The kettle at Morinji temple in Tatebayashi
Once Upon a Time...
Long, long ago there lived an old man who made his living by collecting rags. One day he found a raccoon dog that had been caught in a trap and set it free. The grateful animal wanted to thank the kind ragpicker, so it decided to turn itself into an iron kettle that the old man could sell.
The old man found a kettle in front of his house the next day, and gave it to a priest at a nearby temple. The priest filled the kettle with water and put it on the fire. Frightened by the heat, the raccoon dog gave himself away and the priest gave the kettle back to the man. That night, the animal approached the old man, saying, "I am the raccoon dog you saved. Why don't you put me on show? I could do a funny dance and make a lot of money for you." The old man named the raccoon dog Bunbuku-chagama. "Bunbuku," which means to spread happiness, onomatopoeically suggests the sputtering of a kettle as it comes to boil. "Chagama" means kettle. The animal's plan worked. People came from far and wide to see the raccoon dog's amusing dance, in which he pretended to be a kettle, and the kindly old ragpicker grew rich.
The tale, thought to date back to medieval times, was immortalized in Nihon Mukashibanashi (1894-96), a collection of Japanese folktales edited by Sazanami Iwaya, a Meiji-era scholar of juvenile literature.
Morinji, a Buddhist temple in Tatebayashi, Gunma Prefecture, has a famous chagama that has seen several generations of monks come and go. The kettle is 1.2 meters in circumference and has a capacity of about 22 kiloliters.
Among the ranks of the monks serving at Morinji, there was a mysterious one, named Shukaku, who was said to have served a succession of chief priests since the temple's foundation by high priest Shotsu in 1426. Nobody knew his age. It was said that Shukaku had recommended to Shotsu that he establish the temple. In 1570, when the seventh chief priest, Gesshu, held a major Buddhist mass and tea ceremony, Shukaku is said to have conjured a kettle from thin air. No matter how much water was ladled from the kettle, it remained full. People attending the ceremony were astonished and delighted. Shukaku remained at Morinji until 1587, when he disappeared, never to be seen again. People came to believe that Shukaku was, in fact, a raccoon dog disguised as a priest. Story by Keiko Watanabe
Source & Copyright: Daily Yomiuri On-Line. Used with permission.