The Kannon-sama in a white coat

Short Story by: yayoi2014

Reads: 614 | Likes: 0 | Shelves: 0 | Comments: 5

Once upon a time, there was an old woman who was living with a grandson. One day, the grandson got ill... 260 words

Once upon a time, an old woman with no relatives was living in a small house. Her hope and joy was to raise her only grandson who was living with her. They were very poor.
To make matters worse, one day, the grandson was attacked with a disease. In living in poverty, such as “light the fire in the nail”, they could not afford medicine, let alone rice cake.
"Hang in there! I'll be buying something delicious for you."
To reply the words of the old woman, the grandson blinked helplessly.

The old woman finally got some Dango (sweet dumpling wrapped with sweet bean paste) and Kasujiru (soup made with sake lees) and was walking ploddingly a long way home. Along the way, she noticed a statue of Kannon (The Goddess of Mercy) in a white coat. The old woman prayed to the Goddess for many hours.
"Please help my precious grandson fight the illness, no matter what happens to me. Please..”
She offered a dumpling to the Kannon, and hurried the way home in the dark.

A few days later, grandson became better complexion and recovered from illness.
"Thanks to the Kannon-sama.Thank Heaven!"
Grandmother went to the place of Kannon again, and expressed her deep gratitude again and again. When she tried to go home, she unintentionally looked up and saw the face of the Kannon. Surprisingly enough, the lips of the Kannon looked a little dirty!

"Oh, Kannon-sama have had the dumpling."
She was so delighted at it, and kept visiting the Kannon for prayer since then.

Submitted: May 03, 2014

Historical Fiction

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Comments

meltrosz

Am interesting tale that promotes faith in the heavenly beings. Especially since the old woman was very poor, and it took all she had to buy that dango. A sane person would feed it to the sick, but she instead completely surrendered to Kannon and had faith that if she offered the dango to her, her grandson would have better chance in living. Very interesting.

Sat, May 3rd, 2014 4:44am

yayoi2014

Thank you for the comment, meltrosz. In old days in Japan, there were small statues of buddha, kannon and others almost at every corner of every village. Praying for those statues was almost a daily life routine. So, even today, when we make delicious dishes, we would offer a small portion of them to those statues.

Sat, May 3rd, 2014 5:12am

BrownKat

It's a beautiful story and the emotions came out so well. Loved it! You should check out this short story contest- http://www.tallenge.com/contest/literaturestorycontest.html Upload your stories and get them read by people across the globe. Win $100. Moreover there is no entry fee.

Sat, May 3rd, 2014 7:19am

yayoi2014

Thank you for your comment, BrownKat. Feedbacks from readers are a good hint for my next writing. I am trying to write longer stories, and preparing for contest submissions.

Sun, May 4th, 2014 2:15am