(A) Oben Fall

Two miles west of Kashiwazaki, Echigo Province, is the famous Oben Fall, where the waters of the Oumi River fall from a cliff into the sea.

Once upon a time, Oben, a girl who was a diver on Sado Island, was engaged to a man in Kashiwazaki, and every night she rode a big tub from Sado to Kashiwazaki, using the nightlight at Cape Banjin as a sign. Then the man thought, "Even though I told her to come, there was no way she could go. Sado is 49 miles away on the waves" but he seemed so creeped out by her coming without being late, surviving the 49 miles of waves, that he gently blew out the light one night. She suddenly lost her bearings, and while she was swaying in the waves, a windstorm caused the tub to capsize, and she drifted to the bottom of the waterfall in a cold corpse. It has since been called Oben Fall.

engage（動）婚約する

tub（名）たらい、桶

creep out......抜け出る

blow out......吹き消す

bearing（名）方向感覚、方位

sway（動）揺れる

capsize（動）転覆する

corpse（名）死体

(B) Hira no Hakko

Around Otsu, Omi Province, the weather is always stormy at the end of March every year. Locals call it Hira no hakko. It means that Hira Mountains* will be rough for eight days.

A little to the west of Gichu Temple at the eastern gate of Otsu is a dock called Ishiba. There is still an inn called Harimaya there. A long time ago, a young monk stayed overnight at this inn. At night, a beautiful maid working in the inn sneaked into his room, unable to extinguish the flame of love that flared at first sight. It was only natural that she had wooed him after she had opened her heart to him, but devout to Buddhism, he was not easily moved. But perhaps feeling sorry in her desperate heart, he gave her the difficult task of "I am the one who lives away from the dust of the world at the foot of Hira Mountains across the lake. If your love for me is so true, come to me from Ishiba in a tub for a hundred nights in a row. If you can do it, then I will make sure you get your wish "as a stopgap greeting. Then, from the night she had promised him, she floated a basin from Ishiba every night on the signal of the bell of Mii Temple, passed the sea off Karasaki and Katata, watched the light of the hermitage at the foot of Mt. Hira, and turned back, successfully completing the ordeal of 99 nights. It was now the night of day 100 when she could finally make her wish come true, and she bravely weathered the waves for miles and miles until she came within sight of the light, for some reason she could not see it in the dark night. Just as she wondered if she had been cheated, the wind began to blow down from the top of Mt. Hira, the tub capsized in no time, and she disappeared into the seaweed debris at the bottom of the lake, shedding tears of regret.

sneak（動）こっそり入る

extinguish（動）消す

flare（動）燃える

woo（動）求婚する

It was March 20. It is still said that the lake gets stormy at that time of year because of her memory. (Hiroshi Morita)

Note: Shirahige Shrine is on the west side of Lake Biwa. A lighthouse has been in front of this shrine for a long time. One time, a woman who lived east of Lake Biwa fell in love with a man who lived near this shrine, and every night she rode a tub through the waves a few miles from Nagahama to reach him. He was suspicious of her coming every night from a distance, and when he asked her, she replied that she would come by the tub as a boat, aiming at the lighthouse light of this shrine. He was still suspicious, and one dark night he turned off the light of the lighthouse, and she lost her mark and was at a loss. Then a sudden storm broke out, and in the blink of an eye, the tub capsized, and she drowned. So, in the Hira region, they say, "Hira no hakko is the last stormy weather," which means early October. (Toru Takagi)

This is the story in Onadani, located along the Ukawa River in Kariwa County, Echigo Province.

Once upon a time, there was a rich man (choja) and a daughter in Choja Field. He married a man from Sado, and the two were close enough to be envied by others, but somehow they got divorced, and the son-in-law returned to Sado. She finally died of her broken feelings for him.

divorce（動）離婚させる

son-in-law（名）娘婿

When she died, she left a will that she be buried on a mountain with a view of Sado Island after her death. According to her will, she was buried at the present Choja Mound. It is said to be a place where you can see Sado Island well even if the nearby mountains are stacked one on top of the other. (Toshinori Nakanishi)

will（名）遺言

(A)

(B)

*Hira Mountains: A mountain range on the western shore of Lake Biwa in Shiga Prefecture. Most of the land is now Lake Biwa Quasi-National Park.

(C)