Japanese Folk Tale

134 The Yanagita Guide to the Japanese Folk Tale
Okayama, Tomata-gun: Mitsu 77, "How cats destroyed the tenko" (Neko
no tenko taiji). Example.
Mitsu-gun: Mitsu 79, "The cat's protection" (Neko no shugo).
131. The Forbidden Room
When a young farmer set out to look for work, he reached the
mountain pass just at sunset. He saw a light ahead and barely managed
to reach it. He found a splendid house. A beautiful girl came out and
agreed to let him stay overnight. Then she decided to hire him to look
after things when she was away. As she set out on a horse the next
morning, she said there would be anything he wanted to eat in the
cupboard if he opened it. She said for him to eat if he was hungry.
She asked only that he not open the door to the interior room, and
then left. The young man just stayed there as caretaker finding whatever
he wanted to eat by opening the cupboard. Thus a full year
passed. When he said that they would be worrying about him at home
and asked to go, he was given a roll of white cotton cloth and money
wrapped in paper. He opened the wrapping when he got home and
found only a single strange coin. He thought it unusual and took it to
the village head. He was told it was a great treasure called a nightingale
farthing. The village head bought it for 1000 ry6. The young
man became suddenly rich. The man next door heard about it and
hunted for the house at the pass. He was hired as caretaker, but he
looked into the forbidden room. It was empty. The girl came back and
went into the room as usual, but came out disappointed. She said, "By
just opening that door, you let out all the hokeky6 I have been collecting
for years in the mountains." She sighed and sent the man a way
without giving him anything.
Niiga ta, Minamikanbara-gun
Iwate, Hienuki-gun: MK II 1 38, "The forbidden room" (Miruna no
zashiki).
Yamagata, Mogami-gun: MK II 4 41, "The nightingale's court" (Uguisu
no dairi).
Fukushima: Iwaki 43, 132, "Looking into the forbidden storehouse"
(Mite naranai kura no naka 0 mita hanashi).
Niigata, Minamikanbara-gun: Kamuhara 44, "Hokeky6." Example.
Gifu, Hida: Hidabito V 3 20, "The forbidden room" (Miruna no zashiki).
A woman said not to look into the storehouse. While she was
away, the man tore a hole in the plaster and looked through the
wall. He saw many tubs with fish swimming in them. Merits that
were worth 3000 years were lost in a single moment. They flew
toward the mountains crying hohokeky6. They could no longer
return to the human world.