Folk Legends of Japan (11 page)

The place where Motoji was burned to death is called Ohayashi in Okido-mura. There is a little shrine there to the god Akiba. It is in the middle of a thick wood and it is feared by the people because the
tengu
is said to be living there. If someone cuts the trees of that wood, there is always a fire in the village. Recently there occurred three big fires, and all the houses were burned. The fires are said to have resulted from the curse against cutting down the trees in that wood.

THE TENGU OF KOMINE SHRINE

The association made here between a shrine and a
tengu
follows the belief that
tengu
often served shrines on holy mountains. In this legend the
tengu
behaves like a European poltergeist.

Text from
Shintatsu Mintan Shu,
pp. 70-73.

I
N THE EARLY YEARS
of Meiji [late nineteenth century] there was a doctor named Kumagaya Genyo at Datesaki-mura, Date-gun. His foster-father Hambei had an imposing look and was skillful in fishing. When he set his eyes upon a fish, it could not move. In his house a strange apparition appeared. Sometimes it made a great noise suddenly at midnight, and sometimes it spoke in the air or sang beautiful songs from the ceiling.

One morning the maid got up early, opened the front gate, and saw a little man wearing a short black hunting coat and breeches, his cheeks covered with a towel, going out singing a song. But the fearless Hambei said that such a foolish thing could not be. One night when Hambei was drinking
sake
the cup stuck to his cheeks and he could not pull the cup away. But when he bowed down and made apologies to the apparition, he could easily remove the cup. From that time on he set up a shelf for the god and offered
sake
and rice. Then the apparition not only did no further mischief to him but brought him something to eat and some money for
sake.
So the old man respected the apparition and called it his guest.

A gambler named Kintaro one night came to the old man's home to lay the ghost but he was treated badly and went away. One New Year's Day a doctor of Yasuhara-machi named Takagi Kenko visited the old man and was entertained with
sake.
On that occasion, when the conversation turned to the apparition, young Takagi boasted that he would cut it down with one stroke if it appeared there. Just at that time the maid was mashing yams in an earthenware bowl, and the bowl flew up into the air and turned a somersault above the old man. So the yams dropped down on his head. Mr. Takagi felt uneasy, hastily said farewell, and went out. As he hastened away to the ferry of the Abukuma River, the sword which he wore came out of its sheath and floated before his face, so he could neither step forward nor go backward, because the sword moved around behind him. He was really frightened and knelt on the ground, and bowing his head, he made apologies for his harsh words. Then the sword dropped before him, and without encountering any more mysterious happenings, he returned home safely. He told later that he had never had such a fearful experience.

Once Mr. Kumagaya, the old man, tried to subdue the apparition, and he asked the mountain priest to pray for that purpose. Then some invisible thing read surras aloud behind the mountain priest. So the mountain priest was frightened.

Similar strange occurrences continued for several years. Sometimes there was a fire in the chest of drawers, so the clothes were burned. Or sometimes there were swords lost and later found in ditches. When someone asked the gods for an explanation of such mysteries, the gods replied that it was a
tengu's
doing. They said that the house of the old doctor was formerly the residence of Ozaki Daihachiro. Daihachiro liked to arrest people. When there was a person whom he thought a little suspicious, he took him to his office and subjected him to the most severe punishment. The ghosts of such people haunted him often. Sometimes a little man who covered his cheeks with a towel loitered around his house. Some men who saw this thought it must be a fox's or a badger's doing. This ghost haunted Daihachiro. He had nightmares every night, so he asked the Komine Shrine in Shimotsuke to send him a
tengu
to guard his house.

After that no more ghosts appeared, but Daihachiro suffered from fever and talked deliriously, then died. During the Meiji era, his house was offered for sale, and Mr. Kumagaya bought it for his residence. The
tengu
could not return to Komine Shrine, and it stayed on inthe house. It was that
tengu
who did so many mischievous things.

Mr. Kihei Kumagaya, who is a doctor now living in Fujita-machi,. Date-gun, is a grandson of this Kumagaya Genyo.

THE TENGU"S SWORD

There is a tradition in Yanagita,
Mountain Village Life,
p. 408, of a family in Higashi Kawa-mura that owns an old sword which they keep in the
tokonoma
(alcove), for if it is moved, sickness comes to the valley. No
tengu
is mentioned,. but Anesaki, pp. 309-10, relates how the young hero Yoshitsune learned from
tengu
swordsmanship which subsequently brought him victory over the famed warrior Benkei. The
ninjitsu
magicians referred to below are still the subject of legends among Nisei in California (Marvin K. Opler, pp. 391-92, "Perceptive Swordsmen and Sorcerer's Apprentices").

This story was told to me in Kanazawa on July 11, 1957, by Masaaki Miyazaki, a robust young man of poetic talent on the staff of the American Cultural Center at Kanazawa. He spoke fair English. His father, who was a second son, had migrated to Hokkaido in 1923, where Masaaki was born near Ikeda in 1933. Masaaki returned to Kanazawa in 1949.

Note:
Koku,
a rice measure, about five bushels.

T
HIS TALB WAS TOLD
by my grandfather in Kanazawa about fifteen years ago, when he was ninety years old. He had been a retainer of Lord Maeda, one of the most important daimyo of the Tokugawa period. (The red gate now in front of Tokyo University marks the site o f Lord Maeda's Tokyo residence.)

In those days all the daimyo had to spend some time each year in Edo [Tokyo] in attendance upon the Shogunate. This lord for whom my grandfather was a retainer was a one-million-koku daimyo. My grandfather was a two-hundred-koku retainer. (After the Meiji Restoration he changed his occupation and became a rice dealer. My father was his second son.)

The story I am going to tell here was told me by my father who heard it directly from my grandfather. But my father said he was not sure how many generations ago all this happened.

It seems that one of our ancestors had learned a special kind of magic called
ninjitsu
froma
tengu
(a long-nosed goblin) in the woods around Kanazawa. This
ninjitsu
was a popular kind of magic in the Tokugawa period, and those who mastered it could make themselves vanish simply by saying some magic words. For instance, one who knew
ninjitsu
could dive under water and stay there an hour, or could run as fast as a horse. It was the custom in those days to show respect by giving a sword, so when my ancestor had learned
ninjitsu,
the
tengu
gave him a sword. It was a very special sword. (I never saw it, but my father says he did, in the house at Kanazawa in the mountains, and it had about one inch of the tip broken off.) After my forebear received that sword he could do whatever he wanted to, then hide himself behind a stone. As time went on, he committed some very wicked deeds, stealing money, even killing people. His bad behavior continued for a long time.

Then one day when he was working alone in the mountains, my ancestor found a farmer, dressed in a humble kimono, walking in front of him as if to block his way. After a bit, my relative became angry and took his sword to try to kill this impudent farmer. He drew his sword from its sheath to cut off the farmer's head. But, when he thought he had finished the deed, the farmer suddenly disappeared from the spot. Just as suddenly, my ancestor heard laughter in the tree just above his head. Then he glanced down and saw that the tip of his sword was broken off. From that moment on, he was unable to use
ninjitsu
at all. A little later, he was captured by priests, sent to Osaka, and hanged.

The farmer was probably the
tengu.

THE TENGU WHO MADE RICE CAKES

According to the
Minzokugaku Jiten,
the long nose, the strolling monk's garb, and the feather fan of the
tengu,
as described below, are late additions to
tengu
beliefs.

This story also was told to me by Masaaki Miyazaki in Kanazawa on July 11, 1957.

Note:
Ankoro,
a kind of
mochi
or rice cake.

M
Y FATHER
also told me this tale.

There is a small town called Matsuto near Kanazawa, and in this town there is a store that sells
ankoro.
My father told me that some hundred years ago a
tengu
told a very poor man living there how to make rice cakes. (This
tengu
was very sympathetic and democratic.) Although that man was very poor, he then became rich and spent the rest of his life in comfort.

Every year, even now, the
tengu
comes once to that house. The family members make special cakes for him, and the
tengu
comes to the house to eat the cakes. My father said there is a miniature shrine near the shop, and there the family makes a special offering for the
tengu.

Rice cakes are made of rice and beans and sugar, but in this special kind the beans are outside and the rice inside. Someone in this family always learns the recipe from a member of the older generation.

Whenever I go to that town I eat those rice cakes. You can get them at the station for thirty yen. Ten little rice cakes come wrapped in little pieces of bamboo leaf, with a paper which tells how old the tradition is. A picture of a fan also accompanies the rice cakes, because the
tengu,
which has red skin and a long nose, always carries a fan made of feathers.

Ankoro
is a special name. Sometimes it is called
ankoro mochi.
Rice cakes somewhat like these are sold in other little towns, but they are only imitations.

THE DEMONS' CAVE

The
oni
(demons) of this and the following legend are often pictured as hideous, horned, nearly naked giants, with three eyes, three fingers, and three toes. Still, as Anesaki points out (p. 283), they are frequently subjects of comic tales that revolve around their stupidity. Hence they are kin to the stupid ogre and devil of European stories. Motifs G303-.9.1,"The devil as a builder," and G303.16.19.5, "Man imitates cock crowing; devil is deceived," occur in both legends. The present tradition has the characteristic Japanese trait of a task failing fulfillment on the one hundredth repetition, as in "The Monk and the Maid," pp. 46-47.

Text from
Bungo Densetsu Shu,
pp. 99-100. From Hayami-gun.

A
T
K
AMEKAWA
S
HRINE
there is a stone staircase made of big stones awkwardly piled up. Long ago in a place called Ishigaki in the suburbs of Beppu-shi a demon couple lived. The caves they inhabited were only six feet square. The roof stone of one cave is lifted up a little to make the sun shine into the cave. This was done by the female demon in order to brighten up the room for her weaving.

This couple came to the village every day to catch human beings and eat them. The god of the shrine in Kamekawa, Chinzei-hachiro Tame-tomo, took pity on the villagers and decided to give some tasks to the demons for the purpose of making them stop eating people. So one day he disguised himself as a plain man and called on the demons. He said to them: "If you two can make a hundred stone steps at the shrine tomorrow night, I will give you one man daily and you will not need to go out to catch them."

This was a very difficult task, but the demon couple willingly undertook it. The next night the female demon threw big stones from Ishigaki and the male demon in Kamekawa caught them and piled them at good speed. In a short time ninety-nine steps were finished. Tametomo was surprised to see this, and thought he had to do something. He took two pot lids and, beating them, imitated a cock's crow with his voice. Thus he signaled the dawn of the day two or three times, because he could not bear to see people sacrificed to the demons. The demons heard this, and went back to their caves discouraged. "What a pity! Only one more step."