The Gratitude of the Goose

Once upon a time, an old man lived on the shores of Lake Jyusan on the Tsugaru Peninsula of Aomori.  
One winter's night the man heard a knocking at his door. Opening it, he beheld a young girl standing in the blowing snow, covered head to foot. 
"Oh, my. What are you doing out on a night like this? Do come in," he said.
He stirred up the fire and bade the girl warm herself by the hearth. Looking at his visitor more closely, the man noticed that she was bleeding from one of her feet. "Is your foot hurt?" he inquired.
"Yes. I stepped on a hunter's trap by accident," she answered.
"That's rotten luck. Would you like to stay here until it's healed?"
"Oh, yes. Thank you ever so much," she said.
"Look here, dinner's ready. Let's eat up." So the old man served his guest a bowl of delicious fish soup, which she proceeded to devour. Before long the girl was thoroughly warmed, and she fell asleep beside the fire.
Later that evening, thinking to cover her with a futon for added warmth, the man discovered that his visitor was not in fact a young girl but rather a goose. 
"So that's how it was. Injured, she became separated from the other geese, and before coming here changed into a human girl," thought the old man. Smiling with this knowledge, he applied a healing salve to his guest's injured foot.
The snowy weather continued, but at last, a day of clear skies dawning, the goose-girl bowed deeply to the old man and said, "For many a day you have treated me with great kindness. Thanks to you, my foot has healed. As I am now able to resume my journey, I will soon be leaving you."
"Is that so? You're going?" 
The girl was saddened to perceive how deeply affected the man was by her announcement.
"I've kept a secret from you all this time. The truth is, I'm a goose."
"Ahh. But you see, I knew that," the man replied.
"You did? I'll never forget your kindness."
With that, the girl became a goose again and rose into the sky. After thrice circling above the old man's house, the goose, now a mere speck in the sky, flew northwards. 
Then it was spring, then summer, then fall, and the time of year geese begin appearing in the region of Lake Jyusan.   
When the old man beheld the first geese on their southward journey, he was reminded of his visitor earlier that year.
One day the man noticed a goose veer from its traveling companions and head in his direction. When the goose was overhead something fell from its bill to the ground. Retrieving the item, the man found it to be a small packet containing some gold dust and a letter. Unfolding the latter the man read, "Thank you, grandpa, for your many kindnesses. Take care of yourself."
 With a tear in his eye, the old man watched the goose until it passed from sight.
"You, too," he said.
　

The "Birthing" Stone

Long ago there was a village, and smack dab in the middle of the track that ran through the village was a stone no one could move. The funny thing about the stone was, come nightfall, an eerie singing seemed to issue from it, and for that reason none dared to pass that way after dark. "Monster Stone" is what the scary object was called.

One night,  the village headman, having spent the day in a neighboring village, had no choice but to return by this very path.

"Well, it can't be helped, but I can't help but be frightened."

Just as the man passed to the side of the stone a female voice cried out, "Help me, please help me".

"What's this? Who are you?," exclaimed the man.

"People call me Monster Stone, but I'm really a woman. I'm pregnant and soon to give birth, and I'm famished. Could you possibly give me something to eat?

When the headman heard this, he took pity on the stone and said, "Oh, so that's how it is. Wait a bit. I'll be back shortly."

Whereupon the man ran home, cooked a pot of rice, and made several rice balls. He took these with him and returned to the stone.

From the stone emerged a white hand. The hand picked up one of the rice balls, disappeared with it, and repeated the process until the rice balls were gone.

When the stone had eaten its fill the hand appeared again, this time holding a black rock, which it presented to its benefactor with these words: "This is a lucky rock. Place it in your house, and may all of your days be happy and filled with good fortune. And thank you for the rice balls."

And indeed, the headman lived happily ever after.

As for the stone, it bore offspring from time to time. True to its name.


   

The Old Man and the Crab

There was once an old couple who lived in a certian village in Echigo Province. 

One day the old man went to a nearby river, and while he was there he caught a crab. The man took the crab home and placed it under the low verandah encircling the house, intending to make a pet of the creature. 

He quickly grew fond of the crab, and if there was anything tasty in the larder, he was sure to share it with his pet. Furthermore, whenever he went into the neighboring town on some errand or other, the old man always returned with a baked potato, for of this delicacy the crab was inordinately fond. For its part the crab soon reciprocated the old man's feelings. The old man would speak to the crab in a manner he would have used with his own grandchildren-if there had been any. "Hey, Master Crab. Gramps is here. Come on out and see what goodies he's brought you." 

The old man doted so much on his little crustacean friend that the old woman gradually came to resent the creature. "My husband is always giving that crab some tasty morsel to eat. When he's not around see if I don't teach the little so-and-so a thing or two," mused the woman. 

Her opportunity was not long in coming, for a few days later the old man left for town and was gone longer than usual. "Now's my chance. Worse luck for you, Master Crab." So saying, the woman bent down to a level with the verandah and called out "Hey, Master Crab. Gramps is here. Come on out and see what goodies he's brought you." And the crab, thinking it was the old man himself (so good was the woman's impersonation), came scuttling eagerly out.

 When the crab saw that it was not the kind old man but the menacing figure of his wife, it panicked and attempted to retreat under the house. But it was too slow for the old woman, who whacked the hapless creature with a stick of firewood she had concealed behind her back. The old woman had not intended to kill the creature; she merely wanted to frighten it into running away. Unfortunately, her blow struck the crab in its most vulnerable spot, and writhing in agony, it perished before her eyes. "Oh, what a terrible thing," moaned the woman helplessly. "Whatever shall I do?" 

Her hesitation was short-lived, for finding comfort in the thought that "What's done is done, and in any case the dead can't be brought back to life," the woman speedily boiled and ate the crab before the old man should return, disposing of the crab's shell by tossing it into a grove of bamboo behind the house. 

Soon thereafter the old man returned from town, whereupon he went straight to the garden, with the crab's favorite treat in hand, and peered under the verandah. "Hey, Master Crab. Gramps has come. Come on out and see what goodies he's brought," he called out as usual. But the crab, who ordinarily made a prompt appearance, failed to come out. "This is strange," thought the old man. "I wonder if the crab hasn't gone to play in the bamboo grove behind the house?" The old man looked high and low for the crab there, but no matter how many times he called out, the creature failed to appear. " Where could dear crabbie have gone?" he sighed. 

The man fell into a mournful reverie, and for quite some time he stood before the grove, unmindful of his surroundings. The man was recalled by the sudden appearance of a beautiful little bird, which flew out of the grove and alit on a branch of a tree beside him. The bird sang for a few moments in a dolorous way and then flew back into the bamboo thicket. "What an unusual bird. I wonder what such a pretty little thing is doing here," thought the man, all the while admiring the creature. 

For its part the bird flew in and out of the bamboo grove repeatedly, as if urging the old man to follow it, whereupon the man decided to enter the grove after the bird. The man saw that someone else had  been there before him, for in one place the soil had recently been turned over. The bird stood beside this patch of ground, scratching it with its foot. Brushing away some of the soil, the man was horrified to discover the shell and leg of a crab, his own crab! "Who could've done such a terrible thing? Could it have been my wife?" he shouted. Seething with rage he stalked into the house to find his wife. "How dare you do such a horrible thing!" he shouted. So angry was the man that he fell in a faint at his wife's feet. 

The woman began to repent of what she had done. "Please forgive me," she implored. "I didn't mean to kill the crab, merely frighten it. I used too much force when I struck the crab. It was very bad of me. Please forgive me!" The old man was moved by her contrition, and he promptly forgave her. Thereupon the man and his wife constructed a crude monument to the departed crab. From time to time the bamboo grove was visited by a little bird whose beautiful voice rang in the stillness of the copse.

Translation: Brian Southwick, 2009

Issunboshi, or Little One-inch

Once upon a time there was an old man and an old woman. The couple had no children, so they prayed to god to give them a child. “Even a tiny little boy or girl no bigger than my pinky would be welcome”, said the old man in his prayer.

No sooner said than done, for the next instant a very small boy the size of the man’s little finger appeared. “We’ll call him ‘Little One-inch’” said the two.

One day Little One-inch announced, “I’d like to go to the town to look for work. Please help me to prepare for the journey." So the old man set about fashioning a sword just the boy's size out of a needle.  The woman in turn made from a miso soup bowl a little boat in which the boy could sail down to the town on a nearby stream.

When all was ready Little One-inch said, "Look, I'll carry this sword made from a needle.  Look, I'll use this chopstick to paddle the boat. Well then, I'm off." Expertly maneuvering the soup bowl into the current, Little One-inch set off for the town. 

On arriving Little One-inch went straight to the largest house in the town.  "You can rely on me, you can depend on me" he shouted repeatedly at the door, which was eventually opened far enough to admit the head and shoulders of one of the master's retainers.

The retainer's face wore a puzzled look as he inclined his head first to the right, then to the left. "Dear me, no one's here," he muttered.

"Over here! No, here!"

"If it isn't some kind of miniature child", said the retainer when he finally discerned Little One-inch under a wooden clog beside the entrance.

In due course Little One-inch became the attendant of the master's daughter, a girl famed throughout those parts for her beauty.

One day as Little One-inch was escorting his charge home from a visit to a temple, two ogres suddenly appeared ahead of them in the road.

"Such a beautiful girl, the likes of which we've never seen.  Let's get her," said one of the ogres.

Hearing this, Little One-inch drew his sword and flew at the attackers.

"What's this thing that looks like a tiny insect?  Come here, you!" said the other.

The ogre picked up the "insect" and swallowed it whole, whereupon he soon experienced acute pain in his stomach, as if some sharp object were pricking the inside of his belly.

"Ouch, ouch" he cried, spitting out Little One-inch.

"Let me at it, whatever it is, I'll grind it to nothing under my finger" said the second ogre, whose turn it now was to feel the keeness of the tiny sword, this time in the eye.

"Run away, run away" cried the two.

When the ogres had gone Little One-inch discovered a strange object lying in the road.  "It's a mallet of good fortune," explained the girl.  "If you make a wish and shake the mallet, your dream will come true."

"Pray that I may become the strongest and tallest boy in town, and shake the mallet for me,"  urged Little One-inch.  In a trice the little "insect" became a strapping lad.  And of course the two married and lived happily ever after.

          

* Translation by Brian S.

Persecuted Christians and Miracle Soba: A Traditional Story from Kyushu

Long, long ago, in the islands of the Amagusa archipelago, there lived many who believed in the teachings of Christ. However, Shoguns Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu banned the Christian religion, arguing that it was a pernicious foreign influence.

The authorities hunted down suspected Christians, burning some at the stake and waterboarding others.  And so it came to pass that many were executed for their beliefs.

One autumn's day a certain peasant, Shinkichi by name, was planting a soba field with seeds with the aid of his wife.  All of a sudden the two were startled by a clatter as of running feet, and before long they beheld a small band of people running towards them, the band comprising a few peasants led by  men who were most certainly not Japanese serfs; as the group advanced, the Shinkichis could make out the brown hair and towering forms of two foreign gentlemen.

"Help us, do help us, we are being pursued by the authorities", the fugitives implored.  "God will reward and protect you if you do."

"But we have no business succoring those wanted by the law," replied Shinkichi.

"We may be outlaws, but our only crime was to pray to our God," remonstrated the group.

And then it occurred to Shinkichi that these were not ordinary fugitives. "So you're Christians", he said. "In that case, see that you run as fast as you can yonder, where you'll find a cave at the base of a cliff.  You'll be practically invisible there."

"God will most certainly reward you for your charity. If the authorities come looking for us, be sure to tell them you saw us fleeing in the direction of the cliff at the time you were sowing your field with soba."

So saying, the two foreign men led their small congregation in the direction pointed out by Shinkichi.

Shinkichi and his wife watched as the group receded into the distance.  Then, turning their attention back to the field they were sowing,  the couple were startled to see that the seeds they had planted just moments before had already begun to sprout. And lo, before their very eyes, the sprouts became fully grown and the field a blanket of white.

Just then a party of soldiers appeared. "Hey, you there.  Did a couple of foreigners with some peasants in tow pass by here earlier?  Speak up.  You know what happens to those who harbor fugitives, don't you?"

"Yes, most honored sir, a group like you described did pass by here in the direction of the cliff. But that was when my wife and I were planting the field," replied Shinkichi to the leader.

"What's that you say?  But the soba's now fully grown."

"Indeed it is, honored sir.  I am certain I saw the people you seek when I was planting the seeds."

"Well, that must have been quite some while ago.  I suppose it can't be helped. Let's go, men, back to the fort." Thus ended the interview between Shinkichi and the leader of the posse.

As soon as the men were out of sight, the soba began to wither. Magically the field returned to its earlier condition.

"Truly, God did come to our aid just then.  Come what may, God will always keep us from evil."  With clasped hands Shinkichi and his wife fervently thanked God and asked His blessing.

News of Shinkichi and his soba passed from person to person, from village to village, until few were those ignorant of the story, and even fewer who didn't believe in God's mighty and mysterious power.

Translation: Brian Southwick, 2014

A Folktale for the New Year, or Why Japanese Eat Black Beans at New Year's

Long ago in the mountains of Niigata Prefecture (or Echigo Province, as it was then called) lived a man known far and wide for his honesty. He farmed a meager patch in the mountains, growing black beans in poor soil, and just managed to eke out a living.  One winter's night, on the second of January, the man had his first dream of the New Year, and this is what he dreamt.

In the dream God appeared to him and said, "Hey, you, you're always working in that field of yours, and yet at the end of the year you're no better off than at the start. Listen to what I'm saying to you: There's a chap that lives in the village the other side of the mountain. He's got a garden, and in that garden is a plum tree.  You just take a shovel with you and dig around a bit under that tree and see if you don't find a pot of gold buried there." 

The next day he set out for the village, cautiously excited and more than anything curious.  It was getting dark when he arrived, but he found the house and knocked on the door. It was opened by the homeowner himself. "Excuse me, sir, but God told me in a dream about this house and the plum tree in the garden.  He said that if I dug around under the tree I'd find a pot of gold. If that's true, we'll go halves. What do you say?"

The other replied, "It's late, too dark to be digging up the garden. Why not in the morning?  You can stay the night here."

As soon as his guest was in bed, the man rushed out, grabbed the shovel, and began to dig. He dug and he dug, but for the life of him he could not find the pot of gold the visitor had dreamt was under the plum tree. 

The next morning the man told his guest about his fruitless search. "Honestly, I would have shared any treasure I found," he assured him. "Once I thought we were in luck, for my shovel struck something hard. But it was nothing, though I could have sworn a kind of black mist rose out of the ground."

"Just goes to show that some dreams are only dreams," said the other. "Sorry for putting you out." And thanking his host for the hospitality, the man set out to return home.

On the trail he encountered a strange gentleman dressed in black. "Good day, sir. And where might you be headed?" he inquired. The stranger pointed in the direction of the man's home. "Well, as it will be dark soon and unsafe to continue your journey, please do me the honor of sharing my humble abode this evening." And so the two descended the mountain towards the man's village.

"Were you out for a walk?" the strange man at length inquired.

"No, it wasn't that," the other answered, proceeding to relate the tale of his dream and the pot of gold that wasn't.  "But it's just as well, he concluded, I only know one thing in life, farming my small garden, and to be honest I not sure what I would have done if I'd found all that money."

At which the other smiled to himself.

Before long they reached the man's home. He fired up the hearth, set a pot of rice porridge to simmer, and busied himself making his guest comfortable.

The next morning the man in black was nowhere to be found. When our hero peered under the futon where the man had slept, imagine his surprise to find a gold jar stuffed to overflowing with pieces of gold. "It seems the jar I dreamt about turned into that mysterious man. And now my dream has come true," he mused.

With the money he purchased other plots, hired farmhands, and planted row upon row of black beans, which were highly prized. The honest farmer came to be known as "Black Bean Tycoon".

And this is the reason black beans are a New Year's tradition, expressing as they do the wish to be as healthy, wealthy, and hardworking as the hero of our tale.

Gutsu and the Crow- A Japanese Folktale for December 16

Long, long ago, a boy named Gutsu lived in a village with his grandmother. 

One day, his grandma said, "Gutsu, as today is your late grandfather's death day, we must summon a priest to chant the sutras in his honor. Won't you run along to the neighboring village to ask for the priest there?" "What's a priest?" inquired the little boy, for Gutsu's village did not have a temple. "He's a man who wears a black kimono." 

"Got it," replied Gutsu. Heading through the rice fields, Gutsu came upon a large crow perched atop a scarecrow- and crows, as everyone knows, are black. "There he is!", exclaimed Gutsu. "Hey you, Mister Monk, hey, come with me," he shouted. The crow, startled, took wing and flew off.  "Where are you going?", Gutsu cried. 

Running after the crow, the boy soon found himself outside a temple. "Mr. Priest, I know you're in there. Hurry up and come out," whereupon Gutsu found himself face to face with the real thing. "I'm the priest. What do you want?"  "So priests are human," thought Gutsu. Haltingly the boy explained his errand, and the priest accompanied him home. 

The old woman, who rarely found cause to praise her grandson, did so that day: "Well done, Gutsu. Good boy." 

2019 Brian S.