Kasa Jizo

In this widely transmitted Japanese folktale, an impoverished elderly couple set out on New Year's Eve to sell the straw hats they have woven, but none of the hats find buyers. On the way home, they come upon six (or seven) roadside Jizo statues covered with snow. Moved by compassion, the couple place their unsold hats on the statues, and when there are not enough hats the husband ties his own headscarf onto the last one. That night they hear sounds outside and find rice, mochi, and other gifts laid before their door. The narrative is classified by folklore scholarship as a "rags-to-riches" tale (chifuku-tan), in which kind acts by humble actors are rewarded by the unexpected return of fortune.

The episode runs through the year-end market, the unsold hats, the encounter with the snow-covered Jizo, the offering, the journey home, sounds in the night, and the arrival of the gifts.

The story is distributed across regions of Japan where Jizo veneration is practiced. Kasadera Kannon (Kasai-ji) in Minami-ku, Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, derives its name from a related tradition in which a woman placed her own hat on a roadside image.

Seki Keigo, ed., Kasa Jizō-sama: Nihon Mukashibanashi-shū (Shōkokumin no Nihon Bunko, Dai Nihon Yūbenkai Kōdansha, 1943, NDL pid/1873907). Showa-period folklore scholarship around Yanagita Kunio and Seki Keigo categorized the story under the "chifuku-tan" type.