The Writing of Tanuki

28 Apr 2011 1 Comment

by Zack Davisson in Magical Animal Stories, Tanuki Stories Tags: ,

Translated from Edo Tokyo Kaii Hyakumonogatari

In Bushu, Tanma-gun, in the village of Bunkokuji, the village headman Heigo was once visited by a tanuki who had disguised itself as a Buddhist monk.  The tankuki claimed to be a monk from the Murasaki Otoku temple in Kyoto, and was under a vow of silence so could only communicate by written notes.

Bunkokuji was just a small, countryside village and the headman was honored to have such a holy guest, one who was so diligent in walking the eight-fold path of the Buddha.  He invited the monk to stay with him and be fed as a guest.

Now, the handwriting of this monk was most peculiar.  He freely mixed the styles of artful Chinese calligraphy and machine-printed Japanese with some strange flourishes that Heigo had never seen before.  There were many grammatical mistakes as well, and Heigo thought it looked like the sort of thing that a tanuki would write.

By the morning, the monk had disappeared, and outside his house Heigo found the body of a tanuki who had been torn apart by local dogs.  His suspicious were confirmed.

There are many such stories of tanuki writings that have been passed down through the years.

Poverty-stricken Yube and the Oil Seller

07 Apr 2011 Leave a comment

by Zack Davisson in Yūrei Stories Tags: , , ,

Translated from Nihon no Yurei Banashi

Drinking Oil

Long ago in a village in Banshu (Modern day Hyogo Prefecture), there was a man named Yube. So stricken with dire poverty was Yube that he had nothing to eat and nowhere to live.  In desperation, Yube went to the home of a wealthy dealer in oil and bowed his head on the floor and begged to borrow some money.   The Oil Seller loaned Yube the money, and set the conditions for repayment.   But when the promised day to repay the loan came, Yube’s circumstances had not improved and he had not the ability to return the money.

Yube begged the Oil Seller:

“Please, my lord. Just give me another six months to pay back the loan.”

After listening to Yube beg and plead and beg some more, the Oil Seller finally relented and gave Yube six more months.  But he enforced a harsh term for the additional time.

“All right, if you want more time so badly, then prove it!  Right here, before me, drink five cups of oil.  If you can’t do that, then you had better be able to pay me back this minute.”

Yube was shocked at the demand.  But as he lacked the money to repay the loan, there was nothing he could do but set down to drink the oil. The Oil Seller made sure the cups were filled full to the brim, and watched as Yube sucked down every last drop of the thick oil.   First one, then two, until finally all five cups were drained.   Just as Yube finished the last of the oil, he doubled over with in excruciating pain.   First his stomach ached, and then his chest tightened terribly.  Yube began to sway back and forth, howling in agony, before he dropped to the floor dead.

The Burning Grave

The news of the Oil Seller’s deed spread quickly through the town, and it wasn’t long before it was overheard by the local magistrate.   The magistrate hurried at once to the Oil Seller’s home, and began a thorough investigation into the matter.   When he learned enough to know that the rumors were true, he fixed a stern eye on the Oil Seller.

“Well now. You have killed a man, and no mistake.  To tell the truth, there is enough here for me to send you to the executioner to be beheaded. But I would save you that much.  Instead, you will cover the entire cost of Yube’s funeral, and see to it that his family never suffers for money again.   If you can’t promise me that, then I will see your head posted on the town gates.”

The magistrate said this with such conviction in his voice that the Oil Seller trembled in fear. The Oil Seller quickly agreed to the terms, and wasted no time in making the arrangements to give Yube a fine funeral.   When the day came, the Oil Seller laid flowers on Yube’s freshly-cut headstone and then bent down to light the lanterns next to the grave while the people of the village silent watched and prayed.

When the match was touched to the lanterns, something shocking happened.  The five cups of oil that Yube had drunk had seeped from his body into the surrounding soil, and the grave burst into flames, rising up into a fireball.  The villagers shouted in surprise.

“Ahhh!  It is a hi no tama (fireball)!  This is Yube’s curse, and he has turned into a hi no tama!  We have to get out of here!”

Everyone fled from the grave running as if their lives depended on it.   As for the Oil Seller, he would never live another comfortable day in his life; he flesh grew pale and his entire body was overcome with shaking. He ran faster than anyone.

Just as everyone fled the grave, another mysterious thing happened.  The hi no tama blinked out as quickly as it had appeared; Yube’s oily body was burned up.   That is to say, all of the oil in Yube’s body had burned up. Yube himself was left clean and pure again.  When the last of the fires disappeared, Yube’s body down in the grave let out a huge gasp as air rushed back into his lungs.

“Huh?  Where am I?  What am I doing down here?”

With the oil purged from his body, Yube had come back to life and began to dig himself out of his own grave.   Pulling himself clear, he began to walk through town, heading back to his house.

When Yube came walking through town he came on a huge, noisy bunch of men were gathered in the street.   They were making a tremendous ruckus, some shouting with joy and some with anger.

“Hey there!  What are you all doing?”

Yube tried to push his way into the crowd to get a look at what was going on.  Just then, someone noticed him.  Yube caused quite a fright,
as he was still dressed in his white burial kimono that he had been wearing at his funeral.

“Ahhhhh!!!  It is a yurei!!!”

At the site of Yube in his white kimono, the courage of the men fled from them, and soon all the men were fleeing along with it.   Yube looked at the ground where the men had been gathered, and was surprised to see that the streets were littered with money. For sure this wild crowd had gathered for illegal gambling, and they had all left their cash behind when they went running from Yube.

“Ho!  This will certainly provide for my needs!”

Yube gathered all the stray money from the streets, and carried it off to his house.  But if he expected a welcome home greeting, he was sorely disappointed.  To see their dead relative, whose funeral they had been to today, suddenly show up at their doorstep was too much of a shock for Yube’s family.

“Ahhh!  It is a yurei!  Yube must be lost and unable to make his way to the world over there!”

With that they slammed the door shut and held it tight.   No matter how many times Yube knocked and pleaded to be let in, they wouldn’t listen and just yelled at him to go away.   There was nothing for Yube to do, so sadly he left his house and wandered to a near-by temple.   There, he poured out his story to a sympathetic monk who listened patiently. The monk then returned with Yube to his house, and explained Yube’s return to life to the family, who finally let Yube come inside.  They called down everyone in the house to hear Yube’s tale, and after that went out into the streets of the village where everyone celebrated Yube’s return.

With all the money Yube collected from the gambling den, he was now the richest man in the village. He paid off his dept to the terrified Oil Seller, and proceeded to live happily ever after.

This is a very unusual yurei story.  Not only does the dead man return to life, but he also becomes rich and lives a happy life.  This kind of story is mainly told in the Kansai area of Japan.

The Belly-Beating of the Tanuki

30 Mar 2011 3 Comments

by Zack Davisson in Magical Animal Stories, Tanuki Stories, Yōkai Stories Tags: , , ,

Translated from Edo Tokyo Kaii Hyakumonogatari

There was a tanuki who sat under the edge of a porch and drummed on his belly. Such an interesting sight was bound to become the topic of the neighborhood. The house in question was in Honishi, and belonged to a hairdresser.

It all began one day in February, in the Eighth year of Meiji (1875) when a tanuki came running up to the house towards the backdoor, probably being pursued by a dog or something. The kind hairdresser allowed the tanuki to escape to a safety under his porch. That night, sitting on the back porch, the son of the hairdresser was mindlessly tapping out a rhythm on the hibachi stove, when from under the porch came an answering beat. The tanuki was drumming along with the boy on his own belly. This was just too much to believe, and the hairdresser summoned his neighbors to see if they too could hear the belly-beating tanuki. The tanuki went right along pounding out his tune; it didn’t stop even as night fell and darkness surrounded the village.

The hairdresser could not sleep that night due to the incessant drumming of the tanuki, and finally shouted “Enough!” He went outside to the tanuki and in a pleading voice said “Honorable tanuki, we are all trying to sleep, so could you please be quiet?” With this said the tanuki immediately stopped his belly-beating. The following day, a great crowd gathered at noon to listen again to the belly-beating of the tanuki, and were shocked and saddened to find that no more drumming came from under the porch ever again.

In another case, in the 15th year of Meiji, on July 28th, the Choya Shinbun newspaper published an article about a similar musical tanuki. Out near a rice field in a remote village, a samisen master was giving a lesson to his student when they both heard the unmistakable sound of someone accompanying them on what sounded like a hand-drum. Soon the master, student, and mysterious accompanist were playing along late into the night in a fantastic improvised session. With the coming of dawn, the drumming stopped as mysteriously as it had started.

That morning, the body of an ancient tanuki was found in the rice field by the man who attended the water wheel. The tanuki’s body had blood streaming from its mouth, and its belly was said to have been beaten bare as if it had been shaved. This took place in Kyoto, in the town of Aiiwa.

In one final story, in the 17th year of Meiji on the 28th day of May, the Yubin-Hoichi Shinbun newspaper reported that the wife of a photographer named Kyomizu from the Tokoku area kept a baby tanuki as a pet. The wife said that in the middle of the night she could hear the baby tanuki practicing beating out rhythms on its belly. The wife wanted to see what her pet was up to, and snuck in one night to spy on it. She said the baby tanuki was spread out flat on the tatami mats, with all four legs splayed wide and its nose pressed firmly on the ground. She could hear sounds of something like a flute and a hand drum coming from the tanuki. This story as been passed down by the people of Tokoku as a true story of magical tanuki.

There are many more such stories about the belly-beating of tanuki. It is a legend that will not vanish any time soon.

The Tanuki and the White Snake

23 Mar 2011 1 Comment

by Zack Davisson in Magical Animal Stories, Tanuki Stories, Yōkai Stories Tags: , , ,

Translated from Edo Tokyo Kaii Hyakumonogatari

In front of the gate of Yanaka Ten-O temple, there was a barber named Hokkoshi Junto who was very fond of birds.  Juno kept a great variety of birds, both large and small. But recently, when he went to feed them in the morning, he found that the birds were disappearing one-by-one.  Someone must be stealing his precious birds, Junto thought. So he hid himself in the dark one night to catch the culprit in the act.

But he saw nothing. Well, if there was no human thief, Junto thought, surely this must be the handiwork of some rouge dog or cat.  He resolved to shoot the beast if he ever caught it feeding on his birds.

With this occupying his thoughts, Junto returned home to his bed and lay down to sleep.  No sooner had his head touched his pillow than a beautiful and elegant lady of courtly bearing, no more than twenty years old, appeared before him.  She spoke to Junto.

“I am the White Snake who has lived in the five-storied pagoda in Yanaka Ten-O temple, and protected this district for more than a hundred years.  I have many grandchildren who also live in the temple and protect the people.  But recently a Great Tanuki has come down from Dokan Mountain and taken up residence in the temple.  He has been feasting on my family, on the small white snakes. Soon will come to eat me too.  We have lived here for over a hundred years in peace, and our fear of this Great Tanuki is such that it cannot be expressed.  When all the baby snakes have become his food, and when he has finished with me, there will be no more white snakes in Yanaka Ten-O. ”

“Not only my family is in peril. This Great Tanuki has also been gorging himself on the birds that you keep.  He has escaped you unseen and unnoticed.  So I have come to you in your dreams that I may show you your true enemy.  We are helpless, and need the power of humans to rid us of this Great Tanuki.  If you find it difficult to believe what I say, go to the temple graveyard in the morning and you will find the aftermath of your bird-thief.  I beg of you, please hurry and destroy this evil tanuki.”

With that said, Junto opened his eyes and found himself in his own room, alone.

A strange dream indeed, thought Junto, and worth investigating.  The following morning he went with all possible speed to the graveyard of Yanaka Ten-O temple, and found ample evidence of the Great Tanuki’s deeds.  The feathers and bones of his beautiful birds were scattered carelessly about.

The dream was proved true beyond a shadow of a doubt, and Junko gathered the young men of the village to deliver the White Snake’s vengeance. The Great Tanuki was discovered lurking in the temple grounds and destroyed.

The Appearance of a Kappa

15 Mar 2011 Leave a comment

by Zack Davisson in Kappa Stories Tags: , ,

Translated from Edo Tokyo Kaii Hyakumonogatari

In the Meiwa era (1764-72), near the village of Takekura in Honjyo-Go, a gang of tradesmen were gathered around a strange living creature that they had almost beaten to death.  Their supervisor happened on the scene and stopped them, then sent for Ooda Chogen to see if the thing could be identified.   Chogen quickly arrived and said “This is what we call a suiko (water tiger).  Over in the valley they call it a kappa.” Chogen then reached into his breast pocket and produced a drawing so he could compare the similarities and differences. (It is said that a copy of that same picture was made by Ito Chohei in the mid- Bunsei era (1823)).

This was the second time that Chogen had encountered this particular strange living creature.  He had made the sketch after his first encounter, and the thing before him now showed no discernible differences.   It was about 2 shaku long (60.6 centimeters) from head to foot,  and looked like it was covered in moss.  The body was as slippery as a catfish, but the hair was as black as palm-tree hair. The arms and legs resembled the skin of an eel, and on the top of the head was a depressed bowl.  The back and the belly was the same color.

During the Kyoho era (1716-36), excess children were sometimes abandoned in the rice fields in anticipation of the Imperial Inspection of farmer households.  This strange living creature was said to resemble those abandoned human children.

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