Folk Legends of Japan, page 19
Another time he fell sick and visited a shrine to pray for better health. He said to the god: "If I am healed by your mercy, I shall offer a metal torii to your shrine." He recovered soon. Then he made a model of a torii from needles and offered it to the shrine.
2. HE CARRIES A GREAT ROCK. There was a rock so huge that it could not be carried by twenty or thirty men. Niemonen said he would carry it by himself if the people would do as he told them. The young men thought it a joke, but they agreed to humor Niemonen. They secured a big rope, in accordance with Niemonen's instructions, and looped it around the rock. Niemonen grasped the rope's end and said to the young men: "Raise this rock with all your might." The young men said they could not raise it. Then Niemonen declared: "If you don't do as I tell you, I will not carry the rock."
3. HE KNOWS ABOUT A DISTANT FIRE. One time when Niemonen was visiting in Osaka he cried out: "Oh, my house in the country is burning!" The people said that he could not see a fire at such a distant place, but he insisted that he was sure of it. They argued earnestly and at last decided to wager five hundred gold pieces.
About ten days afterward, a message came from Niemonen's wife in the country. It said that his house and all his belongings had been consumed by fire on such and such a date. The date coincided exactly with that of Niemonen's assertion. So Niemonen won the wager.
The reason he knew about the fire was that, before he left the country, he had told his wife to set the house on fire on that particular day.
4. THE HORSE THAT DROPPED GOLDEN FECES. Niemonen fed his horse hay mixed with coins every day. The horse dropped the coins in his feces. So Niemonen sold the horse for four hundred gold pieces to his greedy brother.
5. THE SECOND BON FESTIVAL. One night while Niemonen was in Osaka he dressed in a white garment and rode a horse around town, ringing a bell and announcing to the people: "I could not visit you during the Bon Festival, but I have come now so you must hold the festival once more, or else you shall meet disaster."
So the people made preparations for a second festival, but they were taken on such short notice that the Bon flowers soon ran out. Then Niemonen sold branches of the flowers which he had brought by boat from his district, and made a great deal of money.
BOASTER'S WIT
The theme of "Lying contests," Motif X905, is known in Italy, India, and the United States.
Text from Sempo Nakata, "Ichibei Banashi," Tabi to Densetsu, III (May, 1930), 75-76, no. 28.
Note: Sorori Shinzaemon, a famous wit who was an adviser to the first Tokugawa shogun.
ONE WINTER EVENING the young men of a certain village met together to have a boasting contest. Each wanted to win the big prize, and they tried hard to think of wonderful boasts. One of them went out on the pretext of urinating. Once outside, he went to Ichibei's house and called out: "Ichibei-san, please lend me your wit." "What do you want?" Ichibei asked, knocking the ashes from his pipe into the palm of his hand and looking up into the young man's face. "I want you to tell me the biggest boast." "The biggest boast? Why, that's easy. When someone asks 'How is your father?' you just say: 'The people of Suruga have pushed Mt. Fuji so hard that it has bent toward Koshu; so my father has gone to prop it up with an incense stick.'" "Thank you very much," said the young man. "Surely this will be the winning boast."
No sooner had the first young man left than another one came, named Kumako, to borrow Ichibei's wit. "Are you in?" he called. "Here I am," said Ichibei. "I have something to ask you; please tell me a big boast." Ichibei answered with a knowing look: "Yes, yes, that's easy. When someone asks 'How is your father?' you just say. 'It rains too much because there's a hole in the sky; so my father has gone to plug up the hole with the skin of a louse.'" "Thank you indeed," said Kumako, very pleased. "That's a wonderful boast. Sorori Shinzaemon himself could not do better."
No sooner had Kumako gone than Hachiko came in. "Ichibei-san, please tell me a big boast." Ichibei promptly answered: "Yes, yes. When you're asked 'How is your father?' you just say: 'My father sat on Mt. Fuji and put the blue sky over his head, but his ears were left out.'" Hachiko was very happy with this. "That's good! Surely I'll win first prize with it."
After Hachiko had gone, Ichibei laughed and said: "Well, then, who'll decide which of those is the biggest boast?"
BOASTING OF ONE'S OWN REGION
This is another play on the lying contest, where the biggest lie includes the other lies, as in Motif X1423.1, the lie of the great cabbage, which is topped by a lie of a great pot large enough to hold the cabbage. Anesaki, pp. 339-40, relates a serious legend of a giant chestnut tree in Omi-ken whose branches spread such a distance that its nuts fell many miles away.
Text from Mukashi-banashi, pp. 62-63.
ONCE A MAN from Ise, a man from Mino, a man from Mikawa, and a man from Otsu put up at the same lodging. The man from Ise said that the Ise Shrine had eighty branch shrines and that all those small shrines stood under the branches of a single big tree which stretched out one league in every direction.
Then the man from Mino said: "That's a very wonderful story, but in Mino there is a big ox-skin which covers one square league."
The man from Otsu boasted that in his region there was a potato vine which covered a square league.
The man from Mikawa, who had been listening quietly to the others, said: "There's a big drum in my home district. Its body is made from the big tree of Ise which stretches a league in each direction, and it is covered by the ox-skin of Mino that is one league square, and it is tied with the potato vine of Otsu that covers a square league. And when you beat this drum, it sounds all the way to the eighty branch-shrines of Ise."
So the other men were defeated.
THE OLD MAN WHO BROKE WIND
This extremely popular Japanese folk tale has been collected in 101 versions. Some go into comic detail on the old man's choosiness in picking a spot to demonstrate his wind-breaking talent before the lord; he finds a straw mat too slippery, the road too sandy, demands a silk comforter, or climbs upon the lord. Ikeda analyzes the versions, pp. 150-53, under Type 480F, "Fancy Passing of Air." The Minzokugaku Jiten calls this tale-type Take-kiri Jijii (Story of Musical Wind-Breaking). A tremendous wind-breaker who blows down walls and frightens tigers is "General Pumpkin" in Zong In-Sob, Folk Tales from Korea (London, 1952), pp. 66-68.
Text from Mukashi-banashi Kenkyu, I (1935), p. 73. Collected by Eiichiro Iwakura, from Minami Kambara-gun, Niigata-ken.
Note: Goyo no takara matsu, "five-needle treasure pine"; the other sounds are onomatopoetic.
AN OLD MAN went to the mountain to cut some firewood. A pretty yellow bird flew by, and the old man threw his axe at the bird and killed it. He cooked and ate the bird. Then a long hair grew from his navel, so he pulled it, and then he broke wind, making the sounds "Ao-ao-wa, chio-chio, goyo no takara matsu chinchikin." And he returned home and told his old wife: "Old woman, since today I can make beautiful sounds by breaking wind."
Then the old woman said: "Please try to break wind now." So the old man broke wind and made the same sounds: "Ao-ao-wa, chio-chio, goyo no takara matsu chinchikin."
The feudal lord heard of this. He sent word to the old man: "Grandfather Gombei, I hear you make interesting sounds. Try for me."
So the old man went before the lord trembling, and the lord repeated his command: "Gombei, break wind here." So the old man broke wind three or four times. The lord was pleased and said: "You have broken wind very well." And he gave him much money.
The old man came home and showed the money to the old woman. While they were talking happily about this, the old man next door came in and asked: "Where did you get the money?" Then the old man told him the story. And the neighbor said: "I too will go to the lord and get money." He caught a little bird and cooked and ate it. And he went to the lord, but he could not break wind. He just dropped feces.
PART EIGHT
PLACES
ALL LOCAL legends are tied to particular places, but in some the primary interest centers on the place, while in others a person or an event is the chief focus of attention. The rivers and mountains of Japan, whose breathless beauty covers the land, play the leading roles in many legends. Minkan shinko has invested both mountain peaks and river beds with deities, rituals, and taboos. The deity of river and pond, now degenerated into the kappa, has from ancient times demanded a propitiatory human sacrifice to calm its raging waters, and a host of densetsu recall these voluntary and involuntary sacrifices. When I was being driven through a small village in Miyazaki-ken in April, 1957, my guide, a local antiquarian, stopped the car beside a pond and pointed out a tiny shrine across the road with a bronze marker planted alongside. He proudly read its inscription, which he had himself written, relating how a youth of the village eight hundred years ago had allowed himself to be buried alive to pacify the god of the constantly overflowing pond, now still and serene.
Lofty mountains too are the sacred dwelling places of deities, for there the field god retires after the crops are harvested and resides until spring calls him forth. Woodsmen who enter the forest of the mountainside purify themselves before leaving home and speak a different dialect while working in the woods to avoid using words heavy with taboo. Shrines are built on mountain summits, and worshipers climb all night to behold dawn break upon the peak. Hence traditions flourish about yama-no-kami, the mountain gods, who accost woodcutters and quarrel with each other. The whole landscape of Japan indeed pulses with the presence of kami: in that hot spring a god was born; to the spirit of this pine tree a villager was once wed; mother-and-son deities emerged from those two rocks. Legends are graven into the land.
HUMAN SACRIFICE TO THE RIVER GOD
The theme of "Foundation sacrifice" (Motif S261) is known from India to Ireland. In the usual Japanese form, as below, the victim is not immured in the foundation of the bridge or dam, but drowns in the river to placate a river god (Motif S263.3, "Person sacrificed to water spirit to secure water supply," reported from India and Africa). The connection is clearly seen in the present legend, where a foundation stone for the dam appears after the drowning. The Minzokugaku Jiten has relevant entries on Hitobashira (Human sacrifice) and Hashi (Bridges).
Text from Kiki-mimi Soshi, pp. 426-28.
AN OLD WISE-WOMAN came from Miyanome in Ayaori-mura and settled at Yazaki in Matsuzaki-mura, Kamihei-gun. She had a daughter whom she cared for lovingly. The girl grew up and was married to a man who came to live with them. The young couple loved each other, but the mother disliked the son-in-law and wanted to get rid of him.
In those days the dam which supplied the villagers with water from the Saru-ga-ishi River would give way several times every year, and people were troubled by floods. It happened again that the dam broke when the villagers were in need of water. Thrown into confusion, they gathered together and talked the matter over. At last they decided to consult the wise-woman. She, on her part, thought this a good opportunity to destroy her son-in-law. Accordingly, she told the people to catch a person who would be dressed in white and riding a gray horse to Tsukumoshi-mura the next morning, and to throw him into the river as a sacrifice. The villagers assembled at the dam and waited from midnight on for a person in white dress to come by on horseback.
Early next morning the old woman's son-in-law, unaware of impending disaster, dressed himself in white, as he had been told to do by the mother, and rode off on his gray horse. When he came to the dam, many villagers stood in his way to catch him. The son-in-law was surprised and asked them: "Why are you all here?"
The villagers were surprised in their turn to see that the person was none other than the wise-woman's son-in-law, whom they all knew well. When the son-in-law heard about the matter he said: "If it is the god's word, I must obey. I will drown myself in the bottom of the river and sacrifice myself for the sake of the villagers. But a human sacrifice cannot be made by one person. A couple, man and woman, are needed to satisfy the god. I will have my wife die with me."
Just then the wise-woman's daughter, who knew of the mother's evil plot, rushed to the scene, riding on a gray horse and dressed in white. The husband and wife rode into the river together and sank down to the bottom. The old wise-woman regretted that her plan had miscarried. She also jumped into the water, weeping.
All at once the sky darkened and a fierce thunderstorm lashed the heavens. For three days and nights it rained ceaselessly, and the river overflowed its banks. After the flood had subsided, the people noticed a big stone that they had never seen before. The villagers used this stone as the foundation in reconstructing the dam. This stone was called the Wise-woman's Stone.
The son-in-law and his wife were deified as gods of the dam [sekigami]. There is also a shrine called Bonari Myojin where the old wise-woman died.
THE PRINCESS WHO BECAME A HUMAN SACRIFICE
The same general theme as in the preceding legend is here treated by a professional writer, Chihei Nakamura, interested in the folk traditions of his locality, Miyazakiken in Kyushu.
Text from Hyuga Minwa Shu, pp. 55-61.
IN SEPTEMBER of the second year of the Hogen era [1157], Nobutsuna Tsuchimochi came to Hyuga from Mikawa and built Inoue Castle at Agata [Nobeoka]. After that time, for four hundred years, more than fifteen generations, the Tsuchimochi family wielded their power over that district as feudal lords. But we cannot tell in which generation of the Tsuchimochi family the events of the following story occurred.
In those days, the Gokase was divided into two streams running from the north end of Inoue Castle and encircling Mt. Atago, whence it flowed into the sea. The people called the dividing point of the Gokase Suwa-no-wakeguchi. It occurred to the lord of that period to dam the stream at Suwa-no-wakeguchi, for the double purpose of shortening the distance from the castle to the houses of the warriors and of making new rice fields from the reclaimed land. The lord ordered his subjects to take up the enterprise at once.
The farmers, who had been gathered together by the village head-man, tried to stop the flow of water by making a barrier with bamboo baskets filled with stones and with straw bags filled with earth, under the direction of a building magistrate. They kept working day and night, but the dam was always destroyed by strong currents of water before completion.
"Why on earth are you taking so long just to make a dam? When will it be completed?" asked the lord angrily. One of his subjects timidly answered: "We will complete it within ten days without fail. So would you please wait for a while."
The subjects soon gathered about the village headman and the chief farmers, and informed them of their promise to the lord. However, it was clear to everybody that the completion of the dam within ten days would be impossible. No one could think of a good plan for keeping faith with their lord. A gloomy atmosphere prevailed over the group.
Then, the village headman said: "There seems no other way but to ask the water god for help. If anybody in the village will sacrifice himself and sink into the stream, the water god will surely permit us to stop the flow of water."
Everyone agreed with his proposal, saying: "There may be no better way, indeed. Since the water god is fond of young maidens, a young girl should become the human sacrifice."
The matter seemed settled. But when it came to the difficult question of whom they should choose as a human sacrifice, they again bogged down. Some of the assemblage had daughters. But no one dared propose his own daughter for the sacrifice. The conference was once more at a deadlock.
Before long, one of the people reached this conclusion with a decided air: "Let us select the maiden for the human sacrifice by lot. I demand that all the girls in the village come to the shrine of our tutelary god tomorrow morning."
The next morning the precinct of the tutelary god was swept clear, and a plain wood box decorated with a sacred straw rope was placed in front of the shrine. The village girls came there one after another.
Every girl was blindfolded and was brought up to the plain wood box. She had to draw a card out of the box while blindfolded. Soon the turn of the only daughter of the headman came. She had no sooner drawn out a card than an agitation developed among the caretakers who surrounded her. The headman turned pale. The lot had fallen upon the very daughter of the headman.
Before long, there was a fuss throughout the village. "How sorry I am for the headman! He invited the misfortune of his own accord." Everyone expressed his sympathy toward the headman, but no one could change the situation. At the headman's house, all of his family sat around the daughter lamenting bitterly.
The rumor that the sacrificial victim had been chosen reached the castle by and by. There lived a princess, daughter of the Lord Tsuchimochi. She was very sweet and fair, but unfortunately crippled since childhood. Feeling intense shame for her deformity, she was wont to confine herself deep within the castle. The rumor of the human sacrifice somehow reached the ears of this princess. She asked the lord, her father: "Please make me the human offering to the Gokase."
At the sudden request of the princess the lord was frightened, and tried to persuade and coax her not to do such a thing. However, the princess was firm in her determination, and spoke as follows: "I have no pleasure in living like this, for I am a cripple. I hear that the daughter of the headman is his only daughter. It is too cruel to make her a human sacrifice; it is like plucking a budding flower. I can imagine how bitterly her family grieves. If you make me the human sacrifice in her place, not only will the headman be delighted, but the village people will be thankful for your deep mercy, from the bottom of their hearts. Such a deed must ensure good for the future of our family. So please accept my plea, Father."
