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Types of Japanese Folktales

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Types of Japanese Folktales Types of Japanese Folktales By K e ig o Se k i CONTENTS Preface ............................................................................ 2 Bibliography ................................... ................................ 8 I. Origin of Animals. No. 1-30 .....................................15 II. A nim al Tales. No. 31-74............................................... 24 III. Man and A n im a l............................................................ 45 A. Escape from Ogre. No. 75-88 ....................... 43 B. Stupid Animals. No. 87-118 ........................... 4& C. Grateful Animals. No. 119-132 ..................... 63 IV. Supernatural Wifes and Husbands ............................. 69 A. Supernatural Husbands. No. 133-140 .............. 69 B. Supernatural Wifes. No. 141-150 .................. 74 V. Supernatural Birth. No. 151-165 ............................. 80 VI. Man and Waterspirit. No. 166-170 ......................... 87 VII. Magic Objects. No. 171-182 ......................................... 90 V III. Tales of Fate. No. 183-188 ............................... :.… 95 IX. Human Marriage. No. 189-200 ................................. 100 X. Acquisition of Riches. No. 201-209 ........................ 105 X I. Conflicts ............................................................................I l l A. Parent and Child. No. 210-223 ..................... I l l B. Brothers (or Sisters). No. 224-233 ..............11? C. Neighbors. No. 234-253 .....................................123 X II. The Clever Man. No. 254-262 ................................. 13& X III. Jokes. No. 263-308 ........................................................ 141 X IV . Contests. No. 309-326 .................................................152 XV. Osho and Kozo (Priest and his Acolyte). No. 327-344 159 X V I. Lucky Accidents. No. 345-356 ...................................16& X V II. Fools and Numskulls .....................................................173 A. Fools. No. 357-385 .............................................173 B. Blunderers. No. 386-399 ...................................182 C. Village of Numskulls. No. 400-417 ................188 D. Foolish Son-in-Law. No. 418-441..................193 E. Foolish Daughter-in-Law. No. 442-452 .... 20& X V III. Formula Tales. No. 453-457 ....................................... 209 Supplement. No. 458-460 211 2 K E IG O SEKI PREFACE I. Purpose. During the past fifty years Japanese folktales have been collected from almost all districts. These tales were examined and classified by the folklorists for the purpose of scientific studies. Nevertheless, few of the texts available for scientific study have been translated into European languages or introduced to European scholars. For this reason Japanese materials in the field of folktale research have been neglected in comparative studies. This paper is intended to fill this gap. II. Scope. First of all this work deals with the folktales still living in present-day Japan. These tales include, besides the so-called fairy tales, fables, jokes, anecdotes and a few legends. This is because Japanese folktales have motifs which often in­ termix with those of other tales. For instance some motifs that appear in fairy tales are also found in legends, some others are combined with historical characters, and in some cases they are adapted to folk beliefs. III. Japanese terms for folktale. Folktale is called in Japa­ nese, mukashi-banashi? otogi-banashi, or dowa. Mukashi-banashi literally means an old tale or a tale of ancient times. This term is derived from the peculiar form of the opening phrase of folk­ tales, “mukashi，mukashi (a long, long time ago) .，’ Togi of otogi- banashi meant a night meeting or a kind of vigil kept by groups of people who worshipped the same Shintoistic or Buddhistic deity. Since the late fourteenth century there existed profes­ sional narrators，called “otogi-no-shu” ，w h o attended daimyos or feudal lords, telling tales in the evening. Although not all of the tales told on these occasions were folktales in the strict sense of the word, otogi-banashi, tales told by the people who did togi，came to stand for folktales. Dowa which literally means stories for children, is now usually applied to the artistic stories written by modem writers of children’s stories. IV. Formulas of Japanese folktales. Many local variations are seen among the Japanese folktales, but generally speaking, the proper form with an opening and an ending phrase, is still preserved. The story begins with the phrase, “mukashi，mu- kashi^ (in the old, old times; a long , long time ago), ((zutto mukashi no 6-mukashi,, (a great many years ago), or e<mazu aru tokoro nix jiji to baba to ga arimashita,9 (once there were TYPES OF JAPANESE FOLKTALES 3 an old man and an old woman), or the like. This formula is used in Nihon Ryoiki} which was compiled in the early eighth century, and also in Ise Monogatari, written in the middle of the tenth century, the opening phrase, “once there was a man”， is very often seen. Each tale in Konjaku Monogatari, compiled in the early twelfth century, begins with the phrase, Ciima wa mukashi” (it was a long time ago). As for the ending phrase of folktales, five kinds can be mentioned, (a) a phrase which explains that the hero or the heroine becomes happy; (b) which tells of the prosperity of the main characters’ offsprings; (c) which indicates the end of the story; (d) which gives moral or instructive teachings; (e) which explains the origin of a species or a form of animals or plants. The last one appears mostly in fa b le s .. V. Present source materials. The materials used in this work are all modern versions based on oral transmission. They were published in books of small circulation, pamphlets, mimeo­ graphed prints, local magazines and newspapers and topographies (see bibliography). Besides these, there are some unpublished manuscripts. The writer tried to make the best use of these source materials. VI. Collection of materials. Investigation into folktales in Japan began in the first decade of this century. At first the Ministry of Education undertook the collection of folktales, simultaneously with that of folk songs, and commissioned the primary schools of various districts to carry out this under­ taking. As to folk songs this method was pretty successful, while the collection of folktales was not carried out satisfactorily and ended in failure. Later some dilettants were interested in collecting tales from rural districts. Meanwhile Japanese folk­ lore research rose, and under the strong influence of Kunio Yanagita (1875-1962)，the pioneer of Japanese folklore, the scientific research workers began investigation into folktales. In 1922 two pamphlets containing word-for-word versions of folktales were issued. Referring to these materials, Yanagita published a paper in which he emphasized the necessity of collecting materials and he urged young students to undertake this work. Since then under his direct guidance or his in­ fluence, many texts were written by trained folklorists. From 1936 the present writer co-operated with Yanagita in making a Note Book for the Collection of Folktales and in carrying out systematic collection from various districts. This work, how­ 4 K E IG O SEKI ever, was interrupted by the outbreak of the Great War. After the war, besides the advance of dilettants in this field, there appeared some earnest local workers, and many texts are still written down by them. In order to write down the versions in which the least pos­ sible influence from literary sources is found, they tried to choose the narrators of advanced age and of comparatively low education. Most of the narrators were peasants or fishermen and their families. Among them there were twenty narrators who remembered more than thirty stories, and five or six among them remembered more than a hundred stories. They were all very old and the numbers of men and women were equal. The tales collected are of the following types: 5857 I. Origin of animals (5.21%) II. A nim al tales (8.23%) III. Man and ogre 46 A. Escape from ogre (4.33%) 67 B. Stupid animals (6.32%) 23 C. Grateful animals (2.17%) IV. Supernatural wifes and husbands 43411222 34226284 A. Supernatural hubands (4.07%) B. Supernatural wifes (3.27%) V. Supernatural birth (3.97%) VI. Man and water spirit (1.18%) VII. Magic objects (1-52%) VIII. Tales of fate (2.07%) IX. Human marriage (2.68%) X. Acquisition of riches (2.33%) XI. Conflicts 51913454 72771281 /I.51912 4/I\05450027 %%%%%%%% /I\\I/ \1/ /V. VI/ /I\ V). \ly/l\ X).XI/ /l\ yfv A. Parent and child - B. Brothers (or sisters) 1169058 C. Neighbors XII. Clever man XIII. Jokes 4 X IV . Contests 53 XV. Priest and his acolyte X V I. Lucky accidents XVII. Fools and numskulls 38 A. Fools (3.60%) 120 B. Blunderers (2.00%) 2 C. Village of numskulls (3.02%) 27 D. Foolish son-in-law (5.88%) 63 E. Foolish daughter-in-law (1.53%) 124 XVIII. Formula tales 2 01 3 ( . %) Supplement (unclassified) (1-15%) TYPES OF JAPANESE FOLKTALES 5 VII. Literary sources. There are many folktales which were recorded in Japanese classics, some of them appearing in the oldest records known at present. The oldest Japanese literature are the following three books. Firstly, Kojiki (3 vols” 712) which was compiled by imperial order, is the record which Ono Yasumaro (?-728) wrote down according to what was told by Hieda Are，a professional narrator. It contains myths, legends, and historical events of ancient Japan. Second­ ly, Nihon Shoki (30 vols” 720) is the first
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