Week 7 Reading Notes: Japanese Fairy Tales (Ozaki), Part B

Un-Textbook Japanese Fairy Tales (Ozaki) Part B contains a few stories, my two favorite I recap below.

Image Source. The man peeks into the secret room

The Goblin of Adachigahara: One day, a lost Buddhist priest wanders across a run down cabin in which he sees from a distance the old woman inside. He calls out to her asking for help and shelter. She doesn't have a bed for him to sleep on, but lets him stay under her roof anyway. That night, they sit by the fire and she makes him dinner, afterwards telling him not to go into a certain room in the house. Eventually, his curiosity gets the best of him; to his surprise, he finds a pile of bones and blood covered walls in the room. Terrified, the priest immediately runs away in the middle of the night. The woman chases after him, and he knows she must be the Goblin of Adachigahara. He runs until the sun comes up at which point the goblin vanishes and he is safe. He thanks Buddha for saving him.

Image Source. The knight
slashes off the ogre's arm

The Ogre of Rashomon: Long ago, an ogre terrorized Kyoto by snatching whoever passed through the gate of Rashomon at night. Lord Raiko supposedly killed all of the ogres previously, but this rumor of a new ogre makes its way to Raiko's knights. One knight, Watanbe, agrees to check it out for himself. When he arrives, he finds no such ogre. As soon as he turns around, though, the ogre grabs him by the helmet! It turns into an epic, evenly matched fight which the ogre eventually flees from. During the fight, the knight slashes off the ogre's arm which he takes home as a prize and proof to show his comrades. One day, an old woman comes by (who claims to be the old nurse of the home) and she wishes to see the ogre's arm. After much convincing, Watanbe finally shows the old woman, who turns out to be the ogre after all. The ogre snatches his arm back and then runs away, never coming back to mess with Kyoto or Watanbe again.