The Insect Festival was held every spring to protect the young rice seedlings from the bugs that stuck to them and ate them. The sound of the drums and bells drove them away and left the rice healthy and strong. It was the perfect excuse to drive Shichibei crazy. Following their leader, Shohkichi, the children marched in a line behind the flag he carried to the front of Shichibei's mansion, all the while beating and ringing their drums and bells as loud as they could. In the blue-white light of the moon, they looked like a brave body of samurai warriors preparing for battle.
Shohkichi, their leader, stood in front of them, waving the flag from Shinmei Shrine. Lined up behind him were four people with drums, and behind them six more with bells. And behind them, like a great group of farmers supporting their general, stood the rest of the children, shouting and waving the Insect Festival's flags.
At Shohkichi's signal, they started pounding and beating and making as infernal a racket as they could.
RAT-A-TAT-TAT! RAT-A-TAT-TAT! went the drums.
BONG! BONG! BONG! went the bells.
DO-DONKO! DON-DON! DON-DOKO-DON!
KAN-KAN! KAN! KANNN! KAN-KAN!
"RICE BUGS INTO THE RIVER! DEVIL SHICHIBEI INTO THE TSUBO RIVER!" shouted the children as loud as they could.
Angrily, Shichibei came running outside to see what the noise was all about. Startled, he almost tripped over his own tongue when he saw the children massed behind Shinmei Shrine's white flag like a body of gods in the blue moonlight.
"What is this noise, Shohkichi!" he demanded, ranting and raving as he walked. "Stop it! Stop it right now!"
"Sure," said Shohkichi. "We'll stop. All you have to do is stop bugging Yohei to sell the bamboo grove first. Until you do, we'll be out here in front of your house every night, practicing for the Insect Festival."
RAT-A-TAT-TAT! RAT-A-TAT-TAT!
BONG! BONG! BONG!
DO-DONKO! DON-DON! DON-DOKO-DON!
KAN-KAN! KAN! KANNN! KAN-KAN!
"RICE BUGS INTO THE RIVER! DEVIL SHICHIBEI INTO THE TSUBO RIVER!"
"Stop it! Stop it this instance!" Shichibei yelled at the cacophony. "Stop right now or you'll be sorry."
The children were so frightened they went running from Shichibei's mansion into the night. But the next night, and the next night again, they were back, banging their drums and ringing their bells. For seven days and seven nights, Shichibei's mansion was surrounded by the banging, yelling, ringing children, punishing him with their noise.
Shohkichi tried everything to make them stop: threats, waving his sword at them, even complaining to the judge to come and chase them off. But each he came, the children were like spiders, melting into the dark and the forest until he was gone and then coming back to torture Devil Shichibei again.
RAT-A-TAT-TAT! RAT-A-TAT-TAT!
BONG! BONG! BONG!
DO-DONKO! DON-DON! DON-DOKO-DON!
KAN-KAN! KAN! KANNN! KAN-KAN!
"RICE BUGS INTO THE RIVER! DEVIL SHICHIBEI INTO THE TSUBO RIVER!"
Finally, Shichibei gave in. "I'll stop trying to get that bamboo grove from Yohei," he told Shohkichi. "I give up. Anything. But just stop all this infernal noise."
And that's how Shohkichi and the others defeated the hated Devil Shichibei and saved their playground in the bamboo grove. Happily, they passed the spring with Yohei, laughing and playing next to the single cedar tree.
But that summer, drought hit. Not a single drop of rain fell. Even the water in the ponds and irrigation canals dried up. The poor rice seedlings were wilting and dying in the fields. To save them, Shohkichi and the children joined the village carrying water down from the Tsubo River to the parched rice seedlings and vegetable fields every day.
They tried everything. Doing a rain dance and even asking the priest to pray and make it rain. But still, the rain didn't fall. No matter how many buckets of water they carried up from the Tsubo River, the ground started to become dry and cracked, with its white dust rising up into the sky. Soon, the fresh green rice seedlings turned the colour of red tea under the glaring face of the pitiless sun, looking deader and deader every day.
No one in the village or the children saw Yohei for many days. Giving up his play with the children, he fasted in his small hut on the edge of the bamboo grove and prayed. His body was wasting away, but still Yohei prayed.
"Please, please, make it rain," he prayed, trying to save the village with all his heart. "The village is dying. Somehow or another, you have to make it rain. Please! Please!"
Then, one night, a famous and powerful priest came to Yohei in his dream.
"I sleep at the base of the single cedar tree in your bamboo grove," he said. "A long time ago I came to your village and died. My walking stick turned into that tree. If you go and pray under the cedar tree, your wish will be granted. It will rain."
The next day, Yohei dressed himself in white from head to toe and went to pray under the single cedar tree. The tree was big, so even in the summer he felt cool at the root of the big cedar tree.
"Please, please make it rain! Somehow or other you've got to make it rain!" Yohei prayed, putting his hands together and praying with all his heart at the base of the cedar tree.
One day passed, two days passed, and still Yohei didn't move. Suddenly, on the afternoon of the third day, there was a rustling sound and a whirlwind blew Yohei's white clothing up around his face. Up and up, higher and higher, the whirlwind climbed along the thick, fat trunk of the cedar tree until it reached the top.
"Shyaan, shyaan," came the sound of the priest's walking stick to Yohei's surprised ears.
Frozen with fear, Yohei could hardly raise his eyes up to look at the fearful sight, but grasping his heart firmly in his hand he continued to watch and the top of the cedar tree began to shake and sway.
"Shyaan, shyaan. Good!" came the priest's voice from the top of the tree.
Unconsciously, Yohei raised his voice. "Give us rain, or don't give us rain," he said. "As you wish." As he said it, the whirlwind that climbed up the cedar tree turned into a tornado and climbed high into the sky, pulling in black clouds as it went. Soon, big, sudden drops of rain were falling.
For seven days and seven nights it rained. All over the country it rained, the banks of the rivers overflowing with the sweet, life-giving water. Yohei and the villagers ran to save Shinmei Shrine. Their own houses were saved, but Shichibei's and the judge's own houses were washed away in the flood.
Finally, the rains quieted down and the water receded. But besides taking away Shichibei's and the judge's houses, they had brought another surprise. A big trunk made from wood and full of thousands of gold coins had been washed up onto Yohei's bamboo grove. He became the country's richest man. And once again, the villagers came to rely upon Yohei's good nature in time of need.
"Yohei . . . I seem to be a little short this month. I was wondering if you could . . . "
"Well, well . . . I guess you'll just have to take my . . . " Yohei would say, smiling his big Buddha smile and dividing his fortune up among the villagers in times of need. And to return the favour to the priest in his dream, he built the biggest temple in the country at Iyapora and all the priests in the country gathered there together to pray.
After that, you could hear the happy voices of the children calling Yohei to come out and play every day:
"Well, well. Yohei the Buddha.
The man with the Buddha's smiling face.
Well, well. Shares his rice. Shares his fields, too.
Well, well. It's bright and clear today. Let's go and play in the bamboo grove by the cedar tree."
Before you knew it, the villagers began to call the bamboo grove "bohji" which means "priest's land," and the single cedar tree "bohji no ippon sugi," which means "the priest's cedar tree, and worship and take care of it.
The Love of a Silver Fox: Folk Tales from Seki CIty Page 28
