The Banyan Tree and The Love Letters

My colleague Gina grew up in Okinawa islands, Japan. She told me a popular jest back to her hometown.

“Oh, I am in love. I love her/him.”

“Are you sure? Make sure you are not in love with a Kodama.”

Kodama is a Japanese tree spirit. They are warm and loving in their hearts but, depicted as Sadako (a female ghost), ghastly in appearance.

It all came from a story.

Yamato and Akari

In a little village, the little boy Yamato fell in love with his teacher, Kyoushi Akari.

He was ten or eleven. She was in her early twenties, assigned to the little school after graduation. With a baby face, little eyes, and everlasting smile, she was charming for everyone in the village.

She lived next to the school, which was next to a large Banyan tree. The elders said the tree had got hundreds of years old. It must have got its Kodama.

Yamato had that feeling for the first time. He couldn’t tell anyone. He wrote a love letter to Akari every day. They were most like the short notes:

“Kyoushi, you wore a pink kimono today. You look beautiful.”

“I was so excited when you came to talk to me today. I wish you have stayed a little longer.”

The notes piled up. He got anxious. His mom came to his room for housekeeping every day. He had to find a secret place to keep the letters.

Or send them to Akari.

One day he saw Akari sit under the Banyan tree, reading. He saw her there again after a couple of days. “She comes here very often,” he decided. “I will send the letters to the tree.”

One night Yamato made an excused to his parents, went to the Banyan tree. He carried his satchel with the letters. No one was there. He knew there was a hole in the trunk. He would have to climb up to get there. Akari should be able to get her hands into it on her toes.

He left the stack of letters in the hole, put a stone on the top. To be safe, he left a plastic pouch at the entry. Its glaring color should one day attract Akari’s attention.

He came back the second week. The letters were still there. He didn’t really mind. In fact he didn’t want to think about what would happen if Akari found out. He just wanted to keep writing the letters. He left the new ones written in the past week.

The third week, nothing happened. Again, he left the letters.

The fourth week, the letters were gone.

He was thrilled, “She took my letters!”

He was more convinced the next day when he saw Aakari in the school. When walking past his table, she tilted her head, gave him a big, big smile.

He was the happiest boy in the world ever since. Every four weeks, Akari came to the Banyan tree to collect the letters. He was never able to find out when and how she did it. But he knew for sure they made her happy, as revealed by how she smiled at him in school. Although she never came to talk to him privately, he didn’t care at all. Writing her letters and seeing her smile — he didn’t know anything better than that.

Thunder and Lightning

The summer came. So did the thunder and lightning. They often struck the trees and caused the fire.

One night Yamato was awakened by loud thunders. He felt uneasy. It’s almost time for Akari to collect the letters. It’s a high stack of letters in the hole. If the tree was struck by lightning his secret could be exposed. Suddenly he felt an urge to take the letters back. He would send them back after the bad weather.

He snuck out through the window and ran for the Banyan tree. The lightning struck around the forest. He kept running.

As soon as he saw the Banyan tree, it was struck by a lightning. Huge sparks burst out on its top, the surroundings were lit up as bright as day. In a fleeting moment, he saw Akari. She stood on tiptoe, one hand stuck in the hole, trying to take the letters.

The lightning struck her, too. She wiggled wildly, hair flying everywhere, then plunged to the ground. The letters exploded over her head like the flurry of the snowflakes.

Yamato gave an exclamation, ran to Akari. She lay face down, wearing a light-blue skirt — he saw her wearing it in school today. “Kyoushi!” Teacher! He struggled to turn her around. In a flash of lightning, he saw her face.

In half.

The single eye, half nose, and half mouth were all painted. The burning edges made them all easy to tell the painting. The other half was all burnt out, revealing a ghost face — dark and green skin, big fangs.

The real eye, still rolling, stared at Yamato.

Yamato thought he saw a gleam of tenderness in the eye. Then he gave another scream, passed out.

Kodama and Akari

The next day, the village was talking about the horrible lightning the night before. Somebody said they saw a young woman carrying a little boy, floating into Yamato’s house through the window.

Yamato was sick at home for a long time, before moving to another town with his family. His dad went to the school to collect his files. “Yamato keeps saying he saw a ghost,” he told the principal.

Kyoushi Akari still taught in school. She didn’t know much about Yamato’s story. She still smiled at everyone. Many boys still thought they got a special smile from Kyoushi Akari.

She still went to read under the Banyan tree. One day it was dark. She felt someone tap on her shoulder; she turned and found no one. She saw a large pile of letters on the ground. She read:

“Where are you and what you look like, Kyoushi Akari, when I grow up and can marry you?”

“Nabu made you upset today. Hope you are happy now.”

……

Hidden on the other side of the Banyan tree, another Akari watched her. A hint of guilt in her eyes.

As the elders said, Kodama were very kind. They often came out in the night. To avoid scaring people, they wore human clothes, covered their faces with animal skin. They painted human faces on the skin. They painted so well that you couldn’t tell when they walked among people.