Japanese Folk Tale

Finding Treasures 87
79. Water That Restores Youth
Once upon a time there was an old man and an old woman. The old
woman became thirsty when she went into the hills to gather wood.
She went farther back into the hills and found a spring where she took
a drink. When she did that, she turned into a girl seventeen or eighteen
years old. Her old man was surprised when she went home, and
asked what had happened. When he heard, he decided to be young,
himself. He set out to look for the spring, but no matter how long his
wife waited, he did not return. She went to look for him and found
him by the spring. He had drunk too much and turned into a baby.
T ochigi, Haga-gun
Tochigi, Haga-gun: Dai-ni 32, "The old man who turned into a baby"
(Kodomo ni natta ojii san no hanashi). Example.
Nagano: Chiisagata 161, "The water of youth" (Wakamizu).
Hiroshima, Jinseki-gun, Toyomatsu-mura: Geibi 79, "The water of
youth" (Wakamizu). The origin of mugwort. A dutiful son went to
Ise Shrine to dip up the First Water of New Year for a sick
parent. When he returned, he found that his father had been dead
for 30 days, but he restored him to life with the water. His wife
thought the water was a bother and threw it out. A strange tree
and plants grew from the medicine. They were called yonogi
["mugwort" or "one night tree"] because they grew in a single
night.
Shimane, Ochi-gun: MK II 10 32, "The water of Higan" (Higan no mizu
no hanashi). This is turned into a humorous tale with a play on
words and extreme exaggeration. Perhaps that is because of how it
was heard originally, probably from an unknown traveller.
80. The Golden Hatchet
When an honest woodcutter was working by the edge of a pond, he
accidentally dropped his hatchet into it. As he stood troubled, a
beautiful girl came up out of the water with a golden hatchet in her
hand. She asked him if he had dropped his. He said that his was a
rusty one, not that. She went back into the water and brought up the
rusty one. She praised the old man for his honesty and gave both
hatchets to him. With that, he became a ch6ja.
When the old woman next door heard about the golden hatchet,
she sent her lazy old man out to cut wood. His hatchet did not fall
into the water, no matter how long he waited, so he threw it in. The
beautiful girl appeared with a golden hatchet. The old man said that it