away either evil or fire to welcome a mountain deity (Okada, “Otogi zōshi no
bukkyō shisō to minkan denshō” 161). As mentioned earlier, according to
orikuchi Shinobu, a yamauba was originally a virgin consecrated to a moun-
tain deity (orikuchi, “okina no hassei,” 363). okada notes that the relation-
ship between an oni and a yamauba is based on this notion of a mountain
deity and a maiden who serves the deity. In the text of Blossom Princess, when
the heroine prays for the mountain deity, she encounters a yamauba and then
the oni. As the narrator uses the word kijin (oni and deities), this oni himself suggests a mountain deity. The yamauba can be also considered a maiden who
serves the mountain deity (Okada, “Otogi zōshi no bukkyō shisō to minkan
denshō” 160–61; Okada, “ ‘Hanayo no hime’ to minkan denshō” 69–70).
Fifth, regarding the status of the yamauba of Blossom Princess, while the
old woman of “obasute” remains human after her encounter with an oni
or deity, the yamauba in Blossom Princess became a supernatural being after
she began living on the mountain. This is revealed when she says “I was a
human before.” The yamauba of the “Ubakawa” Type And the “Komebuku
Awabuku” Type Are supernatural beings from the beginning. one may ask,
what kind of supernatural being has the yamauba of Blossom Princess become?
She could be an assistant to, or a manifestation of, Kannon, as many schol-
ars believe. or she could be a symbolic maiden who serves the mountain
deity, as okada interprets. Chieko Mulhern, who assumes Blossom Princess
was written to proselytize Christianity, writes that the yamauba may repre-
sent a Japanese Jesuit brother (Mulhern, “Analysis of Cinderella Motifs”
15). Interestingly, Takahashi Mariko points out that the author of Blossom
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table 6.1. Comparative table of Blossom Princess and the mukashibanashi stories of the “obasute” type, “Ubakawa” type, and “Komebuku Awabuku” Type Based on
Matsumoto, “Chūsei ni okeru mamakotan no ichi kōsatsu.”
“Komebuku
Blossom Princess “Obasute” type
“Ubakawa” type Awabuku” type
1 Reason(s) for
Lives long
Lives long and Not specified
Not specified
being on the
and is hated
is hated by her
mountain
by grandchil-
daughter-in-law
dren, so she
comes to the
mountain
2 Yamauba’s task Makes the
No task. The
No task
Makes the
for the heroine heroine take
old woman
heroine take
worms off the takes lice off
lice off her
yamauba’s head her hair by
head
herself
3 What the yam-
Makes a fire in Escapes from Makes a fire in Makes a fire in
auba does on
the cave and
the hut that
the hut
the hut
the mountain.
warms herself is on fire and
by the fire
warms herself
by the fire
4 Yamauba’s rela- An oni is
An oni’s chil-
The yamauba’s
The yamauba’s
tion to oni
the yamauba’s
dren visit the
hut is an oni’s hut is an oni’s
husband
old woman at house
house
the fireplace
5 Yamauba’s
Supernatural
Human being
Supernatural
Supernatural
status
being, but for-
being
being
merly human
(an assistant
to or mani-
festation of
Kannon, or an
oni)
6 Yamauba and
The yamauba
The yamauba
The yamauba
The yamauba
gifts
gives a small
receives a
gives ubakawa
gives a treasure
bag with trea-
wish-granting
box with fine
sures, ubakinu, mallet from
clothes in it
and hanayone
the oni
(rice offering)
children
Princess seems to consider the yamauba to be an oni. After the happy mar-
riage of Blossom Princess, the narrator notes, “Moritaka also revered the
yamauba’s wondrous clothes and had the priests hold a memorial service.
The mound was built near the Kannon and a wooden grave tablet with a
divine name and was erected for the clothes so the clothes, which were an
Blossom Princess
167
intrinsic part of the oni’s nature, might be transformed to a Buddha and rest
in peace” ( MJMT 10: 556). A popular belief dictates that a religious service
should be held for the departed souls of one’s ancestors so these ancestors
will protect their descendants. In contrast, unattended souls are considered
to roam this world to do harm to people as oni. Takahashi notes that the
yamauba = oni, who does not have anyone who prays for her, can rest in
peace for the first time after a memorial service is held for her (Takahashi,
“Otogi zōshi ‘Hanayo no hime’ to minkan shinkō” 30). Earlier in the chap-
ter I introduced a yamauba as a female oni. It is not unreasonable to surmise
that the long-living yamauba of Blossom Princess, who roams in the mountains,
has become an oni. Belief in the yamauba, portrayed as a female oni and
a bringer of wealth in mukashibanashi, is reflected in the story of Blossom
Princess along with popular Kannon worship.
As for the wondrous gifts the yamauba of Blossom Princess gives, they include
the ubakinu of the “Ubakawa” type, the fine clothes of the “Komebuku
Awabuku” type, and many more items such as swords, gold and silver, and
other valuables. As the task the Blossom Princess did for the yamauba is more
frightening or grotesque—taking snake-size worms off of her head—the
reward could be substantial. Further, the yamauba of Blossom Princess gives the
heroine hanayone,17 rice grains offered to the Great Bodhisattva of Mt. Fuji.
one grain of hanayone keeps Blossom Princess from starving for twenty days.
The fact that the yamauba possesses the offering suggests that she is some-
how related to the Great Bodhisattva of Mt. Fuji.
the Great Bodhisattva of mt. fuji
During the medieval period, the Great Bodhisattva of Mt. Fuji, another
name for the Great Bodhisattva of Sengen, was largely considered to be
the Senju Sengen Kannon (thousand-arms-and-eyes goddess of mercy)
(Takeya, Fujisan no saijinron 131–41). Senju Sengen Kannon is one of
the six Kannon, or six basic forms of Avalokiteśvara. Shō Kannon, to
whom Blossom Princess’s parents prayed for a child, is also one of the six
Kannon.18 After the happy reunion, the narrator continues, “[Moritaka] had
a residence hall and pagoda built on a hill and employed twenty Buddhist
; priests to conduct religious services for Shō Kannon every morning and
evening. Because of this miraculous Kannon, many people came to visit”
( MJMT 10: 556). There may be a connection between Shō Kannon and
the Great Bodhisattva of Mt. Fuji, though it may simply reflect the local
worship of Mt. Fuji—the holy mountain of Suruga Province, the setting
of the story.
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The story of Blossom Princess ends with Kannon worship: “If you rely
on the grateful Kannon single-mindedly, your desire will materialize in the
end and your life in this world will be peaceful. Further, you will be born
into a good place in your next life. Repeatedly think of compassion from
morning till night” ( MJMT 10: 559). As mentioned, Kannon’s efficacy is
advocated throughout the text. This may indicate some involvement of the
Buddhist priest(s) in creating this text. Likewise, it is noticeable that the
miko, or diviner, who happens to be in Suruga Province, plays a significant
role in the story. Without her prediction, the father and princess’s nurses
would have believed the princess was dead, and the story would have ended
quickly. The miko’s divination for the princess’s survival and future happi-
ness gives the father and caretakers of the princess hope and encourage-
ment to live. The story ended happily because everyone believed in her
divination. Moritaka “gave the diviner one hundred koku of rice and one
hundred kan of currency, saying, ‘You foretold well. I couldn’t have known
happiness or hardship without your divination’ ” ( MJMT 10: 556). Likewise,
“The princess also sent a gift of a quilted silk garment and one hundred
gold coins to the diviner with a note that read, ‘Because of your divination,
I could see my father and nurse once again. How can I not be delighted?’ ”
( MJMT 10: 556). The miko’s role is indeed crucial, and she is a focal point.
The narrator then states that the princess becomes the diviner’s long-term
patron, as if soliciting the readers or audience to do the same. Miko, itiner-
ant or temple-based preacher(s), may be involved in the formation of this
otogizōshi text.19
COntemPOrary BeLiefs anD CustOms
refLeCteD in blOssOM PRincess
shūto-iri (the Bride’s father enters his son-
in-Law’s house for the first time)
The text of Blossom Princess also reveals some interesting contemporary
beliefs and customs. one such custom is shūto-iri, or the first time the bride’s
father enters his son-in-law’s house. After the wedding, the bride’s father
goes to the bridegroom’s house and there is a banquet; note that the shūto-
iri customs vary according to region. According to Yanagita Kunio and
Ōmachi Tokuzō, the term shūto-iri is widely used as one of the marriage
rituals. For example, in Awa (present-day Tokushima prefecture), on the
day after the wedding the bride’s parents and the go-between make courtesy
calls at the bridegroom’s house and neighborhood. In the Shimoda area of
Izu (Izu peninsula in present-day Shizuoka prefecture), shūto-iri means that
Blossom Princess
169
the parents of both the bride and the bridegroom go to each other’s houses
to exchange expressions of gratitude (Yanagita and Ōmachi 200–201).
The author of Blossom Princess spends several pages describing the custom,
focusing on Moritaka’s actions with a detailed list of the gifts Moritaka
brings to the Saishō family. As Moritaka happily travels to see his long-lost
daughter at Saishō’s residence, the middle councilor (Saishō’s father) brings
his grown-up children with him to meet Moritaka, and the parents exchange
greetings with saké. Moritaka gives each member of Saishō’s family luxuri-
ous presents, such as scrolls of gold brocade, a fine horse with a gold sad-
dle, and a gold sword. Saishō’s family members are not the sole recipients
of the gifts; those “from the ladies-in-waiting to lowly servants received
numerous and diverse gifts. The clan’s men and household retainers, with-
out omission, from the old to the young, were given horses, saddles, armor,
and swords,” so much so that the narrator exclaims, “ ‘What a splendid
entry of the father-in-law!’ said the people of the Middle Councilor’s quar-
ters” ( MJMT 10: 553).
The very elaborate description of Moritaka’s gift-giving to each mem-
ber of the middle councilor’s family is notable. The enumeration of the
presents could simply indicate how wealthy Moritaka is—Moritaka is intro-
duced at the beginning of the story as “an exceptionally wealthy man [who]
lived in a mountain village near the foot of the famous Mt. Fuji in Suruga
Province” and had “all the abundant treasures any man could desire.”
It could, however, also be interpreted as a record of the nuptial gifts or
instructions for wealthy families in the countryside to emulate. In other
words, the author or narrator may have intended to introduce a list of ideal
gifts for shūto-iri for those who have the financial ability to provide such
gifts but do not know the exact etiquette to follow. It could also be that the
author or narrator simply wanted to exhibit his cultural knowledge. In either
case, the author or narrator may have belonged to the cultural elite and been
familiar with customs and manners.
Suruga Province, the setting of the story, was famous for its flourishing
aristocratic Imagawa culture ( Imagawa bunka), named after the Imagawa clan
who ruled Suruga Province and created that culture. After the Ōnin War
(1467–77), a number of aristocrats and cultural elites of the capital went to
Suruga and Tōtōmi (present-day western Shizuoka prefecture) to avoid the
chaos of Kyoto and brought their cultural heritage with them. Imagawa cul-
ture is called one of the “Three Great Cultures of the Warring Periods,” the
other two being the Ōuchi culture of Suō (present-day Yamaguchi prefec-
ture) and the Asakura culture of Ichijōdani of Echizen (present-day Fukui
prefecture). one of the similarities of the three cultures is that all three
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warlords—Imagawa, Ōuchi, and Asakura—invited aristocrats from Kyoto
to pursue aristocratic customs and traditions (owada 213).20 Imagawa cul-
ture reached its peak with Imagawa Yoshimoto (1519–60), whose mother
was a Kyoto aristocrat, and he spent part of his childhood in a Zen temple
in Kyoto. Sunpu, the capital of Suruga Province, is called the “Kyoto of the
eastern provinces.”
The middle councilor, who is “an aristocrat formerly attending the
imperial court in the capital” and who “moved to this [Suruga] province
because there was something unpleasant happening in the capital,” could
be applicable to the situation of an aristocrat who went to Suruga (or heard
about things in Suruga) to avoid the inconvenience of Kyoto ( MJMT 10:
537). Social gatherings held at the middle councilor’s house also seem to
reflect the times. An example is the gathering for the incense-smelling cere-
mony—a fashionable pursuit among aristocrat
s in the late medieval period.
It is recorded that at Sunpu, Imagawa Yoshimoto’s mother, Jukeini (?–1568),
and her ladies enjoyed the incense gatherings, particularly an activity called
Juchūkō in which participants would guess the correct name of a selected
incense (owada 229–30).21 In Blossom Princess, too, the middle councilor’s
family, originally from Kyoto, often gathers to enjoy the incense-smelling
activity. Blossom Princess produces her own incense at the “bride’s contest.”
Blossom Princess’s right to inheritance
Another custom is women’s right to an inheritance. The inheritance of land
for the warrior class began to change to primogeniture around the four-
teenth century, but if there was no male child, a female was permitted to
inherit the estate(s) as long as the property was not divided. Even after the
fourteenth century, the right to possess property was not totally denied to
a female of the warrior class (Nagahara, “Joseishi ni okeru Nanbokuchō •
Muromachi ki” 152–56). This custom is reflected in Blossom Princess as well.
Moritaka has no children other than Blossom Princess, and she seems to
have been able to inherit Moritaka’s land and properties just as her mother’s
requested of Moritaka on her deathbed—that he marry Blossom Princess
to someone appropriate and have her succeed Moritaka. Blossom Princess,
however, is not the sole manager of her properties, as can be seen from her
nurse’s comment: “It will be difficult for the princess to succeed you and
maintain this house all by herself. If you ask your former mother-in-law,
there may be some appropriate suitor in her clan to marry our princess
and succeed this house with her” ( MJMT 10: 519–20). obviously, Blossom
Princess is to manage the estate with her husband, and Saishō is adopted
Blossom Princess
171
into Moritaka’s family to lead the clan. The narrator describes that “Moritaka
makes Saishō succeed to his lordship, and hands over his fiefdom, his resi-
dence, and his many warehouses to both Blossom Princess and Saishō, who
is renamed Tango no kami Moriie to succeed Moritaka” ( MJMT 10: 557).
As Moriie succeeds the lordship and moves to Moritaka’s land, the cor-
rect way of shochi-iri (the lord’s first entry to his land after he receives his
fief) is described as a serious concern: “The Middle Councilor came out
with his two children to see the party off as a celebration of Moriie’s first
Seven Demon Stories from Medieval Japan Page 26
