The placid waters of Lake Yogo reflect the scenery so well that it has been nicknamed “Mirror Lake.” The lake’s idyllic landscape has inspired multiple folktales and legends.

 

The Swan Maiden of Lake Yogo
Lake Yogo’s Swan Maiden tale is one of Japan’s three major legends about robes of feathers (hagoromo densetsu). Long ago, eight heavenly maidens descended in the form of swans to bathe in the lake, hanging their robes on a nearby willow tree. They were spotted by a villager named Ika Tomi, who immediately fell in love with the youngest maiden. Determined to prevent her return to heaven, he stole her robe and hid it. In time, the maiden settled in the village as Ika Tomi’s wife. One day, however, she found her stolen robe and returned to her home in the skies, leaving her lonely husband behind.

 

Kikuishi Hime
This legend tells of the young girl Kikuishi Hime, who had a sinister, snakelike mark on her body. The mark appeared when she was eight years old. When her parents discovered the mark, they abandoned her in a hut on the outskirts of the village. By Kikuishi Hime’s eighteenth birthday, the mark had grown to cover her entire body. That same year, the village was ravaged by a severe drought. Kikuishi Hime transformed into a dragon and summoned rain, saving the village. Before disappearing into the waters of Lake Yogo, she gave the villagers one of her eyes, which could cure the disease of anyone who licked it. Kikuishi Hime’s maidservant, who had cared for her as a child, tearfully begged for the other eye as well. Kikuishi Hime gouged out her other eye and, completely blinded, threw it against a lakeshore rock, branding the rock with an eye-shaped mark. She then disappeared into the lake forever.

 

※This English-language text was created by the Japan Tourism Agency.