Badger: 136
Seventy-five Badgers: 137
Koike's Baba: 138
The God Akiba Revealed as a Beggar: 139
The Hunters Turned to Rats: 140
The Mystery of the Bull-Trout: 142
The Blacksmith's Wife: 143
The Girl Who Turned into a Stone: 144
The Woman Who Loved a Tree-Spirit: 143
Okesa the Dancer: 147
PART FIVE. HEROES AND STRONG MEN: 149
The Child of the Sun: 131
The Jewel That Grew Golden Flowers: 132
The Tale of Yuriwaka: 154
The Story of Kihachi: 156
Koga Saburo: 158
The Heike Refugees: 160
The Last of the Aki: 161
Relics of Benkei: 163
Benkei's Stone Mortar: 164
The Famous Horse Ikezuki: 164
The Faithful Dog of Tametomo: 166
Banji and Manji: 167
Nue the Hunter of Hatoya: 169
The Strongest Wrestler in Japan: 171
The Mighty Wresder Usodagawa: 174
Nasu Kozahara the Strong Man: 176
PART SIX. CHOJAS: 177
The Charcoal Burner Who Became a Choja: 179
Asahi Choja: 183
Sanya Choja: 185
The Camellia Tree of Tamaya: 186
The Gold Ox: 188
The Poor Farmer and the Rich Farmer: 190
The Girl Who Ate a Baby: 191
The Thief Who Took the Moneybox: 194
PART SEVEN. KNAVES: 197
The Origin of Foolish Sajiya Tales: 199
The Crow and the Pheasant: 199
Kichigo Ascends to the Sky: 200
Kitchomu Fools His Neighbors: 202
Whew!: 202
The Wit of Niemonen: 204
Boaster's Wit: 206
Boasting of One's Own Region: 207
The Old Man Who Broke Wind: 207
PART EIGHT. PLACES: 209
Human Sacrifice to the River God: 211
The Princess Who Became a Human Sacrifice: 212
A Mystery at Motomachi Bridge: 216
A Human Sacrifice at Kono Strand: 218
The Bridge Where Brides Are Taken Away: 220
Gojo Bridge in Kyoto: 222
The Mountain of Abandoned Old People: 222
Feather-Robe Stone Mountain: 225
Contest in Height Between Two Mountains: 227
The Mounds of the Master Singers: 228
The Village Boundary Mound: 230
Oka Castle: 231
The Laughter of a Maidenhair Tree: 232
The Discovery of Yudaira Hot Spring: 233
The Spring of Saké: 234
Blood-red Pool: 235
Otowa Pond: 236
Sources of the Legends: 241
Bibliography and Abbreviations for Notes: 245
Index: 249
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
MY INITIAL DEBT is to the United States Educational Commission in Japan, which awarded me an appointment as Fulbright Professor of American Studies at the University of Tokyo for the academic year 1956-57 and so made possible the present undertaking. The Commission also provided funds for translation and research assistants.
The Japanese Folklore Institute in Seijo-machi, Tokyo, proved a treasure house for me, and I cannot sufficiently express my gratitude to Kunio Yanagita, its founder, Tokihiko Oto, its director, and Toichi Mabuchi, one of its advisors and Professor of Anthropology at Tokyo Metropolitan University, all of whom extended me every kindness. At the Institute, Miss Yasuyo Ishiwara, a graduate of Tokyo Women's Christian College, spent long hours with me translating Japanese legends and giving me the benefit of her training and knowledge as an assistant to Professor Yanagita. Naofusa Hirai, director of the Institute of Classical Studies at Kokugakuin University, acted as interpreter when I first visited the Institute and proved a friend throughout the year. Also at the Institute I met Fanny Hagin Mayer, who generously allowed me to read her unpublished translation of Professor Yanagita's Classification of Japanese Folk Tales (Nippon Mukashi-banashi Meii) and accompanied me on a trip to Niigata. At the KBS Library, curator Makoto Kuwabara aided me in tracking down studies of Japanese folklore in their fine collection of Western-language books and journals on Japan.
My student at Tokyo University, Kayoko Saito, who subsequently studied in the United States on a Fulbright award and is now back at the university as a graduate student, helped me in important ways—by collecting legends from her grandmother, by translating for me, and by introducing me to Professor Masahiro Ikegami, now at Showa Medical University, and interpreting the two private lectures with slides he kindly gave me on the syncretism of folk religion with Buddhism and Shintoism as seen in Japanese mountain religion. Teigo Yoshida, Professor of Sociology at Kyushu University, contributed to my volume a folk legend he had collected during his field work. Authors of collections of Japanese legends who personally or through correspondence have generously granted me permission to publish translations of their texts are Keigo Seki, noted student of the Japanese folk tale; Riboku Dobashi; Kazuo Katsurai; Kiyoshi Mitarai; Chihei Nakamura; and Shogo Nakano; to all of whom I am deeply indebted, as well as to the other authors listed in the sources, who have faithfully recorded Japanese legends. Masaharu Murai generously procured for me a copy ofhis translation Legends and Folktales of Shinshu when I met him in Nagano.
On my return to the United States I was fortunate to meet Ichiro Hori, an outstanding younger Japanese folklore scholar then lecturing at Harvard University and the University of Chicago
