(Voice actor) Ms.Carolyn Miller

A beggar is one of the occupations depicted frequently in old Japanese stories. It may sound weird to call begging an occupation, but in stories, it is often an important role. Beggar is written as “ask” and “food” in kanji characters. It means someone who receives charity from others. Since receiving charity from others is one of the Buddhist trainings, a beggar is sometimes portrayed as the incarnation of a god or Buddha in old stories. Some of those stories are about a kindness to beggars being rewarded by a blessing from a god or Buddha. That is why beggars are common characters in old stories. These poor used to live on riverbanks in the old days. Since flood control technology was not yet established, rivers often overflowed from heavy rain causing floods. So riverbanks were left undeveloped, because any building would be swept away once a flood occurred. That is why the poor lived on riverbanks where there were large enough lands left for homeless people to live together. This is the background for many old stories depicting a beggar living on a riverbank or begging on a bridge. Long ago, there was a bridge called Gedobashi which was one of the bridges crossing the Shakujiigawa River in current day Itabashi ward. Around this bridge, too, lived many beggars. One of them was an old man known as Roku-san. Since this bridge was on a prominent road, many people crossed it every day. And many people spared them change when they begged, “give me some money,” enough for a beggar to make a living. Roku-san was making a living by receiving charity from many passersby as well. He was a mild man who never got mad at children who teased him. He also got along with the town’s people. Roku-san died one day. His time must have been up; he was an old man after all. Other beggars mourned his death, and held a funeral for him. When they were cleaning up Roku-san’s shack after the funeral, they found a pot filled with a lot of coins under the floor. Since Roku-san almost never spent money, it was no surprise he had some savings, but the amount he left was beyond others’ imagination. They all wondered why he stayed a beggar for he could have lived another way with this much money. Then, they found Roku-san’s will inside the money pot. What was in his will that touched everyone’s heart?