娘むすめのねがい

In the past, the forests around Nose in Settsu Province were under direct control of the Edo shogunate tenryo, and in the village at the foot of these mountains, a doctor named Douetsu lived with his daughter.

道越 was known as a skilled doctor in the village, and it was his daily routine to enter the mountains of Nose to gather medicinal herbs.

However, at one point, there was someone who stole cedar trees from Sugiyama in the tenryo area.

The official in charge of Sugiyama tried to catch the thief by increasing the number of guards, but the cedar trees were stolen every day. Frustrated, the official mistakenly regarded Michikoshi, who happened to enter Sugiyama, as the thief and took him to the magistrates office.

The daughter, upon learning this, repeatedly appealed her fathers innocence to the magistrates office, but the office refused to listen and drove her away.

As autumn came and turned into winter, there was no sign of Michikoshi returning. Worried about her father who remained in the cold prison, the daughter decided to make a 21-day vow to the Kannon of Koyama. She climbed the stone steps barefoot every night, praying to Kannon for her fathers exoneration.

And on the last day of the twenty-one-day wish-making, when the daughter came to the bottom of the stone steps while praying for the fulfillment of her wish, a large wolf was looking down at her in front of the Kannon Hall.

However, the daughter, who was more afraid of wasting the past twenty days than of the wolf, closed her eyes and began to climb the stone steps one by one while chanting the Kannon Sutra.

The daughter knew the number of stone steps by heart, so she opened her eyes as soon as she finished climbing the last step, but there was no sign of the wolf, and she was standing in front of the Kannon Hall.

Then, a wolfs distant howl was heard from the mountain over there, and in the daughters hand was a shackle that her father must have put on her at some point.

At that time, the daughter thought that the wolf must have been the incarnation of the Goddess of Mercy testing her, and as she believed, the real cedar thief was soon caught and Michikoshi was forgiven.

The daughter who came to pick him up and Michikoshi embraced each other joyfully upon their reunion, and eventually, when spring came and Michikoshi regained his health, the two were able to live happily together once again.