A-Yokai-A-Day: How a Woman Was Taken by a Kasha For Using Two Measuring Cups

Tonight’s yokai is something called a kasha – meaning “fire chariot.” Kasha were giant cats that interrupted funerals and robbed graves of the sinful. The cat connection comes from ancient superstitions that cats were fond of corpses; either to eat, or to control like puppets. It’s an interesting name for a yokai, because while it is often depicted as a corpse-stealing giant cat, while other times it is depicted, as its name suggests, as a flaming chariot pulled by oni. The wheel is a common symbol in Buddhism, as it symbolizes the ever-revolving cycle of reincarnation; of course it’s also useful for dragging unwilling victims to hell for punishment, and flaming chariot wheels are not uncommon imagery when it comes to Japanese hell.

Tonight’s kasha is of the flaming chariot variety and not the grave-robbing cat variety. In today’s story it is used as an example of one of the most awful forms of punishment: falling into hell while still alive. This is a state of pure, intense suffering, because you did something so bad that hell won’t wait for you to die.

In the case of this story, the unforgivably bad sin that was committed was “using two measuring cups.” The story doesn’t elaborate much on what this means, but it refers to the dishonest usage of two different cup sizes: one when buying rice, and one when selling rice. In other words, you use the big cup when you need to buy rice, and you use the small cup when you sell it. This way you cheat both the farmer and the customer, and get rich in the process.

I’m sure we can all agree that such cheating is reprehensible, but it seems a little extreme to send someone into living hell for being stingy. On the other hand, during the Edo period, rice was life. In a period when food was sometimes scarce and salaries were paid in bushels of rice, it’s easier to see why this was considered to be a serious crime.

How a Woman Was Taken by a Kasha For Using Two Measuring Cups

A pilgrim performing the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage visited Seiganji Temple in Kyōto to have his goshūin book stamped. In the courtyard, a woman of about 40 years old was pulled out of a flaming chariot by an ox-headed demon and a horse-headed demon, violently accosted, and then forced back onto the chariot and driven off westward.

The pilgrim was astonished. He followed the chariot all the way to a rice shop in the vicinity of Shijō Horikawa. Growing even more curious, he entered the rice shop to ask what was going on.

People told him, “The rice dealer’s wife has been suffering from a sudden illness these past four or five days. Three times a day and three times a night she complains that her body is on fire.”

The pilgrim thought to himself for a moment, and then told the rice dealer what he had seen.

The rice dealer was surprised and said, “It’s just as I thought! My wife is a greedy person, and she is constantly using two different measuring cups for her own gain. I tried to stop her but she would not listen. It seems her sins have caused her to fall into hell while still alive.”

The rice dealer quit his job, became a monk, and departed upon a pilgrimage of the provinces. His wife died shortly afterwards, and their family line died out.

 

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