Folk Legends From Tono: Japan's Spirits, Deities, and Phantastic Creatures

by Yanagita Kunio

  Some time ago at a house in Tsukumoushi village, a Buddhist pilgrim came and stayed for the night. It is said that no one ever saw him leave.

  During more recent times, a girl child around ten years of age appeared wearing a red, long-sleeved kimono and carrying a red fan. She danced as she went out of the house. Rumor has it that she went to the Shimokubo household. Since she left, the fortunes of these two families have reversed.

  At this Shimokubo house, when girls in the neighborhood had some business, they would show up without notice. When this happened, zashikiwarashi (parlor child) would crouch down and hide under the family religious altar. It is said the girls would be surprised to see him and would return home. (72-91)

  In the Sawada house in Isagozawa, it is said there was an okura-bokko (storehouse child). Since it started carrying a bright red, lacquered wooden bucket that was visible to everyone, it is said the fortunes of the family have declined. (73-89)

  In the Sawa household of Okubo in Ayaori village, there is a “storehouse child.” It sometimes makes a sound like the turning of a spinning wheel. (74-90)

  Gongen-sama, the incarnation of the Buddha as a kami, is a large carved wooden figure resembling a lion’s head. Each troupe that performs the sacred kagura Shinto dance has one of these heads. Gongen spirits have special powers for preventing and extinguishing fires.

  Old man Masakichi from Tono was raised in Yamamuro. When he was eight or nine years old (in 1846), he was absorbed in playing hide and seek with his friends inside the main hall of the Shinto shrine of Sasa-Gongen. He was behind the statue of the deity uba-gamisama (the old woman deity associated with childbirth) in the main hall and fell asleep. Uba-gamisama is also the deity that protects against smallpox. The meter-high wooden statue is shaped like an old woman (uba).

  He opened his eyes when he heard someone saying, “Come on, wake up!” It was very dark, so he thought it was uba-gamisama who had called out to him to wake up. He considered going outside, but since it was late, he knew that the groundskeeper had locked the doors and gone home. He rested against a round pillar in the hall, and just as he was about to go back to sleep, uba-gamisama seemed to call out to him again, “Come on, wake up!” He was so tired, he couldn’t keep his eyes open. At this moment, he was found by a large group of family members and villagers who had been searching for him. They took him home. (75-56)

  At one time in Ota there was a large cypress tree named the “Number One Gongen.” It was such a big tree that it could be seen from the top of Flute Blowing Pass, which was twenty kilometers away. One year, for some reason, the villagers decided to cut the tree down.

  The workmen used a saw to cut the tree from morning to night, but the sawdust would reattach itself to the tree every night. Even after several days, they couldn’t cut it down.

  Then one evening in a dream, a tree named “se-no-ki” came and advised the woodsmen that if they burned the wood cuttings every night, they would be able to cut the tree down in no time. From the following day they did this, and sure enough the large cypress was felled. From then on, many of the trees in the forest decided not to associate with the tree se-no-ki because it had helped kill their friend, Number One Gongen. (76-20)

  In the house of Mr. Kikuchi of Aozasa village, there is a nineteen-centimeter, soot-covered Amida Buddhist statue made from clay that is worshipped on a Buddhist altar. One night, an old person in this family was sound asleep. He thought it was a dream that the Buddhist statue had walked right up to his pillow and yelled out, “Fire! Wake up!” He opened his eyes and looked around. The wood in the kitchen stove had caught fire and the house was lit up as if it were daytime. He quickly woke up everyone in the family and the fire was safely extinguished. This happened about ten years ago. (77-61)

  On the grounds of the Nine Headed Dragon Gongen (kuzuryu-gongen), there is an old chestnut tree referred to as “Ghost Chestnut” or “Pillow Chestnut.” This Gongen head was carved using wood from this tree. At one time, the tree took a woman as a human sacrifice. At that time, the woman used the tree as a pillow to rest against. It is said the Pillow Chestnut ate her. (78-70)

  The Gongen-sama in the Kasanokayo household always wants to dance and sing with the village young people in mid-January when they come to the house for the sacred Shinto dance (kagura). If Gongen-sama is not included or gets put in the parlor, it gets furious. So sometimes the youngsters lock Gongen-sama in the outside storage shed. After they close the heavy shed door with Gongen inside, they dance. (79-57)

  The kagura (sacred Shinto dance) at the Hachiman Shrine in Tono is performed on the same day that a festival is held at Shinzan Shrine. That night, the Hachiman Gongen-sama is kept in the local Yamamoto house. Since this house is also one of the village households performing the kagura dance, their Gongen-sama was on a shelf in an inner room of the house. The Hachiman Gongen-sama was resting beside it.

  Late at night they heard a loud noise of fierce fighting in the inner room. The family put the lights on to see what was going on. They found the two Gongen-sama jumping up and down biting at each other. The Hachiman Gongen lost the battle, and one of its ears was bitten off. It is said that even now the Hachiman Gongen has only one ear. Legend has it that this probably happened in the 1860s. (80-58)

  The Tada house of Tsukasawa had a famous kagura performer. The Gongen in this family was called the “torn-eared” Gongen. This was because one year, on the day when the Gongen traveled around performing, it met the Gongen of another village and they had a fight. One ear was torn off. Even though it lost an ear, it still retained its magical powers.

  One time when a fire broke out in the house, the family was woken late at night by a loud banging noise in the parlor. It is said that Gongen flew around the room gobbling up the flames. This story was told by the son of the household. (81-59)

  The Horyu (treasure dragon) forest in Hayashizaki has its own magical qualities. The shrine hall in this forest has its back side toward the Shinto torii entrance gate, an arrangement just the opposite of what is found in most shrines. The large trees in the forest are wrapped with intertwined wisteria vines. Some people who worship at the shrine say the wisteria looks like large snakes. It is said that Sasaki Kizen remembers very clearly how, when he was young, he saw the large, red, lion-headed Gongen used in sacred dances at the shrine and was so frightened that he cried. (82-125)

  Oshira-sama is the guardian of agriculture, horses, and silk production. The silkworm is historically thought to have the body of a woman and the head of a horse. Mulberry leaves are used in silkworm production.

  Oshira-sama’s robe, like a dress, is replaced with a bright new one on the sixteenth day of the lunar New Year. Its short, crude, mulberry-stick body has either a round head, the head of a horse, or the head of a woman carved at one end. The horse head is thought to be the more common and older style. It is important to understand the stories, origins, and shapes of this deity.

  The head of a male Oshira-sama is usually carved in the shape of a horse. A female deity usually has long hair and two pointed animal-like ears. Generally, the more recently the stick figure has been carved, the longer it is. Some figures are over thirty centimeters long. There are also many older and shorter ones. Oshira-samas with horse heads are usually shorter and smaller. (83-75)

  Stories about the origins of Oshira-sama vary from place to place. For example, the origin story in Tsukumoushi village is as follows: The daughter of a choja (wealthy farmer) from Tenjuku married a horse. The father was so angered that he killed the horse and hung its hide on the branch of a pine tree. The daughter went under the tree and cried, longing for her lover. The horse’s hide hanging on the tree branch heard her voice and flew down, wrapped itself around the girl, and they flew off to heaven together.

  In Tono, one story goes like this: Once upon a time there was a father and his daughter living in the countryside. The girl married a horse. The father was angry a
nd tied the horse to a mulberry tree and killed it. The girl took the horse hide and made it into a small boat. She paddled off into the sea using an oar made from the mulberry tree. Later, she died of grief at the horse’s death. One day, the boat washed up on a shoreline. It is said that the worms that came out of the boat hide and her body were silkworms.

  In one part of Tsuchibuchi village, the following story has been handed down. A daughter was deeply disturbed at seeing her father kill a horse. She decided to leave home. She made food and other preparations so that her father would have no difficulty being left behind alone. On the morning of the sixteenth day of the third month, she woke her father up at daylight and had him look at the grain grinder in the garden. She said there was plenty of food to sustain him. The girl flew off into the sky with the horse. On that day, when he looked in the grain grinder, he found white (silk) worms forming the shape of a horse’s head. It is said that he gathered some mulberry leaves and cultivated silkworms. (84-77)

  Imabuchi Kosaburo from Iide reported that Oshira-sama is also called the “hook or bent stick (kagi) Buddha.” This is in reference to a tall grass stem or a stick with a hook-shaped end (bero-bero kagi) mentioned in tale 42. The sixteenth day of the first month is the day for playing with Oshira-sama and also finding out your fortune or misfortune for the year ahead. To know this, you must roll the Oshira-sama around in your hands in the same way that children roll the bero-bero kagi (hook stick) on other occasions.

  This is how you learn about what the spirits have in store for you. In olden times, adults did this divination and fortune-telling, but now the rituals are performed mainly by children. This year in January, when it was cold in the house, it was done sitting around the hearth with their legs covered by a blanket. (85-85)

  Based on what we know from various legends, a household should have two Oshira-sama kami, but it is not uncommon for there to be four or six. Near Sakari town in Kesen, it is said there are households with twelve Oshira-sama. In the Shohachi household in Noda there are three Oshira-sama, one in the shape of a small child. Nevertheless, the Daido families that first settled Tono seem to have had two deities. Also, when a branch household (which splits off from the main family) is established, for some reason the new household adds to its number of deities.

  Mr. Kitagawa’s family of Itsukaichi, one of the oldest in Tsuchibuchi, had two Oshira-sama. In a branch Kitagawa family in Hiishi, they had four deities. And a branch of that branch Kitagawa family had six deities. The four deities in the Kitagawa family of Hiishi had horse heads. The six deities of their branch family all had round heads. There are four Oshira-sama in the Abe family of Kashiwazaki. One deity has a horse’s head, and another has the shape of a nobleman’s headgear. The other two have round heads. They are about fifteen centimeters in length. The carving was rather crude, and the heads were scary. The horse heads appeared more like dragon heads. (86-76)

  In addition to being worshipped as the god of the silkworm, Oshira-sama is also worshipped as the deity for curing the eyes and female disorders. It is also considered the guardian of children. In the Tono area, when a child is born, it is symbolically offered to the local Oshira-sama with the hope that the child will be raised to be strong and healthy. This practice is called toriko, and it refers to taking a temporary or symbolic parent or guardian. A deity with special spiritual power is asked to look over and protect a child. Also, when a woman has stomach spasms, a man brings Oshira-sama and prays for her recovery. In Johoji village, when a blind female medium or shaman (itako) speaks in the voice of the spirits, Oshira-sama is involved. (87-78)

  In Japanese social organization, there are a variety of fictive kinship relationships. When a child is born weak, it often becomes a toriko—a baby left at a Shinto shrine so that it will become stronger with the help of the deities. This child is given a toriko name by a Shinto priest. The child is often called by that name for life, and people do not know what its original family registry name was. Sasaki Kizen had a complicated set of birth-related relationships, and his toriko name of Hiroshi was provided by the Shinto priest Wakamiya no Kamiko. Sasaki was also named “Chosuke” by Hachiman-bo and named “Shigeru” by Inari-bo, both of whom were yamabushi (mountain hermits endowed with supernatural powers). But Sasaki laughed, saying he was sickly and never got stronger as they said he would. (88-248)

  The Oshira-sama in a Daido household in Yamaguchi is said to have come there from the Sakuemon house in Yamazaki. There were three sisters in the household. One went to Chokuro’s house in Kashiwazaki, which was related to the Abe family. From way back, Daido families have also had “Okunai-sama,” who watches over the fate of the entire family. Every year, on the sixteenth day of the first month, they put white powder on these figures as well as on the sixty-centimeter-tall wooden statue of Odaishi-sama (Kobo Daishi, 774–835), the founder of the Shingon (True Word) school of Buddhism. They seem to do the same for the Oshira-sama, which came later. (89-80)

  The Oshira-sama festival in the Tono area usually takes place on the sixteenth day of the first month. It is only with Oshira-sama that people use the verb “to play” in place of the verb “to worship.” In the Daido homes of Yamaguchi, on the festival day, the children from all around are symbolically offered (as toriko) to Oshira-sama as a way to protect them. The toriko children bring a large round rice ball to the gathering as an offering to the deity.

  The ceremony starts early in the morning when, from far inside a dark Buddhist altar, they take out a scorched, old black box. Oshira-sama is brought into the light of day only once a year. It is taken off the altar by the family’s old female shaman (itako). A new bright-flowered red cloth dress is then put on the Oshira-sama mulberry stick by a toriko girl or woman.

  Once a year, white powder is dusted onto the Oshira-sama’s head. In the days when the girl toriko didn’t have white cosmetic powder at home, rice powder was mixed with water and put on Oshira-sama’s head. Then the Oshira-sama is placed back on the altar shelf.

  The large round rice balls that the toriko children brought are made into rice cakes with red beans inside. Then the rice cakes are offered to the gods and eaten by the children. Oshira-sama is very fond of red beans.

  Next, the old woman itako shaman takes Oshira-sama in her hands, chants, and “plays” with it. From olden times, this is called the song of “playing with Oshira-sama.” First, she comforts Oshira-sama by explaining where the deity came from, and then the girls who know the short song lines sing along with her. Once “playing with Oshira-sama” is finished, the toriko girls have the option of playing with Oshira-sama in the room. Then they take Oshira-sama to the hearth, and each girl rolls it around in her hands and tries to divine her fortune for the year ahead. They try to get Oshira-sama’s message because it is supposed to predict and control what will happen in their lives. (90-79)

  The deer is often worshipped as the messenger of the deities. An old man named Takehara in Tsukumoushi village had an Oshira-sama, but he felt it just found fault with everything and brought him few benefits. This Oshira-sama had rigid rules, telling him, “Don’t eat deer meat!” or “Don’t eat any meat!” He would tease Oshira-sama, telling it to come and eat some deer meat. One day, he took the deity and threw it into the pot of deer meat he was stewing. Oshira-sama jumped out of the pot and fell into the fire below. Concerned, other family members picked up the deity and put it on the Buddhist altar. Later, when this same house caught fire, the deity ran out and was not burned. The deity is still in the family. This was heard directly from an old person in the family.

  Mr. Tachibana of Kamiarisu in Kesen had an Oshira-sama in his house. Even though the family members had been warned that their mouths would be distorted if they ate deer meat, they ate it anyway. Their mouths became twisted. Because this deity did such stupid things, the man got angry and threw it into the river. But Oshira-sama climbed out of the river. Seeing this, the man apologized, took Oshira-sama home, and prayed to
it. But his twisted mouth stayed as it was. (91-81)

  Mr. Tomeba of Tochinai had a house with an Oshira-sama. He was about forty years old and made a living as a horse trader. He was heard bragging that he violates the local taboo and eats deer meat regularly, but his mouth was not disfigured.

  Takamuro from Hiishi, on the other hand, had eaten deer meat and went crazy. His house had an Oshira-sama. Later he asked an itako female shaman to pray for a pardon, and it was granted.

  A person in Otsuchi, on the coast, was from a house that for generations had passed down an Oshira-sama. When he ate deer meat, his mouth was disfigured. Sasaki Kizen’s mother is said to have seen this. When this man went to visit an itako, she said that he was cursed by this Oshira-sama and an Oshira-sama from Tono. He went to worship at the home of a Yamaguchi Daido family. (92-82)

  Many people believe that Oshira-sama is also the god of hunting. In the house of the hunter Kikuchi, in Tsuchibuchi village, there is a scroll that has been carefully handed down from generation to generation. It has images of gold and silver bullets, a small fish (okoze), Oshira-sama, hell’s rope, the May festival iris, a woman’s hair, and the nine secret instruments used by hunters. Below the images, the following is written: “Before you set out to go hunting, you should take Oshira-sama in your hands and pray. There will be game in the direction she points you toward.” (93-83)