Prevod

Long ago, there lived a son of Emperor Tenji named Prince Ōtomo. He became Chancellor and conducted the affairs of the realm, thinking in his heart, “When the emperor dies, I shall be the next sovereign.” Emperor Kiyomihara, who was then crown prince, learned of his intentions and thought fearfully, “Prince Ōtomo governs the realm, and his prestige and power are great. Though I am crown prince, my strength cannot match his. He may well do away with me.” As soon as the emperor fell ill, he withdrew deep into the mountains of Yoshino, declaring that he had become a monk, and remained in seclusion there. Someone then said to Prince Ōtomo, “To let the crown prince shut himself away in the mountains of Yoshino is like giving a tiger wings and setting it loose in the wild. Only by keeping him here in the palace can you deal with him as you please.” The prince thought this true, mustered troops, and planned to kill the crown prince under the pretense of escorting him back. Prince Ōtomo’s wife was a daughter of the crown prince. Grieving at the thought that her father would be killed, she longed to warn him, but could find no means of doing so. At last, in her distress, she wrote a tiny letter, slipped it into the belly of a carp that had been roasted in a wrapping, and sent it to him. When the crown prince read it, it confirmed the very danger he had already feared. “So it is as I thought,” he said. Hastily putting on a commoner’s hunting robe and trousers and a pair of straw shoes, he set off alone across the mountains toward the north, without even his attendants knowing. Unfamiliar with the roads, he wandered for five or six days before at last reaching a place called Tawara in Yamashiro Province. The villagers, struck by the extraordinary nobility of his bearing, offered him roasted and boiled chestnuts on a raised tray. Taking chestnuts of both kinds, he said, “If my wish is to be fulfilled, sprout and grow into trees,” and buried them on a mountainside. The villagers marveled at this and marked the spot. He left the village and made his way along the mountains toward Shima Province. When people there questioned him, wondering who he might be, he said, “I am a traveler who has lost his way. I am thirsty. Give me some water to drink.” Someone drew water in a large well bucket and brought it to him. Delighted, he said, “I shall make you governor of this province,” and went on to Mino Province. There he stood at the Sunomata crossing, unable to find a boat. A woman was washing cloth in a large wooden tub, and he asked her, “Can you somehow get me across here?” The woman replied, “The day before yesterday, men calling themselves messengers of Chancellor Ōtomo came and had all the ferryboats hidden away. Even if I took you across here, you would never get past all the other crossings. With so much time already lost, troops must be coming to attack you. How can you escape?” “What, then, should I do?” he asked. “I can see that you are no ordinary person,” she said. “Then let me hide you.” She turned a bathing tub upside down and had him lie beneath it, piled cloth on top, and sat washing it, pouring water over it. Before long, some four or five hundred soldiers arrived and asked her, “Has anyone crossed here?” The woman answered, “A person of very high rank passed this way with about a thousand soldiers. By now he must have entered Shinano Province. He was riding a magnificent horse like a dragon and went as though he were flying. With so few men, even if you caught up with him, you would all be killed. You had better go back, gather a much larger force, and then pursue him.” Believing her, Prince Ōtomo’s soldiers all turned back. Afterward, the crown prince asked the woman, “If I were to call for troops in this region, would any come?” She hurried about, summoning and persuading the leading men of the province, and at once two or three thousand soldiers assembled. Leading them in pursuit of Prince Ōtomo, the crown prince caught up with him at a place called Ōtsu in Ōmi Province and gave battle. The prince’s army was defeated, and his men scattered in flight. Prince Ōtomo was finally slain at Yamazaki, and his head was taken. The crown prince then returned to Yamato Province and ascended the throne. The roasted and boiled chestnuts he had buried at Tawara sprouted without changing their form. To this day, they are presented to the sovereign as the Imperial Chestnuts of Tawara. The person who gave him water in Shima Province belonged to the Takashina clan, and for that reason his descendants have served as governors of the province. The bucket from which the sovereign drank is still at Yakushiji. As for the woman of Sunomata, she was, it is said, the great deity of Fuwa.