[Week 6] Reading Diary - Japanese Fairy Tales (Lang)

Japanese Fairy Tales (Lang)

The Two Frogs

- An adorable story about two frogs who happen to meet each other while on their way to each other's city. They become friends and talk on top of a mountain. Then they get the idea to stand on their hind legs using each other to balance so they can see the cities they were headed to. That way, they can tell if it looks worthwhile to continue on their journeys. They don't realize that their eyes are in the back of their heads and when they stand up, they both see where they had just come from and decide to turn back and go home.

The Stonecutter

- A mountain spirit grants a stone-cutter several wishes. He goes becomes rich, then a prince, the sun, a cloud, a rock, and then a human again. In all the forms except his normal poor human self, he found that he was unsatisfied with something. So in the end when he is human again, he realizes that he's had it good all along.

The Maiden with the Wooden Helmet

- A dying mother worries that her beautiful daughter will be harassed when she is fending for herself, so while on her deathbed she has the daughter get a wooden helmet. She tells her to wear the helmet at all times so nobody can see her face. Later, the girl ends up being seen while working by the son of the house master. He is determined to marry her and eventually, after her mother comes to her and tells her it's a good idea, she consents. She is married in her helmet but afterwards in bursts and turns into diamonds and everyone is amazed by her beauty.

The Envious Neighbour

- So sad. But justice is served! An elderly couple have a dog that they treat like a child. The dog finds treasure in their garden and the couple become rich. A neighbor gets jealous and asks to borrow the dog. The couple eventually gives in and allows it, but when the dog finds nothing but bones in the neighbor's yard, he kills it. The elderly couple is sad but the dog comes to the husband at night and gives him instructions. They end up being even more rich and the neighbor grows more envious but every time he tries to repeat what they did, something bad happens. In the end, he's locked up in jail and shunned by the community. 

The Sparrow with the Slit Tongue

- A nice old man saves a little sparrow one day and keeps it as his pet. It's happy and safe in its cage and it likes the old man. But the man's wife is basically evil and becomes jealous of the bird so she cuts its tongue. The bird flies away and the man is sad. He spends days looking for it and is just about to give up when he comes upon a little house in a bamboo thicket. A woman comes out of the house and says she is the sparrow he saved. She lets him choose between a big chest and a little chest as a present. He takes the little one and at home discovers it's full of jewels. The wife is enraged that he didn't pick the bigger one and visits the sparrow's house. She demands a gift and picks the big chest. Inside there are snakes that poison her and she dies.

The Cat's Elopement

- Two cats fall in love but because of their owners, they can't be together. They meet every night instead. One night, a dog/ogre attacks and the male, Gon, cat tries to fight it. The female cat, Koma, cries loudly from a tree until a princess comes out and saves Gon. He becomes a helpful pet to her. A while later, while wishing to see Koma, Gon sees a little kitten being bullied by a bigger cat. He rescues it and realizes it's Koma. They are happy to be together and tell their story to the princess, who happily keeps them both.

Schippeitaro

- For some reason this one really confused me. It's about a man who goes out looking for adventure and he comes across cats singing and shrieking. He learns of a dog named Schippeitaro who I think stops the (king of the) cats from eating young women. The boy helps the dog kill the cats. 

The Crab and the Monkey
- A nice crab finds some rice and trades a monkey half of it for his kaki seed. She uses it to grow a kaki tree full of fruit. The monkey stops by and gets the crab's permission to have some fruit but ends up stealing it all for himself. The crab tries to trick the monkey so she can get some of the fruit back, but he beats her up. Her friends help her set up a trap to punish the monkey and he dies.

The Magic Kettle

- A man is happy that he found a nice kettle but when he tries to use it it turns into a tanuki. Not wanting to deal with it, he sells it to a man named Jimmu. Jimmu ends up using the tanuki to make a lot of money by setting up a booth and having it dance for crowds. He wants to repay the man he bought it from so he gives him the kettle and lots of gold.

How the Wicked Tanuki was Punished

-A fox and a tanuki need money so the tanuki pretends to be dead and the fox changes into a man and goes to sell the "dead" tanuki in a village. She does so and uses the money to buy food and the tanuki manages to escape, glad that he can climb trees. Eventually they run out of money and the fox decides it's her turn to act dead. The tanuki decides he wants more food for himself and his son so he tells the buyer the fox isn't really dead and he kills her. The son ends up realizing that his father had his mother killed and tricks the tanuki into getting killed himself.

The Slaying of the Tanuki

- An old man leaves food out for his friend the hare every day but it always gets stolen or destroyed by a tanuki. The old man captures the tanuki but it manages to sweet talk his wife and kills her. It even feeds his wife to him without him knowing. When he finds out he is grief stricken and the hare decides to help him. He plays a prank on the tanuki by burning his back and then covering it in a painful salve, but the old man says it isn't enough. Together they build two boats and use them in a plan to kill the tanuki. The old man is happy that his wife is avenged.

Uraschimataro and the Turtle

- Uraschimataro saves a young turtle who in turn later saves him when he is thrown from his boat during a storm. The turtle wants to take him under the water to show him how nice it is. They traveled for three days until they arrived at a palace. The princess of the palace, Otohime, immediately falls in love with Uraschimataro and asks him to stay with her. She does stay with her, but after a while he ends up missing his parents. Otohime begs him to stay but he decides to go. He promises to do something so that he can go back to her. He had been underwater for 300 years and found out his parents had died. He opens the box that Otohime had given him and turns very old. He dies while waiting for the turtle to show up to take him back.