The White Butterfly: A Tale of Eternal Love
Behind the cemetery of Sozanji Temple, on the outskirts of the capital, stood a lonely hut. In it lived an old man named Takahama. Though neighbors admired his kind heart, many thought him eccentric: unlike other men, he neither became a monk nor married. For more than fifty years, he lived alone.
One summer, Takahama fell gravely ill. Knowing his end was near, he called for his widowed sister‑in‑law and her son, a young man of twenty to whom he was deeply attached. They cared for him tenderly in his final days.
As Takahama slept one gloomy afternoon, a large white butterfly entered the room and landed on his pillow. The nephew tried to chase it away, but it returned again and again. Finally, he followed it outside, through the garden and into the temple cemetery. The butterfly hovered insistently until it reached a woman’s grave — marked with the name Akiko, who had died at eighteen, fifty years earlier. Then the butterfly vanished.
When the nephew returned, his mother told him the truth: in his youth, Takahama had been engaged to a beautiful girl named Akiko. She died of illness before their wedding, and in grief he vowed never to marry. He built his hut near her grave and visited it daily for fifty years, tending it with devotion. The white butterfly, his mother explained, was Akiko’s soul — come at last to guide him peacefully to her side.
