Дзидзо / Jizo

Long long ago in a certain place, there was an old man and an old woman. They were poor, but very upright.
Once on New Year's Eve, they didn't have any rice to make mochi, so they bought some rice flour and bran and made what is called bran mochi. When it was made up, they formed it into two offerings, in order to offer one to the water god on the river bank back behind their house. Their intention was to scoop up what is called "first water" the first thing in the morning of New Year's Day. When they went to the shrine of the water god, however, the mochi that should have been in the old man's pocket was nowhere to be seen.
He was surprised, and couldn't understand what could have happened to it. He searched around in case it had fallen, but couldn't find it. He also searched along the bank of the river, in case it had fallen in the water. In the course of that, he came to three statues of Jizo-sama standing at the foot of a bridge downstream. As he approached it seemed like the Jizos were smiling at him somehow.
"Jizo-sama, Jizo-sama!" he asked the statue in the middle. "There hasn't been an offering of bran mochi float by has there?"
"It came, it came. It came down, and I took it as an offering to myself,"
The old man looked, and sure enough, the offering had been properly placed in front of that Jizo.
When he saw that, the old man said, "That's fine, that's fine. I present it to you, Jizo-sama."
He returned, got the other piece of mochi, and presented it to the water god.
In the meantime, an old fox and a lame fox passed in front of the Jizo statues, saying "It's New Year's, but there's nothing happy about it."
The Jizo heard that, and called out, "Foxes, foxes! It's not much, but there's some bran mochi here that a poor old man gave. I don't need it, so you to take it."
You can imagine how happy the foxes were. "Thank you so much. This will make it a happy new year for us. And a Happy New Year to you, too." .



When the next New Year came, the old couple was still poor, but they did have enough money to buy rice to make mochi.
"Gran, this year let's have some real mochi for once," the old man said, and set out for town to buy the rice. That New Year's Eve was a cold evening, and rain was tipping down besides. As he got to the rice shop, he remembered the Jizos he had seen from the road as walked by-- the three of them were being pelted by the rain, and looked very cold.
"And that's not just today," the old man thought. "They will be exposed to the cold, cold rain until spring arrives." He was no longer in a mood to buy rice.
"How could someone like me sit and eat mochi while Jizo-sama is exposed to the rain."
After standing a moment with his head hung in thought, the old man decided not to by rice for mochi, and instead used the money to buy three sedge hats. As for the mochi, he decided to make bran mochi from rice flour and bran, the same as the previous year.
"Jizo-sama, Jizo-sama!" he called when he saw them on the way back. "Please put these on." And he placed one sedge hat on each of their rain-soaked heads.
"Oh, thank you. Thank you." This was a long time ago, when Jizos would express their appreciation very happily.
The old man was happy too, and said, "Oh, it's nothing at all. There's certainly no need to thank me." And he returned home rejoicing. A little later, however, three people walked past the Jizo statues. They were a poor and distressed father, a mother and their child. Seeing them, Jizo called out.
"We'll be all right, but it's awful for humans to get soaked by rain. Please, take these. Take these and be on your way."
You can imagine how happy the people were to be offered the sedge hats. They put their hands together and bowed before Jizo for a long time before leaving.


Another New Year's Eve came around. The poor old man had worked with all his might all year, and so had just a little more money than the previous year. This time he went into town with the idea of buying not only some rice, but a little fish as well. But that day it was snowing out, and when he got to the three Jizos, they were all white from a covering of snow. Seeing that, the old man was no longer in any mood to buy rice for mochi, much less fish to celebrate the holiday. He could only think of one thing as he walked into town.
"Last year we had bran mochi for New Year's, and the year before that was a bran mochi New Year's as well. Why should we have white rice mochi and fish this year?"
And so he bought rice flour and bran again. With the money that remained, he bought a piece of red cloth. On the way back, he stopped at the three Jizos again.
"Jizo-sama, Jizo-sama! You must be very cold in all this snow." Wit these words, he cut the red cloth, and draped it around the statues. But what do you think? He must not have bought enough cloth, since he was not able to drape the largest Jizo. The snow was coming down harder and harder, and he could hardly leave one Jizo standing naked in it.
Therefore, the old man took off the hat and cape he was wearing, and put them on Jizo. "These are coarse, Jizo-sama, but please wear them," he said, and he started home through the snow.
Late that night-- actually it was before the dawn of New Year's Day, there was a sound of something heavy being dragged toward the old man's house. He was wondering what it could be when he heard a voice at his entryway.
"Do you mind getting up? We're the ones who were helped by the old man yesterday."
"Getting up is no problem," the old man replied, "but there's no firewood in the house, so I can't light a fire to warm you."
The voice outside replied, "We brought a big tree to put on the fire."
The old man got up, but when he went to the entry he saw the three Jizos staggering away through the snowstorm. The left the big tree behind them. The old man took his ax to chop up some firewood, but when he hit the tree, gold and silver came pouring out of it. Starting with that New Year's Day, the old man and old woman became the wealthiest people around.