Folk Legends of Japan (31 page)

A
N 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.

A
N 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.

I
N 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."

At such sincere words from their daughter, the lord and his wife could do nothing but accede to her request and give her up to death.

When the appointed day came, the princess was beautifully dressed in her best and drowned herself in the waters of the Gokase. The noble act of the princess must have moved the water god, for the strength of the torrents speedily slackened. The farmers lost no time in stopping the current of one branch of the river. So the difficult construction was at last completed.