Japanese Ghost Stories - Story 8

STORY 8
The mirror and the bell

They rang the bell as hard as they could. But it was a strong bell, and nobody could break it.

Eight hundred years ago, the priests of Mugenyama in Totomi a big bell for their temple. They metal. They local women to give their old metal mirrors to the temple. These could be to make the bell.

Many women their mirrors to the temple, but one young woman soon to miss her mirror very badly. She remembered her mother’s stories about it. She remembered that it to her grandmother before her mother. She her own happy smiles in it.

“If I offer the priests enough money, I can buy it back,” she . “But I do not have enough money,” she remembered. Her husband was a farmer, and they not rich.

Every time she to the temple, she saw her mirror. It lay on top of a pile of mirrors. She knew that it was her mirror. It had pictures of trees and flowers on the back.
“I have always those pictures,” she remembered. “My mother first them to me when I was a baby.”
She wanted to steal the mirror and hide it.

“Then I will always keep it safe,” she . But she could see no way to steal it.
She very unhappy. “I feel I have given away part of my life,” she thought. “People say that a mirror is the spirit of a woman. They are right.”

“When I am , it will be easy to heat the mirror. Then you can use it for the bell. Ring the bell hard! If someone break the bell, my ghost will return with a gift of money.”
And then she in the river.

When an angry person kills herself, her final promise always true. That is what people say.
The dead woman’s mirror was to the bell metal and the bell was at last. They it the bell of Mugen. People did not forget about the dead woman’s letter. As soon as the bell was hanging in the temple, everybody wanted to ring it. They the bell as hard as they could. But it was a strong bell and nobody break it.