A poor farmer lived with his old widowed mother at the bottom of a mountain. They had a little land that helped them with their food supply throughout the year.
The farmer and his mother were peaceful, humble, and happy people.
The town nearby, called Shining, was ruled by a cruel ruler who was scared of getting old and losing his strength, and thus, didn’t even want to be reminded of getting old by seeing old people. As a result, he made the terrible decision of ordering every family in the whole territory to put their elderly people to death as soon as possible.
This created havoc among the people; many simply abandoned their old parents to die.
This news crushed the poor farmer who lived at the bottom of the mountain as he loved his mother very dearly. No one dared disobey the wicked ruler, so the farmer thought of the least painful way to put his mother to death.
At the end of the day when his work was completed, he took some unwhitened rice, which was the main food of the ordinary people. He cooked it, dried it, tied it up in a square cloth, and hung it in a bundle over his shoulder with a pitcher filled with water.
He lifted his old mother onto his back and started climbing the mountain.
The road up the mountain was lengthy and abrupt. They passed by hunters and woodcutters, and at some point, they got lost and confused—but the farmer didn’t care about getting lost.
He just kept climbing upward toward the top of the mountain. This region was known as Obatsuyama, which means “abandoning of the aged.”
While she was on her son’s back, the old mother noticed he was confused about his path as he was wandering from one direction to another. She got worried that he might get into trouble on his way back. So, as they traveled, she reached out her hand, snapped some branch twigs, and dropped a handful every few steps to show the way back.
Finally, when they reached the top of the mountain, the man was tired but also devastated at the thought of abandoning his mother. He put down the rice and water and prepared a comfortable place for his mother. He made a soft bed out of fallen pine needles and gently placed his mother upon it. The man wrapped his mother’s padded coat around her shoulders then, with tears in his eyes and pain in his heart, he said goodbye.
The old mother gave a last piece of advice to her son. Her voice trembled with unselfish love. She said, “My son, do not let your eyes be blinded. The mountain road is full of dangers. Look carefully and follow the path with piles of twigs on it. They will guide you back to the path you know, lower down the mountain.”
The son looked back over the path and was surprised to see the piles of twigs. Then he looked down at his mother’s poor, old, wrinkled hands. They were scratched and dirty because of the work she had done for him.
He bowed to give her honor and decided not to abandon her and took her back with him.
Once again, he put his mother on his back and set off down the mountain. This time, the weight seemed light to him as he was able to make it through the shadows and the moonlight down to their little hut.
There was a hidden basement under the kitchen floor where food was stored. The son hid his mother there. He made sure that she had all the food she needed, but he always worried they might get caught.
A few months later, the son thought that everyone had forgotten about the ruler’s command, but then the ruler sent out another extremely unreasonable order. He wanted his people to give him a gift of a rope made of ashes. Everyone was in fear as the order had to be obeyed, yet no one in all of Shining knew how to make a rope of ashes.
One night, the son told his mother about the new order from the ruler. His mother advised him to make a rope of twisted, straw stretch it upon a row of flat stones, and burn it on a windless night.
The son called the people together, and they worked together to do just as his mother had said. When the fire died down, a perfectly shaped rope of ashes was lying upon the stones. When the ruler saw, he was delighted with the brilliance of the farmer and praised him, but he also demanded to know how he had gotten the idea.
The farmer didn’t want to lie and told the ruler his story.
The ruler listened closely and then thought for a long time. Finally, he lifted his head and said, “Shining needs more than strength in youth. I forgot the old saying, ‘With the crown of snow, there comes wisdom.’”
Immediately, the awful law ended, and the custom drifted far to the past. Now, only the legend remains.
