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Story of the Aged Mother

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THE STORY OF THE AGED MOTHER
A Japanese Folktale
Long, long ago there lived at the foot of the mountain a poor farmer and his aged, widowed mother. Theyowned a bit of land which supplied them with food, and their humble were peaceful and happy.Shinano was governed by a despotic leader who though a warrior, had a great and cowardly shrinking fromanything suggestive of failing health and strength. This caused him to send out a cruel proclamation. The entireprovince was given strict orders to immediately put to death all aged people. Those were barbarous days, andthe custom of abandoning old people to die was not common. The poor farmer loved his aged mother withtender reverence, and the order filled his heart with sorrow. But no one ever thought a second time aboutobeying the mandate of the governor, so with many deep hopeless sighs, the youth prepared for what at thattime was considered the kindest mode of death.Just at sundown, when his day’s work was ended, he took a quantity of unwhitened rice which is principal foodfor poor, cooked and dried it, and tying it in a square cloth, swung and bundle around his neck along with a gourd filled with cool, sweet water. Then he lifted his helpless old mother to his back and stated on his painful journey up the mountain. The road was long and steep; the narrowed road was crossed and recrossed bymany paths made by the hunters and woodcutters. In some place, they mingled in a confused puzzled, but hegave no heed. One path or another, it mattered not. On he went, climbing blindly upward – ever upwardtowards the high bare summit of what is know as Obatsuyama, the mountain of the “abandoning of aged”.The eyes of the old mother were not so dim but that they noted the reckless hastening from one path toanother, and her loving heart grew anxious. Her son did not know the mountain’s many paths and his returnmight be one

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