Once Upon Time in JAPAN
Once Upon Time
in Japan
Translated by
Roger Pulvers & Juliet Winters Carpenter
Illustrated by
Manami Yamada
Tomonori Taniguchi
Nao Takabatake &
Takumi Nishio
PUBLISHED IN COOPERATION WITH
NHK JAPAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION
TUTTLE Publishing
Tokyo | Rutland, Vermont | Singapore
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Copyright © 2015 by NHK Japan Broadcasting Corporation
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Contents
The Wife Who Never Eats
translated by Roger Pulvers illustrated by Manami Yamada
The Mill of the Sea
translated by Roger Pulvers illustrated by Manami Yamada
The Monkey and the Crabs
translated by Roger Pulvers illustrated by Manami Yamada
The Magical Hood
translated by Roger Pulvers illustrated by Tomonori Taniguchi
Sleepyhead Taro and the Children
translated by Roger Pulvers illustrated by Nao Takabatake
The Fox and the Otter
translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter illustrated by Nao Takabatake
The Gratitude of the Crane
translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter illustrated by Takumi Nishio
The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter
translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter illustrated by Takumi Nishio
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A Second Childhood BY ROGER PULVERS
I have a very personal and nostalgic tie to stories such as the ones you have before you in this book. My wife, who is British-Australian, and I brought up our four children in Japan. They were born in Japan and we sent them to Japanese schools. Thanks to their reading and loving the Japanese folktales they were introduced to in their childhood, my wife and I were able to share the joys of reading them for the first time with them. It was as if we were having a second childhood ourselves, and a very Japanese one at that.
But though I say “Japanese,” if you strip away those special elements that are tied to Japan—for instance, the myrtle grass bath in “The Wife Who Never Eats”—there is nothing in these stories that would prevent them from being set in almost any country in the world.
In fact, these are moral tales of truly universal value. Their values transcend geography, era and ethnicity. Their themes appeal to us all. Greedy and selfish people are punished and the rewards for generosity and mercy are large. Cooperation and harmony among people are seen as great virtues.
Japan is today a wealthy country, but for most of history its people lived very modest and frugal lives, depending on each other in order to create sufficient food to sustain themselves. While there is an abundance of water in Japan, rice farming depended upon people sharing and looking after water resources. One traditional expression for selfishness is gaden insui, which means “drawing all the water into your own rice paddy.” Nothing in the village was seen to be more despicable than this. It is the equivalent of the English expression “feathering your own nest” knowing that the other birds may die.
The animals in these stories have all of the traits, both good and bad, of humans. But animals in Japanese folklore are not considered wicked just because they may cause harm to humans. Snakes in many countries may not be seen in a positive light, but in “The Magical Hood” freeing the snake is taken as an act of mercy. It is the snake’s fate to be born a snake, and we should not expect it to act in any other way than a snake must act. We should not despise it, but treat it equally as we do other animals, including humans.
And as for the monkey in “The Monkey and the Crabs,” he may be crafty and wily, but that’s simply his nature. As someone born in the year of the monkey, I felt somewhat uncomfortable translating this story; but in the end the monkey is contrite, so I heaved a sigh of relief as I finished it.
Though I have emphasized the universal qualities underlying these folk tales, there is one thing very Japanese about them that I learned from what is now nearly 50 years’ contact with Japan and its people.
When you share a meal with other people, the last slice of sashimi is often left on the plate in the middle … or the last grapes or the last pieces of chocolate. People abstain from taking these because they do not wish to be seen as being selfish. Sharing by its nature involves compromise and sacrifice. Maintaining the harmony and good nature of the group is more important than satisfying any individuals. Selflessness is, perhaps, the finest Japanese quality.
This quality pervades these stories, and I think that this is the very thing that the world today is in need of more than anything else. Now is the time when we must not draw all of the resources to ourselves, but make sure that there is enough to go around for all humans and all other creatures on the planet.
Dear readers, you too may experience here the pleasures of first encounter with these wonderful stories. May the children reading them see their beauty and wisdom. And may the adults experience a sublime, if brief, second childhood together with them.
ROGER PULVERS, SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, JUNE 2015
A Magic Key to Wonder and Reality
BY JULIET WINTERS CARPENTER
Once when I was a little girl of about ten, my birthday came when I was on a trip somewhere with my daddy. To my surprise and delight, he took me to a dime store and said I could pick out my own present—anything I wanted. (I suppose there was a price limit, but then again, dime stores weren’t exactly Tiffany’s.) I remember unhesitatingly selecting a big book of fairy tales and folklore. What may have happened to that book, and whether it had any Japanese
tales in it, I’m not sure. But later on I came to love Japan’s mukashi banashi—“tales of long ago”—as much as any Western fairy tales, or more.
Why do children love fairy tales and folk tales? Perhaps because of their overwhelming strangeness, and at the same time their reassuring administering of justice. Folk tales are a magic key that opens doors of wonder and reality. While delighting in fantasy and whimsy, readers (or listeners, since the tales are above all meant to be told) are exposed to all manner of human behavior, and learn to be critical of characters’ choices. Tales are the starting-place of wisdom, and their lessons are universal. These three beloved tales from Japan, known to every child, are sure to delight readers of all ages and backgrounds.
As in other countries, the fox in Japan is a cunning trickster, and in “The Fox and the Otter” he gets his comeuppance and then some. This humorous story may call to mind the classic Brer Rabbit stories, but there the weaker trickster—even more cunning than his oppressors—is the hero, and he uses his wiles to get away. Here the fox is in the spotlight, and it is his own greed that does him in—as perhaps the patient otter knew it would.
“The Gratitude of the Crane” is a haunting story that bridges the worlds of animals and humans. This evocative tale of compassion and gratitude reminds us of how our actions affect others, and ultimately ourselves. Japanese folklore contains many variations on the theme of a rescued bird appearing in human guise to repay its savior—generally as a beautiful young woman who becomes daughter to an old couple or, as here, wife to a poor young man. The stories invariably depict loving self-sacrifice, and they end with an act of betrayal—entry to a forbidden room and forbidden knowledge—that destroys the relationship.
“The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter” is unique in that it is adapted from Japan’s oldest prose narrative, going back to the tenth century. Western folk tales are often about royal families, and who gets to marry the princess—not a common theme in Japan. Here we have a princess unlike any other. She is found in the hollow of a bamboo, grows magically into a beautiful young woman, and turns out to be from the moon! Who would have expected a tenth-century tale to feature interstellar travel? When a string of suitors shows up, she gives each one an impossible task—she doesn’t want to get married. The various ways her suitors try to cheat adds to the fun. Even the emperor comes calling, but she won’t have him, either, simply “melting away like a shadow” to avoid a messy situation. This princess seems quite modern—spunky, strong, feminine, and nobody’s fool. But in the end she too flies home, leaving everyone with only memories.
I am happy to present these wonderful stories. I know my ten-year-old self would have loved them, and I hope they find many new and eager readers.
The Wife Who Never Eats
Once upon a time there was a man who was as stingy as stingy could be.
“What I really need,” he muttered to himself while out tilling his fields, “is a wife who will work for me but never eats.”
It wasn’t long before a woman appeared at the home of this cheapskate.
“I can work like the devil and I never eat, so please make me your wife,” she said. And at that, the man took her as his wife.
Now, she really worked like the devil from dawn to dusk, both in the fields and at home, without taking so much as a mouthful to eat, and the man was most pleased with himself.
But … then he noticed that the amount of rice in his storehouse had begun to get smaller and smaller ever since the woman had come to live with him.
So, one day, after telling her he was off to work and making to go out, he hid himself in the rafters and waited to see what she would do.
What did he see but his wife, who was never supposed to eat anything at all, cooking up an enormous amount of rice in a cauldron. She made a gigantic pile of rice balls with the cooked rice and then, in a flash, let down her long stringy hair to reveal a huge mouth at the very top of her head!
“Yum yum,” she said, stuffing the rice balls down her head. “Eat up, eat up! Down the hatch!”
The man’s wife was none other than a witch, and he quaked and shivered and shook.
But he returned home that evening as if he had seen nothing, though he was frightened out of his mind.
“You know,” he said to her, “I don’t think married life’s for me. If you leave I’ll give you whatever your heart desires. What do you say?”
“Well then,” she said, “get me a big wooden tub.”
The man went to the market the very next day and bought a big wooden tub.
But no sooner did he come home with the tub than the witch — now looking like the witch that she was — flung him into it and, heaving it over her shoulders, flew off into the mountains, crying out, “Now I’ve got a souvenir for my fellow witches!”
Though the man was quaking and shivering and shaking with fear, he managed to stretch out his hands and catch hold of a big branch.
He lifted himself out of the tub and ran back toward the village as fast as his legs would take him.
But the witch caught sight of him and started to run after him. Just as she was about to reach out and grab him, he jumped right into a bed of myrtle grass, which thankfully, because it was the month of May, was growing thick and deep.
The witch pushed aside the rush-like leaves of the myrtle grass in hot pursuit. But the sharp pointy tips of the leaves kept poking her in the eyes. Blood streamed out of her eye sockets and down her cheeks.
“Ouch! That hurts!” she shrieked, before collapsing into a heap in the bed and dying right there on the bed of myrtle grass.
To this day, myrtle grass leaves are floated in the bathtub on May 5th, for it is said that this keeps mishaps and dangers at bay. It is on this day that Boys’ Day is celebrated … and the bath itself is called a “Myrtle Grass Bath.”
The Mill of the Sea
Once upon a time there were two brothers, both of them very poor. The older brother had a heart of gold, while the little brother was nothing but a mean and ungrateful miser.
The older brother shared whatever food he had with people who were going hungry. But the little brother just hoarded his money and his food. It never crossed his mind to share anything with others.
One summer there was a terrible drought, and all the crops in the village failed. The people there were at wits’ end as to what to do. The older brother gave what food he had to other people. In the end, he didn’t even have a morsel left for himself. So he went to his little brother to borrow some rice.
“It’s your fault for giving your rice to those people,” said his little brother. “I’ve got no rice for you.”
The older brother plodded back home. He was at the end of his tether. Just then, an old man with a long white beard appeared before him.
“For so long you’ve been very kind to others,” he said, handing him a small stone mill. “This is for you. Turn the handle to the right and the mill will give you whatever you wish for. To stop it, turn the handle back to the left.”
Having said that, the old man vanished into thin air.
The older brother started turning the mill to the right the minute he got home, saying, “I wish for rice ... I wish for rice.”
Lo and behold, if rice didn’t come spilling out of the mill!
From then on the mill provided everything his heart desired. It built him a grand house where he held lavish banquets, inviting the villagers to come and eat their fill. And when the meals were over, he had the mill make sweets for his guests to take home to their families.
The little brother, though, was convinced that his older brother was hiding something from him. So he sneakily followed him and saw him turning the wheel to bring all sorts of things into the world. And when his older brother had fallen fast asleep, he snatched the mill and the leftover sweets and shot out of the house.
He made a beeline for the sea, hopped into a little rowboat and rowed out to sea. His plan was to get himself to a faraway place and live in the lap of luxu
ry off the things produced by the little stone mill.
After a while, though, all the rowing had made him very hungry, so he gobbled down the sweets he had taken from his brother’s home. This made him crave something salty.
“I wish for salt … I wish for salt,” he said, turning the mill’s handle to the right.
Salt started to stream out of the mill, and he was over the moon with joy. But the mill just continued to spew out salt until the little rowboat was absolutely overflowing with it.
“Stop … stop!” he screamed in a panic.
But the mill didn’t stop pouring salt into the rowboat, despite his pleas.
In the end, the little rowboat sank, taking the little brother with it right down to the bottom of the sea.
It is said that the stone mill sits to this day on the seabed, turning round and round, ceaselessly pouring out salt. And that, apparently, is what makes the sea as salty as it is.
The Monkey and the Crabs
A monkey was trudging along a mountain path one day, talking to himself.
“Oh, I’m so hungry I could eat a horse,” he muttered. “Isn’t there anywhere I can find something to eat?”
Just then he came upon a persimmon seed on the ground.
“Can’t exactly fill my belly up with this,” he complained.
A mother crab happened by carrying a rice ball in her pincers, and the monkey, scheming to pinch it from her, said, “Why, good day, Mrs. Crab! I’ve got something really splendid here for you. It’s a persimmon seed.
See? All you’ve got to do is plant it, and you’ll have more persimmons than you can shake a stick at.”
“But there are hungry children waiting for me at home, and I have to get back with this rice ball for them.”
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