Japanese folktales. Japanese folktales are the folktales of Japan. In commonplace usage, it signifies a certain set of well-known classic tales, with a vague distinction of whether they fit the rigorous definition of folktale or not. The admixed imposters are literate written pieces, dating back to the Muromachi period (14th-16th centuries).
This is a collection of Japanese fairy tales translated by Yei Theodora Ozaki based on a version written in Japanese by Sadanami Sanjin. According to Ozaki, 'These stories are not literal translations, and though the Japanese story and all quaint Japanese expressions have been faithfully preserved, they have been told more with the view to interest young readers of the West than the technical student of folk-lore.' Ozaki freely added to and changed the original stories for color and background.Source:Ozaki, Y.T. Japanese Fairy Tales.
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New York: A.L.Burt Company.The heroic adventures of Kintaro.A bamboo cutter finds a small, luminescent girl, and raises her as Princess Moonlight. She refuses all suitors, befriends the Emperor, and eventually returns to her rightful home, the Moon.A badger kills a farmer’s wife, and the farmer asks a rabbit to get revenge for him.A priest looks for lodging in the night and is given shelter by an old woman. She goes to gather more wood, and she tells him not to look in the back room. Curiosity gets the better of him, and he looks in the room and sees horrible things. He realizes she is the Goblin of Adachigahara, and flees. She chases him through the night, but he prays to Buddha and keeps running. Morning dawns, making the goblin disappear, and the priest is safe.The brothers The Happy Hunter and The Skillful Fisherman change occupational places one day.
The Hunter does not know how to fish, and loses his brother’s hook. The Skillful Fisherman is very angry and demands his hook back. The Hunter searches and searches to no avail, until an old man appears and tells him to travel to the Sea King’s realm to find the hook. He does so, and finds the hook and makes many new friends.
He stays in the Sea King’s realm for three years, and then he returns to land. He gives the hook to his brother, and the brother is angry that he no longer has an excuse to steal his brother’s wealth and title. The Skillful Fisherman then plots to kill his brother, but the Happy Hunter thwarts his plan by using talismans given to him by the Sea King. The Skillful Fisherman is thus impressed by his brother’s power and vows to be obedient to him from then on.The jelly fish, who originally had a shell and four legs, fails in a mission for the Dragon King of the Sea.
As punishment his bones are removed, and he is beaten into a pulp. Thus the modern jelly fish was created.A husband gives his wife a mirror, and when she is on her deathbed, she gives it to her daughter. The daughter thinks she sees her mother’s soul in it and spends much time staring into it after her father remarries. The stepmother begins resenting the daughter’s relationship with her father and starts to hate her; she thinks the daughter is doing black magic to curse her, and she tells the father of it. The father confronts the daughter, and he finally realizes that the daughter is innocent and is simply still brokenhearted over her mother’s death. The stepmother is moved by the daughter’s story to renounce her hate, and the father, stepmother, and daughter finally become a happy family.An old woman finds a large peach in a river, and when she and her husband cut it open to eat it, they find a child inside. They are overjoyed to now have a son to ease their lonely days.
When the boy is fifteen, he goes off to rid the land of devils who live on an island, and takes a dog, a monkey, and a pheasant with him. He is victorious over the devils and returns home to live happily with his parents.A Japanese warrior defends the Dragon King by killing his enemy, the monster centipede. In gratitude the Dragon King gives the warrior several presents, including a bag of rice that never runs out, and he comes to be known as My Lord Bag of Rice.A brave warrior fights an ogre, cutting off his arm. The ogre runs away, and the warrior keeps the arm as a prize. Later, the warrior’s old nurse appears at his door and pleads to see the arm. He lets her, and she grabs it, turning into the ogre. The ogre thus gets away with his arm, and is scared enough of the warrior that he never troubles the city again.The monkey and the crab were playing along the river.
The monkey finds a persimmon seed and the crab a rice dumpling; the monkey convinces the crab to exchange the items. The crab grows a tree from the seed, and asks the monkey to help him pick the fruit. The monkey is greedy, and eats all the fruit and then throws hard seeds at the crab, killing him.
The crab’s son plans revenge on the monkey, eventually killing him.An old monkey is to be sent to the butcher by his master, since his age has caused him to stop performing as well as he used to. The monkey overhears this plan and goes to a boar for advice. The boar comes up with a plan: The boar will steal the couple’s child, and the monkey will run after him and rescue the child, thus earning the family’s love and respect for the rest of his days. The plan works.How the Emperor Kotei invented many useful things, defeated his enemy, and went to Heaven on the back of a Dragon.A Chinese Empress quells an uprising and then has to mend the heavens and the pillars that hold up the sky.A story of how Prince Take got his name and many of his daring deeds.How Princess Hase was conceived and lived her good life.How Sentaro was taught not to covet unending life.A childless couple love their dog very dearly, and the dog finds gold coins buried under their tree. The old man is grateful and loves his dog even more. The man has a very jealous and hateful neighbor, who tries to copy his neighbor’s luck by borrowing the dog and making him dig.
The hateful man finds only garbage, and kills the dog in rage. The good man asks for the tree in remembrance of his dog, and the tree’s wood is made into a mortar that produces unending food.
The jealous neighbor asks to borrow it and destroys it when it won’t also give him food. More events continue until the good man is eventually given riches by a lord for his kindness to him, and when the hateful man tries to copy the kindness, he is arrested as an imposter and jailed forever, thus finally being punished for his crimes.How disobedience ruined the life of Urashima Taro.A fairy sparrow teaches a cross old woman a lesson.A hare deceives many crocodiles, then mocks them, and the crocodiles pull out all of his fur in retaliation.
The hare is suffering, and a fairy man comes along and tells him to bathe in the sea and lie in the sun to recover his fur, but the man was spiteful and his advice only increases the hare’s pain. A kind fairy man comes by and listens to the hare’s sad story, telling him his pain is the consequence of his behavior to the crocodiles. The hare agrees and repents, and the kind man tells him how to heal his wounds and regrow his fur. The hare correctly predicts that the princess the other men were off seeking would deny them and instead choose the kind man for her husband.
Japanese short stories for kids Japanese folktales are heavily influenced by Chinese culture and collective norms of the isolated Japanese islands. The Short stories and folk tales always try to teach the importance of patience, honesty, and hard work. The stories usually include1- Old grandpa and grandma who don’t have any children2- A strong little boy3- A beautiful little girl who grows up to be a princess4- Devil (Oni)5- Samurai. Samurais usually cooperate with the hero of the story.6- Forest7- An animal that turns out to be a human or a creature with supernatural powers.Here are the most famous short Japanese folk tales and stories:Momotarou ももたろう: Momotaro means peach boy. It’s the story of a little boy who emerged from a little peach found by an old lady in the river. The story goes like thisThe old woman went to the riverside to wash clothes.
She then found a delicious peach. She also wanted to take one home for her husband. She yelled, “sweet peach come by, bitter peach goes away.” Suddenly a peach just appeared next to the woman and the woman took it to her house. When she tried to cut the peach in half, one boy just came out and they called the boy Momotaro (the peach boy). Momotaro grew so fast and became huge. He helped the old couple with house chores. But there were devils bothering the villagers and Momotaro decided to fight against the devils on the devils’ island. He told the old woman, “if you make special dumplings for me, I can beat the devils.” The woman made special dumplings that can give a human being the power of 100 people.
Momoator also took some dumplings with him and on the way another fighter, a dog and a monkey joined him because Momotaro gave him dumplings. When they arrived on the island, they cooperated to beat a huge devil. The dog bit the devil’s leg, the monkey scratched the devils head.
Together they beat all the devils. The devils promised that they were not going to any bad things again. Momotaro (the peach boy) and his friends loaded the treasure and got back to the village.
Momotaro distributed the treasure equally among the villagers. Momotaro was Japan’s bestOnce upon a time an old woman went to the riverside to wash clothes. She then found a peach on the river.
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She took it home to show her husband. At home, she tried to cut the peach in half, but suddenly a boy just came out. And they called the boy Momotaro. They got all the treasure the devils had.
The devils also promised not to bothers the villagers again. They lived happily ever after.The short story of Kaguya HimeOne day an old bamboo cutter found a beautiful baby girl in a bamboo plant. He took her home and took very good care of her. When she grew up to be a gorgeous young woman, the emperor of Japan saw her and fell in love with her. Kaguya Hime eventually tells the bamboo cutter that she actually came from the moon and that she doesn’t belong to this world. Kaguya Hime returns to the moon with the help from moon people. やなぎのき The Willow TreeSome more shortened Japanese storiesShitakiri suzume したきりすずめ Tongue-cut Sparrow (also known as Sparrow’s Inn)This is a story about an old couple: one modest and humble man and a greedy woman.The story goes like thisOne day an old woodcutter found a little sparrow crying for help in the woods.
He took it home and started feeding it with leftovers. His wife, who disliked animals and birds, was angry at him as he was spending time taking care of the bird which she thought was a waste of time. She also one day saw that the sparrow ate all the starch they had. She was so angry and just went ahead and cut the tongue of the bird. After his husband came back, he realized that the sparrow just flew away.The old man went to the forest to search for the sparrow and finally found the sparrow in “the sparrow’s inn” with the help from other birds. The sparrows offered him a gift and asked to choose between one small basket and one big basket.
By thinking about other people in need, he chose the small basket and when he got back home he noticed that the basket was filled with treasure. His greedy wife also went to the sparrow’s inn and asked for a gift. She definitely wanted the big basked and the sparrows accepted her wish but warned her that she should not open the basked before she gets home. As a greedy person, she opened the basked right after she left the inn but it was too late.
The basket was filled with snakes and poisonous bugs. She ended up falling off the cliffs while trying to run away from the snakes.
The old man was awarded because of his modesty and the old woman was punished because of her ill behavior.The short story of Issunboushi いっすんぼうしIssunboushi いっすんぼうし the 1 inch boy (also known as the little one inch) is the story of a tiny sized boy fighting against a devil and becoming a full-sized prince.The story goes like thisOnce upon a time, there was an old couple who really wanted to have a child. Since they were old this was a bit difficult for them but they kept praying for a baby. One day their wish came true and the old woman gave birth to a small boy. The boy was so small people had a hard time seeing him, he was actually as small as the old man’s thumb, they called him Issunboushi (Issunboushi いっすんぼうし).Issuboushi wanted to be a samurai and one day left his home with a needle (his sword), a bowl (his sandal) and 2 chopsticks (his paddles).
He was soon discovered by the forces of the local governor and assigned as the guard of the princess. Shortly after, he and the princess were attacked by an Oni (鬼, the devil) and the devil swallowed Issunboushi.
He managed the jabbed the needle into the devil’s body from the inside and this was when the devil puked him out. The devil then ran away by leaving the magical hammer behind. The princess used the magical hammer (Uchidenokozuchi打ち出の小槌) to make him a normal size prince. Issunboshi and the princess got married and lived happily afterThe short story of Kintarou きんたろう。 Kintarou means golden boy. It is the story of a little boy who wore nothing a small bib that said Gold (きん、金)on it. He was left in the Mount Ashigara by a witch named Yama-Uba.
He was a very strong boy since early childhood.After he grew up, he got the name Kintoki and was chosen as the personal guard of Yorimitsu Samurai in Kyoto. Kintoki mastered martial arts and became one of the most famous fighters in the region.The short story of Urashima TarouUrashima Taro is the story of a fisherman who saves the life a sea turtle. A few days later he is approached by a giant sea turtle in the sea who tells him that the turtle he saved was actually the daughter of the Sea King and the king wants to thank him in his palace under the deep sea called Ryugu-Jo.He meets with the king and his beautiful daughter (who was the turtle he saved). Urashima is so much impressed with the palace but wants to go back to his village after 3 days as he is concerned about his mom.
The princes (otohime) gives him a box as a gift but tells him not to open it ever. Once, Urashima Taro is back in his village he notices that 300 years past and everything has changed. Without knowing what to do he ends up opening the box but suddenly he feels so old, wrinkles appear on his face and his beard grows for meters.
The princess appears and says, you shouldn’t have opened the box; your old age was in the box Urashima Taro story teaches children the importance of being patient.The short story of Flower Planting Grandpa花咲かじいさんはなさかじいさんHanasaki ojiisanSetsubun Devil節分の鬼せつぶんのおにSetsubun no oniさるかに, sarukaniThe story of “monkey and crab”kachikachi yamaかちかちやまClick Click HilltsurunoongaeshiつるのおんがえしReturning the favor of the CraneomosubikororinおむすびころりんThe rolling rice cakeskomotorigonbeeかもとりごんべえThe flying farmerNezumino SumouSumo MouseねずみのすもうFree online Japanese folktales short stories for kids.