■ あらすじ　
　姿が瓜二つで仲の良い父を亡くし心晴れず、一人で京都へ旅に出た息子は、都の鏡屋で初めて鏡を見て、鏡面に映った自分の顔を亡き
父の若い頃の顔と勘違いしたまま鏡を買い家に戻った。夫の留守中に押入にしまってあった鏡を覗いた嫁は、それに映った自分の姿を他の若い女だと勘違いして、夫が女を隠していると怒り喧嘩になった。相談を受けた尼がその鏡を手にとって見ると、年老い痩せこけた自分自身の顔が映っているので驚いた。鏡は人の心を映し出すものだと思った尼は、その鏡は自分が預かるので、これまでのことは水に流して夫婦仲良く暮らすように言った。こうして夫婦は家に帰り、息子は自分が都で買ったのは父（が映る鏡）だったのにと腑<ふ>に落ちないものの、平穏な暮らしのために心にしまった。

■ Outline of this story
　Sunk in grief after having lost his beloved father, whom he was exactly alike, the son made a journey to Kyoto, where he encountered a mirror for the first time, in a shop. Taking his own face in a mirror for the face of his father when young, he bought the mirror and took it back home. He hid it in a closet, and his wife found it while he was away. She took her own face in the mirror for the face of another young woman, she began to quarrel with her husband upon his return, claiming that he was hiding a paramour. The abbess who was visited to be asked to intervene in their quarrel got surprised to see in the same mirror an old skinny face of her own. She thought that the mirror reflected human cognition. Offering to hold it in trust for them, she encouraged the two to let bygones be bygones and live in harmony with each other. The couple agreed and went back home. Although the husband was not completely satisfied with the setlement as the mirror he had bought in Kyoto showed his father, he kept this complaint to himself for the sake of domestic tranquility.

Note
　Although she is credited as the "author" in the colophon, Mrs. T.H. James probably translated a comic story that was of the same type as The Matsuyama Mirror and known as "Ama Saiban" ("The Nun's Judgment"). It is a humorous tale in which mirrors are unknown not only to the couple but to the more educated nun, and misunderstandings remain unresolved to the very end. The story concludes somewhat clumsily in the English version, but is deftly wrapped up by K. Florenz, who translated it into German.