Oh yes who can forget Momotaro... My mom used to sing the momtaro song to me before I go to bed.. such memory. The funny thing is, I never really get to know the complete storyline until now. Thanks Mikawa Ossan for bringing back such good memory!
Momotaro is a nice story because it teaches the importance of friendship. I like it very much, and it's the perfect children's story, don't you think? It has everthing a kid could want: caring parents, magic, adventure, treasure!
An interesting note on Momotaro, the pre-Meiji version of the story has the old couple eat the peach, become young again and therefore actually bear the child. The various symbolisms in the story are interesting:
Yeah, it's funny how the story of Momotaro had to be made child friendly. They had something about that on either Hey! Spring of Trivia, or an NHK show last month. The version they told said that the old couple both ate a magic peach, became young again, got rather amorous, and shortly after that Momotaro was born.
Some of most popular folks tales read by Taiwanese children are Japanese folk tales because of the colonization of Japan during the years 1895-1945.
My mother is Taiwanese, so when I was a child, when my mother had the opportunities to visit her parents in Taiwan, she brought back many children's books that were popular during that time. Those Japanese folk tales I believe are still very popular today. And through that influence I received the opportunity to have read quite a lot of them.
This is the reason why I can read traditional Chinese font considering my primary school education was in Malaysia and my high school and universities educations were in Australia. Malaysia like Singapore uses the simplified Chinese font.
Yes ﾂ"Momotaro/窶慊坂?伉ｾﾋ弸ﾂ" is probably the most popular one. :haihai:
Kon ban wa:
Right now, my fave Japanese folk tale is "Hiroko," which the celebrated storyteller Diane Wolkstein (http://dianewolkstein.com/) retold in her children's book Lazy Stories (The Seabury Press, 1976). Basically it's about the daughter of rich parents who suddenly has to learn to live without servants when she is married to a samurai with a more humble home.
One of Hiroko's habits - to throw her toothpicks into the mat after cleaning her teeth with them - comes back to haunt her when the mat fairies (yes, you read that right, fairies) enter said toothpicks and play mini-warriors, thus giving Hiroko some very sleepless nights...
Has anyone else come across this story besides Miss Wolkstein?
If anyone in the fora has read or heard her version, what did you think of it? And can you identity the dialect used by the fairies to keep Hiroko needlessly awake at night? Yoroshiku,
Philip David
2006.04.15-16
This is another tale. What's funny is that it is only a small part of a much larger story about the founding of Yamato (Japan). I will make one comment. The original Japanese does use the word for crocodile, but in the local dialect where this story took place, that was apparently the word they used to mean "shark", so in Japanese versions, often you will see sharks instead of crocodiles.
This is another tale. What's funny is that it is only a small part of a much larger story about the founding of Yamato (Japan). I will make one comment. The original Japanese does use the word for crocodile, but in the local dialect where this story took place, that was apparently the word they used to mean "shark", so in Japanese versions, often you will see sharks instead of crocodiles. darsie.net - darsie Resources and Information.
Yes, the picture book of "Inaba no Shiro Usagi" I had when I was small had sharks in it--not crocodiles. I heard about the use of the word "wani" for sharks after I grew up.
I hope it would not be out of line to post a story here rather than give a link. And, since I will go ahead and do so, I ask for everyone's understanding, please.
Monogusa Taro (and they do love that 'Taro' name, ne...)
In the area of Shinano, there once live a very lazy man. His was called 'Monogusa Taro' by the local farmers because he was so lazy. He lived in a hut made from straw mats because he was too lazy to build a house and the farmers brought him things to eat from time to time.
One day, a kind farmer brought Monogusa Taro five rice balls. He ate four of them right away, but dropped one, and it rolled out into the road. He was too lazy to get up and go get it, so he decided to wait until someone would come along.
At last, the governor of the area came passing by. Monogusa Taro asked him to pick up the rice ball and give it to him. The governor was very surprized that such a poor man would ask such a thing to the governor of the area, but also took some interest in Monogusa Taro.
When the time came for the governor to make a trip to Kyoto , Monogusa Taro was chosen to go with him. (Someone from the area had to go with him and all the farmers were busy with their farms, so they had persuaded Monogusa Taro to go with him by saying that there were many beautiful women there.) After some days, it was time to leave kyoto, and Monogusa Taro went to Kiyomizu temple again to see if he could meet a beautiful woman. Finally, one woman he met gave him a reply in prose, thinking that that would ward him off since only the finest of high society would understand what it had meant.
Monogusa Taro understood it and cleaned up and went to her house the next day. She soon realized how skillful he was in poetry and as time went on, word of it got to the emperor as well. As it turned out, Monogusa Taro was a descendent of royality. He married with the woman he had met and was raised to a high position. In turn, Monogusa Taro promoted the governor of the Shinano area and gave land to those farmers who had given him a bite to eat when he had been living among them.
(This story originates, it is said, in Niimura, Nagano, Japan--where the uni I work at is. There is a monument there and a small park giving the basics of the story.)
The top 5
1.Momotaro
2. The fight between the crab and the monkey( sarugani gassen)
3. Urahsima
4. The crain wife (tsuru nyoubou)
5. Kintaro
My recomendation:
1Kozuna, the child of the demon (Kozuna, oni no ko)
2. Snake wife (hebi nyoubou)
3. Spider lover
4. A night like this one (konna yoru)
Tales about the fox and the racoon dog (tanuki) are very interesting!
momotaro... I wondered where I've heard that story... I know I watched it somewhere... oh, it was good old Samurai Jack from cartoon network! lol! I like that story, thanks Mikawa for posting it! (I will read it...!)
I'm currently studying the legend of Saito Musashibo Benkei, the warrior monk... fascinating stuff. Won the swords of 999 men, and when he lost the 1000th battle to a samurai, he followed him for the rest of his life, and died in service to him.
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