25 May 2015

YAKUSHI - and cats - Nagano legend

LINK
http://gokurakuparadies.blogspot.jp/2015/05/neko-yakushi.html

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Kotaroo Yashiki 小太郎屋敷 The Home of the Kotaro Family

Once upon a time
in 根津村 Nezu village a certain 六部 Rokubu took a retreat 長命寺大日堂 in the Dainichi Hall of the temple Enmei-Ji, when many young cats gathered around him and begun chanting:
国分寺の「小太ばば」来なけりゃ踊りにゃならん
"If Koda Baba from Kokubun-Ji does not come here, we cyan't dance!"

After a while a huge monster cat (kaibyoo 怪猫) came down with a storm and begun a wild dance with the small kittens.
Rokubu hit the monster cat with his staff and she fled, splatting blood on the way.

Next day it became clear that the "monster cat" was in fact an old grandmother in the home of Kotaro in the hamlet next to Kokubun-Ji.
So Rokubu went to visit her and saw that the old hag had hurt her leg on the spot where he had hit the cat last night.

To save her soul Rokubu begun to pray to Yakushi Nyorai and in a short while the cat showed her true nature and fled to the mountain 尾野山 Onoyama.
When the family searched the house, they found the bones of an old woman hidden under the veranda.
To our day, there is a stone marker with the inscription Rokubu 「六部」 in the compound of Kokubun-Ji

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