Japanese Legend Collection

(II) The Legend of Rich Man

(A) Koyama Pond

About a mile west of Tottori in Inaba Province, there is a clear lake with a circumference of three miles. Its name is Koyama Pond*. There is an old legend about this pond.

circumference（名）外周、円周

Since it is a legend, of course, the time and date are not clearly known, but you can just assume it was a long time ago. There was a rich man in this Koyama village. His first ancestor, who in his lifetime became the head of the village's 1000 households, was originally a benevolent and virtuous man who loved the villagers as if they were his own children, and so the people adored him like a parent. Perhaps as a benefit of this, by the time of the second generation, the rich man's house had become more and more prosperous, his storehouse was full of gold and silver and jewels, and the number of jewel-like boys and girls had increased in a mansion like the Ryugu Palace**, and there was a lively laugh. But human prosperity is not permanent. Heaven would surely have been offended by the fly-bird-dropping insolence of a third-generation wealthy man who boasted of the prestige of his ancestors. The fate of the fall had already spread its dark wings over his mansion.

benevolent（形）慈悲深い

virtuous（形）高潔な、有徳の

adore（動）敬愛する

prosperous（形）繁栄している

insolence（名）横柄、傲慢、無礼

prestige（名）名声

It was one warm day when the weather was unusually clear during the early summer rainy season and the spring daylight hours lengthened. That day, at last, to plant rice for the rich man's rice fields, the village girls, dressed briskly in white tenugui towels and red tasuki cords*** for their annual formal day, dressed neatly and gathered early in the morning. What did he think, he ordered them to plant seedlings in a few thousand hectares of rice in one day. The villagers were surprised by his unprecedented notice, but because the later retribution would be terrible if he offended the rich man who would go through with what he had proposed, they just affirmed, suddenly increased the number of girls, and worked frantically singing rice planting songs. The rich man watched the scene from the top of a tall building and felt the wonder of himself and his majesty.

lengthen（動）伸びる、長くなる

briskly（副）キビキビと、活発に

unprecedented（形）前例のない、前代未聞の

retribution（名）報復

majesty（名）尊厳、威厳

The daylight hours in spring are long and the number of girls planting rice is large. His majesty is so great that the surface of the rice field becomes more and more green as he watches. No matter how hard they work, planting thousands of hectares of rice is hard to complete in a day. As soon as they were about four or five hectares away, the sun had declined to the western edge of the mountain. Standing on a tall building at the time, he held up a fan with a Hinomaru emblazoned on it, fanning the sun as it set. Even the celestial sun, perhaps frightened by his swagger, fluttered back into the middle of the sky as he fanned. Therefore, the planting of the remaining few hectares was completed safely and his wish was fulfilled.

daylight（名）日光、昼間

emblazon（動）紋章で飾る

celestial（形）天空の、天上の

swagger（名）威張ること、自慢

flutter（動）ぱたぱた揺れる、はためく

I don't know what kind of dream the night keeper had, but when the night broke, he hurried to the high building. When he looked down at the thousands of hectares of rice fields he had planted yesterday, there was no shadow, no shape, and as far as the eye could see, the vast lake was overflowing with cool waves, mocking his glory until yesterday.

note: The above is a verbatim account of what I heard from my grandmother when I was a child by the hearth in winter. The current Koyama Station is about 10 minutes west of the Tottori Station on the Sanin West Line. If you get off here, pass through Koyama post town, and look for the ruins of the rich man in the white sand on the way to Fushino, you will find fragments of tiles, wood pieces, pottery pieces, stone tools, and flint arrowheads from the medieval period. Locals say it is the remains of a rich man's mansion. (Yoshiharu Komori)

hearth（名）囲炉裏

flint（名）フリント石器

arrowhead（名）矢じり

(B) Rich-Man Pond

Mt. Tenshigatake* on the Kai border is deep in the mountains, seven miles north on the Koshu Highway** from Fuji Station on the Tokai-do Line, and oneーー mile southwest from Inokashira, Kamiide Village, Fuji County, Suruga Province, where Mt. Fuji can be seen from the east and west.

Once upon a time, when the princess of a county chief, in her perfect social position, looked into this world without looking in the mirror at the shame of her ugly natural appearance, a divine revelation came to her one night that she should spend her life marrying Chojiro, who lived at the foot of Mt. Fuji in Suruga Province, though she didn't know whether it was dream or reality. The princess left the county at once and hurried toward Suruga. After a long and arduous journey, she finally reached her destination and asked where Chojiro lived, but she could not find out. As she continued to ask, she wandered deeper into the mountains, up a peak, and across a valley, looking far beyond, and saw a wisp of blue smoke beyond the forest. She went there with her cane, and from the midst of the log house emerged a man in rags. He is a charcoal maker***. His face and hands are black with charcoal. The princess looked at the man and asked him if Chojiro meant you, and the man was so surprised that he grabbed a log stick beside him and braced himself. He must have thought she was a fox or raccoon dog transformed. The princess hastily held him back, telling him in detail that he had reason to be suspicious of her, and that she had actually come for this reason. The man was surprised to hear it again, politely apologizing for his rudeness, and though he once refused her request on the grounds that she was too good for him, he was finally moved by her heartbreaking request and ended up living with her. Strangely, however, she had one jewel, and when she spoke of gold, gold came out of it, and when she spoke of rice, rice came out of it, and everything was at their disposal, so that they were at once in a rich position, and Chojiro, a charcoal maker, was in a position to have fields in a short time. Within three years, every piece of land in the neighborhood belonged to Chojiro. They extended their reach to the village of Kajima, seven miles away, and quickly became millionaires, employing a thousand farmers a day. Chojiro had them build a high mound in the middle of a large field, and he himself stood on it, looking out in all directions, and very much enjoyed watching the 1000 peasants at work every day, and the procession of horses carrying the harvest of the fields and fields in autumn.

revelation（名）お告げ

wisp（名）細いたなびき

cane（名）杖

rag（名）ぼろ、古着

charcoal（名）炭

brace（動）身構えさせる

raccoon dog......タヌキ

disposal（名）自由に使えること

Around that time, Minamoto no Yoritomo**** held a hunt at the foot of Mt. Fuji and brought many seko***** with him, but suddenly it began to rain, and he received a request from Chojiro, a wealthy man, to borrow a straw raincoat for 1,000 people. Chojiro immediately agreed and gathered 1000 lame people, one of whom was given a straw raincoat, and sent them to Yoritomo. When he saw that, he said that he must not be defeated by this rich man because he is the best general in Japan, and that he wanted to collect a thousand one-eyed people and return this straw raincoat by any means, and he suddenly looked for a thousand one-eyed people******, but they could not easily be collected, so he could not collect 500 people, let alone a thousand. When Chojiro saw it, he thought that even the greatest general in Japan, Yoritomo, could not gather 1000 one-eyed people, but he could easily gather 1000 lame people, and that this ability was superior to that of Yoritomo, and suddenly he thought his majesty was great, and he thought that everything in the world would be as he wished, so he captured hundreds of one-eyed people who had brought a straw raincoat as an envoy of Yoritomo and drowned them all in a nearby pond.

lame（形）足の不自由な、跛の

It was the day when foxtail millet was sown. Even if 1000 peasants sow seven bags of seeds and all work hard, it is hard to finish sowing in a day. It was almost over, and the sun was about to set in the direction of the western mountains. Chojiro saw it, chanted something, took the fan from his waist, and fanned it to invite the sun, which was trying to hide. Then, strangely enough, the sun stopped moving and never went dark. Seven bags of millet seeds were easily sown. As soon as the peasants exhaled after their work, the sun went down and darkness fell.

foxtail millet......アワ

exhale（動）息を吐く

That night, the rich man caught a fever and in agony threw himself into the pond where one-eyed people had been drowned. Even now, this pond has shrunk and remains. And, strangely enough, all the fish in this Choja (rich man) pond are said to have one eye.

Perhaps sensing the transience of the world, the princess who was left behind climbed Mt. Tensi-ga-take, where a charcoal house where she had first met Chojiro, hung a yingluo******* from azalea, and killed herself. The present yingluo azalea is a memorial to the princess at that time. Two old trees with trunks three feet thick stand side by side, and around May the flowers are in full bloom. Even the shape of those flowers looks exactly like a necklace. Touching this azalea curses you. One day, a village doctor took a branch of this azalea and brought it back, but a violent windstorm broke out that night and he returned it. For that reason, the locals are so afraid of them that they build a small shrine to enshrine the mountain god. (Hyoroku Aoki)

transience（名）はかなさ、無常

azalea（名）ツツジ

Yingluo（名）瓔珞

(C) The Castle Ruin of the Rich Man

It is said that once upon a time there was the castle of the administrator of Koto* in Koto Village, Asa County, Nagato Province, but today there are only token remains. There are stones lying here and there, and at a glance, you can't tell if it's a castle site.

at a glance......一見しただけで

The administrator, who had no children, took only pleasure in collecting gold, silver and jewels, and sometimes called his retainers to show them and consoled his own misfortunes by watching them surprise him. On one occasion, he had 5 ~ 6 of his chief retainers bring the treasures they had in their own homes and display them in the hall of the castle for a competition. Starting with his treasured golden chicken, an endless number of treasures gathered. One of the chief retainers, Kanemura, had seven sons and seven daughters, but he didn't own much treasure, so I don't know what he was thinking, but he let his children dress up, said they were his treasure, and led them into the hall of the castle.

console（動）慰める

Their beauty and cuteness were so incomparable to the golden chickens and silver vases that the assembled chief retainers admired them and ignored the administrator's vaunted treasures. The administrator was completely disgraced, and the fair ended at that point. Since then, he no longer deals in treasure. He finally made a wish to the 1-foot-7-inch Avalokitesvara at Nakayama**, after wishing to have a child somehow by himself. Thanks to that, a girl will be born soon.

incomparable（形）比較できない

He had made a promise that if a child was born through the grace of Avalokitesvara, he would always return her to it after waiting until she was 11 years old. However, when his daughter was actually born, he was so sorry to return her. Time flew by, and she soon turned 11. He was sad to part from his daughter, so he finally began to resent Avalokitesvara, and one day he paid a visit to Nakayama and awfully shot an arrow at the precious statue of Avalokitesvara. Soon after, his castle was surrounded by enemies. His family perished in an instant, and his glorious dreams vanished like bubbles.

pay a visit to......訪問する

perish（動）滅びる

Even now, locals say they can hear the sound of pikes and swords from the ruins of the castle in the middle of the night and the chirping of golden chickens buried in the ruins near dawn.

The statue of the Avalokitesvara at Nakayama is still bent because it was shot by an administrator. (Kyoson Imahashi)

Note: Ube Village, east of my home village of Koto, Asa District, Nagato Province, has the ruins of Koto's castle, and Mt. Shimofuri forms the boundary with Koto Village. In Ube Village, there is no legend that the local magistrate Koto shot an arrow at the precious statue of the Avalokitesvara on Mt. Naka, and they say that its waist is still bent because he kicked the statue in a rage.

magistrate（名）治安判事、執政官

It is also said that when the Koto clan was attacked by the Ouchi clan and the clan was destroyed, they collected treasures and buried them somewhere in the castle, and the following song still remains today:

Beneath it, where the sun shines and the setting sun shines,

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　are 1000 pieces of gold and 10,000 tiles.

(Akira Kito)

(D) The Choja Field

Choja Field is located in Oba Village, Yatsuka County, Izumo Province.

A long time ago, there was a rice-rich man here. There was a horse-rich man near there. They decided to compete for wealth with each other, and it is said that the horse-rich man lined up all the horses he owned, and the rice-rich man lined up as much rice as he could, but there were not enough straw bales, so he bent the last one and put it there, which is still called Hanamagari (bending nose).

When this rich man died, he left a will that he should be cremated with the rice in his storehouse, and soon after his family followed suit, his family was destroyed. It is said that golden chicken chirps at the ruins of his residence. They say that if you dig there, you will get burnt rice. (Hyozo Shimizu)

cremate（動）火葬する

(E) The Branches are Silver, the Leaves Golden

There is a place called Kujiranami along the sea at the foot of Mt. Yone in Kariwa County, Echigo Province. In the past, the encampment was located here, and it was quite a post town on the Hokuriku Highway. There was a seafood dealer named Tamaya Tokubei here. He worked, earned, and saved for 10 years until he became one of the region's richest men, and 25 years later he was a wealthy man who could be called the county's richest man. He married a woman as beautiful as a flower, had a child as beautiful as a jewel, built and lined white-walled storehouses, and was in a perfect position, but there was only one thing lacking. It is a place for gold and silver. There are a number of storehouses, but as people notice and staff come and go, thieves may break in at any moment. His concern was extraordinary. He never slept and kept watch at night, and during the day he made constant patrols, which made him very unfit. After thinking night and day about how he wanted to hide them somewhere no one could find them, he came up with a brilliant idea. There was a camellia tree in the bamboo grove behind his residence. Burying them deep at the base of that tree would eliminate the fear that anyone would find them, so one night, unbeknownst to anyone, he held his hoe and dug into the base of the camellia, where he buried thousands of ryo in gold and silver. That was all well and good, but all these years of care have left him emaciated and weak ever since as if he had contracted tuberculosis completely. The doctor was a matter of course, but on the advice of his wife and relatives, he ventured out with just one head clerk member in a palanquin to a hot spring deep in the mountains for a cure.

encampment（名）野営地

eliminate（動）取り除く

unbeknown（形）人に知られていない

emaciated（形）痩せ衰えた、衰弱した

contract（動）病気にかかる

tuberculosis（名）結核

venture out......思い切って出かける

palanquin（名）駕籠

One morning, 12 to 13 days later, while Tokubei was taking a bath, he heard the following man singing in the dense steam:

Camellias in the Tamaya in Jiranami, Echigo,

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　with silver branches and golden leaves.

When Tokubei heard this song and thought that the guy was saying something strange, he told the head clerk, but since the clerk didn't know that he had buried the gold, the guy probably praised Tamaya for its glory, and didn't care. Tokubei, however, was far from unconcerned and couldn't stand it. Not listening to the chief stop, he returned by the rapid palanquin and was surprised when he went to the back of the house and saw the camellia. All the branches of the camellia tree were silver, and all the leaves were gold. He clutched his arms around the camellia tree, cried out that he didn't know it would suck the souls of gold and silver, and collapsed. He was brought back to life through his family's care but could not get up in bed. Before he died, he called his wife alone to his bedside and asked what the camellia at the back of the house looked like, and she said it didn't look unusual. No matter who he asked, they said it hadn't looked unusual. He was more and more wondering, and told of burying gold and silver there, and then died.

unconcern（動）気にしない、無関心でいる

Later, his family dug into the base of the camellia, but the gold and silver that were supposed to have been buried had disappeared without a trace. (Ringai Maeda)

(F) The Large Stone in the Rice Field

There is a large stone in a rice field beside the torii gate at the riding field of Suwagi Shrine in Suwagi, Monobe Village, Ikaruga District, Tamba Province. Once upon a time, on the morning of New Year's Day, a golden chicken made a "Totenko (eastern sky turns red)" call on the stone, so they put up with the stone being a hindrance and still let it stand. The mountain where this shrine is located is small, but its shape is like a boat. The fact that it is in the shape of a boat should be a very high rank, but this god is not a very high rank among gods. Therefore, since he has no commensurate ability for his rank, there has never been a case of a wealthy person among the local believers.

hindrance（名）妨害、障害物

commensurate（形）釣り合った

Mt. Simo in the same village is dedicated to Hachidai Kojin*, but there are 15 disproportionate stone pillars in the precincts of this shrine. A long time ago, it is said that an old lady buried a lot of gold here and put them up as a sign to be a pillar. They seem to have been made as pillars by cutting quality stones. (Toru Takagi)

disproportionate（形）不釣り合いな

(G) Sanrou Choja

A long time ago, there was a Sanrou Choja in Oosawa, Totoumi Village, Nishikubiki County, Echigo Province. It is said that his house and furniture were washed away by the flood of the Year of the Rabbit some years ago, and the size of the stone chest that was swept away was such that 10 tatami mats could be laid inside. Now it sinks into the lower reaches of the Oumi River, and people struggle because dragnets sometimes get caught in it. Although it is clearly visible, it is too large and heavy to lift. This is said to have been his drinking water container. There were many of his relics, but they were destroyed in a fire 30 years ago. There were 2 boxes of oblong chests and 5 ~ 6 bales of straw bags left, but Heizaemon Watanabe of the present generation said, "We are getting poorer because we have such things," and took them out to the riverside and burned them. Considering that the guardian deity of the Choja was near a large cedar by the mound of Princess Nunakawa*, it seems that his ancestors were not ordinary. When I asked someone how such a great millionaire's house went down, I was convinced. He had so much gold and silver that he must have become arrogant and been abandoned by God.

sweep away......押し流す

dragnet（名）地引網

relic（名）遺品

One summer, wanting to play something interesting, the Sanrou Choja had a lot on his mind and came up with a snow-watching game. He used many servants to cook rice in a big kettle and spread the rice all over the large garden and let them put on their boots and walk over the rice, and to look at it he clapped his hands. Also, on New Year's Day, he once made a pilgrimage to a shrine of a local god in a rather distant area by arranging about 5.4 liters of kagami-mochi (rice cakes) and walking them with his wooden clogs on top like steppingstones.

make a pilgrimage......巡礼する

steppingstone（名）踏み石

I don't know how many generations the family head was, but it is said that he was able to hold gold and silver and buried them in a mountain. Apparently, that place is called Sodegataira. It is said that a small chicken keeps the watch. The will of the rich man says that if two brothers, Jiro and Taro, were born in later generations, he would give them the gold he had buried, and the buried place is where the sound of the sea wave, the sound of the river water and the sound of a horse bit can be heard in unison, with 1,000 barrels of gold buried at the base of a white-flowered deutzia tree on a mountain facing southeast. (Tekko Ono at Oumi Village, Nishikubiki County, Echigo Province)

deutzia（名）ウツギ

(H) Hiroemon Daijin (rich man)

A long time ago, in a place called Umabashi in Tsuda Village, Yatsuka District, Izumo Province, there lived a wealthy man named Hiroemon Daidin. He had built a large riding ground and employed many people.

One day, as the village children gathered to play, they saw a small snake among the kuromoji* (lindera umbellata) hedges that surrounded his estate. The snake held up its curved neck like a sickle. When they saw it, the children cruelly slapped the innocent snake to death with a weapon in their hand, saying to each other, 'That's kuchinawa (snake)". Then, strangely enough, the hitherto small snake gradually grew larger and larger into a corpse of more than a few fathoms. The child ran away in a hurry and left in fear.

hedge（名）生垣

estate（名）私有地

sickle（名）鎌

hitherto（副）今までは

corpse（名）死骸

fathom（名）尋

At that time, there was no curse, but after a while, beautiful mushrooms grew in clusters on the same hedge. The young men gathered at the riding ground thought they were splendid mushrooms, and there was nothing strange about them so far as they were collected in a struggle and boiled in large pots. However, when they reached the stage of adding sake and salt and dripping the sake into the pot, they were surprised to find that the piles of mushrooms disappeared in a flash, leaving no shadow or shape. The young men realized that the grudge of the slain snake** must have grown into mushrooms in its hedges, and they felt even more grateful to have survived the crisis of their lives. Soon after, the rich man's family faded into decline, and the large piece of land quickly fell into the hands of others, turning the remains of his estate into rice fields.

grudge（名）怨念

slain（形）殺された

Locals still often tell this story as an example of the fact that alcohol and salt must always be added when boiling food. (Hyozo Shimizu)

(I) Okane Old Lady's Lantern

Around Yokosuka, Omi Province, children who went out to catch fireflies* on a summer night can be heard singing

"Come fireflies, come rice pests, come see a bit of the light of the lantern.

Come fireflies, come rice pests, the water over there is bitter, the water here is sweet."

mixed with the voice saying,

"The old lady Okane is far, far away, near, near ".

pest（名）害虫

There used to be a house of a very rich family called Okane. I don't know what demons cursed them, but after the first death, the second, and several family deaths, only the old lady was left behind. She had been single for a long time, but as she grew older, she was helpless, and by becoming bedridden with her legs no longer weak, she became a person from the other world before she could even begin to prepare for her inheritance. Her relative X, who rushed to her house, only gave her a burial, but he also disposed of her estate without deciding who would perform the ritual later. So even now, no one lays flowers on her grave. So, her soul resents it, and on a lonely summer night when it drizzles, she wanders over the rice fields, lighting up a blue light with the ghastly taste like a lantern, counting, "This is my family's rice field, this is also my family's field."

bedridden（形）寝たきりの

drizzle（動）小雨が降る

ghastly（形）恐ろしい、ゾッとする

Anyone who sees the light says it will go out over the Hoju Temple cemetery. There is a grave of the old Okane in Hoju Temple. The Okane Bank lies to the south of the temple. Old Lady Okane's light never curses people. It just floats over wide rice fields, and if someone calls "Old Lady Okane far, far away," it comes closer. Children are afraid, and if they say "Old Lady Okane, close, close" it will go far again. (X Totsuka at Yokosuka, Totoumi Province)

(A)

*Koyama Pond: A brackish lake in the northern part of Tottori City, Tottori Prefecture.

**Ryugu Palace: A palace of the sea god that appears in legends related to the sea god that have been passed down throughout China and Japan.

***tenugui towels and red tasuki cords: Tenugui towel is a plain-woven cotton cloth used to wipe sweat and water from the face and hands after washing or to wash the body while bathing. Tasuki cord is a cord or cloth used to pull up the sleeves and sleeves of a kimono so that they don't get in the way and is usually passed from the shoulders to the sides and crossed diagonally.

(B)

*Mt. Tenshi-ga-take: A 1330 meter mountain on the border between Fujinomiya City, Shizuoka Prefecture and Nanbu Town, Yamanashi Prefecture.

**Koshu Highway: One of the 5 major highways developed by the Edo shogunate, there were 44 post towns from Nihombashi in Edo to Shimosuwa in Shinano Province.

***charcoal maker: Folktales and legends handed down in East Asia. A woman of high rank marries a charcoal maker by divine revelation. She gives the man gold to go shopping and he throws them at the birds. When she explains to him the value of the gold, he shows her the gold in the mountains, and they become wealthy.

****Minamoto no Yoritomo: (1147 - 1199) The founder and the first shogun of the Kamakura shogunate. He was the son of Minamoto no Yoshitomo and belonged to Seiwa Genji's prestigious Kawachi Genji family. After setting himself the rightful heir of the Minamoto clan, he led his clan against the Taira clan from his capital in Kamakura, beginning the Genpei War in 1180. After five years of war, he finally defeated the Taira clan in the Battle of Dan-no-ura in 1185. Yoritomo thus established the supremacy of the warrior samurai caste and the first shogunate at Kamakura, beginning the feudal age in Japan, which lasted until the mid-19th century. He is also known for gathering many of his vassals to hunt on a large scale at the foot of Mt. Fuji in 1193.

*****seko: A person whose role is to drive an animal out or in the direction of an archer when hunting.

******lame people and one-eyed people: Folklorically, lameness and one eye are thought to be related to ironworkers in the background. If they keep watching the fire in the iron furnace or step on the board to send air all the time, they get one eye or limp. Steel production also requires charcoal to melt iron at high temperatures.

*******yingluo: A ring-shaped neck ornament or fashion jewelry of Buddhist origins in ancient China with its earliest prototypes having roots in ancient India.

(C)

*Koto: The clan was based in Nagato Province. They are said to have originated with Mononobe no Moriya, and one of their descendants built a residence in what is now Ube City, Yamaguchi Prefecture. During the reign of the 17th head of the family, Yoshitake, the conflict with the Ouchi clan in Suo Province intensified, and in 1358 he abandoned Shimofuri Castle and fled to Buzen Province.

**Nakayama: Kofukuji Temple in Nakayama, Ube City, Yamaguchi Prefecture.

(D)

(E)

(F)

*Hachidai Kojin: The god of folk beliefs is a combination of Naga and Kojin (god of the furnace).

(G)

*Princess Nunakawa: She is a goddess in Japanese mythology and one of the wives of Okuninushi. In Itoigawa City, Niigata Prefecture, it is said that their son was Takeminakata, a war god, who became the god of Suwa Shrine by going up the Hime River.

(H)

*kuromoji: A deciduous shrub of the lauraceae family. Its branches are used for chopsticks and toothpicks.

**grudge of the slain snake: The story of how the grudge of a slain snake turns into a poisonous mushroom and destroys a wealthy family is also recorded in "The Tale of Tono," edited by Kunio Yanagita.

(I)

*catch fireflies: The event described here is not just a game of catching fireflies, but a magical event of repelling crop pests. On early summer nights, people form a line with drums and torches to carry large straw dolls to village borders and rivers to burn or float.