The Straw Hats Made by the Old Man

🍊No. 42 Three Topics (Japanese Folktales)
🎈Topic 1: "The Kasa Jizo and the Snowy Night"
🐾Topic 2: "The Mountain God and the Small Village"
⏳Topic 3: "The Mysterious Box That Floated Down the River"

Topic 4: Please write a world imagined from the illustration.

🌸Foreword

A snowy night.
The small life of an old man and an old woman.

Even in the cold, there is warmth—
That is the kind of story this is.

🌸The Straw Hats Made by the Old Man

"Old woman, the snow won't stop today either."

"That's true. Say, isn't it about time we run out of rice?"

"Oh, I'm sure we'll be fine."

"No, I will go. I'll go to the village to sell these straw hats. If they sell, I'll buy some rice."

"Old man, you should stay home on a snowy day like this."

"It's alright. It's a path I know well."

Saying that, the old man went out into the snow, not listening to the old woman's attempts to stop him.

Snow piled up on his straw hat, and his feet sank into the snow.

"Old woman... perhaps this is the end for me as well."

Just as he thought that, his eyes suddenly fell upon the Jizo statues.

"Oh... have I arrived in the afterlife? If so, I suppose I don't need these hats anymore."

The old man placed a hat on each of the Jizo statues, one by one.

"Jizo-san... I am worried about my old woman. We have no rice, and her health is failing. If things continue like this, her life might come to an end..."

The Mountain God listened quietly to those words.

Meanwhile, the old woman was at home, waiting for the old man to return.

There was not a single grain of rice in the rice bin, the firewood had run out, and the body was completely cold.

At that moment, a voice came from nowhere.

"Go to the river. You must bring back the box that will come floating down from upstream."

As if guided, the old woman headed toward the river.

After a while, a mysterious box came floating by.
The old woman held the light, airy box carefully and carried it home.

"Let's open it together when the old man returns."

Meanwhile—

The old man was in a place that looked like a small village with the mountain god.

While spending a snowy night with the Jizo statues that he had covered with hats,
"Perhaps I am no longer in this world..."
he was thinking such things.

At that moment—

"Old man..."

From somewhere, a familiar voice called out.

"...Old woman?"

As he walked toward the voice, the old woman was standing there with a healthy look on her face.

"Old man, where have you been?"

"More importantly... you look well."

"Yes. Ever since I picked up that mysterious box at the river, I have been completely healthy."

"And you know, the ohagi I make has become popular, and I have started to earn a little money."

"But you know... there is always sticky rice. Isn't it strange?"

The old woman smiled.

It seems the Jizo statues wearing the hats you made are the ones bringing these to us.

The old man nodded quietly.

Outside, the snow continued to fall gently.

Afterword

Even on a cold night,
the feeling of caring for someone continues to glow gently.

The old man's small act of kindness
came full circle and returned to the two of them.

Warmth may change its form,
but perhaps it is supporting someone, somewhere.