Japanese Fairy Tales
aborigines of the islands of Japan, who had been conquered and pushed
northwards by the Japanese, had rebelled in the Eastern provinces, and
leaving the vicinity which had been allotted to them were causing great
trouble in the land. The King decided that it was necessary to send an
army to do battle with them and bring them to reason. But who was to
lead the men?
Prince Yamato Take at once offered to go and bring the newly arisen
rebels into subjection. Now as the King loved the Prince dearly, and
could not bear to have him go out of his sight even for the length of
one day, he was of course very loath to send him on his dangerous
expedition. But in the whole army there was no warrior so strong or so
brave as the Prince his son, so that His Majesty, unable to do
otherwise, reluctantly complied with Yamato’s wish.
When the time came for the Prince to start, the King gave him a spear
called the Eight-Arms-Length-Spear of the Holly Tree (the handle was
probably made from the wood of the holly tree), and ordered him to set
out to subjugate the Eastern Barbarians as the Ainu were then called.
The Eight-Arms-Length-Spear of the Holly Tree of those old days, was
prized by warriors just as much as the Standard or Banner is valued by
a regiment in these modern days, when given by the King to his soldiers
on the occasion of setting out for war.
The Prince respectfully and with great reverence received the King’s
spear, and leaving the capital, marched with his army to the East. On
his way he visited first of all the temples of Ise for worship, and his
aunt the Princess of Yamato and High Priestess came out to greet him.
She it was who had given him her robe which had proved such a boon to
him before in helping him to overcome and slay the brigands of the
West.
He told her all that had happened to him, and of the great part her
keepsake had played in the success of his previous undertaking, and
thanked her very heartily. When she heard that he was starting out once
again to do battle with his father’s enemies, she went into the temple,
and reappeared bearing a sword and a beautiful bag which she had made
herself, and which was full of flints, which in those times people used
instead of matches for making fire. These she presented to him as a
parting gift.
The sword was the sword of Murakumo, one of the three sacred treasures
which comprise the insignia of the Imperial House of Japan. No more
auspicious talisman of luck and success could she have given her
nephew, and she bade him use it in the hour of his greatest need.
Yamato Take now bade farewell to his aunt, and once more placing
himself at the head of his men he marched to the farthest East through
the province of Owari, and then he reached the province of Suruga. Here
the governor welcomed the Prince right heartily and entertained him
royally with many feasts. When these were over, the governor told his
guest that his country was famous for its fine deer, and proposed a
deer hunt for the Prince’s amusement. The Prince was utterly deceived
by the cordiality of his host, which was all feigned, and gladly
consented to join in the hunt.
The governor then led the Prince to a wild and extensive plain where
the grass grew high and in great abundance. Quite ignorant that the
governor had laid a trap for him with the desire to compass his death,
the Prince began to ride hard and hunt down the deer, when all of a
sudden to his amazement he saw flames and smoke bursting out from the
bush in front of him. Realizing his danger he tried to retreat, but no
sooner did he turn his horse in the opposite direction than he saw that
even there the prairie was on fire. At the same time the grass on his
left and right burst into flames, and these began to spread swiftly
towards him on all sides. He looked round for a chance of escape. There
was none. He was surrounded by fire.
“This deer hunt was then only a cunning trick of the enemy!” said the
Prince, looking round on the flames and the smoke that crackled and
rolled in towards him on every side. “What a fool I was to be lured
into this trap like a wild beast!” and he ground his teeth with rage as
he thought of the governor’s smiling treachery.
Dangerous as was his situation now, the Prince was not in the least
confounded. In his dire extremity he remembered the gifts his aunt had
given him when they parted, and it seemed to him as if she must, with
prophetic foresight, have divined this hour of need. He coolly opened
the flint-bag that his aunt had given him and set fire to the grass
near him. Then drawing the sword of Murakumo from its sheath he set to
work to cut down the grass on either side of him with all speed. He
determined to die, if that were necessary, fighting for his life and
not standing still waiting for death to come to him.
Strange to say the wind began to change and to blow from the opposite
direction, and the fiercest portion of the burning bush which had
hitherto threatened to come upon him was now blown right away from him,
and the Prince, without even a scratch on his body or a single hair
burned, lived to tell the tale of his wonderful escape, while the wind
rising to a gale overtook the governor, and he was burned to death in
the flames he had set alight to kill Yamato Take.
Now the Prince ascribed his escape entirely to the virtue of the sword
of Murakumo, and to the protection of Amaterasu, the Sun Goddess of
Ise, who controls the wind and all the elements and insures the safety
of all who pray to her in the hour of danger. Lifting the precious
sword he raised it above his head many times in token of his great
respect, and as he did this he re-named it Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi or the
Grass-Cleaving Sword, and the place where he set fire to the grass
round him and escaped from death in the burning prairie, he called
Yaidzu. To this day there is a spot along the great Tokaido railway
named Yaidzu, which is said to be the very place where this thrilling
event took place.
Thus did the brave Prince Yamato Take escape out of the snare laid for
him by his enemy. He was full of resource and courage, and finally
outwitted and subdued all his foes. Leaving Yaidzu he marched eastward,
and came to the shore at Idzu from whence he wished to cross to
Kadzusa.
In these dangers and adventures he had been followed by his faithful
loving wife the Princess Ototachibana. For his sake she counted the
weariness of the long journeys and the dangers of war as nothing, and
her love for her warrior husband was so great that she felt well repaid
for all her wanderings if she could but hand him his sword when he
sallied forth to battle, or minister to his wants when he returned
weary to the camp.
But the heart of the Prince was full of war and conquest and he cared
little for the faithful Ototachibana. From long exposure in traveling,
and from care and grief at her lord’s coldness to her, her beauty had
faded, and her ivory skin was burnt brown by the sun, and the Prince
told her one day that her place was in the Palace behind the screens at
home and not with him upon the warpath. But in spite of rebuffs and
indifference on her husband’s part, Ototachibana could not find it in
her heart to leave him. But perhaps it would have been better for her
if she had done so, for on the way to Idzu, when they came to Owari,
her heart was well-nigh broken.
Here dwelt in a Palace shaded by pine-trees and approached by imposing
gates, the Princess Miyadzu, beautiful as the cherry blossom in the
blushing dawn of a spring morning. Her garments were dainty and bright,
and her skin was white as snow, for she had never known what it was to
be weary along the path of duty or to walk in the heat of a summer’s
sun. And the Prince was ashamed of his sunburnt wife in her
travel-stained garments, and bade her remain behind while he went to
visit the Princess Miyadzu. Day after day he spent hours in the gardens
and the Palace of his new friend, thinking only of his pleasure, and
caring little for his poor wife who remained behind to weep in the tent
at the misery which had come into her life. Yet she was so faithful a
wife, and her character so patient, that she never allowed a reproach
to escape her lips, or a frown to mar the sweet sadness of her face,
and she was ever ready with a smile to welcome her husband back or
usher him forth wherever he went.
At last the day came when the Prince Yamato Take must depart for Idzu
and cross over the sea to Kadzusa, and he bade his wife follow in his
retinue as an attendant while he went to take a ceremonious farewell of
the Princess Miyadzu. She came out to greet him dressed in gorgeous
robes, and she seemed more beautiful than ever, and when Yamato Take
saw her he forgot his wife, his duty, and everything except the joy of
the idle present, and swore that he would return to Owari and marry her
when the war was over. And as he looked up when he had said these words
he met the large almond eyes of Ototachibana fixed full upon him in
unspeakable sadness and wonder, and he knew that he had done wrong, but
he hardened his heart and rode on, caring little for the pain he had
caused her.
When they reached the seashore at Idzu his men sought for boats in
which to cross the straits to Kadzusa, but it was difficult to find
boats enough to allow all the soldiers to embark. Then the Prince stood
on the beach, and in the pride of his strength he scoffed and said:
“This is not the sea! This is only a brook! Why do you men want so many
boats? I could jump this if I would.”
When at last they had all embarked and were fairly on their way across
the straits, the sky suddenly clouded and a great storm arose. The
waves rose mountains high, the wind howled, the lightning flashed and
the thunder rolled, and the boat which held Ototachibana and the Prince
and his men was tossed from crest to crest of the rolling waves, till
it seemed that every moment must be their last and that they must all
be swallowed up in the angry sea. For Kin Jin, the Dragon King of the
Sea, had heard Yamato Take jeer, and had raised this terrible storm in
anger, to show the scoffing Prince how awful the sea could be though it
did but look like a brook.
The terrified crew lowered the sails and looked after the rudder, and
worked for their dear lives’ sake, but all in vain—the storm only
seemed to increase in violence, and all gave themselves up for lost.
Then the faithful Ototachibana rose, and forgetting all the grief that
her husband had caused her, forgetting even that he had wearied of her,
in the one great desire of her love to save him, she determined to
sacrifice her life to rescue him from death if it were possible.
While the waves dashed over the ship and the wind whirled round them in
fury she stood up and said:
“Surely all this has come because the Prince has angered Rin Jin, the
God of the Sea, by his jesting. If so, I, Ototachibana, will appease
the wrath of the Sea God who desires nothing less than my husband’s
life!”
Then addressing the sea she said:
“I will take the place of His Augustness, Yamato Take. I will now cast
myself into your outraged depths, giving my life for his. Therefore
hear me and bring him safely to the shore of Kadzusa.”
With these words she leaped quickly into the boisterous sea, and the
waves soon whirled her away and she was lost to sight. Strange to say,
the storm ceased at once, and the sea became as calm and smooth as the
matting on which the astonished onlookers were sitting. The gods of the
sea were now appeased, and the weather cleared and the sun shone as on
a summer’s day.
Yamato Take soon reached the opposite shore and landed safely, even as
his wife Ototachibana had prayed. His prowess in war was marvelous, and