Folk Legends of Japan, page 3
In making selections for this volume I have attempted to represent major themes, different geographical areas, and important collections of Japanese oral legends.
PART ONE
PRIESTS, TEMPLES, AND SHRINES
IN JAPAN the religion and lore of the folk merge in a common realm of popular beliefs. The development of Shintoism from primitive nature worship, and the sixth-century importation of Buddhism from China via Korea, merely increased the variety of religious legends circulating among the villagers. Shintoism contributed the veneration of departed spirits, particularly of angry ones, and Shinto shrines proliferated endlessly with each new passionate or noble death. Hence legendary traditions gathered about each shrine, no matter how tiny or humble, for each embalmed a story. Most of the hundred thousand shrines belong to the folk, in distinction to large famous shrines, which employ salaried priests and hold colorful festivals. Buddhism too, while introducing a subtle philosophy with complex ritual, at the folk level scattered miraculous tales about Buddhist priests and statues. The images of Buddha were said to whine and writhe if robbers carried them off. A mass of legends clustered around Kobo Daishi, or St. Kobo (774-835), founder of the Shingon sect of Buddhism, whose esoteric formulas appealed to the magic-minded common people. In the guise of a wandering beggar Kobo Daishi rewarded the generous and punished the greedy, much like St. Peter in Christian legend. Numerous, devoutly believed stories tell of Buddhist priests laying troubled spirits. East or West, the folk mind shuns abstract doctrine for the vivid, concrete tale dramatizing the supernatural power of gods and priests. In Japan, such legendary histories cling to shrine and temple, and are even dispensed by the priestly class, proud of the individual acts of faith and sacrifice connected with their particular sanctuaries.
SAINT KOBO'S WELL
This and the following four legends deal with the miracles of Koho Daishi. The present one, where he brings forth a well with his cane or staff, is widely told. See Japanese Folklore Dictionary, "Koboshimizu" (Kobo's well); Yanagita, Mountain Village Life, ch. 59, p. 420 (where the miracle is also credited to St. Rennyo). On pp. 432-33 a story is told of a man in Takaoka-mura who prayed at a temple to be cured of eye trouble, and was told by a god in a dream to dig under a certain Japanese cedar tree by the temple, where he would find a well dug by St. Kobo; he washed his eyes in the well water and was cured. Suzuki, pp. 16-17, "The Well that Kobo Daishi Dug," gives an extra twist to the usual form by having St. Kobo's bamboo stick fly three miles away and take root upside down.
For Christian counterparts of this legend see Motif F933.1, "Miraculous spring bursts forth for holy person." The Kobo Daishi legends belong under the general motif Q1.1, "Saints in disguise reward hospitality and punish in hospitality."
General accounts of Kobo Daishi can be found in Anesaki, pp. 251-53: U. A. Casal, "The Saintly Kobo Daishi in Popular Lore (A.D. 774-835)," Folklore Studies, XVIII (Tokyo, 1959), pp. 95-144; Hearn, V, ch. 2, "The Writings of Kobodaishi"; Ikeda, II, pp. 209-11; Joly, pp. 183-84, "Kobodaishi"; Mock Joya, IV, pp. 21-22, "Kobo Daishi"; de Visser, The Dragon in China and Japan, pp. 162-64, 202, 206; de Visser, "The Fox and Badger in Japanese Folklore," pp. 112-13,136-37.
Text from Kunio Yanagita, "Folk Talesfrom Hachinoe," in Mukashi-banashi Kenkyu, II (Tokyo, 1937), p. 288. Collected by Kimura, 1936.
THERE IS a spring by the name of St. Kobo's Well in the village of Muramatsu, Ninohe-gun. The following story concerning this well is told in this district. A girl was once weaving alone at her home. An old man, staggering, came by there and asked her for a cup of water. She walked over the hill more than a thousand yards away and brought back water for the visitor. The old man was pleased with her kindness and said that he would make her free from such painful labor. After saying this, he struck the ground with his cane. While he was striking, water sprang forth from the point struck by his cane. That spring was called St. Kobo's Welt.
The old man who could do such a miraculous deed was thought to be St. Kobo, however poor and weak he might look.
THE WILLOW WELL OF KOBO
A variant of the above. Text from Edo no Kohi to Densetsu, no. 17, p. 45.
Note: Kashima, a large shrine where warriors prayed before going into battle.
THERE IS a well in the compound of Zempuku-ji in Azabu. In ancient times while Kobo Daishi was staying in this temple, in order to get the water for offering to the Buddha, he put his staff into the ground, praying to the god of the Kashima Shrine. Then clear water gushed forth. Later Kobo Daishi planted a willow tree by the well to commemorate it forever. So it is called the Willow Well.
THE KOBO CHESTNUT TREES
Ikeda refers to this legend and assigns it Type 750 B, "Hospitality Rewarded."
Text from Aichi-ken Densetsu Shu, p. 223.
IN THE mountains around Fukiage Pass in Nagura-mura, Kita Shidaragun, grow chestnut trees called Kobo chestnuts. Those trees bear fruit very young, even when they are only three feet high.
Hundreds of years ago there was a big chestnut tree on this pass. Boys would rush to climb it to pick the chestnuts, but little children could not climb the tree. One day while they were weeping, a traveling priest passed by, saw the little children crying, and said: "Well, you shall be able to pick the chestnuts from next year on."
The next year every small young chestnut tree bore fruit so that the little children could pick them easily. The villagers thought that the traveling priest must have been St. Kobo, and since then they have called these the Kobo chestnut trees.
THE WATERLESS RIVER IN TAKIO
In some variants potatoes grow hard as stones after they are refused to Kobo. A story from Mimino-mura, in Yanagita, Mountain Village Life, p. 407 (in ch. 56, "Curses of the Gods"), tells of a river turning dry after a man refused a beggar a piece of radish he was washing. Elisseeff, pp. 287-88, reviewing Otari Kohishu by Naotaro Koike, summarizes a legend of greedy fishermen who refuse fish to a begging bonze; he throws a sheet of paper into the water, and thenceforth the fish disappear from the river. Ikeda, pp. 210-11, analyzes the tale under Type 751, "The Greedy Peasant Woman." An unusual variant in Murai, pp. 68-69, "Maid-enhair Tree of Yoshida," tells of a woman who refused a night's lodging to a traveler; he says that leaves and snow will fall; after the snotv falls, his footprints remain in the drifts; it was St. Kobo. Since then people believe a heavy snow follows the falling of leaves.
Text from Bungo Densetsu Shu, p. 28. Told by Mitsuko Shikishima.
A LONG TIME AGO a farmer's wife was washing sweet potatoes in a stream near Ikarijima. A poor, dirty-looking priest came from somewhere and asked her: "Please give me a potato. I am too hungry to walk on."
But the woman refused him, saying: "I have no potatoes to give you."
The priest, feeble and low of spirit, went along. Strange to say, the waters of the stream disappeared at that moment and never ran again. Since then the villagers have suffered much for lack of water. The upper and lower reaches of the river have water, and only the part that runs through that village is dry.
The people say that this was done by St. Kobo in order to reprove the woman for her unkindness.
THE STREAM WHERE KOBO WASHED HIS GARMENT
Text from Shimane-ken Kohi Densetsu Shu, Mino-gun no. 7, pp. 5-6.
LONG AGO Kobo Daishi went on a pilgrimage throughout the country. He came to Momotomataga in Toyoda-mura, and he took off his dirty clothes. He washed them in the Hinomoto River. The villagers who saw him did not know that he was a virtuous priest, and criticized him for washing dirty clothes. St. Kobo went away without saying anything. He went to Takatsu-mura, and he washed his clothes on the bank in Suko. For this reason, in Momotomataga the river dries up in summer and people often suffer from lack of water. On the other hand, in Suko, through the mercy of the priest, no one has drowned in the river.
At present almost every year the water is dried up in Hinomoto and gushes out in Kadoi.
THE PRIEST'S TOWEL
Motif Q1.1, "Saints in disguise reward hospitality and punish in hospitality," also applies here. A Korean legend of Merciful Buddha disguised as a beggar, which fits into the pattern of this and the preceding tales, is in Zong In-Sob, Folk Tales from Korea (London, 1952), no. 27, pp. 45-46, "The Lake of Zangje." Chinese legendary tales of Lu Tung-pin appearing as a beggar to test mortals are in Wolfram Eberhard, Chinese Fairy Tales and Folk Tales (New York, 1938), nos. 74, 76, 77, pp. 220-21, 222-24.
Text from Kunio Yanagita, "Folk Tales from Hachinohe," Mukashi-banashi Kenkyu, II (Tokyo, 1937), pp. 329-30. Collected by Ishiyama.
Notes: Tenugui, a Japanese-style towel or face-cloth (see Mock Joya, II, pp. 72-73)- Mochi, cakes made from pounded, glutinous rice.
THE YOUNG WIFE of a household kindly gave a piece of mochi to a traveling priest who came by the door. Afterwards, her mother-in-law counted the pieces of mochi and realized that the young wife had given one to the priest. She scolded the young wife and sent her to regain the mochi from the priest. When the priest heard the young wife's honest plea, he not only returned to her the mochi, but also gave her a tenugui, praising her gentleness.
Acting on his suggestion, the young wife wiped her face with that tenugui every day. Then her face became extremely beautiful. The mother-in-law envied her and borrowed her tenugui to use it herself. However, the mother-in-law's face gradually became horselike and at last it turned into a horse's face.
The daughter-in-law felt very sorry for her and went to the priest and begged him to turn the mother's face back to normal. The priest said that when a greedy woman wiped her face with the tenugui, her face would turn into a horse's face, and he instructed her to tell the mother-in-law to rub her face with the reverse side of the tenugui. The young wife hastily went home and relayed the instructions to her mother-in-law. When the mother did as she was told, her face became as it had been before.
And thereafter she turned into a good-hearted woman and loved her daughter-in-law.
THE KANNON WHO SUBSTITUTED
The theme of the Buddhist deity assuming the guise of a pious worshiper to ward off injury or death to the mortal occurs frequently in Japanese religious legends. Suzuki, pp. 65-68, "The Living Headless Priest," has a clay image of Kannon take the form of Priest Baizan to save him from the murderous sword strokes of his host. Murai, p. 10, "Six Jizo," tells of an image of Jizo that bears a sword scar meant for a boy. In the Japan Times for February 23, 1957, Mock Joya recounts the legend of "One-Eyed Emma," the statue enshrined at Genkaku-ji, Hatsune-cho, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, which gouged out its own eye to save the sight of a poor old lady bringing her offerings. Under "Weeping Buddha" in the Japan Times of March 9, 1957, Mock Joy a tells how the painting of Fudo, the God of Fire, shed bloody tears and took to itself the sickness of his young worshiper Shoku, in the thirteenth century; the painting with its bloodstained tears was later placed in Mii-dera, Otsu, Shiga-ken.
Text from Bungo Densetsu Shu, p. no.
Note: Kannon, a Buddhist bodhisattva, commonly known as the Goddess of Mercy.
LOOKING UP from a small village nestled at the foot of a certain mountain, one can see a little shrine of Kannon on the very top. A young couple used to live in that village. The wife, for all her youth, believed in Kannon with utmost sincerity. Every night, after she had finished her daily housework she visited the shrine to worship the image. Her husband did not know the reason for her going and became suspicious of the wife who went out and returned to the house every night at the same time. One day he finally lost patience with his wife and determined to kill her. So he hid in the dark woods by the roadside and waited for his wife to come back. At the usual time she returned. The husband watched her coming near and, carefully aiming at her shoulder, swung down his sword askance. At this moment the wife felt her blood run cold throughout her body.
The husband wiped the blood from his sword and put the sword back in its sheath. When he returned to his home, he was astonished to see his wife, whom he thought he had slashed to death. He marveled, and went back to see the place where he had struck his wife. Sure enough, there were the dots of blood on the ground. He retraced his steps homeward, and asked his wife: "Didn't you feel something strange at such and such a time in such and such a place?" Then the wife answered: "Just at that time something made my blood run cold." The husband could not but confess all that had happened.
The next morning he awakened early and was surprised to see blood dotted all the way from the entrance of his house to the shrine on top of the mountain. When he looked at the statue of Kannon, he was again surprised to see a scar on the statue's shoulder, on the place where he had struck his wife the night before.
Now this Kannon is still popular in the neighboring villages, and they celebrate a festival for her on January 24 every year.
THE STATUE OF BUDDHA AT SAIHO-JI
To the theme of the substituting Buddha are joined here motifs that fall under "Magic Statue" (D1268) and "Images" (V120), and the specific miracle of D1551, "Waters magically divide and close."
Text from Shimane-ken Kohi Densetsu Shu, Ohara-gun, pp. 8-9.
THE PRINCIPAL IMAGE of Saiho-ji at Iida, Sase-mura, Ohara-gun, is the seated statue of Amida Buddha, almost three feet in height. It has a burn on its left cheek. The following story tells the reason why.
A maidservant who worked in the house by the gate of this temple worshiped the image every morning and evening within the temple. For many years she had never failed to do this. Every time she cooked rice, in the morning and in the evening, she took some rice out of the pot and offered it to the image of Buddha. At last this became known to the mistress of the house, who grew enraged and pressed a heated iron rod on the pretty cheek of the maid. With a scream, the poor maid ran out of the house.
That night the master of the house had a strange dream. The shining golden Buddha stood by his pillow and spoke to him: "Your maid has been very pious and worshiped me for a long time. Therefore I substituted myself for her in the time of her disaster." As the master looked at the face of the Buddha, he saw blood running down his left cheek. As soon as he awakened from the vision, he arose and went to the temple. There he was astonished to see the appearance of the image, for blood was running down its cheek. Struck with awe, he returned home and talked with his wife. Greatly disturbed, they looked at the face of the maid, but it was as pretty as before, and bore no trace of injury. They asked her about the event of the previous day, but she answered that she knew nothing of it. At her words the master and the mistress realized that the image of Buddha was really injured in place of the pious maid. The mistress repented of her deed. People who heard of the occurrence were deeply moved by the grace of Buddha and worshiped the image more sincerely than ever.
In later days Lord Matsudaira of this province worshiped this image at Saiho-ji very earnestly. He decided to move the image to the newly built temple of Gessho-ji. According to his order, the holy statue was carried away by forty strong men. On the way they stopped over at Shigaraki Temple. While the image was resting there, it spoke to the priest in a dream: "I want to go back to Saiho-ji." And it shone brightly every night. All the priests thought this strange and reported the matter to the lord. Then the lord issued an order: "Have the sculptor make a statue just like that image and install it in Gessho-ji. As for that image, carry it back to Saiho-ji."
So the people started to take it back to Saiho-ji. Strangely, this time the holy statue became very light and was easily carried by only five or six porters. When they came to the river called Aka-kawa, a storm suddenly arose, and the skies began thundering and hailing. Rapidly the river rose to a great height and was soon impossible to cross. But the porters of the holy image boldly plunged into the water, firm in their belief that the image would protect them from drowning. Indeed, the angry waves immediately subsided and lowered to a heel's height. The porters could easily cross to the other side. But when the other travelers followed the porters and attempted to wade the river, the waters rose up again, and the raging waves overflowed the river banks.
People were filled with awe and spoke to one another about this miracle of Buddha, who, they thought, had subdued the dragon underneath the water.
THE EARLESS JIZO OF SENDATSUNO
The collector points out that Hearn published a similar legend under the title "Mimi-nashi Hoichi" in Kwaidan in 1904, taken from an old Japanese storybook Gayu Kidan (Strange Stories Told While Resting). In Hearn's tale the ghosts of the Heike listen to biwa music in places famed for Heike legends, and at the tomb of the Emperor Antoku.
The small village of Sendatsuno was named for Heike refugees fleeing from the Genji disguised as sendatsu, or guides for mountain pilgrims. The Heike are said to have turned on and killed their pursuers. Many families in the village claim to be Heike descendants. Tombs of the Emperor Antoku and his followers are on nearby hills, and none can approach unless they are barefooted.
