All tales

The 219 tales available in English, by land, in the order of their books.

Tono118 tales

• Tale 1The origin and geography of TonoTono was a flatland surrounded by the mountains of Kamihei District, Rikuchu, and consisted of one town and ten villages. It is told that what was…
• 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 3The black-haired woman of the mountains and the yama-otokoThe hunter Sasaki Kahei encountered a woman with long black hair in the mountains and shot her down with his gun. As proof, he cut off her hair and…
• Tale 4A woman with a child crossing a bamboo-grass fieldAs Kichibei of Yamaguchi village was cutting bamboo grass on Mount Nekkodachi, a beautiful woman carrying a child on her back came walking across the…
• Tale 5Yama-otoko and yama-onna appear at Fuefuki PassFuefuki Pass, which had been a shortcut toward the coast, came to be feared by people after rumors spread that one might meet a yama-otoko, a man of…
• Tale 6The choja's daughter becomes the wife of a yama-otokoThe daughter of a choja, a very rich man, of Nukanomae in Aozasa village was taken and hidden away by something, and was long missing, but a hunter…
• Tale 7The daughter met again in Mount GoyoA daughter of Kamigo village went out to gather chestnuts and disappeared, and her family even held a funeral for her, but several years later a…
• Tale 8The old woman of Samuto comes home on windy daysA girl of Samuto in Matsuzaki village left her straw sandals under a pear tree and went missing, and after more than thirty years she suddenly came…
• 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 10The sister's scream heard at the mountain hutA man who had lodged in a hut deep in the mountains to gather mushrooms heard, late at night, a woman's cry of "kyaa" from far off, and his heart…
• 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 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 17Sightings of the zashiki-warashiIt was said that old family houses were home to a god called the zashiki-warashi, a child spirit that lives in old houses, a child of about twelve or…
• Tale 18The decline of the house the zashiki-warashi leftIt was said that two child goddesses lived in the house of Yamaguchi Magozaemon, an old family, but one day a man met two unfamiliar girls by a…
• 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 20The snake's curse and the snake moundBefore the ill fortune came, while stirring the fodder a large snake, a serpent, often a spirit in disguise, appeared, and though the master told…
• 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 22The dead grandmother's ghostsOn the night the great-grandmother of the Sasaki family died, the mother and grandmother who were in the room for the wake saw the figure of the dead…
• Tale 23The spirit of an old woman appeared on the eve of the memorialOn the eve of the fourteenth-day memorial, the people who had finished the nembutsu prayers and were about to go home saw an old woman sitting on a…
• Tale 24The origin of old families called the Daido eraIt is said that old families in the villages are called the Daido era because they were families that had moved from Kai Province in the first year…
• Tale 25The origin of laying down one side of the kadomatsuThe ancestors of the Daido era arrived in this region at the end of the year, and before they had put up more than one side of the kadomatsu, it…
• Tale 26The Abe clan, an old family of master carversThe Abe clan, called Tanbo-no-uchi of Kashiwazaki, was a well-known old family. A former head of the family was skilled at carving, and many of the…
• 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 28The slaying of the monster monk of HayachineA hunter from Tsukumoushi village who was the first to cut a mountain path into Hayachine was roasting mochi in a makeshift hut when a large monk…
• Tale 29The tengu and gold of Mount KeitoTo Mount Keito, where a tengu, a long-nosed mountain spirit, was said to live and which even those on pilgrimage to Hayachine avoided, a man known as…
• Tale 30A big man sleeps at HayachineA man from Oguni village went to Hayachine to cut bamboo, and found a big man lying on his back in a thicket of dwarf bamboo, asleep and snoring…
• Tale 31Children carried off by ijinAmong the children of households in Tono, every year there were many who were carried off by ijin, a stranger from outside the village, and went…
• 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 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 34The woman of the Hanaremori choja mansionThe mountains of Shiromi led on to the Chojayashiki in Hanaremori, an uninhabited place; a man who burned charcoal there saw, at night, a long-haired…
• Tale 35The woman who runs across ShiromiThe younger brother of Sasaki's grandfather, while gathering mushrooms and lodging for the night at Shiromi, saw a woman go as if running through the…
• Tale 36The futtachi of monkey and wolfThe futtachi, an animal grown so old it turns uncanny, of the monkey and of the wolf, the mountain wolf once called o-inu, were fearsome things. At…
• Tale 37A pack of wolf and the warding off of fireBetween Sakaige Pass and Wayama Pass, in the old days the packhorse drivers who drove their horses along the night road often met a pack of wolf, the…
• 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 39The deer eaten by a wolfWhen Sasaki was young, he was returning from the mountain with his grandfather, and near the village, on the bank of a valley stream, they found the…
• Tale 40The wolf's camouflage and coat colorIt was said that if the grass grew to about three sun in height, the wolf, the mountain wolf, once called o-inu, could hide itself within it. It was…
• Tale 41The great pack of wolfs crossing the passOne autumn evening, Sasaki Kahei of Wano went out hunting at Oyachi across Sakaige Crossing, and saw several hundred wolfs, the mountain wolf, once…
• 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 44The flute-playing man and the futtachiAt a mine in Hashino village, on the ridge continuing from Rokkoshi, a man skilled at the flute who burned charcoal lay on his back in his hut one…
• Tale 45The appearance and habits of the futtachiIt was said that a monkey, old mountain monkeys said to turn uncanny, behaved very much like a human and, being fond of women, often carried off…
• Tale 46Futtachi and the deer hunter's mistakeA man of nearly fifty living in Hayashizaki, Tochinai village, had gone deer hunting on Mount Rokkoshi more than ten years before and blew an oki (a…
• Tale 47Rumor of the futtachi that frightens childrenIn this region, it was customary when scolding children to say, 'The monkey of Rokkoshi will come!' In fact, this mountain had many monkeys, old…
• Tale 48The mischievous monkeys of Sennin PassMany monkeys also lived on Sennin Pass, and it was said that they sometimes played mischievous tricks on passersby, clinging to them or throwing…
• 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 50The kakko flowers of Mount ShisukeOn Mount Shisuke there bloomed kakko flowers, rare even for Tono. Around the fifth month, when the cuckoo called, women and children went up the…
• Tale 51The sad love of the otto-doriThe bird that cried with the loneliest voice in the mountains was the otto-dori, a bird said to call for a lost husband. The daughter of a choja, a…
• Tale 52The umaoidori and the omen of famineThe umaoidori, the bird said to call the horses home, resembled a cuckoo. A servant in the household of a choja, a very rich man, let one horse out…
• Tale 53The tale of the cuckoo and the lesser cuckoo sistersThe cuckoo and the lesser cuckoo were once sisters. The elder sister ate the hard part of a potato herself and gave the soft part to the younger one…
• 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 55The girl who conceived a kappa's childMany kappa, a river creature, lived along the Sarugaishi River, and in a house in Matsuzaki village there was, across two generations, someone who…
• Tale 56The abandoned kappa child disappearsIn a certain house in Kamigo village too, a child that seemed to be a kappa, a river creature, was born. Because its whole body was red and its mouth…
• Tale 57The footprints of the kappaIt was not rare to see the footprints of a kappa on the sand of the riverbank, and they were especially many the day after rain. Like a monkey's…
• Tale 58The capture of the kappa who pulled a horseAt the house of Shinya, when they took a horse to cool it at a pool, a kappa, a river creature, tried to pull the horse in but was instead dragged…
• Tale 59A sighting of a red-faced kappaElsewhere, kappa, a river creature, were said to have blue faces, but the kappa of Tono were said to have red faces. When Sasaki's great-grandmother…
• Tale 60The hunter who was bewitched by a foxOld man Kahei of Wano village was waiting in a pheasant blind when a fox, a shape-shifting fox, appeared again and again to drive the pheasants away.…
• 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 62The red-robed apparition in the mountainsA hunter, meaning to spend the night in the mountains, encircled a great tree with a protective rope and slept. A large being in the form of a monk…
• Tale 63The mayoiga and the golden bowlThe wife of an ancestor of the Miura family of Oguni went deep into the mountains to gather butterbur shoots, and came upon a fine, empty house, a…
• Tale 64The mayoiga where a bridegroom lost his wayA man who left Kanesawa village to marry into Tochinai village lost his way on a mountain path and came upon a splendid, uninhabited house, a…
• Tale 65The rain omen of AbegajoOn the steep cliffside of Mount Hayachine there was a rock called Abegajo, and it was said that the mother of Abe no Sadato still lived there. On…
• Tale 66Hayachine and the legend of SadatoAt the climbing entrance on the Tsukumoushi side of Hayachine too there was a rock cavern called Abeyashiki, and the whole of Hayachine was said to…
• Tale 67The legend of Sadato's old camp siteIn the mountains on the border between Tsuchibuchi village and Kuribashi village (formerly Hashino), two or three ri in from the climbing path, there…
• 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 75The woman who appeared at the match factoryAt the match factory shed that stood at the Chojayashiki in Hanaremori, a woman appeared in the doorway at night and laughed when she saw people, so…
• Tale 76Chojayashiki and the legend of buried goldChojayashiki is said to be the site of the former dwelling of a choja, a very rich man, of long ago, and nearby Nukamori is said to have become a…
• 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 78The man in a snow cloak and a portent of deathChozo, on his way home from a night out, met a man wearing a snow cloak before the gate. When he looked at him with suspicion, the man vanished…
• Tale 79The man with hands tucked in his robe who vanished at the entranceWhen the previous Chozo came home from a night of amusement, a man with his hands tucked into the front of his robe was standing at the gate.…
• Tale 80Explanation of the Tajiri house's layoutThe author states that, in order to understand the previous tale, it is necessary to illustrate the floor plan of the Tajiri house, and states that…
• Tale 81A pale man lies against the cloud wallWhen Maekawa Mankichi was coming home from a night of pleasure, he looked at the cloud wall at the corner of the veranda and saw a pale-faced man…
• Tale 82A shadow-figure standing in the sitting roomWhen Tajiri Marukichi was a boy, he went into the sitting room meaning to go to the privy, and at the boundary with the parlor there stood a human…
• 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 86The father's spirit that appeared at the hour of deathWhen the father of Masa, a tofu-maker, was gravely ill and near death, he appeared one evening at the site where the ground was being tamped for a…
• Tale 87The master who visited the temple just before deathWhen the master of a wealthy house in Tono was near death from a long illness, he visited the family temple one day and talked with the priest of…
• Tale 88A gravely ill old man visits the templeNear Jokenji Temple, an old man suffering from a grave illness was met, who said that since he had felt well for two or three days, he was going to…
• 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 90The big man of Tengumori and a young man's gruesome deathIn a field at the foot of Tengumori, a young man who was about to doze off saw a big man with a very red face appear before him. The young man, fond…
• 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 92Children meet a yama-otoko at HayachineChildren from Tsuchibuchi village who had gone to play at Hayachine passed a tall, dark-skinned man with shining eyes while coming down the mountain…
• Tale 93The ijin who told of a child's death at the passKikuchi Kikuzo was crossing Fuefuki Pass to fetch his wife, so she could look after their sick child, when on a dim mountain road a man with a red…
• Tale 94Kikuzo who wrestled with a foxKikuzo was passing through the woods of Mount Atago with mochi in his robe, which he had received from his sister's house in Kashiwazaki, when his…
• 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 97A near-death experience in typhoid feverWhen Kikuchi Matsunojo of Iide fell critically ill with typhoid fever, he flew as if through the air toward his family temple, and within its gate…
• 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 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 100Cutting down a fox disguised as a wifeA fisherman of Funakoshi met a woman who looked like his wife on a night road, believed her to be a monster, and stabbed her to death with a kitchen…
• Tale 101The mystery of a fox that manipulated a dead manA traveler stayed the night at an acquaintance's house in Toyomane village, and a dead person rose up on the floor. When he looked closely, he saw a…
• Tale 102The red-faced giant of the Little New YearOn the night of the Little New Year, it was said that the mountain gods came out to play, and children were warned against going outside. A girl…
• Tale 103The yuki-onna who appears on the Little New YearIt was said that on the Little New Year or on a winter night with a full moon, a yuki-onna, a woman of the snow, appeared leading many children, and…
• Tale 104Walnut moon-viewing divinationOn the night of the Little New Year, there was a practice called moon-viewing in which walnuts were roasted in the hearth to divine the weather for…
• Tale 105The harvest divination of yonakamiOn the night of the Little New Year, there was a custom called yonakami, in which mirror rice cakes made from various kinds of rice were used, and…
• 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 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 109The straw-doll sending of the Amekaze FestivalAround Bon, there was a custom belonging to the Amekaze Festival in which a straw doll larger than a person was made, its face drawn on paper, and it…
• 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…
• Tale 111Dannohana and the abandoning of the old at RendainoIn various places there is a place called Rendaino, facing Dannohana. In old times there was a custom of driving out elders who had passed sixty to…
• 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 113Jozukamori, where an elephant was buriedJozukamori in Wano was said to be the place where an elephant had been buried, and it was told that one should flee there in times of earthquake. In…
• Tale 114The origin of the mansion lord's grave and Yamaguchi MagozaemonThe Dannohana of Yamaguchi is now a common graveyard. Someone who dug beneath the large blue stone in the center found a jar, but was scolded by an…
• Tale 115Folktales and the tale of yamahahaThis was prefaced by saying that in Tono, folktales were called mukashi-mukashi, long-ago tales, and that among them, tales of yamahaha, an old woman…
• Tale 116A girl chased by a yamanbaA yamahaha, an old woman of the mountains who eats people, got into the house of a girl who was left to watch it, and while it was making her eat…
• Tale 117A chicken exposes a yamanba disguised as a daughterWhile the family was away, a yamahaha, an old woman of the mountains who eats people, ate the daughter and put on her skin to take her place. The…
• 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…
• Tale 119The origin of the shishi-odori songThere was a song that had long been used in the shishi-odori of Tono, and it differed somewhat by region and by person. What the writer heard was…

Shiwa District87 tales

• No. 1UrikohimeAn old woman picked up a melon that had drifted down a river, and raised the girl born from inside it with great care as Urikohime. But while she was…
• 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. 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. 7The priest did itFor the sake of a priest who, every time he got drunk on sake at a parishioner's house, was deceived by a fox, a shape-shifting fox, on his way home…
• 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. 9The monster templeAt a monster temple where, generation after generation, the head priest was said to be eaten alive, a traveling monk stayed the night. In the middle…
• 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. 19YamanbaA young temple boy of a mountain temple met a beautiful woman in the mountains and promised to meet her at night, but the priest saw through her true…
• No. 20The transformed tea kettleMonjiya no Kichi, who had lost at gambling, met a fox, a shape-shifting fox, near Hodoshima, and gave it red bean rice and herring in exchange for it…
• 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. 22A pilgrimage to IseA child who gazed toward the south every morning wished to go on a pilgrimage to Ise, and was permitted by their parents to set out on the journey.…
• 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. 27The cat who made a pilgrimage to IseA married couple kept a cat, borrowed from a family home, to watch the house while they were away. When they joked that the cat was useless, the cat…
• No. 28Monjiya no KichiMonjiya no Kichi, who seemed to be the heir of a choja, a very rich man, was walking across a field in search of a bride when he came upon foxes…
• 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. 32The monkey's night raidA monkey, old mountain monkeys said to turn uncanny, and a crab pounded rice cakes together on a mountain, but the monkey ran off with the mortar 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. 45The otter and the foxA fox, a shape-shifting fox, hungry from the snow, got some fish from an otter. When the fox asked how fish were caught, the otter lied and told it…
• No. 46The cowherd and the yamanbaWhen night fell on a cowherd in the mountains, he called out half in jest, with his leftover fish soup, "Come and eat this," and a yamanba, an old…
• 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. 50The wife who ate nothingA single man was working in the mountains, and when he told his companions that he wanted a wife who ate nothing, such a woman appeared and became…
• 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. 55The master of the marsh of OnumaA man was asked, on the shore of Onuma, by the woman of the marsh, the spirit that rules a marsh, to deliver a letter to the man of Goronuma. On the…
• 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 Hoki14 tales

• No. 1A giant bozu of the woods of TokuoIn Inaba Province, the woods of Tokuo, where Nomi no Sukune was enshrined, were dark even by day and had the reputation of being haunted by a…
• 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. 3The tengu's treasureA child named Taro, who lived at the foot of Mount Daisen in Hoki Province and loved gambling, went one day to Mount Daisen to gather firewood. While…
• 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. 5The shaving courtesanIn Tatsumi Pass in Ketaka District, a fox, a shape-shifting fox, lived and enchanted people, shaving off their heads, and troubled the villagers. At…
• 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. 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. 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. 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. 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…