Twice ToldOda Kanshi, Taira no Masakado koseki kō (1907): the Zōho Edo banashi story of the head and Oda's comment
- Language
- Japanese
- Reading
- transcribed from the page image
- Translation
- ours
- Retrieved
- 15 October 2026
Oda Kanshi (織田完之) published 平将門故蹟考 (“A study of the old sites of Taira no Masakado”) in 1907, soon after a preservation stone was set up in the Finance Ministry’s garden. On pp. 12 to 13 he quotes the Edo guidebook Zōho Edo banashi (増補江戸咄, 1694) on how the shrine at Kanda began, and then comments on it. The print is typeset without readings. We also looked at the 1687 first edition and give its page in sources.md, but the wording below is Oda’s quotation of the later edition.
增補江戶咄に云く、田原藤太將門の首を討ければ、其の首飛て虚空をかけり、都にいらんとしけるが、美濃國にて南宮の山神矢をはなち、其の首を射落し給ふ、扨むくろは下總國より、此の武藏國まで追來り、せいき盡てたをれけるを、路邊に埋みけるに、何となく光物出て、震動止む事なければ、國の守より都へうつたへ、將門の首を申くたし、むくろと一所に埋み、一社の神にいわひて、からたの明神とあがめ奉る、故震動止けるとなり、いつの頃よりか改て神田大明神と申なり、所をも神田と申とかや、古へは此の社神田橋の内なりけるが、今の御城の内ひろげさせ給ふ故、此の所へうつし奉るなり、云々
完之曰く、鳥越神社は將門の首飛越たる山なりとの俗傳あり、又築土の緣起にも首の矢に當りたる儘虚空を飛て上平川の觀音堂に下りたる圖を示し、美濃の不破郡にも傳へあり、南宮山神云々、荒唐たる俗說の斯く種々に傳はれるもの、思ふに將門の餘黨各處に於て其の首を奪ひ返さんと謀りしものならん、終に京都より願下け來りて、體軀と共に芝崎村に瘞めたるなるべし、光物出たりとか、震動止まずとか、其の怨魂厲鬼となりて崇りをなすなど云たるは、當時の人心哀惜して止まざりし爲に、斯る事に託して世評多かりしならん
Translation
The Zōho Edo banashi says: When Tawara Tōta cut off Masakado’s head, the head flew up into the sky and tried to reach the capital, but in Mino province the mountain god of Nangū loosed an arrow and shot the head down. The body, meanwhile, followed from Shimōsa as far as this province of Musashi, ran out of strength and fell, and was buried by the roadside. Then lights appeared, for some unexplained reason, and the ground would not stop shaking, so the provincial governor reported to the capital, asked for Masakado’s head to be sent down, buried it together with the body, and honoured the pair as one shrine’s god, worshipped as the Karata no Myōjin (printed からた; we take it as Karada, “body”). That is why the shaking stopped. At some point the name was changed to Kanda Daimyōjin, and the place too is said to have been called Kanda. In the old days this shrine was inside Kandabashi; it was moved to where it is now because the castle’s grounds were enlarged. And so on.
Oda comments: There is a popular tradition that Torigoe Shrine stands on the hill the head flew over. Tsukudo Shrine’s origin tale also shows a picture of the head, as it was after being struck by the arrow, flying through the sky and coming down at the Kannon hall of Kami-Hirakawa, and there is a tradition in Fuwa district in Mino too, about the mountain god of Nangū. As for the way such absurd popular stories have been handed down in so many forms, I think Masakado’s remaining followers tried in various places to take his head back, and presumably in the end obtained it from Kyoto by petition, brought it back, and buried it with the body at Shibasaki village. As for the lights appearing, the shaking that would not stop, and his angry spirit becoming a vengeful ghost and cursing people, I think people of the time kept mourning him and probably expressed their feelings through such stories, so there was much public talk.
Notes
- Oda’s quotation gives the 1694 wording of a story that is also in the 1687 first edition (vol. 2, the chapter on Kanda Myōjin). In both, the head is shot down in Mino and the body is the part that reaches Musashi.
- The glyph printed for “buried” is 瘞 (we first misread it as 痙, “convulsion”, and the same glyph appears in Oda’s preface); it means to bury.
- We read the head’s flight in the first sentence from the page image; the small kana of 扨むくろは and いわひて are the ones we are least sure of.
- Oda writes of “the origin tale of Tsukudo” (築土の緣起) as showing a picture; we have not seen that engi.
- The print writes 崇り where later usage has 祟り (“curse”); we have kept the print’s character and translate it as a curse.
- “Absurd” renders 荒唐たる; the word is Oda’s judgement of the stories, not ours.