Tuesday, September 30, 2014

[Week 7] Reading Diary - Japanese Fairy Tales (Ozaki)

Japanese Fairy Tales (Ozaki)

My Lord Bag of Rice
-Hidesato is asked by the dragon king to kill an enemy centipede.

-He agrees and is taken to the bottom of lake Biwa for entertainment when the palace is attacked by the centipede.
-The centipede is invulnerable to their weapons.
-Hidesato remembers that centipedes are weak against human saliva so he uses his last arrow, coats it in his saliva, and then shoots the centipede with it. It works and the centipede leaves the mountain and dies.

-The dragon king and his family thank Hidesato and throw another celebration.
-The family gave Hidesato "small" presents: a bronze bell, a bag of rice, a roll of silk, a cooking pot, and a bell. The servants left the presents at his house.
-It turns out all the presents except the bell were magical.
-The rice and silk never ran out. The cooking pot always instantly made whatever food was wanted.
-Because he had these things forever, he became My Lord Bag of Rice.


The Adventures of Kintaro, the Golden Boy
-Kintaro grew up to be very strong and was considered a wonder child.
-He learned to speak to animals and used them as servants.
-Kintaro and the animals play a game (wrestling) in a field.
-The hare and the monkey wrestle and the hare wins the first round. The monkey throws a fit and Kintaro lets them go another round. The monkey wins unfairly.
-After the games, they headed back home but came to a river that they couldn't figure out how to cross. Kintaro makes a bridge out of a tree that he pulled out of the ground.
-A woodcutter had been watching and wanted to figure out whose son he was so he followed him.
-Kintaro gets home and greets his mother. He tells her about the game they played.
-The old man who had followed Kintaro asked to be taken to play next time.
-Kintaro and the old man wrestle and the game is declared a draw, as the old man is very strong as well.
-The man suggests taking Kintaro to the city to have him trained as a samurai. The mother wants to do that, but she has no influential friend to help.
-The man reveals that he is a general who is recruiting soldiers for Lord Raiko's army.
-Kintaro sets out to the capital and says goodbye to his mother and his animal friends.
-Lord Raiko was happy to have Kintaro in his army. When he grew up, he became a chief.
-Kintaro became the greatest hero of the country.


The Man Who Did Not Wish to Die
-One day, Sentaro realizes that he never wants to die. He decides to try to live simply and frugally to see if he would live longer.
-He thought about the Chinese emperor who had his men search for the elixir of life for him. Mt. Fuji is said to be the home of the elixir.
-Sentaro heads off to become a hermit on Mt. Fuji, but he doesn't find any hermits. He asks a hunter where they might be, but is instead told of a thief with 200 followers who lives in the mountain
-Sentaro goes to a shrine to pray.
-Jofuku appears and tells Sentaro that he's being selfish and that it's hard to be a hermit. He says he's not suited for the lifestyle. Instead of helping him become a hermit, Jofuku tells Sentaro that he will send him to a place where people never die.
-Sentaro becomes a resident in the Country of Perpetual Life.
-People tell stories of the paradise they'll go to after death. Everyone in the Country of Perpetual Life wants to die so they can go there and be happy. When poisons are brought to the island, people desperately try to drink them but they don't die. Sentaro realizes he's in a land that has the opposite idea as his.
-Sentaro thinks it's silly and says he'll never wish to die.
-Eventually, he grows tired of living forever.
-Sentaro prays to Jofuku again and was flown over an ocean on the way back to japan when a storm hits. He almost drowns and is nearly eaten by a shark.
-Sentaro wakes up and realizes it was all a dream.
-A messenger gives Sentaro a book and tells him that Jofuku allowed him to see what life would be like if he never died. He sends Sentaro back to his home. He is taught that his selfish desires lead to no good. Sentaro goes back and lives a prosperous life.


-A buddhist  monk gets lost in Adachigahara.
-He asks if he can stay the night at an old woman's house, and she eventually allows him to sleep on the kitchen floor.
-The woman tells the monk not to look in a certain room. Then she leaves.
-When the old lady doesn't return for a long time, the monk decides to look in the room. He finds a gory mess in the room. Human remains, blood, etc.
-The woman catches up to him while he runs from the house.
-When dawn breaks, the goblin woman disappears and the monk is able to escape. 

The Ogre of Rashomon-A town is terrorized by rumors of a man eating ogre.
-A warrior, Watanabe, investigates the rumor.
-He ends up fighting the ogre. The ogre runs away and Watanabe tries to catch it but is outrun.
-Watanabe finds the ogre's arm that he cut off and takes it back with him to show people. He becomes popular because people want to see the arm.
-Eventually, he seals up the arm because he knows that the ogre will some day come back to get it.
-Watanabe's nurse visits him and asks him if it's true that he killed the ogre. She says her wish before she dies is to see the ogre's arm, but he refuses to show her at first. After more begging he ends up giving in to her.
-The old woman snatches up the arm and turns into the ogre.
-The ogre escapes with its arm but because it was afraid of Watanabe, it never visit Kyoto again.
-A prince and princess are happily married but also sad because they hadn't been able to have a baby.
-They decide to go to a temple to pray to Kwannon in Hase.
-Their prayer was answered and a daughter was born. They decided to call her Hasehime. 
-The mother dies five years later and before tells Hasehime to always be submissive to her superiors and kind to those under her.
-The prince remarries. The new wife was cruel and was mean to Hasehime. 
-Hasehime plays the koto beautifully and is invited to play for the emperor. The step-mother is asked to accompany her playing.
-Hasehime plays well but the stepmother can't play and asks someone else to take her place. She is ashamed that she failed but her step-daughter did so well.
-The step-mother poisons some wine in attempt to kill Hasehime. She takes two bottles of wine (one poisoned, one not) and gives them to the daughter and the son. The bottles were mixed up and the stepmother accidentally gave the poisoned wine to her son. He ends up dying.
-The step-mother hates Hasehime more.
-When rainy season arrives, Hasehime is asked to write a poem in order to make the rain stop. 
-She becomes the lieutenant general princess.
-The step-mother asks one of her servants to take Hasehime to the mountains to kill her, but her servant just takes her into the wild and protects her. 
-Her father searches for her and calls men together to help find her by searching in the mountains. 
-He ends up stumbling upon the house that she was staying in and they are both overcome with joy at being reunited.
-The servant told the father what happened.
-The father is angry and the step-mother is scared off.
-Hasehime ends up married to one of the court nobles and gives birth to a son.
-She is remembered in buddhist temples. 

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