Monday, September 28, 2015

Reading Diary B: Japanese Fairy Tales (LANG)

READING B:
1. Schippeitaro
  • Interesting how once men "become of age" and reach manhood, they have to leave their home in search of adventure back then. Sort of like a rite of passage.
  • So this young man set out on an adventure to make his name known to all the peeps
  • He traveled for a while and found nothing much until one night, he heard a group of ugly cats dancing around and saying "don't tell Schippeitaro"
  • who is shippeitaro?
  • It turns out that nearby, there was a family who was in distress because she was to be sacrificed for the "spirit of the muntains" to eat
  • He wanted to help the girl so he went looking for Schippeitaro (who is actually a dog)
  • He put the dog into the casket that the girl was supposed to be put into to be carried away 
  • once the time came to "eat" the girl, the dog came out and bit the cats and killed quite a few of them along with the "spirit of the mountain" 
  • yay, victory
2. The Crab and the Monkey
  • Did I just read that a crab was a good housewife??
  • the mean monkey beat up the crab?! that's so terrible. 
  • violence is not the answer, children.
  • I'm glad the monkey got what he deserved. 
  • And the crab lived happily ever after!
3. The Magic Kettle
  • there was once an old man who found a kettle that could transform into a tanuki
  • he thought it wreaked havoc so he sold it to a man named Jimmu
  • Jimmu found out that it was a magic kettle that could dance and transformed
  • he opened a booth to showcase the magic powers of the kettle and made a lot of money
  • in the end, he returned the kettle along with some money to the old man
  • what a kind man to give some money back to the seller
4. How the Wicked Tanuki was Punished
  • Wow. Hunting all of the animals...
  • the fox was married to the tanuki? cute.
  • they concocted a plan to play dead in order to get money
  • wow he betrayed his wife by truly getting rid of her so he and his son could have more food.
  • but she's your wife..
  • the son soon made plans to avenge his mother
  • he made a wager with his father by saying he was better at magic and tricked him into getting caught by the king and his guards
  • there are a lot of tanuki stories, surprisingly.
  • This one was hard for me to read and found it to be uninteresting unfortunately.
6. Uraschimataro and the Turtle
  • uraschimataro sounds like a really nice name and a mouthful haha
  • he was brave and ventured out to sea where no other man would go
  • people warned him that if he went too far, one day he would be swept away at sea
  • One day, he found a turtle and captured it but eventually let it go because it begged him to set it free and so he did
  • Years later, he got caught up in the storm and the turtle saved his life
  • the turtle took him to the palace of the sea god and told him that it was the subject of Otohime, the sea god's daughter
  • the daughter saw uraschimataro and fell him love with him. she begged him to stay and so he did.
  • A long time passed and he eventually felt homesick. The princess eventually let him leave with a box he was to not open, but it turned out that he had stayed in the palace for 300 years. All of his friends and family have passed away.
  • He ended up opening the box which caused him to lose his youth and the turtle never came back to get him and he eventually died
  • how sad... but a really good story nonetheless
Source: UN-Textbook.

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