Crying Stone - Yonakiishi

There is a legend that a rock cries every night. The most famous one is the Crying Stone at Sayo-no-Nakayama on the Tokaido (Kakegawa City, Shizuoka Prefecture). It is said that a pregnant woman who was killed by bandits was buried under the stone and gave birth to a child. Her ghost wandered around foraging for food every night, and her sorrowful cries tormented travelers. It is also the subject of the folktale "Child-raising Ghost," and is also written about in early modern essays. The one in Kamiyamada Village, Sarashina County, Nagano Prefecture (now Chikuma City) is about an old woman who was abandoned on Mount Obasute, who turned into a stone and cried and roared at night. When the monk Saigyo recited a sutra for her, she became a monk, split into two, and bled blood. In Ito Village, Nyu County, Fukui Prefecture (present-day Echizen Town), a large rock in the valley is said to cry out in the middle of the night because a nun was thrown to her death below it. In Kawada Village, Imadate County, Fukui Prefecture (present-day Kawada Town, Sabae City), the rock stands at the entrance to the village, and it is said that it would cry and glow in the middle of the night if anyone moved it or took it home, so it was originally a beheading stone from the time of the Asakura clan (the Warring States period).

Most of these legends are later additions. Their origins are the same as those of mounds that serve as landmarks for those killed in violent and untimely deaths, such as baby mounds, and it is likely that in many cases the same legends as mounds were replaced with stones. There is also a popular belief, separate from the legends mentioned above, that if you take home the moss or a piece of stone that is on the Night Cry Stone and place it under the pillow of a crying child, the infant will stop crying at night. In addition, in Kamisato Town, Shimoina County, Nagano Prefecture (now Iida City), there is a legend of a child who was crushed by a landslide, called the Night Cry Stone. A Jizo statue is enshrined on top of the stone, and it is said that if you make a wish to the stone, the infant's night crying will stop. There are also such Night Cry Stones as objects of worship.

[Shogo Watanabe]

"'Kokushisekigo' (The Words of Wood and Stone)" (included in the 'Definitive Collection of Yanagita Kunio Vol. 5', 1963, Chikuma Shobo)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

夜ごとに岩石が泣き声を発するという伝説。有名なものは、東海道の小夜ノ中山(さよのなかやま)の夜泣石（静岡県掛川市）で、山賊に殺された妊婦が石の下に埋められたのちに子を産み落として、その幽霊が夜ごとに食物をあさり歩き、その悲しみの声が旅人を悩ませたと伝えている。昔話「子育て幽霊」の素材でもあり、近世随筆にも記される。長野県更級(さらしな)郡上山田村（現千曲(ちくま)市）のそれは、姨捨(おばすて)山に捨てられた姥(うば)が石と化して夜泣きして鳴動し、西行(さいぎょう)法師に読経してもらうと、得度して二つに割れ、血を吹いたという。福井県丹生(にゅう)郡糸生(いとう)村（現越前町）のは、比丘尼(びくに)が谷の大岩の下に投げ落とされて死んだために、その大岩はいまでも夜中に泣き声をたてるという。同県今立(いまだて)郡河和田(かわだ)村（現鯖江(さばえ)市河和田町）のは、村の入口にあって、この石を動かしたり持ち帰ったりすると夜中に泣き、光ったこともあって、もとは朝倉氏のころ（戦国時代）の首切り石であったという。

　これらの伝説は後世の付会がほとんどである。その原型は、赤子塚をはじめとする、非業の横死者の目印となる塚の伝承と同性質のもので、塚と同じ伝承が石にかわったのも多かったであろう。また、夜泣石についている苔(こけ)や石の破片を持ち帰って夜泣きの子の枕(まくら)の下に置くと幼児の夜泣きがやむという俗信伝承も、上述伝説とは別に存在している。そのほか長野県下伊那(しもいな)郡上郷(かみさと)町（現飯田市）では、山の崩壊で押しつぶされた子を祀(まつ)った子泣石の伝説もある。石の上には地蔵が祀られていて願掛けをすると幼児の夜泣きが止まるという。このような被祭祀(さいし)体としての夜泣石もある。

［渡辺昭五］

『『木思石語』（『定本柳田国男集5』所収・1963・筑摩書房）』

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