A legend recounts the introduction of a foreign plant to Japan—not by human agency but by a supernatural trickster. This being, having taken on the guise of a Brother in a company of Catholic missionaries, arrives while the authentic member is absent. Using his powers of transformation, he masquerades successfully and travels with St. Francis, intending to sow temptation and spread vice. Instead of furthering sin through overt corruption, he decides to divert his energies into cultivating a mysterious crop using seeds he has secreted away since his departure from the West. Upon reaching Japan, the trickster finds a land quite different from the golden realms of old travel accounts. He is unable to exploit the local belief in miraculous phenomena as expected. With no eager souls to corrupt, he turns to agriculture to combat his own ennui and to keep active. Securing a nearby field with the unintended approval of St. Francis, he tills the land and sows his seeds. Over time, the plants sprout into tall, leafy specimens adorned with light purple, funnel-shaped flowers. Despite the beauty and apparent promise of the crop, its true identity remains a mystery—even to those within the missionary order. The crop’s enigma becomes the pivot of an encounter with a local cattle dealer. While the trickster, still in disguise, tends the field, the cattle dealer is drawn to the beautifully flowering plants. A wager is proposed in which the dealer must guess the name of the plant. The disguised trickster insists on secrecy, challenging the dealer to deduce the word, promising the entire field and even offering rare wine or a vision of Paradise as rewards. The consequences of failure are steep—in effect, the dealer’s body and soul would be forfeit. The wager, made under oath and invoking the sacred name of Jesus Christ, places the cattle dealer in a bind. Desperate to free himself from the dreadful prospect, the dealer devises a cunning plan. On the final night of the three-day period allotted for contemplation, he stealthily approaches the dwelling of the Brother. Spurred by fear and determination, he orchestrates a ruse: he unleashes his cow to rampage through the field. The resulting chaos disturbs the sleeping figure, whose reaction inadvertently reveals a crucial detail. His utterance—a rebuke addressed to the animal and referencing his “tobacco field”—provides the dealer with the unmistakable name of the mysterious plant. With this knowledge, the dealer safely names the crop. Although the trickster’s original intention to directly tempt souls fails, the unforeseen consequence is the widespread cultivation of the plant throughout Japan. The tale closes with a reflective note: while the trickster is thwarted in his attempt to claim a man’s body and soul, his actions inadvertently secure his agent’s long-term success. Subsequent accounts suggest that the trickster continued to wander Japan in various disguises, only to eventually vanish when foreign religions were suppressed, leaving behind a legacy intertwined with the plant’s transmission.
By Akutagawa Ryūnosuke · First published 1927 · Genre: Folklore, Allegory, Satire