A Farmer’s Good Luck

A Japanese fairy tale

Photo by on

The best time to cut bamboo was at the end of the rainy season and the beginning of the dry season. Cut too early and it would be moist and crack later during the dry season — houses collapsed when bamboo was cut too early. Cut too late and it would be sweet as sugar and attract insects to eat it, causing many problems for the people living there. It was Take’s job to determine the best season and work quickly for a good harvest. The best bamboo came from this time, and he could sell it for the highest price.

So it was nearing the end of summer when he was walking through the stand, assessing the stalks. There was a brief break in the rain; the air felt cooler as it became drier. Under the stalks, it was dark already, although out in a field, the sky still held the violet of sunset. He moved by feel and the change in the air and was lulled by the music of the plants, the loud shushing of the leaves. His eyes were useless in the dark, so he closed them and walked forward using his hands and the hardened soles of his feet, knowing the land better than he knew his own body.

Suddenly, his eyelids glowed red and he opened them to see the stalks of bamboo outlined by a powerful light, a glow so bright that he had to hold his hand before his face. He couldn’t see the source of the light, but it was blocking his path home. He’d…