Japanese people have habitually deified important figures who made major accomplishments for centuries. They also tend to enshrine troublemakers after their death to make them feel good so they wouldn’t come back for an encore.

But with time, the newfound deity turns into a god with positive connotations.

So here’s a folktale that follows that course:

A witch came along once upon a time in a peaceful village in Sayama and began kidnapping kids one by one. The innocent cries and squeals of children were soon heard no more.

The villagers pleaded the local Buddha statue to do something about it. So Buddha statue casually stood up and walked over to the witch’s lair, where he found 10,000 kids she looked after and loved dearly.

Meanwhile, the villagers’ kids were thrown into a small, separate hole, where they were left crying.

“Well that ain’t fair 😕.” So Buddha statue took away one of the witch’s kids on his palm.

The witch immediately realized she was missing one of her precious children, and scurried around hysterically, screaming in dismay, like how one of those distressed long-haired ghouls who are fixated on a specific obsession in horror films 😩.

Then, Buddha statue was like, “You get upset missing 1/10,000 children. Did it ever cross your mind that the villagers might feel the same?”

So witch said “My bad 😢”, returned the kids and became a disciple of Buddha statue.

She came to be called Kishimojin, and was worshiped as the god of birth and protection of children from diseases.

Bringing up 10,000 kids itself is worthy of deification !! The story is called “Kishimojin-sama.”

▶︎ Please check out my book on Japanese folk tales: Folk Tales of Japan: 28 Japanese folk tales with cultural commentary