Long ago, there was a famous choja at Mano in Bingo. Before becoming famous, he was a humble, hard-working youth named Kogoro, the charcoal maker. He had built a little hut at Uchiyama in Mie and lived alone, baking charcoal for a living. One day, a beautiful lady from the capital-city came to meet Kogoro, the charcoal maker in his little hut. “There was a revelation from KannonSama at the Kiyomizu temple, and that’s the reason I have come to your house to marry you.” she said, “Please allow me to stay with you as your bride from today.” “I am very glad that you have come all the way from the capital, especially to be my bride,” answered Kogoro, “but today I don’t have enough food for the two of us to eat.” “Then please go to the town and buy some rice,” the lady said.
Kogoro and the Ducks
The lady had a brocade bag with her. She took out two gold coins and gave them to Kogoro. He took the gold coins and went down the mountain to town to buy food. A stream ran at the foot of Uchiyama. On the banks of the stream there was a forest of purple willows and in their shadows lay a silent pool. As Kogoro was walking along the path through the forest, he saw a pair of mandarin ducks on the surface of the pool. He stopped still. He took out the gold coins and using them as pellets, he threw them at the ducks. The aim was good, but the ducks flew away, and the coins sank to the bottom of the pool. Kogoro went back up to his little hut in the mountain because he no longer had the coins to buy the food.
The Little Stones
When Kogoro reached home, the lady asked him about the food. Kogoro told her how he found some water birds on the way and wanted to catch them for her. But he lost both the gold coins and the birds. When she heard this, the young lady was sad. “Those were valuable treasures called koban,” she said, “With just those two gold coins, you could have bought lots of rice and fish and fowl. What have you done!” Kogoro, the charcoal maker was surprised. He had never heard of such a treasure called koban. “I had no idea that those stones were such priceless treasures,” he declared. He said that there were many such little stones lying in the hills behind his hut. Speedily, both of them lighted the torches and went to see behind the hut. It was exactly as Kogoro had said. There were many little stones scattered all around and they were pure virgin gold.
Kogoro Becomes Rich
Kogoro and the lady gathered all the stones and carried them inside the hut. In a small period of time, the house was so full of them that they piled them up on the outside. When the people in the town and village heard of it, they all came one after another and brought all kinds of things to sell. To get a share of the gold, they all came to their hut to work for them. Thereafter, Kogoro became rich and established the big estate at Uchiyama in Mie. He also built a temple for Kannon and worshipped her. A little girl as beautiful as a rare jewel was born to Kogoro, and later she was sent to the capital as a consort. He continued to prosper, but because Kogoro had been a charcoal maker formerly people always called him the charcoal-maker choja.
