Japanese legends in F. Hadland Davis’s English retellings (1912)
The Violet Well
While picnicking with her attendants, Shingé approaches the Violet Well and collapses when a snake appears. An unknown young physician supplies medicine and kills the snake; her maid Matsu later identifies him as Yoshisawa. Shingé’s affection for her rescuer brings a second crisis. Her father refuses the marriage because of the physician’s excluded social status. The story ends with both lovers’ deaths and a report that Shingé’s ghost appears above the well while Yoshisawa can be heard weeping. Davis places the episode among flower legends and credits R. Gordon Smith’s collection for this part of the chapter. The scanned prose names the physician Yoshisawa; the illustration caption’s different spelling is not substituted for it.
Also known as Shingé and Yoshisawa
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In the sources
A physician’s intervention
DocumentedThe story begins with a snake, a collapse and help from the young physician.
An imposed barrier
DocumentedDavis makes the father’s refusal of the marriage a consequence of social status and follows it with the lovers’ deaths.
Context & interpretation
The social prejudice and demeaning caste terminology belong to the historical narrator’s account, not this entry’s judgement. The deaths are reported without treating them as an ideal resolution or evidence of an actual haunting. This entry follows Davis’s historical English retelling, rather than establishing a universal Japanese belief or an independently verified event.
Original passages
Source 1
Myths and Legends of Japan
adapted from Ancient Tales and Folk-lore of JapanOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: F. Hadland Davis, Myths & Legends of Japan (London: George G. Harrap, 1912), printed p. 165
Actual scanned prose page and complete named story inspected in the public Reader. Printed pagination checked visually; plate-placement numbers are not used as prose citations.
- Edition
- IMJ-0052-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0052-E001-P0185
- Original scan leaf
- 209
- Recorded leaf number
- 209
- Current Reader position
- 184
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Source 2
Myths and Legends of Japan
The Violet WellOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: F. Hadland Davis, Myths & Legends of Japan (London: George G. Harrap, 1912), printed p. 167
Actual scanned prose page and complete named story inspected in the public Reader. Printed pagination checked visually; plate-placement numbers are not used as prose citations.
- Edition
- IMJ-0052-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0052-E001-P0188
- Original scan leaf
- 213
- Recorded leaf number
- 213
- Current Reader position
- 187
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Source 3
Myths and Legends of Japan
her fatherOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: F. Hadland Davis, Myths & Legends of Japan (London: George G. Harrap, 1912), printed p. 168
Actual scanned prose page and complete named story inspected in the public Reader. Printed pagination checked visually; plate-placement numbers are not used as prose citations.
- Edition
- IMJ-0052-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0052-E001-P0189
- Original scan leaf
- 214
- Recorded leaf number
- 214
- Current Reader position
- 188
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Source 4
Myths and Legends of Japan
the weeping of YoshisawaOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: F. Hadland Davis, Myths & Legends of Japan (London: George G. Harrap, 1912), printed p. 169
Actual scanned prose page and complete named story inspected in the public Reader. Printed pagination checked visually; plate-placement numbers are not used as prose citations.
- Edition
- IMJ-0052-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0052-E001-P0190
- Original scan leaf
- 215
- Recorded leaf number
- 215
- Current Reader position
- 189
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Continue exploring
Kikuo and the Chrysanthemum Spirits
Flowers tended in memory of an exiled lord appear as children to the dying gardener in Davis’s chrysanthemum legend.
Same subject and traditionThe Pine-tree Lovers of Takasago
Matsue rescues Teoyo beside a pine-tree, and their lifelong companionship continues as a moonlit legend in Davis’s retelling.