Japanese Legend Collection

(II) The Variant Sinking Bell Legend

(A) Kamagafuchi

Iwakuraji Shrine is located in Iwakuraji, Kamagafuchi Village, Nakanikawa District, Toyama Prefecture. It is said that there used to be two large cookers on either side of the entrance to the shrine, but now only one remains. The other had heard the sound of water in the nearby Joganji River hundreds of years ago and naturally felt like becoming a dragon, and finally sank into a deep pool in the river one night. It is said that up until that time, the sound of the cooker was heard from time to time. Based on this legend, the area was named Kamagafuchi (the cooker pool) at the time of the recent town and village merger. (Sekijiro Izumi in Toyama City)

cooker（名）釜

merger（名）合併

(B) The Mortar Pond

In Nagama, Yashiro Village, Kita-Katsushika County, Saitama Prefecture, there is a pond-shaped spot in a stream behind a temple called Toko-in. This was once the Edo River, and until that time, the area behind the temple was deep and wide, inhabited by the river's chief serpent. Around that time, a ship carrying nine stone monuments from Edo, which was supposed to be built at a temple in Kurihashi, got stuck here and stayed there for days. Someone suggested that the chief wanted stones, so he sank one of the monuments they were carrying, and the ship started to move and arrived safely. That's why there are only eight stone monuments in the temple.

After the renovation of the Edo River, the name Suribachi (mortar) Pond was given to this area because it is in the shape of a pond, while the other areas only retain the name river. During one year of drought, the water in this pond would not decrease no matter how much it was drawn, so they poked it sideways under the cliff with a long pole and found a deep hole. A village legend has it that once a snake hunter entered this hole and found a vermilion-clad monk sitting inside. (Ryozo Tanaka in Tamiya, Kita-Katsushika County, Saitama Prefecture)

renovation（名）改修

pole（名）竿

(C) The Pond in Itsukushima Shrine

There is a forest dedicated to Itsukushima Shrine in Shimaziri, Imazu'ura Village, Naka County, Tokushima Prefecture. Behind this hall is a pond about 18 feet in diameter. This pond is said to be the site of an old sea vortex, and there is a story that a sengoku ship was caught in this vortex and sank. Later, the rest of the land dried out, except here it didn't. Every year, around dawn on New Year's Eve, you can see the sailing pole of a sengoku ship* and see a rare beauty floating around it. Even now, the water in this pond is said to decrease or increase with the tide.

vortex（名）渦

Note: It is said that a sengoku ship is also sunk in the pond behind the Mangan Temple in Shikichi, Imazu'ura Village, the same county, after being caught in a vortex, and even today it is said that entering this pond causes stomach pains. (Yasuto Yoshikawa)

(A)

(B)

(C)

*sengoku ship: Another name for the Bezai ship. It means it can carry 1000 koku (about 180,000 liters). A large wooden sailing ship used in domestic shipping in Japan from the late 16 to the 18 century.