No. 10 — The bear that helped a man
The woodcutter Kuemon of Hino District, Hoki Province, lost his way in the mountains during a great snowfall, fell into a valley, was buried in snow, and fainted; but when he woke, he found himself touched by a bear's warm paw. Fearfully he let it lick his hand and found it sweet, and he spent several days together with the bear in its rock den; afterward the bear led him down near the village and they parted. When he returned home after forty-nine days he was mistaken for ghosts, the dead who appear to the living, but once he told what had happened the memorial service turned into a celebration, and the villagers, moved by the bear's kindness, vowed from then on never to hunt bear on that mountain; Kuemon too never forgot that kindness for the rest of his life, and went to the mountain every year to offer food.
- Land
- Inaba and Hoki
- Beings
- bear
This is an English rendering of our short Japanese summary of the source tale — a summary translated from the Japanese, not a translation of the original text. The summary was drafted and translated with AI assistance, and names and numbers were checked against our records. Tale numbers for this book follow the order in which the tales appear; they are ours, not the book's.