After the giant centipede fell, the Dragon King gave Hidesato a feast that lasted until the lake above the palace turned gold with morning.
When the warrior prepared to leave, five attendants brought gifts: a great bronze bell, a bag of rice, a roll of silk, a cooking pot and a smaller bell whose clear note sounded like ice touching glass.
“You have been generous,” Hidesato said, eyeing the enormous bronze bell. “But I did arrive on foot.”
The Dragon King laughed. “My servants will carry them.”
They rose through the green water and crossed Seta Bridge. At Hidesato’s gate, the attendants set everything down. He turned to thank them—and found only five wet footprints fading on the stones.
Hidesato soon discovered that the gifts were not ordinary.
His cook scooped rice from the bag for breakfast. At noon it was full again. She filled ten jars, fed every servant and invited three surprised neighbours. The bag still bulged at the top.
The silk roll did not grow shorter no matter how much cloth was cut from it. The cooking pot made hot food without a flame, though on its first morning it produced enough porridge for twenty people and nearly pushed the lid onto the roof.
Hidesato gave the great bronze bell to Miidera Temple. It took sixty men, twelve ropes and one very annoyed ox to move it. When it finally rang, the deep sound rolled over Lake Biwa and returned from Mount Mikami.
With the endless rice and silk, Hidesato supplied his household, helped villages after poor harvests and made sure travellers could eat before crossing the bridge. People began calling him Tawara Toda—My Lord Bag of Rice.
One winter evening, a child at the gate asked whether the magic bag was truly never empty.
Hidesato opened it. White grains shone all the way to the top.
“Not yet,” he said.
He filled the child’s bowl, then another for her family. From the temple across the water came the bronze bell’s slow, enormous voice.
On clear days, travellers still paused halfway over Seta Bridge. Some hoped to see the Dragon King. Most saw only rippling water and the mountain beyond.
Hidesato always stepped carefully over that particular stretch of bridge—just in case an old friend had decided to test another warrior.