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Old Temple Mouse

10 人や国の不平等をなくそう
ページID:0002424 更新日:2022年12月6日更新 印刷ページ表示

There is an old temple in this village that was once the site of some strange goings on. It seems that the monk who ran the temple disappeared one day, never to be seen again.

When a new monk came to the temple, he too disappeared. Naturally, the people of the village became concerned, and after this pattern was repeated several more times, they got together at the temple to discuss the problem.

“Why do our monks keep running off?” they asked. “This last monk was only here for about ten days before he vanished.” The villagers were quite worried about the problem. The oldest man in the village, Sakuzojiisan, spoke up, “Something strange is going on at that temple, don’t you think? Maybe our temple is haunted.”

“That must be it!” exclaimed one of the other villagers. “I say that some of us should stay in the main hall tonight to clear up this mystery.”

So five or six of the village’s leading citizens were chosen to spend the night at the old temple. As night began to fall, the villagers began to fade off to sleep one by one leaving only the old man awake in the silence.

Slowly, Sakuzojiisan became aware of a strange scraping noise drifting down from the ceiling. “Hey! There it is!” cried the old man as he tried to rouse his sleepy comrades. “Look! Up there on that beam. What is that?”

The villagers were now wide awake. “ What the…? It’s a mouse!” they shouted. “It’s a mouse all right, but I have never seen a mouse that big in my life!” said one of the frightened villagers.

“Will you look at that!” said the old man, “That long white thing you see moving around there is it’s tail.” he said. Sure enough, there up on a beam near the ceiling was a giant mouse with a tail measuring more than a meter in length.

“I know that there was something strange going on in this temple!” said one of the villagers. “That thing has been eating our monks!” said another as they cautiously crept closer for a better look.

“With all of these people here,” someone said, “that spook is not going to come down from it’s hiding place tonight. Tomorrow morning, we’ll get everyone in the village together and come back out here to get rid of that thing. Let’s get out of here!”

No one in the village got any sleep that night. They stayed up all night trying to concoct a plan to exterminate the gigantic, monk eating pest. “How in the world are we going to get that thing out of the temple?” they asked.

One man said, “We could get all of the folks who own bamboo swords together and attack it as a group, but if it gets away, it may start eating villagers instead of monks.”

“Why don’t we set fire to the temple?” offered one youngster in all seriousness. “We are sure to get him that way!”

Well, nobody thought that was a very good idea. While they were informing the youth of the flaws in his plan, Sakuzojiisan suddenly clapped his hands together.

“Of course! Cats!” he cried. “If you want to catch a mouse, get a cat. Look, out at my house, we have two cats. They’re brothers, and they are really smart. Those two cats are just what we need!”

As daylight turned to dusk, the villagers made their way back the temple while the old man hurried home for the cats. There he found them sleeping peacefully by the hearth. Sakuzojiisan spoke to the cats as gentry took them in his arms.

“I have a little something that I want you two to do for me.” He cooed. “Out at the old temple we are having a little problem with a mouse. The problem is that it keeps eating our monks, so I am asking you guys to come out there and catch that mouse for us. Do you think that you are up to it?” He tucked the cats into the front of his kimono and returned to the temple.

As Sakuzojiisan neared the temple, the two cats leapt from their place inside of his kimono and raced off toward the main hall. They entered the hall and flew up to the beam on which the monstrous mouse had been lurking. They tore into that mouse like the wind. There was a great commotion; thrashing about and screaming, the mouse fell from the rafters along with a large part of the thatched roof, as the villagers dived out of the way. The huge mouse lay there on the floor, dead. One of the cats had his teeth buried in the mouse’s throat while the other had it by the head.

The villagers timidly approached the mouse and confirmed that it was really dead. They dragged the huge carcass out to the mountain behind the temple and cut it open. Inside they found the bones of the missing monks. These they reverently gathered and gave them a decent burial.

In time, a new monk come to take up residence at the temple. One day, Sakuzojiisan brought the cats to the monk.. “This temple is indebted to these brother cats.” he said and told the story of the monster mouse to the monk. “Please let them live here and take good care of them.” After that, the cats enjoyed a life of ease, napping peacefully every afternoon in the sun on the verandah of the old temple.