The white bird and the rice plants
I am reading Karen Smyers' The Fox and the Jewel: Shared and Private Meaning in Contemporary Inari Worship as part of my research for the book I'm writing. In it today I read a very cool story, which I can't really put on MUKASHIBANASHI LIBRARY because it's not a folktale but more of a religious story, but I thought it was so interesting that I had to post it somewhere.
The first mention of Inari, the Japanese kami of grains and the harvest, is in the Yamashiro fudoki, an ancient text from the eigth century. A distant, rich ancestor of Hata no Nakatsuie, by name of Irogu, was out practicing his archery one day, using rice cakes as targets. He shot his arrow, and as soon as it passed into the rice cake, it turned into a white bird, which flew away toward a nearby mountain. The man followed the white bird to the top of the mountain, and below where he saw it perched, there was rice growing (ine-nari).
The legend says that he and his descendents took some of the rice down to plant in their gardens. If the rice wasted away, it meant bad fortune for the family. However, if the transplanted rice would flourish, it was a sure sign that good times were ahead.
This is a very ancient story, more ancient than most folktales from Japan or anywhere. I left my notes at work today, but tomorrow I'll try to bring them home and get some real details (such as the family's and the man's name, the date of the text, and its name. (EDIT: These details have been added on 10/4/06.)
The first mention of Inari, the Japanese kami of grains and the harvest, is in the Yamashiro fudoki, an ancient text from the eigth century. A distant, rich ancestor of Hata no Nakatsuie, by name of Irogu, was out practicing his archery one day, using rice cakes as targets. He shot his arrow, and as soon as it passed into the rice cake, it turned into a white bird, which flew away toward a nearby mountain. The man followed the white bird to the top of the mountain, and below where he saw it perched, there was rice growing (ine-nari).
The legend says that he and his descendents took some of the rice down to plant in their gardens. If the rice wasted away, it meant bad fortune for the family. However, if the transplanted rice would flourish, it was a sure sign that good times were ahead.
This is a very ancient story, more ancient than most folktales from Japan or anywhere. I left my notes at work today, but tomorrow I'll try to bring them home and get some real details (such as the family's and the man's name, the date of the text, and its name. (EDIT: These details have been added on 10/4/06.)