Japanese Legend Collection

8 The Bowl Lending Hole Legend

(A) The Grotto of Furniture

440 ~ 550 meters from Tomioka Town, Naka County, Tokushima Prefecture is Mt. Tsunomine*, said to be one of the three mountains in the south of Tokushima. It is 1980 meters high and about 1100 meters away is a cave called Kagu no Iwaya (grotto of furniture).

grotto（名）洞窟、洞穴

Once upon a time, a poor man found out by accident that furniture would come out of this grotto, and then whenever he needed furniture, he would come here and ask at the mouth of the cave for how many so-and-so pieces he needed, and when he went again the next day, he would find that everything he had asked for was in order. Then it became popular, and everyone went to borrow it. There was a bad person among them who left the borrowed furniture and never returned it. From then on, no matter how many times people asked, they wouldn't lend anything. This grotto was said to extend to Tosa Province, and although there is still there, no one went there because it was at the back, not along the road. (Yasuto Yoshikawa)

so-and-so（名）誰々、某

(B) Hachiman Grotto

There is a small hill along the Kinugawa River in Funadama, Sekimoto Village, Makabe County, Ibaraki Prefecture. Hachiman Shrine* is enshrined on the hill. The stone staircase in front of the shrine is likely to be 14-15 feet high, but to the right of the staircase is a hole about four feet square. The hole is surrounded by big flat stones. Go into the hole and you'll find a stone chamber** about 60 feet by 70 feet. The surrounding walls are about 12 feet by 6 feet of stone, and even the ceiling is made of stone. It is said that there used to be a well in this hole and a hermit lived here. In those days, if a village needed a meal, a bowl, or a plate, they would go to the front of the grotto and ask for a date, a number, and a rental, and the next day the ordered items would be displayed at the entrance. It is said that later, the villagers became so bad that they stole little by little the things the grotto had lent them and didn't return them, so they became angry or stopped lending them anything.

staircase（名）階段

chamber（名）部屋

ceiling（名）天井

little by little......少しずつ、なし崩し的に

There was also one room in front of the entrance to the hole, but it was demolished about 50 years ago. The tourist information board at Kawashima Station on the Joban Line*** says the Hachiman Grotto, Sekimoto Town. (Kazuya Katsuramoto)

demolish（動）解体する、撤去する

(C) The Bowl Mound

About a mile and a half northwest of Narita, Shimousa Province, is Ryukakuji Village. One of the Seven Wonders of the Village has a mound of about 50 square meters. It's named Owan Zuka (Bowl Mound) *, but it's actually a deep grotto, and the grotto is said to have been used in the past by villagers who asked for it and lent them a tray or bowl. You went in front of the cave the night before and told them how many you needed, and they were all set for the next morning. However, some villagers later borrowed them and didn't return them, so they have since stopped lending them.

It is said that if the village declines and can no longer operate, all they have to do is dig this mound and they will find enough to stand on. It is said that a tray borrowed from this mound still remains in someone's house in the village. (Migai Ishihara in Narita, Shimousa)

(D) The Bowl-lending Hole

There are 3 ~ 4 groups of more than 200 horizontal and vertical grottos in a valley in Kogane Village, Kahoku County, Kaga Province. Among them, the local people call the vertical hole in the field behind Dento Temple in Dentoji village Wankashi Ana (bowl-lending hole). It has been passed down through the ages that an old fox once lived here and lent it a tray or bowl, but since some people borrowed it and didn't return it, it no longer lent them. (Kanazawa in Shimogamo, Kyoto)

horizontal（形）水平な

vertical（形）垂直の

(E) Hyakuwan Todoro

In Aradani, Kitakata Village, Higashi-usuki District, Hyuga Province, along the Kumamoto-Kaido Road, three miles west of Nobeoka Town, is a place called Hyakuwan Todoro (One-hundred-bowl Fall). It is a pool where the river running through the Aradani valley forms a waterfall, dark in the daytime and in the shade of the forest. The pool's depth is unknown and is said to extend all the way to Ryugu Palace.

Long ago in Aradani, villagers would rent bowls for a hundred people in this pool when they were serving guests. When a person went to borrow it that day, a beautiful woman's hand came out and handed her a bowl. One time, a fool went on an errand and pulled the beautiful hand, and she has since stopped lending it to them. Until then, it had been strictly forbidden to wash impure things in this river, but since they wouldn't lend them bowls, they didn't have to worry about it, so they started washing everything. Then, strangely enough, a disabled person was born in each house only in that village. It is said to be the curse of this pool. On a visit, it certainly seems that there is one disabled person in each house in this village. (Juzaburo Kikuchi)

errand（名）使い、用足し

impure（形）不潔な、汚れた

(F) The Bowl Mound

It is located in Furukawa Town, Yoshiki County, Hida Province.

Once upon a time, there lived an old fox on this mound, who lent them trays and bowls for hundreds upon the request of the locals. The night before the guests were invited, the villagers went to the front of the hole in this mound and said, "X number of people, please," and when they came the next morning, they found that what they had asked for was certainly laid out there. It is said that the fox borrows them from a distance with supernatural powers. However, in later times, people's minds became worse and worse, and at one point, some people borrowed the trays and bowls and didn't return them, so it has not been lent to them since. (Shomu Nishimoto in Hida Takayama)

supernatural（形）超自然的な

(G) A Bottomless Well

Takarada Village, Gunma County, Kozuke Province, is south of Mt. Haruna and near Takasaki. Here is an old temple called Chonen Temple. One of the wonders handed down in this temple, the famous bottomless well is said to extend all the way to Ryugu Palace, and in the old days, it was customary to borrow all the dishes and bowls used at temple parties when parishioners were invited to the temple for a feast. All they had to do was write a letter and drop as much as they needed into the well, and when they went to the well the next morning they found that their order had been properly placed by the well. However, one year, when returning these items, the temple staff accidentally forgot to return one of the bowl lids. Then, Ryugu's side became so angry that from the following year, no matter how many letters they sent, they would not lend them.

bottomless（形）底のない

parishioner（名）教区民

feast（名）ご馳走

properly（副）適切に、正確に

Both the temple and the well still stand. (Hiroshi Morita)

(H) A Grotto at Kozen Temple

There is a cave in the bamboo grove of Kozen Temple facing the Fuji River in Karigaritsumugi* Village, Nishi-yatsushiro County, Kai Province. Once upon a time, they wrote down the name and number of items needed on paper and put it in a hole, and when they went the next day, they found that the items had been put out. They were lent from hell. He only had to return them after using them, and they always lent them to him again, but one time someone borrowed some plates and broke one of them, and since he returned the missing one, they have stopped lending it to them. (Taka Takano in Toyowa, Nishi-yatsushiro County, Kai Province)

(I) The Kineki Rock

Once upon a time, a farmer in Iwao Village, Kitatsuru County, Kai Province, while climbing Kineki Rock in a nearby mountain and digging for tree roots, slipped and accidentally dropped an axe into the pool of the river that flowed below, after which he himself fell and sank to the bottom of the pool. Then, suddenly feeling like dreaming, a god-like lady appeared and gave him a Cintamani-shaped gem. "As long as you hold this gem in such a way that no one can see it, you can get whatever you want. All you have to do is write the name of what you want on a piece of paper and throw it into the pool." she taught him. The man thanked her gratefully and returned early the next morning to find his house in the middle of a memorial service. When he asked, it had been exactly three years since he had gone missing. He talked about his trip to Ryugu as if it had happened yesterday. But he never told anyone about the secret treasure.

Cintamani（名）宝珠

gem（名）宝石、宝玉

From then on, whenever a man wanted something, he would go to the pool and throw in a piece of paper with the name of the thing. The paper spun around and got caught in the bottom of the water. Then, before long, he received what he had asked for. This gem made him rapidly wealthy, but later his wife saw the secret gem and he became a poor farmer again.

While he was out, his wife opened a secret furoshiki and found a stone in it that was nothing. As the Cintamani-shaped gem became a stone, the secret power disappeared. (Jonan Sanjin in Kai Province)

Note: The pool has water even in times of drought, making it a place for rain-begging rituals. When a crowd of villagers gathers to pray for rain, they erect leafy bamboo, attach the paper to them and pour water into the bamboo from a distance, and the priest sheds one by one, pleading for 100 straw strings. (Jonan Sanjin)

beg（動）乞う

erect（名）立てる

leafy（形）葉の多い

shed（動）流れる

(J) Kowashimizu no Iwaya

In Otake Village, Imba County, Shimousa Province, there is a large grotto called Kowashimizu* no Iwaya (A grotto where water flows in the case of children). Inside, the building is large enough to hold 1000 tatami mats, and a flat stone stands 24 ~ 30 feet from the entrance.

In the past, when there were not enough trays and bowls for banquets and weddings in the villages around here, they would come to the mouth of this cave and say, "Please, what time of the day this happens I need X number of trays and bowls by this time, so please lend me by this time," and when they came at that time, they found that the trays and bowls they had just asked for had been placed in front of the flat stone, but after one time a greedy peasant borrowed the trays and bowls and never returned them, no matter how much they asked, they would never lend them. Even now, people talk seriously about the fact that one bowl remains in each of the nearby houses of the chief of Isobe Village and Shoemon in Otake Village.

banquet（名）宴会

The reason for calling this grotto Kowashimizu is that there used to be an honest and poor farmer, but even though he was tired and wanted to drink, he had no money to buy alcohol, so he drank clean water flowing from here instead of alcohol, and before he knew it, the water turned into alcohol. He was very happy and drank a cup every day. Then, when his son suspected him and followed him, he found water flowing from under this grotto and took a barrel to fetch it. And when he took it out of the barrel and drank it, what he thought was alcohol was still just water. That is why the song

"Parents have old liquor, children have clean water,

three wells in three caves"

is still sung in this village. (Ringai Maeda)

(A)

*Mt. Tsunomine: A 284-meter mountain in Anan City, Tokushima Prefecture.

(B)

*Hachiman Shrine: Funadama Shrine in Chikusei, Ibaraki.

**stone chamber: The Funadama burial mound was built around the 7th century in Chikusei, Ibaraki Prefecture.

***Joban Line: A railway line that connects Nippori Station in Arakawa Ward, Tokyo, and Iwanuma Station in Iwanuma City, Miyagi Prefecture, via Chiba, Ibaraki, and Fukushima prefectures.

(C)

*Owan Zuka: Ryukakuji Iwaya Tomb. A square tumulus in Ryukakuji, Sakae Town, Inba County, Chiba Prefecture. It is the 105th of the 115 Ryukakuji burial mounds. It was made around the 7th century.

(D)

(E)

(F)

(G)

(H)

*Karigaritsumugi: A writing error in Kamogaritsumugi Village.

(I)

(J)

*Kowashimizu: (C)The spring water at the bottom of the cliff by the Ryukakuji Iwaya burial mound.