【Horror】Oushu-Adachigahara
A long time ago, during the Heian period (794–1185)…
A noble family lived in the big city of Kyoto.
In their house, there was a woman named Iwate. She was the nursemaid of a little princess. Iwate cared for the princess and raised her with love and attention.
But the little princess was very sick. Even though she was five, she couldn’t speak a single word.
It made Iwate so sad. She didn’t know what to do.
One day, Iwate went to ask a fortune-teller for advice.
Unfortunately, fortune-tellers often give bad advice. This one told Iwate something terrible.
He said, “The only cure is to feed the princess the liver of an unborn baby.”
Iwate loved the princess so much. She couldn’t stop thinking about how to make the princess better.
She wanted to get an unborn baby’s liver, that the fortune-teller had said.
Iwate gave her newborn daughter to someone to take care of. She placed a red charm bag around the baby’s neck. The bag was written,
“From Mother Iwate.”
She told her baby, “Stay strong, even if I’m not here.”
Then, Iwate left on a journey to find the unborn baby’s liver.
She wandered for many years and finally came to Adachigahara in the far north. She waited for a pregnant woman to pass by in a small, lonely house.
It passed more years. Now, only Iwate’s obsession kept her going.
Iwate was old and weak. But she would not give up.
“I must find that liver,” she whispered. “I won’t die until I do.”
Her hair was now white. But her sharp, dark eyes still searched for a victim. She waited and waited.
One day, a young couple knocked on her door.
The man begged, “Please help! My wife is about to have a baby. Can we stay here?”
Iwate saw the woman’s big belly. She swallowed hard and smiled.
“Come in quickly. It’s not safe outside.”
The man looked kind, and the woman looked delicate.
The woman held her enormous belly in pain. And the man was nervous and didn’t know what to do.
They didn’t look like poor people from the countryside.
“My name is Ikoma-no-suke. This is my wife, Koiginu. We are traveling from Kyoto to find someone,” the man explained.
Iwate felt sad hearing them because she reminded her of the capital. But she couldn’t miss this chance.
“Ikoma-no-suke, there’s no time to waste. Your wife is in pain. I will help her. But you must hurry across the river to find medicine.”
Ikoma-no-suke ran off. There was no medicine seller in such a remote place. But he didn’t know that.
His poor wife, Koiginu, moaned in pain.
“Don’t worry,” Iwate said with a smile.
“I’ll take good care of you. Your baby will be born soon.”
After waiting many years, a pregnant woman was finally in front of her.
Iwate pulled out a knife she had prepared for this moment. She sharpened it slowly. Excitement and dread filled her.
Shhh, shhh, shhh…
The sound caught Koiginu’s attention.
“W-what are you doing with that knife?”
“Don’t worry,” Iwate said, “I’m going to make it quick.”
Koiginu, scared, tried to pull away. “H-how?”
“Like this!” Iwate said, raising the knife.
She grabbed Koiginu’s leg before she could run and brought the knife down.
Koiginu screamed as Iwate cut her leg. She struggled, but Iwate grabbed her again. Iwate ripped off Koiginu’s clothes.
Koiginu’s big, round belly was now exposed.
Iwate plunged the bloody knife into Koiginu’s belly. Blood poured out.
“M-my baby…” Koiginu gasped with her last breath.
Iwate, now completely mad, reached into Koiginu’s belly and pulled out the baby. But then, something caught her eye.
Around Koiginu’s neck was a small red bag. It had the name “Mother Iwate” written on it.
Iwate froze. “Mother Iwate… Wh-why do you have this? Y-you… are my …”
She dropped the baby from her hands. It fell to the floor.
“The person you were searching for… was me?” Iwate whispered.
With blood-covered hands, she clawed at her white hair.
From that day, Iwate became a demon, both in body and soul.
Where did we leave off? Ah yes, Iwate had just found out that the woman she killed for the baby’s liver was her daughter. After that, she became a demon.
Time passes quickly, as it always does. Ten years, fifty years, and one hundred years flew by.
Then, one autumn, a monk named Yukei from the temple in Nachi was traveling. He and his followers were on a pilgrimage, wandering the country.
After walking all day, they reached Adachigahara. The sun had already set.
There was nothing around, just empty fields and no houses in sight.
Finally, they saw an old, broken-down house.
One of the servants knocked on the door.
An old, wrinkled woman answered. She peeked through a small crack in the door and asked, “What do you want?”
“We’re travelers with no place to sleep tonight. Could you let us stay for just one night?” the servant begged.
At first, the older woman refused. But after a bit of back and forth, she agreed. She opened the door slowly.
Inside, the roof was falling apart. The wind blew through the house. Leaves were swirling around.
“It’s not much,” said the older woman. “And I have no food to offer.”
The servant noticed a large kitchen knife on the floor.
“You must eat meat here,” he said, pointing to the knife.
The older woman’s expression changed. She mumbled, then hesitated. “That’s… .”
The monk, Yukei, stepped in to calm the situation and asked, “What’s that tool over there?”
“It’s a spinning wheel,” she replied.
“How interesting! Would you spin some thread for us?”
The older woman hesitated. But she then agreed. She began to spin the wheel, making it turn whirr, whirr.
“All I do is spin thread every night, just trying to survive in this sad world,” she sighed.
Yukei gently told her, “Life is full of suffering, but it is like a spinning wheel. Our souls keep turning through different lives.”
The servant, getting bored, yawned and rubbed his arms. “It’s cold,” he muttered.
The older woman stopped spinning and said,
“I’ll go get firewood to warm you. Please wait a moment.”
Then she stood up slowly. But she turned back to look at them before leaving.
“Don’t open the back room.” The older woman said. She looked worried.
“We wouldn’t do such a thing. We’re not the type to peek into someone’s room.” Yukei’s servant replied.
But the older woman still looked anxious. She kept turning around when she left the house.
“That older lady seems suspicious,” the servant said after she left. “She might be hiding something in that back room.”
“Even though she’s old, she’s still a woman. She would feel embarrassed if we looked into her room.”
“I suppose that’s true,” the servant replied, still unsatisfied. He kept glancing toward the back room, curious.
“Stop it,” Yukei warned. But the servant ignored him.
At last, the servant quickly slid open the door to the room.
“W-what is this…?”
What greeted him was a horrifying sight: a pile of white bones stacked high.
Some bones still looked like human bodies. But their arms and legs had been torn off and thrown aside.
There was also dried, dark blood on the bones and some flesh clinging to them.
It was clear — these were the remains of people who had been eaten.
“The older woman is a demon! She’s a monster!” the servant screamed, shaking with fear.
Yukei and his followers were terrified. They ran out of the house as fast as they could.
Suddenly, they heard a voice behind them.
“You saw it! You saw it!”
The orler woman’s expression suddenly changed to one of furious anger.
Her eyes were wide. Her sharp teeth showed as she growled.
Her white hair flew wildly around her head as she chased after them.
“I told you not to look!” she roared. Her anger flared like fire.
The wind began to whip around them. Dark clouds gathered. The rain started to fall. Thunder boomed. And lightning lit up the sky.
The demon’s eyes filled with tears of blood.
“Yes, I’m a demon! I eat humans! Why couldn’t you leave me alone?” she shouted.
The demon raised a heavy iron staff, ready to strike them down. The wind howled. The trees shook, and the ground beneath them.
But Yukei pulled out a small statue of the goddess Kannon.
He held it up and began chanting a powerful prayer. He called on the deities for protection.
“May the gods of the east, south, west, north, and center protect us! May all who see this be guided to enlightenment. May evil be stopped, and wisdom flow.”
Lightning struck the demon’s body with a loud crash. The demon, who had been so intense and furious, suddenly weakened.
She staggered, trembling.
“Shame… such shame… how humiliating…” she muttered, her voice filled with sorrow. Her voice faded, blending with the storm as it vanished into the night.
That’s a typical story… or a story filled with extra suffering.
(This is based on the Kurozuka legend and its Noh play, Adachigahara.)
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Source:「砂村隠亡丸の余苦在話-よくあるはなし-」https://onboumaru.com/
I am posting this translated with permission.
Thank you, Mr. Sunamura Onbomaru.