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

by Yanagita Kunio

  Kanzo from Kamawatari stayed in a hut he had built on Mt. Kagero. There was a storm, and something seemed to fly into the tree above the hut. Then something called out “Hey! Hey!” toward the hut. Just as Kanzo was about to reply, it said again, “Hey, East? Hey, West?” Kanzo was uncertain about what to reply, so he paused to think. It called out again from above the hut, “Hey, East and West.”

  Kanzo finally said, “What’s this East or West stuff?” He put two bullets in his gun, aimed in the direction of the voice, and fired. Something cried out “Oh” and made the sound of a roaring river as it fell. The next day he went out to look, but there was nothing there. It is said this happened around 1890. (182-118)

  The following happened when some twenty young men went to steal some hay from a field near a village by Mt. Nishinai. Since there are sometimes squabbles over the ownership of territory in the hills around this time of year, they had to be careful not to be seen.

  One man in the group from Unosaki drifted off to an old pond in the valley below. The others thought that he had probably gone off to get a drink of water. They loaded the stolen hay on the packhorses and were ready to leave when they realized the man who went into the valley still hadn’t come back. Without delay, lest the nearby villagers spot them, they all went down into the valley to find him.

  They found the man partly unclothed, running like a wild beast along a stream. They called to him, but he looked away as if he didn’t hear them. At last they surrounded him and held him down. The man was dazed and expressionless.

  When asked what had happened, he appeared to wake up from a dream. He said, “When I went to drink some water from the pond, there was a young woman there smiling and wearing a triangular cloth on her head. I had been talking with her until I woke up. When she saw you all coming, she flew off like a rabbit.” They scolded him and took off for home. The man remained listless and absentminded for two or three days. It is said that he was a young man of gentle and quiet character. This story is from around 1910. (183-112)

  If you build a hut deep in the mountains and stay there overnight, you will sometimes hear the sound of big trees being cut down in the nearby forest. All of the local people, ten people out of ten, have heard this sound and know of it.

  At first, there is the sound of an ax, “kakin, kakin.” Then in time there is the sound of trees falling, “wari, wari, wari.” People even feel a soft breeze created by the felling of the trees. This experience is called “tengu nameshi” or “the work of a tengu cutting down trees.” If you go to inspect the next morning, there is not a fallen tree to be seen.

  Sometimes a sound like the beat of a drum, “do, do, don, do, do, don,” can be heard. Some people say the sound is a tanuki’s drum. The tanuki (badger- or raccoon-like trickster dog) is a master of disguise and shape-shifting but somewhat gullible and absentminded. Others say it is the sound of a tengu’s drum. Either way, when this sound is made, it is said that in two or three days there will surely be a storm in the mountains. (184-164)

  On the hill behind the Sogenji Rinzai Buddhist Zen temple in Sakazawa, there is a shrine called the Mujina (badger or tanuki) shrine. Earlier, the temple was in bad condition, and no priest lived there. One day, a traveling priest came to the village and stayed with Shimizu Ichisuke near the temple. Villagers gathered around to hear the priest, and while telling stories, one of the villagers told about how they were disturbed that there was an empty temple in the village that had a ghost but no chief priest residing there.

  So the humble priest said he would go and take a look. He went to the temple the next evening and, even though they said that no one was supposed to be there, there was someone like a temple custodian sleeping there. Thinking it strange, he left. The next night he went again, and the same man was there sleeping. He thought this must be a ghost! The priest opened his eyes widely and stared at the custodian. Then the custodian sat up and said, “You have discovered who I am. There is nothing I can do about it. I have lived in this temple for a long time, and I am the badger (tanuki) who has eaten seven generations of chief priests.”

  After that, the badger practiced the Buddha’s (Shaka Nyorai) revelations from Mt. Dantokusen (a mountain in the Gandhara region of Pakistan associated with Buddhism). He also told how he had changed a part of the temple grounds into a pond. In the end, he fell from the roof of the main temple building and was cut into nine pieces. Since then, there have been no problems with the temple, and it has continued to prosper down to the present. Tradition has it that the name of the hill behind the temple Tekisuizan (Water Drop Hill) has something to do with the ghost badger. (185-187)

  The following took place in Miyako. One evening, there was going to be a wedding in a small hamlet of five mountain homes. But because the patriarch (oya) of the main family of the hamlet had not returned from Miyako town, the ceremony could not begin. Several times the villagers sent out people to see if he was coming, as they were getting tired of waiting.

  Then, rather strangely, the two family dogs started barking, and the family patriarch crashed through the entrance into the house. As soon as the trays of food were passed around, the oya gobbled the food down in a frenzy. He then said there was no need for him to stay and announced that he had logging business in Miyako the following day. He said he had to leave.

  But the wedding ceremony had not begun, and some people thought the family head’s behavior had been strange from the beginning. They exchanged glances that something was wrong, and as soon as the oya went out, they set the dogs on him. Frightened, he ran under the floor that extended from the front of the house. The young men ripped up some of the wooden planks on the floor and quickly rounded up some other dogs. The dogs killed the oya and dragged the body out. Sure enough, it was a big badger (tanuki). While all of this was going on, the real head of the family returned, and the wedding was a great success. This happened about twenty years ago (in the 1920s). (186-186)

  Sasaki Chokuro, a fifty-five- or fifty-six-year-old man from Nozaki, went to Mt. Shiromi to cut down some trees. The following happened in a hut on the mountain. One evening when he was rinsing rice in a valley stream, he heard the sound of trees being cut and falling one after another. The mysterious sound of falling trees is called furusoma in Japanese.

  When he went and looked, there were no fallen trees. Frightened, he headed back to the hut, and just as he was about to enter, someone shouted in a shrill voice, “Wait!” The faces of everyone in the hut went white with fear. This story was heard directly from Chokuro. (187-117)

  If you go into the mountains, at times you will find trees that have two separate trunks growing out of a common base. Only some of the trees are growing with the two trunks twisted around each other. Those twisted together are that way because on the twelfth day of the twelfth month, the mountain deity (yama-no-kami) counts the trees in his territory. To mark the total of how many thousands or tens of thousands of trees he has, he twists the two trunks of the last tree together. For this reason, only on the twelfth day of the twelfth month, people in the nearby community are prohibited from climbing the mountain. It would be terrible if by mistake someone went to the mountain and was counted as a tree. (188-95)

  This happened when four or five young men from Tsuchibuchi village went to the Kotohata River to float some logs downstream. They stopped overnight at Fudodo Temple near the Fudo waterfall. There was a severe evening storm, so they shut the temple doors tightly. When they got up in the morning and looked around, they saw that one of their group had somehow been thrown outside of the temple. The man thrown out didn’t know what happened and was still sound asleep. The temple doors shut at night were still tightly closed. Frightened, they agreed that this was probably the work of some kami. This happened in the winter six or seven years ago. (189-119)

  Where the Haguro (black-winged mountain) deity in Yamaguchi is worshipped, there was a large pointed rock beside a pine tree called “arrowhead
pine.” Legend is that the pointed rock and the tree competed with each other to see which could grow taller. The rock was chipped slightly shorter than the tree. It is said that this is because a tengu didn’t think the rock was important enough to compete with the tree and kicked the tip off the rock with his shoe.

  Another theory about the rock is that it was mortified at losing the competition, got angry, and split itself in two. The reason the pine tree was called arrowhead pine (yatate-matsu) was because of the story that General Sakanoue no Tamuramaro (758–811) shot an arrow into it. A few years ago, when the tree was cut down for lumber, they found eighty iron arrowheads in it. Even now, these arrowheads are preserved in Komyoji Temple. (190-10)

  One house in Tono has the jacket of a tengu. It is like an undershirt with short sleeves, and it is made from a thin, loosely woven fabric. There are imperial family crests of sixteen-petal chrysanthemums embroidered on the sleeves, suggesting an association with political power and authority. On the body of the jacket, there are gourd-shaped designs with the same chrysanthemum patterns in the center. The jacket is blue. Seiroku Tengu, with whom the head of the household was once friends, wore the jacket. According to what is said, Seiroku Tengu was from the Hanamaki area. He was fond of saying that he was the “King of All Creatures.”

  Seiroku Tengu would always walk behind people climbing Mt. Hayachine, but surprisingly he would always get to the top of the mountain ahead of them. He would laugh and greet the climbers at the top, saying, “How come you are all so slow?” He liked sake (rice wine) and would usually walk around with a small gourd that was used as a sake flask. No matter how much sake was put into the gourd, it never filled up. It is said he paid for his sake with some small rusty coins that he carried around.

  In addition to the tengu’s jacket, this family had also received his wooden walking clogs, which they considered valuable. The youngest grandchild of Seiroku Tengu lives in a village near Hanamaki, and people call his home “Tengu House.” A girl in the house recently became a prostitute and was living in a teahouse in Tono. In the evening, no matter how tightly the doors to the house were locked, she was out walking about the town. She seemed to take great pleasure in going into people’s apple orchards and eating their fruit. It is said she went to Ichinoseki and is living there now. (191-99)

  In Hitoichi in Tono there is the household of a rice dealer named Mankichi. In earlier times, this was a very prosperous and influential family. One winter, Mankichi, the head of the family, went to the Namari hot springs in Hienuki to enjoy the mineral baths. When he was soaking in the large tub, the door to the bath opened, and a very tall man came in. Mankichi was relaxed and in a talkative mood. The man said he was a half human and half bird like tengu. His nose was not especially large, but his face was red and large.

  Mankichi said, “Mr. Tengu, where are you living?” He replied that he had no fixed residence but went around to Mt. Haguro in Dewa, Mt. Hayachine in the south, and drifted from mountain to mountain. Mankichi said that he lived in Tono. The tengu said, “I go to Mt. Goyo and Mt. Rokkoushi and have passed by Tono. But since I don’t know anyone there, I have not stayed there. Next time, I will visit your home. Don’t go to any special preparation; just have lots of sake on hand for me.” As he went off, the tengu said, “I’ll be staying at the hot spring two or three days. We’ll meet again.”

  It was one night during the following winter. Unexpectedly, the tengu came to visit Mankichi’s house. The tengu said he had just come from Mt. Hayachine and was on his way to Mt. Rokkoushi. “I’ll be back shortly and would like to spend the night with you.” Sure enough, he was back in less than two hours. The tengu said, “The snow on top of Rokkoushi was deeper than I expected. Since I didn’t think that you would believe that I had been there, I brought back these tree branches.” He showed Mankichi a bundle of special black pine (nagi) branches from the mountain. From the town to where the nagi trees were at the top of Mt. Rokkoushi was, one way, about five kilometers. The family members were shocked that the tengu could go and then return so quickly. They thought that it must be the doings of a kami since it was winter and the mountain was covered in snow.

  Out of deep respect, they gave him a great deal of sake. It is said that the next morning the tengu left, saying that he was going to Mt. Chokai in Dewa. Later, the tengu would come and stay with them once or twice a year. They would give him plenty to drink, and he would leave them a few coins, feeling badly that he was drinking their sake for free.

  It seems the tengu would visit when he had the urge to drink sake. These visits continued for some years. The last time he came he said, “I am getting old and probably won’t be seeing you anymore. I am going to leave something as a memento.” He took off his hunting jacket and left. He hasn’t been seen since then. The tengu’s hunting jacket has been preserved by the family. The head of the family is the only one who can look at the jacket, and only at the time when he takes over the leadership of the household. Sometimes people are nosy and ask if they can see it. It was a thin seamless summer fabric. It was said to have large designs and crests belonging to powerful families. (192-98)

  Nagaya and Kotobatake are hamlets that back up to each other. In Nagaya, there is a house called Magaritochi (bent horse chestnut tree), and behind it there is a small Shinto shrine called Takimyojin (waterfall spirit). There was a big horse chestnut tree on the shrine grounds.

  The people of Otsuchi Port thought they would make a boat out of the chestnut tree, and they went to cut it down. But no matter how long they chopped away at it, when they would go back the next day, the cuttings would be restored as part of the tree. No matter how hard they tried, they couldn’t cut it down. Just when they were at a loss about what to do, a wandering beggar happened to come by. He told them that what they had experienced was often the case with old trees, but if they burned the wood chips and cuttings at the end of each day, they would have no problem cutting the tree down.

  Finally, following his advice, they cut the tree down and set it afloat on the Kanazawa River. It floated down to the deep water pool in the river. Then it sank upside down, never to surface again. It became the guardian deity of the water pool.

  The Magaritochi family had a beautiful daughter. In the evening, she used to go under the horse chestnut tree behind the house and lean against it. After hearing that someone in Otsuchi Port was going to buy the tree, and not wanting it to be cut down, she cried day and night.

  After it was cut down, she went to the Kanazawa River and saw the tree floating down the river. She went mad and, while crying, grabbed the end of the tree. She died wrapped around the tree as it flew into the deep water in the river. The daughter’s body never surfaced. Even now, it is said that when the weather is calm, you can see the shape of a large tree that seems to have grown wings at the bottom of the river. (193-21)

  Mr. Sasaki’s friend Tajiri Shoichiro was seven or eight years old when this took place. It was late at night after praying at the village Yakushi Shrine. He and his father were walking home on a narrow path between the rice fields.

  Along the way, they met a man coming from the opposite direction. The man was wearing a grass hat, but only the hat frame remained and the grass covering it was gone. Shoichiro paused to make room so they could pass each other on the narrow path, but the man stepped down into the field with one leg so they could pass. After they passed each other, he said to his father, “Who was that man?” His father answered, “No one passed, and I was wondering why you stopped on the path.” (194-162)

  It was night, and there was a funeral in Tsuchibuchi village. Gonzo and three or four people from the village were on their way to chant Buddhist prayers (Nembutsu) for the peace and harmony of departed souls when Gonzo suddenly uttered, “Oh,” and seemed to jump off the road and across a small stream. The others asked what he was doing. He said, “I was bumped aside by something black.” He wondered what it was, but the others hadn’t seen anythin
g. (195-163)

  Sennin-toge (mountain hermit pass) is on the way from Tono to the coastal city of Kamaishi. Some time ago below the pass, a gold mine at Sennin-numa (pond of a thousand people) caved in and one thousand miners were killed in an instant. Legend has it that the pass was named Sennin in honor of the one thousand (sennin) miners who had died.

  The story is that Omi Yaemon, a successful miner, built a Buddhist temple in Kamigo village in memory of those who had died in the mine. Another theory about how the pass came to be named is that a mountain hermit (also pronounced “sennin”) lived there. It is said the hermit loved chrysanthemums, and even now flowers can be found blooming in the mountains. Word has it that anyone who finds the flowers and eats them will live a long life. It is also said that the hermit is still alive. Not too long ago, at a cherry blossom festival at the Kamaishi mine, a group picture was taken in front of the Sennin Shrine at the top of the pass. The picture showed one extra person in it. It is said the mountain hermit joined them when the picture was taken. (196-5)

  In Japanese folklore, kamikakushi refers to the mysterious disappearance or death of a person that happens when a deity (kami) is angered. The kami, who hides, possesses, or enslaves these souls, can be either malicious or sometimes serve as a guardian spirit. This “spirit kidnapping” is also said to be done by tengu, foxes, demons, and other kami (deities). When someone is abducted, the villagers conduct a search for them while beating drums and calling out the person’s name.

  A young woman in Tono had a quarrel with her husband. In the evening, she went out by the front gate, looked around in all directions, and then disappeared. It is said that she was a victim of kamikakushi. Sometime later, a man went to Mt. Senban-ga-take to gather some grass, and out from between some big rocks came an old woman looking like a yama-uba (mountain witch). She was wearing tattered old clothes stitched together with tree leaves. She asked, “Where are you from?” to which he replied, “I am from town.”