For Christian counterparts of this legend see Motif F933.1, "Miraculous spring bursts forth for holy person." The Kobo Daishi legends belong under the general motif Q1.1, "Saints in disguise reward hospitality and punish in hospitality."
General accounts of Kobo Daishi can be found in Anesaki, pp. 251-53: U. A. Casal, "The Saintly Kobo Daishi in Popular Lore (A.D. 774-835)," Folklore Studies, XVIII (Tokyo, 1959), pp. 95-144; Hearn, V, ch. 2, "The Writings of Kobodaishi"; Ikeda, II, pp. 209-11; Joly, pp. 183-84, "Kobodaishi"; Mock Joya, IV, pp. 21-22, "Kobo Daishi"; de Visser, The Dragon in China and Japan, pp. 162-64, 202, 206; de Visser, "The Fox and Badger in Japanese Folklore," pp. 112-13,136-37.
Text from Kunio Yanagita, "Folk Talesfrom Hachinoe," in Mukashi-banashi Kenkyu, II (Tokyo, 1937), p. 288. Collected by Kimura, 1936.
THERE IS a spring by the name of St. Kobo's Well in the village of Muramatsu, Ninohe-gun. The following story concerning this well is told in this district. A girl was once weaving alone at her home. An old man, staggering, came by there and asked her for a cup of water. She walked over the hill more than a thousand yards away and brought back water for the visitor. The old man was pleased with her kindness and said that he would make her free from such painful labor. After saying this, he struck the ground with his cane. While he was striking, water sprang forth from the point struck by his cane. That spring was called St. Kobo's Welt.
The old man who could do such a miraculous deed was thought to be St. Kobo, however poor and weak he might look.
THE WILLOW WELL OF KOBO
A variant of the above. Text from Edo no Kohi to Densetsu, no. 17, p. 45.
Note: Kashima, a large shrine where warriors prayed before going into battle.
THERE IS a well in the compound of Zempuku-ji in Azabu. In ancient times while Kobo Daishi was staying in this temple, in order to get the water for offering to the Buddha, he put his staff into the ground, praying to the god of the Kashima Shrine. Then clear water gushed forth. Later Kobo Daishi planted a willow tree by the well to commemorate it forever. So it is called the Willow Well.
THE KOBO CHESTNUT TREES
Ikeda refers to this legend and assigns it Type 750 B, "Hospitality Rewarded."
Text from Aichi-ken Densetsu Shu, p. 223.
IN THE mountains around Fukiage Pass in Nagura-mura, Kita Shidaragun, grow chestnut trees called Kobo chestnuts. Those trees bear fruit very young, even when they are only three feet high.
Hundreds of years ago there was a big chestnut tree on this pass. Boys would rush to climb it to pick the chestnuts, but little children could not climb the tree. One day while they were weeping, a traveling priest passed by, saw the little children crying, and said: "Well, you shall be able to pick the chestnuts from next year on."
The next year every small young chestnut tree bore fruit so that the little children could pick them easily. The villagers thought that the traveling priest must have been St. Kobo, and since then they have called these the Kobo chestnut trees.
THE WATERLESS RIVER IN TAKIO
In some variants potatoes grow hard as stones after they are refused to Kobo. A story from Mimino-mura, in Yanagita, Mountain Village Life, p. 407 (in ch. 56, "Curses of the Gods"), tells of a river turning dry after a man refused a beggar a piece of radish he was washing. Elisseeff, pp. 287-88, reviewing Otari Kohishu by Naotaro Koike, summarizes a legend of greedy fishermen who refuse fish to a begging bonze; he throws a sheet of paper into the water, and thenceforth the fish disappear from the river. Ikeda, pp. 210-11, analyzes the tale under Type 751, "The Greedy Peasant Woman." An unusual variant in Murai, pp. 68-69, "Maid-enhair Tree of Yoshida," tells of a woman who refused a night's lodging to a traveler; he says that leaves and snow will fall; after the snotv falls, his footprints remain in the drifts; it was St. Kobo. Since then people believe a heavy snow follows the falling of leaves.
Text from Bungo Densetsu Shu, p. 28. Told by Mitsuko Shikishima.
A LONG TIME AGO a farmer's wife was washing sweet potatoes in a stream near Ikarijima. A poor, dirty-looking priest came from somewhere and asked her: "Please give me a potato. I am too hungry to walk on."
But the woman refused him, saying: "I have no potatoes to give you."
The priest, feeble and low of spirit, went along. Strange to say, the waters of the stream disappeared at that moment and never ran again. Since then the villagers have suffered much for lack of water. The upper and lower reaches of the river have water, and only the part that runs through that village is dry.
The people say that this was done by St. Kobo in order to reprove the woman for her unkindness.
THE STREAM WHERE KOBO WASHED HIS GARMENT
Text from Shimane-ken Kohi Densetsu Shu, Mino-gun no. 7, pp. 5-6.
LONG AGO Kobo Daishi went on a pilgrimage throughout the country. He came to Momotomataga in Toyoda-mura, and he took off his dirty clothes. He washed them in the Hinomoto River. The villagers who saw him did not know that he was a virtuous priest, and criticized him for washing dirty clothes. St. Kobo went away without saying anything. He went to Takatsu-mura, and he washed his clothes on the bank in Suko. For this reason, in Momotomataga the river dries up in summer and people often suffer from lack of water. On the other hand, in Suko, through the mercy of the priest, no one has drowned in the river.
At present almost every year the water is dried up in Hinomoto and gushes out in Kadoi.
THE PRIEST'S TOWEL
Motif Q1.1, "Saints in disguise reward hospitality and punish in hospitality," also applies here. A Korean legend of Merciful Buddha disguised as a beggar, which fits into the pattern of this and the preceding tales, is in Zong In-Sob, Folk Tales from Korea (London, 1952), no. 27, pp. 45-46, "The Lake of Zangje." Chinese legendary tales of Lu Tung-pin appearing as a beggar to test mortals are in Wolfram Eberhard, Chinese Fairy Tales and Folk Tales (New York, 1938), nos. 74, 76, 77, pp. 220-21, 222-24.
Text from Kunio Yanagita, "Folk Tales from Hachinohe," Mukashi-banashi Kenkyu, II (Tokyo, 1937), pp. 329-30. Collected by Ishiyama.
Notes: Tenugui, a Japanese-style towel or face-cloth (see Mock Joya, II, pp. 72-73)- Mochi, cakes made from pounded, glutinous rice.
THE YOUNG WIFE of a household kindly gave a piece of mochi to a traveling priest who came by the door. Afterwards, her mother-in-law counted the pieces of mochi and realized that the young wife had given one to the priest. She scolded the young wife and sent her to regain the mochi from the priest. When the priest heard the young wife's honest plea, he not only returned to her the mochi, but also gave her a tenugui, praising her gentleness.
Acting on his suggestion, the young wife wiped her face with that tenugui every day. Then her face became extremely beautiful. The mother-in-law envied her and borrowed her tenugui to use it herself. However, the mother-in-law's face gradually became horselike and at last it turned into a horse's face.
The daughter-in-law felt very sorry for her and went to the priest and begged him to turn the mother's face back to normal. The priest said that when a greedy woman wiped her face with the tenugui, her face would turn into a horse's face, and he instructed her to tell the mother-in-law to rub her face with the reverse side of the tenugui. The young wife hastily went home and relayed the instructions to her mother-in-law. When the mother did as she was told, her face became as it had been before.
And thereafter she turned into a good-hearted woman and loved her daughter-in-law.
THE KANNON WHO SUBSTITUTED
The theme of the Buddhist deity assuming the guise of a pious worshiper to ward off injury or death to the mortal occurs frequently in Japanese religious legends. Suzuki, pp. 65-68, "The Living Headless Priest," has