On the Akasaka road in Tokyo there is a slope called Kii-no-kuni-zaka, the Slope of the Province of Kii. I do not know why it is called so. On one side of the slope is an old moat, deep and very wide, with a garden on its high green bank; on the other side runs the long wall of an imperial palace. Before the time of street lamps and rickshaws, this neighborhood was utterly deserted after dark, and people coming home late would go miles out of their way rather than climb Kii-no-kuni-zaka alone after sunset. All because of a mujina, a badger, that used to walk there.
Late one night an old merchant of Kyobashi was hurrying up Kii-no-kuni-zaka when he saw a woman crouching by the moat, weeping bitterly. Afraid she meant to drown herself, he stopped to speak to her. She was well dressed, seemingly a girl of good family, her hair neatly arranged.
"Miss, don't cry like that. If you're in trouble, tell me, and I'll help you." She went on weeping, hiding her face with her long sleeve. The old man laid his hand lightly on her shoulder and pleaded gently, again and again: "Miss, miss, please listen to me..."
Then the woman slowly turned around, dropped her sleeve and stroked her face with her hand. The old man saw that her face had no eyes, no nose, no mouth. He screamed and ran.
Up the pitch-dark slope he ran, never looking back. Far ahead he saw the light of a lantern. It was a noodle seller's stall by the roadside. The old man collapsed at the seller's feet, gasping only, "Ah! Ah!"
"What's the matter? Did someone rob you?" asked the noodle seller. "No, no. I saw... I saw a woman, by the moat... and she showed me... ah, I can't tell you what she showed me."
"Hey! Was it anything like this that she showed you?" said the noodle seller, and stroked his own face, which became like an egg. And at the same moment the light went out.
Kii-no-kuni-zaka is the slope in today's Moto-Akasaka, Minato Ward, rising from Akasaka-mitsuke toward Yotsuya; it is named for the mansion of the Kishu Tokugawa family that once stood there. On the moat side, the Benkei Moat still remains.