. Japanese legends and tales 伝説 民話 昔話 - Introduction .
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sotooba 卒塔婆 と伝説 Legends about Sotoba grave markers
sotoba ... Stupa / gorintoo, Gorintō 五輪塔 Gorinto stupa
. sotooba 卒塔婆 wooden grave marker, grave tablet .
- Introduction -
Sotoba 卒塔婆, ソトバ Japanese pronounciation for STUPA.
They are provided by the Buddhist temples who run the funerals.
Usually, the posthumous name is written on a sotoba, a separate wooden board on a stand behind or next to the grave.
On a traditional Japanese grave stone, these five elements are represented as
- - - - - gorin, the five layers, in the following order:
the earth layer (chirin 地輪), a square
the water layer (suirin 水輪), a spherical shape
the fire layer (karin 水輪), a triangular shape
the wind layer (fuurin 風輪, a half-moon shape
the space layer (fuurin 風輪), gem-shaped
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. sekitoo 石塔 / セキトウ と伝説 Legends about Sekito stone towers .
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- - - - - ABC List of the prefectures :
......................................................................................... Akita 秋田県
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平鹿郡 Hiraka district
At the entrance to the 平柳 Hirayanagi hamlet there was a huge tree.
They say it was a 卒塔婆 Sotoba they had planted there many years ago during a ritual for Ekijin 疫神 Yakubyogami, the deity of diseases.
. 疫病神 / 厄病神 Yakubyogami, Deity of Diseases .
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Akita 羽後町 Ugo town
shishida 獅子田 field for the lion head dancer
A traveling artist of the 獅子舞 lion dance had been killed in a fight.
The villagers made a grave for him and prayed, they also erected a grave marker. When the fields were re-arranged, the grave marker fell into a field, which became cursed by the killed lion dancer.
. shishimai 獅子舞 lion dance .
- - - - - - - - - - Ugo Kaido 羽後街道 Ugo Highway - - - - - - - - - -
broke off from Yoshioka 吉岡 leading to Iwadeyama 岩出山.
Uga town is on the on the Ogachi Plain 雄勝平野 Ogachi heiya, bordered by the Dewa mountain range 出羽山脈 Dewa sanmyaku to the West, and the Ōu Mountain range 奥羽山脈 Ou sanmyaku to the East.
The area of present-day Ugo town was part of ancient Ugo Province, dominated by the Satake clan during the Edo period, who ruled the Kubota Domain under the Tokugawa shogunate.
. Matsuo Basho travelling in the region. .
. Dewa Sendai Kaido 出羽仙台街道 .
. Onikobe Kaido 鬼首街道 Onikobe Highway - "Demon Head Highway" .
......................................................................................... Fukushima 福島県
会津若松市 Aizu Wakamatsu city 河東町 Kawahigashi town
. mokusei gorintoo 木製五輪塔 Gorinto made from wood .
阿弥陀堂 at the Amida Do Hall.
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Fukushima いわき市 Iwaki city 四倉町 Yotsukura town
yakata ni kunda sotoba 家形に組んだ塔婆 / ヤカタニクンダトウバ
In the year 1949, there was a place in the mountain forest where people had collected many Sotoba and put them up to look like a house.
This was a curse and one would get ill for a long time when doing this.
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Fukushima 南相馬市 Minami-Soma city
. hebi 蛇と伝説 Legends about snakes and serpents .
Around 1881, there was suddenly a large number of serpents at the temple 阿弥陀寺 Amida-Ji in 八沢村 Yasawa village. one was even as long as 3 meters, and it did not get out of the way when children came. The young priest told the main priest about it but was told that he should not chase the serpent away, the animal would always eat as it pleases. The young acolyte asked: "Bus what is it that it pleases?" "The raisin of tobacco", he was told as a joke by the priest.
The young acolyte offeres some tobacco raisin to the serpent, but it did not like it and hid in the shadow. The acolyte went back home to his temple and begun to clean the floor. Suddenly he felt a great pain in his stomach, as if a serpent had been rolled round him. The priest prayed to Amida for help and the pain stopped.
Then they built 八沢の蛇塚 a stone mound for the serpent in Yasawa.
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Fukushima 二本松市 Nihonmatsu city - Motomiya
kamoishi, kamo-ishi 鴨石 "duck stone"
Once upon a time, a Samurai passed the swamp 伊佐沼 Isanuma and saw a male duck. He hit its head with an arrow. On his way back he saw a female duck and shot it too. When it fell down the Samurai saw that it was carrying the head of the male duck. The Samurai felt great pity and built a mound with a Sotoba on it, to pray for the appeasement of their souls.
There is now a memorial stone called the "Duck Stone" near the road to 貴船神社 the Shrine Kifune Jinja.
. oshidori オシドリ 鴛鴦と伝説 Legends about mandarin ducks .
......................................................................................... Hiroshima 広島県
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sotoba ishi 卒塔婆石 Sotoba stone
Near the water at 大宮鐘楼 the bell tower of Omiya Shrine. There is also an ishidooroo 石灯篭 Ishidoro stone lantern.
. 石灯篭、石燈籠、石燈篭 Ishidoro, stone lantern .
......................................................................................... Hyogo 兵庫県
. daija, orochi 大蛇 the huge serpent, great snake .
A man who had been runin 流人 in exile took his three dogs and went hunting.
On the way the dogs suddenly bit the hunter in the legs to prevent him from going on, so he killed all three of them. There came a large serpent and ate the three heads of the dogs.
The man had been saved by his dogs after all, so he buried them and put three Sotoba markers on their grave.
......................................................................................... Ibaraki 茨城県
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東村 Higashi village
toobada, tooba-da とうば田 field in the form of a Sotoba
There were five fields in the form of a Sotoba.
The family which had made these fields was cursed, some became ill, others went crazy.
Nobody dared to use these fields any more and they turned wild nature again.
......................................................................................... Ishikawa 石川県
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金沢市 Kanazawa city
. ame 飴 sweets .
Once a woman died shortly before giving birth and her grave was made in the temple 道入寺 Donyu-Ji. From that day on every evening there came a woman to 飴屋 the sweet shop to buy sweets. The shop owner thought this strange and followed her. She disappeared near the Sotoba of a grave. When they dug open the next morning they found a baby licking sweets.
The priest of the temple took the baby, called it Doogen 道玄 Dogen and brought the boy up to become a merciful priest.
To always remember the good deed of his ghost mother, he went to the painter 円山応挙 Maruyama Okyo and asked him to paint a hanging scroll of her ghost.
. Maruyama Ōkyo 円山応挙 Maruyama Okyo (1733 – 1795) .
A similar story is told at
. Temple Koogenji 光源寺 Kogen-Ji, Nagasaki .
......................................................................................... Kyoto 京都府
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京都市 Kyoto city
yomigaeri 甦 / ヨミガエリ coming back to life
Around 940 priest 日蔵 Nichizo from 東寺 the temple To-Ji died, but he came back to life.
He had been to hell and seen a man in an iron cave sitting on red-hot ashes. The man said
"I am the son of 宇多 Emperor Uda, who had burned down Buddhist temples, and now I must suffer for his bad deeds.
To help me Uda should give me a proper burial and grave with a Sotoba marker."
Nichizoo 日蔵 Priest Nichizo (905 - 967)
A mountain ascet of the Shingen sect. He founded the temple 如意輪寺 Nyoirin-Ji.
At the temple 鳳閣寺 Hokaku-Ji in Nara is a statue of the seated Nichizo.
......................................................................................... Mie 三重県
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熊野市 Kumano city
sakatooba saka tooba 逆塔婆 upside-down Sotoba
When placing the Sotoba upside-down on the grave of a woman, a man who had an illegal relationship with her will die.
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When placing a Sotoba upside-down on a grave and writes
shibari o kakeru シバリヲカケル（縄で縛る）"you are now bound"
there will be no ghost coming out of the grave any more.
......................................................................................... Miyagi 宮城県
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Miyagi 香具郡 Kagu district 金山町 Kaneyama town
. kitsune densetsu 狐と伝説 fox legends .
Once a child was crying by the roadside. It had bought a saltes salmon with one eye, but the parents scolded it about this and had send it off to buy a fish with both eyes.
When it came back, the house was just a hole for a Sotoba.
The fox living nearby was afraid of the fish with one eye and had sent the child of.
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Miyagi 白井市 Shiroi city 白川 Shirakawa
. inu 犬と伝説 Legends about the dog / Hund .
A farmer had a verb beautiful daughter.
When she was a baby, her mother had made her poop in the garden and as a joke told the dog of the house:
"If you eat this, I will give my daughter as a bride!"
When the daughter had grown up and men came to ask for her hand, the dog bit them all to death.
Now the mother remembered her joke of so many years ago and told her daughter about it.
The daughter begun to live with the dog in a nearby cave.
When the dog finally died, they put a 犬卒塔婆石 Sotoba memorial stone on the grave and prayed for its soul.
inu sotoba ishi 犬卒塔婆石 Sotoba memorial stone for a dog, in Shiroishi
These memorial stones for a pet have Ｙ字の枝 forked branches stuck on them with the name and a prayer.
- reference and more photos : chindera.com/chiba-inusotoba... -
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. inu sotoba ishi 犬卒塔婆石 the grave marker of a dog .
who helped Ono no Takamura 小野篁 (802 - 852) to chase away 大猪 a huge wild boar
......................................................................................... Nagasaki 長崎県
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西海市 Saikai city 西彼町 Seihi town
. Nichiren Shonin 日蓮上人 Saint Nichiren .
Saint ひでん上人 / 日伝上人 / 日傳上人 Hiden Shonin and Saint Nichiren had a match about praying for rain.
To make sure he would win, Hiden Shonin gave some poisoned rice cakes to Nichiren, but Nichiren did not eat them and gave them to a dog instead. The dog ran three and a half time around 銀杏 a gingko tree and then died.
Nichiren buried the dog near the tree and made a 卒塔婆 Sotoba marker like 杖 a pilgrim walking staff from the Gingko wood. He wrote the 法華経 Hokekyo Sutra on the marker.
He said in three and a-half years there would be a new sprout from the staff.
Since the staff had been planted upside down, the leaves also grew upside down.
The leaves are used to our day to prevent food poisoning.
. Hokekyo 法華経 / ホケキョウ Lotus Sutra Legends .
......................................................................................... Niigata 新潟県
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佐渡市 Sado city
If a 塔婆 Sotoba falls down, there will be an accident on the sea in the direction where it fell.
......................................................................................... Okayama 岡山県
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久米郡 Kume district
If a person has been dead for 50 years, people erect a special mata soba 股塔婆 marker to celebrate that the person has become a Misaki deity.
They also place small stones around the grave.
. Misaki ミサキ / 御先 / 御前 / 御崎 Legends about the Misaki deity .
......................................................................................... Shiga 滋賀県
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高島市 Takashima city
saka tooba 逆塔婆 upside-down Sotoba
(- there is also one in Mie, see above)
If a child is difficult to bring up, the family can place o Sotoba upside-down in the garden.
......................................................................................... Shizuoka 静岡県
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田方郡 Tagata district 函南町 Kannami town
. tanuki 狸 - mujina 狢 － racoon dog, badger legends .
furudanuki 古狸 old Tanuki
A wandering monk was giving a Buddhist lecture an the 毘沙門堂 Bishamondo hall.
There was a man listening, clutching a 卒塔婆 grave marker in his hand, but he did not understand it. On his way home when he passed 富士川 the river Fujikawa, a dog came and bit him. Now he revealed his real identity, he was an old Tanuki!>
. yugyoo shoonin 遊行上人 Yugyo Shonin, wandering monk .
......................................................................................... Tokushima 徳島県
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徳島市 Tokushima city 佐古町 Sako town
Shinpachi Tanuki 新八狸 Tanuki Shinpachi / 庚申新八狸 Koshin Shinpachi
At the temple 天正寺 Tensho-Ji, the kamikuji 神籤 fortune slips were often lucky.
This was due to the power of the tanuki Shinpachi, who lived nearby.
Shinpachi had lived in the Koshin Valley. Nearby lived 北島藤蔵 Kitajima Fujikura, a retainer of the 峰須賀藩 Hachisuka domain, who was handling fire weapons.
One of the bullets had hit the home of Shinpachi and many of his friends had been killed. Since then Shinpachi had turned very angry.
He asked his Tanuki retainers to shape-shift into an old woman and women of about 20 years and go to the home of Kitajima and play tricks on his men.
Shinpachi himself made the road look like a river when the Lord Kitajima passed by. Shinpachi shape-shifted into a beautiful woman and walked under the same umbrella than Kitajima, but the umbrella was in fact 卒塔婆 a grave marker.
But in the end he killed Kitajima killed the Tanuki, who came back to life after three days.
Many people came to the temple Tensho-Ji to pay respect to the Tanuki.
But very few people came to the temple where Kitajima was buried.
......................................................................................... Tokyo 東京都
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西多摩郡 Nishi-Tama district
. Mount ミタマ山 Mitamayama, Ihaiyama 位牌山 .
This mountain is a
tatariyama, tatari yama 崇り山 cursed mountain .
Once a Hoin sama 法印様 was killed in a fire in 炭焼き小屋 a hut for making charcoal. Since then the mountain was cursed, its owner was cursed and all people who went there were cursed.
On the side of the mountain facing 峰畑 Minehata village there is now a place called
Tobayama 塔婆山 "Mountain with grave markers".
If people try to work on the fields around there, they will get ill and die.
......................................................................................... Tottori 鳥取県
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西伯郡 Saihaku district 中濱村 Nakahama village
. haibyoo 肺病と伝説 Haibyo, Legends about lung diseases .
If one burns the 塔婆 grave marker of a person who has died on the first of January and swallows the ashes, haibyo 肺病 diseases of the lung will be cured.
......................................................................................... Yamagata 山形県
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米沢市 Yonezawa city
korori no yuurei コロリの幽霊 the ghost of cholera
In 1876, there was a cholera epidemic and many people died.
Near the place where they were buried, there lived an old man in a hut who kept koi 鯉 carp near the embankment.
One day coming back from feeding the carp, there stood an old woman near his hut. He had never seen the grandma and asked her where she came from.
From 米沢 Yonezawa, she answered. He walked a few steps and turned around, but the old woman was nowhere to be seen.
He thought she must have been the ghost of someone who had died from the choera, so he put a 塔婆 grave marker to appease her soul.
......................................................................................... Yamaguchi 山口県
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光市 Hikari city 熊毛郡島田村 Kumage district, Shimada village
In Shimada village there was the grave of a certain person where people put up shikimi 樒 ritual branches and a Sotoba 卒塔婆 grave marker, but both were thrown away the next morning.
The daughter had a dream about this: Her mother told her not the put these things on the grave because they made too much noise.
Next morning the daughter went to the grave again and said to endure the noise for the usual 49 days after a death.
Since then, all kept quiet around the grave.
. The History of Cremation in Japan / J. M. W. Silver .
The period of mourning began at cremation and lasted 49 days, after which the spirit of the deceased was said to be with ancestral spirits.
. shikimi 樒 Skimmia, Illicium religiosum .
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- reference : nichibun yokai database 妖怪データベース -
卒塔婆 - 塔婆
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. sekitoo 石塔 / セキトウ と伝説 Legends about Sekito stone towers .
. Kaido highway legends 街道と伝説 - - ABC list .
. animals and their legends 動物と伝説 - - ABC list .
. plants and their legends 植物と伝説 - - ABC list .
. Persons, People, Personen and their legends - - ABC list .
. Legends about Kobo Daishi Kukai - 弘法大師 空海 - 伝説 .
. Japanese legends and tales 伝説 民話 昔話 - Introduction .
- Yookai 妖怪 Yokai Monsters of Japan -
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