TORAKOISHI

Lore

Torakoishi (虎子石) translates literally as “Little-Tiger Stone.” Legend attributes its appearance to the goddess Benzaiten, who chose to aid a childless couple. In a dream she gave Yamashita Choze and his wife a tiny pebble that would serve the family as a talisman. Soon afterward a daughter, Tora, was born, and the stone grew along with the child until it became an imposing boulder. Years passed, and Tora Gozen became the beloved of Soga Juro Sukenari, one of the avenging brothers from the Tale of the Soga. According to the legend the two brothers pursued their father’s killer and at last took blood revenge. The climax comes when, during the chase, Tora’s stone—Torakoishi—mystically absorbed both an arrow and a sword-stroke aimed at her husband Juro. Folklore says that the chips left by those blows, known as the “Soga scars,” can still be seen on the boulder’s surface. From this episode comes its second name, the “Guardian Stone,” underscoring its chief role: shielding a worthy person from harm.

Physically the artifact looks like a large, irregular gray-black boulder, yet Edo-period artists gave it zoomorphic features: a tiger’s head, four paws, and a tail, letting it hop about and startle travelers. That playful reading turned the local shrine object into a well-loved, harmless yokai. Folk belief grants Torakoishi the power to change its mass: to those whose intentions are pure, or who are bound by love and loyalty, it becomes unexpectedly light—light enough to move with one hand; to the greedy or impious it grows impossibly heavy. The effect acts as a magical test of an adventurer’s motives, manifesting the spirit that dwells inside the stone.