**THE END**
THE GOLDEN BUDDHA OF TENOH IKE POND
By Yoshiaki Takahashi
A long time ago, near the village of Kuroya in the town of Seki in the territory of Mino, was a big pond called Tenoh Ike which the villagers used to irrigate their rice paddies. The water was muddy and not very good for drinking, but they were grateful for it because it was all they had.
Not far from the pond a farmer named Yahei lived with his landlady and her three daughters.
"Yahei is a serious and honest man," the villagers said. "Leaving the pond in his hands can give us great peace of mind."
That year, however, there had been a long spell of dry weather and everyone was suffering. The level of the water in the pond got lower and lower. One day near the end of June, Yahei went to his rice field near the pond to thin and weed his newly-planted rice seedlings just like always. The cool wind whipped across the surface of the pond, refreshing him as he worked, but he was troubled.
"This is the time of the year when the rice seedlings need water the most," muttered Yahei, worrying about the crop that gave all of them life. "Everyone should share in this misfortune equally," he said and began patrolling the area to see that no got more than their fair share of water.
After a while, he came to a dark place where he heard a rustling sound. He looked closer only to find his friend Daisuke closing the gate that let water from the pond out of his rice field and into his neighbor's. The water was nourishing the plants in his rice field alone.
"Daisuke!" he yelled. "What on earth do you think you're doing? It's not fair."
"I know. I know," said Daisuke, clinging to Yahei and asking for forgiveness. "But what can I do? I need the water. The last few years haven't been good. If I don't have a crop this year there'll be nothing to eat and no way to pay the landlord the rent for the field. I'll starve. Please don't say anything," he begged.
"Alright. I won't say anything," promised Yahei. "But just this once. Everyone needs water these days, Daisuke, not just you," he scolded, and turned to leave, the song of the bull frogs echoing in his ears as he finished patrolling the pond. Finally, satisfied, he headed for home. But as he passed the landlord's house, he heard a painful groan coming from inside.
"Oooh."
"What could it be?" he wondered, stopping to peek in the house through an opening in the fence. In the middle of the living room, a futon was spread out and the landlord's daughter was tossing about in bed, which was surprising since during the rice-planting time she was usually busy making box lunches for everyone out in the fields and doing the laundry and cleaning at home.
Recently, he hadn't noticed her at all, which was strange. He looked closer and saw that the landlord was talking to Seki's most famous doctor, Ryouan, who was in the living room, too. He could just make out their voices in the yard.
"Your daughter's fever is very high," the doctor was saying. "I'm afraid she's caught the epidemic that's been going around. If she's going to get better, you can't give her water like this.
Don't you have any good water around here?"
"Just the water from the pond," the landlord said, wringing his hands. "That's all we have. There's no springs or well water around here."
"Well, give her this medicine for now," the doctor said. "It should bring her fever down today, but I can't say what will happen unless she gets some clear, pure water to clear the infection."
This worried Yahei and the next day he got up bright and early to search the nearby mountain for spring water, but no matter where he looked he couldn't find any. As he turned to go home, he found Daisuke walking near the pond again.
"Daisuke," he asked him. "You're in charge of the landlord's mountain. Don't you know of any place where we can find some spring water? His daughter has caught an awful fever and she needs some pure water to cure the illness. A good daughter like that, I want to do everything I can."
"There's none on his mountain," Daisuke said, thinking. "But I know of a spring on that mountain over there," he said, pointing to a peak in the distance. "But it takes over a half day just to walk there. I tell you what. Tomorrow, I'll finish up my work in the morning and we'll set off in the afternoon. How does that sound?"
The next afternoon, the strong mid-summer sun beating down on their backs, the two of them set off for the mountain Daisuke had pointed to in the distance the day before. Again and again, they had to stop to wipe the sweat off sunburned faces, but finally they reached the spot Daisuke knew of and traced the spring to its source, where they dipped their kettles down to fill them up with the pure, clean water. Relieved, they climbed down to a rocky area with a good view to stop and rest. Already, the day was over, and the summer sun was setting in the West. After resting for a while, they nodded satisfied heads and, the setting sun casting a rosy glow on their retreating backs, they carried their full kettles back along the road they'd come on earlier that afternoon.
By the time they'd reached the landlord's house, the light was completely gone. They could see that his daughter's illness was getting worse and the doctor was standing over her distressed, his head bowed in defeat.
"I heard the landlord's daughter needs some spring water tocure her sickness so I searched the mountains," Yahei said, timidly holding the kettle of spring water and putting it down beside him. Doubtfully, he poured some into a tea cup and drank it down.
"This is really good!" the doctor said to the landlord, surprised. "How about it? What do you say we give her this water and see what happens?"
"Yahei. Daisuke," said the landlord happily, turning to face the two of them. "I can't thank you enough for this great favour. Let's give her a little water like the doctor said and see what happens."
"When I see you happy like this, it makes me want to go climb back up that mountain and get water again," Daisuke said, Yahei nodding in agreement.
The crisis over, the two of them went home, where Yahei found his landlady waiting for him impatiently.
"You're later than usual today, aren't you?" she said. "What have you been up to? Trouble in the fields?"
"The landlord's daughter was sick with a fever so Daisuke and I went looking in the mountains for some water to heal her. The landlord was very pleased."
The landlady mumbled something about Yahei's goodness, but since it was already late and she was dropping from exhaustion she went to bed, leaving Yahei to stay up rolling rice straw together between his hands to make rope. Outside, he could see the wind had become strong, the leaves on the trees rustling and shaking in the breeze. Suddenly, the sound of a knock on the door stopped Yahei's busy hands. He went to open the back door and found a shabby priest standing outside.
"I am a Buddhist priest wandering around the country searching for wisdom," he said. "I have given up everything. I have neither food, nor water, nor shelter. If it's not too much trouble I was wondering if you could put me up for a night."
"As you can see, this is a poor house with few luxuries, but if you don't mind you're welcome to stay," Yahei replied, welcoming him in.
"I can't tell you how grateful I am for your kindness," said the priest politely, bowing to Yahei over and over again as he entered the house.
"It's late and you must be tired," Yahei said, leading him to the hearth. "We have no spare rooms for guests, but if you don't mind, you're welcome to sleep here by the fire with me."
The priest nodded and as he was so tired, he was quickly asleep. Yahei tossed and turned, unable to sleep, but after a long time, he was able to doze off.
Some time later, the priest's voice woke him up.
"What is it? What's the matter?" he said, shaking Yahei awake. "You looked like you were having a terrible nightmare," he said, looking deep into Yahei's eyes.
"I had a very strange dream," said Yahei, narrowing his eyes as he remembered. "One of my ancestors came to me and said that he would be waiting for me at the dead of night on the night of the full moon on the west side of Tenoh Ike pond. He sa
id that good fortune would surely be waiting for me there."
"Why, that's a good dream, not a strange one," the priest said. "How exciting. That's just a few days from now. Will you take me with you?"
"Certainly," said Yahei. "But I wonder what he meant by good fortune?"
"I don't know," said the priest, and they stayed up talking so long that night that they never even noticed when the sky lightened and the new day arrived.
At last, the night of the full moon came and Yahei and the priest hurried along to the west side of Tenoh Ike pond to wait for the prophecy of Yahei's dream to come true. They stood quietly at the side of the pond, only the sound of singing frogs breaking the silence. The two of them could see the moon's light shining on the calm, still surface of the water when, suddenly, from the west side of the pond, the water turned crimson, advancing in a frothing, whirling eddy to the centre of the pond. A shiny. Black flash sprang from the centre of the whirlpool and fell back into the pond with a flash.
"What was that?" Yahei asked, his heart pounding.
"I don't know, but whatever it is it's shiny."
Without waiting for the priest to say anything more, Yahei jumped into the middle of the pond just about where he thought the shiny thing would be, the priest following closely behind. Yahei dove down to where the shiny black object fell in, and together, they lifted it out.
"Yahei, what is it?" asked the priest, after they had got it back to dry land.
"I think it's a Buddha," said Yahei, washing some of the mud off. "A golden Buddha."
"A golden Buddha? What's something precious like that doing in the pond?"
"I don't know, but it's covered with mud. Come on. Let's find some clean water to wash it."
The two of them climbed up from the pond and washed the golden Buddha in a nearby well, its gold colour glittering in the moonlight.
"I think that I'm going to have to start a festival or something to thank my ancestors for blessing me with such a magnificent Buddha like this," Yahei said.
"Yahei, that's a great idea," the priest said. "I want to do something to honour it, too, maybe make a shrine for it, or something like that."
Dawn broke and the two of them immediately set about gathering trees surrounding the pond to build a grand hall to house the Buddha in, but the work was too hard for just two men.
Soon, Daisuke came up, ready to start his day's work in the field. "Yahei," he asked. "What on earth have you started there?" So Yahei told him everything that had happened up to then.
Nodding, he listened to Yahei's story. "I'll collect all the wood I can, too," he said, rushing off
to help.
Before long, word of Yahei's story had reached each of the villagers and one by one they began to collect wood for the grand hall. Word reached the landlord, too, and he decided to cut down trees from his mountain and hire a team of skillful young men to fashion a temple. In no time at all, with everyone's help, the grand hall was well under way. Two or three days later, its form
was starting to take shape and the landlord's daughter came to bring green tea and rice balls for everyone.
"Honorable Yahei," she said smiling. "In the last few days I have been completely in your care. Thanks to you I have become completely healthy again."
"Oh, you got better," said Yahei, averting his eyes. "That's good. Good."
"I heard you were building a grand hall to house the newBuddha, Honorable Yahei, so I came to see. I'm looking forward to see how it will turn out. Do your best, Yahei," she pleaded.
While Yahei and the landlord's daughter were talking, Daisuke and the priest and the young men were working as hard as they could. Little by little, the hall went up, with even the landlord hurried out one day when it was nearing completion to see how it was coming.
Finally, it was finished and Yahei put the gift of the Buddha in its new home while the priest recited sutras to honour it with all his heart. After he had finished reading the prayers, he turned to Yahei.
"I have imposed on your hospitality for long enough. Now it is time for me to take up my travels again. I wish you a long life and good health," he said, turning and leaving them alone. But several days later pure, clean spring water began to gush out from near the Buddha's grand hall.
"What delicious, clean water this is," the villagers marvelled. "It'll make good drinking water. And if we water the vegetables with this, we'll never have to worry about our health again," they said, looking at each other with pleased faces.
After that, the villagers took the great blessing of the spring water from the Buddha and divided it in two; half to wash the vegetables, do the laundry and so on, and half to drink. No one ever had to drink impure water and no one ever caught the fever again. All because Yahei was kind enough to give a priest a night's lodgings and receive the great gift of the Golden Buddha's dream.
The Love of a Silver Fox: Folk Tales from Seki CIty Page 25
