T10 — Strange Fates

Strange turns of fate, and debts that come back.

• Strange Fates
• Shape-Shifting Animals
• Yokai and the Uncanny
• Gods and Belief
• Death, Ghosts and Omens
• Taboos and Customs
• How Places Got Their Names
• Mountain Folk and Strangers
• Spirited Away, Other Worlds
• Origins of Plants and Animals

Tono22 tales

• Tale 9A voice calls from the bottom of the valley at OyachiKikuchi Yanosuke, a master of the flute, was crossing Sakaige Pass with his companions, and as he played his flute passing above Oyachi, someone…
• Tale 11The strife between daughter-in-law and mother-in-law, and Magoshiro's violenceFrom discord between a daughter-in-law and her mother-in-law, the son Magoshiro sharpened a great sickle meaning to kill his mother, shut all the…
• Tale 12Otojii who told old talesThe old man Nitta Otozo of Yamaguchi, Tsuchibuchi village was the person who knew best the chronicles of the village manor, the rise and fall of its…
• Tale 13The life of the old man who lived at the passFor decades he lived alone in a hut at the pass in the mountains. Since losing his fortune when young, he had given up the world and made his living…
• Tale 19A whole family wiped out by poisonous mushroomsIn Magozaemon's house, unfamiliar mushrooms grew around a pear tree. Following a saying that if well stirred in a water tub they would not poison…
• Tale 27The golden millstone of IkenohataAt the Hei River, a young woman entrusted a letter to the ancestor of the Ikenohata family. Following a pilgrim's teaching, he rewrote the letter…
• Tale 33The mysterious light of Mount Shiromi and the phantom goldWhen one spent the night on Shiromi mountain, the area grew faintly bright around midnight, and from beyond the valley one might hear the sound of a…
• Tale 38A wolf calamity invited by drunkennessThe master of an old family in Otomo village got drunk on sake and imitated the howl of a wolf, the mountain wolf once called o-inu, and the wolf…
• Tale 42The wolf hunt and Tetsu's endAt the foot of Mount Rokkoshi, in a reed-covered hill, a person of Iide village found three wolf cubs, the mountain wolf once called o-inu, killed…
• Tale 43A tale of grappling with bearA man called bear from Kamigo village went hunting with a friend at Mount Rokkoshi on a snowy day. They came upon a large bear, and he threw down his…
• Tale 49Record of strange happenings at SennindoHalfway up Sennin Pass stood Sennindo, a hall enshrining a mountain hermit, and travelers kept the custom of writing down the strange things they met…
• Tale 54The house of the dead at the bottom of the poolA servant of a choja, a very rich man, in Kawai village dropped an axe into a pool, and when he went down into the bottom of the water, he found the…
• Tale 77The illusion of a dead man he stepped overOn the night of a funeral, Tajiri Chozaburo was returning home alone, a little behind the others, when he found an unknown man lying on his back…
• Tale 83The cursed old documentThe house of Ohora Mannojo, called the Daido era, in Yamaguchi, was built in a manner different from other houses, with its entrance facing the…
• Tale 84Westerners who came to settle on the coastIn the Kaei years, when Sasaki's grandfather was young, many Westerners came to settle at Kamaishi, Yamada, and the tip of the Funakoshi peninsula…
• Tale 85The house with albino brothersIn Kashiwazaki, Tsuchibuchi village, there was a house where albino brothers lived, their hair, skin, and eyes like those of westerners, though both…
• Tale 95A mysterious stone and an ascent into the skyA certain Kikuchi, who was fond of making gardens, found an unfamiliar, beautiful large rock in the mountains and tried to bring it home, but being…
• Tale 96The feebleminded man who predicted firesA feebleminded man who lived in the town of Tono had a habit of picking up bits of wood and dust from the road and sniffing them, and from time to…
• Tale 99The spirit of the wife lost in the tsunamiFukuji of Tsuchibuchi village lost his wife and children in a great tsunami, and lived in a hut built on the site of his old house. One night in the…
• Tale 106The mirage seen at YamadaAt Yamada on the coast, a mirage appeared every year, always showing the scenery of an unfamiliar foreign city, with people and horses seen coming…
• Tale 112Dannohana and the relics of the Ezo mansionDannohana was said to be the place where prisoners were cut down in the age when there was a manor, and it stood on a hill at the village border.…
• Tale 118The stepchild tale of NukaboThe tale of Benizara and Kakezara was also told in Tono, and the girl corresponding to Kakezara was called Nukabo. She was hated by her stepmother…

Shiwa District73 tales

• No. 2The blowing-flower that bears goldA wife who passed gas by mistake before her lord was sent back to her home village, and there she gave birth to a boy. The child was raised and…
• No. 3Kota of KogaKota of Koga went out to shoot ducks on the Kitakami River, but he thought that rather than shoot them with a gun, he would dive into the river and…
• No. 4Kota of KogaKota, swept away by a duck at a still pool in the Kitakami River, was dropped onto the roof of the great Buddha of Nara. He tried to climb down using…
• No. 5Two-year sesame and three-year sesameA notice board was put up announcing that sesame would be given to whoever could bore the old woman of the choja, a very rich man, until she fell…
• No. 8Seventeen long yamsA poor son-in-law had no gift to bring to the autumn mochi feast of the choja, a very rich man. He shot a duck at the river, and where he chased it…
• No. 10The broom of the young treeA father gave his three sons a hundred ryo in gold and a storehouse, and declared that within three years, whichever son put the most valuable thing…
• No. 11Nose-knowingThe husband noticed that whenever he was away, his wife invited the man from the house next door and fed him well. He pretended to go out, then hid…
• No. 12Jingaoka Zaemon and Baba MatsukoAt night, the husband joked about the shape of his wife's hand, and the next morning two samurai appeared, saying they had come to take the wife away…
• No. 13Nukafuku and KomefukuThe stepmother gave Nukanpuku, the child of the first wife, a straw bag with a broken bottom, while she gave Komenpuku, her own child, a sound bag…
• No. 14One little beanA poor old couple found a single bean that rolled into a hole, and as they dug further they came upon Jizo, a stone bodhisattva statue. Jizo invited…
• No. 15Uemontaro and ZaemontaroNeighbors Uemontaro and Zaemontaro stayed one night in a mountain hut, when the mountain gods, gods of the mountains, came late and spoke of the sex…
• No. 16The drum that sounds without being struckA priest who always gave his boy attendant difficult tasks ordered him, "Go buy something-or-other." The boy brought back horse intestines he had…
• No. 17Two bundles, four bundlesA blind zato, a blind itinerant musician, stayed the night when rice-harvest mochi was being pounded. The couple of the house hid the mochi, saying…
• No. 18Goose soupAn old man picked up and raised a white dog, and it helped him hunt deer, so that he got meat from the game. The greedy old woman next door imitated…
• No. 21The packhorseA horse trader fell into a muddy paddy and swallowed a frog into his body through his rear, and the frog began to croak inside his belly. On the…
• No. 23The child who went on pilgrimage to IseA child who had set out on a pilgrimage to Ise stayed the night in an empty house. At midnight a red candle and a red priest, and a black candle and…
• No. 24The calf chojaOn New Year's Eve, the father went out to shop, but instead of New Year goods he bought charcoal and came home with it, and his wife grew angry and…
• No. 25The peach-selling lordA young man hid the feathered robe of one of three tennyo, a celestial maiden, who were bathing, and made her his wife, but a portrait of herself…
• No. 26Itonaga Shoji of Harima ProvinceThree farmers who had come to work on a castle's construction talked among themselves during their lunch break about what they each wished for, and…
• No. 29The fox's bride-takingMonjiya no Kichi was asked by the choja, a very rich man, to find him a bride, and he asked the foxes, shape-shifting foxes, to disguise themselves…
• No. 30The fool of Senboku townA careless man of Senboku town decided to visit Shiwa Inari, and mishearing his wife's instructions one after another, he set out carrying a…
• No. 31UbakawaA peasant's father promised to give one of his daughters in marriage to a snake, a serpent, often a spirit in disguise, that had saved a frog, and…
• No. 33Ano-samaA child named Taro, who served Ano-sama of Wayama, blew stolen rice onto a pine tree to make it look as though a hawk had nested there, and deceived…
• No. 34AnosamataroA young man named Taro angered his master and was put into a weir to be sunk in a pond, but he deceived the laborers by lying that a tin mirror was…
• No. 35Okichi and OtamaThe stepmother disliked Okichi, the daughter of the first wife, and tried to kill her with a poisoned bun and with a blade aimed at her as she slept…
• No. 36Aguna ChinawaA tennyo, a celestial maiden, descended to a young man who loved learning and became his wife. The cloth she wove over three years caught a lord's…
• No. 37SunekotanpakoA childless couple made a vow to Yakushi-sama, the buddha of healing, and secluded themselves in prayer, and the text breaks off on the night the vow…
• No. 38SunekotanpakoA childless couple was told in a dream that they should raise with care a child that had settled in a shin, and in time a small boy called…
• No. 39Onchiko-henchikoMonjiya no Kichi, who had lost at gambling, gambled with a Jizo, a stone bodhisattva statue, in a field and won, receiving a vermilion-lacquered…
• No. 40The root of 'indeed'A foolish son-in-law, not knowing how to greet properly at his marriage visit, borrowed the wisdom of an old man next door. The old man tied a string…
• No. 41The farting old man of the mountainsAn old man who had been cutting trees without permission in the forest of the choja, a very rich man, called himself the farting old man of the…
• No. 42The snake that visited a daughterEvery night voices were heard from the daughter's sleeping room, and when her parents questioned her, she confessed that a man wearing a crested coat…
• No. 43Destroying the snake's child with mercuryTo help a daughter who had come to carry the child of a snake, a serpent, often a spirit in disguise, the parents drew water into a tub and had her…
• No. 44RazorA priest cut salted fish with a razor and ate it alone, and he warned his acolyte, "Do not speak of what you see and hear." After that, the acolyte…
• No. 47The mountain of abandoning old menIt was the custom to abandon a parent on the mountain once he turned seventy-two, but the son was moved by his parent's love in breaking twigs along…
• No. 48ChoiwakoraMonjiya no Kichi, a lover of gambling, polished a pine burl and sold it to a priest, falsely claiming it was a fire-charm called Choiwakora, and…
• No. 49The farting brideA bride who had married into a house had a poor complexion, and she confided to her mother-in-law that at her own parents' home she had been free to…
• No. 51ChohenkoThe stepmother tried to make her own daughter Chahanko kill Chohenko, the child of the first wife, but Chahanko's kindness and quick thinking foiled…
• No. 52The tale of TamaichiA childless couple prayed to Kannon, the bodhisattva of compassion, and were granted a son. As the oracle had foretold, the child lost his father at…
• No. 53The temple boy who bought sakeIt began with a scene in which a temple priest who was fond of sake always sent his temple boy to buy it, showing the amount with the number of…
• No. 54Two to and one sho of sakeThe priest told the acolyte how much sake to buy by holding up a certain number of fingers, but he drank it all himself and let the acolyte drink…
• No. 56The gold that belonged by birthA man was digging up a pine tree to use in his garden when he found a jar containing gold at its roots. He buried it again as it was and told his…
• No. 57The old man's field tillingAn old man tilling his field gave a portion of his rice cake to a rat. In gratitude, the parent rat closed the old man's eyes and led him to the…
• No. 58A persimmon tree on his headThere was a manservant who had a habit of drinking himself senseless and falling asleep at the teahouse, and he was bald. Children threw persimmon…
• No. 59The bottle gourd gentlemanA priest dressed the bottle gourd from next door in a woman's mask and a long-sleeved kimono, set it in his room, and night after night played the…
• No. 60The monkey's brideA choja, a very rich man, had promised his daughter in marriage to a monkey, old mountain monkeys said to turn uncanny, after it plowed his field…
• No. 61The child with a long nameA boy was born and given a very long name. While playing in the river, he fell in by accident. By the time his companions, who had come running for…
• No. 62The old man's flour-grinding songWhile the old man thatched the roof, the old woman did needlework, and the daughter swept the earthen floor, a bean that was found was roasted and…
• No. 63This morning's freezeThe elder brother next door was asked how to greet one's father-in-law at the New Year. He was in the middle of catching fish under the ice at the…
• No. 64Poison pearsA priest, going out, told a young temple boy that there were pears he must not eat, calling them poison pears, and left. The boy could not hold…
• No. 65A pillow on his headAfter marrying into the family, the foolish son-in-law used a pillow for the first time, and because it kept slipping off his head, he asked his wife…
• No. 66The seven JizoOn New Year's Eve, the wife sold a padded coat she had spent three years making, and with the money bought hats for the Jizo, a stone bodhisattva…
• No. 67Puppu and Ae-kanThe priest put the young monks to bed, then roasted mochi and warmed sake to enjoy by himself, and at such times he had a habit of muttering to…
• No. 68The three sons-in-lawWhile three sons-in-law made small talk in front of their father-in-law, two of them, asked about a sound heard in the house, answered plausibly that…
• No. 69Red tray, red bowlA countryman went sightseeing in Kamigata and misheard and misremembered the words used by the inn's master and others there — "going up to the…
• No. 70OkeaemonkoA foolish son-in-law who had married into the family overheard the women in the kitchen calling red bean rice cakes "Okeaemonko," a fearsome thing.…
• No. 71Roasting rice cakesThe priest had a habit of hiding away to roast and eat rice cakes given by parishioners, and he tried to send his young temple boy away by telling…
• No. 72A contest of liarsA liar from the capital and a liar from the countryside came to call, to have a contest of lies. But the countryman's child told lies beyond measure…
• No. 73The wooden pestleThe wife had a nightly habit of turning her backside to the knothole in the door while she washed her feet. The husband of the house noticed that the…
• No. 74The wife who helps the todo next doorThe husband, trying to catch something in the house, ordered his wife to bring a kitchen knife. The wife secretly let the todo, who lived next door…
• No. 75The moonflower chojaThere was a fortunate elder brother and a poor, honest younger brother. When the younger brother lost his seed rice, he borrowed some from his elder…
• No. 76SettokosekA foolish son-in-law, treated to dumplings at the house he had married into, chanted "dumplings, dumplings" on his way home so as not to forget their…
• No. 77The fox's Ubako-samaThe fox of Hodoshima, a shape-shifting fox, used leaves and pheasant feathers to turn into a beautiful girl called Ubako-sama, and entered the…
• No. 78Taro, child of the peachA childless old man and old woman picked up a peach that came floating down the river, and a boy was born from inside it; they named him Taro, child…
• No. 79Kachikachi MountainAn old man caught an evil tanuki, a shape-shifting raccoon dog, and while he was away it tricked and killed his old woman, made her into soup, and…
• No. 80The lodging of the tongue-cut sparrowAn honest old man was fond of a sparrow. The greedy old woman next door scolded it for licking her paste, cut its tongue, and it fled. The old man…
• No. 81The leak in the old houseOn a rainy night, an old man and his wife said that the leak in the old house was more frightening than a tiger from China, and a tiger hiding in the…
• No. 82The cloak and hat of hidingA sly child held a broken basket up to his face and talked to himself, saying he could see Edo and could see Osaka, and a tengu, a long-nosed…
• No. 83The pillar coverOn his way to visit his father-in-law's house as a new son-in-law, the man was given advice by his wife, who told him that if he saw a knot-hole in…
• No. 84The lazy manA man who prayed to the tutelary god, wishing to eat delicious things without working, walked wherever his feet took him, as he had been told, and…
• No. 85The doorway for sending the wife awayA man compared his neighbor's wife with his own, and reproached his own wife, who was a hard worker, calling her ugly, and declared that he would…
• No. 86The foolish sonA tale of a foolish son who, whenever he received something at a relative's house, applied his mother's previous teaching unchanged to the next…
• No. 87The story sellerA son was given two hundred ryo by his parents and set out on a journey. From a story seller who sold each tale for a hundred ryo, he bought two…

Inaba and Hoki9 tales

• No. 2The tale of Yota of SajidaniInaba Province's Yazu District, Sajidani, was a village with many people who were so honest that they were at times a bit simple-minded. A young man…
• No. 4The tengu's treasureTaro, who was stopped in the mountains by a tengu, a long-nosed mountain spirit, received a cloak of hiding and a hat of hiding in exchange for an…
• No. 6A thief's repentanceIn the town of Yonago there lived an honest old man and his wife, and one night a thief crept into their house. The old man and old woman noticed the…
• No. 7A thief's repentanceA thief broke through the wall into the house of an old couple. Instead of driving him off, the old woman fed him, and had the thief himself repair…
• No. 9The Rich Man of KoyamaIn Ketaka District there was a wealthy choja, a very rich man, named the Rich Man of Koyama. On a summer day when many people were planting rice in…
• No. 10The bear that helped a manThe 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…
• No. 12The greedy old manAn honest old man dropped a dumpling in the mountains, and when it rolled into a hole, he followed it in and came upon a world of rats. The rats, who…
• No. 13The white hare of InabaThe spiteful elder brother gods of Okuninushi, a god of the land, were on their way to Inaba to court Princess Yakami when, near Utsumi village, Keta…
• No. 14The white hare of InabaA white hare that wished to cross from Oki Island to Inaba tricked the wani, a creature of the sea, into lining up their backs like a bridge while…