Japanese Folk Tale

Help from Animals 125
same birds came again and began to talk. This time it was about the
illness of the choja in town. It was because when the guest room had
been built, a camphor tree that grew under the eaves had been cut.
The rain dripped off the roof onto it, keeping it alive by watering its
roots, and it continued to suffer. Its resentment caused the master's
illness and distress among its friends, the trees in the mountains who
came to comfort it. The old man disguised himself once more as a
fortune teller and went to the choja's house. He heard various trees
from the mountains come to offer sympathy when he spent the night in
the guest house. In the morning, the old man pretended to layout his
sticks and told about the camphor tree. He asked for it to be dug up
from its roots. When this was done, the master recovered day by day.
The old man received a great sum of money again, but he stopped
being a fortune teller and lived as a choja.
Iwate, Kamihei-gun
Aomori, Hachinohe: MK II 7 44, "The Listening Hood" (Kikimimi).
Iwate, Kamihei-gun: Roo 86, "The Listening Hood" (Kikimimi). Example.
Nihon shu, jo 163, "The Listening Hood" (Kikimimi).
Gifu: Masuda 569, "Eight hundred [years] Bikuni" (Happyaku Bikuni).
The story is about Jirobei, the wine merchant, at Nakagiri, Masemura.
Kumamoto, Kamoto-gun: MK II 8 42, "The kunotsu" (Kunotsu). The bird
called a kunotsu was given the man at the Dragon Palace. When he
put it to his ear, he could understand what birds said.
Kagoshima, Amami Oshima: MK II 3 45, "The Listening Hood" (Kikimimi).
A man who saved a red snapper was invited to the Dragon
Palace. He received a Listening Hood which let him understand
what birds said. He became the choja's son-in-law.
120. The Golden Fan and the Silver Fan
Long ago a poor man spent days petitioning the kami to get rich.
On the final day of his prayers, a white-haired old man came out and
bestowed two fans upon him. One was gold and the other, silver. He
was told that if he fanned a nose with the gold fan, the nose would
grow higher, and with the silver fan, it would grow lower. He was told
to use them cleverly and to become rich. At the time the choja's
daughter went to see cherry blossoms, he used the fan to make her
nose three feet high. Although a doctor was called, he could not cure
it. The choja and his wife worried. Finally, they declared they would
take as son-in-law anyone who could cure her. The poor man disguised
himself as a masseur. He was called into the house and he used his
silver fan to cure the girl. Then he became the son-in-law. One day he
fell asleep while fanning his nose. It grew all the way to the sky and
pierced the fire-box at Raijin's house [Thunder God]. That made Raijin
uneasy. He stuck his fire tongs through it. The man was startled when