Shippeitaro

The term shippei (竹篦) denotes a "bamboo staff" in Zen Buddhism,[8] is connected with the expression shippegaeshi meaning "repercussion" or "backlash".[9]

In variants, the dog may have Suppeitarō, Suppetarō or a variety of other names, for example, "Hayatarō of Kōzenji temple in Shinano". The dog may not be given any name at all.[10]

The form Shippeitarō (悉平太郎) (of uncertain meaning) has been adopted as standard or official one for the dog of legend attached to Yanahime jinja, commonly known as Mitsuke Tenjin,[11][12] with alternate names given as Hayatetarō/Shippūtarō (疾風太郎, 'swift wind Tarō') and Hayatarō (早太郎, 'swift Tarō').[12][lower-alpha 1]

The name is altered to 執柄太郎 in kibyōshi fiction by Nansenshō Somahito,[14] where shippei (執柄) means "to grasp authority"[9] (cf. §Old printed book)

The version of "Schippeitaro" in Andrew Lang's The Violet Fairy Book (1901) was taken from Japanische Märchen und Sagen collected by Professor David Brauns (Leipzig, 1885).[15][16][lower-alpha 2]

The story of "Schippeitaro" (1888) as told by Mrs. T. H. James (Kate James[18]), was number 17 in the "Japanese Fairy Tale Series" printed by Hasegawa Takejirō, who issued many such chirimen-bon or "crepe-paper books".[19] Mrs. James's version follows a storyline identical to Lang's version.[20] The illustrator has been identified as has been identified as Suzuki Kason,[21][22] based on the colophon of 1889 which names the artist as Suzuki Sōsaburō (鈴木宗三郎).[1] Even though this can be read as "Munesaburō",[23] the artist Suzuki Kason (whose address in Tsukiji matches the colophon one) went by the common name Sōtarō (宗太郎),[24] also written Sōtarō (惣太郎).[25]

Below is the summary of the Lang/Mrs. James version:[5][26]

A young adventure-seeking warrior entered an enchanted forest, and he slept in a shrine (or chapel) there,[lower-alpha 3] and was awakened at midnight by the noises of cats yelling and dancing. The cats could be heard saying: "Do not tell Shippeitaro!"

Afterwards, the warrior visited a nearby village, and there he answered a girl's plea for help. It was the village custom to sacrifice a maiden to the mountain spirit, and it was her turn that year. She was placed inside a cage (or cask) and left at the shrine.[lower-alpha 4][lower-alpha 5] The warrior made inquiries to find out about the famous dog Schippeitaro (standard modern romanization: Shippeitarō), owned by the prince's overseer,[lower-alpha 6] and obtained permission to borrow the dog. The warrior then replaced the maiden inside the cage with Schippeitaro. The cage was brought to the shrine, and the cats arrived. When the huge black cat opened the cage, Shippeitaro jumped out and killed it. The warrior entered the fray and together they killed several more cats, and the rest of them fled. The warrior returned Schippeitaro to his rightful owner, and the village afterwards held an annual festival in honor of the warrior and the heroic dog.[lower-alpha 7]

The Lang/Mrs. James version which features cats as the antagonists is actually atypical. In most Shippeitaro tales, the malevolent spirits appear as monkeys (or baboons).[30][lower-alpha 8]

An example of "Shippei Taro" published in Keigo Seki (ed.), Robert J. Adams (tr.), Folktales of Japan (1963) had been collected in Monou District, Miyagi. The priest in the story defeated the ogres (whose remains were those of dead monkeys) by replacing the sacrificial maiden inside the chest with Shippei Taro, a dog brought from the distant city of Nagahama in Ōmi Province.[lower-alpha 9][32][33]

Seki himself collected a number of variant tales from the field. When Seki published Nihon mukashibanashi taisei (1978), his provisional count reached 67 examples.[lower-alpha 10] This tally was inclusive, even counting tales where the dog helper did not appear at all.

The dog may or may not have a name at all. And the name is not entirely consistent. The dog's name may be only a slight variant of Shippeitaro, such as (Suppeitarō, Suppetarō (すっぺい太郎, 素平太郎, すっぺ太郎), or an alternate reading (Takeberatarō[lower-alpha 11]) or altogether different. The dog may be Shippeitarō/Suppe(i)tarō from Ōmi or Tanba or some other province. In several examples, the dog appears as Hayatarō (早太郎) or Heibōtarō (へいぼう太郎, 兵坊太郎) of Kōzenji temple in Shinano Province.[35][10]

According to one scholar the form Shippeitarō (悉平太郎) tends to occur near Tōtomi Province (Shizuoka Prefecture) (nowadays[lower-alpha 12]), while Hayatarō (早太郎)is concentrated in Shinano Province (Nagano Prefecture).[36] One etymological hypothesis is that in the Shinano dialect, haibō (ハイ坊) denoted "wolf cub", which probably gave rise to the name Heibōtarō, and Hayatarō may well be a further corruption of this.[37]

In actuality, the name of the dog in the legend attached to the shrine (Yanahime jinja or Mitsuke Tenjin in Iwata, Shizuoka) varied, and was also known alternately by the similar names Shippūtarō/Hayatetarō (疾風太郎, 'swift wind Tarō') or Hayatarō (早太郎, 'swift Tarō'),[12] as already noted (§Nomenclature)[lower-alpha 13] In an old document, Tōtōmi koseki zue 遠江古蹟圖繪 dating to Kyowa 3 (1803), the legendary dog of this shrine at Mitsuke-juku was Yazaemon (弥左衛門, 'swift wind Tarō').Yabe (2009), pp. 21–22, 25–26

The evil spirits may be in the form of monkey, cat, rat, badger or "raccoon dog" (mujina, tanuki).[38]

Old printed book

Shippeitaro breaks out of his box and destroys the wolves.

—from Zōho Shippeitarō (1796), printed from a drawing by Toyokuni.

There is also a kibyōshi type printed book from the Edo Period, the Zōho Shippeitarō (1796) meaning the "expanded version" that was written by Nansenshō Somahito (南杣笑そまひと) with illustrations by ukiyo-e artist Toyokuni. This book illustrates spirits of the monkey, fox, kappa, tanuki (raccoon dog), hare, and wolf kind devouring the human sacrifice, and in the culminating scene depicts Shippeitarō defeating wolves.[14][39]

In the medieval anthology Konjaku Monogatarishū occurs a similar story of a sacrifice-demanding monkey god, entitled "How in Mimasaka Province a God was Trapped by a Hunter and Living Sacrifice Stopped". The Shippeitaro tales have been considered orally transmitted versions of this medieval prototype.[40][41]

English translations of this medieval version is found in S. W. Jones's Ages Ago: Thirty-Seven Tales from the Konjaku Monogatari Collection (1959),[42] and Michelle Osterfeld Li's study Ambiguous Bodies.[43]

A similar tale is also included in another medieval anthology, the Uji Shūi Monogatari.[43]

In Japanese folklore studies, the "Shippeitarō" story is classed under the tale type Sarugami taiji (猿神退治, "Destroying the Monkey Demon" or "Monkey Spirit Conquest"), categorized as Type 91 by Seki in his paper written in English.[31][44][45] This general tale group is more broad, and includes tales where a dog is not involved at all.[44] The tale group (Sarugami taiji) is assigned Seki No. 256 (NMBS = Nihon mukashibanashi shūsei II; NMBT=taisei.) in Japanese scholarship.[34][46]

Since the story concludes with the heroes abolishing the practice of offering maidens as human sacrifice, it draws a parallel to the legend of Saint George and the Dragon, and there are certain similarities also to the story of Susanoo saving Kushinadahime from the great serpent Yamata no Orochi.[47]

In the Aarne–Thompson classification, the tale is classed as "The Dragon Slayer" type, AT300.[33]

Citations

Bibliography