T3 — Gods and Belief

Gods of the house, the mountain and the water, and the people who keep them.

• 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

Tono19 tales

• Tale 2The legend of the three yama-onna goddesses of HayachineThe three mountains of Hayachine, Rokkoshi, and Ishigami are said to have come about when a mother goddess visited with her three daughters and…
• Tale 14The rites of Okunai-sama and Oshira-samaIn an old family, the Daido era, they enshrined a wooden image called Okunai-sama, a household god, carved from mulberry wood, and on the fifteenth…
• Tale 15Okunai-sama's miracle at rice plantingThe Abe family, short of hands for rice planting, was in trouble when an unknown boy appeared and helped, finishing the rice planting by dusk. The…
• Tale 16Konse-sama and Okoma-samaThere were not a few houses that enshrined Konse-sama, a god of horses and fertility, and its sacred body closely resembled that of Okoma-sama, a god…
• Tale 21Magozaemon and the Inari foxMagozaemon, who had a scholar's temperament, wishing to grow close to a fox, a shape-shifting fox, and to enrich his family's fortune, built an Inari…
• Tale 32Mount Senbangatake's white deer and the Shisuke mountain godsThe swamp at Mount Senbangatake lay in a valley that smelled terribly raw, and the mountain took its name from the time long ago when a hunter called…
• Tale 61The stone that turned into a white deerA famous hunter encountered the white deer at Rokkoshi. The white deer was regarded as a god, and though he feared its curse, he fired at it, but the…
• Tale 69The origin of Oshira-samaWhen the father of a poor farmer's daughter learned that she had become husband and wife with her beloved horse, he killed the horse. The daughter…
• Tale 70The origin of Okunai-samaThe Okunai-sama, a household god, was said to always be enshrined together with the Oshira-sama, a household god kept as small cloth-wrapped figures…
• Tale 71The old woman's secret faithThe old woman who told the origin of Oshira-sama, a household god kept as small cloth-wrapped figures, was a devoted chanter of the Buddha's name…
• Tale 72The curse of Kakura-samaAt the mound by the entrance to Kotobata in Tochinai village, a wooden seated image, said to have once been kept inside a hall, was enshrined as…
• Tale 73The wooden statues of Kakura-samaIn Tono there were many wooden statues of Kakura-sama, a roadside god children played with, including some in Nishinai, in Tochinai and Ohora, in…
• Tale 74The origin and appearance of Kakura-samaAt Tochinai the Kakura-sama, a roadside god children played with, numbered two, large and small, and in the whole village of Tsuchibuchi there were…
• Tale 89An encounter with mountain gods at Mount AtagoAt the summit of Mount Atago there was a shrine long said to be visited by a mountain gods, gods of the mountains. A young man from Wano, on his way…
• Tale 91The death of Torigozen who disturbed the mountain godsTorigozen, who knew the mountains well, went out to gather mushrooms and came upon a red-faced man and woman talking in the shadow of a large rock.…
• Tale 98Stone monuments to the roadside godsThere was a custom of erecting stone monuments carved with the names of mountains such as Mount Hayachine and Mount Rokkoshi, as well as stone…
• Tale 107The art of divination from the mountain godsA daughter of a house in Kamigo village received leaves from an unknown tall man on the riverbed of the Hayase River, and from that day she gained…
• Tale 108The fortune teller possessed by the mountain godsThere were people in various places who told fortunes when the mountain gods, gods of the mountains, entered into them, and the woodcutter of…
• Tale 110The miraculous power of Gongesama and fire-quellingGongesama, a sacred dance-head kept in a house, was a wood-carved image kept by each kagura troupe, resembling a lion's head. There was a tale that…

Shiwa District10 tales

• No. 6The fuku-no-kami who was no goodA man who went to Mount Nansho to fetch kadomatsu saw a duck floating on Zarufuchi, and when he threw the kadomatsu into the pool, a woman came out…
• 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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…

Inaba and Hoki3 tales

• No. 8KyozoboA loyal fox named Kyozobo lived on Mount Kyusho at Tottori castle, and served as the lord's messenger, making the round trip of two hundred ri…
• No. 11The tale of Lake TanegaA choja, a very rich man, of Miyashita village, Inaba Province hired a beautiful maidservant named Tane from Hosokawa village, who often brought back…
• 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…