The Tales of Tohno

AGE

　I heard this entire story from Sasaki Kyōseki*, a man of Tōno**. Beginning around February of last year, Meiji 42 (1909), he would sometimes come to visit me at night and tell me these tales, which I then wrote down. Kyōseki is not a gifted storyteller, but he is an honest man. I too wrote down every word exactly as I felt it, without alteration. I imagine that in Tōno there must still be hundreds more stories of this kind. We ardently wish to hear more of them. Surely, in the mountain villages deeper still than Tōno, there must be countless legends of mountain gods and people who dwell in the mountains. My hope is that these will be told, so as to send chills through those who live on the plains. This book is like the uprising of Chen Sheng and Wu Guang.

Vocabulary & Idioms List

entire ......（形）全体の、すべての

gifted ......（形）才能のある、恵まれた

without alteration ...... 改変なしに、そのままに

ardently ......（副）熱心に、切実に

dwell ......（動）住む、存在する

send chills (through someone) ...... （人を）ゾッとさせる、寒気を走らせる

uprising ......（名）蜂起、反乱

Chen Sheng and Wu Guang ...... 陳勝・呉広の乱（中国・秦代の農民反乱、歴史的固有名詞）

　At the end of last August, I traveled to Tōno. Along the road a dozen or so ri from Hanamaki***, there are three small town centers. Beyond that, there is nothing but verdant mountains and open fields. Human dwellings are few, sparser even than on the Ishikari Plain**** in Hokkaidō. Perhaps it is because the road is newly built that there are so few houses. The castle town of Tōno is a place like mist, faint and insubstantial. I borrowed a horse from the station master and went alone through the villages in the outskirts. That horse wore on its back a thick covering woven from black seaweed, for the gadflies there were many. The Sarugaishi Valley is fertile and well cultivated. The number of stone steles standing by the roadside is unmatched in other regions. From a high vantage point, one sees that the early-ripening rice has just matured, while the late-ripening varieties are in full bloom, and all the irrigation water has flowed down into the river. The hues of the rice vary according to the strain. If three, four, or five adjoining paddies display the same color, then they belong to a single household, and that household is a distinguished one. Place-names for areas smaller than a ko-aza are unknown except to the landowners themselves. Yet such names are always recorded in the old deeds of land sale. Crossing the valley of Tsukumoushi, Mount Hayachine appears faintly veiled in mist, its shape resembling either a sedge hat or the katakana character 「ヘ」. In this valley, the ripening of rice is even later, and the fields lay entirely in green. Walking along the narrow path that runs through the middle of the paddies, I encountered a bird whose name I did not know; it crossed before me with its chicks in tow. The chicks were black, mottled with white feathers. At first I thought they were small chickens, but when they disappeared into the grasses by the ditch, I realized they must have been wild birds. On the mountain where Tenjin is enshrined, a festival was being held, and the Lion Dance was performed. Only in the place of the festival did a light dust rise and something crimson flutter faintly, standing out against the green of the village. The Shishi Odori here means the “Deer Dance.” Five or six children, wearing masks with deer antlers attached, danced with swords in hand. The flute’s pitch was high, while the singing was low, and even standing nearby it was difficult to make out clearly. The sun inclined, the wind rose, and though there were voices of drunkards calling out people’s name in loneliness, women laughing, and children running about, still nothing could dispel the traveler’s melancholy. At a household observing the first Bon*****, it is the custom to raise high red-and-white banners to welcome the returning souls. From the mountain pass, if one looks around while on horseback, one can see these banners standing in a dozen or more places. The twilight, slowly and solemnly, enfolds those who would depart from their village of permanent dwelling, the travelers who stay but briefly, and that majestic sacred mountain alike. In Tōno there are eight Kannon****** halls. Each statue of Kannon is carved from a single block of wood. On this day, many people came to offer thanks in pilgrimage; lights could be seen on the hill, and the sound of gongs could be heard. In the grass by the roadside stood straw effigies for the Rain-and-Wind Festival, lying on their backs as if they were weary people. Such, then, is my impression of Tōno.

verdant ......（形）青々とした、緑に覆われた

dwellings ......（名）住居、家屋

sparser ......（形）よりまばらな（sparse の比較級）

faint / insubstantial ......（形）かすかな／実体のない、頼りない

outskirts ......（名）郊外、はずれ

woven from ...... ～から織られた

gadflies ......（名）アブ

fertile ......（形）肥沃な

stele ......（名）石碑、石塔

vantage point ...... 見晴らしのきく場所、有利な位置

early-ripening / late-ripening ......（形）早生の／晩生の

strain (of rice) ......（名）品種、系統

distinguished household ...... 名家、由緒ある家

deeds of land sale ...... 土地売買証書

veiled in mist ...... 霧に包まれている

sedge hat ......（名）菅笠

in tow ...... 引き連れて

mottled with ...... ～でまだらになった

enshrined ......（動）祀られた、安置された

Lion Dance ...... 獅子舞（文中では Deer Dance＝鹿踊りを意味）

crimson ......（形）深紅の、濃い赤の

dispels (melancholy) ......（動）憂鬱を晴らす

Bon (Festival) ...... 盆

banner ...... 旗

twilight ......（名）たそがれ、夕暮れ

solemnly ......（副）荘重に、厳かに

majestic sacred mountain ...... 威厳ある霊山

Kannon halls ...... 観音堂

pilgrimage ......（名）巡礼

gongs ......（名）鉦、銅鑼

straw effigies ...... 藁人形

weary ......（形）疲れた、くたびれた

　I think that books of this kind are, at the very least, not in keeping with the fashions of the present day. Although printing has become easy, there will surely be those who say that to publish such a book and impose one’s own eccentric tastes upon others is a breach of propriety. Yet I would venture to answer them thus: is there truly anyone who, after hearing such tales and then seeing those places with his own eyes, would not wish to recount them to others? At least among my friends, there is no one so silent and reserved. Let alone the Konjaku Monogatari-shū*******, compiled by our predecessors nine hundred years ago, which already at that time began its tales with the words, “What is now, is already long ago”; the stories recorded in this book, by contrast, are of things that stand before our very eyes. Even if, in pious intent and sincerity of attitude, one cannot surpass that ancient work, yet in that it makes little use of other men’s ears, and uses sparingly both their mouths and their pens, these accounts are in fact more worth hearing than those simple and ingenuous anecdotes about the noble Dainagon therein. As for the authors of modern otogi-zōshi or collections of One Hundred Tales, their purpose is already narrow, and they cannot in any way guarantee that their stories are not fabrications. To compare this book with those is nothing short of shameful. In short, this book is concerned with present facts. I believe that in this alone lies its true and sufficient reason for being. Yet Mr. Kyōseki is but twenty-four or twenty-five years old, and I myself am only ten years his senior. Some may say that, though born into an age so full of enterprise, it is unreasonable to spend our powers without regard for the greater or lesser weight of problems. There may also be those who reproach us, saying that, like the horned owl dwelling on the sacred mountain, we have sharpened our ears too keenly and opened our eyes too wide. Well, there is no helping it. This responsibility is mine alone to bear.

not in keeping with ...... ～にそぐわない、合わない

impose (one’s tastes upon others) ...... 自分の趣味・嗜好を他人に押しつける

eccentric ......（形）風変わりな、奇矯な

breach of propriety ...... 礼儀を欠くこと、不作法

venture to (answer, say, etc.) ...... あえて～する、思い切って～する

recount ......（動）詳しく語る、物語る

reserved ......（形）控えめな、無口な

Let alone ～ ...... ～は言うまでもなく、ましてや～などは

by contrast ...... それに対して、一方で

pious intent ...... 敬虔な意図

make little use of ...... ほとんど利用しない

sparingly ......（副）控えめに、わずかに

ingenuous ......（形）純真な、無邪気な

anecdotes ......（名）逸話、小話

in any way ...... いかなる点においても

fabrications ......（名）作り話、でっちあげ

nothing short of ～ ...... ～としか言いようがない、まさに～である

sufficient reason for being ...... 存在理由として十分な根拠

enterprise ......（名）進取の気性、活動力、事業心

unreasonable to ～ ...... ～するのは不合理だ

reproach ......（動）非難する、とがめる

horned owl ......（名）ミミズク

sharpen one’s ears ...... 耳を研ぎ澄ます

there is no helping it ...... 仕方がない、どうにもならない

bear responsibility ...... 責任を負う

The aging owl which doesn’t fly and sing in the far forest may laughs.

*Sasaki Kyoseki (1886–1933): A folklorist, writer, and collector of folk tales. His real name was Kizen. He was born in Tsuchibuchi Village, Iwate Prefecture. After forming a friendship with Yanagita Kunio at Waseda University, he researched and collected folk tales in his hometown.

**Tohno: Located in the inland part of Iwate Prefecture in the Tohoku region.

***Hanamaki: Located in the midwestern part of Iwate Prefecture in the Tohoku region.

****Ishikari Plain: A plain located in the western part of Hokkaido.

*****Bon: Also called Obon, Urabon, or Urabon-e. A Buddhist event held around July 15th of the lunar calendar. It is said that the spirits of ancestors return, and people make offerings on these days.

******Kannon: One of the bodhisattvas in Buddhism. Kannon is universally venerated in Japan.

*******Konjaku Monogatari-shu: A collection of tales compiled at the end of the Heian period. The book contains stories from India, China, and Japan.