Legends of Japan (2 page)

2. Wrestling a
serpent

A
LONG TIME
ago, in the province of Tango, now the
northern part of Kyoto Prefecture, there lived a sumo wrestler of great strength, named Tsuneyo.

Near his house, there was an old marsh. It was not a big marsh, but it was so fathomlessly deep that its bed had never once dried up, even in a long spell of dry weather. Its surface was as smooth as a mirror, and its water very stagnant.

One summer evening, Tsuneyo came out to the edge of this marsh for a stroll. When standing by a big tree, he saw floating weeds before him sway, though there was not even a puff of wind. All of a sudden, the water swelled, and the next moment the head of a huge serpent appeared. An ordinary person would certainly have been paralyzed with terror at such a sight, but Tsuneyo was so stout-hearted that he calmly gazed at it. The serpent also stared at him, shooting out its red tongue and waving it up and down. For a while, they continued this staring match. Then, the serpent turned its head and began to swim across the marsh toward the other side. It was indeed a very horrible sight to see the monstrous serpent swim off, zigzagging its body, which was as thick as the trunk of a big tree. Since the marsh was not very wide, the tail of the serpent remained on the near side even though its head had reached the other.

Suddenly the creature flung its tail out of the water and extended its end toward the wrestler. The next instant, the monster began to wind its tail around the wrestler's left leg.

"Gosh, this will be fun!" Tsuneyo muttered, deliberately letting the serpent do what it pleased. The serpent coiled its tail around his leg, from ankle up to knee, and then began to pull him with great force.

"Well, she is going to drag me into the marsh!" he said to himself. He stood firm on the ground by stretching his legs and the serpent continued to pull him. In rivalry with the monster, Tsuneyo stood stauncher than ever before. The serpent with more strength drew the wrestler inch by inch, but the next moment the wrestler pulled back the distance he had lost.

Thus they desperately continued to pull each other for half an hour, when the wrestler's clog straps suddenly snapped. Well, that was the worst possible thing that could have happened!

The wrestler, with his steady posture giving way, was quickly drawn about two or three feet toward the edge of the marsh. But he lost no time taking off the broken clogs to get a steadier footing. His feet gradually rooted into the soil as much as six inches. Another half an hour passed.

When the serpent tried to draw the wrestler with her utmost strength, her tail suddenly snapped off like a straw rope. At that, the wrestler fell on his buttocks with the force of his effort, because he had thrown all the strength of his body into his legs.

"Oh, what a strong monster she is!" he exclaimed. After a while, his pupils came to gather around him. "What's happened, sir?" they asked.

"Nothing. I've just had a contest of strength with a huge serpent. You should have seen it, boys," Tsuneyo laughingly replied.

"Sir, your left leg..." one of them cried, pointing to Tsuneyo's leg. Tsuneyo looked down and found his leg clearly marked with a spiral line. It was the trace of the serpent's coiled tail. There were even some bloodstains on the skin. But the wrestler was as calm as if he knew nothing about what had happened to him.

"The tail of the monster must be around here. You all look for it," he ordered. The pupils searched
all
over the place and found it in the bushes close by. Its length was well over six feet and its opening was as wide as one foot. It was bluish black and greasy, and presented a forbidding appearance. All the pupils were astonished at the size of the tail.

One day, local citizens who had heard the story asked Tsuneyo how strong the serpent was. Thereupon he
had
his left leg wound round by a thick rope and let a group of ten
men
pull it hard. The people asked whether the pullers' strength corresponded to that of the serpent. The wrestler, however, said more men were needed. The people therefore added new hands five by five, and finally the total number of the rope-pullers amounted to sixty. Now the wrestler said flatly that the serpent's strength was as great as that. But, since he had won the contest, his strength was apparently greater
than that of
the monster. The people thought that
Tsuneyo's
power must have
equalled the
strength
of at least one
hundred men.

3. The lost chance

L
ONG, LONG AGO
, there lived in Kyoto a Buddhist
priest who could use magic. For example, he could, with a yell, turn a worn-out straw sandal into a puppy, or he could plunge into the stomach of a horse and come out laughing.

Next door to his temple, there lived a young man who was very envious of the priest's magical power and anxious to learn it. He often asked the priest to teach him this magic, but the priest just smiled off his request. Nevertheless, the young man was too zealous to give up his desire. At last the priest yielded to his entreaties and said, "All right, I will teach you the magic. But in learning it, you have to do several things. First of all, starting today you must purify yourself for a week. Then, make a pail and fill it with red boiled rice. After that, you..." the priest, suspiciously looking about, whispered in the young man's ear, "come with me. I will take you to my old teacher of magic."

Now, the young man was very happy. He immediately set to work, purifying himself, making a wooden pail, and filling it with red boiled rice. The day at last came when he was to be taken to the teacher of magic. The priest came by his house, and said, "You must not carry cutlery with you. Its possession is prohibited in learning magic. If you should carry even a small edged tool, your earnest hope would be shattered. Remember that."

"All right. I never will carry any kind of knife as you say," he pledged, "and whatever unreasonable demands the teacher of magic should make of me, I would be happy to meet them if he really teaches me the magic. This is quite a simple request." The young man, however, on reflection felt uneasy that if danger should arise, he would be helpless without a weapon. He therefore had a dagger concealed in his clothes and, pretending it wasn't there, set out together with the priest before day-break.

He followed the priest, carrying the red rice-filled pail on his shoulder, sometimes touching the concealed dagger. The road ran toward a mountain. They went a long way. About noon they reached a fine Buddhist temple at last.

"Wait here," said the priest, and he alone went into the temple. Here in the temple compound, the priest squatted down by the hedge and cleared his throat. Perhaps it was a signal. Presently the door of a temple hall opened from inside and an old priest, popping out his solemn face, asked, "Who is it?"

"It is me, Master," replied the young priest, still keeping himself low.

"Oh, is that you? Come in. I am very pleased to see you again after such a long time. What has brought you here today?"

"Well, Master, it is about my neighbor," replied the young priest, "who is very anxious to learn magic from you."

"Is that so? Where is he?"

Whereupon the younger priest called in the man and presented him to the aged priest. The aspirant humbly offered the pail of red boiled rice to the teacher of magic, who gazed at him.

"Come out, all of you!" the old priest suddenly called in a thunderous voice. "This fellow here appears to have a dagger. Take it from him!"

At that, several acolytes came over to the young man. "Damn bonze! He has seen through me," the man cursed. He thought that should the acolytes examine him they would surely find the dagger; and if so, they would surely beat him to death. He therefore made up his mind to kill the old priest to bear him company to the nether world. Once he determined to do that, he rallied his strength. No sooner had he drawn the dagger and jumped at the priest when the fine temple structure came down with a thunderous roar. And lo! The next moment the aged priest and the fallen structure vanished like smoke. He felt as if he were in a dream.

When he came to his, senses, he found himself standing by the young priest in the hall of an old temple. In speechless wonder, he kept standing there for a moment. "Tut!" the priest grumbled, "What a thing you have done!" He disdainfully went on, "You have made the old teacher angry and ruined everything—you have even deprived me of my magical power."

With that, he tramped out. When the young man came out of the temple, he was surprised to find it to be a temple near his house. Why the long journey from dawn to noon? From that time, he never saw the priest again. The young man thus lost forever a chance of learning magic.

4. The reed-mower and the lady

L
ONG, LONG AGO
,
in Kyoto, there lived a poor samurai who had no relatives in the city. Though he served his master well, fortune did not smile upon him. So he often changed his masters, expecting a good position, but he was not rewarded at all for his efforts. In the end he found no person to serve remaining in the city. Thus he was masterless and had to live in dire poverty.

This man had a very beautiful and gentle-hearted wife, who, though poverty stricken, was devoted to her husband. One day he said, "Although I want to live with you forever, our grinding poverty no longer permits our union. So I think it best for us to divorce each other."

The woman was surprised at her husband's sudden proposal and said, "I would like to live with you until death separates us, but this seems impossible now because our union is apparently preventing your advancement. If you really want to divorce me, I shall have to obey you."

Thus they sadly broke up, expecting a happy reunion as soon as possible.

Since the woman had retained her youthfulness and beauty, she was soon employed by a high government official. She was so gentlehearted that she was loved by the family, and after the death of the mistress she was asked by her master to become his wife. Thus the woman married her master and lived a happy life with him in a large mansion. Her new husband was later appointed governor of Settsu Province.

Her former husband became more miserable. Though he had divorced his wife for advancement, he could not improve his life. Finally he saw that he could no longer obtain any job in the capital and went down to Settsu Province to work as a day laborer. But, as he was well bred, he was not familiar with rough work, so he was sent to mow reeds on the beach.

One day, on the shore of Settsu Sea, a whim of fate brought this man and his divorced wife together. That day the governor of Settsu, accompanied by his family, was on his way to the provincial capital to assume his post. As they came out on the seashore, they were impressed with the scenic beauty and had an outdoor dinner party there.

As the woman was enjoying the party with her family, she by chance saw a decent-looking laborer among many reed-mowers. Though he was poorly dressed, his appearance showed that he must have come of good stock. When she took a good look at him, she found him to be her former husband.

The man was mowing reeds in the water. Finding her former husband working like this, the woman was suddenly touched by his misery and secretly shed tears of sympathy for him. She immediately told a maid to bring the man to her, and when he came she found his kimono quite worn and his arms and legs very dirty with mud. On his legs there were even leeches sucking his blood. She was shocked to see his terrible appearance and told the maid to give him some food, which the man ate greedily before her. Of course, he did not know the kind lady was his divorced wife.

As the man was about to retire from her presence, the woman gave him a kimono with a piece of paper on which she wrote a poem:

Hoping our happy reunion,
I parted from you
in the capital,
But, why do you mow reeds out here
on the beach?

The poor man was surprised to read the poem and discover
that
the kind lady was his divorced wife. He was ashamed of himself and asked for a brush and ink to compose a poem in reply:

Since our separation,
I have been more badly off.
And, recalling our old days,
I find my present position more
intolerable.

Reading his reply, the lady became more sympathetic, but she knew her present position did not permit her to help him in any way. The man, deeply ashamed of his misery, went away, no longer returning to his work.

This story was told by the lady in her later years.