(A) Koyasu Jizo at Gansui Temple

Futamata, Kashima, and Aritama areas in Iwata County, Totomi Province used to be the bottom of the Tenryu River. Until that time, ferryboats that came and went from place to place could only depart twice a day, and if they were forced to depart, they were sure to be attacked by a large serpent in the water.

When General Sakanoue no Tamuramaro came here on his way to the conquest of Emishi* and ordered a ferry to sail, they told him they could no longer sail today because the ferry had already departed twice. When he heard this, he told them that it would not be right to disturb my journey to the conquest of Emishi for the sake of the country under the order of the emperor, so he would shoot them with an arrow, whether it was an ogre or a snake, and ordered them to sail without fear. The boat master paddled out humbly, and the general stood in the middle of the ship. The ship arrived safely on the far shore as if the great serpent had been awed by his majesty at the sight of the general waiting with an arrow to his bow. That night a lady came to the house where he was staying and asked for overnight lodging. She was so beautiful when he saw her that he willingly allowed her to stay and had a pleasant dream with her in the inn on the trip.

conquest（名）征服、遠征

sail（動）航行する

humbly（副）謙虚に、つつましく

majesty（名）威厳

willingly（副）喜んで

When General Tamura stayed at this house on his way home after the conquest of Emishi, the beautiful woman came up again. She said, "Because of my overnight relationship with you, I have conceived a baby, and the time of childbirth is approaching. Please build a parturition hut** for me. Don't look into it when I am in the hut, no matter what." He followed her words and built a square parturition hut of about 26 square meters, blocking the perimeter to prevent people from seeing inside. And when it was finally time for her to give birth, he forgot his vow to her and peeked through a gap in the wooden door, and lo and behold, a terrible serpent was dangling his head and licking the baby's head, so he was very surprised and hurriedly pushed the door open and rushed into the hut. The giant serpent bowed her head and said, "I have nothing to hide. I am a resident of this pool, but I was impressed by the courage of the general, and I wanted to show up in the form of a woman to receive your affection, but now that you have seen my true nature, my body, and life have come to an end. Please sink my body into this pool. Be sure to raise this child because he is definitely your child. I have two jewels, and I will give you one to lick when this child cries. It will take the place of breast milk and the child will grow. The other is a tide-drying jewel, and if you throw it into the water, it will quickly run out of water and land, "and she died. The general helplessly picked up the baby and raised him using the stones she had given him as a substitute for breast milk.

childbirth（名）出産

parturition（名）分娩

perimeter（名）外周

vow（名）誓い

peek（動）垣間見る

gap（名）隙間

lo and behold......驚いたことに

dangle（動）ぶら下がる

hurriedly（副）慌てて

affection（名）愛情

nature（名）本性

substitute（名）代用品

Then, in accordance with her will, he ordered the villagers of Eta village*** to pull the dead serpent to the bottom of the pool. The present Shiigawaki Shrine is where the giant serpent was enshrined. In addition, this area was once covered with water and had little land, so it was very inconvenient for traffic, but when the general threw in the tide-drying stone that the serpent had given him, the water receded in an instant and it became land. The stone was later found in what is now Aritama, and his boat arrived in Funaoka.

in accordance with......に従って

recede（動）後退する

The general soon returned to the capital. His baby also grew up safely, and when he was seven years old, he heard from his father about the identity of his mother, and he couldn't resist wanting to see her, so he sneaked out of the capital by himself, visited Shiigawaki Shrine in Totomi Province, and spent the night holed up in the hall praying to see his mother again, when a goddess appeared in the middle of the night and told him, "I am your mother whom you are looking for. I am sinking in this deep pool, so please worship me as Buddha. ". It is said that Koyasu (easy childbirth and parenting) Jizo, currently enshrined in Gansui Temple, was dedicated to the spirit of the giant serpent. (Kyoko Yamanaka)

(B) The Ryuo Temple's Bell

When I asked about the origin of the temple bell at Ryuo Temple, east of Lake Biwa in Omi Province, the following story was told. A long time ago, when a nobleman in Kyoto visited the temple where Bhaisajyaguru was enshrined every day to fulfill his wish, a 17 ~ 18-year-old maiden appeared on time and called out to him. Before they knew it, they were a couple. Then one day, a few months later, she cried and said, "Due to circumstances, I have to break up with you, and please think that this is the end of our relationship in this world. After this, if you want to see me, please come to the stream of Hiraki, "and went missing. After about seven days, when he searched the stream of Hiraki, he found that it was only spacious and had no human habitation. As he stood on the bank for a while, the sky was cloudy and the wind was blowing, and a dragon appeared between the waves and handed the man a tightly sealed box saying, "Your marital relationship is over, so please take this as a memorial.". Then she told him, "Don't open this until a hundred days have passed," and again jumped on the black cloud and disappeared. He could not bear it for a hundred days, and on the ninety-ninth day, when he opened the box and looked inside, a purple cloud rose up and a temple bell appeared from the cloud.

Bhaisajyaguru（名）薬師如来

spacious（形）広々とした

habitation（名）住まい

Note: Two bells sank in the stream of Hiraki, but one rose to heaven and the other is still sinking. The one that went up to the heavens is clear as a mirror, and the one that sinks is clouded in white. When a drought occurs, villagers climb up to Ryuogamine Peak with a bell, pour water from the stream of Hiraki into the bell, and pray for rain. The temple bell dislikes women and is always wrapped in white cotton without exposing the area where the dragon's head is carved. 300 years ago, when Oda Nobunaga attacked the Azai and Asakura clans*, Ikko sect monk soldiers used it as a bell in their camp, but when they were defeated, they dropped it in a valley, and it broke. Then, every night, a woman in white appeared and licked the crack in the bell. It is also said that the pine trees in the garden of Ryuo Temple are lit by dragon lights every night. (Katsuen Kamisaka)

My grandmother told me this.

Once upon a time, there was a young man. One day, as he passed the beach, children gathered to kill a snake. He begged them to help it. One day, a beautiful woman visited his house and asked him to put her up for the night. He readily allowed it. She didn't leave the next day. The next day, and the day after, she didn't leave and took care of him until they became romantically involved. Soon she was pregnant and in her last month. She strangely told him, "Build my parturition hut in the back corner of the house and don't look in under any circumstances". He understood, but he couldn't help peeking inside, and when he peeked gently, he saw a giant snake curling a baby. The giant snake disappeared in an instant. When he opened the letter that had been left behind, it said, "I am a snake saved on the beach, and I have come to repay you, but now that I have been seen, my marriage is over here. But this is a child born between us, so bring him up with a jewel in his hand. Let him have this jewel, and he will not cry. If he cries, come to the beach and clap your hands three times, and I will be sure to show up any time. " And, strangely enough, the baby had a jewel in his hand. (Keijo Takasugi, Owani, Aomori Prefecture)

When the man was raising his child according to the letter, the lord made it known and took away his precious jewel. His child cried and he was helpless. Then he remembered the contents of the letter, went to the beach, and clapped his hands, and in an instant the great serpent appeared. When he asked her to show him her former self, she turned into a beautiful woman this time. When he told her about his jewelry being stolen, she said, "That jewel is my eyeball, and although I have another one left, if I take it out, I will become blind. But if I think it is for my child, I don't mind being blind. I will give the jewel to you without sparing, so please place a bell at Mii-dera Temple instead. I know the time of day and night by the sound of the bell, "and gave him the other jewel.

He donated a bell to Mii-dera Temple*. The bell is said to still hang in the temple.

(D) Yomegafuchi Pool

There is a place called Yomegafuchi Pool (Wife Pool) in Kishioku, Sakashita Village, Yoshiki County, Hida Province. A large rock on the shore of the pool has a fish-shaped dent.

Once upon a time, there was a dutiful man in this village. While he was taking care of his parents without getting married, a beautiful woman from nowhere visited him at one point and asked him to put them up for the night, which led to their marriage. She would go to the river every night and catch fish to feed him and his parents and sell what was left to support them. Strangely, she had asked her husband never to see her enter the river. He held out at first without seeing her, but it was so strange that one evening he followed her gently and looked at her under the shade of sorghum, and she jumped into the water and instantly transformed into a giant snake. After a while, she caught a trout and came out of the river and put it on the rock, but when she noticed him peeking out, she came back again in her original female form. Then she said goodbye to him and went away, leaving a linen ball in her memory. This ball never went down no matter how much he used it. Also, when she left him, she told him firmly that he should not grow sorghum in this village after that, so they stopped growing sorghum after that. The linen balls she left behind, as she said, did not diminish no matter how much they were used, but one time they were used for dirty things, and since then their mysterious powers have disappeared and run out. The dent in the rock is the mark where she put the fish. (Shomu Yotsumoto, Takayama, Hida Province)

sorghum（名）コーリャン

trout（名）マス

diminish（動）減少する

*Toyotama-hime: A goddess who appears in the Japanese history book "Kojiki". She lives at the bottom of the ocean and her real identity is a shark. She married Hoori (Yamasachi), who came to look for his brother's fishhook, but when she gave birth, she was seen turning into a shark, so she abandoned her child and left. The folk tale of a female animal getting married to a human man has spread throughout Japan. Many of these folk tales break down when a man breaks the taboo and sees the identity of a woman.

(A)

*Emishi: People who lived in the east and north of Japan in ancient times. They refused to belong to the Imperial Court and often revolted, but were subjugated by Sakanoue no Tamuramaro.

**parturition hut: In former Japan, to avoid the impurity of childbirth, they built huts called ubuya to isolate pregnant women. The custom of building parturition huts was widespread in western Japan.

***Eta village: A village where people of Eta status lived. Eta was one of the social classes in Japan from the medieval period to the early modern period, and they were discriminated against because they were ranked lower than samurai, farmers, merchants, and craftsmen. They performed tasks that were considered to be impure, such as disposing of dead cows and horses, leather processing, and executing criminals. Although the class system was abolished in the Meiji period, discrimination against their descendants still remains today.

(B)

*Azai and Asakura clans: The Azai clan ruled the northern part of Omi Province and the Asakura clan ruled Echizen Province. The allied forces of Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu and the allied forces of Azai Nagamasa and Asakura Yoshikage fought in the Ane River basin in 1570. The Oda army won a major victory, which triggered the fall of the Azai and Asakura clans.

(C)

*Mii-dera Temple: Another name for Onjoji Temple in Otsu City, Shiga Prefecture. The head temple of the Tendai sect.

(D)