Japanese Folk Tale

108 The Yanagita Guide to the Japanese Folk Tale
stone chest or the wooden chest? The stone chest is cold, so it will be
the wooden chest." She climbed into it and closed the lid. She went to
sleep and snored. When the ox-leader saw that, he came down carefully
and built up the fire. He boiled lots of water. Then he took a drill
and bored holes in the lid of the wooden chest. The yamauba inside
heard it and said, "Tomorrow will be good weather. I hear the drill
bugs sing." In the meantime, the ox-leader brought the scalding water
over and poured it through the holes to revenge himself at last on the
yamauba.
Echigo, Minamikanbara-gun
There is this ending where he takes revenge himself and one in
which he climbs a tree as in "0 Sun, the chain."
Aomori, Sannohe-gun: Minzokugaku V 12 55, "The ox-leader and the
yamauba" (Ushikata to yamauba).
Hachinohe: MK II 9 45, "The she-demon and Tarasuke Sabu"
(Onibaba to Tarasuke Sabu). The part about eating the cow is
omitted. "The yamauba" (Yamauba). This seems to be a more complete
form than the first. "The ox-leader and the mountain spider"
(Ushikata to yamagumo). The unusual part in this is that a child
was crying in the little mountain shrine by the side of the road.
When the ox-leader put the child onto his ox, it turned into a big
she-demon (or mountain spider).
Iwate, Kamihei-gun: Tono 99, No. 16. No title. It begins like "Urikohime."
A girl who was chased by a yamauba was sheltered by a
girl in a lonely house. The two of them killed the yamauba and ran
away. Roo 215, "Kohei Choja." In the form of a legend.
Shiwa-gun: Shiwa 87, "The ox-leader and the yamauba" (Ushikata
to yamauba). An ox-leader who was sleeping at night in an open
field was chased by a yamauba. He fled to a farmhouse where the
housewife hid him. That she in turn killed him is an unusual form.
She poured hot water onto him, but this is the way the yamauba is
usually killed. It is either a mistake or the story has been changed.
Kunohe-gun: Kunohe 481, "The yamauba and the ox-leader"
(Yamauba to ushikata). This is a slightly different form. An oxleader
who gambled with a yamauba and lost was chased, and he
ran to a lonely house where a girl was living. The girl fooled the
yamauba and killed her. The grains of rice turned into as many
coins as there were hairs on the seven cows she had eaten. The
girl and the man became a wealthy couple.
Iwate-gun, Takizawa-mura: Kikimimi 100, "The yamajii and the
ox-leader" (Yamajii to ushikata). Three oxen were eaten. The man
was saved by a towing boat. The yamajii climbed a tree. He fell
and was killed. This resembles "0 Sun, the chain."
Iwate-gun, Nagaoka-mura: Iwate 2, "The ox-leader and the yamajii"
(Ushikata to yamajiji). This is practically the same as the Kikimimi
soshi story.