Folk Legends
Hanasaka Jiisan
When the honest old couple found out about this, they were overcome with grief. They decided to dig a grave for Shiro. Upon burying Shiro, a sapling sprouted from the ground above his grave. By the next day, it had grown into a towering tree.
"Shiro liked steamed rice cakes," recalled the old man. "Let's make some to take to his grave." He chopped down the tree that had sprung from Shiro's grave and made a mortar. Then he and his wife began to prepare the rice cakes. As the old man pounded the rice into the mortar, it began to turn into gold coins.
Upon seeing this, the greedy old couple rushed over. "Give us that mortar." Stealing the mortar, they returned to their house and began to make rice cakes. When they pounded rice, however, it turned into black mud right before their eyes. "What on earth?" cried the old man. Furious, he took an axe and chopped the mortar to pieces. Then he tossed the pieces of wood into the stove and burned them. The honest old man was disheartened. He gathered up the ashes from the mortar, put them in a box, and carried the box carefully back to his house.