Minwa Shrine

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Minwa Jinja 民話神社 Minwa Shrine of Folk Tales
Fukushima 福島民話神社
at Koriyama Station 郡山駅


source :　blogs.yahoo.co.jp/asakanomaro

It is at the second floor of the station in the waiting room, just a very small shrine.


. minwa 民話　folktales / densetsu 伝説　legends .


- - - - - 3 Folk Tales of Fukushima

KONPEIROKU FOX
JIZO AND THE OLD MAN
LONG ARMS AND LONG LEGS

Jizo and the Old Man
Once upon a time there lived an old man and an old woman. The new year was just around the corner, so the old woman, with flaxen textiles she had woven by hand with heart and soul, said to the old man,
"The new year is coming closer. We'd better sell these textiles in Tadami and prepare for the new year. Would you go to Tadami to sell them?"
"All right," said the old man, and totteringly set out for Tadami in the rain, wearing a straw rain coat and a bamboo hat. In his hands were the textiles the old woman had woven.

In front of a shrine on the way to Tadami he found Roku-Jizo, or the six guardian deities of children, soaked with sleet. The deities appeared to be shivering in the freezing cold. The old man thought to himself, "I feel cold even wearing a straw rain coat and a bamboo hat. The Jizo-sama must be very cold. Oh, poor Jizo-sama...."
"I have a good idea! I will tear up the textiles my wife wove and cover the poor Jizo-sama with the strips."
Then the old man, getting the textiles down from his back, started ripping them into strips and using them to cover the Jizo. When he was finished he said to himself, "Jizo-sama must be somehow warmer now. I'm really glad. Since I have given them all the cloth my wife wove, I can no longer buy anything for the new year. Still, we can greet the new year with the buckwheat porridge or rice gruel we already have at home. I will talk about it to her when I get home."




Then the old man headed unsteadily for home. At home he talked about the guardian deities to the old woman, who was equally happy.

"Oh, that is wonderful. Jizo-sama must be really happy now. I am really pleased," said the old woman.
After having dinner, the old man and woman went to bed. When they awoke after a while, they could faintly hear someone in the distance saying, "Where is the old man's house? Where is the old woman's house? Let's pull the loads with 'yo-ho!' They aren't so heavy. Yo-ho!"
"What's that? They say 'the old man's house' and 'the old woman's house.' I cannot think of any house around here except for ours. That's rather strange," the old man said to his wife.

"Where is the old man's house? Where is the old woman's house? Let's pull the loads with 'yo-ho.' They aren't so heavy. Yo-ho!" The voice came closer and closer. And in front of the old man's house, the Jizo stopped and said, "Here it is. This is the old man's house. Here it is. I'm so happy we found it."
"The old man and woman are asleep. Open the door and drop the loads inside the house."

Jizo put down the loads with a thud in a corner of the house. "Very good. The old man will be delighted. Very good. Let's go back," said Jizo.

After Jizo left, the surprised old man and woman woke up to find out what had happened. They found, among many gifts, glorious articles for the new year-- you could probably find such splendid things only in a castle-- and red clothes for the children living in the vicinity of the old couple's abode.
"I tore up the textiles and covered Jizo-sama with them. Jizo-sama, who felt very warm in the shredded textiles, must have left these as a present for us," said the old man. The old man and woman blubbered for joy.

As everyone was preparing for the new year, the old man and woman distributed the red clothes and new year food among their neighbors, and they lived happily ever after.

- source : www.pref.fukushima.jp/list_e/minwa



. Jizoo Bosatsu (Kshitigarbha) 地蔵菩薩 Jizo .
Roku Jizo 六地蔵 Six Jizo
They are the guardian deities of the Six Realms of the afterlife.


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福島県内の故事.伝説と昔話や民話
100 folk tales and legends from Fukushima
from Koriyama
安積采女春姫の姿見清水
熱海温泉五百川の小峰橋
- source : fukushima100sen.com



おばあちゃんの民話茶屋
Grandmother's Folk Tale Tea Stall
福島県郡山市柏山町3番地 Fukushima, Koriyama
With a long list of old, funny, traditional and other folk tales and illustrated books.
- source : www.o-minwa.ne


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. Shrine, Shinto Shrine (jinja　神社) - Introduction .

. Roku Jizō, Roku Jizoo 六地蔵 Roku Jizo, Six Jizo Statues .


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