"The Cow's Repayment" - A Yamagata Folktale

A long, long time ago, there lived an elderly father and mother with their beautiful daughter. One day, a young lord from a castle went hunting, and after a sudden downpour, he stayed at the old couple’s house to take shelter from the rain. At that time, the young lord fell in love with the daughter at first sight. When he was returning to his castle, he announced, “Soon, I will return for my wife,” and left.

Two or three days later, when the elderly couple summoned a monk for a memorial service in their home, even the monk fell in love with their daughter. However, being a bald monk, there was no way he could ask them to give him their daughter’s hand in marriage. He decided not to say anything. Instead, he lied and said, “Elderly father, elderly mother, your daughter will soon turn into a cow. I will read some sutras before Buddha for her, so please send her to the temple in a few days.”

The next morning, the elderly couple summoned a palanquin to deliver their daughter to the temple. The palanquin carriers, however, loved drinking, and in the middle of traveling, they left the palanquin on the road unattended while they drank. At this moment, the young lord from the castle happened to pass by. Upon spotting the daughter, he took her and brought her to his castle.

Afterwards, a small calf came running from somewhere and hid in the palanquin. Without a clue as to what had just happened, the palanquin carriers came back and continued carrying the palanquin all the way to the temple. When they arrived, the monk and the palanquin carriers were all taken aback—sometime during the journey, their passenger had turned into a cow! The monk sent a message to the elderly couple saying, “Before I could read the sutras for your daughter, she had already turned into a cow. At this point, merely reading sutras for her cannot turn her back into a human,” and made them come to retrieve their cow.

The elderly couple wept and wept as they brought home the calf, but they raised it with love and care. The calf grew up and eventually the elderly couple started riding it to the rice fields. One day, however, the cow suddenly began to run away while they were still riding it. The cow ran all the way into a castle. There was a huge fuss and their long-lost daughter came out. “Oh my! Father, mother, you came for me!” she said, and welcomed them. From then on, the elderly father and mother, their daughter, and even the cow, all lived happily ever after together in the castle.

Excerpt translated from: 庄内・最上・村山・置賜 山形の昔ばなし　第二集　ページ19−20