Gon, the Little Fox

1

 This is a story I heard from an old man named Mohei who lived in my village when I was a child.

 Once upon a time, there was a small castle in a place called Nakayama near our village, where there was Lord Nakayama.

 There was a fox named Gon who lived in the mountains a little far from Nakayama.
Gon was a solitary little fox who lived in a hole in the forest full of ferns.
He would go out to the surrounding villages night and day to do mischief.
He would go into the fields and dig up potatoes, set fire to the preserved rapeseed husks, and rip out the peppers hanging in the back of the peasants' houses.

 It was one autumn day.
After a couple of days of rain, Gon was squatting in the hole, unable to get out.

 When the rain stopped, Gon crawled out of the hole, relieved.
The sky was bright and clear, and shrike bird was chirping and chirping.

 Gon came out to the foot of the village stream.
Rain drops were still glistening on the spearhead of the pampas grass near by.
The river is usually dry, but after three days of rain, the river was awash with water.
Pampas grass and bush clovers along the riverbank, which were not usually submerged in water, were lying on their sides in the yellowish water and were washed in water.
Gon walked down the muddy trail to the lower reaches of the river.

 When he looked down, he saw people in the river and they were doing something.
To avoid detection, Gon walked in to a deep grass and peered from it.
Gon thought, "It's Hyouju."
Hyouju had rolled up his tattered black kimono and was shaking his net called Harikiri to catch the fish, while dipping up to his waist in the water.
There was a round bush clover leaf that stuck to the side of his Hachimaki-wearing face like a big mole.

 After a while, Hyouju lifted the back-most part of the Harikiri-net, which looked like a sack, out of the water.
There were roots of turfs, leaves of grasses and scraps of woods, but there were white things glittering in some places.
It was the belly of an eel or a large sillago.
Hyouju threw the eels and sillagos into the basket called Biku with the garbage.
Then he tied the mouth of the sack again and put it in the water.

 Hyouju came up from the river with his Biku and left it on the bank and ran upstream to look for something.

 When Hyouju disappeared, Gon leaped out of the grass and ran to the side of the Biku.
Gon wanted to play a little trick on him.
Gon grabbed a fish one by one from the Biku and threw it into the river below where he was casting the Harikiri-net.
Every fish dived into the muddy water, making a splashing sound.

 At last Gon tried to grab the fat eel, but it was too slippery to catch it with his hands.
Gon became very frustrating and stuck his head in the Biku and put the eel in his mouth.
The eel squeaked and wrapped itself around Gon's neck.
At that moment, Hyouju shouted from the other side,
"Oh, you are a thieving fox."
Gon was so surprised that he jumped up.
He threw away the eel and tried to run for cover, but the eel was still wrapped around Gon's neck and wouldn't leave.
Gon jumped out to the side and ran away as hard as he could.

 He looked back under an alder near the cave, but Hyouju didn't chase him.

 Relieved, Gon crushed the eel's head and finally removed it and placed it on a blade of grass outside the hole.

2

 Ten days later, Gon walked by the back of the house of a farmer named Yasuke.
In the shade of the fig tree, his wife was making her teeth black.
Gon passed by the house of Shinbei, a blacksmith.
His wife was combing her hair.
Gon thought to himself, "Well, there's something in the village."
"It's an autumn festival?
If it's a festival, there should be sounds of drums and flutes.
And, of course, there should be a banner at the shrine."

 Gon thought about this as he came along, and before he knew it, he was in front of Hyouju's house which had a red well in front.
Inside the small, crumbling house, many people were gathered.
Women in Sunday kimonos with handkerchiefs tied around their waists were making a fire in the fire pit outside.
Something was simmering in a large pot.
Gon thought, "Oh, the funeral.
"Someone of the Hyouju family is dead."

 After noon, Gon went to the village graveyard and hid in the shadows of the SixJizo statue.
It was a beautiful day and in the distance the roof tiles of the castle was shining.
In the graveyard, cluster amaryllises were blooming like a red cloth.
And then a bell rang from the village.
That was the signal for the ceremony.

 Soon, the procession of people in white kimonos coming was seen.
The voices of the people talking were getting closer.
The procession entered the graveyard.
After the people had passed, the cluster amaryllises were trampled off.

 Gon stretched out to look.
Hyouju was wearing a white Kamishimo and holding up mortuary tablet.
His usually cheerful face, which looked like a red sweet potato, was somewhat wilted today.
"Hahn, the one who died was Hyouju's mother."

 Gon ducked his head, thinking that.

 That night, Gon thought to himself in the hole.
"Hyouju's mother was sick in bed and she must have said that she wanted to eat eels.
So Hyouju took out the Harikiri-net.
However, I had done something naughty and brought it back.
That's why Hyouju couldn't let his mother eat the eel.
His mother must have died as it was.
She must have died while wanting to eat the eel.
Oh, I shouldn't have done such a naughty thing."

3

 Hyouju was washing barley at the red well.

 Hyouju had been living a poor life with his mother until now, and since his mother died, he was all alone.
"Hyouju is a lone , just like me," thought Gon, who was watching from behind the shed.

 Gon started to walk away from the shed.
Somewhere, Gon heard a voice selling sardines.
"I'm selling sardines at a discount. Live sardines for sale."

 Gon ran towards the sound of the voice.
"Give me some sardines," said Yasuke's wife from the back door.
The sardine seller parked his cart which loaded the baskets of sardines on the side of the path, grabbed the shiny sardines with both hands, and took them into the house of Yasuke.
Gon grabbed five or six sardines from the basket and ran away in the direction he had come from.
Gon threw the sardines into the house of the Hyouju and ran back to the hole.
At the top of the slope on the way, Gon looked back.
Hyouju was still at the well, washing barley.

 Gon thought that he had done one good thing to make up for the eel.

 The next day, Gon picked up a lot of chestnuts from the mountain and took them to Hyouju's house.
Gon looked through the back door.
Hyouju was having his lunch and was absentmindedly thinking with his tea bowl in his hand.
Strangely enough, Hyouju had a scratch on his cheek.
Gon was wondering what happened.
Hyouju said to himself, "Who on earth threw the sardines into my house.
Because of that, I was thought to be a thief, and I had the hard time against the sardine seller."

 Gon thought "Oh, shit!"
Poor Hyouju was beaten up by the sardine seller, and even hurt.

 Thinking of this, Gon went quietly around to the shed and left the chestnuts at the entrance.

 The next day and the day after that, Gon picked up the chestnuts and brought them to Hyouju's house.
The next day after that, he brought not only the chestnuts but also two or three pine mushrooms.

4

 It was a evening under the beautiful moon.
Gon went out to hang out.
He passed under the castle of Lord Nakayama, and when he went a little way, he heard someone coming from the other side of the narrow path.
Gon heard someone talking.
Bell crickets were chirping and chirping.

 Gon was hiding on one side of the path and remained still.
The sounds of talking became closer and closer.
It was Hyouju and Kasuke, a farmer.
"Yes, hey, Kasuke," said Hyouju.
"Oh, yeah?"
"I have a very, very weird thing going on recently."
"What?"
"After my mother died, someone has given me chestnuts and pine mushrooms every single day."
"Hmm, who?"
"I don't know. He's leaving them behind without my knowledge."

 Gon followed them.
"Really?"
"Yeah, really. If you don't believe me, come see me tomorrow.
I'll show you the chestnuts."
"Hmm, strange things happen."

 Then they walked quietly.

 Kasuke suddenly looked behind him.
Gon was startled and became small and still.
Kasuke didn't notice Gon and walked quickly.
When they came to the house of a farmer named Kichibei, they entered the house.
There was heard the sound of fish-shaped wooden temple drum from the house.
The light was shining on the shoji screens of the window, and a large shaved head could be seen moving.
Gon was squatting by the well, thinking, "It's a Buddhist pray, maybe."
After a while, three more people came into Kichibei's house in groups.
The voice reading the sutra was heard.

5

 Gon squatted by the well until the Buddhist pray was over.
Hyouju and Kasuke were leaving together.
Gon followed them because he wanted to know what they had to say.
Gon went stepping in Hyouju's shadow.

 When they got to the front of the castle, Kasuke said,
"What you were talking about earlier.
I'm sure that was God's work."
"What?", Hyouju looked at Kasuke in surprise.
"I've been thinking about it ever since, but it's not a human being, it's the gods.
The gods feel so sorry for you because you are alone. So they have given you with many kinds of things."
"Is that so?"
"That's right. So you should thank the gods every day."
"I do."

 Gon thought, "Well, that's just boring.
I'm going to bring you some chestnuts and pine mushrooms.
But instead of thanking me, He is going to thank God.
That's not worth it."

6

 On the next day, Gon went to Hyouju's house with the chestnuts in his hand.
Hyouju was sitting in the storeroom, making the rope of straws.
So Gon sneaked in through the back door.

 Then Hyouju suddenly looked up.
He saw that a fox had entered the house.
Hyouju thought that Gon who stealed the eel the other day, had come to do mischief on him again.
"All right."

 Hyouju got up and took the matchlock gun hanging in the barn and filled it with gunpowder.

 Then he approached without making a sound of footsteps and shot Gon who was just leaving the doorway.
Gon fell down with a thud.
Hyouju came running to him.
When he looked inside the house, he saw the chestnuts placed on the dirt floor.
"Oh," Hyouju looked down at Gon in surprise.
"So it was you, Gon. You're the one who always gave me the chestnuts."

 Gon nodded, as his eyes languidly closed.

 Hyouju dropped the matchlock gun with a thud unintentionally.
Blue smoke was still coming out of the muzzle of the gun.

(I translated Gon, the Little Fox (ごん狐, Gongitsune) by Nankichi Niimi.)

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