Folk Legends of Japan (10 page)

O
NCE UPON A TIME
there was a strong man named Goro. Walking along a stream, he met a
kappa
and wrestled with the creature. At the outset the
kappa
was so much stronger that Goro was almost defeated. Then he said to the
kappa:
"Since I have become hungry, I want to eat some rice. After taking it, I shall continue wrestling. Would you mind waiting a little while? I'll come back soon."

The
kappa
consented to wait, and Goro went back but could not find any rice in his house. Then he went to a Buddhist temple and found rice offered to an image there. After eating the rice, he immediately returned to the stream to continue wrestling with the
kappa.
The
kappa
was still waiting for him. As soon as the wrestling began, Goro proved much stronger than the monster. As he laid down the
kappa,
the water contained in the saucer on the
kappa's
head spilled out completely. As a result, the
kappa
lost his power and Goro was the final victor.

MEMORIES OF KAPPA

Told by Mrs. Hitoshi Kawashima, 6g, to her granddaughter, Kayoko Saito, in Tokyo, April 8, 1957. Mrs. Kawashima was born in what is now Nishi Hama, Aki-shi, Kochi-ken, Shikoku.

W
HEN
I
WAS
but a small child, I often went to a nearby river with my friends to bathe and swim. There was a place in the river where the water made a deep, green pool. W e were forbidden to go swim there because, it was said, a
kappa
would catch us and pull us into the water.

One day a friend of mine who was swimming in the river was suddenly somehow lost in the river, and was found dead in that deep, green pool. The village people made much ado about this loss of the child and believed that she had been taken by a
kappa
because her anus was removed exactly in the way the
kappa
was believed to do.

As little children, we believed naively in the existence of
kappa.
When we had to go along the grassy path on the bank of the river, we went hopping in great haste lest the
kappa
should catch our feet.

Such were my simple and innocent childhood days.

TALES OF TENGU

General discussions of the
tengu
can be found in Anesaki, pp. 287-88;
Minzokugaku Jiten,
"Tengu"; Mock Joya, II, pp. 133-34, "Tengu"; De Visser, "The Tengu" 25-99 (a detailed account of the
tengu
from the eighth to the nineteenth centuries, surmising that in oldJapan the Buddhist devil was grafted onto the
tengu,).

Mockfoya describes the
tengu
as human inform, but winged, with long sharp nails on fingers and toes, and carrying a fan, a stick, and a sword, all of good size. Sometimes he is depicted with a long nose, and this is the more powerful
tengu,
and at other times with a pointed bill. Mountain people still claim to hear
tengu
felling trees and laughing in the woods.

Professor Ichiro Hori, Japans eminent scholar of folk Buddhism, has graciously furnished me with the following information about
tengu.
In the course of time, representations of
tengu
have altered. At first he appeared to manifest the crow, and was beaked. A Buddhist painter, in his "Tengu Soshi" (Painting Scroll of the
Tengu)
satirized vain Tendai monks of the Heian period (794-1185) who had lapsed into secularism with this crowlike figure. In medieval times haughty and insincere Buddhist monks were believed to be reborn as
tengu
after death. However, an influence from Shinto mythology caused a shift from a birdlike to a more human appearance, and the beak of
tengu
became a large, round, red nose. Currently the
tengu
mask worn in Shinto festival processions represents the god Saruta-hiko, who guided the descent of the Sun Goddess from the Sky World to govern the Central Land of the Reed.

The brief texts below are typical of local allusions to the presence of
tengu.
They comefrom
Aichi-Ken Densetsu Shu
pp. 72, 242-43.

1. T
HE
S
TONE OF THE
T
ENGU'S
H
EEL.
Near the top of Mt. Shira at Inaba, Asahi-mura, Higashi Kasugai-gun, there is an old stone about three feet in diameter. It is called
Tengu no Kakato Iwa
[The Stone of the Tengu's Heel]. On the surface of the stone there is a hollow in the shape of a heel of a big foot facing the east. It is said that the
tengu
who lived in this mountain in ancient days, intending to go one night to Mt. Sarunage on an errand, stepped on this stone and jumped a big jump eastward, leaving his footprint on the stone. People say that there is a
tengu
still living on Mt. Shira and that the
tengu's
fire is sometime-s seen on dark, rainy nights.

2. T
HE
T
ENGU'S
F
IRE.
There is a big pine tree at Kita Takai in Yamatomura, Nakajima-gun. It is said that Yamato Takeru-no-Mikoto (a hero of mythological history) once put his sedge hat on this tree. The villagers often see a strange fire moving between this tree and the old cedar tree at Kumano Shrine in Kita Takai. This is said to be caused by the
tengu
who has his residence on the tops of these two trees and comes and goes between them.

3. T
HE
T
ENGU'S
P
INE.
There was a big pine tree in the precincts of Shimmei Shrine at Kanesato, Tomita-mura. A
tengu
had lived there since ancient times. When he was in good humor, his laughter was heard throughout the village and the village was left in peace. But when he was offended, he did violence and frightened the villagers. This tree fell down in the severe storm of 1921.

THE TENGU PINE AND TAKEGORO

This legend describes a customary
tengu
practice of
kami-kakushi,
divine kidnaping. De Visser,
op. cit.,
dates in the fourteenth century (p. 74) the first instance of a person abducted by a
tengu
falling from the sky and writes: "Even nowadays the country people beat drums when a child is lost, and call upon the
tengu
to bring it back" (p. 76).

Text from
Shimane-ken Kohi Densetsu Shu,
Yatsuka-gun, pp. 3-5.

T
HERE IS
an old pine tree which stands as a mark for boatmen sailing in Lake Shinji. As eight branches issue forth from its trunk, it is sometimes called the Eight-Branch Pine. People say that if a man cuts off a small twig it will shed red blood and the whole mountain will rumble and the man will be divided into eight pieces on the spot. Therefore no one dares touch it with cutlery.

In olden times a small shrine stood beneath that tree, though now nothing of the sort remains. Evenings when the white waterfall of Mt. Mitaki was colored crimson by the setting sun, the young
tengu,
fatigued from play, used to come back to that pine tree. The old
tengu
flew down from the mountain to take them back. In the morning the old
tengu
came down again with the little
tengu
to let them play by themselves.

An honest man named Takegoro who lived near the pine tree was wont from his youth to see those
tengu
who came every morning and returned every evening. One night it happened that he disappeared on the way back from the village meeting. The neighbors thought he might have been taken away by the god. They searched for him, ringing the bell and beating the drum, for three days and nights, though all in vain. But on the fifth evening he came back from somewhere with his clothes. torn to pieces. His face was pale and his eyes glittered strangely. He had a stick in his hand, which thenceforth he always kept beside him.

From that time on, every day when the old
tengu
sent the little
tengu
off, Takegoro emerged from his house and, looking up at the sky and shaking the stick heavenwards, cried out: "Wait a minute, wait a minute!" In response, a voice from the sky rumbled: "Hoh." The next moment Takegoro would disappear, and his voice would be heard from the top of the pine tree talking with the old
tengu.
After a while Takegoro appeared in the sky flying around here and there. Since he had been once abducted by the
tengu,
thenceforth he must fly with the
tengu
every day. In addition Takegoro was often threatened by the
tengu
that at his slightest disobedient deed he would be thrown down into the stormy sea or dashed upon the cruel rocks.

Sometimes they held feasts on the
tengu
pine. On such occasions the
tengu
would say, pointing to a wealthy safee-brewer's house below the river: "Let's burn that house and drink
sake
while viewing the house inflames." Only with great pains could Takegoro check the
tengu
from carrying out this design.

Takegoro served the
tengu
in that fashion for more than twenty years. When he became old it grew burdensome to him to fly with the
tengu.
So he asked to be relieved from the service. Then the
tengu
said: "There is no one so honest and attractive as you. But now I cannot deny your request to take leave of me. I know of another man in Hikawa. I shall make him my servant from now on."

Even after that, however, the
tengu
sometimes visited Takegoro. Once when his wife was weaving, a wind from the
tengu
suddenly blew into the house, and the sound of clink, clink was heard inside. As Takegoro touched the spot with his stick, there came into view many coins. When he was making a mortar from a log, the edge of his hatchet was blunted from coins within the log. Takegoro often met with such happenings, and by and by he became quite rich. While he was supervising workers in making a road, he struck a stick he was holding against the stones which had been picked up from the river for the road bed. The stones split in two, and glittering gold coins dropped out. He paid the workers with those coins, and moreover he entertained them with
sake.
The villagers admired him greatly, calling him "Old Father Luek." After he retired from work, he often invited the
tengu
to his home as a precious guest and feasted him. Until the feast ended and the
tengu
left, no other members of the house could enter the room.

BURNED TO DEATH BY A TENGU

The theory that the
tengu
is a degenerate mountain divinityfindssupport in legends such as this.

Text from
Shintatsu Mintan Shu,
pp. 37-75.

Note: Akiba
—
see pp. 139-40, "The God Akiba Revealed as a Beggar."

A
MAN NAMED MOTOJI
lived at Ishimoda in Fujita-machi, Date-gun. He was a rascal and indulged in drinking and gambling. He did not attend to business at home, but he robbed wayfarers at Kunimi Pass, or he burglarized, or he killed the horses of other people, or he set houses on fire. Early one New Year's morning he stopped in front of a mountain shrine with, a gun. He built a fire and he smoked tobacco. As the shrine was in the thick wood and the sun had not risen, it was quite dark. Then a strange bird's cry was heard on top of a tree. Motoji looked up and saw a big long-tailed bird on the treetop. He shot his gun, but the bird still sat on the tree without moving, and Motoji thought he had missed his aim. So he shot again, but the bird still did not move. He shot three or four times continuously. Then the bird uttered a horrible cry and fell down before Motoji.

The moment he thought he had got the bird, the bird stood up before him and turned into a
tengu.
The
tengu
caught him and said: "How did you dare to hit me?" And he took burning wood and touched Motoji with it. Motoji's body was burned. He cried for help. The villagers heard him. When they came there, his body was all black and only his eyes were shining. Motoji told the whole story to the astonished villagers and confessed all his sins. The villagers carried him home, but he soon died. People said to each other that he had been punished by the gods.