Original Publication Date: June 1902 (Meiji 35)
This Printing: October 1931 (Shōwa 6)
Binding: 2-hole musubi-toji binding with white silk, extra silk edge and capped at top and bottom
Call Number: TBD
Cataloger: Laura Smith
Author/Translator: Lafcadio Hearn
Artist: [Suzuki Kason]
Printer: Nishinomiya Yosaku
An old woman who likes to laugh and make dumplings was preparing dumplings when she dropped one, which fell into a hole in the floor of her kitchen. The old woman reaches down the hole for it, but the floor gave way and she fell. Unhurt, she finds herself on a road like the one in front of her house. Surrounded by ricefields, the old woman is alone in an unfamiliar place. The woman continues down the sloping road, calling for her dumpling. Eventually she finds a stone Jizō and asks if he saw her dumpling. He tells her he did, but warns her not to go farther because an Oni lives down the road. The old woman laughs and continues, finding another stone Jizō and repeating the same interaction. She finds a third Jizō and asks about her dumpling, but he tells her to be quiet and hide behind him as the Oni is approaching. The Oni greets Jizō and smells a human nearby, and Jizō pretends to not know what he’s talking about. The old woman starts laughing uncontrollably and the Oni pulled her from behind Jizō, who orders the Oni not to hurt her. The Oni says he will take her home so she can cook for them, and promises not to hurt her. The Oni takes the old woman farther down the road and crosses the river in a boat to a large house. The Oni leads her to the kitchen and tells her to cook dinner for him and the other Oni, giving her a rice paddle and telling her to only put one grain of rice in the pot, as it will multiply when stirred in water with the paddle. The old woman does as she was told, and the rice multiplies in the pot. The old woman stays for a long time and cooked for the Oni, who never hurts or scares her, but she grows lonely and misses her home and dumpling-making. One day when all of the Oni are gone, the old woman decides to run away. She takes the paddle and she starts rowing across the river, which is very wide. She’s barely a quarter of the way across when the Oni return and rush to the river. The old woman rows very quickly, and the Oni attempt to drink up the entire river. Eventually the water is low enough for the Oni to wade across, and the old woman takes out the paddle and makes funny faces at them, causing them to laugh so hard they threw up all of the water. The old woman makes it across and runs up the road until she makes it back home. The old woman is happy to make dumplings again, and the magic paddle makes rice for her. She sells her dumplings and quickly becomes rich.
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