The Four Forests
Japanese
The four black-pine forests are there on the north side of Koiwai Farm in Iwate Prefecture. Each of them has a unique name: from north to south; the Wolf Forest, the Basket Forest, the Black-hill Forest and the Thief Forest.
One day, a giant black rock, which was in the middle of the Black-hill Forest, proudly told me this story as the rock had known why each of the four forests had a unique name since it had started.
Years ago, Mount Iwate erupted many times. Its ashes covered all over the fields and hills. This black rock was also emitted and settled down on this place.
Finally the eruption had ceased; grass with ears and without, started growing from south to north and covered all over, then Japanese emperor oaks and pine trees grew there, at the end, they formed the four forests. But at first they didn't have their own names.
One day in fall, four farmers with their choppers and hoes came to a field. One of the farmers at the front said,
"This place is nice, isn't it? We can easily cultivate the field here. Forests are near from us. Here's clean running water. What is more, we can get plenty of sunshine."
"I wonder if the soil is rich or not," the second farmer said and pulled up a Japanese pampas grass. He shook the soil off its root, kneaded it, licked it and said,
"Well, it's not so rich, but not so bad."
"So why not decide to live here?" looking around there, the third farmer said.
"All right, let's do that," the forth farmer, who had kept silently standing said.
They threw down in a heap the load they had carried on their shoulder, and cried loudly toward the direction they had come.
"Hey! Come here, quickly!"
Then among the Japanese pampas, three of their bright-red-faced wives with their baggage on their shoulders showed up. Nine children, who were all under 6 or 5 years old cheerfully ran up.
Then the four farmers, faced toward the direction they liked, shouted to the forests unanimously,
"May we cultivate this field?"
"Yes, you may," the forests answered all together.
"May we build a house here?" they cried again.
"All right!," the forests answered at once.
"May we make a fire here?" they asked in unison.
"Yes, you may," the forests answered at once.
"May we cut some trees?" they cried again.
"All right!" the forests answered all at once.
The farmers clapped their hands happily, and their wives who had felt uneasy, suddenly became in high spirits. The children had a petty fight with happiness, and were hit on the head by their mother.
By that evening, they built a log hut with a thatched roof. The children happily ran and jumped around.
The next day, the four forests could see the farmers working frantically; men turned the grass-root over with their mattocks, while women gathered chestnuts, and cut some pine trees to make firewood for the coming winter.
Soon the snowy winter came. During the winter, the forests desperately shut out the cold winds from north for them. Yet still little children cried a lot complaining of the cold with their little swollen hands on their neck.
The next spring came. They built one more hut, and sowed buckwheat and barnyard millet seeds. Then the white buckwheat was in bloom and barnyard millet had black ears. That autumn, they had a fine crop anyway, cultivated a new field, and built the third hut. Everybody felt happy, even adults jumped with joy.
What do you think happened next? A frozen cold morning, four little children out of nine had gone during the night. They looked for them here and there all about frantically, but they couldn't find even their shadows. Then each of them turned to the direction they liked and shouted,
"Doesn't anybody know where our missing children are?"
"Sorry, we don't," the forests answered unanimously.
"Then, we are going to look for them," they cried to the forests.
"Come on," the forests answered again.
Then having their farming tools, they at first went to the Wolf Forest, the nearest one. They felt damp cold wind and the smell of dead leaves. They kept going, then they heard some cracking sounds. They hurried to that direction, and saw rosy fire burning and nine wolves dancing around the fire. They were approaching nearer and nearer, and saw their four missing children sitting around the fire and eating roasted chestnuts and hatsutake-mushrooms. All the wolves were singing a song and running around the fire like a summer lantern with a revolving inner shadow that cast images on the outer shade.
˘öThe fire is cracking, cracking
The fire is roasting chestnuts, roasting chestnuts
The chestnuts are rolling, rolling ˘ö
Then the farmers shouted unanimously,
"Wolves, wolves! will you give us back our children?"
All the wolves were startled, stopped singing, and looked back at the farmers.
Then the fire suddenly went out and it became dark and utterly silent. the children by the fire started crying. The wolves felt like they were in trouble, looked around, and ran away to the depths of the forest. When the farmers led their children by the hands to get out of the forest, they heard the wolves shout,
"Don't think badly of us! We served your children a lot of chestnuts and mushrooms!"
After returning, they made some millet cakes and left them in the Wolf Forest to show their appreciation.
Spring had come again. They had eleven children and two horses. They composted grass, dead leaves, and stable manure, and put it into their fields, so millet and barnyard millet grew well. In the autumn, they were very pleased with the abundant crop.
One of the cold days with ice needles on the ground, they were going to work for plowing to have more fields, and looked for their farm implements such as hatchets and hoes. But they couldn't find them anywhere. After looking for the implements desperately for a while, they reluctantly turn to the direction each of them liked, and shouted,
"Don't you know about our tools?"
"We don't know!" the forests answered all together.
"We'll come to look for them," the farmers shouted.
"You can come!" the forests answered all together.
This time, they didn't have anything, and streamed toward the forests. At first, their destination was the Wolf Forest, the nearest one. Then the serious looking nine wolves appeared soon, waved their hands hurriedly and said,
"There's nothing, nothing, definitely nothing. But if you haven't been able to find your tools, come again."
Then they went to the Basket Forest, east side of the Wolf Forest. When they entered the depth of the forest, they found a huge basket knelt with twigs upside down under an old Japanese emperor oak.
"There's something suspicious about it. A basket in the Basket Forest is all right, but what's inside? Let's lift it and see."
There were exactly nine tools inside. Not only that, a red-face hill man with golden-color eyes was sitting cross-legs in the center. He opened his big mouth and said,
"Peekaboo!"
The children were surprised and were about to run away, but the adults didn't move and said to him unanimously,
"Hey, man! Stop making trouble, please! Don't do that again from now on."
The hill man, who looked very ashamed, was standing there, and scratching his head. When each one took their own tools, and was about to go out of the forest, the hill man cried loudly,
"Come and give me your millet cakes!" he turned toward the depth of the forest, hid his head with his hands, and ran away. The farmers laughed and laughed, and returned home with their tools. They made millet cakes and left them in the Wolf Forest and the Basket Forest.
The next summer, they broke all the flat lands to make their fields. Their houses were attached with firewood huts and barns. They had three horses. In the autumn, the bumper crop pleased them a lot. They lived much better lives than before. They thought they could make more and larger millet cakes with their millet.
A strange thing happened again. One cold morning with a layer of frost on the whole fields, all the millet they had put in the barn was gone. They were worried about it, ran around and looked for it in and out of the barn, but didn't find even a grain of millet. They reluctantly turned the direction each of them liked and shouted,
"Don't you know about our millet?"
"We don't know," the forests answered all together.
"We'll come to the forests to look for it," they cried.
"All right. You can come," the forests answered unanimously.
At first, they went to the Wolf Forest with their tools in their hands. The nine wolves had already waited for them, and chuckled when they saw the farmers and said,
"We like millet cakes today too. But we don't have any millet here, no millet, definitely nothing. But if you don't find it anywhere, come again."
They thought it was sensible. The next they went to the Basket Forest. The red-face hill man was already there at the mouth of the forest, grinned at them, and said,
"Millet cakes, millet cakes, but I don't have your millet. You'd better go to the north."
They thought it was reasonable, and reached the entrance of the Black-hill Forest, you know, that's the one I had been told this story.
"Give us back our millet! Give us back our millet!"
The Black-hill Forest didn't showed up but only its voices were heard,
"I saw a pair of big black feet flew to the north at the first light of the day. You'd better go a little more north." It didn't mention about millet cakes. I think it was true, because after it told me this story, I tried to give it seven-sen copper coins, that was all in my purse, as a token of my appreciation. But it didn't accept it. You know, it was an open-hearted forest.
The farmers thought the Black-hill Forest was right, and kept going to a little more north.
There, the black-pine Thief Forest. So they thought,
"From its name, it sounds like a thief." They entered into the forest and yelled,
"Hey, give us back our millet! Give us back our millet!"
Then a huge black man with long hands appeared from the depth of the forest, and shouted with a cracked voice.
"What did you say? You said I'm a thief? I'll hit and crash such guys! In fact, what proof do you have?"
"We have a witness. We have a witness," they answered.
"Who is it? Damn you! Who said such a random thing?" the Thief Forest barked.
"It's the Black-hill Forest," they shouted as loudly as they did.
"What it said is totally unreliable, unreliable! Hell!" the Thief Forest roared.
As it was reasonable but so frightening, they looked at each other and were about to run away.
Then suddenly clear and grave voices were heard.
"No! you mustn't do that."
It was Mount Iwate with white snow on its top. The black man from the Thief Forest held its head covered with its arms, and fell to the ground.
Mount Iwate said quietly,
"The Thief Forest was surely a thief in this case. At dawn the sunshine in the east sky and the moon light in the west sky gave me enough light. I could watch the happening from beginning to the end. But I think you'd better go back. I'll make the Thief Forest give you back your millet. So don't think bad for the forest. Actually, the forest was eager to make millet cakes for itself. That's why it stole your millet. Ha-ha-ha."
Then Mount Iwate turned up to the sky with an unconcerned look. The black man had already disappeared.
They were taken aback for a while, and then went home, and found all of their millet in the barn. They made a lot of millet cakes in good spirits and took them to the four forests. The Thief Forest was the one which was given the most numbers of the cakes. Yet, they said a bit of sands were contained in the cakes. Well, there was no help for it.
Now the four forests and the farmers became friends, and they gave millet cakes to the four forests at the beginning of every winter.
At the end, the giant black rock, the story teller, which was in the middle of the Black-Hill Forest, murmured that the millet cakes had become considerably small. (2014.2.1 With Itaya)
Original by Kenji Miyazawa
