The Tale of the Dirt Spider

The Tale of the Dirt Spider (Tsuchigumo z̿shi), which exemplifies the complementary
roles of text and image in medieval Japanese tales, is one of a number of fictional
works that illustrate the exploits of Minamoto no Yorimitsu (948–1021), better
known as Raik˷, the Sinified reading of his personal name. The historical Raik˷ was
a Kyoto bureaucrat who served as the governor of several provinces near the capital,
but the legendary Raik˷, aided by his four samurai retainers, the so-called Four
Heavenly Kings, was a fearless warrior best known in the medieval (1185–1600) and
Edo (1600–1867) periods for slaying the demon Shuten D˷ji (as depicted in The
Demon Shuten D̿ji). In The Tale of the Dirt Spider, Raik˷ destroys a giant man-eating
arachnid, or tsuchigumo, endowed with shape-shifting powers. The word tsuchigumo
(earth, or dirt, spider) appears in ancient texts like Kojiki (Record of Ancient Mat-
ters, 712), where it refers to rebels against the throne, and it probably derives from
tsuchigomori (dirt dweller), in reference to the pit housing in which those rebels may
have lived.1 By the early medieval period, the term had reverted to its literal meaning
of “earth spider.” Versions of the story appear in the “Book of Swords” chapter of The
Tale of the Heike (thirteenth century), in the prints of Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797–
1861) and Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839–1892), and, in the modern period, in the collec-
tion of Japanese fairy tales published by Lafcadio Hearn (1850–1904).
This translation is based on the exquisite Tsuchigumo z̿shi picture scroll (designated
as an Important Cultural Property) in the Tokyo National Museum. An eighteenth-
century certificate attributes the artwork to Tosa Nagataka (late Kamakura period)

The translation and illustrations are from the Tsuchigumo z̿shi picture scroll (early fourteenth century) in the
collection of the Tokyo National Museum, typeset in Komatsu Shigemi, ed., Tsuchigumo z̿shi, Tengu z̿shi,
˔eyama ekotoba, Zoku Nihon no emaki 26 (Tokyo: Ch̎˷ K˷ronsha, 1993), 129–30.

1. Basil Hall Chamberlain, trans., The Kojiki: Records of Ancient Matters, 2nd ed. (North Clarendon, Vt.: Tut-
tle, 1981), 107n.2.

23
 and the calligraphy to Priest Kaneyoshi (Yoshida Kenk˷; 1283–1352), the latter of
whom was well known in the Edo period for Tsurezuregusa (Essays in Idleness, ca.
1332). However, there is no proof for either claim. The work probably dates from the
early fourteenth century,2 which makes it very early for an otogiz̿shi. At some point,
the pictures and text were cut apart and reassembled out of order, and some pieces
are missing. The translation puts the events in their most plausible order. The text is
also damaged and illegible in some places; words in brackets reflect a best guess at
reconstruction. The superb detail and high quality of the scroll’s illustrations set this
work apart from other pieces that tended toward simpler expression, and it is an
outstanding example of Kamakura-period yamato-e (native style) Japanese painting.
Considering its early-fourteenth-century provenance, The Tale of the Dirt Spider was
a pioneer in the otogiz̿shi picture-scroll genre, which was to reach full maturity only
several centuries later.

Minamoto no Raik˷ [was] a descendant of the [Seiwa] emperor and a warrior of

24 great courage. Shortly after the twentieth day of the tenth month, he traveled to the
Kitayama area and came to the Rendaino Cemetery.3 He had one retainer, Tsuna,4
who was an exceptional man in his own right, and because this Tsuna was a clever
warrior, Raik˷ took him along. Raik˷ carried a three-foot sword, and Tsuna, [wear-
ing] an armored corselet, followed with a bow and quiver in his right and left hands.
As they were biding their time in the cemetery, a skull [appeared] in the sky. They
watched it move along with the wind until it disappeared behind a cloud. Raik˷
discussed it with Tsuna, and when they went to see where the skull had gone, they
came to a place called Kagura Hill. But the skull was nowhere to be seen.
However, there was an old house. They pushed their way through the front of a
wide garden that was so overgrown they had to wring the dew from their sleeves.
They saw that the gate was blocked and partially hidden under creeping vines. The
house seemed to have been the residence of an old aristocrat. The mountains to the
west [were covered] in a crimson brocade, and to the south there was a pond of

2. Komatsu, introduction to Tsuchigumo z̿shi, in Tsuchigumo z̿shi, Tengu z̿shi, ˔eyama ekotoba, ed. Ko-
matsu, unnumbered page.
3. Kitayama is in northern Kyoto, and the old Rendaino charnel grounds are in the present-day Kita district
of Kyoto.
4. Tsuna is Watanabe no Tsuna (953–1025).

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purest blue. The garden had become a field of blue spirea, and the gate a dwelling
place for birds and beasts.
The two men passed through the middle gate. Raik˷ posted Tsuna outside the
house as he looked back to his left and right.
[There is a missing passage here. The accompanying image shows Raikō entering a building. A
skeleton with the long black hair of a woman sleeps under a robe in a back room, and a pair of
severed human heads litters the foreground. There is a sunken fireplace in the middle of the room,
and to the side is a kitchen knife resting on a cutting board. Raikō, sword drawn, enters the room
from the garden.]
From behind the paper doors of the kitchen, Raik˷ heard the loud labored
breathing of an old woman. When he rapped on the sliding partition, it opened.
“Who are you?” Raik˷ asked. “I can’t make any sense of things.”
The woman replied, “I am an old person of this place. I am 290 years old, and I
have served nine generations of lords.” Raik˷ watched as she spoke. Her hair was
white and bound together. Using a kujiri,5 she peeled open her left and right eyes
and then pulled the upper eyelids over her head like a hat. Then, with something that
looked like a hairpin, she pried open her mouth and tied her lips to the nape of her
neck. She stretched out her breasts, left and right, as if to rest them on her knees.
“Although spring goes and autumn comes,” she said, “my heart is not [renewed]. 25
Years come and years go, and the only thing I really feel is bitterness. This place [con-
ceals] an evil lair, and all human traces have disappeared. Youth may leave us, but
our aged selves remain, which is truly awful! The bush warblers of the palace are
gone, and I lament the absence of the swallows in our rafters.6 Seeing you, my lord,
makes me feel like a singing girl from Chang’an meeting Bai Letian of the Yuanhe
era.7 People and places may change, but they share an origin, and whenever I see the
moon floating atop the waters, tears of grief soak my pillow. But now I’ve met you,
the dharma companion I was meant to know!8 I ask that you kill me, please. After
completing ten recitations of the nenbutsu, I’ll be received by Amida and his two at-
tendants.9 Could I ask any greater favor of you than this?”
Raik˷ thought that it would be useless to continue questioning someone like
this, and he left. Tsuna came into the kitchen and surveyed the scene.

5. A kujiri is a pointy tool for untying knots.

6. Bush warblers and swallows are traditionally associated with spring.
7. Bai Letian is another name for the Tang poet Bai Juyi (772–846). The singing girls from Chang’an appear
in the poem “Chang’an” by Lu Zhaolin (636–689).
8. A dharma companion (zenchishiki [abbreviated here to chishiki]) is a being who leads one along the path
of the Buddha.
9. The nenbutsu is the ritual invocation of the name of Amida (Skt. Amitʴbha) Buddha. Amida is frequently
depicted with the bodhisattvas Kannon (Skt. Avalokite˿vara) and Seishi (Skt. Mahʴsthʴmaprʴpta).

T h e Ta l e o f t h e D i r t S p i d e r
 As night fell, the sky took on an unnatural air. The wind howled, and the tree
leaves, which were nearly invisible in the darkness, blew about in a fury. The heavens
were thick with thunder and lightning, and the men doubted if they could survive.
“If a bunch of monsters should appear,” Tsuna thought, soaked by the rain and wilt-
ing in the wind, “then by staying here, we could catch them between us and cut
them down from the ten directions. But if we were to be surrounded, that would be
the end, which is why we should keep apart. We shouldn’t run away, either. People
say that the loyal retainer serves no two masters, and that the filial daughter attends
without being seen. So how could I turn my back on my charge and forsake my
duty?”
Inside, Raik˷ stilled his heart and listened. He heard footsteps like the beating of
drums, whereupon an uncountable mass of indescribably strange creatures came
walking toward him. Keeping a pillar between himself and them, Raik˷ watched as
they all sat down. They had multifarious forms. Looking in the direction of the lamp,
Raik˷ saw that their eyes shone like the stone between the eyebrows of a Buddhist
statue. All the creatures roared with laughter, after which they opened the sliding
paper door and departed.
Then a nun came in. She looked like a commoner from Daozhou.10 She was three
26 feet tall; her face was two feet long, and below that, only a foot. It was strange to
think how short her lower body was! When she approached the base of the lamp
and reached to put it out, Raik˷ glared at her, and she flashed him a smile. Her eye-
brows were painted thick, her lipstick was red, and her two front teeth were black-
ened. She wore a purple hat and long crimson trousers, but she wore nothing else at
all. Her arms were thin, like strands of string, and as white as snow. She faded away,
disappearing like clouds or mist.
At the hour when the keijin announces the dawn,11 when loyal retainers await the
morning, Raik˷ was wondering what would happen next. Just then, he heard suspi-
cious footsteps. The sliding screen in front of him [opened] about six inches, revealing
occasional, partial glimpses of [a woman’s face]. Her appearance was more elegant
than a spring willow tussled by the wind. Raik˷ watched intently as she stood up,
opened the screen, and walked in. She sat down on a mat, appearing unapproach-
able, her robes alluringly spilling out around her. Her beauty rivaled that of Yang
Guifei and Li Furen,12 leading Raik˷ to suppose that she was the mistress of the

10. Daozhou is in present-day Hunan Province, China.

11. The keijin (literally, “chicken person”) was the person who announced the hours.
12. Yang Guifei (719–756) was a consort of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang (685–762, r. 712–756). Li Furen was a
consort of Emperor Wu of Han (156–87 b.c.e., r. 141–87 b.c.e.). Both are immortalized in Chinese poetry
and recognized as supreme beauties.

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Raikō encounters a huge-headed nun. (From Tsuchigumo zōshi, courtesy of the Tokyo National Museum.
Image: TNM Image Archives)
27

house who had happily come out to greet him. A cold wind began to blow, and as
the space between them lightened, the woman suddenly stood up as if to go. She
combed her hair toward the front, and her eyes, staring at the lamp, shone like pol-
ished lacquer glinting in the light of a fire.
As Raik˷ watched, unnerved by the woman’s appearance, she kicked up the hem
of her trousers and [shot] ten white clouds like kemari balls at him.13 Although
Raik˷ was blinded, he managed to pull her four or six yards toward him, but, unable
to seize her, he drew his sword and slashed out ferociously. When he did, she van-
ished without a trace. His blade had cut through the wooden floor and nearly split
one of the foundation stones in half.
The monster retreated, whereupon Tsuna came in, saying, “Well struck! But
could it be that the tip of your sword is broken?” They pulled the sword from the
floorboards and checked, and it was indeed chipped. Looking around, they found a
huge pool of white blood, none of it draining. The same white blood was also on
Raik˷’s sword.

13. Kemari is a traditional Japanese ball sport originally played by courtiers, wearing sophisticated attire, in the
Heian and medieval periods.

T h e Ta l e o f t h e D i r t S p i d e r
 Raikō slashes a mysterious woman with his sword. (From Tsuchigumo zōshi, courtesy of the Tokyo
National Museum. Image: TNM Image Archives)

28 The two went looking for the creature and came to the room where Raik˷ had
met the old woman the day before. There was white blood there as well, and the
woman was nowhere to be seen. Thinking that she had already been eaten in a single
bite, they continued tracking the monster, pushing their way to a cave in the far-off
mountains to the west. When they looked inside, they saw white blood flowing out
like a thin river coursing through a valley.
“When I saw the broken tip of your sword,” Tsuna said, “I was reminded of the su-
preme filial piety of Mei Jian Chi of Chu, and this is no different from when he broke
off the tip of his sword.14 I suggest we cut some wisteria and creeping vines and make
a dummy. I’ll take off my hat and robe and clothe it in them. Then we can hold it in
front of us as we proceed.” The two of them completed these preparations together.
After going only a quarter of a mile or so, they reached the end of the cave, where
there was an old building that seemed to be some kind of storehouse. Pine trees
[sprouted] from the roof tiles, moss covered the hedge, and there was no sign of
human habitation. When they looked inside, they saw a two-hundred-foot-long
creature, the head of which appeared to be swathed in brocade. As they approached

14. Tsuna refers to the legend of the swordsmiths Gan Jiang and Mo Ye, which appears in various
Chinese and Japanese sources. In the version of the story in Taiheiki (Record of Great Peace, late fourteenth
century), Mei Jian Chi ( J. Bikanshaku, also Mikenjaku), the son of the swordsmiths, breaks off the tip of
his sword and uses it as a projectile to avenge his father’s death.

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Raikō and Tsuna drag the dirt spider from its cave. (From Tsuchigumo zōshi, courtesy of the Tokyo
National Museum. Image: TNM Image Archives)

it from the front, they saw a mass of legs beyond counting. Its eyes shone like the
light from the sun and moon. It let out a great scream: “Oh, how helpless we are! How
is it that our injured body suffers so!” 29
Before the creature had finished speaking, a single strangely glowing object shot
out of a white cloud, just as Raik˷ and Tsuna had expected. It hit the dummy, where-
upon the doll collapsed. When he took out the projectile, Raik˷ saw that it was his
broken sword tip. “It happened just like Tsuna said,” Raik˷ thought. “He’s no ordinary
fellow.” The creature was not making any sound, so they immediately went up to it
and, with their strength combined, dragged it out.
It was strong—strong enough to move boulders—and it tried to wound them.
Raik˷ prayed to Amaterasu and Sh˷ Hachiman,15 “Our country is a divine land pro-
tected by the gods, and the emperor rules through his ministers. I am his vassal and
descended from kings, born into a house blessed with the imperial lineage. Looking
at this creature, I can see that it’s a beast. Animals are unrelentingly evil, and it’s be-
cause they shamelessly broke the Buddhist precepts in their former lives that they
have been born into that realm.16 What’s more, they harm the people and inflict ca-
lamity on the state. I am a warrior who protects the emperor, and a shield for those
who rule. Won’t you accede to my request?”

15. Amaterasu is the goddess of the sun in Japanese mythology. Sh˷ Hachiman is a god of warriors and the
patron deity of the Minamoto.
16. Along with the realms of hell and hungry ghosts, the animal realm is traditionally counted as one of the
Three Evil Realms (san akud̿) of existence.

T h e Ta l e o f t h e D i r t S p i d e r
 Raikō and Tsuna slaughter the dirt spider. (From Tsuchigumo zōshi, courtesy of the Tokyo National
Museum. Image: TNM Image Archives)

30
The two men pulled with all their might, and though the creature was of a mind
to fight back at first, it soon submitted and fell over, face up. Raik˷ drew his sword
and severed its head. When Tsuna went to cut open its belly, he found a deep slash
in its midsection, from when Raik˷ had cut through the floorboards. When they
looked to see what kind of creature it was, they realized that it was a mountain spi-
der. Nineteen hundred and ninety severed human heads tumbled out from Raik˷’s
laceration. They quickly cut apart the monster’s side, whereupon innumerable small
spiders the size of seven- or eight-year-old children began running about in a frenzy.
Then, when they cut open its belly, they found a mere twenty more heads. They dug
a hole and buried them, after which they set fire to the house and burned it down.
When the emperor heard of their deed, he was impressed. He appointed Raik˷
governor of Settsu Province and promoted him to Senior Fourth Rank, Lower
Grade. As for Tsuna, he gave him the province of Tanba and promoted him to Se-
nior Fifth Rank, Lower Grade.17

T R A N S L AT I O N A N D I N T R O D U C T I O N B Y M AT T H I E U F E LT

17. Settsu Province corresponds to eastern Hy˷go and northern Osaka prefectures. Tanba Province overlaps
with central Kyoto and northern Hy˷go prefectures.

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