Sake Legends Temples

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. Japanese Legends and Folktales - Introduction - .
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Sake Legends and Buddhist Temples　酒とお寺

. Sake 酒 and local (monster) legends 妖怪伝説 .
- Introduction -

. - yookai, yōkai 妖怪 Yokai monsters of Japan - .
- Introduction -


source :　youkai-heim.jp

酒呑童子先生 Shuten Doji, Saka Doji, our teacher


. Shuten-dōji 酒呑童子 Shuten Doji - Saka Doji - "Sake Child" .
- Introduction -

Below are two temples related to Shuten Doji, from Nara and Niigata (Echigo).


.................................................... Nara 奈良県

Byakugooji 白毫寺 Byakugo-Ji
奈良県奈良市白毫寺町392


- source and more photos : 東風庵

- - - Yamato province birth legend
Shuten Doji was a page acolyte at the temple Byakugō-ji in the Yamato province (presently, Nara Province), but found a corpse at a nearby mountain, and due to curiosity, brought that meat back to the temple, and made his priest teacher eat it without telling him that it was human meat. Afterwards, the page frequently brought back meat, not only from the flesh of corpses, but also by murdering live humans and returning with their flesh. The priest, who thought that it was suspicious, followed after the page, discovered the truth, harshly criticized the page, and abandoned him in a mountain. The page later became Shuten-doji, and it has been said that the place where he was abandoned was thus called “Chigo-saka” (稚児坂　page-hill).



According to another theory,
he was a child of the chief priest of Byakugō-ji, but as he matured, he grew fangs and a horn, and later became a child as rough as a beast. The priest was embarrassed by this child, so the child was abandoned, but the child later came to Mt. Ooe, and became Shuten-doji.
- - - More in the WIKIPEDIA !


. Byakugo-Ji and Haiku .


.................................................... Niigata 新潟県 - Echigo　越後

Kokujooji 国上寺 Kokujo-Ji / 運高山国上寺
新潟県燕市国上１４０７ - Tsubame, Kugami

- Homepage of the temple (one of the oldest in Echigo
- source : kokujouji.com

国上 can be read as Kokujo or Kugami.


CLICK for more photos of the temple !

酒呑童子，茨羅鬼童子 Shuten Doji and Ibaraki Doji

In the village Kugami Mura 国上村 near mount 国上山 Kugami there lived a man called Sado Hayato 佐渡隼人. He had no children and therefore went to Mount Togakushiyama to pray for a son. When a son was born he called him
外道丸 Gedomaru . Gedomaru lived as an acolyte at the temple Kokujo-Ji from the age of 7, because he was quite a wild boy and beyond his parent's control. When he was 17 he had become a very handsome yong man. The local ladies began to look at this beautiful boy when he came down from the mountain to have a drink of sake at the lokal inn.
He loved only sake, so the local folks called him 酒呑童子 "Saka Doji" "the child of sake".
But he never gave a look at the ladies or cared for their love letters. When he burned the love letters he received from all the females, due to one of the lady who was not able to acquire her love, when the love letters burned, the smoke that came out enveloped him, turning him into an oni　鬼 monster.
Because of this, it was said that he, who had now became an oni, was moving from mountain to mountain in Honshu.

Gedomaru later flew to Mount Togakushi in Shinshu and begun to eat the local people there with crunching sounds.
So they prayed to Togakushi Daigongen 戸隠大権現 and Gedomaru went off.
Other legends locate him at 弥彦山 Yabikoyama in Niigata, but finally he settled at 大江山 Oeyama.

- - - - - Echigo birth legend
He, who was born in Echigo in the Heian era (8th century) when Dengyō Daishi and Kōbō-Daishi were active, became a page of the Kokujou-ji (国上寺) (in Tsubame, Niigata) (at the base of Mt. Kugami, there is a Chigo-dou where he is said to have passed through).
While he was 12 years of age, he was a “pretty boy,” and refused all of the females who loved him, and all of the females who approached him died from being so love-stricken. When he burned the love letters he received from all the females, due to one of the females who was not able to acquire her love, when the love letters burned, the smoke that came out enveloped him, turning him into an oni. Because of this, it was said that he, who became an oni, after moving from mountain to mountain centered on Honshu, eventually settled on Mt. Ooe.
One story is
that he was the son of a blacksmith in Echigo, that he was in his mother’s womb for 16 months, and that he had teeth and hair when he was born, was immediately able to walk, was able to talk on the level of a 5-6 year old, had the wisdom and physical strength of a 16 year old, and had a rough temperament, and due to this unusually ready wit, was shunned as an “oni child.” According to Zentaiheiki, afterwards, when he was 6 years of age, he was abandoned by his mother, wandered from place to place, and then walked the path towards being an oni.
There is also a legend that since he was scorned as an oni child, he was put into custody of a temple, but the chief priest of that temple was a user of unorthodox practices, and the child became an oni through learning those unorthodox practices, that he exhausted the limits of evil.
In the town of Wano 和納　(Wanoo, Niigata),
it is said that when a pregnant woman eats a fish called “tochi,” that child will become a robber if it is a boy, and a prostitute if it is a girl. It is also said that a woman who ate the fish, gave birth to a child after it stayed 16 months in her womb, and that child was Shuten-doji.
In Wanoo, there are place names like the Doji estate and the Doji field.
- - - More in the WIKIPEDIA !


- Relation to Ibaraki-doji -
Shuten-doji rampaged together in Kyoto along with Ibaraki-doji, but there are actually several theories about their relation. One of those theories is that Ibaraki-doji was not a male oni, but a female oni, and that Ibaraki-doji was a lover of his son, or Shuten-doji himself. Therefore, it has been said that Shuten-doji and Ibaraki-doji knew of each other’s existence, and aimed for the capital together.

Ibaraki dōji, Ibaraki Dooji 茨木童子 / 茨城童子 "Ibaraki child"
- - - More in the WIKIPEDIA !






. 大江山鬼伝説 Demon Legend of Oeyama Mountain .


酒呑童子 / 酒典童子 (37) tba
伊吹童子 Ibuki Doji / 茨城童子 Ibaragi Doji / 茨羅鬼 - 陰摩羅鬼 Onmoraki Demon / 鬼,餅,酒呑童子 / 酒呑童子,山姥 Yamanba / 片目の魚,酒顛童子 / 山蜘蛛 Yamagumo big spider / 太刀,鬼 / 鬼童 Kidoo - and many more
- source : www.nichibun.ac.jp


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. Legends about Fudo Myo-O 不動明王　.

. Legends about Jizo Bosatsu - 地蔵菩薩 .


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- ABC List of the Prefectures -


Chiba 千葉県

安食町の龍角寺 Ajiki and temple Ryukaku-Ji

. deidarabochi デエダラボッチ, ダイダラボッチ Daidarabotchi Monster .

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Ehime 愛媛県

松山市 Matsuyama

Kyooenji 教円寺 / 教圓寺　Kyoen-Ji
愛媛県松山市 中島粟井甲460

Yakin Bosatsu 弥きんぼさつ / 弥勒菩薩 (Miroku Bosatsu)
At the beach near 御前場 Gozenba a Buddha statue was washed ashore, but nobody could pull it out of the water. But when the priest of temple Kyoen-Ji came along, a well-known sake drinker, he could easily pull it out and thus built a hall for Miroku Bosatsu in the compound. The statue has been carved by Kobo Daishi Kukai himself, and is now a secret statue.


. Miroku Bosatsu 弥勒菩薩 .

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Fukui 福井県

坂口村 Sakaguchi

hebi 蛇 The Serpent
At this temple, rain rituals were held until about 1930.
The elders of the village took some sake and went to the pond ヤシャが池 Yashagaike in the very early morning. They took a plate made of clay, used them as small lights and let it float on the lake. Then they made offerings of sake to the lake.
When the serpent came to drink the sake, the kawarake カワラケ clay plate would be turned over and the light extingt. This was a sign that about one hour later rain would fall.
If the clay plate kept floating, there was no rain and they had to go home.
During this ritual the villagers went to the small temple hall 庵寺 and beat the drum and had some sake themselves while they waited.


. amagoi 雨乞い rain rituals .
- Introduction -

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Fukushima 福島県

勿来町 Nakoso

Idekuraji 出蔵寺　Idekura-Ji
Sakaiidekura-141 Nakosomachi, Iwaki, 福島県いわき市勿来町酒井出蔵141-01

Once upon a time
at Nakoso there was a teacher. His mother was a heavy sake drinker, but the family was very poor and she could never get her fill. And this saddened the son.
So some day he started to dig a well behind the house. And what do you say - there was sake coming out of the well, a very delicious sake indeed.
So his mother could drink as much as she wanted and was very happy.
The hoe which he had used to dig the well is kept at the temple Idekuar-Ji.
When temple was built in 807 (大同2年), this auspicious hoe was used for the first cut of the earth.
And the amazing well is still there,
in the back of the home of 蛭田源右衛門 Hiruta Genemon in the village of 酒井関根 Sakai Sekine.


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田村郡 Tamura

One day after a funeral, people go to the temple to pray and the whole family come together to eat and drink a lot of sake. They offer 四十九日の餅 rice cakes for the 49 days after the funeral (a special date in Japanese funeral rituals). If they can then sneak out some mochi without the priest noticing it, they go home, eat the mochi and will be healed from any trouble or disease with their brain 脳を病.



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Gunma 群馬県

Mirokuji 迦葉山 弥勒寺 Kashozan Miroku-Ji
445 Kamihotchimachi, Numata, Gunma

Tengu 天狗 The Mountain Goblin
The founder of this temple, enson Keijun 天巽慶順 , practised severe asceticism in the mountains.
One of his disciples, 中峰尊者 Nakamine, was very devote and good at flying. Every night, he flew down to the village at the foot of the mountain and bought some sake 酒 to serve his master.

. Kashoozan no tengu men 迦葉山の天狗面
Tengu mask from mount Kashozan .

. Tengu 天狗 Mountain Goblins .
- Introduction -


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Kagawa 香川県

さぬき市 Sanuki

志度寺 Shidodera

daija 大蛇 The huge Serpent
Once upon a time
there were two brothers, 当願 and 暮当, who were hunters. The elder brother went to Shido-Ji to pray and the younger brother went into the mountain to hunt for food, since the family was very poor and there was nothing to eat. The elder brother heard the sound of a gun while saying his prayers and was quite envious. As a punishment, he was changed into large serpent from his head down.
The younger brother felt pity for his elder brother. He carried him on his back to the pond 幸田池 Kota-Ike, hoping for him to get his human form back, and let him slip into the water. The elder brother now became a huge serpent. He plucked his eyes out, transformed them into two large jars and ordered his younger brother to use them for making sake.
The younger brother did as he was told and soon the family prospered by making sake.


. Shidodera 志度寺 Shido-Dera .
- Introduction - - Shikoku Henro Temple Nr. 86

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Nagano 長野県

hyootanishi 瓢箪石 The Gourd Stone
Once upon a time
a wife became very angry about her husband who always drunk too much sake and she split the gourd he had used to store his sake on a large stone. Because of that her husband finally died.
But the gourd shards begun to sigh and mourn every night, they wanted to hold sake again. So the wife brought them to the local temple and had prayers of appeasement said for them.
Eventually the gourd stopped crying.
If people step on this stone, to our day, it is said they will get a high fever (malaria おこり / 瘧).

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Niigata 新潟県

佐渡市 Sado

歓喜寺 Kanki-Ji (Kangi-Ji)

At the slope toward this temple there is a wayside god, Sai no Kami 才ノ神, who will help if children have cough. People offer sakekasu 酒の粕  lees wrapped in straw. This is a favorite food of the Sai no Kami.
一塊りの酒の粕を苞にして供える


. Sai no Kami 才ノ神 / 幸の神 .
Ta no Kami, God of the Rice Fields　田の神さま

. sekigamisama 咳神様 Deity of coughing .

. sakekasu, sake-kasu 粕 / 酒の粕 sake lees .

. Kangiten, Kankiten 歓喜天 Vinaayaka, Nandikeshvara, Ganesh .
Shooten　聖天 Shoten

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Oita 大分県

大願寺 Daiganji and the Kappa

. Kappa Legends from Kyushu 　河童伝説　- 九州 .

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Osaka 大阪府

北区 Kita ward

法淸寺 Hosei-Ji

In the compound is the grave of a prostitute 娼婦, who got very drunk on sake and killed her brother.
She was sentenced to death.
If you snip off one bit of her grave stone, pound it to powder and put some of that powder in the sake of a heavy drinker, he / she will be cured soon.

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source :　isshuan.com
越後くがみ山酒呑童子行列 Shuten Doji Festival and Monster Parade
Tsubame, Echigo, Niigata



- reference -

yokai database : 酒　寺
- source : www.nichibun.ac.jp (15)


. Sake 酒 and local (monster) legends 妖怪伝説 .

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

- #templelegendssake #sakelegendtemples -
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