(590) Tales of Big Snakes #3 Wakigafuchi

Were there any big snakes here in Matsuyama?

I happened to find an article about big snakes at Wakigafuchi deep water in this book.

日本魔界伝説地図 (Gakken Mook)

• 作者: 東雅夫
• 出版社/メーカー: 学研プラス
• 発売日: 2010/07/14
• メディア: ムック

There once were a pair of big snakes at Wakigafuchi deep water.

Please look at the map. The distance from Ishiteji temple to Wakigafuchi deep water is about 4 kilometers in a straight line.

To tell the truth, I didn't know of Wakigafuchi at all. But Wakigafuchi seems to be famous here in Matsuyama. Next picture is the front cover of the latest issue (Sep. 2023) of Matsuyama-Hyakuten booklet. Wakigafuchi is drawn.

 

Naito Meisetu, a samurai of Matsuyama fief, wrote about Wakigafuchi in his autobiography.

(1847-1926) 

Natsume Souseki made a haiku poem about Wakigafuchi.

(1867-1916)
蛇を切った岩ときけば淵寒し
If you hear of a rock on which a snake was cut,
it is cold in the deep water

Here is the picture of the Snake Bone and Stone Sword in Ishiteji temple.

(2023.07.18)

The "Snake Bone", is a bone of a male serpent that was killed by a monk of Ishite-ji Temple. If the bone is a skull of the snake, I roughly guess the snake was about 6 m long.

The serpent had been troubling people in the old days. The monk exterminated it by the power of Buddha Dhama. He threw this stone sword at the snake.

The female snake was still alive at that time. 

I read about a female big snake at Wakigafuchi in this book.

A lord named Hanzo lived near Wakigafuchi deep water. One day a beautiful woman came to Hanzo's house. She was so beautiful and so polite he let her in, and she came to live in his house as a servant. Her name was Oryo.

One night, Oryo went out alone without saying anything to Hanzo, but he saw her leave, so he followed her. She walked very fast toward Wakigafuchi deep water and dived from the cliff into the river and twisted her body remarkably.

Hanzo was frightened to see this. He went back home to get a gun and returned to Wakigafuchi to discover who she really was. He waited for a while. A dragon appeared on the surface of the river.

Suddenly it transformed itself into Oryo. Getting up on the rock, she tied her hair looking at her image in the water. Hanzo decided to shoot this creature. He aimed at her neck and fired.

The dragon roared. Seven days later, the remain of the dragon was found in the lower stream. Until recently, the snake bone festival, which deifies the skull of the dragon, was held every year in Wakigafuchi area. Now the bone was enshrined at Shrine of the Dragon Princess

I did a little survey on Hanzo Miyoshi. According to the historical record of Miyoshi family, the female snake was killed between 1587 and 1602.

The End

(589) Tales of Big Snakes #2 The Eight-headed Dragon

Boa constrictors are native to South America.

How about our Japan? Are there, were there any big snakes?

Have a look at next picture. A man in white is fighting with snakes. It is YamatanoOrochi. The eight-headed Dragon. The man is a god called "Susano-o". He killed the big snake which had eight heads and eight tails.

Pic. 1

落語で読む古事記 はじまりは高天原 スサノオノミコトとクサナギノツルギ

• 出版社/メーカー: PHP研究所
• 発売日: 2019/04/24
• メディア: Kindle版

He was cutting through one of the snake's middle tails when he found a sacred, shining sword inside.

 
Pic. 2

This sword became one of the Three Imperial Regalia. The sword is called Grass-Cutting Sword, and is enshrined at Atsuta Shrine in Nagoya.

Pic. 3

Replica of the Three Imperial Regalia in Yushinden（又新殿）of Dogo hot spring

Behind the throne, we can see a part of the sword (left) and a low stand on which the Comma-Shaped Gem (middle), and the Sacred Mirror (right). 

After reading the oldest history book, called "Kojiki", I'll show you the summary.

古事記物語―若い人への古典案内 (現代教養文庫)

• 作者: 太田善麿
• 出版社/メーカー: 社会思想社
• 発売日: 2023/09/11
• メディア: 文庫

日本の神話―Japanese myths 【講談社英語文庫】

• 作者: ラルフ・マッカーシー
• 出版社/メーカー: 講談社インターナショナル
• 発売日: 1999/06/18
• メディア: 文庫

The eight-headed snake was killed in Age of Mythology, that it, more than 3000 years ago.

To be continued to issue #3

(588) Tales of Big Snakes #1 Boa Constrictor

Look at this picture. Can you guess what it is?

It looks like a hat, but not a hat. A six-year-old boy drew this picture and he said: "It is the scariest animal."

I'll show you the next one.

 

It is a big snake swallowed an elephant. It is the inside of the big snake. The boy read a book about the jungle, called True Stories. It said: "Boa constrictors swallow their prey whole, without chewing. Afterward they are no longer able to move, and they sleep during the six months of their digestion."

These pictures are taken from a book, called "The Little Prince".

The Little Prince

• 作者: de Saint-Exupéry, Antoine
• 出版社/メーカー: Mariner Books
• 発売日: 2000/06/01
• メディア: ペーパーバック

I did a little survey on boa constrictors on the internet. Here is a summary about it.

<a href="https://www.freepik.com/free-vector/rattlesnake_23718866.htm#query=boa%20constrictor&position=1&from_view=search&track=ais">Image by brgfx</a> on Freepik

To be continue to issue #2