The Legend of Anju / Ogai Mori
It is depicted as a story of slave liberation and parent-child love.
The story begins with 14-year-old Anju and her 12-year-old brother Zushio traveling with their mother to Tsukushi to search for their father, who has gone missing.
However, along the way they are deceived by a human trafficker, and the mother and child are separated and sold to different locations.
The brother and sister are bought by Sansho Dayu, a wealthy man from Tango, and are forced to live a harsh life of slavery.
Determined to at least let her younger brother escape, Anju handed over her main object of worship, Jizo, to Zushio and succeeded in escaping to the capital. However, after seeing her brother off, she committed suicide by drowning.
Zushio somehow managed to reach the capital safely and met the regent Fujiwara no Michizane. Upon seeing the main honzon that Zushio held, Michizane was convinced that his father was of good lineage and invited Zushio as a guest.
After coming of age, Zushio took the name Masamichi and eventually became the governor of Tango. Masamichi banned human trafficking in the entire province of Tango and built a nunnery on the bank of the swamp where Anju had drowned to mourn his sister's death.
Later, when Masamichi finds out that his mother has been sent to Sado, he heads there and encounters a blind old woman.
"I miss Anju, how about you? I miss Zushio, how about you?"
The old woman who repeatedly muttered this was Masamichi's mother.
When Shodo pressed the Main Honzon against his mother's forehead, her eyesight immediately recovered and mother and daughter embraced each other in joy at being reunited.
Zushio later rises to prominence and ends up disciplining Sansho Dayu.
YUZURU (The Legend of the Evening Crane)
/ Kinoshita Junji
It depicts human desire, pure love, and the conflict between the two.
One day, the farmer Yohyo rescues a crane who is caught in a trap and suffering. After that, the crane transforms into a woman and visits Yohyo's house, calling herself "Tsu".
Tsuu began living with Yohyo, plucking her own feathers and weaving them into beautiful fabrics.
Later, in order to make money, Yohyo makes Tsuu weave cloth. When Yohyo breaks his promise not to peek into Tsuu's room while she is weaving, he discovers that Tsuu is a crane and turns into a crane and leaves Yohyo.
The story ends with Yohyoga holding dear the cloth that Tsuu has woven.
The Legend of Okesa
In the town of Ogi, there was an old couple who ran a soba restaurant. They named their cat "Asa" and loved it like their own child.
One day, when Asa's business rivals increased and her soba restaurant fell out of favor, she transformed herself into a beautiful human girl named Kesa and began singing and dancing in front of her restaurant, attracting customers and making it a huge success.
Later, the songs and dances sung by this beautiful girl came to be called "Okesa," and this is said to be the origin of "Sado Okesa."