(A) Pillar of Fire

In the area around Utsunomiya, Shimotsuke Province, a pillar of fire occasionally rises at night. If you look at it from a distance, it will be about 3 meters high and stand straight in the air for a while. Then, it falls in either direction or finally disappears. Then, within a few days, there is always a fire on the fallen side of the pillar. I heard as a child that several people had seen this pillar of fire. (Ryohei Muta)

occasionally（副）時々

from a distance......遠くから

(B) Baby Footprint

There is something called the Baby Footprint in Tonosato, Tsuchiura City, Hitachi Province. On a stone bridge about 1.8 meters long and 0.9 meters wide that builds across a small stream, the remains of a shape like the right foot of a baby, facing Mt. Tsukuba are dented black. It has been around for a long time. It seems that Tsuchiya Sagaminokami* once went to see it. Many people come to collect water from nearby villages, believing that if they take the water from the footprint and give it to a child who cries at night, it will be effective and stop crying. It is also said that the remains of his left foot are in Kangoori at the foot of Mt. Tsukuba. (Yorio Yoshihara in Tsuchiura, Hitachi)

dent（動）へこませる

There is a place called Sainokawara in Sotokaifu Village, Sado Province, which has a large rock. Seashells are inserted between flats and cracks, and beautiful stones are piled on top of them. It is said that children who died before the age of ten were assigned to the role of stone and so many stones were piled up, that even if the children in the village went to play and broke it with a bamboo stick, they went back the next morning, and it was back to normal. (Shogetsu Nakagawa)

assign（動）割り当てる、任ずる

(D) Bamboo shoots in Shinoda Shrine

Shinoda Shrine is located in Osonokuki, Shikagou Village, Ikaruga County, Tanba Province. In the past, only on the morning of the fourth day of the New Year in the old calendar, three bamboo shoots grow on the shrine grounds. Locals judge the harvest of rice for the year by looking at it. (Toru Takagi)

(E) Mt. Neko

In the countryside of Kurate County, Chikuzen Province, cats begin to hide when they get old. They usually return in about 30 to 70 days, but soon after they return, they are tired and shabby. And their ears are a little torn. If they weigh more than 3.7 kilograms, they will be said to change monsters and a serious situation will occur. It is said that they will all go to Mt. Neko in Higo Province for training for 30 ~ 70 days. (Chikudo)

shabby（形）みすぼらしい、ボロボロの

(F) Mt. Qishan

The Nanzixian Valley, a rapid river, lies east of Fanshuliao Street, Lohangoa Village, Akau Prefecture, Taiwan*. The mountain over there is named Mt. Qishan (mountain of flag) because it looks like a Chinese flag, but people from mainland Japan call it Mt. Taiwan-Fuji.

Around 1832, when Chen Yizeshe from Toshan, Qing, became secretary of the village office and soon after his father died, he was so troubled that he buried his father's body at the foot of Mt. Qishan and pretended not to know anything about it when the mountain rang out violently that night. Locals became suspicious and ran to find a body torn to pieces. The flesh and bones were scattered in pieces. Then the chickens stopped crowing that night, the dogs stopped barking, and an epidemic broke out. It seems that the body was buried at the foot of the mountain, so it must have been cursed by a god, and the investigation of the person who buried it began. Chen pretended not to know. When the locals asked the Taoist priest to make a judgment, it turned out that Chen Yizeshe did it. The priest prayed and had the body buried elsewhere to purify the foot of the mountain. Then the curse stopped, and the chickens started to crow and the dogs started to bark.

scatter（動）散乱する

epidemic（名）伝染病

investigation（名）調査、捜査

Taoist（名）道教信者

Chen still didn't believe in the god's curse. So, the priest caught him, split his belly with a sword in front of many people, dragged out his guts, cleaned them, put them in his belly again, and sewed the cut. He came back to life with no problem. It is said that he has become a very good man since then. I heard directly from the natives that his descendants still exist, and I wrote it here. (Nyozan Koike)

gut（名）内臓

(A)

(B)

*Tsuchiya Sagaminokami: Tsuchiya Masanao (1641 - 1722) The lord of Tsuchiura Domain in Hitachi Province and the lord of Tanaka Domain in Suruga Province. He was the eldest son of Tsuchiya Kazunao. He became the second lord of Tsuchiura Domain in 1679. In 1682, he was transferred to Tanaka, Suruga Province. After being appointed as an important administrative officer in charge of Osaka-jo Castle and Kyoto, he was promoted to roju (highest-ranking government post) in 1687 and became the lord of Tsuchiura Domain again.

(C)

(D)

(E)

(F)

*Taiwan: A country in East Asia. It is located at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with China to the northwest, Japan to the northeast, and the Philippines to the south. In 1895, Japan won the Sino-Japanese War against Qing, and Taiwan became a Japanese colony. When Japan lost the Pacific War in 1945, it came under the rule of the Republic of China.