This is from an old folk tale of Iwate Prefecture in northern Japan.

.

Once upon a time, there lived a beautiful girl in Kibushi, Morioka.  Every day she went to the Kitakamigawa River in front of her house, and did a laundry under a tall willow tree.

It is said that one day after she got out of home as usual, she went missing.

Her family and the villagers searched everywhere talking to one another, “Where the deuce has she gone?  It is as if she had got spirited away.”  But they couldn’t find her anywhere.

However, a few days later, she was found, being entangled by many branches and held tightly to the trunk of the willow tree.

The villagers saved her and brought her back home.

After that, she was sick with a sense of malaise for a long time and had a pallid face.

After she recovered from the illness, she said, “When I was washing the clothes just as usual that afternoon, the most beautiful man I have ever seen appeared from somewhere and hugged me tight and wouldn’t let me go.  In the meantime, I felt dizzy and didn’t know what was what.”

After this incident, the willow tree naturally withered and died.

.

“Beautiful man of the willow treed”, a folk tale of Iwate.

.

岩手県の民話「柳の美男」から書きました。

昔、盛岡の木伏（きぶし）に美しい娘があったと。

毎日家の前の北上川へ出て、勢（せい）よく伸びた柳の木の下で洗濯物をしていた。

あるとき、その娘がいつものとおり洗濯に出たまま行方がわからなくなったと。

家の人たちや村の人たちは、「いったいぜんたい、どこへ隠れてしまったんじゃ。神隠しみたいだ」と言いあいながら、方々をたずね歩いたけどどうしても探し出すことが出来なかったと。

ところが、二、三日経ってから娘がその柳の木の幹にたくさんの枝々で絡まれて、しっかりと抱かれているのが見つかった。村の人たちは娘を助けて家に連れ帰った。

そのあと娘は永らくぶらぶら病にとりつかれて青い顔をしていたが、快（よ）くなってからこう言うた。

あの日の夕方、いつものように柳の木の下で洗濯をしていると、どこからか、見たことのない美しい男が来て抱きついて放さない。そのうちに何が何だか気が遠くなって、何とも知らなくなった。

その後（のち）、柳の木は自然に枯れて死んだ。

.

<To the homepage of this website>