Long ago, a country named Shining was ruled by a cruel leader. He proclaimed that all the aged people be put to death because they were weak and not healthy. A poor farmer who lived at the foot of a mountain, could not ignore the order though he loved his aged mother very much. The poor farmer chose what at that time was considered to be the kindest mode of death. He took unwhitened cooked rice and a gourd filled with cool, sweet water and climbed up the Obatsuyama mountain with his old mother on his back.

The aged mother was worried about the son’s return journey. So she picked the twigs from the brushes and dotted them at frequent intervals. After reaching the summit the son made a comfortable shelter for his aged mother and got ready for the return journey down the hill. The loving mother asked him to follow the piles of twigs to reach back safely. He was overwhelmed by his mother’s love and decided not to leave her in the summit. So he took her back home and hid his mother in a walled closet beneath the kitchen and fed her.

Once again the cruel leader gave an order that his subject should present him a rope of ashes. The farmer approached his mother, she instructed her son to make a rope of twisted straw and place it upon a row of flat stones. She asked him to burn it on a windless night Following her idea he made the rope of ashes. The cruel leader was pleased when he found that it was his aged mother, who gave such an intelligent idea. He realized his mistake and withdrew his order of putting the aged to death.