Prologue: The Origin – The Prince, the Princess, and the Dog 8-2

Volume IV, Episode VIII

 

In En no Gyoja’s cave an old man assesses Fuse-hime’s fate

In a village near Takita a tanuki feeds a puppy

 

Fuse-hime, Takita Castle’s much adored baby princess, travelled to a sacred cave in Suzaki to seek blessings from En no Gyoja. On their return journey the princess and her company met a strange old man, who foretold her fortune and vanished into thin air.

 

 

For a brief period of time, the dazed attendants gazed in his direction. They decided everything was due to one of En no Gyoja’s manifestations and all bowed down to worship him.

On the return journey to Takita, the princess never cried and even played happily. Ever since this day, her speech started to appear even better than that of an average three year old. It made everyone happy and suspicious at the same time.

When they escorted her back to Takita, they reported the incident to Yoshizane and Isarago and showed the rosary. Yoshizane realized it was no insignificant divine providence, so he immediately sent Krando Sadayuki to Suzaki Shrine and Gyoja’s Cave. There Sadayuki offered Heihaku[1] and prayed for removal of any harm from the princess’s future. Yoshizane had the rosary always worn around the princess’s collar too.

 

Luan the Heavenly Bird – image courtesy of Kyoto Butsuga Kenkyu-sho

 

This way, another four springs came and went. The princess grew to be seven. Luan the heavenly bird of the golden silk kind had finally come out of its cocoon, and a celestial tree blossomed for the first time.

Not only blessed with heaven-sent beauty rare in this world, she had a highly intelligent disposition. During the daytime she would sit with her notebook, completely engaged all day long. In the evening she would immerse herself to a variety of musical entertainment, unaware how time flew.

When she reached twelve[2], she read extensively from both Japanese and Chinese libraries, fully perceived the Way of things, stayed out of harm’s way, respected her parents and cared for underlings. Virtues of loyalty and integrity[3] naturally showed themselves in every posture she adopted. Not to mention her mother’s adoration, Yoshizane could not help talking about her proudly.

At about this time, a singular tale unfolded in a rural community on this side of Toyama[4].

A female dog lived at the backdoor, which belonged to a peasant known as Wazahey. She had a litter of a single pup. It was male too. They say a single pup is supreme because of its sturdy bones and great muscular strengths that know no rivals, so Wazahey adored him. He raised a straw roof over them so the bitch could mother her pup underneath it. He never forgot to share his own meal morn and night.

This way seven days or so flew past. That night, a wolf broke in through the back fence. It killed the mother dog with its fangs and towed her away in its jaws. Because Wazahey learnt of this only in the dawn when he spotted the blood, all he could do was to be angry.

Strangely enough though, the pup was safely left uneaten. It was the only consolation, which made the animal even dearer to the man.

The little one, however, hadn’t even opened up his eyes. There was no way of feeding him without any milk available. Wazahey prepared gruel to provide for him somewhat, but it could not be enough. The man had no wife nor children. He lived alone and worked in fields all day, rarely available at home.

“I can only fold my arms and wait for him to die. Really I’ve no choice but to give up on him.”

Said Wazahey to himself and went out to work that day, and again the next. Curiously though, the pup showed no sign of starving. On the contrary, he had not only opened his eyes in 10 days, but grew even faster than before.

“This is no ordinary matter.”

Wazahey told it to the neighbours, and he himself was on alert dawn and dusk. One such morning, in early hours, he woke up to find…

 

 

Wait for the next episode to find out what made the puppy grow. Till then!

 

[1] Heihaku (幣帛) is read as ‘mitekura’ in Bakin’s text. It is a general term for offerings to Gods, ranging from cloth, wine, food to money.

[2] According to Tokuda (2017), this is year 1452 in the Western calendar.

[3] To summarize the definitions of several online dictionaries ‘Koutei (孝貞)’ means respect for one’s parents and siblings, and ‘Chūjo (忠恕)’ means sincerity, and consideration acted out upon sincerity.

[4] Bakin calls this mountain Toyama but its true name is Tomi-yama. Take note of this mountain which will be an important setting later. Toyama means Mt. To, but here I refer to it as Mt. Toyama for clarity and also because ‘To’ by itself doesn’t make up a word in Japanese, and from here onwards simply Toyama to avoid confusion, unless it appears for the first time in a length of period.

 

 

 

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