Sake yokai Legends

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. Japanese Legends and Folktales - Introduction - .
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source :　d.hatena.ne.jp/lifepia

Sake 酒 and local (monster) legends 妖怪伝説

. Sake 酒 rice wine for rituals and festivals .
- Introduction

The following legends, stories and memos are collected from the Yokai Database.
- source : www.nichibun.ac.jp



. Sake and Fudo Myo-O 不動明王 .

. Sake and Jizo Bosatsu 地蔵菩薩 .


. Tanuki the badger and Sake Legends 狸とお酒 .

. Sake Legends and Buddhist Temples　酒とお寺 .

. Sake Legends and Shinto Shrines　酒と神社 .

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. Shuten Dōji 酒呑童子 Shuten Doji "Sake Child" Yokai Monster .



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. Azuki-Arai 小豆洗い Monster washing azuki beans .
a sake label

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Akita 秋田県

北秋田郡 Kita Akita gun 上小阿仁村 Kamiko Ani (Kamikoani)

kaijuu 怪獣 the wild beast
In the small hamlet of Kamibutsusha 上仏社集落 someone wanted to cut down a tree of Japanese pears (nashi 梨の木) near the swamp ガニ沼 Ganinuma.
But there lived a wild beast of unknown features. So he offered some o-miki and rice bran to appease the beast. After the man left, someone eat all these offerings.
Ani village is famous for the many bear hunters.

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Aomori 青森県

anzan no kami 安産の神，子安さま Deity for an easy birth
This deity is venerated in the homes of midwives. At the 23th day of the first lunar month (now January) they pray for a safe delivery and health of the children they help to deliver. The women they had helped in the past year and the pregnant one's she is advising come to her home and celebrate, with food and o-miki.
Some thank the deity for the birth in the past year, others pray for easy delivery in the coming year with o-miki.

. azan kosodate 安産子育て amulets for children .

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niijusanya sama 二十三夜様, Seishi Bosatsu 勢至菩薩
In the hamlet of 田子町 矢田郎 Yataro (Takko village) the rituals on day 23 (usually in mid-autumn) are performed. In the home of the ritual master they hang up a scroll with Seishi Bosatsu and light candles. O-miki is offered and then drunk by all participants. The good fortunes of the future are divined by the weather:
If the moon comes up on a clear sky with no clouds, the harvest will be good.
If the moon is not visible due to clouds there will be a bad harvest.
At the hamlet 福地村法師岡 Hoshioka (Fukuchi village) this is also the day to pray for the Deity of Easy Delivery (see above).
At the hamlet 十和田市栃ノ沢 Tochinosawa (Towada town) this is the same as the day of the deity 秋葉様 Akiba sama and also a festival for children.



. nijuusanya 二十三夜 moon on day 23 .


二十三塚　Nijuzan-zuka memorial - 青森市 Aomori


. Akiba no Kamisama 秋葉神様 and Kamagami 釜神 The Hearth Deity .

. Akibagongen 秋葉権現 Akiba Gongen .

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noogami 農神 / ノウガミ様 - obosuna sama オボスナ様 / おぼすな様
deity for agriculture, especially the rice fields
On the 16th day of the ninth lunar month (now celebrated on September 16) this deity takes the seeds and goes back to heaven.
Farmers prepare 16 round mochi rice cakes , ナベダンゴ meat balls, auspicious rice with red beans, boiled vegetables with beans and other food offerings. At the sanctuary of the deity they offer o-miki, sweets and the food and then take it home to their own shelf of the gods as offerings, often twice a day, in the morning and in the evening.
- - - - - obosuna is the local dialect for Ubusuna.


. ta no kami 田の神さま Deity of the Rice Fields .

. ubusunagami 産土神 Ubusuna Deity of one's birthplace .

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odeshiko sama オデシコ様 deeshiko デエシコ - odaishiko sama オダイシコ様
Its festival is on the 24th day of the 10th lunar month.
As a food offering nabedango ナベダンゴ meat balls are prepared, with three pairs of special chopsticks made from wood of the peach tree and kaya 茅 miscanthus. One pair must be longer than the other two. Beside the food, o-miki is offered on the shelf of the Gods.
In former times farmers also offered rice gruel with red beans 小豆粥.

The origin of this odaishiko deity is not clear.
Some sources say it is a deity venerated by poor farmers with many children.

- reference -


. hashi, ohashi, o-hashi　お箸 chopsticks .

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Ehime 愛媛県

大洲市 Ozu 蔵川村 Kurakawa

In the year 享保5年 1720 in autumn a farmer from Otani village walked along the 観音堂 Kannon Hall of Kurakawa village, when he saw a woman washing clothes in the small river. She told him it was quite dangerous to walk along the small river in the dark and invited him to her home. She gave him a bamboo tube filled with sake, which he drank and then fell asleep.
When he woke up the next morning he found himself lying near a fresh grave of someone and the sake he had drunk last night was in fact the liquid of the sacred Shikimi tree.
This grave must have been of an unfortunate woman who died in childbirth or maybe one of a mountain priest from Koya san 高野聖.

. shikimi (シキミ, 樒) Illicium religiosum, Skimmia japonica .

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Fukushima 福島県

原町区泉字宮前 - 相馬市 Soma

Sakaido 酒井戸 the Sake Well
In the beginning of the Kamakura period (1185 - 1333) there was a well near the Kannon Hall 観音堂 called 酒井戸 Sakaido (Sake Well). At the time of its founder, the mountain priest 泉長者 Izumi Chosha, there was truly Sake coming out of the well.
Legend knows he came all the way from 紀州熊野 Kumano in Kishu (Wakayama), led by a bird to this place here. From the place where is home was there can still be tiles unearthed.
And the Kannon Hall houses a statue of an eleven-headed Kannon, which was his protector deity.
The local people still come here to pray, but the well now has just very clear water, but no sake.



「いずみのさかいど」 Izumi no Sakaido
- source : city.minamisoma.lg.jp

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Gifu 岐阜県

吉城郡 Yoshiki gun 坂下村 Sakashimo

Yama no Kami 山の神 Deity of the Mountains
On the 9th day of the 2nd lunar month there is a special prayer group for this deity, when he brings the seeds back from the mountains, where he stayed during the winter time. He stays around as "ta no kami", deity of the fields, until the 9th day of the 10th month.
On both of these days it is not allowed to fell a tree before 10 in the morning.
All the menfolk of the village go to a sanctuary of this deity to offer o-miki and gohei mochi ゴヘイモチ / 五平餅 grilled rice dumplings.


. yama no kami 山の神 Deity of the Mountains .

. gohei mochi, goheimochi 五平餅 grilled rice dumplings .

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Ibaraki, Ibaragi 茨城県


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Kagawa 香川県

大川郡 Okawa gun 長尾町 Nagao

Amadare Koojin アマダレコウジン ”Kojin deity in the dripping rain”
Sometimes people fall down unconsciuos when leaving the home in a hurry. This is seen as an unlucky meeting with the Kojin deity.
To get better, the person has to offer o-miki to the deity for seven days.

. Kōjin, Koojin　荒神 Kojin, the "Wild Deity" .

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Yooro no Taki 養老の滝 Yoro no Taki Waterfall
Once a pious son scooped some water from the waterfall pool and brought it home to his old parents. When they took a sip - oo wonder - it had turned into sake.

The famous Yōrō Falls (養老の滝, Yōrō no Taki) is a waterfall in Yōrō Park located in the town of Yōrō, Yōrō District, Gifu, Japan.
There are a few other waterfalls in Japan with this name.

. yooro no kooshi 養老の孝子 filial piety at Yoro .
clay doll from Gifu, Ichihara 市原


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Kumamoto 熊本県

yamawaro ヤマワロ / 山童 "child of the mountain"
When entering a mountain forest for work the woodcutters have to take some o-miki.
Sometimes, when after a lot of effort with the saw a tree would still not fall, it was said to be the bad influence of the "Mountain Child". So they had to offer him some o-miki and ask him to go away elsewhere.
Also when other unforeseen things happened during the work in the mountain forest they would offer o-miki and ask for help.


- source : yokai.com -


. Yamawaro 山童 and Kappa 河童 .
- Introduction -

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Nagasaki 長崎県

西海市 Saikai 西彼町 Seihi

Suijin sawari 水神ざわり Taboos for the Deity of Water
There are many taboos about rivers providing drinking water, related to Suijin 水神 the Deity of Water,
Do not throw pottery or metal things into the river, do not expose your own body in the river.
If there are sick people in the family, the water deity of their well seems to be offended 水神様のおさわり. In that case you have to offer o-miki, salt and rice to the deity to get healed.


. - suijin 水神 water deity - .

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Gaappa ガーッパ Kappa
In the rivers near Seihi village there live many Gaappa (Kappa in local dialect).
There are many nice river pools in the shade of willow and other trees. In one of them there is a Gaappa stone ガーッパ石 where people sometimes offer o-miki.
The Gaappa comes donw from the mountains and fields to challenge the farmers to a bout of Sumo wrestling. When the Kappa has to bow the plate on his head will empty and the human wins. But if the Kappa wins it will eat the liver of the human.
Some people get bewitched by the Kappa and begin to wrestle with large fish instead.
Some people preserve the hair of a Kappa torn out while wrestling.
The Gaappa likes raw fish and rice with red beans.

. Kappa 河童伝説 Gaappa Legends from Nagasaki .

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Nagano 長野県

hyootanishi, hyootan-ishi 瓢箪石 the Gourd Stone
Once there was a head of a family who liked to drink far too much and so the Deity got angry at him. He split the gourd container, which the man used to carry his sake around.
And because of this the man died.
Now the gourd cried all night long and wanted to be filled with sake. So the Deity offered the gourd to a Buddhist temple, where it was put on a stone, and then it stopped crying. If someone stepped on this stone, he would get a fit of fever おこり / 瘧.


- - - - - The Hyotan, a popular container for sake!



. hyootan 瓢箪 Hyotan and Sake .


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Nara 奈良県

吉野郡 Yoshino gun 十津川村 Totsukawa mura

Daija 大蛇 The Huge Serpent
Once upon a time someone took a pee in the pool of Maramaki Waterfall ハラマキの滝, where the Huge Serpent lives. To appologize he offered a large bottle of o-miki. But that night the priest who did the offering was moaning and groaning all night and nobody could sleep,

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Niigata 新潟県

上越市 Joetsu
. Offering o-miki at 不動山 Mount Fudoyama .


西頚城郡 Nishi Kubiki gun 能生町 No-O

Kappa 河童 the water goblin
Once a Grandpa living at the river Sennogawa cut off the hand of a Kappa.
So the Kappa took some sake and fish as presents and asked the Grandpa to have his hand back.
The Grandpa made Kappa promise never to harm people or take away their fish catch any more - and then he gave him the hand back.

. Kappa 河童伝説 legends from Niigata .

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三条市 Sanjo town

Tengusama, Tengu sama 天狗様 the Tengu
There lived a Tengu in the mountains who brought a lot of damage to the village at the foot of the mountain.
An oracle of the shrine maiden got the following result:
This is the divine retribution of the Tengu. To appease him you have to offer o-miki to this shrine every year during the New Year celebrations.
When the farmers made the offering, they realized that all the sake was gone until the 8th day of the 10th lunar month of the year - the Tengu had drunk it all.





Tengu no Mai sake　天狗の舞 the dance of Tengu

. Tengu 天狗 the Mountain Goblin .


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source :　youkaiyashikizake

Yokai Yashiki Sake 妖怪屋敷酒 Sake with a Monsters Mansion
The monsters on this label are
Hidarugami ひだる神, Karasu Tengu with a beak カラス天狗 and Big Tengu 大天狗


. Hidarugami ヒダル神 Hunger Deity .

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Oita 大分県
佐伯市 Saiki town

Inugami 犬神 "Dog Deity"
Some folks around here hate this deity, others are grateful to it. Some come to it to pray for healing. When they get ill, they call for 祈祷師 a faith healer from Saiki, who offers o-miki and the healing begins.

- quote -
Inugami (犬神, lit. "dog god") is a class of being from Japanese mythology, which is similar to the Shikigami and who belongs to the range of the spirits, the Kami.


as depicted in Sawaki Suushi's Hyakkai-Zukan.

Japanese folklore describes Inugami as zoomorphic or anthropomorphic, dog-like beings, often similar to werewolves. They are masters of black magic.
- - - Traditions
Folklore has it that Inugami can be conjured from a complex and cruel ceremony: A common pet dog must be buried up to his neck, only the head remains free. Then a bowl with food or water must be placed close but in unreachable distance before the snout of the dog. Several days after that, when the dog is about to perish and tortured by hallucinations, his head must be severed and buried beneath a noisy street. After a certain time, head and body must be placed in a well prepared shrine. Now an Inugami can be evoked.

Similar to Shikigami, possessed paper mannequins, Inugami are evoked for criminal activities, such as murdering, kidnapping and mutilation of the victims. If the evoker is perfectly trained, he can order his Inugami to possess humans and manipulate them. The victim is often forced to kill itself or other people, or to act like a lunatic. But Inugami are also said to be very dangerous for the evoker himself: since the Inugami´s soul is blinded by its desire for revenge and its unstoppable rage, the Inugami can quickly escape the master´s control and kill his own evoker.

Families that keep Inugami in their household are called Inugami-mochi (meaning "Those who have a dog-god as a pet"). It´s tradition within these households that family members always marry members from other Inugami-mochi only.
- source : wikipedia

. Inugami and Legends with tofu 　豆腐伝説 .



. NUE, nue 鵺, 鵼, 恠鳥, or 奴延鳥 the Nue monster .
- - - - - The cursed Nue came floating in the sea to Shikoku.
Its head landed in Sanuki and became a monkey deity.
Its tail landed in Iyo and became a serpent deity.
Its hands and feet landed in Tosa and became a dog deity 犬神 Inugami .


. Yama no Kami 山の神 God of the Mountain
and his messenger, the inugami 犬神 Wolf Deity .


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Kappa 河童 Kappa
One evening when the visitors of the inn went to the beach to enjoy the cool, there was a couple of Kappa. First the visitors thought it was a secret meeting of some humans planning some evil, but then they realized it was Mister and Missus Kappa and they run back to the inn in haste.
From that night on, one of the visitors could not sleep any more at night and kept moaning and groaning.
He hoped 水神様 the Deity of Water would be able to heal him So he offered some o-miki to the bridge at the mouth of river 色利川 Iroigawa - and indeed - he was healed.


. Kappa 河童伝説 legends from Oita .

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Saitama 埼玉県

秩父郡 Chichibu 小鹿野町 Ogano

Tengu 天狗 The Mountain Goblin
Once there was a very experienced woodcutter in the mountains. One day he was about to do a very important job and forgot completely to offer some o-miki to the local Tengu, instead, he offended the Tengu with his words.
While he was at work, the sky suddenly became all black and thunder began to roar. Then a huge boulder, large as a mountain, was flying over the man and his helpers and then fell down, burrying all below the boulder.
This was the revenge of the Tengu, they say.


. Tengu 天狗 the Mountain Goblin .

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Tochigi 栃木県
鹿沼市 粟野町

dodai ishi no tatari 土台石のたたり

ある人の孫が学校に行けなくなった。無理に連れていっても橋の上で胸が苦しいと言って倒れてしまい、家に帰ると治る。太平集落の坊さんに見てもらったら、開田の際に祖先の代の土台石をいじった本めいに当たったのだと言われた。方角が悪いので実家から通わせて、土台石に20日間お神酒を上げて祈願したら、治った。


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Yamagata 山形県

. Fudo Myo-O at 川西町 Kawanishi .


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Yamanashi 山梨県
都留市

kitsune ga hito o bakasu キツネが人を化かす
森嶋いよ子さんが子どもの頃、大幡へ婿にいった人が里帰りして、お酒を飲み、キツネだかなんだか分からないが、フラフラと山で道のないところを行き、狐に化かされているのではないか、と言っていた。

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大月市
Yama no kamisama ヤマノカミサン
毎月17日は、ヤマノカミサンが怒るといって、生木を切ったり山へ入ったりしてはいけないといわれる。1月21日はオカンムリオトシといって、この日は山へ入って木を切ってはいけないが、お酒を持っていって供える。


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- source -

yokai database : お神酒 / お酒
- source : www.nichibun.ac.jp
for 酒 sake, there are 488 entries -(tba)
莚命酒,霊験 / 不死,酒 / 諸白の酒 / 恵美酒 / 酒魔 / 神酒倉 / .蝶,酒 / 蜂の巣,酒 - and many more

amazake 甘酒 sweet rice wine - 15 entries (tba)
甘酒婆 /甘酒地蔵 / ミコ神 / 山姥,鬼,山男,鬼婆
- source : www.nichibun.ac.jp


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shochu 焼酎 monster schnaps labels from Kyushu


source :　気ままに酒ブログ

天盃（福岡)
よけまん（熊本）
の馬（宮崎）
龍宮（鹿児島）
瑞泉（沖縄） awamori from Okinawa

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Inside the Shrine - Shintō Concepts, What’s What
. Mark Schumacher .

. Matsunoo Taisha 松尾大社 Matsunoo Grand Shrine .
- Shinto Shrines related to making, selling and drinking Sake -

. Sake 酒 rice wine for rituals and festivals .

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. Japanese Legends and Folktales - Introduction - .

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

- #sakelegends -
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