Long time ago, there was a young man named Hachiro
in a village of Ooyu, Akita Prefecture in Japan.
He was tall enough seemed to be able to reach clouds
and strong enough to throw down trees with his bare hands.
But he was very kind.
One day Hachiro went to Oirase ravine with his fellows
to work. It was his turn to make ready for their lunch. He caught
some fish and began to roast them for his fellows. But it smelled
so nice. He couldn't wait for their coming back in patience.
He took one of them. It was delicious. And he did take
another. Mm.. now he couldn't stop taking the others.
After he ate them up he felt thirsty and went to a mountain stream to drink some water. As he hung over the river, he saw a dragon on the surface of the river. It had awfully glare eyes, and what's more, its mouse was big and red and split to the ears.
"Oh! Alas!" he cried.
It was he. He was frightened to know he himself turned to a DRAGON.
Just then his fellows came back and found the awful creature standing there. At once they saw the dragon, they ran away to the village in terror.
He felt lonely and cried himself of such a figure.
He kept drinking water in his sorrow and became an enormous DRAGON which was over 100 meters high.
The DRAGON, Hachiro in truth, stopped the flow of all the mountain streams to make a big lake. And sank into the bottom of the lake to sleep.
It is the Lake Towada we call now.
In those days Nansobo, a training monk, was walking around the country.
One day he heard a divine revelation of Buddha that he should live where a strap of his iron geta (Japanese shoes) was snapped, it would be his permanent home. So he went on walking for the north and when he got to the edge of this lake his strap was snapped.
"This must be the place I should stay. What beautiful scenery!"
Nansobo said himself and stepped into the Lake.
Suddenly, the surface of the lake was getting up.
A gigantic DRAGON came out of the wave and shouted at him.
"Who are you? I do not allow you to enter my territory."
Nansobo stood steady and said,
"This is the lake for mine that Buddha indicated me. You must leave here at once."
Nansobo chanted a sutra, then a bank of dark clouds came up and a heavy storm started to blow. Each word of Nansobo's chanting sutra changed into swords and they stuck into the DORAGON's body.
The blood streamed out from the wound. It colored a rock projecting the lake in red. It is called Senjo-maku in Mikura-Peninsura
After they fought a battle for seven days, the DRAGON was defeated and left there. He headed for the south to get his new place to settle down. He came to a wide desolate land with hard blowing wind. He stopped the flow of rivers and made another lake bigger than the Lake Towada.
"Now I got myself at home."
At last, since he was sent away from the Lake Towada, he felt ease lying in the bottom of the new lake. There were many fish coming from the sea because he opened a mouth between the lake and the sea. He enjoyed watching them.
This is the lagoon we call Hachiroh-Gata now.
 But Hachiroh-Gata was frozen over in winter and he couldn't stand the cold. So he moved to Lake Tazawa and asked Tatsuko-Hime, who was the Goddess of the lake and once she also had been a human being, to let him stay there together during winter. Lake Tazawa was not frozen over , so that Tatsuko-Hime granted his asking with pleasure. Since then Hachiro, the DRAGON, had lived there with her only in winter season. And when spring came he went back to Hachiroh-Gata.
Today on every 9th Nov. there is a big ceremonial party in Shinmei-do shrine, where Tatsuko-Hime is enshrined.It is also a memorial day that Hachiro visited there.
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