Japanese folktales are an important cultural aspect of

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. In commonplace usage, they signify a certain set of well-known classic tales, with a vague distinction of whether they fit the rigorous definition of " folktale" or not among various types of

folklore Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...

. The admixed impostors are literate written pieces, dating back to the

Muromachi period The , also known as the , is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate ( or ), which was officially established in 1338 by the first Muromachi ...

(14th–16th centuries) or even earlier times in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

. These would not normally qualify for the English description "folktales" (i.e., pieces collected from oral tradition among the populace). In a more stringent sense, "Japanese folktales" refers to orally transmitted folk narrative. Systematic collection of specimens was pioneered by the folklorist

Kunio Yanagita was a Japanese author, scholar, and Folklore studies, folklorist. He began his career as a bureaucrat, but developed an interest in rural Japan and its folk traditions. This led to a change in his career. His pursuit of this led to his eventual e ...

. Yanagita disliked the word , a coined term directly translated from "folktale" (Yanagita stated that the term was not familiar to actual old folk he collected folktales from, and was not willing to "go along" with the conventions of other countries). He therefore proposed the use of the term to apply to all creative types of folktales (i.e., those that are not "legendary" types which are more of a reportage).

Overview

A representative sampling of Japanese folklore would definitely include the quintessential ''

Momotarō is a Folk hero, popular hero of Japanese folklore. His name is often translated as ''Peach Boy'', but is directly translated as ''Peach + Tarō (given name), Tarō'', a common Japanese given name. ''Momotarō'' is also the title of various books, ...

'' (Peach Boy), and perhaps other folktales listed among the so-called :, p.198. quote:"ごだいおとぎぱなし（五大御伽話）。五大昔話ともいう。桃太郎、猿蟹合戦、舌切雀、花咲爺、かちかち山の五話" the battle between '' The Crab and the Monkey'', ''

Shita-kiri Suzume , translated literally into "Tongue-Cut Sparrow", is a traditional Japanese fable telling of a kind old man, his avaricious wife and an injured sparrow. The story explores the effects of greed, friendship and jealousy on the characters. Andrew La ...

'' (Tongue-cut sparrow), ''

Hanasaka Jiisan , also called , is a Japanese folk tale. Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford collected it in ''Tales of Old Japan'' (1871), as "The Story of the Old Man Who Made Withered Trees to Blossom". Rev. David Thomson translated it as "The Old Man Who Made t ...

'' (Flower-blooming old man), and ''

Kachi-kachi Yama , also known as ''Kachi-Kachi Mountain'' and ''The Farmer and the Badger'', is a Japanese Folklore, folktale in which a ''bake-danuki, tanuki'' is the villain, rather than the more usual boisterous, well-endowed alcoholic. Story The trouble-m ...

''.

History

These stories just named are considered genuine folktales, having been so characterized by folklorist Kunio Yanagita. During the

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

these tales had been adapted by professional writers and woodblock-printed in a form a called '' kusazōshi'' (cf. chapbooks), but a number of local variant versions of the tales have been collected in the field as well. As stated above, non-genuine folktales are those already committed to writing long ago, the earliest being the tale of Princess Kaguya (or '' The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter''), an example of the

monogatari is a Literary genre, literary form in traditional Japanese literature – an extended prose narrative tale comparable to epic (genre), epic literature. ''Monogatari'' is closely tied to aspects of the oral tradition, and almost always relates ...

type of romance dated to as early as the 10th century, though extant manuscripts are much later. The text mentions, for example, the flame-proof " (or

salamander Salamanders are a group of amphibians typically characterized by their lizard-like appearance, with slender bodies, blunt snouts, short limbs projecting at right angles to the body, and the presence of a tail in both larvae and adults. All t ...

)'s fur robe," which attests to a considerable degree of book-knowledge and learning by its author. Other examples of pseudo-folktales composed in the Middle Ages are the '' Uji Shūi Monogatari'' (13th century) that includes ''Kobutori Jīsan'' — the old man with the hump on his cheek — and '' Straw Millionaire''. This and the '' Konjaku Monogatarishū'' (12th century) contain a number of a type of tales called '' setsuwa'', a generic term for narratives of various nature, anything from moralizing to comical. Both works are divided into parts containing tales from India, tales from China, and tales from Japan. In the ''Konjaku Monogatarishū'' can be seen the early developments of the Kintarō legend, familiar in folktale-type form. The Japanese word used to correspond to "folktale" has undergone development over the years. From the

, the term used was , i.e., tales told by the ''otogii-shū'', professional storytellers hired to entertain the daimyō lord at the bedside. That term remained in currency through the

Meiji era The was an Japanese era name, era of History of Japan, Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feu ...

(late 19th century), when imported terms such as ''minwa'' began to be used. In the

Taishō era The was a period in the history of Japan dating from 30 July 1912 to 25 December 1926, coinciding with the reign of Emperor Taishō. The new emperor was a sickly man, which prompted the shift in political power from the old oligarchic group ...

the word ''dōwa'' (lit. "children's story", a

loan translation In linguistics, a calque () or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation. When used as a verb, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another language whil ...

for

fairy tales A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, household tale, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the Folklore, folklore genre. Such stories typically feature Magic (supernatural), magic, Incantation, e ...

or '' märchen'') was used. Later Yanagita popularized the use of ''mukashi-banashi'' "tales of long ago", as mentioned before. Some Japanese ghost stories or '' kaidan'', such as the story of the Yuki-onna ("snow woman"), might be considered examples of folktales, but even though some overlaps may exist, they are usually treated as another genre. The familiar forms of stories are embellished works of literature by

gesaku is an alternative style, genre, or school of Japanese literature. In the simplest contemporary sense, any literary work of a playful, mocking, joking, silly or frivolous nature may be called gesaku. Unlike predecessors in the literary field, gesa ...

writers, or retooled for the

kabuki is a classical form of Theatre of Japan, Japanese theatre, mixing dramatic performance with Japanese traditional dance, traditional dance. Kabuki theatre is known for its heavily stylised performances, its glamorous, highly decorated costumes ...

theater performance, in the case of the bakeneko or monstrous cat. The famous collection '' Kwaidan'' by

Lafcadio Hearn was a Greek-born Irish and Japanese writer, translator, and teacher who introduced the culture and literature of Japan to the Western world. His writings offered unprecedented insight into Japanese culture, especially his collections of legend ...

also consists of original retellings. Yanagita published a collection, '' (1910), which featured a number of fantastical ''

yōkai are a class of supernatural entities and Spirit (supernatural entity) , spirits in Japanese folklore. The kanji representation of the word comprises two characters that both mean "suspicious, doubtful", and while the Japanese name is simply ...

'' creatures such as Zashiki-warashi and

kappa Kappa (; uppercase Κ, lowercase κ or cursive ; , ''káppa'') is the tenth letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the voiceless velar plosive sound in Ancient and Modern Greek. In the system of Greek numerals, has a value of 20. It was d ...

. In the middle years of the 20th century storytellers would often travel from town to town telling these stories with special paper illustrations called

kamishibai is a form of Japanese street theater and storytelling that was popular during the Great Depression of the 1930s and the postwar period in Japan until the advent of television during the mid-20th century. were performed by a (" narrator") who ...

List of Japanese folktales

Below is a list of well-known Japanese folktales:

Animals in folklore

Tongue-cut sparrow: A washer woman cut off the tongue of a sparrow that was pecking at her rice starch. The sparrow had been fed regularly by the washer woman's neighbors, so when the sparrow didn't come, they went in the woods to search for it. They found it, and after a feast and some dancing (which the sparrow prepared), the neighbors were given the choice between two boxes; one large and one small. The neighbors picked the small box, and it was filled with riches. The washer woman saw these riches and heard where they came from, so she went to the sparrow. She too was entertained and given the choice between two boxes. The washer woman picked the largest box and instead of gaining riches, she was devoured by devils.Japanese Mythology: Library of the World's Myths and Legends, by Juliet Piggott Mandarin Ducks: A man kills a drake mandarin duck for food. That night he had a dream that a woman was accusing him of murdering her husband, and then told him to return to the lake. The man does this, and a female mandarin walks up to him and tears its chest open. Tanuki and Rabbit: A man catches a tanuki and tells his wife to cook it in a stew. The tanuki begs the wife not to cook him and promises to help with the cooking if he is spared. The wife agrees and unties him. The tanuki then transforms into her and kills her, then cooks her in a stew. Disguised as the man's wife, the tanuki feeds him his wife. Once he is done, the tanuki transforms back to his original form and teases the man for eating his wife. A rabbit that was friends with the family was furious, so he had the tanuki carry sticks and, while he wasn't looking, set these sticks on fire. Then the rabbit treated the burn with hot pepper paste. Finally, the rabbit convinced the tanuki to build a boat of clay, and the rabbit followed in a sturdy boat. The clay boat began to sink, so the tanuki tried to escape, but then the rabbit hit him in the head with an oar, knocking him out and making him drown. Badger and Fox cub: A badger, vixen, and the vixen's cub lived in a forest that was running out of food, so they came up with the plan of one of them pretending to be dead, the other disguising as a merchant, and the “merchant” selling the “dead” animal to a human. Then they would have money to buy food. The vixen pretended to be dead while the badger was the merchant. While the transaction was happening however, the badger told the human that the vixen wasn't actually dead, so the human killed her. This infuriated the cub, so he proposed a competition. They would both disguise as humans and go into the village at different times. Whoever guessed what “human” was the other first, wins. The cub walked towards the village first, but he hid behind a tree. The badger went into the village, and accused the governor of being the fox, so the bodyguards of the governor beheaded him.

Theorized influences

The folklore of Japan has been influenced by foreign literature as well as the kind of

spirit worship Animism (from meaning 'breath, spirit, life') is the belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence. Animism perceives all things—animals, plants, rocks, rivers, weather systems, human handiwork, and in ...

prevalent all throughout prehistoric Asia. The monkey stories of Japanese folklore have been influenced both by the

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

epic Epic commonly refers to: * Epic poetry, a long narrative poem celebrating heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation * Epic film, a genre of film defined by the spectacular presentation of human drama on a grandiose scale Epic(s) ...

Ramayana The ''Ramayana'' (; ), also known as ''Valmiki Ramayana'', as traditionally attributed to Valmiki, is a smriti text (also described as a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic) from ancient India, one of the two important epics ...

and the Chinese classic ''

Journey to the West ''Journey to the West'' () is a Chinese novel published in the 16th century during the Ming dynasty and attributed to Wu Cheng'en. It is regarded as one of the Classic Chinese Novels, great Chinese novels, and has been described as arguably the ...

''. The stories mentioned in the Buddhist

Jataka The ''Jātaka'' (Sanskrit for "Birth-Related" or "Birth Stories") are a voluminous body of literature native to the Indian subcontinent which mainly concern the previous births of Gautama Buddha in both human and animal form. Jataka stories we ...

tales appear in a modified form throughout the Japanese collection of popular stories. Some stories of

ancient India Anatomically modern humans first arrived on the Indian subcontinent between 73,000 and 55,000 years ago. The earliest known human remains in South Asia date to 30,000 years ago. Sedentism, Sedentariness began in South Asia around 7000 BCE; ...

were influential in shaping Japanese stories by providing them with materials.

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

n materials were greatly modified and adapted in such a way as would appeal to the sensibilities of common people of Japan in general, transmitted through China and Korea.The Sanskrit Epics By John L Brockington. Published 1998. Brill Academic Publishers. . pp514

References

Further sources

* Brauns, David. ''Japanische Märchen und Sagen''. Leipzig: Verlag von Wilhelm Friedrich. 1885. * Dorson, Richard M.
National Characteristics of Japanese Folktales
. In: ''Folklore, Nationalism and Politics''. Edited by Felix J. Oinas. Indiana University Folklore Institute Monograph Series, Vol. 30. Columbus, Ohio: Slavica Publishers, 1978. pp. 147–162. * Dorson, Richard M. ''Journal of the American Oriental Society'' 95, no. 3 (1975): 512–14. Accessed July 1, 2020. . * * , Article under , by Keigo Seki ( :ja:関敬吾) * James, Grace; Goble, Warwick, III. ''Green Willow and other Japanese fairy tales''. London: Macmillan and Co. 1910. * Mayer, Fanny Hagin. "Recent Collections of Japanese Folk Tales". In: ''The Journal of Asian Studies'' 31, no. 4 (1972): 911–914. Accessed July 1, 2020. . * Mayer, Fanny Hagin. "Religious Concepts in the Japanese Folk Tale". In: ''Japanese Journal of Religious Studies'' 1, no. 1 (1974): 73–101. Accessed July 1, 2020. . * Mayer, Fanny Hagin. "Japan's Folk Tale Boom". In: ''Journal of Japanese Studies'' 4, no. 1 (1978): 215–24. Accessed July 25, 2021. doi:10.2307/132081. * Mulhern, Chieko Irie and Mayer, Fanny Hagin. “Ancient Tales in Modern Japan: An Anthology of Japanese Folk Tales” (1986). * Nakawaki Hatsue. "Japanese Heroine Tales and the Significance of Storytelling in Contemporary Society". In: ''Re-Orienting the Fairy Tale: Contemporary Adaptations across Cultures''. Edited by Mayako Murai and Luciana Cardi. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. 2020. pp. 139–168. . * Rasch, Carsten: TALES OF OLD JAPAN FAIRY TALE - FOLKLORE - GHOST STORIES - MYTHOLOGY: INTRODUCTION IN THE JAPANESE LITERATURE OF THE GENRE OF FAIRY TALES - FOLKLORE - GHOST STORIES AND MYTHOLOGY, Hamburg. 2015. * Seki, Keigo. "Types of Japanese Folktales". In: ''Asian Folklore Studies'' 25 (1966): 1–220. . {{Authority control