The story of the earth spider

Japanese: 土蜘蛛草子 - つちぐもぞうし

Otogi-zoshi. There is a picture scroll believed to have been produced in the Nanboku-cho period, with text by Yoshida Kenko and illustrations by Tosa Nagataka. It has 9 text sections and 13 illustrations. Minamoto no Yorimitsu accompanied Watanabe no Tsuna to Rendai-no in northern Kyoto, where they saw a skull flying through the air and followed its whereabouts, eventually arriving at Kaguraoka. They asked for guidance at an old house, where an old woman who said she was 290 years old appeared. As the two waited, ready to cut down any monsters that came, many strange creatures walked in, and after they all laughed and left, a fair-skinned nun with a 2-foot mask and 1-foot tall figure and a beautiful woman appeared.

Source: Heibonsha World Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition Information

Japanese:

御伽草子。南北朝時代の作とされる絵巻1軸があり，詞は吉田兼好，絵は土佐長隆と伝える。詞9段，絵13段。源頼光が渡辺綱を従えて洛北蓮台野に赴き，空中を飛ぶ髑髏（どくろ）を見てそのゆくえを追い，神楽岡に至る。古家に案内を乞うと，290歳という老女が出てくる。化け物が来たら斬り破ろうと2人が待つところへ，多くの異類異形（いるいいぎよう）が歩み来て，一度にどうと笑って去ったあと，色白く，面は2尺，丈1尺の化人（けにん）の尼や美しい女が現れる。

出典　株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典第２版について　情報

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