751, "The Greedy Peasant Woman." An unusual variant in Murai, pp. 68-69, "Maid-enhair Tree of Yoshida," tells of a woman who refused a night's lodging to a traveler; he says that leaves and snow will fall; after the snotv falls, his footprints remain in the drifts; it was St. Kobo. Since then people believe a heavy snow follows the falling of leaves.
Text from Bungo Densetsu Shu, p. 28. Told by Mitsuko Shikishima.
A LONG TIME AGO a farmer's wife was washing sweet potatoes in a stream near Ikarijima. A poor, dirty-looking priest came from somewhere and asked her: "Please give me a potato. I am too hungry to walk on."
But the woman refused him, saying: "I have no potatoes to give you."
The priest, feeble and low of spirit, went along. Strange to say, the waters of the stream disappeared at that moment and never ran again. Since then the villagers have suffered much for lack of water. The upper and lower reaches of the river have water, and only the part that runs through that village is dry.
The people say that this was done by St. Kobo in order to reprove the woman for her unkindness.
THE STREAM WHERE KOBO WASHED HIS GARMENT
Text from Shimane-ken Kohi Densetsu Shu, Mino-gun no. 7, pp. 5-6.
LONG AGO Kobo Daishi went on a pilgrimage throughout the country. He came to Momotomataga in Toyoda-mura, and he took off his dirty clothes. He washed them in the Hinomoto River. The villagers who saw him did not know that he was a virtuous priest, and criticized him for washing dirty clothes. St. Kobo went away without saying anything. He went to Takatsu-mura, and he washed his clothes on the bank in Suko. For this reason, in Momotomataga the river dries up in summer and people often suffer from lack of water. On the other hand, in Suko, through the mercy of the priest, no one has drowned in the river.
At present almost every year the water is dried up in Hinomoto and gushes out in Kadoi.
THE PRIEST'S TOWEL
Motif Q1.1, "Saints in disguise reward hospitality and punish in hospitality," also applies here. A Korean legend of Merciful Buddha disguised as a beggar, which fits into the pattern of this and the preceding tales, is in Zong In-Sob, Folk Tales from Korea (London, 1952), no. 27, pp. 45-46, "The Lake of Zangje." Chinese legendary tales of Lu Tung-pin appearing as a beggar to test mortals are in Wolfram Eberhard, Chinese Fairy Tales and Folk Tales (New York, 1938), nos. 74, 76, 77, pp. 220-21, 222-24.
Text from Kunio Yanagita, "Folk Tales from Hachinohe," Mukashi-banashi Kenkyu, II (Tokyo, 1937), pp. 329-30. Collected by Ishiyama.
Notes: Tenugui, a Japanese-style towel or face-cloth (see Mock Joya, II, pp. 72-73)- Mochi, cakes made from pounded, glutinous rice.
THE YOUNG WIFE of a household kindly gave a piece of mochi to a traveling priest who came by the door. Afterwards, her mother-in-law counted the pieces of mochi and realized that the young wife had given one to the priest. She scolded the young wife and sent her to regain the mochi from the priest. When the priest heard the young wife's honest plea, he not only returned to her the mochi, but also gave her a tenugui, praising her gentleness.
Acting on his suggestion, the young wife wiped her face with that tenugui every day. Then her face became extremely beautiful. The mother-in-law envied her and borrowed her tenugui to use it herself. However, the mother-in-law's face gradually became horselike and at last it turned into a horse's face.
The daughter-in-law felt very sorry for her and went to the priest and begged him to turn the mother's face back to normal. The priest said that when a greedy woman wiped her face with the tenugui, her face would turn into a horse's face, and he instructed her to tell the mother-in-law to rub her face with the reverse side of the tenugui. The young wife hastily went home and relayed the instructions to her mother-in-law. When the mother did as she was told, her face became as it had been before.
And thereafter she turned into a good-hearted woman and loved her daughter-in-law.
THE KANNON WHO SUBSTITUTED
The theme of the Buddhist deity assuming the guise of a pious worshiper to ward off injury or death to the mortal occurs frequently in Japanese religious legends. Suzuki, pp. 65-68, "The Living Headless Priest," has a clay image of Kannon take the form of Priest Baizan to save him from the murderous sword strokes of his host. Murai, p. 10, "Six Jizo," tells of an image of Jizo that bears a sword scar meant for a boy. In the Japan Times for February 23, 1957, Mock Joya recounts the legend of "One-Eyed Emma," the statue enshrined at Genkaku-ji, Hatsune-cho, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, which gouged out its own eye to save the sight of a poor old lady bringing her offerings. Under "Weeping Buddha" in the Japan Times of March 9, 1957, Mock Joy a tells how the painting of Fudo, the God of Fire, shed bloody tears and took to itself the sickness of his young worshiper Shoku, in the thirteenth century; the painting with its bloodstained tears was later placed in Mii-dera, Otsu, Shiga-ken.
Text from Bungo Densetsu Shu, p. no.
Note: Kannon, a Buddhist bodhisattva, commonly known as the Goddess of Mercy.
LOOKING UP from a small village nestled at the foot of a certain mountain, one can see a little shrine of Kannon on the very top. A young couple used to live in that village. The wife, for all her youth, believed in Kannon with utmost sincerity. Every night, after she had finished her daily housework she visited the shrine to worship the image. Her husband did not know the reason for her going and became suspicious of the wife who went out and returned to the house every night at the same time. One day he finally lost patience with his wife and determined to kill her. So he hid in the dark woods by the roadside and waited for his wife to come back. At the usual time she returned. The husband watched her coming near and, carefully aiming at her shoulder, swung down his sword askance. At this moment the wife felt her blood run cold throughout her body.
The husband wiped the blood from his sword and put the sword back in its sheath. When he returned to his home, he was astonished to see his wife, whom he thought he had slashed to death. He marveled, and went back to see the place where he had struck his wife. Sure enough, there were the dots of blood on the ground. He retraced his steps homeward, and asked his wife: "Didn't you feel something strange at such and such a time in such and such a place?" Then the wife answered: "Just at that time something made my blood run cold." The husband could not but confess all that had happened.
The next morning he awakened early and was surprised to see blood dotted all the way from the entrance of his house to the shrine on top of the mountain. When he looked at the statue of Kannon, he was again surprised to see a scar on the statue's shoulder, on the place where he had struck his wife the night before.
Now this Kannon is still popular in the neighboring villages, and they celebrate a festival for her on January 24 every year.
THE STATUE OF BUDDHA AT SAIHO-JI
To the theme of the substituting Buddha are joined here motifs that fall under "Magic Statue" (D1268) and "Images" (V120), and the specific miracle of D1551, "Waters magically divide and close."
Text from Shimane-ken Kohi Densetsu Shu, Ohara-gun, pp. 8-9.
THE PRINCIPAL IMAGE of Saiho-ji at Iida, Sase-mura, Ohara-gun, is the seated statue of Amida Buddha, almost three feet in height. It has a burn on its left cheek. The following story tells the reason why.
A maidservant who worked in the house by the
