The Tales of Tohno

第2話 The Myth

Tohno town is located at the confluence of the north and south rivers. It used to be called Shichi-shichiju-ri, and it was so crowded that there were a thousand horses and a thousand people on its market day, gathering freight to buy and sell from seven valleys and seventy miles away. The tallest mountain among the surrounding mountains is Mt. Hayachine, which is located deep in the northern part of Tsukumoushi. Mt. Rokkoushi is to the east. Mt. Ishigami is located between the cities of Tsukumoushi and Tassobe, and its height is inferior to that of the previous two. A long time ago, there was a goddess who came to this plateau with her three daughters. At night when they stayed at the place where the shrine of the god of Izu Gongen* in what is now Rainai Village is located, the mother god told them that he would give his daughter a good mountain if she had a good dream tonight, and they went to bed. And at midnight a spiritual flower came down from heaven on the breast of her sister's princess, and her youngest daughter awoke and took it secretly and placed it on her breast, and at last the most beautiful mountain. It is said that each of the three young goddesses' dwells in three mountains and still possesses them, and that the women of Tohno are so afraid of their jealousy that they do not enter these mountains even now.

○Tohno is in eastern Japan, so one ri is four or five chos（approximately 109 meter）.

○Tassobe comes from Ainu. There is same name section of village in Tamayama village, Iwate country.

○Rainai, Kamigo village is also Ainu. “Rai” means the “death” and “nai” means a “mountain runoff”. It might indicates “a water-calm mountain runoff”.

Izu Gongen: This god is a fusion of the mountain beliefs of Mt. Izu and Shugendo, one of the Buddhist beliefs.

confluence......（名）合流地点

goddess......（名）女神

plateau......（名）高原

dwell......（動）居住する