Fujiwara no Nobutada (藤原陳忠)
FUJIWARA no Nobutada (year of birth and death unknown) was a middle-class noble who lived during the middle of the Heian period. He was from the Kuromaro school, the Southern House of the Fujiwara clan. His father was the Dainagon (chief councilor of state) FUJIWARA no Motokata.
Anecdote in the Konjaku Monogatari-Shu (The Tales of Times Now Past)
Konjaku Monogatari-Shu Volume 28, 'How FUJIWARA no Nobutada, the Governor of Shinano, Took a Tumble at Misaka, Section 38'
Nobutada was on his way back to Kyoto after serving his term as the Governor of Shinano Province. When he was passing through the Misaka Pass located on the boundaries of Shinano Province and Mino Province, his horse missed its footing on a bridge, and he and his horse fell into a deep valley. When his attendants looked down at the valley, they thought he already died. However, they heard Nobutada saying, 'Attach a rope onto a basket and give it to me' from the bottom of the valley, so they took a basket down to him. When they pulled it up, they found the basket with full of oyster mushrooms instead of Nobutada. When they took it down to the bottom of the valley and pulled it up again, they saw Nobutada in the basket with a bunch of oyster mushrooms in his hand.
Nobutada said the following to the attendants relieved and amazed:
I got caught on a tree while I was falling down, and I noticed there were so many oyster mushrooms around there.'
I thought I would regret very much if I would return empty-handed from such a mountain of treasures.'
People say, "A zuryo (provincial governor) should grab soil when he falls down (which means, "all is grist that comes to his mill")," you know.'
Nobutada is well known for the anecdote of 'How FUJIWARA no Nobutada, Governor of Shinano, Took a Tumble at Misaka, Section 38,' which is included in the Konjaku Monogatari-Shu, Volume 28.
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It is said that this anecdote describes greediness of a zuryo well, and also had people begin regarding Nobutada as a typical greedy zuryo.
Based on this anecdote in the Konjaku Monogatari-Shu 'The monument to FUJIWARA no Nobutada' was established in Sonohara, Achi-mura, Nagano Prefecture, which is near the Misaka Pass.