Japanese Legend Collection

(II) Legend of the name of the place

(A) Ochihata

There are the remains of the castle where Kamakura Gongoro Kagemasa* was located near Hiratsuka Station, Naka County, Sagami Province. In the past, when Kagemasa's princess sent a flag made of lotus thread, which she had always woven with her heart, flying from the castle in the wind, a samurai named Zemba Taro in Zemba Village shot it with an arrow with a white feather. The flag is said to be kept as a treasure at Yakushi Temple in present-day Takabeya Village, where it fell is present-day Ochihata (fallen flag) Village.

Minokasa Daimyojin Shrine in Inokuchi Village, the same county, is said to have been a place where Tokugawa Ieyasu, when being chased by enemies, borrowed a woven hat from a peasant who plowed a field near the road and imitated the farmer. Later, he enshrined a straw raincoat and hat, worshipped them as Daimyojin, and built a shrine. (Setsudo Kubota in Naka County, Kanagawa Prefecture)

(B) Mt. Yoneyama and Mt. Hachikoku

The best view in Kashiwazaki, Echigo Province is Mt. Yoneyama. In the past, it was called Mt. Gorin, but in 712, when Kambe Kiyosada in Dewa Province carried rice on a ship and crossed the sea, the rice in the ship flew to this mountain by the divine power of a priest named Taicho, so it was renamed Yoneyama (rice mountain).

There used to be a beanstalk on Mt. Hachikoku, southeast of Kashiwazaki, which produced about 1,443 liters of beans. The local man picked up its branch as it flew south and fell, and there were three tubs of fruit. That is why it was handed down a long time ago that the mountain is called Mt. Hachikoku (8 koku) and the place where the branch fell is still called Mioke (3 tubs). It is said that the gate of Sensho Temple in Hojo Village was made from this bean tree. (Toshinori Nakanishi)

beanstalk（名）豆の茎

(C) Obonji River

The Aka River, which flows between Higashi-Tagawa County and Nishi-Tagawa County in Yamagata Prefecture, used to be called the Obonji (great Sanskrit characters) River. Once upon a time, when Kobo Daishi stood on the bank of this river and looked at it, Sanskrit characters flowed from the upper river, he went up along the river and finally built a temple on Mt. Yudono. Obonji Castle is located near the Obonji River, and present-day Daihoji in Tsuruoka Town seems to be a remnant of it. (Kentaro Kanauchi from Shonai, Dewa Province)

(A)

*Kamakura Gongoro Kagemasa: A military commander in the 11th and 12th centuries. A vassal of Minamoto no Yoshiie. At the age of 16, when he served in the Later Three-Year War, he was shot in the right eye with an arrow by an enemy, but when Miura Tametsugu stepped on his face and tried to remove the arrow, he got angry and made him kneel to remove it.

(B)

(C)