前のエピソード――17 Legend of the Mound of the Justice Dog and the Extermination of the Monkey God

(A) Zuhaku Shonin

At the end of the Tensho period (1573 - 1592), when Oda Ujiharu*, whose Buddhist name was Ten'an, seized power, there was a peasant named Sagenji in Saya in the northeast of Mt. Tsukuba in Hitachi Province. His wife, Oshino, is from Imagashima. Soon after they got married, Oshino became pregnant, and when it was almost the last month, she consulted with her husband and returned to her hometown. Of course, that's what she did for childbirth.

seize power......権力を握る

There is a mountainous village called Tojouji on the way from Saya to Imagashima. There is a temple called Tokoin on the mountainside. A man named Idayu lived as a garden cleaner at the temple, and he was married to a former prostitute, Tagonoura. Originally, he was a samurai of the Matsumae clan**, but he went into exile for some reason, after wandering around, he married Tagonoura and stayed at Tokouin Temple in Tojouji Village near Mt. Tsukuba, and later he was assigned to do important cleaning of the garden and did not neglect to do it, but since the chief priest died, he had to live in such a way that it became difficult to be able to smoke from cooking. Then an evil heart was born to him, and one night, while he was lying in wait behind a large rock on Mt. Ishizaki under Tojouji, Osino, Sagenge's wife, passed by unfortunately. Idayu killed her, robbed her of her furoshiki (wrapping cloth), buried her body in the bush, and hurried home, talking to his wife about his achievements, opened the furoshiki, and found, to his great success, that it contained gold, silver, a purse, clothes, and a short sword as beautiful as if it were dripping with water. She looked at it and thought, "If there were such fine objects, surely her hair tools would have been good, but to not notice them is not like my husband." She walked alone down a dark road to Mt. Ishizaki, dug out Oshino's body, stole a hair ornament, and returned. Even the bold Idayu was awed and surprised by her courage.

mountainside（名）山腹

prostitute（名）遊女

exile（動）亡命する

assign（動）選定する、任命する

ornament（名）装飾品

awe（動）畏れさせる

After that, Sagenji went to various countries to find the whereabouts of Oshino. Idayu also divorced Tagonoura in good conscience and traveled around the country to pray for peace Oshino's death, and they met at Omido Temple on Mt. Tsukuba just in the fifth year. As a result of their various conversations, they learned about each other's identities and even revealed their motives for traveling around the country. Sagenji was so impressed by Idayu's confession that he forgave him for his crimes and thought they would become brothers-in-law and tour the countries together. When they came to Oda Village, they heard a strange thing in a hut by a gosho-guruma*** at the mouth of the village. The old lady in charge of the hut was selling dumplings there. About five years ago, a beautiful woman came to buy dumplings every night at the same time with a piece of two mons. When the old lady asked her address, she said Mt. Ishizaki, and when she asked her name, she said Oshino. As she was a strange woman who bought dumplings and flew back, she quickly became famous in the neighborhood, and Ten'an came to know her. He ordered her to be examined in detail, and when the officers went to Mt. Ishizaki to investigate, they found a cave in the bush from which they heard a child crying. They dug there and found a child about five years old. He had grown up in a dark hole for five years, and his body and hair were as white as snow. For the time being, Tokoin Temple took him in and is still raising him there. When they heard the old lady's tale, they looked at each other.

whereabouts（名）行方

brothers-in-law（名）義理の兄弟

dumpling（名）団子

Needless to say, the ghost who bought the dumplings and raised the child**** was Osino, Sagenji's wife. He later became the chief priest of Tokoin Temple and was called Zuhaku Shonin.

Note: Zuhaku met Ten'an one time, and when Te'nan rode to Tokoin Temple and tried to pass him, Ten'an somehow fell off his horse. Ten'an said that it must have been his bad plot, and immediately had him captured and beheaded. When they buried his corpse, they wrote the four letters of Zuhaku Shonin on his palm, and then he was reborn***** in the family of Satake Yoshinobu and got rid of their grudge against Ten'an. It is said that when he was born into the Satake family, he had four letters of Zuhaku Shonin on his palm, so he washed them off with the soil of Zuhaku's grave. Zuhaku's story is still the only source of stories to be told when children are put to sleep in nearby villages. The story presented here is still the story. Records and memorials of Zuhaku still exist. The gosho-guruma still exists. It is on the road leading to Mt. Tsukuba on the outskirts of Oda Village. (Yorio Yoshihara in Tsuchiura, Hitachi Province)

behead（動）首をはねる

reborn（形）再生した

grudge（名）怨念

outskirt（名）はずれ

(B) Ancestral God of Herring

Uvagami Daijingu Shrine, a prefectural shrine located in Esashi Town, Hiyama County, Oshima Province, is said to be the god of herring. I asked if this had any origin. A long time ago, an old woman lived in this village. There was no telling where she came from or where she came from. No one knew about her. However, she seemed to have a very strange god-like divine power, and it was only natural for her to look at clouds and sky and predict rain and wind. She was right about the mountains, the sea, the rivers, the fields, everything, and the locals cared for her as if she were their parent because she had never been wrong. She loved the locals like children, too.

In the middle of the night in early February of one year, a strange light shone across the sea like a bridge from Kamome Island and shot at the old woman's house. She awoke with a start, and at once got out of the humble house and hurried across to Kamome Island, where she looked up to see an old man like a crane sitting on a rock and burning a fire. She respectfully asked for the old man's teaching. He opened his mouth quietly and said, "The time has come," and gave her a small bottle. He told her, "There is white water in this bottle. When the water drips into the sea, the color of the tide instantly changes, turning white like water from washed rice, and small fish called herring school toward the beach." and it went out with the fire. She paddled back to the beach after she had been given a small bottle, and at once dropped the water from the bottle into the sea to try it out, and the surface of the sea, which had been so lush until now, was strangely changed to the color of the water of washed rice. Then tens of thousands of herring gathered on the beach. When she let the people who lived in this port draw fishing nets, a pile of herring was immediately formed in the ship. She taught the people at the port that she would never be in trouble if she made a living catching herring every year thereafter, and then she went missing. The harbor people felt as if they had lost their parent and searched everywhere, but at last, they didn't know her whereabouts. In the hut where she lived, there was only one god statue. The name of the god was unknown, but the people in the harbor named the statue Ubagami (old woman god), worshipped it, built a small shrine, and held a festival in spring and autumn.

herring（名）ニシン

school（名）群れ

The people at the port called the old woman Orin grandma, so they named this god Ubagakami (the old woman god), which is the ancestral god of herring fishing in this area. (Sadakichi Nakamura in Minami Nijo, Sapporo)

Iro Gongen is enshrined at the tip of Cape Irozaki in Izu. It is a fisherman's god, and the base of its small shrine, built in the middle of a shaved mountain, is a single Sengoku ship's* mast, laid sideways on rocks and rocks. It is impossible to climb from below, so all pilgrims descend from the top of the peak on a narrow road like a snake. You can see the bright blue sea from the gap between the floorboards on the sailing pole.

pilgrim（名）巡礼者

floorboard（名）床板

Once upon a time, when an ordinary Sengoku ship passed in front of the tip of Cape Irozaki, it was caught in a rainstorm, and the ship was about to be completely overturned, so the captain prayed to the Gongen shrine on top of the mountain and asked for help by pledging to cut a sailing pole similar to this ship from his local mountain and donate it as a token of his gratitude. With the help of Gongen, the ship was able to pass through safely, but he didn't donate the promised sails. Later, when the captain passed the cape again, the wrath of Gongen caused a greater storm than before, and the sails of the ship were broken from their roots and taken away. It is said that these are the sailing pole that form the base of today's shrine, and when I looked at them with that in mind, it is true that around the base of the sailing pole is broken. (Tsuna Watanabe in Komagoe, Fujimi Village, Abe County, Shizuoka Prefecture)

overturn（動）転覆させる

pledge（動）誓う

gratitude（名）感謝

(D) Star Cave

The Star Cave is located in Hoshitani, Ikkhina Village, Katsuura County, Awa Province. There are many Buddhist statues carved on the wall inside the cave. The festival is held on the 16th of Bon.

It is said that a monk came and saw a star fall on this mountain in the past and covered it with rocks, but the star is not here. A few miles north of this village is a temple called Star Temple. There is also a story that he moved a star to the temple. A half-figure of Fudo Myoo is carved at the base of a large camphor tree in front of the cave, and it is said that a man was cursed to cut down the tree, so he made the mark of the axe look like a cloud and carved a statue of Fudo Myoo on the cloud, which is a famous story in the local area. (Hyoji Tsuyutani)

camphor（名）クスノキ

(E) Uneme Shrine

Uneme Shrine is located west of Sarusawa Pond in Nara. The shrine building faces west. When I asked people why they were looking back at the pond, they said: A long time ago, a woman drowned herself in this pond because she didn't want to get engaged. Because the pond became dirty, the god hates to turn toward the pond.

The willow where she hung her clothes is by the bank on the east side of the pond. (Toru Takagi)

(F) Modorigi Shrine

It is said that Modorigi Shrine in Shiga County, Omi Province enshrines a goddess who married a male god but got divorced because of a bad match, and since she compares humans to her situation and fulfills their wishes to have them return, soldiers who go to the war always return safely if they pray to her. (Toru Takagi)

(G) Carp for Sacrifice

About half a mile northeast of Maoka, Haga County, Shimotsuke Province, there is the prefectural shrine, Omae Shrine. The shallow but wide Gogyo River flows by the shrine. There are countless carp in the river, but no one catches them.

Once upon a time, when a man of the warrior class in Shimodate bought a carp from a fish shop and tried to cut it on a cutting board, the blood flowing from the carp became the character 'Omae Daigongen'. When he cut the belly of it, he found that its intestines were shaped like the letters "chu" (loyalty). He was so surprised that he visited Omae Shrine to explain the above situation and vowed to offer carp every year. The following year, it became a custom for him to offer carp every year, and when he couldn't go there himself, he sent his agent.

intestine（名）腸

Even now, many people pray by releasing carp in the river that flows through here. So the number of carp will only increase, but it is strange that not a single carp will escape even if there is a flood, said a 78-year-old old lady. (Shigeichiro Kosuge in Maoka, Haga County, Tochigi Prefecture)

(H) Bell of Senko Temple

Senko Temple in Nyugawa, Ono County, Hida Province is said to have a Buddhist stole of Shaka, and the bell of this temple was said to have rolled on its own and crushed the enemy when it was attacked by the Takeda army and was about to surrender in the old days, and it is said that many bumps on the surface of the bell are worn out as a memorial of the evidence that it worked at that time. (Shomu Yotsumoto in Hida Takayama)

bump（名）突起

(I) Mt. Nunobiki

Mt. Nunobiki is located in Kitasaku County, Shinano Province, and is a famous place because it enshrines Kannon and has a nice view. Now May 8 is the feast day of Kannon, but it used to be April 8. It has long been said that there is always something sinister about putting glue on a weaver or drying cloth on this day, and nobody does that. There is an interesting legend about this.

sinister（形）不吉な

There used to be a very bigoted old woman at the foot of this mountain. Even though her neighbor invited her to visit Zenko Temple*, she never went out. Even on the day of the Kannon Festival on April 8, she worked in the garden drying cloth with a look on her face that she did not notice when a neighbor took them. One year, on the feast day of Kannon, she was drying her clothes as usual when suddenly a large bull appeared from somewhere, hooked her cloth around its horn, and ran off. She was surprised and ran after the bull to retrieve the cloth, but she couldn't keep up. She followed it patiently, and before she knew it, she reached Nagano. When she got near Zenko Temple, she suddenly couldn't see the cow. She had no choice, so she visited Zenko Temple crying and returned home. When she returned, she looked casually at the mountain in front of her house and saw that the cloth that had been taken by the cow had been caught on the edge of the mountain.

bigoted（形）偏屈な

feast（名）祝祭

retrieve（動）取り戻す

Since then, this mountain has been named Mt. Nunobiki and the village at the foot has been called Nunoshita. Even today, there is a white spot on the mountainside like a belt, which is said to be the remains of cloth. Those who visited Zenko Temple must have seen a picture of an old woman following a bull with a cloth hooked on its horn sold in front of the gate. It is said that this is the origin of the proverb 'to visit Zenko Temple guided by a bull**.' (Shokichi Takeuchi in Ueda, Shinano)

(J) White Heron Monument

There is a shrine called Fujinomiya in Shiganosato Village, Ikaruga County, Tanba Province. In the past, only on the first day of the New Year, a messenger was supposed to put the white wisteria flowers in a letterbox and take them to the Imperial Palace to present them. At one point, the messenger, wondering what was inside, opened the letter box and saw a white heron, not a white wisteria flower, popping out. Since then, this wisteria has never bloomed. Where the egret flew, the local people built the White Heron Monument. (Toru Takagi)

wisteria（名）フジ

heron（名）サギ

(K) Lotus at Taima

On the way up to the mountain that enshrines Gongen located in the northern part of Mt. Futago in Minami-Kawachi County, Kawachi Province, there is a cave with a width of one meter, a depth of 50 centimeters, and a height of about one meter. That is very beautiful. It is said that in the past, Princess Chujo* was abandoned and woven a mandala made of lotus in this cave, and even today the lotus in this village pond has no fiber. (X in Minami-Kawachi, Kawachi Province)

mandala（名）曼陀羅

(L) Fox in Chion-in Temple

The umbrella inserted in the roof of Chion-in Temple in Kyoto is said to have been left behind by Hidari Jingoro, but it was actually the work of a fox. During the construction of the temple, when the high priest was patrolling the building site at night, someone followed him. "Who," he warned, and it was an old fox. It asked, "Please accept the rank." He said, "I can accept it for you, but I have trouble if you are a normal fox. If you show me some skills, I will accept it from you. "He looked the next day and found an umbrella inserted between the eaves. So, he was impressed and accepted the rank of the fox and decided to build the Inari Shrine and worship it. This shrine still remains in the precincts of Chion-in Temple. (Toru Takagi)

eave（名）軒、ひさし

precinct（名）境内

(A)

*Oda Ujiharu (1531 - 1603) A military commander in the Sengoku period and a feudal lord of Oda in Hitachi Province. As one of the small feudal lords in Hitachi, he repeatedly fought against the neighboring warlords. He fought and lost against the Yuki clan in 1556 and 1559. After that, he opposed the Satake clan and allied with the Hojo clan, but he fought against the Satake army and was soundly defeated. In 1590, he disobeyed Toyotomi Hideyoshi's order to participate in the Battle of Odawara, and his territory was confiscated, and he moved to Echizen and died.

**Matsumae clan: A domain in Ezo (Hokkaido). The Kakizaki clan controlled the southern part of Ezo, and in 1604 the bakufu approved the exclusive right to trade with the Ainu in Ezo.

***gosho-guruma: A wooden wheel with a steel shaft inserted through a hole in a stone pillar. While chanting the Buddhist invocation, they turn the wheel to pray for the dead. It is similar to a prayer wheel.

****the ghost who bought the dumplings and raised the child: Throughout Japan, there is a story about a woman who gives birth to a child under the ground after her death and then becomes a ghost and buys candy to raise the child.

*****he was reborn: In Japan, it is said that if you write down a person's name or address somewhere on his or her body when he or she dies, a letter-shaped bruise will appear when he or she is born again. The bruise disappears when it is washed with the soil of the grave of the person who was born again.

(B)

(C)

*sengoku ship: It means a ship that can carry 1000 koku (about 150 tons) of rice, but in the Edo period it became a term for a large transport ship.

(D)

(E)

(F)

(G)

(H)

(I)

*Zenko Temple: A temple in Nagano City, Nagano Prefecture. It has been worshipped by many people from different sects since ancient times, and rapidly developed with the spread of Jodo thought among the common people. Every seven years, a treasured Buddha statue is unveiled.

**to visit Zenko Temple guided by a bull: A proverb meaning that an unexpected thing leads you to a good side by accident.

(J)

(K)

*Princess Chujo: (747 - 775) A legendary figure who is said to have woven the Taima Mandala handed down in the Taima Temple in Nara. She was born when Fujiwara no Toyonari and his wife, the great-grandchildren of Kamatari, prayed to Kannon Bosatsu at Hase Temple. She was beautiful and brilliant, but she was abused by her stepmother, and almost killed by her stepmother when her father moved to the countryside. But the plan failed. At the age of 16, she became a nun at the Taima Temple and, with the help of the Buddha, she used lotus threads to weave the Taima Mandala overnight.

(L)