Folk Legends of Japan (18 page)

The following day the child wept so bitterly that the father had no recourse but to go to Fugen Pond again. Then the woman, now with only one eye, appeared again and said: "I shall be blind if I give you another eyeball. But I dare do so for my child's sake." She gouged out her other eyeball, weeping. The husband returned with that eyeball.

The jewel eyeball which the patrols had taken away from the doctor was presented to the feudal lord. It was so beautiful that the lord thought that if he presented it together with another eyeball to the shogun in Edo, he would be rewarded. So he sent his officers to Mt. Fugen in search of another eyeball. The unfortunate doctor met them again on his way home and was robbed of the second eyeball. In the utmost distress, he turned back again to the pond to tell the story to his wife. Her rage was beyond description.

It is said that soon afterwards a great earthquake occurred in those parts.

THE SERPENT GODDESS OF AMO-GA-IKE

"Of all the animals in Japanese folklore, the serpent plays perhaps the greatest part, and superstitious ideas concerning the 'walking rope' are still widely held by the people.... A jealous woman is likened to, or said to turn herself into, a serpent." So writes Anesaki, p. 331. The idea of human descendants of snakes is mentioned by De Visser, "The Snake in Japanese Superstition," pp. 312-13, who says the inhabitants of Manako-mura, Hidaka-gun, Kii province, made such a claim. He describes graphically the scaly appearance of a woman of snake ancestry.

The Motif B656.2, "Marriage to serpent in human form," has been reported from India and China. "Iron powerful against fairies," Motif F384.3, is believed from Ireland to India. In Europe this legend could take the form of a fairy tale about an Enchanted Princess.

Text from Reisen Naniwa, "A Trip to Rankei,"
Tabi to Densetsu,
II (July, 1929), PP- 37-39-Note: Amo-ga-ike is a pond in Niigata-ken.

P
EOPLE PRAY
for rain at this pond and they believe that there is a goddess in the pond, that it is a big snake, and that this snake goddess dislikes anything made of metal. So the people cannot use iron hooks when they fish here.

A long time ago a brave samurai of the Muramatsu clan went into the pond to see the big serpent with his own eyes. He found a splendid palace at the bottom of the pond. There was a noble lady wearing a gorgeous dress and dancing, her embroidered sleeves swinging. She must have been surprised to see the fine samurai suddenly appear. He told her the reason why he had come there. When the princess heard it she said: "This is not a place where you should come. Please go away immediately." Her bright, pretty face instantly became sorrowful, and she burst into tears. For a while the samurai gazed at her beautiful figure, and then he asked her politely why she was crying. The lady looked up at his face wistfully and answered: "I am sorrowful because, since you have seen me, I cannot live in the pond any more. So I cry." She stood up and taking the samurai's hand led him into the palace. After she had entertained him with splendid foods from land and sea, she sent him off.

That evening the neighboring villagers were overtaken by a sudden storm. They thought that it was caused by the offended serpent and they were very much afraid. Late at night a beautiful girl visited Sakai in Kasabori-mura. She entered his room, sat by his pillow, and said: "I am the daughter of a woodcutter who lived in the mountain. My father was taken away by somebody and I am in trouble now. Please help me."

As he was a gallant man, he granted the girl's request on the spot. Afterwards they loved each other and married. Of course this girl was the big serpent who was afraid of the samurai whom she had met in the pond, so she came and visited Sakai to ask his help.

From that time on all the heirs of the Sakai family have had three scales under their armpits.

THE SERPENT OF MT. UNZEN

This is an unrelated tradition also explaining why a serpent caused the great earthquake at Shimahara.

Text from
Shimabara-hanto Minwa Shu,
pp. 134-37. Told by Kumakatsu Nakagawa in Shimahara-machi.

O
NCE THE LORD OF SHIMABARA
had a hunting entertainment with many retainers around the foot of Mt. Unzen. Not getting any big game on the first day, they stopped hunting and started on their way back. One of the retainers glimpsed some large creature passing through a bamboo thicket, and he told the other people about it. As it seemed of great size, they carefully surrounded it from a distance and began to attack the monster. When they drew near, they saw two big snakes coiling about. They shot one of them to death with an arrow, but missed the other.

After that incident the crops of the fields in Shimabara district were damaged by some creature every night, and the farmers had practically no harvest. So the villagers gathered together and talked the matter over and decided to ask the lord to let them hunt the marauder in the mountains. In the beginning there seemed to be no effect from the hunting, for they could not even get a glimpse of what they were looking for, and every night the crops were damaged worse than before. However, they continued hunting every day without taking a rest, and one day they saw a big snake. Recognizing it as the evil creature that had done damage to their fields, they tried many shots, but could only wound it without reaching its vital spot. The wounded monster hid itself in the depths of the mountains and came out to do evil.

At that time there was a famous doctor in Tahira. He was visited by patients from the villages near and far. Not long after the hunting expedition in the mountains, a woman visited the doctor to receive treatment for a wound she had received while cutting firewood in the mountains. She came every day after that. Although the doctor harbored a slight suspicion that she was no ordinary woman, he treated her like a regular patient. After some days her wound was healed and she was told by the doctor that she needed no more treatments.

Nevertheless, she visited the doctor the next day and thanked him for his treatment and said: "As I am too poor to pay you, I beg you to excuse me from payment. But I could not go without doing something in return for your kindness. I shall not be able to pay you even in the future, but now I have something to tell in lieu of giving money. However humble a woman I may be, I pray you to believe what I am going to say now. I advise you to leave this place, because in the near future a great earthquake will occur here in Shimabara, and if you stay here, you may be killed by it. Believe me. I want to reward you by foretelling you of that event." Having said this, she went away.

Although the doctor listened to her half in doubt, he felt there might be something serious in her words. He moved to his relative's home in Higo on her advice, for she had seemed to him from their first meeting to be a woman of mystery. Strange to say, not long after that, a great earthquake did occur with the eruption of Mt. Unzen, and it was followed by a great tidal wave which destroyed the castle town of Shimabara and all the villages around and killed a vast number of people. That is said to be the memorable calamity called Bizan's Collapse.

The woman was the female serpent whose mate had been killed by the retainers of the Lord of Shimabara and who had done harm to the fields in revenge for her husband's death. She visited the doctor of Tahira in the form of a woman to receive treatment for the wounds she had been given by the village farmers.

The great earthquake of Shimabara is said to have been caused by that serpent.

TWO DAUGHTERS WHO BECAME SERPENTS

Motif Q551.3.2, "Punishment: transformation into animal," applies here, although the punishment is visited on the daughters for their father's sin.

Told by Mrs. Hitoshi K. Saito to her granddaughter Kayoko Saito in Tokyo, April 8, 1957.

Notes: Sanshu, i.e. Sanuki Province, now Kagawa-ken. Yasuda, a village about
7.5
miles from the informant's home.

O
NCE UPON A TIME
there lived a merchant in a town of Tosa. He was very greedy and used two methods of measuring, one for buying and the other for selling things, so that he would make the greatest unfair profit out of the balances.

He had two daughters who were pretty and sweet. They were much worried by their father's unjust deeds and implored him not to do such things. But the merchant was too greedy and obstinate to listen to their pleas.

Gradually the daughters realized that they would be transformed into serpents as a punishment for their father's misdeeds. At last the elder sister plunged into the pond of Manno in the province of Sanuki [Kagawa-ken] and became a serpent. On the other hand, the younger sister left the home crushed with sorrow and came to an inn at Yasuda to stay the night there. Before she went to bed, she requested the maid of the inn under no circumstances ever to look into her room while she was asleep.

But as is typical of human nature, the maid grew so curious that she secretly peeped into the room where the younger daughter of the merchant was sleeping. And she was frightened to see that a serpent, so huge as to fill the eight-mat room, was sleeping coiled up. The serpent-daughter was awakened and said that she could no longer remain a human being since her serpent nature had been detected. She sorrowfully and yet determinedly shook her head once and started out for a deep pool in the Sakase River, which flowed near by. It is said that she made a tremendous rattle when she was entering the pool. She has made her dwelling there since that time.

Even today, there is a saying in my native town as follows: "The elder sister is in the Pond of Manno in Sanshu, and the younger sister dwells in the Sakase in Yasuda." It seems that this saying is still repeated there as a warning against greediness.

HACHIRO'S TRANSFORMATION

Examples from many parts of the world are cited under Motif Digi, "Transformation: man to serpent (snake)."

Text from
Tsugaru Kohi Shu,
pp. 40-41.

H
ACHIRO WENT
to the mountain on July 27 to cut trees. He was in charge of cooking lunch for the woodcutters. Hachiro caught trout in the stream behind the hut, and he broiled and ate one. It was so delicious that he ate the rest of them as well. As soon as he had eaten the last one, he became very thirsty. He drank all the water in the pail, but it did not satisfy him. He drank the water from the stream. He drank and drank, but he was still thirsty. While he was drinking, the other people saw him. They were surprised to see that Hachiro was no longer a human being.

Hachiro himself knew he had changed to a snake. He made dams in Owani and Kogage and Ikari-ga-seki in order to create a lake for his residence. Fudo, the patron deity of Kogage, was annoyed because his home would be endangered if Hachiro had a lake there, so he turned himself into a crab and made a hole in a dam. So Hachiro was not able to realize his desire there.

Then Dainichi-sama, the patron deity of Owani, gave Hachiro a pair of iron sandals, telling him that he should make his home where the straps of the sandals broke. Hachiro put the sandals on and traveled to a place now called Hachiro-gata [Hachiro Cove], where his sandals broke. He secured permission from Sankichi-sama, the patron deity of Akita, to remain there on the condition that he would present the god a thousand loads offish every day. Then he made a lake to live in.

Up till thirty years ago Hachiro often visited his native home. At such a time he used to bring one bog-rhubarb or one young bamboo sprout as a present, and sometimes he left his footmarks.

People say that his native house remained standing between Kuroishi and Otsuko till recent years.

THE MARSH OF TATSUKO

Suzuki, in "The Ponds and Love-Knots," pp. 43-46, tells of Hinemon who drowned herself in "Love-Knots-Untying Pond" and Den-emon who drowned himself in "Love-Knot-Tying Pond," uniting two ponds amorously, much as Hachiro Pond of the preceding story is here linked with Tatsuko Marsh.