A kite in flight (Image source: Wikipedia Japan)
192. A Kite Cries “Toh, Toh” (tonbu tōto)
This is a story about Sotaro Kajimoto, Oyasama‘s great-grandson, which took place in approximately 1887 when he was about seven. Oyasama gave him a section of a tangerine, turning it inside out by inserting Her finger. She said:
“The kite cries ‘toh, toh,’ and the crow, ‘caw, caw,’ “
and continued:
“Stick out your finger.”
When he stuck out his finger, She placed the section on his finger. Sotaro enjoyed eating it that way.
When he received another section of the tangerine, he, imitating Oyasama, put it on his finger, and then he stuck it out in front of Oyasama. She enjoyed eating it that way.
193. By Himself Soon (hayō hitori de)
These are incidents reminisced by Sotaro Kajimoto:
Receiving some cookies or candies from Oyasama, we, children at that time, went toward the Main Sanctuary and ate them while playing together. When the sweets were gone, we ran back to Oyasama. We held out our hands and She gave us more. We ate them up and ran back to Her again. We must have said, “Grandma, may we have some more?” and I believe we ran back to Her three or four times.
However, She never once said, “Didn’t I just give you some?” Neither did She give the sweets to us all at once to avoid the bother. She gave us just enough to eat, a little at a time. Oyasama loved children very much. When I asked Hisa Yamazawa, my wife’s mother, she agreed.
Now and then Oyasama visited the Kajimoto family in Ichinomoto. On such occasions, she brought some sweets in Her purse to give to the children of the family and to the children of the neighborhood.
Among great-grandchildren of Oyasama, I was the first born of the boys. Among the girls, there was Omoto. Now, it is said that Oyasama said of me:
“Oh, I hope that he will be able to come by himself soon!”
It is also said that when my younger brother Kunijiro Shimamura was born, Oyasama said:
“My, what a fair-complexioned fine boy!”
and held him in Her arms. I often heard of these incidents from both my mother, Uno, and my mother–in-law Yamazawa.
Once Oyasama carried both Manjiro Yoshikawa and me on Her back at the same time. There was a time when She came to the east side of the Nakaminami-Gatehouse wearing zori similar to fujikura-zori (thongs which are knitted with rush at the front).
Oyasama’s voice was sweet and gentle. She had a slender figure. Her face was oval and Her mouth and chin were identical with that of Her daughter, Omasa, although Omasa’s face was a little rounder. Now in regard to their figure, Omasa was on the masculine side but Oyasama was on the feminine side. Oyasama’s back was not bent.
Anecdotes of Oyasama, pp. 151–152
