Kozanese Myth: The Girl Who Lived in the Fountain

This is another myth that has been told to Kozanese youth since the mid-18th century. It specifically concerns a girl who has spent the majority of her time sitting and living in a fountain.

The myth begins with a young boy approaching the fountain and praying to his ancestor the great Nitori Kawashiro in the Aetherworld region, just south of the Youkai Mountain range. As he makes an offering by dropping one koban coin into the fountain, the fountains stop flowing and the water drains out. The water that disappeared appeared to reveal something with very long blue hair, leading to him speculating that something may be in there.

Within a matter of seconds, a finger sticks out of the hair, and it pushes the hair off of its face, revealing it is an actual humanoid being. She greets the boy, questioning what made him drop something on her hair. The boy questions how she got there. The girl reveals herself to be Izumi-hime. Izumi tells the boy that she is a youkai-born who wanted to hide from humanoids using her very long hair.

After Izumi was expelled from living in the Pacific Ocean for allegedly breaking up with her ex-boyfriend, her depression led to her living inside a fountain, which she specifically used to hydrate herself and drown her tears in, until somebody drops a unit of currency on her hair which was trailing on the ground. This specific fountain the boy was using to pray to his ancestor was the one Izumi had fled to.

Izumi spends some time with the boy. Unfortunately, a group of angry humanoids comes in and wants Izumi razed out of existence. She flees without the boy knowing back to where she originally resided in. After the boy becomes tired of searching where she went, he returned to pray to Nitori and gave another koban coin as an offering. Out of the blue, Izumi was there, but just seconds after the boy threw the coin in, the same humanoids surround the couple, ready for them to slaughter them.

The boy battles all of the humanoids trying to go after Izumi and after a heroic victory, both the boy and Izumi share true love’s first kiss. She later becomes a court noble for the Aetherworld goddess Shinki.