In the Genroku period (1688–1703) Usugumo was one of the most popular of the Yoshiwara courtesans and ranked next to Taka-o in this respect. She was an exceedingly beautiful woman, graceful and slender as a willow-tree, and moreover she was versed in all those polite accomplishments the acquirement of which is necessary to a Japanese lady. On the 15th day of the 8th month of a certain year she was holding a “moon-viewing” party with her guest in the second story of an “age-ya” and was busily composing or reading Japanese and Chinese poems while enjoying the ravishing splendour of the full harvest moon which hung like a glittering silver[272] mirror in the cloudless autumnal sky. Presently thin clouds appeared on the horizon, and gradually spreading themselves over the heavens screened the moon from view. In the adjoining room a Kōshi-joro named Matsuyama (“Pine Mountain”) was also holding a moon-viewing party with her guest, and this woman, not being on good terms with Usugumo [“Thin (or ‘Faint’) Clouds”] maliciously remarked:—
“The thin clouds are insolently hiding the beauteous moon from public gaze.”
Hearing this but ill-veiled sneer directed at herself by means of a clever play upon the words “usu-gumo” [faint (or thin) clouds] Usugumo, unable to control her temper, replied with cruel directness:—
“Those thin clouds which now obscure the moon may appear to be blots on the sky above us, but after all they are but transient and will soon drift away. The pine-crowned mountain (Matsuyama) yonder on the contrary looms up dark and forbidding in the landscape and permanently obstructs the best view of the orb of night.”
Discomforted by this spontaneous and fitting answer, Matsuyama coloured up and immediately retired from the party. Usugumo was well-known for her ready wit and cleverness in repartee, and the above incident proves that her reputation was well deserved. (Brief sketches of the lives of famous courtesans./The nightless city; or, The “history of the Yoshiwara Yūkwaku/J. E. De Becker)
