前のエピソード――(III) The Saddling Swamp Legend

(i) Dragon and Serpent Legend

(A) Mt. Kuzuryu

Mt. Kuzuryu in Togakushi is a serpent. Once upon a time, Hisayama, the local lord of Togakushi village, went deep into the mountains to see the true nature of the mountain, and a beautiful princess appeared. He thought she was a mountain transformed, and when he tried to reveal her identity further, the poisonous air she vomited, on the contrary, made him leprosy. Still, he went to Tanegaike-ike Pond in the mountains with the intention of uncovering its true identity by any means, floated on top of the pond in a basket, and when he called out "If thou hast a soul, hide thyself in the water" to the pond, a mysterious swirl immediately arose on the pond surface, and he was caught up to the bottom.

leprosy（名）ハンセン病

thou（名）汝

thyself（名）汝自身

Many generations later, Mt. Kuzuryu appeared in the dream of Hisayama, VI, and told him, "Look at Mt. Hitoyo, because I will surely reveal my true identity". As his dream told him, he looked at Mt. Hitoyo at dawn and saw a terrible giant serpent winding three and a half circles around the mountain.

This giant serpent is the true identity of Mt. Kuzuryu, but the mountain's spirit is also still believed by the public to have very good spiritual effects in rainmaking, warding off storms, frost, pests, and thieves. (Umekichi Tanaka)

(B) The Well in Zendo Temple

Zendo Temple is located about 200 meters from the station in Tatebayashi Town, Oura County, Gunma Prefecture. A pine tree planted by the founder himself can be seen in front of the kitchen. One day, while he was preaching in the main hall, a dragon from Mt. Tsutsujigaoka visited him disguised as a beautiful woman. When he stroked her brow with beads, she instantly revealed her true identity and made the hall seven rolls. So, he recited the Buddhist invocation, returned her to her former self, sealed the well in the garden, and covered it with a stone lid. Soon after, the dragon became a Buddha and offered a light. A pine tree said to have been planted as a memorial now measures about 7 ~ 8 feet in circumference. Later, in times of drought, when they took the lid off this well and prayed, it always rained. If they take it recklessly, it will rain heavily and they will be in trouble, so they are not supposed to take it unless there is a great drought. (Ryozo Tanaka in Tamiya, Kita-Katsushika County, Saitama Prefecture)

preach（動）説教する

recite（動）唱える

Buddhist invocation......念仏

seal（動）封印する

lid（名）蓋

recklessly（副）向こう見ずに

It is south of Kashiwazaki, Echigo Province. It was originally a large lake, but part of it was reclaimed for rice fields, so it became smaller. At that time, when an excellent monk named Ryoshin from Myozouin Temple in Kashiwazaki prayed that the pond lord should be moved to a lake mainly in Nojiri*, Shinano Province, an express messenger from Shinano came to see him and told him that black clouds had broken out from the direction of Echigo and that Lake Nojiri had become rough and that the local people were in trouble. So Ryoshin sealed the pond lord in his temple and enshrined him as Seiryu Gongen. Then, on the last day of the ceremony, a dragon disguised himself as a human being visited the houses of the village to bid farewell and led his vassals out. Some of his vassals seemed too old to walk, and several palanquins were prepared for them. (Toshinori Nakanishi)

reclaim（動）開墾する

(D) The Otter Pool

In the upper reaches of the Asiwa River in Echigo Province, there is a pool called the Kawauso-ga-fuchi (Otter Pool), which is now very shallow but was once said to be several dozen fathoms deep. Since ancient times, the genius has been said to be in this pool, and people never fished there.

upper reaches......上流

Of course, we can't know that it was determined that it happened hundreds of years ago. Apparently, it was during the Kamakura period, when a feudal lord took a number of his retainers to this riverbank to fish, and when they came to this pool, they found tens of thousands of fish in perfectly clear water. "Throw it a net." he commanded, but all his retainers were petrified, and when they said, "This is a place where a genius has lived for a long time, and killing a living thing is a taboo. If we catch even one killifish, what calamity may befall us. Please don't do this at all, "the stubborn and short-tempered lord raised his voice in fury and ordered them to shoot flaming arrows and guns at the center of the pool, saying, "Echizen Province is my possession, down to a single blade of grass, but I have not heard that there are any geniuses other than me. Nothing will happen, because the genius in this pool is nothing great". Then, the moment a group of black clouds appeared in the eastern sky, a terrible windstorm blew, the world darkened, lightning and thunder rang furiously, and a fearsome big catfish appeared, flashed its eyes, and attacked the lord, causing him to cringe in an instant and run away as fast as he could to the Honko Temple in the nearby Ichinami village. When the chief priest saw the strange weather and went out worrying about the lord's safety, he saw a big catfish monster crawling right behind the lord, so he quickly took off his religious clothing and put it on the lord's head. Then, the moment a group of black clouds appeared in the eastern sky, a terrible windstorm blew, the world darkened, lightning and thunder rang furiously, and a fearsome big catfish appeared, flashed its eyes, and attacked the lord, causing him to cringe in an instant and run away as fast as he could to the Honko Temple in the nearby village of Ichinami. When the chief priest saw the strange weather and went out worrying about the lord's safety, he saw a big catfish monster crawling right behind him, so he quickly took off his religious clothing and put it on the lord's head. Then the monster disappeared in an instant, the wind died down, and the sky cleared and returned to normal. It goes without saying that Honko Temple was given more territory in return for the lord's gratitude. His clothes from that time were called religious garments to protect against evil spirits and are still kept as treasures in temples. (Sodo Aotori in Fukui)

petrify（動）恐怖で動けなくする

killifish（名）メダカ

calamity（名）災難、厄災

befall（動）災害が起こる、襲いかかる

short-tempered（形）短気な

blade of grass......草の葉

furiously（副）猛烈に、激しく

catfish（名）ナマズ

cringe（動）縮みあがる、すくむ

(E) The Frog

This is the story at Mt. Hiei in Kyoto.

A long time ago, a man climbed this mountain and admired the scenery around him, and while he was lying on the rocks smoking a cigarette, a big earthquake started. He jumped down the rock in surprise, and when he looked carefully, it was not an earthquake. What he thought was a rock was a big frog that had been burned on its back by a cigarette and started to move. Then he fell ill and died within days. It has long been said that the genius of Mt. Hiei is a big frog, so he must have encountered the frog. (Toru Takagi)

(A)

(B)

(C)

*Nojiri: A lake in Shinano, Nagano Prefecture. It is also known as a lake where Nauman elephant fossils and Paleolithic artifacts have been excavated and researched. A natural lake, it is designated as the Myoko and Togakushi Mountains National Park.

(D)

(E)