Hukumusume fairy tale collection > Foreign language >Japanese classical stories

イラスト　たつよ　　　提供　らくがきの日常

Gobble Gobbled Gone

(Ikkyu Story)

Translation　Laurence Hunter

Japanese　←→　Japanese ＆ English　←→　English

　Once upon a time, there lived a well known priest apprentice boy named Ikkyu.

　One day the head priest of a temple named Oshou, received some rice dumplings. But there was not enough to share with all the young boy monks

　So, Oshou decided to eat up all the dumplings without sharing any with the young boys.

　Oshou hid the dumplings deep in the back of wooden cupboard.

　But who should be watching all this, but the priest boy Ikkyu.

"What a crafty fellow that Oshou is.　Well, that’s it. Let us monks eat them all up."

　Then, Ikkyu took out the dumplings from their hiding place and together with the other boys in the temple, proceeded to eat them all up.

"But Ikkyu, should we have done such a thing?"

　To the worried boys, Ikkyu replied with a smile,

"Don’t worry . I will get the Buddha statue in the main temple hall to help us out"

　Ikkyu then, scooped up the last bit of dumpling sauce from the plate and went into the main hall.


　Now, the next morning Oshou noticed that his rice dumplings had disappeared and became enraged with anger,

　Ikkyu and all the other boys were quickly summoned to him

"What’s this! Who stole the dumplings from inside my cupboard?"

　Ikkyu then spoke in an innocent tone,

"We don’t know.

　But the Buddha in the main hall has dumplings smeared around its mouth you know.

　Could Buddha be the culprit ?"

"Why, What foolish words."

　While he muttered this, Oshou entered the main hall and noticed the Buddha statue did have dumplings sauce smeared around its mouth.

　Of course, it was all Ikkyu's doing.

(well well.

　This is surely the work of Ikkyu.

　He really tried to trick me, but I cant let him do that eh!.

　So , Oshou who knew the truth , spoke out to the Statue

"O Buddha.

　Was it you that stole my dumplings I wonder?

　Please, give me an answer."

　After saying so, Oshou hit the metal Buddha statue on the head with a bang.

　thereupon the Buddha seemed to reply.

♪Noooooooooo

　Resounded back a metallic sound.

　No matter how many times Oshou hit

♪Noooooooooo, Noooooooooo"

　That was the only sound that resounded back

　Oshou quickly turned around and faced Ikkyu the boys with a terrifyingly angry look upon his face.

"Look.

　The Buddha answered back "Noooooo."

　Just as I thought ,you are the culprits! "

　Oshou thought to himself,

(At last, I have got one over on that crafty Ikkyu)

　Although he was happy inside, Ikkyu was not one to be beaten so easily.

　Ikkyu's tone of voice steadily became more and more innocent ,

"But why?

　Hitting is not enough to get a confession you know.

　If this be the case, then we should put the Buddha in a hot boiling pot to see"

　So, the Buddha was put into a boiling pot of water.

　Thereupon, the Buddha seemed to reply,

♪Gobble, gobble gobbled gone.

　While bubbling away in the water.

"There you go. The Buddha just confessed to the crime by saying so."

　Oshou had nothing to utter back to Ikkyu apart from.

"Undoubtedly, just as you said ."

　These were the only words that he could answer back with.

The end

One point of advice: Beware of the crafty Ikkyu.

(Click here to return)