Japanese Folk Tale

Help from Animals 141
Fukui, Sakai-gun: MK I 1 30, "The old man who swallowed a bird" (Tori
nomi jiji).
Gifu, Hida (Ono-gun), Niukawa: Utsushibana 50, "The old man who
sounded like a bird" (Torinaki jiji).
Kagoshima: Koshiki 170, "The old man who swallowed a bird" (Tori
nomi jii).
139. Monkey Jiz6
Once upon a time there was a good old man in a certain place.
One day when he went to the mountains to cut wood, he saw monkeys
had gathered at the sandbar in the river beyond. They were carrying a
stone image of JizQ across to the opposite bank. That amused the old
man. He went to the sandbar, rubbed rice flour all over himself, and
turned a mortar over for a stand. He climbed onto it and posed as
Jiz6. The monkeys noticed him and thought he was another Jiz6. They
put him onto a hand cart and carried him over to the other side. They
sang a jolly song as they went. Once across, they set him up and
worshipped him. The old man disguised his voice and ordered them to
get stone pillows and a mallet ready. The monkeys did as he said and
all of them went to sleep. When they were sound asleep, the old man
took the hammer and smashed their heads. He took them home and his
wife made monkey soup to enjoy.
Aki ta, Kazuno-gun
Aomori, Hachinohe: MK II 9 42, "Monkey Jiz6" (Saru Jiz6). There are
four stories. In all four the old man went to his garden patch to
work. He whitened his face with flour. In the first three, the old
neighbor failed to imitate because he laughed. There is no neighbor
in the last.
Iwate, Isawa-gun: Kogane 28, "The old man worshipped as Jiz6" (Jii ga
Jiz6 son to ogamerareta hanashi); Isawa. *
Esashi-gun: Esashi 28, "The monkeys and the two old men" (Saru
dono to futari no jiji no hanashi).
Shiwa-gun: Shiwa 94, "The old man and the monkeys" (Jiji to saru).
Yamagata, Kitamurayama-gun: MK II 5 22, "Watering the rice paddy"
(Mizuhiki no hanashi).
Akita, Kazuno-gun: Dai-ni 67, "The old man and the monkeys" (Jii sama
to saru). Example.
Senhoku-gun: Kikimimi 241, "The monkeys and the old man Jiz6"
(Saru to jiji Jiz6).
Fukushima, Iwaki-gun: Iwaki 49, 139, "Mistaken for Jiz5 by monkeys"
(Saru ni Jiz5 sama to machigaerareta hanashi).
Nagano: Chiisagata 253, "Jiz5's balls" (Jiz5 honguri).
Wakayama, Nishimuro-gun, Tanabe: Ky5do ken II 4 50. No title.
Shimane, Ochi-gun: Dai-ichi 73, "The wine from Buigadani" (Buigadani
no sake).