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A folktale. One of the animal folktales that has as its theme conflicts between animals. An old man catches a raccoon dog that is destroying his fields, and puts it in his house with a rope tied around it to make raccoon soup. When the old woman starts pounding rice, the dog asks the old man to untie the rope in exchange for helping him. The old woman is tricked and is killed by the raccoon dog. The raccoon dog disguises itself as the old woman, and when the old man returns, it feeds him the soup, claiming it is raccoon soup. The rabbit, feeling sorry for the old man, invites the raccoon dog to go collect firewood, sets fire to the firewood the raccoon dog is carrying, and burns him. The rabbit applies a salve containing chili peppers to the raccoon dog's burns, saying it is medicine for burns, and makes him suffer. The rabbit goes boating in a wooden boat and the raccoon dog in a clay boat. The clay boat sinks and the raccoon dog dies. Since the Akahon, this is a famous old tale that has appeared in various documents, and is counted as one of the five great old tales of the Edo period. The Akahon's "Usagi no Tegai" (1673-80) is said to be the oldest record. The name "Kachikachiyama" comes from the fact that when the rabbit lit a fire, the raccoon dog asked what the sound of the flint was, and the rabbit answered that it was the cry of the kachikachi bird of Kachikachiyama. Even after the Meiji period, it has been widely known as a picture book and other reading material. There are also similar stories in a slightly different style from the Akahon, such as "Usagi to Kuma" (The Rabbit and the Bear). The rabbit and the bear go to cut reeds to build a hut. The rabbit puts the reeds on the bear's back and gets on it. On the way, the rabbit sets the reeds on fire. There is an incident with a burn medicine, a clay boat, and the bear dies. The rabbit goes to a house, where the children alone boil and eat the bear. The parents return and catch the rabbit. He has the child hold him down, and while the tiger goes to get the knife, he tricks the child and escapes. There are several examples of folk tales similar to this one in Korea and Burma (Myanmar) that are tales of conflict between a rabbit and a tiger, and "The Rabbit and the Bear" is probably the prototype of "Kachi Kachi Yama." The first part of "Kachi Kachi Yama" is thought to have been transformed from the second part of "The Rabbit and the Bear." Originally, it is an example of a chain tale with a cunning animal as the main character, and there are folk tales in Southeast Asia that partially match it. North American Indians also have a similar story. It is the story of a trickster who tricks the bear women, cooks their children while they are at home and feeds them to the women, and in the scene where he tricks the bear women into putting them in a hole and burns them to death, when the woman says she hears the sound of a flint, she replies that it is the sound of a flying flintbird.

[Yo Kojima]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

昔話。動物どうしの葛藤(かっとう)を主題にする動物昔話の一つ。爺(じじ)が畑を荒らすタヌキを捕まえ、たぬき汁にしようと、縄をかけて家に置く。婆(ばば)が米を搗(つ)き始めると、手伝うから縄を解いてくれという。だまされた婆はタヌキに殺される。タヌキは婆に化け、爺が帰ってくると、タヌキ汁だといって婆汁を食わせる。爺に同情したウサギが、タヌキを薪(たきぎ)取りに誘い、タヌキの背負った薪に火をつけ、やけどを負わせる。ウサギはやけどに効く薬といって、タヌキのやけどに、唐辛子を入れた膏薬(こうやく)をつけて苦しめる。ウサギは木の船、タヌキは土船に乗って船遊びをする。土船は沈み、タヌキは死ぬ。赤本以来、文献にもいろいろみえる有名な昔話で、江戸時代の五大昔話の一つに数えられる。赤小本の『兎(うさぎ)の手柄』（1673～80ころ）が最古の記録といわれる。「かちかち山」の名は、ウサギが火をつけたとき、火打石の音を聞いたタヌキが何の音かと尋ねたのを、かちかち山のかちかち鳥の鳴く声だと答えたのに由来する。明治以後も絵本などの読み物になって広く知られている。昔話には、「兎と熊」のように、赤本の系統とはやや異なった形式の類話もある。ウサギとクマが小屋をつくるために、カヤ刈りに行く。ウサギはクマにカヤを背負わせ、自分も乗る。途中、ウサギがカヤに火をつける。やけどの薬、土船のことがあって、クマは死ぬ。ウサギは人家へ行き、子供だけのところで、クマを煮て食う。親が帰ってきて、ウサギを捕まえる。子供に押さえさせ、刃物をとりに行っているすきに、子供をだまして逃げる。これとほぼ共通する昔話は、ウサギとトラの葛藤譚(たん)として朝鮮やビルマ（ミャンマー）にも数例分布しており、「兎と熊」は「かちかち山」の原型的な昔話であろう。「かちかち山」の前段は、「兎と熊」の後段からの転化と考えられる。もともと、ずる賢い動物を主人公にした連鎖譚の一例で、部分的に一致する昔話は東南アジアにもある。北アメリカのインディアンにも似た話がある。ペテン師がクマの女たちをだまし、留守番中にクマの女の子供たちを料理し、女たちに食わせる話で、策略でクマの女たちを穴に入れて焼き殺す場面には、女が火打石の音がするというと、火打ち鳥が飛んでいる音だと答えるなどの趣向もある。

［小島瓔］

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