Lotus & Other Tales of Medieval Japan

by Takeshi Umehara

  But this unfortunate blind woman answered: "I don't know who you are, sir, but please don't make fun of a poor old woman. What I'd like from you is a penny." Zushiō felt so sad he couldn't keep back his tears.

  "Please listen to me, Mother. I really am Zushiō, your only son. After we parted, I was sold to a slave-trader and ended up serving a fellow called Sansho Dayū, in Tango. But I escaped and went to Kyoto, as you said I should. I met a Great Minister and explained everything that had happened; and the fifty-four counties in Mutsu were restored to our family. I was able to rise in the world thanks to the holy image of Jizo and the lineage chart, which I kept safe, as you told me. It was all thanks to your good advice, Mother."

  The boy had embraced his mother and said all this with tears streaming down his face, and she knew now that it was indeed her own dear son. The two of them wept for joy. Then Zushiō took from his neck the image of Jizo and spoke to it: "Dear Jizo Bodhisattva, please work another miracle for us. You saved me twice: the first time, you made the brand on my cheek disappear; and the second time, you rescued me with your golden light when I was found by Saburō in the Kokubun-ji and about to be killed. 'What happens twice will happen thrice,' people say, so I beg you to work one more miracle and give my mother back her sight."

  Then, wondrously, the mother's eyes were opened, and she could see. Now, having found his mother in far-off Ezogashima, Zushiō returned with her to the village of Shinobu where they built a temple to pray for the repose of the souls of Anju and Uwataki, and all the others who had died such miserable deaths. The "Branded Jizo" which had miraculously saved Zushiō's life was installed as the principal image, and this "Branded Jizo Temple" has survived to the present day. The image that is enshrined there now is thought by many to be the very one that saved Zushiō's life so long ago; but there is another account which says that the present image is actually a transformation of Zushiō, or of Anju, or perhaps even of Fujiwara Masauji, their exiled father.

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Copyright

  Contents

  Acknowledgments

  Preface

  Heads

  Haseo's Love

  The Nun Oyo

  A Tale of Luck and Riches

  Lazybones Taro

  Lotus

  How the Gods Came to Kumano

  Sansho Dayu

  Back Cover