Folk Legends of Japan (12 page)

After that they kept their promise to Tametomo and gave up eating the people. Now only the demons' caves remain to tell their interesting story.

THE TOOTH-MARKED STONE

Two variants are here given of a demon legend which is a variation of the preceding story. The first uses Motif G303.9.1.1, "Devil as a builder of bridges," and the second, which brings in Kobo Daishi to outwit the demon, employs Motif K218, "Devil cheated by religious or magic means."

Texts from
Bungo Densetsu Shu,
p. 42. The first version was told by Tadako Saito, the second by Masa Komera.

Note:
Tatami,
a floor mat measuring approximately six by three feet.

V
ERSION I.
At the right side of the front hall of Nishi Sawada Shrine in Ueda-mura, Oita-gun, there is a big mossy stone about the size of one
tatami.
It seems to have been there for hundreds of years. In ancient times the god of Mt. Hongu, which rises high up side by side with Mt. Rei, had trouble coming and going from Hongu-zan to Rei-zan because of a valley between those two mountains. So he commanded a demon to build a stone bridge over the valley. He promised the demon to let him eat a man as a prize if the demon could build the bridge before the first crow of the cock.

The demon was very glad to hear this and worked hard, carrying great stones in his mouth. He was about to carry the last stone when the god saw him and thought to himself: "The demon is about to finish the work, yet the cock does not crow. If it doesn't crow now, I have to let him eat a man. It's a pity for them." And the god loudly imitated a cock's crow. The demon heard it and was greatly disappointed at missing the prize within his easy reach. He was so much vexed at his loss that he threw away all the stones which he had piled up, into the valley of the Oka River down below.

All those stones were marked with the demon's teeth. The villagers took one of the stones that bore the demon's tooth prints and placed it in the precincts of Nishi Sawada Shrine. It remains there today and shows the clear mark of something like a tooth of three or four inches.

V
ERSION 2.
The demon who lived on Mt. Rei begged St. Kobo to give him a man once a year. Kobo accepted this request on condition that the demon should make a thousand valleys in one day and one night. The demon had just finished that task when Kobo caused one of the valleys to vanish. The demon counted the valleys over and over again and could number only 999 of them. He was very much vexed at that. He held up one big stone in his mouth and threw it away.

That stone is said to be the same one that is now called "The Tooth-Marked Stone."

GREAT KING WITH EIGHT FACES

Another version is given in Murai, no. 8,pp, 32-37, "Copper Pheasant's Arrow." Yasuke, the old man in the text below, in Murai's story is the son of an herb-gatherer kidnaped by the demon Hachimen Daio. Yasuke rescues a copper pheasant from a trap; she reappears as a beautiful young maid who weds him, while here she becomes Yasuke's adopted daughter. Then, as in the present tale, she gives him a copper pheasant's jointed tail to enable him to kill the demon. But as it was the seat of her soul, she had to leave Yasuke. A simplified account for children is in Yanagita-Mayer,
Japanese Folk Tales,
pp. 175-77, "Yasuke of Yamura."

Text from
Nihon Densetsu Shu,
2nd ed., pp. 153-55.

Note:
Shinano,
now Nagano Prefecture.

A
LONG TIME AGO
a kindhearted old couple lived in Ariake-mura, Minami Azumi-gun, in the province of Shinano. One day, while on his way to the town to buy rice, the old man found a bird dying in a trap. He felt sorry for the bird, so he bought it from the hunter and set it free in the mountains. The next day a strange girl visited the old couple and asked them to adopt her as their daughter. But they replied that they were too poor to let her live with them. Then the girl said: "Don't worry about such things. I will work and earn money for you." So at last the old couple granted the girl's request.

Every day the girl wove or did other work to get money to help the old couple. In those days a demon called Hachimen Daio [Great King with Eight Faces] lived on Mt. Ariake and troubled the people. The emperor heard of this and sent Sakanoue Tamuramaro as a general to destroy the demon. The demon, who knew of the coming of Tamura Shogun, darkened the sky and dropped big stones down to the foot of the mountain. So the attacking force could not proceed. Tamura Shogun tried to shoot arrows at the glittering demon's eyes, but none of the arrows hit. Finally Tamura Shogun exhausted all possible stratagems and decided he must ask for help from the gods. He prayed to Kiyomizu Kannon at Mizusawa, promising that if Kannon would help him destroy the demon, he would make a thousand worshipers visit the shrine every day. Then, on the final night, Kannon appeared in his dream and told him that if he shot the demon with the arrows made of a copper pheasant's tail plume with thirteen joints, the sky would become clear at the first shot, the demon would be killed by the second arrow, and all the creatures around the demon would be destroyed by the third arrow.

Tamura Shogun was glad to hear this and announced to the villagers that he would give a big reward to a person who would bring him a copper pheasant's tail with thirteen joints. The girl in the old couple's house brought such a plume from somewhere to the old people, saying: "I am the copper pheasant that you rescued. I was waiting for the chance to repay you for your kindness. Now I have brought to you this tail plume, which you may offer to Tamura Shogun."

She handed them the plume and went away. The old couple lived the rest of their life happily as a result of the reward. Tamura Shogun had the arrows made from the copper pheasant's tail plume and shot them. The sky cleared up at the first arrow, the demon was shot to death by the second arrow, and all the creatures were dispersed by the third arrow.

So Tamura Shogun succeeded in destroying the demon. He fulfilled his promise to Kannon by constructing a shrine in Kyoto, which is the famous temple of Kiyomizu Kannon on Higashi-yama.

The demon's corpse was said to return to life if it was buried in one place, so he cut the corpse into pieces and buried them separately. There is a shrine called Daio Shrine built on the place where the demon's head was buried, and the hill called Mimi-zuka [Ear Mound] is the place where his ears were buried. The big stones scattered around Ariakemura and Nishi Hodaka are the stones that the demons threw. The old man was given the name Yasuke Yamura by Tamura Shogun and his house continued long afterwards, even up to the present time.

MOUNTAIN GIANTS

Joly, pp. 16-17, writes: "Yama Uba the mountain muse is another female goblin, occasionally described as having a month under her hair, the locks of which transform themselves into serpents, or catch small children, upon whom the Yama Uba feeds." Anesaki gives an idealized account of the
yama-uba/row
a lyric drama, portraying her as "a personification of the clouds and mists" (pp. 290-92). In Yanagita-Mayer,
Japanese Folk Tales,
nos. 32-33, pp. 98-105, the
yama-uba
appears as a stupid ogre and a child-eating demon ("The Ox-Driver and the Yama-uba"; "O Sun, The Iron Chain!"); but in no. 58, pp. 168-170, the
yama-uba
befriends a lost young girl, giving her a treasure coat ("TheMagic StrawCloak of the Yama-uba").

The present tale is of the stupid-ogre type. Hoivever, additional
densetsu/rom
the same source show the
yama-uba
in a favorable light, making thread from vines to weave cloth, acting as midwife
(samba),
and killing troublesome wild boars by throwing stones at them from the mountain top. The
yama-uba
is particularly well known in Shizuoka Prefecture.

Text from
Shizuoka-ken Densetsu Meguri,
II
,
pp. 72-75.

Notes:
Yama-otoko
and
yama-uba,
literally, "mountain men" and "mountain old women."
Soba-dango,
buckwheat cakes.

I
T IS SAID
that in the mountains of Yamaka-mura and Tatsuyama-mura in Iwata-gun, the mountainous region of Enshu [Shizuoka-ken], there lived giants in ancient times. The males were called
yama-otoko
and the females,
yama-uba.
They were more than six meters tall and ran around barefooted in the mountains more swiftly than they traversed the plain, speeding by like the wind. They lived near the rocks or under the trees, feeding themselves with wild fruits and smaller animals and such. On the one hand, they committed evil deeds such as eating human babies and doing harm to the crops; but on the other, they performed with their supernatural power wonderful works beyond the power of human beings. As a matter of fact, most of them were deified, since the people feared their awful strength. However, being sometimes more dull-witted than human beings, they often acted in a stupid way.

Long ago, at Fukuzawa in Yamaka-mura, there was a house called by the name of Hinata. A
yama-uba
often visited this house. She tended the baby and looked after the house while the people were busy outside. So they thought well of her and thanked her for her help. One day, however, she ate the baby.

"Oh, dear! How terrible!" The people of the family were frightened and saddened. "What a pity! We will by any means get even with Yama-uba for our poor baby. We must see that such things never happen again," they thought, and they talked over a plan to carry out.

One day later, the
yama-uba
visited the house again. The people offered her a dish of several hot-baked
soba-dango,
saying with an innocent look: "Please, will you take one?" Inside the
dango
theyhad put heated stones. The
yama-uba,
not knowing this, said: "Oh, thank you," and swallowed up all the
dango.
Then her stomach became very hot with the heated stones and she could not stand the pain.

"Hot, hot! Give me some water, water," she cried in agony.

"Here is water." The people gave her oil instead of water. The
yamauba
drank it, and it gave her awful pains. She ran out of the house groaning and got to the bank of the Tenryu River at the place called Ochii, about four kilometers away. Trying to drink water, she fell into the river and drowned.

"We have taken our revenge at last," said the people in satisfaction. But they feared the
yama-uba
would put a curse on them; so they built a little shrine for the spirit of that
yama-uba.
This shrine still remains today, called by the name of Samba-sama.

THE MOUNTAIN MAN OF MT. MITSUBUSHI

Another legend dealing with a mountain-man monster is in Murai, typescript, p. 14, "Mountain Man of Shiro-uma-ga-take (Mount White Horse)." The creature terrifies woodsmen who attempt to cut down a zelkova tree, and dismembers a boastful hunter. The hunter's son finally kills the monster.

Text from
Tosa Fuzoku to Densetsu,
p. 60.

F
UKUJI WAS
a hunter who lived a great many years ago at Matobushiin Kagami-mura, Tosa-gun. One cold, snowy day he went out hunting on the mountain called Kasamatsu-mine. (This is a very steep peak that rises in the same range with Mt. Sekko.) He found there strange footprints, in no wise resembling a wild boar's. Thinking they might be a big beast's footmarks, he put his gun in a tree nearby, fastened a string to the trigger, and stretched the string along the ground. Thus having set the gun so as to make it fire when an animal passed by, he went down the mountain and stayed the night in a straw hut, where he had in the past stayed overnight when he hunted wild boar in the mountain in winter.