Written by Nankichi Niimi
This is a story I heard when I was a child from Grandpa Mohei, an old man in the village where I grew up.
Long ago, near our village, there was a small castle at a place called Nakayama where a lord by the same name ruled.
Nearby in the woods, there lived a fox named Gon. Gon was a fox that lived alone in a small hole he dug in the deep forest covered with thick fern. And day or night, he went down to the village and caused mischief. He laid waste to the farmlands and dug up sweet potatoes, set fire to dried rapeseed shells, pulled down chili peppers hung to dry at famers’ houses, and did much, much more.
One year in autumn, while it rained for a couple of days, Gon laid quietly inside his burrow. But as soon as the rain stopped, feeling relieved at last, he crawled out of the hole. The sky was clear and sunny and the cry of butcherbirds echoed in the forest.
Gon arrived at the river bank of the village where the raindrops on the Japanese pampas grass glittered. Usually the water level of the river is low, but with the 3 days of rain, there were plenty of water. The rapeseeds and bush clovers along the riverside that normally stay above the water were now submerged in the yellowish colored muddy water. Gon continued to walk downstream on the muddy path alongside the river.
Then, Gon noticed someone in the river doing something. Quietly, Gon tiptoed to hide behind the thick bushes and watched closely.
‘It’s Hyouju,’ Gon thought to himself. Hyouju had his ragged black kimono tucked up to his waist and was shaking the fishing net called harikiri in the river. A towel was wrapped around his forehead and a bush clover leaf that looked like a big black mole was stuck to his cheek. A while later, Hyouju lifted the bag attached to the end of the net out of the water. Inside it, there were grass roots, leaves, and rotten wood chips, but there was something else that was white and shinning in the bag. It was eel and fish bellies. Hyouju threw them into the creel, tied the opening of the bag tightly and placed it back in the river. Hyouju then grabbed the creel out of the water and placed it on the riverbank and started to walk upstream to look for something.
After Hyouju was out of sight, Gon jumped out of the bushes and ran toward the creel. He was feeling mischievous. He took the fish out of the creel and started to throw them back into the river, further downstream from where the fishing net was placed. With the splashing sound, all the fish quickly disappeared into the muddy water.
When all the fish were released, Gon tried to grab the fat eel, but because of its size and the slimy body, it kept slipping out of Gon’s grip. After struggling, Gon stuck his head inside the creel and grasped the eel’s head with his teeth. The eel let out a squeak and wrapped its body around Gon’s neck. At that instance, Gon heard Hyoujyu yelling out, “You, thieving fox!”
Gon jumped up startled and tried to run off but because the eel kept a firm grip, he hopped sideways and tried to flee as fast as he could with the eel still coiled around his neck. Below a big tree on the riverbank near his burrow, Gon stopped to look behind to see if Hyouju was still chasing him, but he didn’t see anyone. Relieved, Gon crushed the head of the eel with his strong jaws and finally freed himself. He then left the eel on a leaf outside his burrow.
After about 10 days had passed, as Gon was walking behind Yasuke’s farm house, he saw Yasuke’s wife coloring her teeth black behind the fig tree. And when Gon was passing through the backyard of Jinbei, the blacksmith’s house, he saw his wife combing her hair. ‛There must be something going on in the village,’ Gon thought.
‛I wonder what it is, an autumn festival? If so, there should be sounds of drums and flutes, and surely, festival flags will be raised at the shrine.’ While thinking about these things, Gon reached Hyouju’s house with the red well out front. Inside the small dilapidated house, many villagers were gathered. Women in formal wears with towel hung from their waist are at the outdoor cooking oven, burning wood. There’s something brewing inside a huge pot. ‛It’s a funeral,’ Gon thought. ‘I wonder who died in Hyouju’s family.’
In the afternoon, Gon went to the village cemetery and hid behind the six stone statues of Jizo. It was a fine day and the glitter of the castle roof tiles was visible in the far distance. Red spider lilies looking like red cloth were in full bloom. The sound of the temple gong from the village marked the start of a funeral procession.
A few minutes later, Gon could see the procession of the villagers in white kimono. The sound of their voices was getting closer, and soon, the procession entered the cemetery and crushed and trampled the red spider lilies as they proceeded.
Gon stretched up to get a better look and saw Hyouju wearing a white two-piece kimono and carrying a Buddhist memorial tablet. The usual red plump face resembling a red yam was burdened with grief.
‛So, it's Hyouju's mom that died,’ Gon thought to himself as he pulled back his head.
That night in the burrow, Gon stayed up thinking.
‛Hyouju's mom must have wanted to eat an eel in her sickbed in hopes of getting well. That's why Hyouju went fishing. But when I took it from him, I deprived his mom of her last wish. So she died without having the eel. She must have surely died with a strong wish to have that eel. Oh no, what have I done? ’
Hyouju was at the red well washing wheat for his meal. Hyouju lived a poor life with his mother, and now that she died, he lived there all alone. ‘Hyouju is all alone, just like me.’ Gon thought as he peeked from behind the shed.
As Gon was leaving, he heard a voice of a fish vender. “Sardines for sale! They’re very fresh!” Gon ran toward the voice full of vigor and saw Yasuke’s wife calling the vender from her back door. “I’ll take some sardines,” she said. The vender left the vending cart on the road and grabbed a handful of shinning sardines and entered Yasuke’s house. In that instant, Gon snatched 5 or 6 sardines from the cart, went back to Hyouju’s house, threw them into the house from the backdoor, and headed back to his burrow.
When Gon looked back from the top of the hill, he saw Hyouju in the far distance, still at the well washing wheat. Gon felt satisfied that he did one good thing to make up for taking the eel.
The next day, Gon gathered many chestnuts in the woods and took it to Hyouju’s house. When Gon peeked from the backdoor entrance, he saw Hyouju eating lunch, but he just sat there holding his rice bowl in deep thought. The strange thing was that there were scars on Hyouju’s face. As Gon wondered what had happened, he heard Hyouju talking to himself.
‛I wonder who threw those sardines into my house. Because of that, I was accused of stealing them and got beaten up by the fish vender.’ Gon thought that he had made a big mistake. Poor Hyouju, he got beaten up by the fish vender and gotten all those scars. Gon felt badly and went to the back of the house and left the chestnuts inside the shed. The next day and the day after, Gon gathered chestnuts and took them to Hyouju’s house. On the third day, Gon took some mushrooms along with the chestnuts.
On one full-moon night, Gon went out for a stroll. When he was passing underneath the castle, he noticed someone coming towards him on the narrow path. Gon heard voices among the sounds of insects crying, ‘chinchirorin, chinchirorin’.
Gon hid himself by the roadside and remained quiet as the voices came closer. It was Hyouju and a farmer named Kasuke.
“Oh, by the way, Kasuke,” said Hyouju.
“What is it?”
“There’s a very strange thing happening to me lately.”
“And what’s that?”
“Ever since mom died, I don’t know who but someone has been bringing me chestnuts and mushrooms every day.”
“Who would do that?”
“I don’t know. They’re just left there.”
Gon followed the two men.
“You’re kidding me, aren’t you?”
“If you don’t believe me, just come by tomorrow and I’ll show them to you.”
“That’s really strange.”
Afterwards, the two men continued to walk without speaking a word.
Then, Kasuke looked back suddenly. It startled Gon and he froze on the spot. Kasuke didn’t notice Gon and continued to walk on. When the two of them reached the house of another farmer named Kichibei, they went inside. A rhythmical sound of someone striking a wooden gong came from inside the house. A silhouette of a large bold head projected on the paper screen door. ‘There must be a Buddhist memorial service going on,’ thought Gon as he sat quietly by the well. After a few minutes, three men came and entered the house. Then the Buddhist service began.
Gon waited next to the well until the service was over. Hyouju and Kisuke came out together and Gon, wanting to hear more about what they were talking about earlier, followed closely behind them, stepping quietly on Hyouju’s shadow.
When they came to the castle, Kisuke said,
“What you told me earlier, I bet it’s god’s doing.”
“What?!”
Hyouju looked at Kisuke in surprise.
“I’ve been thinking after you told me and I’m convinced that it’s not something a person would do. It has to be a god. The god feels sorry for you for being all alone so he’s giving you his offerings.”
“You think so?”
“I’m sure of it, you should thank god every day.”
“Okay, I’ll do that.”
Gon thought, ‛hey, that’s no fun.’ He was the one bringing the chestnuts and mushrooms but god was getting the credit for it instead of him.
The very next day, Gon took some chestnuts to Hyouju. Since Hyouju was making rope in the shed, Gon sneaked inside the house from the back entrance. Just then, Hyouju looked up and saw a fox entering his house. He recognized Gon as the same fox that stole his eel. ‘I’ll teach him a lesson,’ Hyouju thought and got up to fetch the matchlock gun he had kept in the shed and lit it.
He then tiptoed toward the house and fired at Gon as he was coming out of the house. With the sound of ‘bang’, Gon dropped to the ground. Hyouju quickly ran up to get a closer look when he saw a bunch of chestnuts piled up inside the doorway.
“What?” Hyouju looked puzzled at Gon.
“It was you that brought all those chestnuts?”
Gon nodded weakly, unable to open his eyes.
Hyouju dropped his gun with a trail of thin blue smoke still coming out of the muzzle.
奥付
「ごん狐」英語
作:新美南吉
絵:画工舎、浦田真理子
翻訳、朗読:マリコ ドイオカ
音楽:秋山裕和
企画:にほんごの会くれよん
制作:多言語絵本の会RAINBOW
協力:公益財団法人日本障害者リハビリテーション協会
"This work is not for sale, nor for revision, nor for any change."