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Tohoku, Northeast Japan

Mukashi, mukashi - once upon a time, there was a beautiful maiden, so goes the opening to many folk tales of old Japan. December is a month for telling stories around the hearth, as the winter nights grow colder. In the depths of the countryside, traditional farm folk gather around the kotatsu, a low table with a heater underneath, to keep warm. Gathered together in this cozy atmosphere, they would be entertaining themselves and the children with tales of demons, beautiful and mysterious maidens, magic horses and crafty creatures capable of transforming from fox to fiend.

Well. Not really. These days you'll probably find the farming folk at home around the kotatsu watching television and fighting over the remote control gadget. But once they did tell tales. And thanks to the work of folklorists such as Kunio Yanagita, many such ancient folk tales have been preserved and published, so that we can enjoy them today and get a glimpse of the life of the countryside of centuries ago.

Yanagita discovered a motherload of folklore in the community of Tono, a small castle town deep in the eastern hill country of Iwate Prefecture in Tohoku, Northeast Japan. Here at the turn of the century he transcribed the tales from local people, publishing in 1910 the master work, Tono Monogatari, or Tales of Tono. In one stroke, he put the humble hamlet firmly on the literary map for all Japan to marvel, and perhaps envy, as most rural communities on Japan had their share of legends too. But Tono got there first.

Tono celebrates its folkloric fame with a fine museum dedicated to the legends and the local way of life. Every street bears witness to the legends, with statues and plaques depicting scenes and characters. In the station forecourt stands a pool with statues of 'Kappa', water-living creatures who were held responsible for drowning children and which feature in many old tales.

I reached Tono by way of a little railway that has itself become part of legend. The line is called the Kamaishi Line, and runs from Hanamaki Onsen to Kamaishi, on the East Coast of Iwate. Earlier this century a young writer, teacher and agricultural advisor called Kenji Miyazawa lived in Hanamaki. Perhaps influenced by the folk tales of the neighbourhood, he wrote stories for children and composed a large quantity of poetry. One of his most famous stories is, "Ginga Tetsudo no Yoru" or "Night Train to the Stars", and the little railway line has adopted this name for itself. It winds through the forests and mountains on its way to Kamaishi and the coast.

It will be a long time before I return to Kamaishi; not until the next century, at least. Not because it is remote and rather dull, but because I accidentally, yes, accidentally, found myself in the ladies restroom in the Sea Plaza shopping mall. I blame this on a bucket that hindered my entry to the facilities. Having to dodge the bucket, I stepped through the wrong entrance, somehow missing the four-foot high pink cut-out of a female form on the wall.

There was nobody in the room when I entered. But on opening the cubicle door afterwards I found that the room before me was now full of young ladies, preening themselves before mirrors, and adjusting their clothing. I hurriedly washed my hands and fled red-faced and white-haired to the safe haven of the railway station, where the 9.20 to Tono was ready to leave. Not a moment too soon.

In years to come, will those young ladies will tell their off-spring of the red-faced white haired foreign devil, possibly a Kappa, who suddenly appeared in their midst and then ran off to the woods? Of such instances are legends born, and as Kamaishi lies on the edge of the countryside which produced some of the richest and most mysterious legends in Japan, entirely fitting.

Mukashi, mukashi, there were four maidens washing their hands by a stream, when all of a sudden this red-faced Kappa appeared from nowhere...

 

G. Tudor is international public relations director of Japan Airlines and these articles appear in the JAL employee magazine, SORA. Copyright 2004.