cioud floating
testified over

the greatmaster's house, unprecedented bow in hand, in contest with two Masters of ancient times, Gei and

Ybhyuki, There, each arrow shot by thethree Masters,in a beam of soft lighthad vanished intothe night sky

Eyen a thiefswore thatjust

betweenOrton and Sirius. as he had made to slip intoKisho's house, about to climb
the wall, he was hitin the fbreheadwith a sharp, fbrmlessarrow shot from the building,
and had fallen
back the
moment he had feltit,Afterthat,men with evil intentwould make a good kilometer's
detour of the place,and

the more clever birds flew no more across thatroof.

In the height of farne,
the Master Kisho grew gradually
old. Long before,
he had loosed his seul from

the bowmanship
gripof perfected and seemed to have attained the utmost peace of spirit. His face of a wooden

figurehad lostall expression, hisspeech was seldom heard,and one would doubteven whether he stM breathed.

In theIastyear of his life,the old Master was heard to say,

"I
do not remember the difference between the I and

the Other;I no longerknow thewhat of Yes and of No. [[bme, theeyes are theears, the ears the nose, and the
nose the mouth. It isall one and the same."

Fortyyears after he had taken leaveof hisold teacher Kanyoh, Kisho quietlypassed from thisworld,
as quietlyas smoke. During those fbrtyyears he had certainly never more spoken of archery, and ifhe never

even uttered the word, itwas unthinkable thathe might ever again have put a hand to bow or arrow. Ofcourse,

as storyteller, I would liketo bringtheold Master through some spectacular deedsbeforetheend, tellingwhy
he was truly the greatest
Archer in the world. But somehow, we dare not distortor embellish the factsdescribed

in the writings of old. His very inaction

in hisold age served, in fact,to act a great lessonon others, precisely
becausehe didno act. And so itseems thatonly curious talessuch as thisare handed down to us.

There remains one incidentthat was said to haye happenedayear or two befbrehisdeath.Itseems
that one day old Kisho was invited
to the home of an acquaintance, where hiseye feIlupon an implementthere.
He surely should have recognized it,but he simply could not remember what itwas called or what itwas used

"What kind of
fbr. The ancient asked his host, apparatus is thatand what isitfor?" The host,thinking his

guestwasjesting, gave an embarrassed laugh. Old Kisho, all in earnest, asked a second time. But the man kept

smiling, since he could not decipher hisguest's inscrutal)le

expression. When Kisho asked thesame question
intently
a third time,
the hostblanchedin something 1ikehorror.He lookedhardintothe old man's eyes. This

personwas not joking,

nor was he mad, and the host had certainly not erred. He was overcome with awe and

cried out, stumbling over thewords, "Oh,

the Master! Has the greatestbowmasterof all time utterly fbrgotten
thebow and arTow? Not even what they are called nor what they are used for!"

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The Legend of theGreatestMaster (English

Translation
of Nakajima Atsushi Meijinden)
's

4]StwO rg l.Ms (Loretta

LORENZ & Takumi KAsHIMA)

Thereafier,fora longtime in the capital city of Kantan,paintershidtheirbrushes,musicians tore the

strings from theirinstmments,and craftsmen were ashamed to take up compass and rule.

Atsushi Nakajima's ChronologicalTable and His Major Works

1909 (Meiji
42)

Born in YOtsuya, [Ibkyo. Father, [fabito,teacher of Chinese classics; mother, Chiyo primaryschool teacher.

Grandfatheralso a teacher of Chineseclassics. Educationin Chineseclassics acquired at home.

1916 (Taisho
5)
Entered primary school, Nara Prefecture. Later attended schools inShizuokaand inSeoul.

1922 (Taisho
11)

Attended secondary scheol in Seoul.

1926 (Taisho
15)

EnteredDai-ichi
High School,Tokyo.

1930 (Showa5)
EnteredJapaneseLiterature
Department,Tokyo Imperial University.

1931 (Showa
6)
Manied Taka Hashimoto,

1933 (Showa8)
GraduatedUniversity.
Taughtat Ybkohama Womens' High School;entered Tokyo ImperialUniversity
Graduate
Schoolspecializing in Ogai Mori.

1934 (Showa9)
Left graduatefbr poor health. Novel, 7bragari (nger-hunting)
gained honorable mention in Chuo Koron

contest. Sufferedserious asthma. Travelled to Ogasawara Islands,

1941 (Showa16)
Leave of absence from YOkohama Womensr High School;took postas textbook compiler, SouthseasAgency in
PalaluIslands.

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1942 Showa l 7

Retumed toTokyo devotedself towriting and cure Hikari
ToKazeToYume
Light
Wi nd nd Dream

published
shortlisted f
r
Akutagawa Liter
ary Award
Died of asthma

Major Works

Sangetsuki
February
1942
4 December 1942
Deshi February
1943
Riryo July 1943

Co leteWorks ofAtsushi
Nakajima 1944

NotesKantan
of Cho capital city of Cho
one of the seven greatprovincesinthe Sengoku Era
C
403 B to 221 B
C

China
now in Hebei district

was

capital from386B
Cto222B
C
Kanko Sai ruler
of of from 685 B
Saiprovince C tQ 643 B
C

The FirstEmperorof theTsinDynastyShiHuangdiwho unified Chinaforthe

first
timeand reigned from259

B
Cto 210B
C

Taigyo Four hundredkilometer

Iong
mountain range
bordering
Hebei and Sha xidistricts

KakuzanDominantpeal of T gyomountain range
Gei Legendary archery master of ancient Chinesetalein wh ichten suns
appear duingreign
of one Emperor Ko

causing agonizi gheat

Geishoots down
nine suns with bow and arrow

Y6hyuki Archery master 770B

inthe Chunqiu era
C C
to453 B Outof a hundred shots ata hundredpaces

was said capable of a willow leaf

hitting targetahundredtimes

r 3

1992

1994

2004

2006 2 NHK

N Kawauchiund S
Wundt er MeisterVerlag
Daigakusyorin

wrhxy318 ybb
ne jp

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