Japanese Legend Collection

(III) The Origin Legend

(A) The Hanging Kasaya Pine

Crossing the Sekigawa River, which runs along the border between Shinano and Echigo, and entering the Sekigawa district of Nakakubiki County, Echigo Province, there is a historic site where Kenshin Daishi (Shinran*) brought salvation to a giant serpent** at Kameido, Sekigawa, and wooden signs and monuments stand there. And near it are large evergreen pines that are thought to be more than five human arms wide.

kasaya（名）袈裟

salvation（名）救済

evergreen（形）常緑の

Long ago, Shinran Shonin visited Togakushi Shrines*** in Kamiminochi County, Shinano Province for 50 consecutive days. At that time, when he reached the inn town of Sekigawa via the national highway, a large serpent appeared at the usual spot and crossed the road. He wrote the sutra letter by letters on pebbles he picked up from Naoetsu beach and threw them by the giant serpent. Before long the serpent disappeared. He was given the name the hanging kasaya pine because he rested in the shade of the pine tree on his right on his way to and from the road.

consecutive（形）連続した

sutra（名）経

pebble（名）小石

The area where Shinran brought salvation to the giant serpent later became an embankment and then a field again. The idiots were born in the families of those who built and lived here for generations, and when they asked the shugenja to examine them, he told them that pebbles with sutras were buried under the stones. When they dug, they really came out. Far from being unearthed, about 945 kilograms of it emerged. The pebbles**** still remain as treasures at Shinkou-ji Temple in Nojiri, Shinano Province, and Juzen-ji Temple in Sekigawa. When you immerse them in water, the letters of the sutra come out clearly.

embankment（名）堤防

idiot（名）白痴

for generations......何世代にもわたって

come out......姿を現す

unearth（動）掘り出す、発掘する

immerse（動）浸す

Note: Last spring, the hanging kasaya pine tree bore strange fruit. There are two fruits on one axis, and the top and bottom are closely attached to each other so as to hold each other in a circle from both sides, with a hole in the center. Its shape resembled the crest of the Hongan-ji Temple. It is still preserved in a nearby farmhouse. Considering this incident and the fact that the posthumous name of Daishi was given***** to Shinran Shonin last spring, I think it must have been a miracle. (Junichiro Hirano, Nagano Press, January 1912)

axis（名）軸

crest（名）紋章

posthumous（形）死後の

(B) The Visiting Kamigata Pine

In the Saiko-ji Temple on the western hill of Kashiwazaki, Echigo Province, there is an old pine tree aged 600-700 years old. It withered once and came back again 120 to 130 years ago. This is because the pine tree visited Kamigata*, and at that time it had borrowed money for travel expenses at a temple in Settsu. A similar story has been passed down to the Tilting Pine in Ibarame, Tajiri Village, near Kashiwazaki. One time, when someone tried to cut down trees at the Saiko-ji temple because it was in the way of the entrance, blood flowed from pine branches. (Nakanishi Noritoshi)

wither（動）枯れる

(C) The Cherry Blossom at Torimbo

A long time ago, there was a weeping cherry tree in the Torimbo Temple in Nishikata Village, Sado Province. It was popular for its tall trunk, flourishing branches, many flowers, and beauty, and many spectators came to see it when it was in the bloom season.

weeping cherry......枝垂桜

One year, on a calm, sunny, windless day, this weeping cherry tree moved by itself and sighed many times. Its voice was so high that everyone was surprised and suspicious, not only those who were pouring sake under the flowers and composing waka poems, but also those who were some distance away. The next year, before it was time to bloom, the famous weeping cherry tree's trunk naturally withered and died.

The cherry blossom at Torimbo,

the stringy cherry that brings down families.

This story is passed down with the song. (Ringai Maeda)

stringy（形）糸のような

(D) The Night Cry Pine

There are two old pine trees on a rock by the road to Shuzen-ji Temple from Mishima, Izu. Once upon a time when there was a mountain track here, it is said that when infants cry at night, they burn the leaves, trunk, and roots of this pine tree and show the light of the fire to stop crying at night, and small Jizo statues are piled up at the base as a token of gratitude. Even now, we can see axe marks on the pine. (Suzuki Kenkichi)

as a token of......～の記念に

(A)

*Shinran: (1173 - 1263) A priest who was the founder of the Jodoshinshu sect. He was born in Kyoto and trained at Mt. Hiei before studying under Honen. He was exiled to Echigo in 1207, but after his amnesty, he traveled mainly to eastern Japan. He had a wife and children, a rarity among Buddhist monks at the time. Honen claimed that reciting the word 'Namu Amidabutsu', which means to rely on Amitabha Tathagata, would allow us to go to Sukhavati after his death, but he believed that we could go to Sukhavati only by believing in Amitabha. The Jodoshinshu sect was propagated in various places during the Kamakura period and produced many followers.

**salvation to a giant serpent: The legend of monks bringing salvation to giant serpents and dragons has been handed down as the origin of temples across the country. According to Kunihiko Tsutsumi, a scholar of Japanese literature, the spread of the legend involved priests of the Jodoshinshu sect.

***Togakushi Shrines: Five shrines in the vicinity of Mt. Togakushi in Nagano City, Nagano Prefecture. Believed to have been founded before 210 BC, it was later actively used for Shugendo.

****pebbles: Sutra written one letter at a time on pebbles and buried in them can be found all over the country. They date back as far as the 12th century, but their numbers increased in the 16 s, with the most being made and buried in the early modern period. After famines and disasters in the early modern period, mounds were built by monks and pebbles were buried together.

*****the posthumous name of Daishi was given: Emperor Meiji gave Shinran the posthumous name Kensin Daishi in 1876.

(B)

*Kamigata: The word refers to the area west of Kyoto where the emperor once lived.

(C)

(D)