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Uchide no kozuchi

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Uchide no kozuchi (打うち出での小槌こづち, lit. "Tap-Appear Mallet") is a legendary Japanese "magic hammer"[1] which can "tap out" anything wished for.[2] This treasure is also rendered into English as "magic wishing mallet",[2] "lucky hammer",[3] "the mallet of fortune", etc.

In popular belief, the magic wooden hammer is a standard item held in the hand of the iconic deity Daikoku-ten,[2] who is often represented as figurines, statues, netsukes, and in architecture.

It is also a stock item in popular tales. In Issun-bōshi ("One-Inch Boy"), the hero gains the mallet defeating an ogre (oni) and amass wealth, while in modern embellishments, he even transforms himself into full adult-size. In Momotarō ("Peach Boy"), the mallet is captured from the ogres in Onigashima, alongside the kakure mino (raincoat of invisibility) and kakurekasa (hat of invisibility)[3][a]

The notion that ogres possessed this prized mallet dates much earlier than the tales, which are part of the otogi-zōshi collection from the Muromachi period. It can be traced at as far back as The Tale of Heike (ca. 1240), or, if the instance of use in the work has any historicity, datable to before ca. 1118.

In folkloristics, the uchide no kozuchi is catalogued in the Stith Thompson motif index scheme under "magic hammer, D 1470.1.46".[1]

Issun bōshi[edit]

Main article: Issun-bōshi

In the legend, the one-inch tall Issun-boshi, after leaving his parents’ home, comes under the employ of a wealthy daimyō, whose daughter is an attractive princess. Although scorned for his height, he is given the job of accompanying the princess. While traveling together, they are attacked by an oni, who deals with pesky Issun-boshi by swallowing him. He defeats the Oni by pricking him from within with his needle/sword. The Oni spits out Issun-boshi and drops the 'Uchide-no-Kozuchi as he runs away. In the otogi-zōshi, he then shakes out opulent riches with the mallet and becomes a court favorite. In the better-known modernized versions, the princess uses the power of the mallet to grow him to full size. At the end of the story, Issun-bōshi and the princess are married.

History[edit]

Etymology[edit]

The word uchi de no kozuchi literally translates to "striking-out [little] hammer",[4] or "hammer that strikes anything out [that is desired]".[5] In plainer speech it is understood that the hammer is to be shaken[5] or swung.

Early usage[edit]

According to the Hōbutsushū [ja] (1179), the mallet is a "wonderful treasure", such that when one goes out into a wide open field, it can be used to tap out a mansion, amusing men and women, useful servants, horse and cattle, food, and articles of clothing.[6][7] However, all the items wished for reputed disappear at the sound of the bell tolling (hence the necessity of using it in a vacant field),[6] and the moral of this Buddhist sermon-type tale (setsuwa) is that this is no treasure after all.[8]

In The Tale of Heike is an anecdote whereby a strangely outfitted person moving about in the night, is mistaken for an ogre (oni), and his kindling wood mistaken for the uchide no kozuchi, attesting to the belief even then that this was a treasure reputedly owned by the ogres. The anecdote occurs in scroll 6 of Heike, under the chapter on Gion no nyōgo [ja] (Lady Gion). One night, near Gion Shrine, a figure is witnessed seemingly with hair like a bed of silver needles, and something glowing in his hand, which people feared to be an ogre, carrying the uchide no kozuchi for which these demon-kind beings are famous. The imperial guardsman Tadamori was ordered to investigate, and he discovered it was just a priest trying to illuminate a light in the chapel. The priest had put straws in his head to prevent getting damp.[9] The same anecdote also occurs in the Genpei jōsuiki, which states that the priest was blowing on the embers in an earthenware container to keep it from going out, and when he did the straws on his head would illuminate and appear like silver needles.[10] If this was a historical event, it happened sometime before or around the time when Kiyomori (born 1118) was conceived by the Lady Nyogo, who was then mistress to Retired Emperor Shirakawa, and Kiyomori's putative father Tadamori being the guardsman sent on the oni-hunt; but the tale is likely a "fable about Kiyomori's royal parentage".[11]

It has been observed that the treasures of the oni in the later tale of Momotarō incorporated this older lore about treasures the ogres possessed.[10][12] It has been observed that the same set of treasures as Momotarō's oni, or practically so, are described in The Tale of Hōgen, regarding Minamoto no Tametomo traveling to Onigashima island.[12] Tametomo discovers that the islanders claimed to be descendants of oni, and named their now-lost treasures as the "cloak of invisibility, the hat of invisibility, floating shoes, sinking shoes, and sword" in some texts,[13] and in older variant texts (Nakai codex group) one treasure is uchide no kutsu (shoes of wishing), a likely scribal error for uchide no kozuchi according to scholars.[12]

See also[edit]

Footnotes[edit]

Explanatory notes[edit]

  1. ^ Antoni 1991, p. 167 renders the others as "the magical cloak, the cap of invisibility" which is redundant; perhaps for the latter "cap".

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Ikeda, Hiroko (1952). "A Type and Motif-Index of Japanese Folk-Literature". FF Communications. 209: 148.
  2. ^ a b c Sargent, G.W. (1969) [1959], The Japanese Family Storehouse, CUP Archive, pp. 85, 199, note 4
  3. ^ a b Antoni, Klaus (1991). "Momotarō (The Peach Boy) and the Spirit of Japan: Concerning the Function of a Fairy Tale in Japanese Nationalism of the Early Shōwa Age". Asian Folklore Studies. 50 (1): 155–188. doi:10.2307/1178189. JSTOR 1178189. S2CID 165857235.
  4. ^ a b Sakai, Atsuharu (1952), "(237) Uchide-no-kozuchi or Aladdin's Mallet", Japan in a Nutshell: Japanese psychology, tradition, customs and manners, Yamagata Print. Company, p. 162
  5. ^ a b Garis, Frederic de (2013) [1935], We Japanese : being descriptions of many of the customs, manners, ceremonies, festivals, arts and crafts of the Japanese, Routledge, p. 566–, ISBN 9781136183676 (Yamagata press, 1935, 1936, 1937; 富士屋ふじやホテル 1940)
  6. ^ a b 平康頼たいらのやすより (Taira no Yasunori) (1919), "宝物ほうもつ集しゅう(平康頼たいらのやすより撰せん)", in 足立あだち, 四郎吉しろうきち (ed.), 大だい日本にっぽん風教ふうきょう叢書そうしょ, vol. 第だい１輯, pp. 342–3
  7. ^ "吉備きび団子だんご", 日本にっぽん大だい百科全書ひゃっかぜんしょ, vol. 3, 小学館しょうがくかん, 1985, p. 142, ISBN 9784095260037
  8. ^ 高橋たかはし, 亨とおる (2004). 無名むめい草子ぞうしにおける引用いんよう関連かんれん文献ぶんけんの総合そうごう的てき調査ちょうさと研究けんきゅう. 科学かがく研究けんきゅう費ひ補助ほじょ金きん 研究けんきゅう種目しゅもく (Thesis). hdl:2237/13131.
  9. ^ Bialock, David T. (2007), Eccentric Spaces, Hidden Histories, Stanford University Press, p. 292, ISBN 978-0804767644
  10. ^ a b 井い乃, 香こう樹じゅ (Ino, Kōju) (1941), 紀き記きの神話しんわと桃太郎ももたろう (Kiki no shinwa to momotarō), 建設けんせつ社しゃ出版しゅっぱん部ぶ{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  11. ^ Bialock 2007, p. 294
  12. ^ a b c 志田しだ, 義秀よしひで (Shida, Gishū) (1941), "桃太郎ももたろう概論がいろん (momotarō gairon)", 日本にっぽんの伝説でんせつと童話どうわ (Nihon no densetsu to dōwa), 大東だいとう出版しゅっぱん社しゃ, pp. 305–6{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  13. ^ 井い乃 1941, p. 175
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