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About
Japanese fairy tales Oni Tengu Kitsune Tanuki Kami
Prince Tosa and the Tanuki
Prince Tosa of the Jamanutschi family was a brilliant child who
astonished the world from a very early age. He was of a good
disposition, wise, and experienced in all the knightly arts so his
father was very proud of him and gave him a lot of freedom with full
confidence in his son’s ability to make wise choices.
One of Prince Tosa’s favorite pastimes was fishing and he often
went out on long trips accompanied by only a few vassals to enjoy this
pleasure. One day they went to a nearby river but the weather suddenly
became very bad as dark clouds rolled in and the wind began to howl. So
the prince and his companions soon had to back up their gear and make
their way quickly home. It wasn’t long, however, before the storm
overtook them and flooded the trails and drenched them through making
it very difficult for them to progress. When they reached a small
bridge which was halfway home they saw a very beautiful girl of about
sixteen standing before them.
“I got lost as I was trying to get home and have been walking for
so long,” the girl cried as they got closer. “Please have
pity on me and take me with you don’t leave me in this
degenerated wasteland!”
The prince’s companion felt not only compassion for the girl but
given her great beauty he also felt a certain amount of intense
affection.
The prince however was anxious about the strange girl and so he struck
her down with his sword. His companion was greatly angered at him and
accused him of doing something incredibly heinous and demanded that he
be held accountable for what he’d done.
“Justice will out,” the Prince replied calmly. “Now
follow me and carry the gear and fish home,” the Prince told the
angry man.
As soon as they arrived at the palace the prince’s companion
hurried to his father and told him of how the prince had killed an
innocent girl on the road. The Princes father was shocked by what he
heard and he ran off immediately to find his son. He told the prince of
what he’d heard fury rising in his voice.
“Father don’t think that I acted out of an evil bloodlust
or haste,” the prince told his father calmly. “I had a good
reason for what I did, for the girl was not a real girl but an
apparition, and her companions will likely reveal themselves as the
enchantment was probably that of a tanuki which dwelt there. And when I
saw how she’d ensnared my companion with her enchanted wiles I
feared for him and so did not hesitate in killing the sinister creature
which had enchanted him so.”
Immediately the companion of the Prince and two other warriors from the
royal entourage rushed back to the bridge and found that instead of the
corpse of a girl there was the corpse of a large tanuki which had been
struck down with a sword in the same way the girl had. So now there was
no doubt that the girl was really a yokai in disguise and so the Prince
was praised. His father being surprised at his quick thinking asked him
how he’d known that the girl was a magical creature and not a
girl and he replied that his first suspicion came from the fact that
any human habitation was too far away for a girl to be there. Thus he
paid close attention to her as he approached and noted that her clothes
were dry despite the rain.
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