Long, long ago, a farmer named Sosuke lived at the foot of a mountain called Rokkoushizan in the Rikuchu region. There were seven small lakes near the village where this Sosuke lived. There was a large boulder called Miko rock on the edge of one of these lakes. There were a lot of fish there; it was a good place for fishing.
And so one day the farmer Sosuke took his fishing pole and went there to go fishing. As he stepped out of the woods and neared the lake, Sosuke looked up in the sky and got a shock. A heavenly being was flying from the direction of Rokkoushizan, and was descending toward the lake Sosuke was heading for. The heavenly being was wearing what is called a robe of feathers, which fluttered through the air. This had a lovely appearance.
Almost automatically, Sosuke hid behind a tree, and peered out at the heavenly being without being noticed. Otherwise, he assumed, the heavenly being would have flown off as soon as she had seen him. As it was, the heavenly being circled over the lake two or three times, and apparently satisfied herself there was no one around. She gradually descended. The water in the lake was deep, blue and clean, and reflected the form of the heavenly being in the air above it as clearly as a mirror.
The heavenly being finally dropped from the air. But not to the surface of the lake-- she rested on Miko rock, which stood on the shore. From there she looked around the lake once more. Then, knowing there was no one around, she began to remove that beautiful kimono called a robe of feathers. It was a hot day, and so even this heavenly being wanted to go bathing.
Removing the robe of feathers, she hung it from the top of Miko rock and quietly slipped into the water. She began to swim quietly. There were no ripples and no splashes; she truly swam quietly. This was a mountain lake surrounded by deep woods, and so there was no sound there but the crying of birds.
However, Sosuke, gazing out from behind a tree, was hidden very close to Miko rock, and desired to take for his own the robe of feathers that was right before his eyes.
It was more beautiful than any weaving ever seen by people like Sosuke. He slipped quietly from the shadow of the trees and removed the robe from the top of the rock. Seeing it in his own hands, he knew this was a thing of indescribable rarity and beauty that he could not let leave his possession. In a daze, he placed it in the basket hanging at his side. And he started home.
A little later the heavenly being came up out of the water and went to the top of Miko rock. There was no robe of feathers. You can imagine how shocked she was. Without it, she could not return to heaven. That is, she could not do anything.
She pulled some large leaves from a magnolia tree and made herself something to wear. Wearing the magnolia leaf clothing, the heavenly being went down the mountain toward the village. She came to a house not far from the lake, and asked there first.
"Hello, I have a question. Someone must have come past from that lake just now. I wonder where that purson lives?"
An old man came out of the house and told here politely, "If you go a little further on you'll come to three houses. The man's house is the one in the middle."
She walked, wearing the magnolia leaf clothing, to the man's house. "Hello, I have a question. I wonder if you took my kimono, which was hanging on the top of Miko rock a little while ago? Without it I can't return to heaven. I beg you, please return it."
When he heard that, Sosuke made a very troubled face and said, "Without question it was me that took the kimono. It was me, but I didn't know it was your kimono. But there was this marvelous kimono, like nothing I'd ever seen, on top of the rock, so I took it to give to the lord. The fact is, I just presented it to him."
That was a lie, but that was what Sosuke said. When she heard it, tears ran down the cheeks of the heavenly being wearing magnolia leaves. "If that's true," she cried," how will I ever get back to heaven?"
She cried awhile, but must have realized that wouldn't help. She turned to Sosuke again and said, "In that case, please rent me three paddy fields. I can grow lotus flowers, make yarn from them and weave the yarn to make a kimono."
When he heard that, Sosuke felt sorry for her, but after what he had just said, he could hardly take out the robe of feathers and return it to her. Later he did present the robe of feathers to the lord, but at that time he just said, "I'd be happy to do that," and he let her use the fields, as she had asked. He also built a hut for the heavenly being to live in, next to the lake where Miko rock was. The heavenly being lived in the hut, and grew lotus plants.
In time, the lotus flowers were in full bloom. Then the heavenly being pulled fine fibers, thin as spiderwebs, from the stems of the flowers. Shut up in her hut, the heavenly being wove these fibers on a loom, day after day.
Whils she wove, she sang songs with, needless to say, a beautiful voice. It was not a voice one would mistake for that of a human.
Hearing the heavenly being's voice singing to the kikkon, battan, kikkon, battan rhythm of the loom, Sosuke and the people of the village would try to peek into the hut. No matter how hard they tried, however, they could not see a thing-- not the heavenly being, or the loom, or anything else. The sound of the loom and the singing voice seemed first to come from one spot, and then from another. And so there were some people who said there was a heavenly being weaving on Rokkoushizan.
Before too much longer, however, the heavenly being had finished weaving a truly beautiful fabric called a mandala./1 She asked that it be presented to the lord. Sosuke took it to the palace, and presented to the lord.
"This is a rare piece of fabric indeed," the lord said. "Who on earth could have woven such a fabric?"
"Yessir, there is a woman . . ." Sosuke said without going into the details.
"Tell the woman that if there is anything she wants, she can have it," the lord told him.
Sosuke returned and told the heavenly being. "There is no thing that I want," she said, "but I would like to go serve the lord in the palace."
Sosuke then returned to the palace with that message, and it was arranged for the heavenly being to serve in the palace. However, being a heavenly being, she never ate anything, even in the palace. Not only that, but she never spoke to anyone. By and by summer came, and the time for airing clothes. At that time, the heavenly being's robe of feathers that Sosuke had presented was brought out of the storehous and aired in the reception hall. When she saw it, the heavenly being quickly put it on her body, and began to rise as though being sucked up into the sky. When she was high up in the air, she flew off toward Rokkoushizan.
Everyone stared off in that direction, but they couldn't do anything. Since she was a heavenly being, there was nothing that could be done.
However, the mandala woven by the heavenly being was so valuable that it was installed in the temple called Komeiji in Ayaorimura.