On August fifteenth, the night of the full moon, just like she always did, Chiyono went down to the river to fetch water. The moonlight lit up the path down to the river, so she didn't have to stumble at all.
"Thank you for the light from tonight's moon," she said, putting her hands together to pray. Then she bent down to the river to fill the buckets with water. Before she was finished, though, she stopped to peer into the water and hope to catch a glimpse of her beautiful face. It made her so happy. Sure enough, there in the bottom of the bucket was the big round moon reflecting in the water together with her beautiful face. Suddenly, the bottom of the bucket fell out and water poured down all over her feet. She stood there with cold, wet legs and a look of surprise on her face.
How could such a thing happen, she wondered, filling the rickety buckets again. While she was thinking about how to carry them back to the temple without spilling any water, she stopped to take a second peep at the reflection of her beautiful face. Once again, the bottom fell out and cold river water poured down all over her legs.
Chiyono didn't understand. She sat patiently in thought, peering up at the moon through the space in the trees in the woods. Listening to the sound of the river, she thought and thought and thought.
Suddenly, she came to herself with a start. It was like the moon and the river were trying to tell her something.
"You're scolding me, aren't you?" she said to the moon and the river. For the first time she came to realize how proud she was of the beauty of her face. Too proud. Here she was wanting to be a nun and all she could think about was how beautiful she was. Worse, she had been looking down on Tami just because her face wasn't so good. A deep feeling of shame spread all throughout her.
Hurriedly, she scrambled back to the temple where there was an iron bar sitting in the left-over coals on the fire.
"Namu amudabutsu," she cried, bringing it up to her face and holding it there until it burned through the skin on her own cheeks.
Her beauty gone, her cheeks scarred for everyone to see, Chiyono continued to work at Shoukenji temple and study and pry. She knew if she studied hard enough, one day she could become a nun. But the training wasn't hard enough for her, she thought, so she asked for permission to go to Kyoto, where she studied with a great priest and follow his teachings.
She stayed there for a long time, becoming a great nun. One day, she came back to Hiromi and built a big hall for the temple and she knew she was home. Hiromi was where she belonged. After the temple was built, she went down to the Tanigawa River one more time to fill up the buckets with water from the river like she did so long ago. But a strange thing happened when she saw her face reflected in the water. The scars on her cheeks from the burns were completely gone. She came to pray at Shoukenji and the burns on her face healed.
The Love of a Silver Fox: Folk Tales from Seki CIty Page 8
