Two days ago I posted a few photos of Jizō, one of the most popular Buddhist figures in Japan.
Today I thought we'd look at one of the more popular folktales in Japan, a story involving Jizō and teaching the value of kindness and generosity.
It's called Kasa Jizō (笠地蔵)
Just one thing before we begin, a kasa is a type of hat that is like an umbrella and helps keep dry in rainstorms. You'll see a photo scanned from a book later in this post.
Kasa-Jizō
A long time ago there was an old man and an old woman living alone. They didn't have any money, but were happy. One day, on the last day of the year, the old woman told the old man, 'Tomorrow is New Years Day! I want something good to eat!'
'Is that so?' He replied. 'Then let's make some kasa and I'll sell them in town to make us money for rice cakes.'
She agreed with his idea and so they made five kasa for him to sell. As soon as they finished, he put on his own kasa and set out for town. On the way there, he passed six stone Jizō statues. He paused, bowed, and offered a brief prayer—'OJizō-sama, thank you for everything!'—then continued on his way to town.
It was very busy in town. There were many, many stalls selling everything one might imagine. And there were tons of people, most of them drunk, celebrating the New Year early. The old man called out, 'Kasa! Kasa for sale! Does anyone want to buy a kasa!' He called out for a long time, but no one wanted to buy one.
That evening, as he returned home, a snow storm started. There was very strong, cold wind, and tons of snow. The wind was very powerful and the old man had a hard time walking through the snow. But he pushed on.
He soon came to the six stone Jizō statues he had passed earlier on his way to town. Again, he stopped to offer a prayer of thanks. He saw that they were covered with snow and so he started to clean them. Wiping the snow from their heads, he noticed how cold they were. Remembering his five unsold kasa, he decided to use them to cover the Jizōs' heads. But there were six Jizō and only five kasa. He thought about this problem for a moment, then decided to donate his own kasa to the sixth Jizō.
'There you go,' he explained to them. 'These kasa will keep you warm.'
He then offered a small prayer of thanks and continued home.
When he got home, his wife exclaimed. 'You are covered in snow! You must be cold.'
'No one wanted to buy any kasa,' he told her. 'We won't be able to have a good New Years meal.'
'Then, what happened to all the kasa you had?'
'The six Jizō statues near here were covered with snow, so I gave them the kasa we made.'
'Ah, that was good.' She was disappointed, but happy at the kindness of her husband. 'Well, then let's go to bed.'
Around midnight they were awoken by a loud sound, like something being dragged through the snow outside.
The noise woke the old couple. 'What's that? Is someone outside?' The old man and woman asked each other.
They listened closer and then heard singing. 'The old man is so kind and nice. Thank you for the kasa, grandpa.'
The voices were coming from in front of their house. The old man and old woman crept out of their beds and went to their bedroom door. As they approached it, there was a large sound, like something big hitting the ground. After a few minutes, they carefully opened the door. The ground was covered with food and gold coins!
They quickly ran outside and off in the distance they could see six Jizō with six kasa on their heads walking away. 'Thank you very very much' They called. Then they went in and had a great meal. It was a very good New Years.
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| David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. |
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