Bunbuku Chagama

Kokeshi can represent a variety of things. Previously we spoke about Ukai. Today I want to tell you about a special Tea-Kettle. The story was told long ago, about a holy priest who lived at the Temple of Morinji in the province of Kotsuke. This priest was a thrifty man who loved Cha-no-yu the ancient tea ceremony. One day he happened upon an ancient tea-kettle, lying rusty and dirty and half-forgotten in a corner of a poor shop in a back street of his town. He offered the shop keeper three rin, saying it was “an ugly bit of old metal”. It so happened to be a bronze tea kettle and he bought it for quite the bargain price.

The tea kettle was cleaned up, and the priest was quite happy at his good fortune, he placed the tea kettle by his bedside. And then, believe me, a wonderful thing happened. The tea-kettle moved, though no hand was near it. A hairy head, with two bright eyes, looked out of the spout. The lid jumped up and down. Four brown and hairy paws appeared, and a fine bushy tail. In a minute the kettle was down from the box and going round and round looking at things. “A very comfortable room, to be sure,” says the tea-kettle. Pleased enough to find itself so well lodged.

That very night the holy man filled the kettle with water from the spring and set it on the hibachi to boil for his cup of tea. When the water began to boil “Ai! Ai! ” the kettle cried; “Ai! Ai! The heat of the Great Hell!” And it lost no time at all, but hopped off the fire as quick as you please.

“Sorcery! ” cried the priest. “Black magic! A devil! A devil! A devil! Mercy on me! Help! Help! Help! ” He was frightened out of his wits, the dear good man. All the novices came running to see what was the matter. “The tea-kettle is bewitched,” he gasped; “it was a badger, assuredly it was a badger ... it both speaks and leaps about the room. ” “Nay, master,” said a novice, “see where it rests upon its box, good quiet thing.” And sure enough, so it did. “Most reverend sir,” said the novice, “let us all pray to be preserved from the perils of illusion.”

The priest sold the tea-kettle to a tinker and got for it twenty copper coins. The tinker was a happy man and carried home the kettle. When he went to bed that night, he put the kettle by him, to see it first thing in the morning. He awoke at midnight and fell to looking at the kettle by the bright light of the moon. Presently it moved, though there was no hand near it. “Strange,” said the tinker; but he was a man who took things as they came. A hairy head, with two bright eyes, looked out of the kettle's spout. The lid jumped up and down. Four brown and hairy paws appeared, and a fine bushy tail. It came quite close to the tinker and laid a paw upon him.

“Well? ” says the tinker.

“I am not wicked,” says the tea-kettle.

“No,” says the tinker.

“But I like to be well treated. I am a badger tea-kettle.”

“So, it seems,” says the tinker.

“Well, I have a happy thought. For a tea-kettle, I am out-of-the-way-really very accomplished.”

“I believe you,” says the tinker.

“My name is Bumbuku-Chagama; I am the very prince of Badger Tea-Kettles.”

They soon became good friends, one fine day, the badger asked the tinker if he was poor. The tinker said he was, and badger proposed they create a theater and, in this way, they would generate some good fortunate and wealth. The tinker agreed and did all that the badger said. The Bumbuku-Chagama was the talk of the country-side, and all the gentry came to see it as well as the commonalty. As for the tinker, he waved a fan and took the money. You may believe that he grew fat and rich. He even went to Court, where the great ladies and the royal princesses made much of the wonderful teakettle. At last, the tinker retired from business, and to him the tea-kettle came with tears in its bright eyes.

“I'm much afraid it's time to leave you,” it says.
“Now, don't say that, Bumbuku, dear,” says the tinker. “We'll be so happy together now we are rich.”
“I've come to the end of my time,” says the tea-kettle. “You'll not see old Bumbuku anymore; henceforth I shall be an ordinary kettle, nothing more or less.”
“Oh, my dear Bumbuku, what shall I do?” cried the poor tinker in tears.
“I think I should like to be given to the temple of Morinji, as a very sacred treasure,” says the tea-kettle.

It never spoke or moved again. So, the tinker presented it as a very sacred treasure to the temple, and the half of his wealth with it. And the tea-kettle was held in wondrous fame for many a long year. Some persons even worshipped it as a saint. The story was shortened for this post. To read the full story please visit The Project Gutenberg eBook, Japanese Fairy Tales, by Grace James, Illustrated by Warwick Goble http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/35853 (CCO public domain works).