みだまめし Midamameshi

本文および英訳 Japanese text / English text

作　犬飼亀戸

※竹書房怪談マンスリーコンテスト　2024年７月　最優秀賞にあたる最恐賞を受賞したもの

「私の郷里にはみだまめしという風習があります。収穫が終わったあとの祭り、豊穣祭というんでしょうか、私のところでは単に祭りというとそれのことでした。その晩は、箕（み）に大きな握り飯を三つ乗せて、田の神様に感謝して、神棚の下に置くのです。

　私の子供の頃には、農村から工業の町に変わっていましたが、風習は残りました。ある年、火事があって我が家は経済的にとても苦しかったんですね。その年は、暮らしに本当にゆとりがなかった。それでも母は、祭りの日に、お供えなんだから作らないとだめだと祖母にきつく言われて、握り飯を拵えたんです。私はそれを見てひもじくて、”一つでいいから食べたい”と言って、母を困らせました。最初は神様のものだからだめだと言っていた母ですが、私がいつまでも諦めないのを見かねたのでしょうか、”ひもじい子供から横取りする神様なんて”と言って、一つ私にくれたのです。しまった、と思いました。本当にもらえると思わないから我儘を言ったのですから。それでも食べてしまいましたが…。母は残った握り飯二つを、中に蕎麦猪口を入れて大きさを誤魔化して三つに握り直しました。気の毒だったのは、その後死ぬまで”神様にあんなことをして、お前に罰があたるのでは”とずっと心配していたことです。家の状況が落ち着いてからは、母はこっそり握り飯を一つ余計に作って陰で供えていたくらいです。

　私はその後、離れた町で役場の職員として働き始めました。驚いたのは、その町にもよく似た風習があったのです。そこでは箕ではなく蓑を使っていましたが、農具に握り飯を三つ乗せるという点では全く同じです。不思議な縁だと思いました。役場の庁舎の神棚にも握り飯を置くのですが、それを作るのは新人の役目でした。用意して神棚のところへ置いて、さて戻ろうと神棚に背中を向けた時、背後から、”心配するなと言っておけ”と声が聞こえたのです。驚いて振り向くと、さっき供えた握り飯が目に入りました。しかし数が…三つから二つに減っていたのです。そしてまた声がしました。”お前からもらっていく”と。

　その年の暮れ、私は郷里に帰ってこのことを仏壇の母に報告しました。そして握り飯を仏壇に供えました。母のためにです。だって私がひもじかった時には、母だって空腹だったはずです。遅まきながらそう気づいたのです。」

（一九九〇年代　東北地方某所にて採話）

Midamameshi　The Rice of the Soul

Kameido Inukai

In my hometown, we have a custom called midamameshi.

You know, there are festivals after the harvest all over Japan. We also had one, and everyone called it just festival there.

On that night, three large rice balls are placed on a winnowing basket and placed under the altar in thanks to the god of rice paddies.

　By the time I was a child, the town had changed from a farming village to an industrial town, but the custom remained. One year, there was a fire and our family was in great financial trouble. That year, there was really no room for living. Even so, my mother made three nigiri-meshi (rice balls) on the day of the festival, as my grandmother strongly insisted that she had to make them as an offering. I was so miserable looking at them that I annoyed my mother by saying, “I want to eat just one.” At first my mother said, “No, you can't have it because it belongs to God.” But then, perhaps she couldn't bear to see me refuse to give up, so she gave me one, saying, “What kind of God would take something from a hungry child? “　I thought to myself, “Oh, no.” I was being selfish because I didn't really think I would get one. But I ate it. My mother took the two remaining nigiri-meshi and made them into three balls by putting soba noodle cups inside to make them look bigger. What I felt sorry for her was that until her death, she was always worried that God would punish me for what we had done. After things settled down at home, my mother secretly made one extra nigiri-meshi and offer it to God.

　Some years later, I started working as a town hall employee in a town far away. To my surprise, I found a similar custom in that town. They used a straw raincoat instead of a winnowing basket, but it was exactly the same in that they put three nigiri-meshi on a farm tool. I thought it was a curious coincidence. Nigiri-meshi were also placed under the altar at the town hall, it was the newcomer's job to prepare them. When I did it and turned my back to the altar, I heard a voice behind me saying, “Tell her not to worry.” When I turned around in surprise, I saw the nigirhi-meshi I had just offered. But the number had decreased from three to two. Then I heard the voice again. I'll take it from you.”

　At the end of that year, I returned to my hometown and reported this to my mother in the Buddhist altar (it means his mother was already dead). I then put a nigiri-meshi before the alter. It was for my mother. Because when I was hungry, she must have been hungry too. I realized that belatedly.

(Taken in the 1990s in a place in the Tohoku region)