Zurich Open Repository and Archive University of Zurich Main Library Strickhofstrasse 39 CH-8057 Zurich www.zora.uzh.ch

Year: 2004

Male characters in the Japanese fairy tale : classification and analysis

Petrova, Gergana

Abstract: Diese Forschung untersucht die maennliche dramatis personae, die in Keigo Sekis Sammlung ”Nihon Mukashi-banashi Shusei” erscheinen. Die Forschung konzentriert sich auf maennlichen Figuren und andere Figuren mit maennlichen Funktionen (Protagonisten, Antagonisten und Nebenfiguren inklu- siv), die sich mit sich selbst, mit anderen maennlcihen oder weiblichen Figuren, Tieren oder uebernatuer- lichen Wesen konfrontieren. Die Forschung untersucht auch deren Benehmen in und ihre Interaktion mit der Maerchenumgebung in drei Gruppen - der Mann in der Familie, der Mann in der Gesellschaft und der Mann in der Natur. Als Methoden werden Literatur-analyse, Textstruktur-analyse, vergleichende Volk- skunde, Anthropologie, Gender Studies und Psychologie verwendet; Interpretationen von japanischer Kultur, sozio-historische Realitaet, Philosophie, Religion, Aesthetik und Volksglauben sind auch inbe- griffen. Das Ziel dieser Arbeit ist eine einheitliche Klassifikation und eine vielseitige Interpretation der maennlichen Figuren und ist vorgesehen fuer eine grosse Leserschaft - von Spezialisten unterschiedlicher wissenschaflichen Richtungen, bus zum breiten Publikum. The present research offers a study ofmale dramatis personae appearing in the collection of Japanese ordinary tales ”Nihon Mukashi-banashi Shu- sei”, compiled by Keigo Seki in the years 1950 - 1958. Key interest is taken in male figures or other figures with male functions, be them protagonists, antagonists or bit players, in other words - on the character of ”man” defined by his masculine role and seen in conflict with himself, other male and female characters, animal figures and representatives of the supernatural; as well as his actions in and interaction withthe tale environment. The classification follows the various folktale realisations of male characters inthree main groups - the man in family, the man in society and the man in nature. The methods applied in the study include those of literary analysis, text structural study, comparative folkloristics, anthropology, gender studies, and psychology. References to Japanese culture, socio- historical realities, philosophy, religion, aesthetics and folk beliefs form the background of the study. The aim of the research is to supply a unified classification and a many-facet interpretation of male characters in their typical folktale realisations and is foreseen for a large spectrum of readers - from specialists in various fields to general public.

Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich ZORA URL: https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-163150 Dissertation Published Version

Originally published at: Petrova, Gergana. Male characters in the Japanese fairy tale : classification and analysis. 2004, University of Zurich, Faculty of Arts. MALE CHARACTERS IN THE JAPANESE FAIRY TALE: Classification and Analysis

Thesis

presented to the Faculty of Arts

of

the University of Zurich

for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

by

Gergana PETROVA of Sofia, Bulgaria

Accepted on the recommendation of

Professor Dr. Eduard Klopfenstein and PD Dr. Ingrid Tomkowiak

Sofia 2004

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The present research has been conducted on the premises of Zurich University, Section of Japanese studies and Department of Folklore studies from 2000 to 2004, as well as the Institute of Folklore at Seijō University, Japan in 2002. The field research in Japan has been supported by the Fellowship Program of the Japan Foundation.

It has been supervised and reviewed by Professor Dr Eduard Klopfenstein, Section of Japanese Studies and PD Dr Ingrid Tomkowiak, Section of European Folk Literature at Zurich University.

It has benefited from the scientific advices and the assistance of

Professor Sen’ichi Tanaka (Seijō University), Professor Masahiro Hamashita (Kobe College), Dr Svetlana Ivanova (Sofia University), the teaching staff at the Section of Japanese Studies, Sofia University, Bulgaria led by PD Dr Boika Tsigova, as well as the staff of the Institute of Folklore at Seijō University, Japan led by Professor Ken’ichirō Yoshihara and Professor Kenzō Matsuzaki.

This research would have been impossible to accomplish without the help and the commitment of my parents Ivanka and Roumian, my sister Sibila and her husband Bernhard, and my friend Simeon.

To all of them I would like to express hereby my sincere gratitude.

2 CONTENTS

Part 1. Introduction 6

Part 2. General background 2.1. Theoretical background for the present research 11 2.2. The Japanese folktale study 21 2.3. Characteristics of the Japanese fairy tale 29

Part 3. Japanese male fairytale characters: classification and analysis 3.1. Man in Family

3.1.1. The Partner 41 - The bridegroom - The non-human partner - The husband

3.1.2. The Brother 60 - The two positive brothers - The two opposite brothers - The three equal brothers - The three brothers – two fail, one wins - Winning a contest - The brother to a sister

3.1.3. The Father 69 - Father’s promise - Father is looking for a partner to his child - Father sends his children away from home - The father-saviour - The absent father

3.1.4. The Son 80 - The desired son - The step-son - The son and his parents

3

3.2. Man in Society

3.2.1. Path to wealth 88 Male characters in tales about the rich and the poor - Being brave – getting rich thanks to physical activity - Being clever – the role of mind - Being kind is rewarded – the role of heart - The role of the woman

3.2.2. The Neighbour 97 - Unsuccessful imitation - Misused or stolen object

3.2.3. Figures with specific social role 103 - Tonosama, Chōja and Samurai - Religious figures

3.3. Man and Nature

3.3.1. Man and Animal 112 - Man helped by animal - Man and animal-trickster - Other relations between man and animal. Episodic roles

3.3.2. Male Supernatural Beings 122 - Oni - Tengu - Kappa

3.3.3. Male Advisors and Helpers 127 - Religious characters as helpers - The Stranger - Supernatural helpers

4

Part 4. Conclusions 131

Bibliography 136 Appendix 1 (Cross-reference table of tales) 148 Appendix 2 (Classification Tables) 155 Glossary 161

5 Part 1. INTRODUCTION

Aims and motivation of the research, structure and methods applied

The present research offers a study of male dramatis personae appearing in the collection of Japanese ordinary tales, compiled by Keigo Seki in the years 1950 – 1958. Key interest is taken in male figures or other figures with male functions, be them protagonists, antagonists or bit players, in other words - on the character of “man” defined by his masculine role and seen in conflict with himself, other male and female characters, animal figures and representatives of the supernatural; as well as his actions in and interaction with the tale environment. The classification follows the various folktale realisations of male characters in three main groups – the man in family, the man in society and the man in nature. Each type of character is drawn from the inner and the outer expression of the figures and presents a stable picture of typical trends of behaviour, shared by all characters of a certain type. The methods applied in the study include those of literary analysis, text structural study, comparative folkloristics, anthropology, gender studies, and psychology. References to Japanese culture, socio-historical realities, philosophy, religion, aesthetics and folk beliefs form the background of the study. The aim of the research is to supply a unified classification and interpretation of male characters in their typical folktale realisations and is foreseen for a large spectrum of readers – from specialists in various fields to general public.

COMPOSITION OF THE WORK The introductory chapters present in detail the basic researches in the field, both non-Japanese and Japanese, as well as the most important features of the Japanese folktale and its historical study. After the completion of this brief introduction the study moves on to the character study - the classification of the male characters, their interpretation and analysis. The first part of the research reveals the realisations of the man in family. The characters are classified in four groups – the partner, the brother, the father and the son. The greatest part of the present research is occupied by the figure of the man as a partner to the woman, be it as bridegroom, in a relationship with a supernatural being, or as a husband. The bridegroom is studied in four sub-groups, reflecting the four paths to marriage – the physical, the intellectual, the emotional and the passive one. The man is seen also as a partner to a non-human wife, as well as a supernatural male character as a partner to a human wife. The male character in his role as a brother will be studied in three groups – the two brothers (subdivided to two positive brothers type and two opposite brothers type), the three brothers (subdivided to three equal brothers type, two fail – one wins type, and winning a contest type). Finally the relationship between a brother and a sister is studied. The figure of the father although predominantly secondary is paid much attention in the present research because of his influence over the life of his children. An important sub-division is the absent father type, who is believed to represent best the importance of the father in family. The figure of the son is revealed in three sub-groups: that of the desired child, of the step-son and the son and his parents type.

6 The second part traces the realisations of the man in public life, his interaction with other characters outside the family circle, which in the present research is called the man in society represented through the relationship between the rich and the poor, neighbours, as well as typical social roles as those of tonosama, chōja, samurai and various religious figures. The possible paths to wealth and riches are seen in four directions overlapping exactly the four paths for the bridegroom towards marriage: the physical, the intellectual and the emotional as well as the passive one in tales of women bringing wealth to their partners. The antagonism of neighbours is a further topic where a positive and a negative neighbour oppose each other in their pursuit of happiness. These relationships are represented best in the unsuccessful imitation tales and the misused or stolen object tales, both subdivisions of the reward- and punishment tale. The social figures of the local landlord tonosama, the rich man chōja and the military representative samurai are studied disclosing how their authority appears in fairy tales and how it is realised. The religious figures to which special attention is paid are those of the priest, the priest oshō and his acolyte kozō and the rather negative image in tales of the yamabushi mountain ascetic. The last part of the research focuses on the character of the man described in his role in nature and super-nature, which is seen in three main groups – man and animal type, supernatural beings, as well as helpers and donors. In this last part of the study the male fairy tale characters leave their masculine domain to enter the most universal of all – the human, of all mankind realm and functioning. In the relationship of man and animal first the portrait of the animal as helper is seen, then as trickster defeating the man or outwitted by him. The supernatural male characters are those of oni, tengu and kappa. Their image in folk beliefs is traced as well as their roles in fairy tales. The donors and helpers are sub-divided to religious, strangers and supernatural1.

PATHS FOR REACHING THE AIM “The enchanted world of the Maerchen fascinated many scholars of a variety of disciplines for more than a century. Interest developed not only in stable plots literized by the Grimms, but also in plot constituencies: episodes, characters and images. Enchantment, supernatural agents, transformation, magic, animistic, totemistic features were explored and traced to belief systems and early social institutions. Tales as relics of desacralized myths were also attributed to projections of dream images, fulfilment of desires. Literary analysts interested in the art of storytelling considered tale elements as symbols and metaphors, linguistic formulas and stylistic devices. The tale also was considered as an evolutionary scheme replicating the history of social institutions as well as the stages of child development.” (Degh, 1996: 169)

To form the picture of man in Japanese fairy tales a number of steps have been undertaken. First the male characters have been separated from all other figures appearing in the texts and then classified according to their sphere of action in the three groups – family, society, nature. The definition of “man” and “male” is composed of few elements. Under the entrance “man” in any English dictionary, one will find at least five-six different meanings, all of them

1 Some of the most important Japanese terms, their translation and explanation are given in the Glossary at the end of the present work.

7 encompassing man’s family and social realisations2. Klaus Roth in his study of the man in folklore divides his roles in four groups: man in family, man in social hierarchy, man in his professional realisation and man as a hero (Roth, 1999: 144-162). In the present research group two and three are united, group four is followed throughout the research and an additional group is added – that of man and nature. The second step has been to discover types of male characters on the base of their typical interaction with other characters and the tale environment from inside each group. Having reached a detailed classification within each of the three main groups, the study has proceeded to describe every character type, his typical features and way of behaviour. Once this picture has been completed presenting all male characters (main, secondary and supporting) in their different roles and realisations, researches from various scientific fields have been summoned to support the drawn conclusions about each and every character and to offer possible interpretations. The classification of the types follows strict principles which will be enumerated shortly. First the classification is done on the principle of highest concreteness. Each type represents concrete figures in the whole possible variety of their character realisation in the given collection. The classification is done in correspondence to all main features of the figures, not on the secondary features, let alone accidental. The types of characters are seen in a unity of form and content, as an alloy of type features and dynamical stereotypes. The distinction inside the types is supposed to be smooth, not sharp and the existence of transitional and intermediate types is noted. To achieve an objective image of the male characters in Japanese fairy tales, it is very important to start from a maximum abstract level, to escape from the details and the variations of the tales, to catch the most typical and representative, as getting too much into details leads to a lost of the whole portrait. Bearing in mind that many of the features in a tale do depend on time, social development, political or economical structure, in order to achieve the desired objectivity it is necessary to take a remote position from which the detail would not be seen and would not play any substantial role, but the whole image would still be clearly seen. The conclusions in the major part of the study refer to general trends of male characters, not influenced by versions, distribution, etc. Moreover, as a main condition in the elaboration of the classification is taken the decision not to follow single realisations of male characters but appearances in their set pattern of behaviour, supported in different tales. The research claims to be a literary analysis of fairy tale characters and the literary analysis technique is based on Pospelov’s “Theory of literature” (Pospelov, 1948) and Borev’s “Aesthetics” (Borev, 1988). In the very simplified, schematic body of any tale (much more resembling a scaffold than a true narration) it is possible to see the main, the basic characteristics of a literary work, and although tales may lack details – the plot lacks details, the language lacks rich diversity, the narrative is compact, the emotional charging is lowered, the scenery and the environment are briefly described, finally, the characters are mere figures, very sketchily depicted, but just as any literary work the tale knows the intrigue, the collision, the inception of the action, the culmination, and the denouement. Even in the form of a scaffold the tale uses all known tools and devices to hand down its main idea – dialogues, descriptions, poetic vocabulary (allegories, comparisons, symbols, anaphors, contrasts, personification, hyperbolas, rhythm), retardation, retrospective, etc.

2 MALE – adj, nc (of) the sex that does not give birth to children or young (p. 387); MAN – n (pl men) 1. nc (often used in combinations) an adult male human being; 2. (usually pl, dated) a human being, a person; 3. nu The human race; 4. (usually pl) a male person under the authority of another; 5. n sing a male person having the qualities (e.g. strength, confidence) associated with men; 6. nc a husband, etc. (p. 388); MASCULINE – adj 1. of, like, suitable for, men; 2. (gram) of the form of words used to refer to males. Compare feminine (p. 392) (according to the Oxford Student’s Dictionary of Current English).

8 Furthermore, there is a certain pattern to be followed when one makes a portrait of a figure, appearing in any piece of literature. The characters carry the main idea of the author, or in an anonymous piece – the main idea is realised through the acting characters (main, secondary and supporting). These characters reflect the reality in an imaginary way, they are “pictures”, composed of the specific features of real social, historical, moral, aesthetic, etc. relevance. Each character is a synthesis of typical features existing in reality or having at least close connection to reality, an artificially composed synthesis to reveal in the best way the main idea of the work. To start with it is the outside appearance of the studied character which most of the folktale characters “lack”. The portrait is either very brief, or is not to be found at all, but if it appears it is of much importance to the plot and it should be paid attention, as it will probably play a considerable role thereafter. Then comes the inner world, the inside picture of the character. It is supposed to appear though in different forms – it can be in the emotional portrait, the intellectual abilities or in various psychological realisations. As expected it will be roughly outlined, but it is believed existing in fairy tale characters and is searched for. The character is seen situated in the given environment and his position is traced there. A folktale figure is not on its own – it exists only in the unified corpus of the whole tale, it gets into contact with the set environment through relations, conflicts, interactions with other characters, be them people, animals or the supernatural. These characters, depicted through contrasts, comparisons, conflicts, dialogues or any kind of action and interaction, are put into some kind of relation to reveal and represent the main idea of the work. Moreover, the characters appear in some environment, in a social reality, they cannot be totally isolated from other human beings, from other acting characters - it could be a family interaction, a social interaction or interaction with other members of nature or with the supernatural. To recognise a certain type of character from inside its complexity few additional principles are acknowledged. No matter how shallow the tale figures may appear it is of good use to consider the direction of the psyche of the figure whenever possible – their needs, interests, beliefs, aims, abilities, etc. To study the character one should see the “personality” in some activity as it is the most typical and clear way of realisation for every individual. The activities vary in life, they vary in tales too – they could be inside the family circle or in public life, they could be of physical or psychological origin, they could be followed on the road or at home, in comparison to others or alone. No matter what kind of activity is concerned its study is the sure path to the character. The motion, the movement, the action, the state of flux is natural and inborn in all human beings; the change of the internal and external world is one of the most typical characteristics of human beings at all. Active work, doing is the way to discover a character and the only possible way of his best realisation, simply because the activity is a characteristic of all living. Every tale hero is active otherwise he/she would have not been represented in the tale for handing down the main idea of the story. Figures themselves cannot be passive, and thus - exist outside the conflicts and the interchange with the environment, with other people or with themselves; they are just less active in comparison to other figures in one and the same tale or they just show different types of activity – physical, emotional, intellectual – in any case they are such in order to represent best the idea of the tale. The driving engine of life is the contradiction, the conflict, appearing between a person and his environment, as well as inside himself. The overcome of inner and outer conflicts and contradictions is done through activity, in a process of active real relationships with others. The tale exists by the Law of Physics of the constant motion - “No conflict – no tale”. Conflicts can appear whenever there is a contradiction between family values and social values, personal judgement and objective results, etc. Seki says that the folktale in general is about the collision,

9 the opposition, the conflict between two worlds no matter on social, emotional, moral, religious, etc. level. It is the conflict between the master and the servant, the rich and the poor, the parent and the child, the brother and his brothers, the man and the supernatural (Seki V, 101-108). On the other hand it is also necessary to note the role of the society, the social features in the characters, which reflect the way of life and interests of people belonging to a certain strata, which are connected also with historical development and social order. Each social era glorifies a typical character - feudalism, for example, sings of knights, traders and peasants, earlier examples glorify hunters or sea-men. Each of those types changes during the historical development. The character is a socio-historical creation and therefore it is very difficult to speak of common, universal features outside the time and the space concerned. It is impossible to give a complete picture of a character based only on classification, definition and description of single features without putting them all in a unified picture and seeing their inter-connection. All components building the character are organically interconnected and influence each other which makes their separation a difficult task. The character is a unity of certain features, not of single independent parts and these features include will and aspirations, aims and interests, intellectual and emotional properties formed in a long process of activity. The whole pre-history of the individual or the situation in which this individual acts should also be added. It was not possible to base the research on any typical study whatsoever, as there are no known such ones3. The attempt of the present study has been to include as much as possible researches in the field in order to give a more objective view to the conclusions, to see the male characters in Japanese folktales from all possible standpoints, so that one can have a broad, unlimited, unbiased look at them. The folktale is a complex phenomenon. As oral literature it is a subject of study for folklorists who collect and classify the material. Thanks to the enormous efforts of generations of folklorists other scholars can base their work on the collected. The folklorists offer also interpretations on the background of cultural studies, traditions and folk beliefs. As a transitional genre or pre-literature, the folktale could be seen in the light of literary analysis and the application of methods typical for written literature research is possible. The folktale has often been a topic in psychology, mainly depth psychology studies. The structuralists offer another approach to the folktale – that of the structural and functional text analysis. So, the present study of characters inevitably involves all these fields of science, using their methodological tool-set and their conclusions. The research would have reached its aim when and if it has managed to find a certain balance of the methods and theories used and if it gives a place and inspiration for more similar studies in future. It is not expected to answer all the questions which it would provoke, but nevertheless it will search for the most important of them. It is hoped to leave the floor open, becoming a practical tool for other studies and a possible different view on the problematic concerned.

3 There are few similar to a certain extent examples like the works of Neli Radanova for Italian tales (Radanova, 1989), Akos Doemoetoer for Hungarian tales (Doemoetoer, 1985), and Chin-Gill Chang for Korean tales (Chang, 1981), but the presented here classification and analysis of male fairy tale characters seems to be the first of its kind.

10 Part 2. GENERAL BACKGROUND

2.1. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND FOR THE PRESENT RESEARCH

Ever since its scientific discovery in the 19th century the folktale has been subjected to various interpretation techniques. The complexity of its phenomenon has proved also that no single methodology can supply a thorough interpretation and analysis and for that reason the present research summons miscellaneous interpretation approaches in an attempt to supply a more objective and multidimensional picture of the studied male characters.

THE LITERARY APPROACH “…There are traits which in the fairy tale genre as a whole are made to stand out. […] These traits belong to man as man and differentiate him from other living creatures […]. It is not only basic physical needs and abilities that are common to man at all times but also those mental and spiritual. The fairy tale itself is not ahistorical; it is subject to the tastes of the times, […] dependent on the epoch, which vary from region to region, and which are tied to social class, it also displays important and characteristic elements which are timeless and independent of region and class.” (Luethi, 1987: 159) The literary approach combines text analysis with content analysis and is one of the closest to the folktale interpretation approaches. One of the most remarkable folktale scholars Max Luethi studies the folktale and the portrait of man reflected in folktales, and reveals in his works “Das Europaeische Volksmaerchen” (Luethi, 1986), “Maerchen als Dichtung: Aesthetic und Anthropologie” (Luethi, 1987) and “Maerchen” (Luethi, 1990) few of the most important features of the folktale and its characters, which find direct application in the present research. As far as the general scheme of the tale is concerned, Luethi points as typical beginning of the plot a necessity or lack, a task to be fulfilled (Luethi, 1990: 25). The fairy tale is for him “an art form of juxtaposition” (Luethi, 1987: 29) and the basic juxtaposition is that of “Schein und Sein” (to look like and to be, appearance and reality), the contrast between “schein” and “sein” is the sign of the completely different, the numinous. The frame of the tale is the polarity minus/plus (from not possessing to possessing, from poor to rich, etc)4. Then come the five typical characteristics of fairy tales: one-dimensionality, depthlessness, abstract style, isolation and universal interconnection, sublimation and all-inclusiveness 5 . These five are applicable even to the Japanese tale, although some characteristics are not so visibly expressed.

4 For Propp it is the lack and its liquidation, for Dundes – the task and its fulfilment, from lack to lack liquidated, for Todorov the movement from disequilibrium to equilibrium (Dundes, 1965: 208). 5 One-dimensionality is expressed in the tendency for the hero and the supernatural to belong to one and the same layer. Depthlessness emphasises the surface, the lack of details in the depicted events or objects, the lack of psychological depth in the figures or as Luethi says: “The folktale abjures deep spatial, temporal, spiritual and psychological relationship” (Luethi, 1986: 22). The abstract style is expressed in pure colours, sharp outlines, the lack of real material environment. For the isolation and universal interconnection Luethi states: “The characters depicted in folktales have no inner life, no environment, no relationship to past and future generations, no relationship to time” (Luethi, 1986: 37). The principal characteristics of the folktale are the visible isolation along with the invisible interconnection of all things in the tale. The sublimation and all-inclusiveness for Luethi is well seen in how “objects as well as persons lose their individual characteristics and turn into weightless, transparent figures” (Luethi, 1986: 66).

11 The hero and the heroine are the dominating central figures in the tale, in which the man and the woman are assigned different roles (Luethi, 1987: 134-159). Luethi classifies the tale figures in five main groups, which are only partly followed in the present research but nevertheless are considered as guiding: the Hero, the Task-setter, the Helper (Donor, Advisor), the Contrast figures (failing brothers, sisters, friends, false heroes, enemies), and the Saved by the hero Characters (Luethi, 1990: 27)6. On the other hand the present study relies entirely on the conclusions Luethi draws about the link between folktale and reality: “The motifs of which the folktale consists do not originate in the folktale itself. Many are the realistic motifs drawn from the sphere of social life: courtship, wedding, poverty, orphanhood, widowhood, childlessness, abandonment of children, fraternal conflict, loyalty of brothers and sisters, of friend and friend, of servant and master. They reflect relationships between two people, between a person and an animal, or between a person and his environment and they originate from everyday events” (Luethi, 1990: 66). Visible are elements of animism, totemism, fetishism, tabooism, shamanism and human live offerings and these will be very well seen and traced in Japanese tales considered closer in this sense to the Naturvoelker tales. According to Luethi the family picture defines the general picture of the fairy tale, it is the conflict between parents and children, brothers and brothers, or the marriage as goal that make the fairy tale as it is (Luethi, 1968: 181-191) and the realisation of male figures in family circle will build the greatest part of the present research exactly due to this core role of the family in fairy tales. Further as an example of literary analysis is taken the work of Joyce Thomas “Inside the wolf’s belly” where he tries to give literary, folkloristic, psychological and philosophical treatment of folktales. It is a work considered guiding in the elaboration of the present portrait of the male characters in fairy tales. Thomas believes that “the hero is the tale” (Thomas, 1989: 17) and the main feature of the folktale characters is their role - it does not matter who acts but how he or she acts in the plot. The protagonist-hero is both the force which generates all other characters and actions and the axial being around whom they revolve. He is an outcast, but the Outcast is equal and identical with the Chosen one. Among the primal characteristics of the protagonist are the least-likeliness, isolation, feeling and thought; as secondary traits Thomas points out faith, obedience, trust, patience, and responsibility. Compassion and intelligence are important attributes of the protagonist hero and as we shall see in the Japanese example the possession of one of the two only is enough to secure the protagonist a successful outcome.

THE SOCIO-HISTORICAL APPROACH The fairy tale has once been a “living reality” (Roehrich, 1956: 70) The socio-historical approach attempts to prove that the tales could be seen as reflecting natural historical and social conditions. In their theories the scholars trace certain tale-motifs back to ancient rituals, rites, customs and social practices. The socio-historians try to prove the link between tales and reality and to follow the historical development of society and its artistic representation – the folktale.

6 Luethi considers the hero in tale to lack personality and be no real type, but a “general” figure (Luethi, 1990: 28), yet in the present study the characters are given more flesh and more possibilities to express themselves as individuals in emotional, intellectual or physical way.

12 Best example of such an attempt is the work of Lutz Roehrich “Maerchen und Wirklichkeit”. What Roehrich is trying to prove in his work is that the fairy tale is not a product of fantasy only, but has been once a “living reality”, that the elements we meet today in the fairy tale were once an everyday practice like Magie, Sympathievorstellung, Partizipation and Analogie. Further, Roehrich proves the direct link between the setting of the tales and local beliefs, way of life, places and religious occasions (Roehrich, 1956: 162). For Roehrich a main theme in the primitive tales of the hunting cultures is the close link between the man and the animal - native tribes speak of animals coming to man, living with him and then leaving; while later societies see the man enchanted in the shape of an animal trying to bring back his human shape (Roehrich, 1956: 84). In this sense the Japanese tales resemble much more the tales of the native tribes than the European later versions and therefore many of Roehrich’s conclusions are directly applicable for interpretation of Japanese tales too. Another conclusion which Roehrich makes is that the great happiness in fairy tales is associated with wealth, security, justice and food (Roehrich, 1956: 170) which is suggested to a certain extent also by Seki, as we shall see a bit later. The themes in fairy tales, says Roehrich, are real conflict situations (family conflicts between parents and children, partners or siblings), not impossible or supernatural (Roehrich, 1956: 188). On the whole for Roehrich it is the happiness which comes from liberation, so he calls the fairy tales stories of the emancipation path of the hero. August Nitschke takes further the ideas of Roehrich in studying tales and proving the definite link between fairy tales and the historical development of human society. He examines tales which describe the same kind of activity and compares them with the existing practices in pre-history and early history of Europe, and interprets them as pieces of literature. He sees the link between the hunting cultures and the tales of animals in human shape, then moves to the late ice-age, where the woman takes care of the man. Further on Nitschke studies the tales of farmers, fishers and mountain peoples to see the appearance of the concept of other worlds such as the forest, the water and the mountain realm. With the appearance of early town cultures, fairy tales develop also the thematic of economic and political power, where winning a fortune is main topic. Nitschke claims that in tales and in reality “the man is given two possibilities for action: he can participate in the historical change or he can confront the present” (Nitschke, 1977: 23). Using Nitschke’s approach it is possible to trace socio-historical development in Japanese fairy tales too and although such task has not been set in the present research, it is believed that the work of Nitschke answers many questions about the fairy tale and its juxtaposition to existing historical reality and therefore it is used to interpret many features of the Japanese tales. The approaches of Roehrich and Nitschke trace the reflection in folktales of pre- and early socio-historical realities. Schenda on other hand looks at the link between folk narrative and reality in the last few centuries and brings the tale closer to our times. Schenda believes that it is difficult to follow always unconditionally a certain link to historical reality in folk narrative, but that despite the difficulties like reliability, story-teller’s attitude towards the presented fact, utopian elements, etc. a strong socio-historical interpretation of folk narrative is necessary and desired (Schenda, 1976b: 189-190). Schenda’s conclusions are considered also very important for the present research, as he states that “the analysis of the folk narrative without preliminary knowledge of the historical conditions is absolutely unthinkable” (Schenda, 1976b: 187), which for the present research means that whenever interpretations of socio-historical events reflected in folktales appears, it is supposed to appear together with the historical facts and references to Japanese socio-historical reality.

13 THE FOLKTALE TEXT STUDY “Each tale, or in a complex tale, each episode, contains two principal opposed parties. Usually both parties are personalised, although occasionally one may be an impersonal natural force. There is always at least one defined object of conflict, which may involve either the relationship between the two principal parties or their access to a third party or to some material object. Any party, of course, may consist of more than one individual. […] At least in the major episode of a tale the conflict must be developed before being resolved. […] The resolution of a tale does not have to include a definite victory for one or the other principal party.” (Fischer, 1963: 237) Because the folktale is an oral piece of art its text study has always been a topic for disputes and arguments, but the text study does offer an important interpretation tool-set and could not be ignored in the present study, on the contrary – it is applied as a major analysis instrument. The folktale study has started with the theoretical schools in folktale research on the origin and distribution of folktales: the mythological theory, represented by Grimm and von Sydow; the Indian theory of Theodor Benfey; the theory of polygenesis and elementary thinking found by Adolf Bastian; and the statement of Wesselski that the original oral tales survive thanks to literature. Methodologically, the Finnish school has suggested the geographic-historical method (K. Krohn, A. Aarne) and the comparative study through the type-indexes (A. Aarne, S. Thompson). Later developed the structural methodology in processing of folklore texts and among the most outstanding structuralists are Propp (who creates “a morphology” of the folktale with its thirty one functions), Levi-Strauss (who applies the Saussurean difference between signifier and signified), Meletinsky (who differentiates between own and foreign), Dundes (who creates the “allomotif”). Best examples of structuralism and functional analysis in Japanese folktale and myth studies are the works of Komatsu and Obayashi7. For Propp the most important features of the fairy tale are the functions in the frame of which the plot develops starting with lack and/or deficiency. The functions, says Propp, serve as stable, constant elements in a tale, independent of how and by whom they are fulfilled; the number of functions known to the fairy tale is limited; and the sequence of functions is always identical. Propp defines also seven roles (with two more than the five roles Luethi suggests), which are active in the fairy tale: the Villain; the Donor; the Helper (could be also an object); the Princess; the Dispatcher (task-setter); the Hero; and the False hero (Usurpator). One character may play more than one role and all characters which appear in a certain tale are only representatives of the above roles (Propp, 1969). Propp develops the functions according to the spheres of action of the characters and his method in this way has become a leading principle in the present research where the male figures are in fact classified according to their sphere of activity and action. In the present study very important are considered also the epic laws of folk narrative, developed by Olrik: 1. the Law of opening and of closing; 2. the Law of repetition; 3. the Law of the three; 4. the Law of two to a scene; 5. the Law of contrast; 6. the Law of twins; and 7. the importance of initial and final position. The greatest of Olrik’s laws is the law about the concentration on the leading character, which means that the main character is the mover of the plot and simultaneously the focus of the plot ideas (see Olrik, 1965: 129-141).

7 Komatsu notices that the structural theory and the functional analysis of folktales is a very important point in folktale study, but that one should add also to these some imiron, or text content study (Komatsu, 1987: 67-68), which is put to practice in the present study as well.

14 Dundes on the other hand fervently defends the statement that it is hard to use the texts in tale collections in their textual representations. He asks his fellow-researchers never to forget that fairy tales are an oral form and that writing them down definitely makes a great change (Dundes, 1986). To conform to his ideas in the present research the text is considered as a text mainly in its content, not in form. The researched texts are considered as sources, but are used very carefully - intra-textual analysis does not play any considerable role in the conclusion making, as it is considered an unreliable source of proof because of the subjective influence of the story-teller, the oral tradition and the editor, compiling the collection. Another interesting approach to text suggests Fischer with his socio-psychological interpretations. According to him there are three systems for analysis of the fairy tale – the tale itself, the modal personality of audience and narrator, and the social system; whereas culture penetrates each and everyone of them. “The logical structure of a tale is independent of the particular meaning of its parts. It is possible two entirely distinct tales with different subject matter to have the same logical structure, just as two sentences with entirely different meanings may have the same linguistic structure. The more complex the tale, the less likely it is that any other tale will have exactly the same logical structure, but, for that matter, it is unlikely that two variants of the same tale will have identical logical structure in all details. Nevertheless, the overall structure will generally be the same for all or most versions of a single tale from a single circumscribed community, and can be the same for unrelated tales as well…” (Fischer, 1963: 248). In the present research the logical structure of the tale is the one suggested as “model text” by Seki and not the versions supplied after this text. According to Seki there are three methods of possible study of tales: the study of motifs, their comparison and juxtaposition; the study of individual tales and the study of thematic cycles of tales (Seki, II: 7). The present research is an attempt to combine those three, because it is believed that one should study folktales not only by juxtaposing them and comparing them to each other, but also from different perspectives, from different stand-points. There is a certain difference between tale study and tale-motif study, which is expressed in the wholeness of the first as opposed to the segmental nature of the second, so in the present research the tales and the thematic cycles are taken as a whole, and the male characters are studied inside that whole.

THE PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH “... often deep feelings born in the change of the normal way of life, in the change of habitual activities, in losing close relatives, let alone psychological crisis and fail of beliefs, have physiological effect exactly in the change of the old dynamical stereotype and the problems in forming a new one.” (Pavlov, 1951: 243-244) The psychological approach is applied in two directions in the present study of male characters. One of them is the general psychological perspective – the psychology of the individual, showing specific features composing the entire human personality. The other psychological dimension is that of Freud’s and Jung’s “Tiefpsychologie” (depth psychology) with its attempt to search for the universal backgrounds in human psyche responsible for the actions of human beings, respectively – tale characters. The Freudians (Sigmund Freud, Erich Fromm, Bruno Bettelheim) rely on the dream and its analysis to find the way into the subconscious, in fairy tales they see the symbolic realisation of wishes and sexual development, key-words for them are the oedipal complex and the sexual desire. The Jungian school, represented by Carl Gustav Jung, Marie-Louise von Franz, Hedwig

15 von Beit, Verena Kast, Erich Neumann and others speaks of the subconscious (das kollektive Unbewusste), which is represented by archetypes in myth and tale. There is a certain picture of growing-up of the individual especially noticeable in the fairy tale, key-words for the Jungians are anima, animus, death, Suchwanderung, the Great Mother. Otto Rank halfway between Freud and Jung sees in myths about the birth of the hero the psychological process of how a child is freeing himself from dependence from his parents. The work of Bettelheim “The uses of enchantment” (Bettelheim, 1976) is a wonderful example of the combination between pedagogy and psychology, exploiting in depth psychological terms the pedagogical effects of fairy tales. Bettelheim believes that fairy tales represent in an imaginative way the process of human development – the growing-up process starts with the resistance against the parents and fear of growing up and ends when youth has truly found itself, achieved psychological independence and moral maturity. Main psychological problems reflected in tales are the narcissistic disappointments, oedipal dilemmas, sibling rivalries, gaining independence, feeling of selfhood and of self-worth, and a sense of moral obligation. These depth psychology interpretations will find but a limited application in the present research, unlike the approach of general psychology, which is considered of greater importance for the study of characters8. General psychology regards the human being as a complexity of interests, abilities, emotions, desires and needs, and the artistic representation of such human beings, be it in oral, written or other expressive form, will obviously reflect this complexity even if some details are omitted. First, psychologists speak of the man as a social member (family relations included as a level of the social organisation) and on the other hand – as a part of nature. In the present research we shall separate the family from the social sphere and will add the nature in the last part. Then, the basic emotions: altruistic (compassion, inner need to help others), communicative (need to communicate with other beings, social nature of the man), gloristic (need to prove one self, to win and feel glory), practical (need for work and satisfaction at the done), pugnistic (love of danger and adventure), romantic (desire for miracle and the unexpected), gnostic (desire to understand, to get the solution); aesthetic (feeling for beauty and nature), hedonistic (of the comfort of body and soul), acquisitive (interest in gaining material wealth) are believed to be represented in fairy tales and are carefully studied in the present research. Very important feature is the breaking of the normal stereotype, which leads to especially intensive emotions of insecurity, search for a substitute and restoration of the balance. On one hand it is “a situation on the boundaries”, “a borderline case”, on the other - exactly here the function of alienation and retreat, seen by Propp as the initial drive for the plot of the fairy tale could be found. All outside circumstances, conditions and the environment affect, form and develop the personality, but most important among them are the relations with other people - relations of production, juridical, ideological, relations within the family elders, relations between elder and younger. The dreaming (wishes, desires) of the figures is the aim of tales, but the content is not fictional – a family, wealth, high social status. As well as the base of life is seen in the nervous system by scientists – the need for food, reproduction and self-defence; similar, overlapping aims are seen as a background for the development of each tale, where food, wealth and

8 General psychology approach follows the works of Kovalev (Kovalev, 1965) and Gonobolin (Gonobolin, 1973).

16 marriage form the desired end-point of each tale. The birth of a need is always followed by the desire to satisfy this need and this desire makes the individual acting, they make the fairy tale character active or with other words - the need leads to action – the action makes the tale, and this is what we see in numerous examples from Seki’s collection.

THE GENDER STUDIES APPROACH “It’s important to be able to say the word ‘masculine’ without imagining that we are saying a sexist word” (Bly, 1992: 234) The comparatively young school of gender studies suggests another view point when studying male and female characters. Despite the definitions “man”, “male”, and “masculine”, the present research is not inspired by the gender studies, it is not thought as a research on masculinity in fairy tales as opposed to the femininity there. Nevertheless gender studies offer another viewpoint on the characters, so they will not be ignored, especially because it is decided to supply as many as possible viewpoints. First of all, one can speak of biological gender, socio-historical gender, functional gender and grammatical gender in folk narrative (Roth, 1999: 146). In the Japanese language the category “gender” is practically non-existent, while many of the European researches are based on grammatical concepts and as such are hardly applicable outside the language areas concerned. On the other hand, gender scholars consider “Maennlichkeit” and “Weiblichkeit” no longer simple biological units but much more a historical and social formation which does not correspond entirely to anatomical understanding of “man” and “woman” (Erhart, Herrmann, 1997: 15), moreover what makes the man a man or the woman a woman is more or less a social construction (Mertens, 1997: 37). The man in folklore is represented through his characteristics, his male qualities shown in his activities like courage, heroism, readiness for adventures, strength, potency, cleverness, wisdom, industriousness, patience, kindness, moral, etc. The recognition of the man is through his physiological features, through typically male activities (usually shown in professions), through the existing social structure (patriarchy), through religious understanding of the society concerned. For the male characters the initiation rites and their representation in the heroic tales are of great importance. In order a man to grow-up, two steps are necessary: the break-up with the non-man - that is with women and childhood; and the recognition in the world of men (see also Lipp, 1990). The final and most expressive sign of growing up is marriage which shows “male’s success” (Feldmann, 1997: 143) and is the most preferred thematic in fairy tales. One of the most remarkable works studying the above problematic is “Historical roots of the fairy tale” by Propp (Propp, 1986), where the author traces the link between fairy tales and the rites of passage. Propp’s conclusions are enriched by the contemporary work of Robert Bly “Iron John” (Bly, 1992). Bly revives again the interpretation of fairy tales through initiation rites and depth psychology and manages not only to analyse a tale (such as “Iron John”), but to make an analogue of male’s growing-up in fairy tales with the realities in the 20th century. He goes through all the stages of man’s growing up as an individual - the probations, the ritual death, the father-son relationship, the son-mother link, the Great Mother and the Sacred King.

17 A very interesting study is presented by Cardigos in “In and Out of enchantment: blood symbolism and gender in Portuguese fairy tales” (Cardigos, 1996a). The author develops a picture of the female “voice” in Portuguese fairy tales, studying all accessible versions of four tales and applying various approaches for the interpretation of the texts – structural, psychological, anthropological, to find out that woman’s ovulation and menstruation are reflected in tales. Cardigos sees the hero as master of space (through his departure, conquest and return), while the female figures are unfolding through time, or as she says: “Woman is flesh, blood, nature, transcendent, man is culture, spirit and eternal” (Cardigos, 1996b: 141). The work of Cardigos is seen as a possible model for interpretation of tales, despite the fact that it is focused on female characters only. Similar attitude shows also Ruth Bottigheimer, who believes that the woman in fairy tales is a bearer of the supernatural power, being the queen of natural realm (Bottigheimer, 1980: 2). And although Bottigheimer does not make a general conclusion, it is possible to apply her view for the study of Japanese tales as the link between women and nature, especially in the Japanese case, is very distinct in tales of the animal-bride. The works of Bochkov, Lyle, Erdheim and Hug on the female and male images in folk narrative have also been taken into account as they supply additional perspective for consideration of gender and its representation and role in folklore (Bochkov, 1999; Erdheim and Hug, 1990; Lyle, 1996).

THE FOLKTALE CHARACTER STUDY “…everyone once in his life needs a disenchantment and liberation, even if he is or exactly because he is a great hero…” (Horn, 1983: 87) There exist diverse studies of folktale characters, which focus on different traits and which apply various approaches. As the present research is a folktale character study first and most of all, it is believed that a short introduction into the most prominent character studies is necessary before we move to the classification itself. In his work “The hero with a thousand faces” Campbell builds his theory of the hero on the base of psychoanalysis; he studies the rites of passage (the ceremonials of birth, naming, puberty, marriage, burial) and transfers all these to the myth and the fairy tale trying to interpret them through the separation or departure of the hero, his trials and victory of initiation and return with reintegration within the society, the difference being only that the figures in fairy tales achieve domestic, microcosmic triumph; and in the myth – a world-historical, macrocosmic one. For Campbell the heroes are “the world’s symbolic carriers of the destiny of everyman” (Campbell, 1960: 36) and have the task to knit together two worlds, which idea is also developed by Komatsu as we shall later see. A very interesting part of Campbell’s study refers to the pairs of opposites, the male and the female and the existing binomial concept of the world. Yet Campbell does not follow blindly the duality principle, but questions it using the idea of Buddhism that the pair of opposites are in fact one whole: void and world are one; as are eternity and time; truth and illusion; enlightenment and compassion; god and goddess; enemy and friend; death and birth; subject and object; Jang and Yin (Campbell, 1960: 169-171). This understanding of wholeness we shall see in Japanese tales where evil and good exist and are one, where nothingness is equal to wholeness and everything, where duality has its own principles, different from the concept of duality in other cultures.

18 Another very important work is the research of Katalin Horn on the active and passive hero in fairy tales. For Horn the fairy tale is the life story of a young man who is a wanderer in other lands - “ein Wanderer in fremden Gegenden” (Horn, 1983: 6), he is somehow “out of this world”, he is very often poor, stupid, dirty, primitive and laughed over. His stupidity though comes from his young age, from his inexperience in the world’s matters, from his not-knowing which we shall see responsible for many results in Japanese tales too, where exactly not-knowing is the key element in the conflict with the supernatural, as it will be revealed later with the works of Ozawa. The hero takes advice and help, and he expects no reward for his deeds, the acquired wealth in the end of the tale has a symbolic meaning for the development and self-realisation of the hero, of his growing-up. There are three main types of heroes according to Horn: the hero with supernatural power (with great physical strength, a fighter), the hero with magic abilities (who is presented magic abilities by helpers) and the passive hero (the hero who is helped to fulfil the tasks). And although defined with other words this is exactly the path of classification used in the present research too - Horn’s fighter corresponds to the physically active figures on their way to marriage and wealth; the hero with the magic abilities is the one who shows his work of heart; the passive is the one helped by the woman. Yet Horn sees in heroes who are love-sick or just patient only the passive side, while this will be considered here a very active emotional state of the hero. Horn disregards also the intellectually active hero, who is studied separately in the present research. Carmen Blacker asks very important questions which one needs to ask when studying the figure of the hero: whether hero is born or made, whether he is a hero through force of will or through divine grace, and where the superhuman or non-human part of his nature belongs - to the gods, or possibly to the realm of wild beasts (Blacker, 1984: vii). Luethi is the one to supply answers to the most of them. He speaks of hero’s isolation and peculiarity, his special status in comparison with all other acting figures, his departure from home (because of a family conflict, task fulfilment or adventurous impulse). Luethi believes that “the folktale heroes are wanderers between two worlds” (Luethi, 1984: 11) and he adds also that the fairy tale hero is a traveller and a doer, he develops and changes, he crosses all kinds of barriers and boundaries (Luethi, 1987: 141). The hero is a deficient creature, he needs help and he is a receiver of that help. Fairy tale figures are neither character nor professional types, but just figures, carriers of the action according to Luethi. Yet in the present research they will be regarded as characters and will be classified in types, accepting all other statements about them developed by Luethi. As far as the super-human is concerned, there is a certain deifying of the hero who bridges this world and the supernatural and could have divine origin (see also Kimmich, 1997). Erhart adds that the hero who is outside the society and is independent from it represents the mythic form of “male loneliness” (Erhart, 1997: 327). The hero is a symbol of the people going into the unknown; he fights symbolically with the unfriendly environment (Uther, 1998: 88). The isolation, the divine origin, the wandering and the heroic deed are the four features which merge together in the hero-type tales in Seki’s collection too. The most promising male character is the hero of tradition, formed inside the cultural and social realities of each narrative (see also Bochkov, 1994; Raglan, 1965). The hero just like the fool possesses an inhuman, amoral quality and he poses a certain threat to society (Davidson, 1984: 44). The Japanese society deals with this threat by sacrificing the hero as live-offering ikenie. And very often just like the fool the hero is stupid, lazy, but extremely good to all creatures of Nature for which he wins in the end (Noguchi, 1991: 91-92). Another very crucial for the male characters element is the probation, the task which is to be fulfilled. According to Kaman in the ordinary tale the hero undergoes three types of

19 probations – the preparatory (Vorprobe), when he wins himself help; in the central he overpowers his enemy, and the additional, where he proves his real identity (Kaman, 1996: 359). We shall see that in Japanese tales the third is not well expressed, and the first is mainly probation of good heart (psychological or emotional testing). The present research applies all these miscellaneous methodologies and approaches as it is believed that for a more objective interpretation of male characters it is necessary to take notice of various factors like Japanese culture, religion and socio-historical realities on one hand and text structural and functional analysis, psychological and gender studies approaches, literary analysis, etc. on the other. Therefore the picture of the man in Japanese tales is compiled of many facets and is given various interpretations, it is analysed from diverse standpoints and is given hence a multidimensional shape.

20 2 . 2 . THE JAPANESE FOLKTALE STUDY

“Folktales are a great cultural treasure and an important national monument of Japan” (Yanagida, 1948: 10-11) In order to elaborate a successful descriptive and analytical picture of the male characters it seems necessary, first of all, to outline the Japanese folktale with a few words. This chapter is foreseen as a brief journey through the Japanese folktale history and the origins of the Japanese folktale. Besides, special attention will be paid to Keigo Seki and his works, especially to the comparison of similar collections and works and the motivation for the choice of the Shusei as a source material for the present research. The Japanese term for folktale, Maerchen, favola, ton-hwa, skazka, prikazka is mukashi-banashi. It could be translated as a tale of old times, a once-upon-a-time tale, a tale of yore; the first hieroglyph meaning “past” and the second – “story”. In the last decades, influenced by the Western researches the Japanese folklorists have created a new term - min-wa - which directly corresponds in translation to “folk-tale”. For the means of comparative study they have also accepted the suggested by Seki term honkaku mukashi-banashi, corresponding to “Zaubermaerchen”, “Fairy tale” or “tale of miracles”, “tale of magic”, “volshebnaya skazka”. The origin of the Japanese folktale could be divided into two main groups of creation - the truly Japanese, in which the tales historically and directly are linked to the legends and the myths of Japanese people; and the introduced one, in which other cultures penetrated Japanese culture and introduced new tale types and new motifs. The first group of tales is usually divided by the Japanese folktale researchers in two big groups – the Ainu half (for more see Miura, 2002) and the Japanese half, the second sub-divided to two transmission areas – the mainland and the Ryūkyūs (see also Mashimo, 2002). This second group, especially the mainland part, to which the tales used in this research also belong, needs a short introduction. In prehistoric times Japan did have close contact with the Eurasian continent and a definite link between Japan and the circumpolar migration peoples settling later in the Americas is suggested by the scholars studying the common Fox-Bear Cycle. Then, the corresponding elements in Japanese myths and legends with those of Ancient Greece suggest a possibility of a fixed sea-route, connecting different sea-ports and peoples. Similar to some Japanese marine motifs could be found in the Panchatantra; Wolfram Eberhard also points out the striking similarities between tales of Turkey and southern China while Littleton finds a definite link between epic heroes in Japan and Ossetia (Littleton, 1995: 259-274). Third, the circumpacific diffusion route marks the link between the folktales of the various peoples of the Pacific islands. An entirely new culture development, coming from Korea, enters Japan around the beginning of the new era, not much time passes and the official imperial tradition settles down. Then the introduction of writing and Buddhism markedly influences Japanese culture from 6th century onwards. Another important wave of new motifs and tales comes with the Christianity in the Middle Ages, which introduces to Japan not only Christian ideas but also the ancient Greek writings, like for example the fables of Aesop. On the other hand through trading routes and with the development of the sea transport, more and more new motifs and tale types enter Japan from neighbouring and distant places. At present the number of Japanese tale types is over a thousand already, compiled gradually in many collections and classifications (for more refer to Inada, 2001: 10-64). Next, very important is also the link between folktales and written literature which starts to

21 show up with the first classical literary works - “Kojiki” (712) and “Nihon Shoki” (720), both chronicles recording events from the mythological age to the time of the first emperors and presenting Japanese myths, motifs from which are directly preserved in many folktales. Then come the more recent works of the 8th century “Fūdoki” and “Man’yōshū”, to finish the list with the pre-medieval works such as “Taketori Monogatari”, “Yamato Monogatari” and “Konjaku Monogatarishū”. Representative for the Heian period (794-1185) are works like “Nihon Ryōiki”, “Uji Shūi Monogatari” as well as different Buddhist writings influenced by the first two. They are characterised by strong man-animal connection, presence of spirits and ghosts, many priests as acting main characters, all strongly linked to Buddhist teachings and beliefs. The Middle Ages of Kamakura-Muromachi periods (1185-1568) are called the age of stories, most representative of which are “Otogizōshi” and “Sumiyoshi Monogatari”. The structure of the first is focusing on the birth and growth of the main character, his activities and happy marriage in the end, thus is closer to the ordinary tales in plot, very typical in these stories is also the step-child thematic. The tales of the period are also characterised by many trip- and travelling motifs, reflecting the general practice among all Buddhist and Shintō-priests and believers at that time. During the Edo period (1600-1868) the tales begin to receive strong influence of the authorisation and literaturisation - the first standardisation of folktales takes place in the beginning of the Meiji period (1868-1912) with the unified school versions based on the already popular akahon-books from the 17th century. From 1868 till 1945 the first 106 folktale collections are published in Japan, which in fact is the first age of flourishing for the folktale study in the country. The first five published tales are “The peach boy Momotarō”, “The tongue-cut sparrow”, “The old man who made trees blossom”, “The burning mountain” and “The competition between the monkey and the crab”. Around the end of the 19th century another very important event for the Japanese folktales takes place - their discovery to the world, which starts with the first collections of Lord Redesdale (Lord Milford), Dautremer, Griffis and Chamberlain. A real boom later are the stories of Lafcadio Hearn, known so well to the readers outside Japan even at present times. The dawn of the Japanese folktale study comes with the works of Bin Ueda (1874-1916), who is the first to define the Japanese term of folklore and separate the folk narratives into three groups – myths, legends and tales. But it is Kunio Yanagida (1875-1962) to take up the task of researching folk narratives thoroughly, which makes him the real initiator of folktale study in Japan. Following Ueda’s thoughts in 1910 Yanagida with the help of the story-teller and collector Kizen Sasaki (called also “The Japanese Grimm”), compiles “The Tales of Tōno” – a collection of 115 tales from the Iwate prefecture. In the following decade Yanagida takes great interest in the European literature of Romanticism and concentrates himself on the folklore studies. Later he admits that it was in the twenties of the twentieth century that the Japanese folktale was discovered “scientifically” (Yanagida, 1948: 1; as well as Seki, I: 307).

In 1935 is given the start of “Mukashi-banashi kenkyū” (years 1935-1937) – the edition of the Society of folktale research, initiated by Keigo Seki under the supervision of Yanagida. The periodical provides articles both on general themes of folktale research as well as on new Western theories and methodology. And it is not the only one at that time – in different places around Japan one by one start to appear periodicals on folktale research and collection. A typical one is the thirteen-volume collection “Zenkoku Mukashi-banashi Kiroku” (1942-1944), edited by Iwakura, Suzuki, Seki; not less known are the series of “Tabi-to Densetsu” (1928-1944) - a stage for contribution of many folklore scholars in those days. Collecting folktales becomes the priority of the folklore specialists. “The Tales of Tōno” have made Yanagida fervent to go further in the tale research and in 1936 together with Keigo Seki he

22 publishes “The Manual for collecting folktales” (Mukashi-banashi Saishū Techō)9. The initiative is not as successful as thought but it helps Yanagida compile his list of tales “Mei’i” (1948). Other books by Yanagida published in this period are the “The birth of Momotarō” (1933), “Folktales and literature” (1938) and “Notes on folktales” (1943). Yet it is in the fifties of the twentieth century when the real “folktale boom” takes place in Japan. All around the country, with a tape-recorder in one hand and a suitcase in the other numerous scholars take up the challenge to collect local stories. In the universities are formed scientific circles which prepare and process the collected data. Local versions are carefully studied in regard to language, formulas and plot, compared and juxtaposed. Some of the best known names in Japanese folktale study are those of A. Fukuda, K. Inada, K. Komatsu, S. Miura, Y. Noguchi, J. Nomura, T. Obayashi, T. Ozawa, T. Sakurai, T. Takeda, T. Takehara and many others. It is since then that the Japanese folktale research moves rapidly foreword, which process continues up to present day (for details see Nihon Minzoku Daijiten, pp. 659-661). Nowadays the two professional unions “The folktale society of Japan” and “The Japanese society of oral literature” hold regular meetings and conferences and unite the folklorists in Japan on annual events. The traditional local research societies continue their work in the collection and processing of the oral material - the interest towards the folktale is still alive (for more see also Manabe, 1984).

LIFE AND WORK OF KEIGO SEKI “My soul intention in compiling the Shusei was to enable the comparative research of our Japanese folktales.” (Seki, 1978-1980, Introduction) Keigo Seki is born on 15. 07. 1899 in the village of Kohama, Minami Takakigun, Nagasaki Prefecture, in a family of a wonderful story-teller – his mother, and in the vicinity of a very prominent story-teller leaving next door.

He graduates Tōyō University in 1924 and starts working in a library where he meets Yanagida. Initially the interests of Seki are concentrated on German literature but Yanagida awakes the concern for folktales in the young scholar. Yet it is a paper included in the “Travelling and Legends” (Tabi-to Densetsu, 1928) with which Seki draws finally the attention of Yanagida and is accepted under his guidance as a graduate student. He teaches at Tōkyō University of Arts and Tōyō University and often takes part in the work-groups and meetings of folklorists, organised by Yanagida. In the same time he continues to write articles for the journal on various topics, mainly legends and folklore studies. Since 1935 his works are being published in some of the new periodicals like “Folklore studies” (Minzokugaku Kenkyū), “Folktale studies” (Mukashi-banashi Kenkyū) and “Folk narratives” (Minkan Denshō) and he gradually starts to concentrate his attention on comparative folktale study. The following years are marked by very intensive work - the thematic differs, his scope of interests enlarges to the analyses of concrete tales, geographic areas of distribution, methodology of folktale study, folklore studies as a scientific field, rites and customs, comparative studies. In 1936 together with Yanagida he publishes “Manual for collecting folktales”. In 1940 he translates the work of Kaarle Krohn “Die folkloristische Arbeitsmethode” and although his

9 In this work Yanagida points out few basic rules for collection and together with Seki they choose one hundred tales retold on the right side of the book, leaving the left blank. The books have been sent all around Japan in a hope that the left page would be filled out with local versions and sent back.

23 work is interrupted by the war he continues publishing. In 1942 together with Yanagida he publishes “An introduction to the Japanese folklore studies”, later the same year his collection of tales appears and he gradually starts to introduce the Finnish approach in the folktale study. Since 1950 his efforts are concentrated on the edition of the Shusei and a translated edition of the Grimm’s tales. In 1956 he edits a new collection of Japanese folktales and starts to teach at Gakugei University which occupation he keeps for many years. The year of 1960 is occupied with the four-step translation of Aarne’s “Leitfaden der vergleichenden Maerchenforschung”. Then follows his long-wished and finally realised trip to Goettingen in 1964. After his return he falls heavily ill and spends on the whole four years in hospital. Despite this he does not stop his work - in 1966 he publishes “The history of the folktale” and in the same year appears the English edition of his “Types of the Japanese Folktales” in Asian Folklore Studies. In the following years Seki continues to introduce the western methodology but pays also attention to the biology of the folktale and the folkloristic interpretations of folktales. In 1977 he publishes “The Japanese folktale – an introduction to the comparative study”, from the following year his entire attention is focused on the edition of the Taisei, his other publications gradually diminish. In 1990 at the age of ninety-one Keigo Seki passes away (for more see also Ōshima, 1991). Seki produces a large number of studies published in various periodicals throughout his professional life. Some of his most famous works are “Folktales and Jokes” (1966), “History of the folktale” (1966), “The folktale – an introduction to the comparative study” (1977), and others. In all of them he pursues his aim to put the study of the Japanese folktale on a comparative international level. He remains true to the comparative methodology and unlike Yanagida who was stressing on the historical and functional analysis of the material, Seki considers folklore studies and social anthropology one and tries to promote the idea of comparative research in all of his writings. In contrast to Yanagida, who has tried to find and preserve the typical Japanese trends and national features of the tales, Seki introduces the Finnish approach in folktale research and promotes the new international research theories. Seki compiles also collections of folktales for popular reading, especially popular become the three volumes of 240 folktales, published in years 1956-57, some of which translated by Robert Adams in 1963. In 1961 with the work “A Study of the sociology of the Japanese folktale” Seki receives his professor’s title. There he proves that the folktale follows a certain line of development, which reflects the life-cycle of a person – it starts with the birth, often in the tales of a man and a supernatural wife, where symbiotic between man and animal is still seen, the supernatural birth of the desired child follows, then comes initiation, growing up of the hero, where death and rebirth play an important role, undergone after conflicts inside the family (step-child cycle) and in the end comes the path to wealth and acquisition of riches, together with or succeeded by marriage, which closes the circle.

In “The origin of Momotarō” (1972) Seki presents the three basic theories on folktale birth and development – Erbtheorie, Wandertheorie, and the Theory of Polygenesis. Then on the examples from all around the world he studies few basic tales and motifs in Japanese folklore, such as “Momotarō”, “The three friends” and “The strong Tarō”. He presents to the Japanese folktale scholars not only the Western theories but how it is possible to analyse Japanese tales in a comparative way with other tales from all around the world (Seki, IV: 199-235). In “An introduction to the comparative study” Seki raises an antithesis to the theory Yanagida has exposed earlier in “The birth of Momotarō”, especially as far as the comparison of Japanese tales with tales of other Asian nations is concerned. Seki gives a reference table using the existing at that time catalogues from Turkey, Israel, India, Indonesia and Mongolia. One of the main questions of his researches is why the tales from far countries are so much the same and the tales of the neighbours’ differ - Seki takes the challenge and searches for the answer by

24 processing enormous text material from many Asian countries. The starting point in Seki’s researches is the possibility to see the Japanese folktales as a whole in the light of the folktales all around the world. Seki defends the link of the folktales with the reality based on the mythological history rather than on any psychological interpretations. So he does not really oppose Yanagida, but simply suggests another approach opening in this way a new door for studying the Japanese folktales, and this is his greatest role in the Japanese folktale study. Another significant role he plays is the introduction of Western folktale theories to Japan. Seki personally does not take as priority the study of the storytelling process and the Biology of the folktale; he also is not a person of too many field researches - Seki follows the geographic-historical method and believes that the type-indexes could make it possible. On the differences between Seki and Yanagida, Tadashi Takeda discusses: “On the surface the researches of Yanagida and Seki do not differ, as they both are the guiding spirits of Japanese folktale study. Basing his study on national resources, Yanagida believes that folktales are one of the tools to understand the folk customs in everyday life of Japanese people and sees the base of Japanese life in folk beliefs. Seki, on the contrary, searches for the essence of Japanese folktales within the world, asking himself in which way the customs are reflected in folktales and what is the place of Japanese folktales in the life of Japanese people. […] Contrary to Yanagida, Seki believes that folktales have their own life and world outside the folk circle…” (T. Takeda, 1992: 25-26). The climax of Seki’s scientific efforts is undoubtedly the creation of the Shusei, enlarged later to the Taisei – a collection and classification of Japanese folktales. For his works on the structure of folktales Seki receives the “Kunio Yanagida Award”. In 1980-1982 as a halo of his scientific efforts a collection of his works in nine volumes is published, where most of his theories and research are introduced to the public.

THE COLLECTIONS “… The meaning of the compilation of Shusei and Taisei was to open the Japanese tale to the world.” (T. Takeda, 1992: 30) There are three basic collections of folktales elaborated during the twentieth century which form the resource well for any study of the Japanese folktale. These are Kunio Yanagida’s “Nihon Mukashi-banashi Mei’I” (referred to as Mei’i); Keigo Seki’s “Nihon Mukashi-banashi Shūsei” (referred to as Shusei); enlarged to “Nihon mukashi-banashi Taisei” (referred to as Taisei); and the edition of Toshio Ozawa and Kōji Inada “Nihon Mukashi-banashi Tsūkan” (referred to as Tsukan). A very brief description of the main features of these collections is considered important to make clear the reasons for choosing the Shusei.

The Mei’i The work of Yanagida is the first attempt of its kind to collect and classify the existing folktale material. Yanagida possesses not only respectful knowledge in Japanese folk traditions, but also a subtle scientific methodology to process the gathered materials. His Mei’i is the first great collection in Japan, elaborated after long years of field work and analytical researches, based partly on the experience from writing “The Tales of Tōno” and partly on the “Manual for

25 collecting folktales”. The references are made on above 5 000 versions from more than 250 periodicals, books, manuscripts and personal notes. Yanagida has been of course aware of the already existing Aarne’s Index, but true to his national duty and the specific elements of the Japanese folklore, he decides to arrange the collected tales in a different way, following his own scheme. He follows a mythological approach to the folktale – this is seen also in his three great works “The birth of Momotarō”, “Folktales and Literature” and “On the history of oral tradition”. He divides the tales in two main groups kankei mukashi-banashi (complete tales) and hasei mukashi-banashi (derivative tales), followed by the tales of birds, animals, trees and flowers, the jokes and the formula tales and other unclassified. The first group includes tales which could be directly traced to mythology or as Yanagida says: “tales which represent one’s lifetime” (Yanagida, 1998: 246). The themes in these tales develop around the happiness of the main characters and could be found as separate motifs in the myths. In “The birth of Momotarō” Yanagida discovers the phenomenon of the small child - chisako and in the Mei’i he arranges the tales according to the thematic of human life starting with birth, growing-up, marriage, etc. The fact that Yanagida puts in the beginning of his collection tales like “Momotarō”, “Urikohime”, “Issun Bōshi”, “The snake-son”, “The mud-snail son” reflects his thinking of tales “as a whole”. In the second group there are only two types of tales which according to Yanagida include some mythical element only as a part of the plot: tales of fate and tales of ogres, where elements from urban legends, anecdotes, jokes, etc. could be often traced. Yanagida’s tale types come to 344 in number. Undoubtedly as a first attempt the Mei’i is an astonishing work of its kind. Yanagida thought that it was still too early for the young Japanese folklore school to produce a type-index, so he does not regard his work as a type-index, but a thematic classification. As a founder of the Folktale Research Magazine (Mukashi-banashi Kenkyū), Cross-country folktale records (Zenkoku Mukashi-banashi Kiroku) and as an active field researcher, Yanagida gave inspiration to generations of folklorists. It is impossible to make any research on Japanese folktale without referring to his conclusions and rich experience and knowledge. Even nowadays Yanagida’s works are respected and read, referred to and used as reliable sources, the folklore institute at Seijō University is named after him and preserves a lot of his writings and his rich personal library.

The Shusei Seki composes his Shusei after long years of scientific activity in the field of folktale research. As a student and colleague of Yanagida, Seki applies the traditional approach to the Japanese folktale but enriching it with the comparative folkloristics. Already in 1938 Seki publishes an article on the classification of Japanese tales (in “Shakai-Gaku” N 6), dividing them in three groups – of animals, ordinary and jokes, and giving some 41 types with their subtypes. Year by year Seki slowly works his way to the final classification, which comes in years 1950-1958 with the six volumes of the Shusei. His collection nears the western indexes and collections, remaining in the same time truly Japanese. For each tale type Seki gives an enlarged model example, an original version told directly from the storyteller, considered the most typical which actually is used in the present research. After the model text and the distribution of the types around the country, Seki gives similar tales from neighbouring countries and the references to the classical literary sources. Seki makes the most of his large source book of over 8 000 versions (collected in the period from the beginning of the century to the Second World War) to compile the collection, and some forty years later he enlarges the edition to the twelve volumes of Taisei. In Taisei Seki

26 does not change his approach, he just sophisticates his first work. The initial 665 types of tales appearing in the Shusei are enlarged by some 78 and Seki admits that even after collecting many more versions in the years after the compilation of the Shusei, he still finds it difficult to enlarge the initial number of types, despite the number of the newly collected versions (Seki, III: 89-108). So, the tales of animals are 104 types, the ordinary tales – 233, the jokes – 368, others – 38. Seki bases the Shusei first and most of all on Aarne’s type index, dividing the tales to animal, of magic (ordinary) and jokes. He agrees that sometimes the tales are difficult to be classified, as the three groups melt into each other – “Kachi-kachi yama” starts as an ordinary tale but finishes as a typical tale of animals; most of the tales about the priest and his acolyte belong to the jokes but the tale “The three lucky charms” is a typical ordinary tale, for example. And this is exactly where the grouping of Seki differs mostly from that of Aarne. Besides, the enlarged edition of Aarne-Thompson (AaTh) index is published in 1964 – some fourteen years after the first volume of the Shusei, so it is the earlier edition which has influenced Seki’s classification, not the later. Yet comparing his Shusei and the AaTh-index, Seki recognises that in the two only 10% overlap for sure. As an example for the rest he points the tales of neighbours which in AaTh are under section “jokes”, and in the Shusei - in the group of ordinary tales (Seki, III: 89-108). As a second basic work he considers the two indexes of Chinese and Turkish tales, compiled by Eberhard. Then he refers also to the theory of von Sydow about the simple and complex tale texts and recognises the similarity of this approach with that of Yanagida. He believes that the importance of Aarne-Thompson’s work, as well as that of von Sydow is only supported and enriched by the works of Eberhard and Yanagida, which two works actually bridge the Western and the East-Asian folktale study. Seki admits also that the study of folktales in Japan is mainly based on a diachronic principle, started by Yanagida with his historical approach; not on synchronic principle, like that of von Sydow. The aim of Seki to make an index for the sake of the comparative folktale study is achieved to a certain extend later with the work of Hiroko Ikeda “Type and motif index of Japanese folk literature”, published by the FFC in year 1971. But the reaction to this work in Japan was not very warm, probably because of two reasons – the first is that Ikeda, after finishing the index as a PhD thesis in the USA, has never come back to Japan and retired from folktale study for good. The second is that she bases her work mainly on the Shusei, which was not very well accepted in Japan. On the other hand, Ikeda applies very well the Finnish method, and includes a key map of distribution in Japan, a romanized subject-index with a glossary in Japanese, which makes the index a useful source for the non-Japanese speaking folklorists around the world.

The Tsukan The Tsukan is the newest collection of all the three. It has been inspired by the efforts of Yanagida for cross-country record of folktales and the idea to collect as many tales as possible from all parts of Japan with the help of many researchers and directly from the story-tellers in the provinces. It has a different structure as the tales are arranged according to geographic area first and inside that to thematic, but it still follows the AaTh classification rules. It is considered the most modern and thorough source for Japanese folktales and is a result of the efforts of many Japanese folklorists and long years of experience, a product of examination and analysis of some 60 000 Japanese folktales. There are 29 volumes, volumes 1-26 present the tales according to prefectures, including Ainu-tales, volume 27 is a representative collection of tales from the whole country, volume 28 includes reference tables, volume 29 – a type-index table –

27 Japanese and cross-reference with a short description of each type, as well as an introduction into the methodology of classification applied. The system includes comparisons with Korean, Chinese and Ainu types as well as the classical AaTh type numbers, plus profound motif analyses. In total the Tsukan recognises 1 211 types, from which very many have not been included neither in the Mei’i nor in both Seki’s works. The Tsukan is an invaluable source for study and comparison of Japanese tales in the different regions of the country, as it is composed in such a way as to allow comparison and analysis of the types and motifs. The newest researches on Japanese folktales refer usually either to the Tsukan or the Taisei.

* * * The reasons for choosing the Shusei before the other collections are few. First of all, the Shusei answers the needs of the present research - it includes all the representative Japanese folktales; they are arranged in a clear structure, answering both their specific Japanese features as well as the universal classification, used throughout the world. The Shusei remains very near to the origins of the Japanese folktale study, offering in the same time a good base for comparative study. Besides, the Shusei in its volume allows a profound study without making the researcher get lost in the tales, their versions and their distribution around the country. It makes thus possible to have a look from above on the tales, to catch the main trends and features, it is very uniform and concise which for the present research has been the most important criterion. And although all of the three other collections are a perfect source material, the Shusei is preferred for a number of practical and subjective reasons as well, to which here no further notice will be given.

28 2.3. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE JAPANESE FAIRY TALE “Fairy tales do not reflect directly reality, they reflect the essence of this reality.” (Inada, 2001: 213) The following chapter draws a general picture of the most specific features of the Japanese fairy tale. Prominent folktale scholars like Seki, Inada and Ozawa define the Japanese folktale as a complex phenomenon, the characteristics of which are formed inside the cultural tradition of Japan (Seki, V: 198; Inada, 2001: 212-214; Ozawa, 1976: 142-143) and hence it is necessary first of all to have an overview of some typical features of the Japanese cultural tradition like the art of storytelling, the village community, various religious and folk beliefs, etc. The second part of this chapter will disclose main features of the Japanese fairy tale like its themes, typical characters, setting of events, concept of other worlds, magic objects, etc10.

THE STORYTELLING TRADITION It seems that the storytelling tradition is still alive. If it is true, it is said that on a certain island in Okinawa there still exists a custom to tell a person who will die soon a fairy tale before sending him forever away from this world. (Inada, 2001: 213) The place in Japan where stories are traditionally created is the irori-hashi, the fireplace, the hearth around which the story-tellers and their audience gather in the winter evenings. It is the winter activities which inspire the process of storytelling – various repair-works, weaving, making of baskets, etc. The stories are told in the evening, at dusk, so that the audience be taken away from reality and enter another dimension, a world not of the daily life and concerns, but a world of fantasy for both the story-teller and the audience, which Takeda calls “the secret of oral tradition”, the hidden tension, created between storytellers and their audience (T. Takeda, 1996: 6). There is also a proverb saying that if one tells a story at day-time the walls or the mountains around will tremble and fall apart, and if despite this a story should be told at day-time, then the room is to be made darker. Besides, the story is a winter-tale – another proverb says that a story in summer may cause snow falling. And indeed, the setting of the Japanese tales is often the evening or the night and/or around New Year’s Eve. The storytellers could be divided in three main groups. The first group consists of the non-professional story-tellers in a house. Inada claims that before World War II in the families all around Japan parents and grand-parents used to tell their children stories around the hearth regularly (Inada, 1996: 215). The second group consists of the so-called “story-telling old men and old women”, who could be considered as half-professionals, they are not so many in number and are well-known by everyone in the village vicinity. These story-tellers are predominantly female (Yanagida, 1998: 250) and have a repertoire of hundred to four hundred tales (Inada, 1996: 39). The last group is that of the travelling professionals, like traders, masters, as well as people with religious occupations and not in the last place – travelling artists like zagashira troupe members, daikokumai dancers, kagura performers, monkey tamers, goze singers; their stories are highly appreciated by the village community as the story-tellers are

10 For more on themes which have remained outside the scope of the present research refer to Fukuda, 2002; Iwazaki, 2002; Hachino, 1998 (on the role of sounds in the Japanese folktale); Sakakura, 1979 (on the tale form and language); as well as Hanabe, 2002; Harada, 2002; Kobayashi, 2002; Mashimo, 2002; Saitō, 2002 (on the link between Japanese folktales and literature); Ikuta, 2002 (on cruelty in Japanese tales); Miyata, 1979 (on racism in tales); Luethi, 1976; Roehrich, 1976; Schenda, 1976 (on the perception of Japanese tales by foreigners); Antoni, 1991 (on political applications of folktales).

29 believed to possess a kind of “super-knowledge” (Sakurai, 1996: 134) because of their experience acquired during the journeys. The study of storytelling in Japan has long been of interest to the Japanese folklorists, especially topics like the story-tellers and their art of story-telling, the story-telling time and place setting, and the social aspects of the phenomenon like gender and others (for example Adams, 1967; Mizusawa, 1970; T. Takeda, 2002; Inada, 1996; Hishikawa, 1998; Matsumoto, 2002; Yoshikawa, 2002 and others). The Japanese folktale specialists fervently believe that the study of the story-telling process is the starting point for any research on Japanese folktales.

THE VILLAGE COMMUNITY “The village community is a small universe.” (Sakurai, 1996: 134) In order to understand better the Japanese fairy tales one should be aware of a very typical phenomenon directly influencing the story-telling tradition - this is the so-called community kyōdōtai, represented by the village community (Saitō, 2002b). The word kyōdōtai means an organised group of people sharing common life, following established rules and interacting actively with each other in daily, religious and professional life. Sakurai calls it “a small universe”, because of its structure and the relationships among its members. The carrier of the folktales in Japan has always been the village community, the main characters in folktales and their occupations are all connected to the agricultural society represented by the members of the village community. Takeda sees the reflection of this village community in all three groups of tales: the tales of animals show the basic structure of the village community; the ordinary tales reflect the human relationships inside the village community; the tales of jokes through their use of laughter at failures turn upside down the ethics of the village community (T. Takeda, 2002: 62). Very often in the tales acts the so-called i-jin or stranger, outsider, the person who has left the community or the group, who comes to bridge the chaos of the outside world with the order inside the community (T. Takeda, 1992: 229-230). Komatsu develops further the idea and comes to the definition of “kill-the-stranger” phenomenon - when one leaves one’s village (or house), says Komatsu, this automatically makes him/her a tabibito-traveller, and thus - estranged. The meaning of “kill-the-stranger” practice is linked to the welfare of the community (village, society) – the estranged is sacrificed in the name of all others as ikenie - live offering. The local community is eagerly waiting for the estranged to come, the community as if “eats” the stranger or defeats him/her as one defeats an ogre, the killed then becomes a kami, a deity to be worshipped (Komatsu, 1987: 102-110). The community in fact is a very serious and decisive factor in the life of folktale characters, but the image of the stranger exists not only in Japanese folklore. Vladimir Propp also starts his study of functions of the fairy tale with the retreat of the main character, followed not much later by one of the most important functions – the hero’s departure (Propp, 1969). Luethi does not speak of the community as a factor in the plot, but he notices that the main character is an isolated hero, thus a stranger to the majority (Luethi, 1986; Luethi, 1987). Georgieva speaks of the stranger as a person of chaotic even monstrous, but heavenly nature. He belongs simultaneously to the human and to the other-world, he crosses boundaries and this makes him special, this makes him the main character in the story (Georgieva, 1992). In Japan this image of the stranger is strengthened and made to stand out by the presence of the organised village community. Here the main character is not only a stranger or a traveller, but he is a stranger to

30 the community, and thus – to the human society, he/she is opposed to the human world represented by the majority organised in kyōdōtai.

RELIGION AND FOLK BELIEFS “Folk religion, folk theatre and folk legend all converge in the realm of Japanese story telling.” (Dorson, 1975: 252) The formation of the Japanese religious tradition is a complex phenomenon, characterised by the unique interaction of different religions. In the beginning of the historical development of Japan only two ways of believing existed – the folk beliefs and the official Shintō, the only indigenous Japanese religion. Then around the 6th century Buddhism came, which spread widely, followed in the 12th century by the era of new sects, based on Buddhism but varying in religious solutions. Buddhism and Confucianism were the religions of the Shogunate and it was first after the Meiji Restoration (1868) when Shintō came back as a national religion. Meanwhile Christianity also settled down firmly. The most typical feature of the Japanese religious tradition - its syncretism – was formed in this way and without any doubt this feature is reflected in all genres of Japanese folklore.

“The myriad of Gods” typical for Shintō could be seen in the divinity of everything - the stones and the trees, the house and even the lavatory – everything can have its own deity, called kami. The Japanese term kami is often translated as god or deity, but in the Japanese understanding kami is a superior and mysterious force of either creative or destructive power residing in both living and non-living nature. Kami are worshipped in shrines (the most famous of which is Ise-shrine) and special purification (with water) and offerings of food (rice) is typical. Some of the most important deities are yama-no kami – the god of the mountain and ta-no kami – the god of fields, believed by many to be one and the same deity, which resides in the mountains during cold months and comes to the fields in spring to guard the harvest. According to various local beliefs kami is believed to be male or female, even sometimes a couple, it encompasses also the belief in the great ancestral spirit. Another important deity is the uji-gami, or the clan-deity, which is believed to be the deity of all ancestors of a certain family clan (for more see also Naumann, 1963: 133-336). The concept of these deities is linked also to the belief in the ancestors as purifying souls on their way to becoming deities and the extreme respect towards the ancestors is a very important part of Japanese culture even nowadays. Main religious practice in this complex of beliefs is the purification reflected in the attitude towards water shown throughout the folk texts. Buddhism added the belief in the Otherworld, and the benevolence of the Bodhisattvas, as well as the ways for overpowering evil. Here originates also the belief in the power of words, coming from the sutras, and the respect towards the highly educated and physically trained Buddhist monks. The Buddhist code of non-killing is also seen in tales in the benevolence towards antagonists and their rare punishment through death. Confucianism enriched the religious tradition with the concept of loyalty and strict hierarchy. Taoism offered the duality of nature, of the Yin and Jang, of good and evil existing simultaneously. The annual celebrations which are direct reflections of religious life in Japan are present in folktales too. Most important among them are the spring and the autumn equinox and Tanabata-celebrations of the stars Vega and Altair; the New Year; Obon–veneration of ancestral spirits and the dead, and others (for more see Nagano, 1996). The New Year could be considered as the most important time of the year with its celebrations connected to a number of

31 folk beliefs illustrated in folktales. New Year’s time is a very special, magic period of time, when everything is possible, it is the turning point between two universes – the old and the new. The first dream in the New Year is believed to foresee the future, various deities give their benevolence around this time, the tales of the guest at New Year’s Eve praise kindness and speak of punished greediness. Similar motifs have existed much earlier in India, China and Korea, even in distant Europe, but in Japan the guest is believed to be a marebito or disguised as a pauper deity, coming to the people in order to praise the good and bring justice (Seki, IV: 292). In the multitude of the New Year celebrations one can find all the leading figures of the Japanese folk religion: the spirit of ancestors, the mountain deity, the field deity, the New Year deity, all acting together with the deity of fire, the house deity, the water deity, and the whole pantheon of million deities. In short, if something is to happen, it will happen in the days of this holy transition from the old into the new, from the past into the future. Other celebrations include amagoi praying for rain, with its offerings and sacrifices, especially with the belief in the water-deity; meeting and sending away spirits of the dead; live offerings in the form of hitohashira, and many others. The time around such religious celebrations is usually considered sacred and this is the time when in folk beliefs miracles can happen (for more see also Nakamura, 2001). The numerous local folk beliefs find great realisation in folk narrative; annual celebrations, rites, superstitions and worship merge in the stories and add a legendary taste to all plots. The Japanese tale is in a closer relation to folk beliefs than any similar representative in European tradition (see also Dorson, 1975: 243-248). Together with the strong link to nature, the presence of folk beliefs makes the Japanese tale sound legendarily. This combination of local beliefs and worship of nature gives Ozawa the right to say that in Europe Christianity terminates some of the folk beliefs like for example the stories about Nixen and Fairies, while in Japan the strong link to nature remains untouched (Ozawa, 1994: 146). This is one of the most typical characteristics of the Japanese tales in comparison with tales from all around the world. As just seen, the legendary character of the Japanese folktale has long been a topic for discussion and arguments. On one hand this duality originates in the close link of the folktale to the place (family, village, area) where folktales are created. Besides, there is a strong presence of historical personalities with their names and real occupations who are involved in numerous fairy tales to make the task of distinction between Japanese folktales and legends very difficult (see also Dorson, 1975: 243-245; Takaya, 1984). Not less important is the fact that myths, legends and folktales are closely connected to rituals and rites and thus merge additionally, making the separation between the three even more difficult. On the whole there is hardly a tale in any collection of Japanese tales which has no sense of folk beliefs or religion – directly or indirectly kami and Bodhisattvas act together with the main human characters, at New Year’s Eve or coming home for veneration of ancestral spirits the main characters experience the supernatural, in temples or near shrines, dreaming of deities or hearing their voices, the man in the Japanese fairy tale is always in close touch with the religious tradition of his people.

32 THEMES The Japanese folktales reflect the life and desires of the farmers, they are born among them and by them and for them. (Inada, 1996: 111-112) Many of the well known Japanese folklorists have studied the thematic aspects of Japanese tales and it seems everyone puts the emphasis on very different themes. Studying Japanese tales in the light of the European ones Ozawa discovers that the first are tales of the people and their environment, about the relationship of man and nature, while the European tales are a representation of man-man and man-society relationship (Ozawa, 1994: 227-228). Making a comparative structural study of Japanese and European folktales Ozawa comes to the two opposite schemes of the two traditions - the European scheme of the plot leads to a final, a conclusion (he calls it kanketsusei), the plot develops linear – from a beginning through a climax to an end, while the Japanese scheme is a circle and returns to the starting point (or kaikisei), there is no beginning and end, the end implies a new beginning (Ozawa, 1994: 219-222). Kawai calls this phenomenon “the result of nothingness”, but he supposes that even if the tale finishes the way it has started, this result of nothingness speaks much to the Japanese reader, saying in an ambiguous way everything and explains the phenomenon through various psychological processes (Kawai, 1977; Kawai, 1982). For Fukuda the Japanese tales are stories of the path to extreme happiness and wealth (Fukuda, 1984b: 7-11). Komatsu argues that the Japanese tales are “kill-the-stranger” folklore and develops his theory in many works, studying the figure of the stranger and the role of the community (Komatsu, 1984a; Komatsu, 1984b; Komatsu, 1987). Takeda believes that in the core of everything is death and life (rebirth), for him the main scheme of the Japanese tales is the hero’s trip to the otherworld, him facing death, his adventures, and his coming back to reality (T. Takeda, 1992; T. Takeda, 1999). Death and rebirth is a common theme for Seki too, but Seki considers the Japanese tale a very practical one and sees only two main themes – marriage and acquisition of riches and defines the aim of the heroes as follows: “The Japanese folktale has a very practical view on life – marriage and wealth to support that marriage” (Seki, I: 312). It is the tale of one’s life, says Seki – from birth to full age, marriage, and then activities to acquire wealth, necessary to support the new family, which was suggested earlier also by Yanagida. On the whole nature in Japanese tales is a very persistent element - it forms the background of the story, so everything that runs in a natural way is beloved by the Japanese. Evil is not destroyed in the end, because it is believed that one can run away from evil, one can fight evil, but one cannot destroy evil forever. The tales speak often of waiting for the happiness to happen, not of active fighting for this happiness. The themes of the Japanese folktale do not differ substantially from the themes of tales all around the world – step-children oppose cruel step-mothers, brothers compete to win the hand of a beautiful girl, sons are tested for the best heir, heroes save villages from ogres, supernatural beings help or punish the main characters, etc. And if there is a difference, it is hidden among the details of the plot, the paths to happiness, the ways for winning in the end of the tale. It is in the tiny everyday props that the Japanese tale differs, in the food used and the drink drunk, but on the whole the Japanese tale speaks of the path to happiness for every human being (for more see also Fukuda, 1984a; Saitō, 2002; Yoshida, 1995).

33 DRAMATIS PERSONAE COMPLEX “The Japanese tales reflect mainly the life of farmers, of people engaged in agricultural work, while in the European tales many more professions appear.” (Ozawa, 1994: 258) If the most essential elements of the tales, described by Luethi - polarity and extremity of the character, one-dimensionality, depthlessness, isolation, sublimation and all-inclusiveness (Luethi, 1986; Luethi, 1987) are compared to those of the Japanese fairy tale, it is not difficult to see that they all act together in the Japanese context without fail. One of them in particular is studied thoroughly by Yanagida - the isolation as one of the most typical features of the main heroes. Yanagida notices that the heroes in Japanese tales are predominantly poor, tiny, unimportant, estranged; the sketchiness of their figures he calls tanjunka, or simplification (Yanagida, 1998: 258). This special place of the main character, his/her difference from the majority seems the most important part of the many-facet image of the fairy tale hero. Yet the spectrum of personages inside the folklore tradition of Japan is quite specific and different from other folklore examples around the world. The Japanese tale is much closer to common people than the royal thematic of the European tale - in contrast to Europe where the story is often about a king, a prince or a princess, in the Japanese case the highest level which the main character reaches is usually a chōja, or simply - a rich man. Besides, adds Inada, the perception of the emperor as a descendant of gods is very alive in the consciousness of Japanese people and the examples where the main character becomes an emperor are very rare (Inada, 2001: 213). In his profound study of the Japanese art of story-telling Inada enumerates and explains the personage system of the Japanese tale where the most common main characters - rokubu-pilgrim, yamabushi-monk, hōin-monk, kannushi-priests, ama-nuns, travelling traders of fish, winnow, beans, pottery, fancy goods, paper, medicines, bamboo-sieves, travelling professionals like roof-makers, carpenters, tatami-makers, masters of tubs, earthenware and masons are all simultaneously the story-tellers and the main acting characters of the stories (Inada, 1996: 59). So, reading a Japanese tale one can easily get the picture of the possible story-tellers by simply recognising him/her in the main character, especially in his/her profession. In many tales the profession of the main character does not really have any relation to the plot, but for quite a number of tales the profession is inseparable from the plot development – for example a trader who buys a dream, or a fisher who saves new-born turtles, or a charcoal burner who finds gold. Main male characters are those of the bridegroom, the brother, the son, religious figures like oshō, kozō, yamabushi-ascetics, rokubu pilgrims and travelling priests. Special place in the narrative is occupied by the figure of the neighbour, who is also main character in many jokes. As already mentioned the top of the hierarchy is taken by the local landlord tonosama, followed by the rich man chōja. The female characters do not differ essentially from others all around the world – the bride, the young step-daughter, the cruel step-mother, the wife, the daughter of the rich man (understood also as a princess). But the number of supernatural female characters is considerable – the Princess of the Dragon Palace, the Sky-nymph, the Animal-bride, the yamauba-monster, goddesses and deities, female ghosts and others. The main acting supernatural beings are kappa-water spirit, kidnapping horses and brides; tengu-devil – a mischievous creature of the woods, possessing magic objects; oni-monster – an enormous creature with great power and many magic objects; as well as ghosts of dead, deities of nature, and many others. The division between men, animals and supernatural beings is not strict, men often visit supernatural realms, animals transform themselves into humans, supernatural beings

34 appear as men or animals, and so in many cases the characters are inter-changeable or indefinable. Age in folktales does not necessarily answer the biological one and is very rarely mentioned directly in texts, in the most cases it is not a biological but rather a social definition. When old people appear in tales it is either as parents of a desired child or in the neighbour-cycle (in European tales the plot usually involves young heroes, step-sisters or brothers while the Japanese narrative prefers old people for such moral stories, which could be explained by differences in target audience and story-tellers). Japanese fairy tale characters have names and this is another of their specific characteristics, which often makes the Japanese tale resemble the legend. And if in “Kinder- und Hausmaerchen” by W. and J. Grimm names possess only few characters and predominantly female (Tatar, 1986: 95-114), it is not the case with the Japanese tales, where names are given to the male characters – Harima Itonaga, Yamada Shirataki, Torachiyo Maru, Urashima Tarō, Gorō, etc. Quite a number are also the heroes with descriptive names like The Strong Tarō, The Peach Tarō, The Heel Tarō, The Ash-boy Haibō and others. The name Tarō is used often, it is also the name given to the first-born son; in a family with three sons their names in fairy tales are often Tarō, Jirō and Saburō – literally meaning the eldest, the next and the third. Many scholars are tempted to count the number of female and male characters and give various interpretations to the data, but it seems not of primal importance anyway, as regardless female or male the main characters transmit the main idea of the anonymous author and they play different roles in the plots. Besides the concept of gender in fairy tales is a made-up phenomenon in the last decades and does not help the study of the tale, on the contrary – it prevents the analysis of the general trends in the main characters. For the fairy tale is not interested in “who”, “where” or “when” but in “what” happens and what is to be told to the eager audience.

SETTING Water, mountain and evening are the three characteristics of the Japanese fairy tale setting. It is not difficult to derive the main three settings in Japanese tales – water, mountain and evening – the first two spatial, the last – temporal. Mayer argues that in Japanese folktales water is more often used as a starting point or setting of the plot than the mountain or the forest (Mayer, 1972: 185-192). In the same time other folklorists claim that it is the mountain which is the sacred place of action due to the whole complex of the belief in the mountain god (Eder, 1969); the localisation of the souls of the dead in the woods, the tree-spirits which could also be seen as an ancestor’s soul (Naumann, 1963), etc. A brief calculation shows that only in about 20% of Seki’s tales the link to water could be clearly traced. In one third of the tales there is no obvious link to any “outside” place but the home, the house, or the building (shrine, temple, inn, etc). The rest keep definite link to the mountain, the forest, or generally speaking – to land as opposed to water. Besides it is not very easy to judge tales in which the action takes place in the mountains but in heavy rain, or when everything happens in the mountains on the banks of a mountain lake, or in a house with a fish-wife as central figure. The mountain is the abode of the God of the mountain or yama-no kami, who is believed equal to the Lord of Animals, the deity of hunters appearing in the shape of monkey, hare, wild boar, wolf, and other animals, and is not defined explicitly male or female; it is considered also

35 a severe deity that punishes disrespect even with death. This deity is also the Lord of the forests, the creator and preserver of the woods (Naumann, 1963: 343). The mountain (and the forest as a part of it) is also a place where evil dwells in the shape of many monsters and ghosts, the mountain is in the same time the workplace for hunters, wood-cutters, char-coal producers, blacksmiths, or ascetics. The mountain is the place where man and animal meet on equal terms, where the spirits of the dead purify themselves to become one with the ancestors. Water is the tool for purification of the soul; in water live the servants or incarnations of the Sea Dragon – the serpent, the turtle, the kappa, the frog. The river and the water-deity mizu-no kami play a substantial role along the way of the main character heading for the otherworld. Water is a bridge, a boundary, a transitional space between two worlds (T. Takeda, 1992: 257-259): the human and the divine, the world of the living and the world of the dead, the man and the animal; with other words - water is the threshold from reality to unreality. The role of the river for Japanese culture is very important not only as a water supply, but also as a natural boundary, and not only rivers but the sea is also of primal importance to the Japanese people and their folktales – “for these people the sea has always been the mother-land”, says Yanagida (Yanagida, 1998: 281). The next characteristic of the setting is not spatial but temporal - time in fairy tales is fixed to be the evening, the darkness (T. Takeda, 1992: 229-230; Takagi, 1997). According to Takeda the functions of the evening as time-setting are at least three: evening as a threshold to the otherworld; evening as time of dreams, which are also prophetic; and evening with a special pace of time, when three days could be equal to three hundred years, where the moment of reality opposes the eternity of non-reality (T. Takeda, 1999: 26-31). It was already mentioned that the time of the year is also important and from all seasons it is the winter bringing the New Year’s Eve, which is beloved as a setting for many tales. Other periods of the year include Obon summer period for veneration of ancestors, period for watering fields and collection of harvest, etc. Such important occasions set the stage for miracles and prepare the reader for the forthcoming supernatural events. The strongest miracle happens when these combine, for example during the night at New Year’s Eve in the mountains.

OTHERWORLD “The reality is a moment, an instance, the other world is an eternity.” (T. Takeda, 1999: 21) Other-worlds are a very persistent element in Japanese fairy tales, be it as motifs of supernatural beings, visits to other realms, death and rebirth, vanishing houses or magic flights. Corresponding to the English term “other-world” the Japanese language uses the word takai, but the supernatural, the other world in fairy tales is usually expressed by the term ikyō – a different world or higan – an other-shore world. The term does not speak of any super-nature, but only of strong “otherness” and when a human being is marrying a supernatural being in Japanese tales one speaks of irui kon’in or marriage with “a different being”. Ikyō is not inexistent, but rather hidden, far, different, other; the road leading to it is open to anyone on certain conditions; the place could be on the earth, underwater, far in the mountains, or high in the sky. The typical picture of the other-world describes it as an ideal imaginative place where wealth, treasures and happiness are granted; where kami, deities, gods live, who are donors and advisors; in the same time the image of the Kingdom of the dead and the perception of death by Japanese people is seen clearly here.

36 According to Sakurai there are three such other-worlds: The Underground World typical for all tales about neighbours - a place of spiritual and magic power, where wealth could be granted. The Sky World, the concept of which is formed already in the earliest Japanese written sources “Kojiki”, “Nihon Shoki”, and “Fūdoki”, is a place which human beings can reach only with some supernatural help. The Water World appears not in so many stories; special part of this group is the Dragon Palace, which is in fact a Kingdom inside the Kingdom (Sakurai, 1996: 142-159). According to Komatsu there are two types of other worlds in Japanese folklore – Oni-no-kuni, or the kingdom of Oni, to which belong Sky, Onigashima, and Underwater kingdom, they are all negative and are dangerous to the main human character. The second otherworld is the world outside the village or the local community, which is a totally different understanding of place outside the spatial dimensions to which Komatsu dedicates a lot of his research (Komatsu, 1987). Two are the worlds for Kawai too, but seen from a very different perspective. Kawai speaks of the other-world using the term of “nothingness”, “non-existence”, mu. His two worlds are this world, or the conscious and otherworld, the subconscious and he studies the Japanese tales from the Jungian perspective of the depth psychology analysis (Kawai, 1982). A very detailed picture of the other-world draws also Ozawa (Ozawa, 1998: 7-53). According to him the conflict between the human world and the realm of the supernatural originates in the not-knowing of each other’s rules, the lack of knowledge about each other. Ozawa believes that not breaking the taboo makes the couple in the animal-bride tale separate, because the taboo is not of initial importance in the relationships between the two worlds, but it is the not-knowing of the rules that leads to a loss. The rules of the other world are very strict and there is not a slightest possibility to change them. In the same time when otherworld creatures do not know the ways of this world they also get in trouble, like in the case with the monkey bridegroom. Mamiya and Maruyama take further the study on the concept of other-worlds in Japanese folktale each pointing out typical features of these realms like concept of time and space (Mamiya, 1998; Maruyama, 1999). May be the most important feature about the other-world is that if someone is to beat the other-world beings, to overwhelm their power and end their spell, it is the new-comer, the stranger, not the local people. Even if the hero is not a stranger, he is usually a poor-man or “isolated” and “estranged” in other terms. As said earlier, there is a special link between the supernatural and the main character, between his/her “otherness” and the other-worlds in general.

TYPES OF TRANSFORMATIONS “The transformation of the crane into a woman and back to crane is not a work of god, or any magic, it is simply natural. […] This natural transformation from animal to human and back to animal is one of the most typical features of the Japanese tales.” (Ozawa, 1994: 141) A very interesting and typical feature of the Japanese folktale is the transformation. In folktales as a rule there are two types of transformations: 1) from animal to human and back to animal and 2) from human shape to animal and eventually in human back again. These two types of transformation could be performed either voluntarily (usually the first one) or by force (mainly the second type). In the first type the transformation happens on two occasions – either

37 an animal wants to marry a human woman or an animal-woman wishes to repay some kindness and marries a man. In the second type the transformation is performed usually by someone else (the human being cannot transform him/herself to an animal) and there are two possibilities for the plot – the desired-child-type where at the end the character from animal becomes human and the moral stories of the neighbour-cycle or the rich-poor type tales where the greedy and cruel is punished by being transformed into an animal in the end of the story. Very common for the Japanese tale is the first type where a non-human being takes the shape of a human being and enters the world of man for different reasons, mostly marriage and co-existence. The other type of transformation is very typical for Europe, where one often has a witch throwing a spell over the main character and transforming him/her into an animal, the whole plot is leading to the salvation from the animal state and the returning to “normality” of the main character. There are similar examples in Japanese tales too, but the number is very limited and whenever it happens it is without the intervention of a spell-layer and is seen as punishment for the antagonists. In the first type of transformation which is predominant in the Japanese tale, the transformation from animal to human and then back to animal is realised without any outside intervention. There are no spells, black magic or other magical tools - the animal can take naturally human shape. The transformation of an animal into human and back is a natural phenomenon for the natural people, like the Eskimos, it is taken for granted there for example - the worlds of the man and the animal are not separated from one another, they are one and the same and the members of the one can enter the other without any problem. The Japanese stories in their attitude towards animals are nearer to the beliefs of Eskimos, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, etc.; the natural transformation of the animal into human brings the Japanese tales closer to the Naturvoelker tales, but the impossibility of the long-term co-existence makes the Japanese stories resemble the European. This close link between man and animal and the often interaction are also typical for hunting societies, such the Japanese has also been at a certain stage. The mutual understanding of the language between humans and animals also reflects ancient beliefs of a common language for all living and non-living on earth, later a kiki-mimi listening hood is needed. These two possibilities show two stages of the development of the human-animal relationship (for more see also Roehrich, 1956; Ozawa, 1994: 169-201; Seki, I: 90-95).

MAGIC OBJECTS The needed magic help for the hero – a few props to make his path easier. In order to complete the picture of the Japanese tale it is necessary to introduce also the magic objects, which play a considerable role in the folk narrative. One of the most exploited magic objects is the so-called kiki-mimi or the magic listening hood making possible the understanding of the language of animals by putting the hood on the head. It is either in possession of the Sea-dragon, the tengu-devils or the oni-monsters and could be acquired in two ways – either the main character receives it as a present for a heroic, noble deed from the Sea Kingdom, or he wins it in a battle with the supernatural beings, outwitting or overpowering them. Another typical object is the magic whip. There are two kinds of magic whips – iki-muchi and shini-muchi – the first revives dead people, the second - kills strong enemies only by pointing at the opponent. Just like above the magic objects are in possession either of the

38 Sea-king or the oni-monsters. The main character uses them generally to save a dead beauty, later marrying her, or to kill a strong supernatural foe, against whom natural wits or power are not enough. Next very important object is the magic mallet in possession of the mighty oni-monsters and producing all kinds of goods. The user needs simply to hit with the mallet himself or the ground and wish anything and it is immediately there. Usual wishes include food, drink, clothes, money, house, etc. There are also a number of magic jars, pots, gourds, kettles or other magic kitchen utilities, which are usually found buried, are granted as a present by supernatural beings and animals, or are won in a battle of wits and power from supernatural beings. They generally contain gold, money, or other treasures, but could also produce ever-lasting quantities of cloth, rice, sake-wine, and others. One can find also pieces of magic clothes – geta-sandals which produce gold, invisible cloaks, skin that makes one look older, etc. They are granted to the main character as a present from a supernatural donor or are fought for. Other magic objects occasionally appear like a fan of tengu-devils which makes one’s nose longer or shorter; a gold-giving horse; a magic flower which recognises how many people stay in the house; a salt-grinding and wish-fulfilling mill; a magic towel which makes one’s face prettier; etc. All of them the main characters usually receive as a present for their inborn kindness or for their good heart and heroic behaviour, or the main characters win from the supernatural possessors of the objects in a fight of wits, power and courage. It is very important to note that magic in Japanese fairy tales happens often around the New Year’s time, the dream and the prophecy are regarded as truth and as message of gods, very often no language tool is necessary for the man and the animal to communicate, buried treasures often appear in the shape of scary ghosts, unsettled spirits of dead are wandering around, statues of Buddha and jizō are helpful and benevolent, deities are everywhere and come to people to punish and reward them, animals can transform to human beings and help immensely the main characters11.

PATH TO HAPPINESS Be either kind, or clever, or strong, or simply - chosen by the gods! In the end of this chapter the most important question comes regarding all tales in general and the Japanese in particular. If tales are stories about happiness and the path to it, if they are the quintessence of the wisdom of many generations for centuries, and if they have preserved the initial message of the anonymous author, then what is really the recipe, the prescription for the main character if he or she wants to live happily ever after and is it different in different cultures? Is the path to happiness valid even nowadays and to what extent? What matters more – the aim or the doer, do paths to happiness differ for men and women, for Europeans and Japanese? It is easy to say that the paths to wealth and happiness in tales could be generally combined in three main groups – the intellectual way (through wisdom and inventiveness), the physical way (through courage and physical strength) and the emotional way (though kindness and deep love), as well as the group of other possibilities (like the role of predestination, the influence of

11 For more on the thematic of magic objects in Japanese tales see Lillehoj, 1995 and Solms, 1998.

39 deities and gods, etc.), but it is not so simple to say with one word what is preferred and what is recommended, because for each hero there is a different path and for each cultural tradition there is a beloved combination. The best solution would be probably to take a collection of Japanese tales and juxtapose the various presented paths for the main characters and see what the Japanese choice is and whether it is applicable outside the Japanese folklore tradition. This is also one of the main aims in the present research and these questions will appear again and again in an attempt to discover the answers inside the texts of the Japanese fairy tales.

40 Part 3. JAPANESE MALE FAIRYTALE CHARACTERS: CLASSIFICATION AND ANALYSIS

3.1. MAN IN FAMILY

3.1.1. THE PARTNER “Ehe ist eine dauerhafte Verbindung von Mann und Frau, deren gegenseitige Verpflichtungen durch Religion, Sitte und Gesetz geregelt werden.” (Roehrich, 1981: 1023)12 First of all it is necessary to explain why the term “partner” has been preferred to define this type of male characters. The leitmotif of the coming almost one hundred tales whirls around marriage and life after marriage, around the process of getting married and the state of being married. Here the main male character is revealed in his “most male” realisation - in his relationship with the woman (the man is born in the encounter with the woman, according to Erhart and Herrmann, 1997: 7). So the fact that almost half of the tales studied in this research use this motif should scarcely be a surprise to anyone – the man is defined through the woman, no matter whether he opposes her, marries her or lives with her. Marriage is a crucial moment in one’s life. According to Seki it is the supreme theme of folktales - from 600 Japanese tale-types, some 125 are directly dedicated to marriage matters (Seki, I: 324). Studying German and Russian fairy tales, Loewis von Menar says that 72% of them have as a central motif “Brautwerbung” (Menar, 1912: 58). In the same time Lutz Roehrich and Seki say that fairy tales are no love-stories (Roehrich, 1956: 95; Seki, I: 10), despite some views that even the tale of the unfriendly bride is in a sense a love-story (Gobrecht, 1998: 210). In the folk narrative, the marriage is understood as a human necessity, the stories lead to it and yet the emphasis in the tales falls not on the final celebration but the candidate’s way to it or as Luethi says: “The wedding is not the folktale’s goal, only its endpoint” (Luethi, 1986: 56). Moreover marriage represents the hero’s total mastery of life, “for the woman is life, the hero – its knower and master” (Campbell, 1960: 120). Seki sees three types of marriage: marriage between a human being and an animal, based on mythological and magic beliefs; the desired child-type where the hero undergoes initiation, grows up and becomes full member of the society by marriage; and the true, reality marriage-type, where the main character is a grown-up, who has already a profession but nevertheless undergoes different tests in order to marry (Seki, I: 162-163). The marriage and the tests before it are linked to the initiation and growing-up of the hero, of becoming “a man” and the tests to it prove the candidate’s economic, intellectual and physical suitability (Roehrich, 1956: 97-99). In the present research we shall study male characters who become bridegrooms in four different ways: using physical power, intellectual power, emotional power or entirely dependent on the power of the woman13. Acknowledging Seki’s conclusions about the two main themes in

12 Marriage is a continuous bond between a man and a woman, whose duties are determined by religion, tradition and law (tr. by the author). 13 Frenzel sees only three ways in which the suitor is tested and she calls it the “psycho-physico-intellectual testing” (Frenzel, 1987: 227-236); for Miura there are three lines for the hero’s character – physical strength, cleverness and extreme kindness (Miura, 1992). Here the two classifications are united to form four groups, considered necessary to describe the Japanese fairy tale realities.

41 Japanese tales - marriage and acquisition of riches (Seki, I: 308), it will be proved also that inside these two themes the path towards marriage and the path towards wealth are virtually the same – the above mentioned four types of activity. Besides, no matter in which of the four ways, the main male character is definitely “tested” before marriage, he must prove himself before being accepted as a lawful husband, or as Geissler suggests there are three paths for the suitor: Probe, Pruefung, and Aufgabe (Geissler, 1955)14. The bridegroom should prove suitable – before, at the time or after the marriage, but there is definitely a test of his suitability as a partner, no matter if it is a test of his strength, physical abilities, intelligence, creativity, emotional activity, etc. This is seen also as initiation probations giving the main character the right to marry, as the so-called ritual marriage tests (Roehrich, 1981: 1035). Another important issue which might come to question is to what extent sexuality and physical relationship between man and woman is reflected in Japanese fairy tales – a topic which is of some interest in the recent studies of folk narrative. It is necessary to note that in Seki’s collection of ordinary tales the problem of sexuality does not really appear with very few indirect exceptions. Sexuality and physical relationship appear seldom in Mei’i and Tsukan as well, for which a possible explanation beside the juvenile target audience of fairy tales, is the fact that it is in jokes and urban legends where and when sexuality as a topic appears. In Shusei such motifs are seen predominantly in the last part, where Seki retells jokes – there the topic of the relationship between man and woman is strongly present, it could be said also that it is in the last part of the Shusei where the theme of the physical relationship between man and woman occupies a central place, but as the present research is limited to the ordinary tales, this topic unfortunately will not be given further notice. In the second part of this chapter the relationship between a non-human and a human being will be revealed. The main question will be whether marriage and family co-existence between a human being and a non-human one is possible or not and whether Seki does have right to claim that happy marriage is possible only between two human beings (Seki, I: 324). In the end characters will be studied who are no longer suitors or bridegrooms but husbands. Their life after marriage will be of interest as it involves again the relationship between the man and the woman but this time on a new, post-marriage level.

THE BRIDEGROOM The suitor’s physical test A man who has saved a woman’s life receives her gratitude – she is to become his wife. The hero comes from afar and proves himself - he opposes ogres and supernatural forces, he overwhelms giants and settles down spirits. He is not aiming at marriage but yet he receives the hand of the saved.

The man-saviour is depicted in the tales “Issun Bōshi” (136), “The strong Tarō” (140), “Acolyte’s dream” (156), “The mountain god and the boy” (157), “The magic listening hood”

14 In a patriarchal society the woman goes to the house of the man and correspondingly her house loses working-force, while the house of the man wins one, in hunting societies both parts win, as there is a rich exchange of goods between the houses of the bride and the bridegroom. There exists also the practice of the bride-price in Africa and Asia. This price does not mean “buying” the bride but rather substituting the loss to her family, the practice has existed also in Japan as tradition (to a certain extent the fact that the man should deserve in one way or the other his bride is an abstraction of the bride-price). Another practice is the Dienstheirat where the man is expected to do some work in the house of the bride’s family before taking her to his house (for more see also Seki, I: 169-176).

42 (164), “The three brothers” (173), “The two brothers” (178), “The step-child and the ghosts” (186), and “Beating the monkey-demon” (257). In these tales the main male character saves the life of a girl and as a reward for the deed he receives her hand.

Tale 136 tells about a thumbling who is born in a supernatural way. He faces an oni-monster, which he must overpower to save the daughter of a rich man. Doing that he is granted her hand. The strong hero in tale 140, born in a supernatural way by the dirt of his parents, meets two strong companions. The three manage to liberate a village from the power of an oni-monster. As a reward the villagers give them three wives. In tale 156 the main character first wins magic objects from oni-monsters, with the help of which he manages to bring back to life two already dead princesses. As a reward the fathers agree their daughters to marry the saviour15. In tale 157 the main character undergoes a pile of events to save the lives of two women whom he marries. The main character in tale 164a receives magic objects as a reward for his good heart with the help of which he saves a princess from deadly illness and is given her hand. This happens to the second brother in tale 173 who having heard how to cure a sick rich man’s daughter with the help of an acquired magic object receives her hand. Tale 178b is about two brothers who save from an oni two girls and marry them. The hero in tale 186 manages to beat three spirits and bring back to life the dead daughter of a rich man, marrying her in the end. In tale 257 the hero manages on his own to kill an evil monkey and save a girl’s life. He is given her hand. In the above examples it is not the initial aim of the hero to win a bride; it is just the reward he receives after his heroic deed. Noguchi sees in this a very fixed rule in fairy tales - the “saviour” marries the “saved” (Noguchi, 1991: 87). He is driven by compassion or desire to help the people in need but the highest prize for his selfless courage and help is seen by people to be his marriage. Only two of the characters are born in a supernatural way (136, 140), the rest seem “normal” men, who win or deserve the bride through their courage and physical power. As mentioned, the men in those tales do not aim at marriage – it comes as a natural sequence to their heroic deed. In most of the cases the main character receives or wins beforehand some magic object with the help of which he succeeds in his heroic deed. Therefore an important characteristic of these tales is the supernatural – it could be in the birth of the hero, in the meeting with an advisor or a supernatural donor, in the magic object or in the supernatural adversary. The second feature is that the men are tested in a natural test of heroism – neither the father, nor the bride or anyone else tests them, but in some other way their kindness, courage, wits and strength are demonstrated. Passing this “natural test of heroism” the heroes are given a reward – the permission to marry; or as said earlier, this shows the male characters passing a natural test of being grown-up and suitable for marriage. On the other hand they are heroes, searching an opportunity to prove themselves, not to marry; they are in a sense adventurers and being adventurers there are also strangers. They come from afar to liberate the village or the girl, they are strangers also because they are stronger and cleverer than the rest, who have tried to save the girl but could not succeed. Next, the role of the woman in these tales is to be just a “present”, sharei yome – a bride offered as a prize, but she does not seem to have anything against it and Ranke says that in the sense of the tale’s justice such prize is “understandable” (Ranke, 1979: 713), because in the heroic act of liberation the hero actually proves himself physically. There is no shown hatred or abhorrence on the part of the women, unlike some other examples with animal-, supernatural or other unsuitable suitors. In any case the man deserves the woman; does not win her, but deserves her and this is probably the main reason the marriage to be successful and happy. Seki sees only two ways to decide for a marriage – to take the decision alone or the decision to be taken by someone else (parents). As we shall see later too, in the case of parents deciding on marriage, it ends with a

15 In this tale we meet a very interesting phenomenon – in the end of the tale the main character marries two women, living half of the month with one of them and the rest of the month with the other. This tale is not the only exception in the collection and is believed to reflect social practices.

43 separation and later in many cases follows a second independent marriage. Even if the decision is taken by one of the partners, if it is one-sided (animal-brides and animal-bridegrooms tales) the marriage ends with a separation (Seki, I: 164-169). Yet in the above examples a new possibility is shaping up – the marriage after a heroic deed of the main character when he is granted the hand of the saved girl as a present is one-sided, but happy and this new possibility forms a transitional space between Seki’s two groups. On the whole a man is considered a suitable husband in folktales when he can fulfill physical tests like watering the fields, digging the land, cutting a forest, etc. Such tests prove in physical way his economic suitability, but mostly the way of proving his physical abilities is to make him do a heroic deed – to defeat an ogre, to kill a monster, or save the life of a sick girl. The bride is playing the role of a human sacrifice and the presence of supernatural forces, deities and gods is strong. For the woman this type of tales represents initiation, the man could be seen as a dragon-slayer. The tests in this cycle usually reflect the agricultural society and very often the man is representing a hunting or other previous social order, so he is asked to develop and rise to the level of the agricultural society (see also Seki, I: 183-191).

The suitor’s intellectual test The man should prove himself. He is tested and questioned. He may rely on his wits or ask for some help but he should deserve his future wife. His persistence, cleverness, inventiveness and deep love mean more than his actual deeds. The next type of activity shown by male characters on their path to marriage is the intellectual activity, or the work of their mind, their inventiveness, cleverness and wisdom. The first examples are the tales “A three-binding story” (132) and “Yamada Shirataki” (133).

In tale 132 a father asks three suitors to answer a “three-binding” riddle. The youngest of three brothers succeeds and marries the daughter of the rich man. In tale 133 a rich man overhears the wishes of his three servants. The third one wishes himself the daughter of the master whom he marries after successfully finishing her poem. In both cases, the suitor is tested by the father of the bride and is decided from among three candidates, the one with the best answer to the riddle wins. In a fair “intellectual” competition with the other suitors the main character shows his intellectual superiority and is chosen by the father of the bride. The fact that the father poses the riddles and decides on the future marriage reflects realistic patriarchal relationship according to Roehrich (Roehrich, 1981: 1036). In the next few tales the suitor is tested again intellectually but he manages to pass the test only with some help from outside, which nevertheless secures him a happy marriage. Such are the tales “The turnip-chōja” (121), “Harima Itonaga” (129) and “The riddle bridegroom” (130).

In 121 a young man asks an old man how to marry a certain girl. The old man teaches him how to trick her family and the young man marries happily. Later he faces oni-ogres, wins a magic mallet and makes his family prosperous. In tale 129 a girl poses a riddle to the main male character, which he should guess in order to find the village, the house and the name of the woman. To solve it, he receives help from two priests and an old woman before he marries the girl successfully. In tale 130 a rich young man sees in a dream a deity who gives him a riddle to find a beautiful wife. Before the successful marriage the man is helped with advice by his friend and an old woman. After love-sickness the girl recognises him as the one to be married. Here not only the help from outside makes the stories different but also the initiator of the riddle – not the father but the girl herself or a deity. In both cases the suitor needs help to solve the riddle but the plot as if does not really care about the way in which he solves the test. On the contrary, his persistence to find and marry the young woman with whom he is in love is

44 made thus stand out. In the tales “Bee’s help” (127) and “The girl’s advice” (128) the suitor is posed riddles or tests and as he cannot solve them alone he is helped by, as seen from the titles, a grateful bee or by the advice of the bride. And although he does not directly “deserve” the bride, he marries happily. The fulfillment of the task by someone else in fact is absolutely equal to the examples where the hero alone fulfills the tasks (Horn, 1983: 103). Even if the suitor does not show physical strength or great intellectual capabilities, he shows great persistence, desire, will. The strength of the intentions here is commensurable with the strength of the mind and that of the body in other tales and this is why the hero succeeds. Another possible intellectual realisation of the main characters could be seen in tales like “The gambler bridegroom” (125) and “Pigeon lantern” (126).

In 126 a lazy young man plays a trick on a rich man by disguising himself as a deity who advises the rich man to give the hand of his daughter to that same lazy boy and the father does so. The young family prospers. In the same situation in tale 125 the father pays out a considerable sum of money to the lazy suitor for not marrying his daughter. In these tales the male characters are lazy, but clever and manage to outwit the rich man next door. In such tales the main character resembles the trickster (Horn, 1983: 60), but the prosperity of the new family in 126 proves that by the narrative laws the behaviour of the suitor is justified and even encouraged - he shows outstanding intellectual capabilities and wins alone what he desires. Besides, the quite ambivalent Japanese attitude toward laziness is very visible here - in the Japanese understanding laziness is not a shame, very often lazy heroes succeed either because of their wits or because they “hear the nature” better than the always busy people (Kawai, 1977: 108). On the whole the intellectual testing of the suitor is only one of four possibilities and has the same function as the fulfillment of physical tasks (Horn, 1983: 59). The test which the suitor must pass tries out his wits, his intellectual suitability for the woman concerned. Most often this is done through riddles - Roehrich considers riddles as a way of testing the suitors in earlier societies (Roehrich, 1998: 225-227). Kawai sees here a very old psychological phenomenon: the woman is like a riddle to the man, the man is like a riddle to the woman and thus riddles in tales could be given a symbolic interpretation as well (Kawai, 1977: 240).

The suitor’s emotional test A man is in love. And when a man is in love with a woman his feeling reaches extremes. His love is as strong as power, wits and magic apart or together, his love is the one to make him succeed. Another way of becoming a bridegroom is by great emotional activity - the intensity of feelings and emotions secure the main character a happy marriage with the beloved. The examples are “The snake bridegroom” (101b), “The skin that made one old” (209) and “The girl with the wooden bowl” (210). The three of them are very similar in plot composition:

A disguised beautiful young woman (as an old woman in 101 and 209 or with a bowl on her head in 210) finds employment in a rich man’s house, attracts the attention of the young master who falls in love with her and gets ill because he sees her true face (101b, 209) or hears her singing (210). All women residing in the house are summoned and the minute the young man recognises his object of affection, he recovers from sickness and they marry happily in the end. If we consider the state of being ill an active state, then we can also consider the male characters here very active, especially if we examine the high intensity of their feelings leading

45 to love-sickness. The strength of the love-feeling makes them totally imprisoned and unable to react, which is represented by the illness itself. One could see the characters in these stories completely passive, but on an emotional scale these characters carry the highest charge of activity. From psychological point of view emotions and feelings in fairy tales are best expressed through this impossible "love-illness" – an invented phenomenon showing the intensity of male feelings and his emotional activity16. On the surface the main character is not posed a test but nevertheless is expected to deserve his bride - this time not through intellectual power or physical activity but with his deepest feelings. Nelly Naumann also notices that in Japanese fairy tales love plays an important role and is one of the most exploited probations of the suitor (Naumann, 1998: 309), while Seki defends the statement that “The main theme in fairy tales is marriage. […] But folktales are no love-stories; they simply reveal the achievement of happiness through the marriage of the main character” (Seki I, 10-11). And if in Europe Love disenchants, in the Japanese case love surely is able to enchant by making one love-sick, but this “enchantment” is only a step towards the happy marriage.

The greater role of the woman A lost soul is the lonely man. His solitude is sad and poor, but if a woman crosses the threshold of his home and he accepts her as a wife, his life will change forever. He will then know what happiness and treasure are and he will then enjoy the wealth of which he has been so far unaware.

In the next seven tales which are said to be the most typical for Japan (Itō, 1989: 20) we shall see of what importance to the man his wife can be, how the wealth begins with the first step of the woman inside the house but not earlier. In the next few tales the male characters do not really act, they “watch” what happens to them, what the woman makes out of their life. First “The charcoal burning chōja” (149a, b), “The crippled chōja” (150), “The prophecy of the deities” (151a, b) and “The potato chōja” (153) will be studied.

The poorest man in Japan is asked by a beautiful and often rich woman to marry her. After the union the woman finds inside or around his house treasures (gold in 149 and 153, and a spring of sake in 150 and 151), of which the man was unaware. The family becomes one of the richest in Japan. The climax of the whole story is that all through the years the man has used or known the objects but never realised that they are treasures. On one hand the man lives in a very distant and isolated place – so it is not impossible that he has never got to know really the value of such treasures; on the other hand one could poetically say that it is the woman who makes the man rich. Besides two of the stories tell the fortune of the ex-husbands of those rich women - they both gradually get poorer and in the end ask for a servant’s job in the house of their ex-wife (149, 151). So this double emphasise on the importance of the woman for the man’s wealth makes it more than clear that the role of the woman in these stories is leading while the man is given only the passive role of an observer. Special attention in all these stories deserves the central motif of the charcoal burner tale - the re-marriage. It is a tale of re-marriage, not of first marriage, moreover a re-marriage

16 It deserves also attention that men get more often love-sick than women. In fact only one tale in the whole collection speaks of love-sickness caused to a rich-man’s daughter (in tale 130 “The riddle-bridegroom”).

46 between different partners17 and this second marriage is predestined, connected to prophecy, as Itō (Itō, 1989: 26-30) and Tanaka (Tanaka, 1995: 80) state. The prophecy, the sign of the gods and deities, the dream in which they appear, initiate the flow of the plot. The women are rich, clever and beautiful; the two partners are absolute antipodes yet they marry happily. Is it wealth or is it the prophecy and the intervention of gods which could be found behind their decision? Bottigheimer, studying similar tales in Europe, comes to the conclusion that in beauty-and-the beast cycle money do play an important role, as money is “the hinge on which the rest of the tale proceeds” (Bottigheimer, 1989: 84). Secondly it could be explained by a felt duty towards gods and deities or because of the known future wealth, which expects the women at those poor dwellings, which again proves Bottigheimer’s suggestion about money. The activity of the woman is striking – she is the one to ask for marriage in the six tales. In the most cases the man reacts at first with a disagreement, showing his complete awareness of his low status, but in the end he allows the woman to stay showing his total dependence on the woman – it is her to found the family; his wealth is revealed just after her coming to him; just after her appearance the man finds his happiness and well-being. Such activity on the part of the woman makes Kawai exclaim: “The Japanese woman in fairy tales is a woman of the future” (Kawai, 1982: 173), she is more independent, more courageous to build her own life and to fight for her happiness. Second marriage for a woman appears also in these stories as a sign of good luck (149b, 151a) in contrast to second marriage for the man. Men obviously are more often destined to unlucky life, poverty and misfortune than women. The tales studied above have no correspondence with a bringing good luck man to a bad-destined woman.

* * * On the whole as we have seen, the man has to deserve his wife, showing physical, intellectual or emotional activity or he has to be blessed by deities to marry a lucky wife. Alone or with friends, in fair competition with other suitors or helped to win, “actively” ill or passively watching, with supernatural power or using his wits, the man definitely deserves the woman. The bridegroom rarely gets into severe conflict with the bride’s father, although it is the father who tests him. In Japanese tales as we have seen there are no fiendish fathers either, on the contrary, the father is more often on the side of the bridegroom than on his daughter’s side. The brides do not play against the bridegrooms, they may pose riddles, but they are not hostile. The suitor often is a stranger, or coming from far lands, thus satisfying the condition to be outside the family in a society of exogamy. In most cases the marriage is between socially equal partners and the romantic vision of a pauper marrying a prince or a princess stays outside the Japanese narrative complex, the only exception we have seen in the last studied group where the supernatural is the decisive force of the plot.

17 Kawai notes that in European tales when a remarriage occurs it is usually between the same partners who have been separated by some reason and reunite in the end of the tale. The Japanese tale speaks definitely of a second marriage with different partners (Kawai, 1977: 267).

47 THE NON-HUMAN PARTNER The partner of the non-human bride A man is given a chance to be loved in magic - the most beautiful woman, divine and almighty, enters his house and gives him all he may ask for – love, children, affection and wonder. He has deserved her blessing, no doubt, but once she is near him, he can’t keep her forever by his side. One could say that the following tales could be considered as very typical Japanese fairy tales18, and undoubtedly, the most studied. Especially interesting is the end of these tales – the separation of partners, the interpretation of which fascinates many scholars. Ozawa calls such an end “die melancholische Stimmung des Abschiedsnehmen”19(Ozawa, 1993: 489). The character of the male partner to a non-human woman is revealed in few main directions – the man breaking a taboo, the husband of a sky-nymph, the man and the fox-wife as well as some other episodic relations represented in nineteen tales in the collection. First we shall examine the man breaking a taboo type revealed in the tales “The snake-wife” (110), “The frog-wife” (111), “The clam-wife” (112), “The fish-wife” (113a), “The Sea-princess” (116) and “The crane-wife” (115), the last being also one of the most popular and beloved Japanese fairy tales with a link to some mythological motifs in “Kojiki” and “Nihon Shoki”.

In tale 110 a bachelor welcomes in his home a beautiful woman who wishes to become his wife. She asks him not to look at her while she is giving birth, which promise he violates. He sees she is a snake and she leaves forever. She gives one of her eye-balls to take care of the child, which ball is lost, then she gives her second eye-ball which brings prosperity to the family, but envious neighbours steal it. Furious, the snake destroys the whole village. In tale 114 a flower-dealer throws all unsold flowers in the sea as a present to the sea-princess. Following the advice of a turtle he is given the sea-princess to become his wife. The family prospers quickly on earth. The local king sets tasks to the husband in order to take away his divine wife, but the wife completes the tasks successfully. In the end the princess gets angry with the intentions of the king and destroys his entire kingdom. She goes back to the sea. Just like in the last group of previously studied characters, the woman comes to the man and she initiates the marriage, saying in explanation that despite her beauty she wants to marry him because he is a kind person and has a good heart, and she feels pity and wants to make him happy. Then comes the taboo-breaking - the man has some doubts about his wife and he secretly watches her birth-giving. The wife leaves after her true origin is discovered; even the presence of her children cannot stop her from going back to her realm. Destroying a whole village in the end proves her power over it and links the image of the snake-wife to the water-deity, in tale 114 we can directly meet this water-deity, or the sea-princess herself. The man is typically passive, but the woman is very active and powerful, so one can see a tendency shaping up – the weaker the male character, the stronger the female and v.v. For the man the tale ends no different from the state it has started.

In tale 111 a man saves a frog from a snake. A beautiful woman comes to the man, later they marry. One day the man follows secretly his wife to a swamp. He throws a stone in the middle of the swamp and goes back home. The wife comes back, accuses the man of being naughty and disrespectful to her frog-relatives and as a punishment he is asked to give presents to the frog’s parents, otherwise his rice-field will remain forever dry. In tale 112 a man saves a clam (or fish). A beautiful wife wishes to live together with him. She cooks outstandingly. One day taught by his envious neighbours he watches his wife cooking and sees her pissing in the soup. He is furious and drives her away from home. After her departure his house declines. Tale 113a tells how a man helps new-born turtles to find their way to the sea. Repaying his kindness their mother takes him to the sea-bottom. He receives there a beautiful wife, from whom he has three children. The family prospers. One day the man sees her bathing as a fish. This revelation makes

18 Similar stories exist also in European tradition (KHM 85, KHM 92, KHM 113, KHM 127), but the plot structure as well as the main theme are very different. 19 “The melancholic spirit of the farewell”.

48 the fish-wife leave together with the youngest child, but she leaves a box which should never be opened. The husband opens the box and in the same instant he turns into the same old poor man he has been once. The two other children playing on the beach find a treasure – the instant their father tries to take the treasure – it disappears. In these tales the man saves the animal before it comes in the shape of a woman, so the animal comes from gratitude to her saviour or the wife is given as a present for the saved animals. The frog obviously possesses power over the fields and is responsible for watering and rain, which links its image again to the water-deity, in tale 113a the wife is in fact the princess of the sea. The man ends up with nothing more than he has possessed before he met his wife, so using the term of Kawai, the result of this tale for the main male character is the result of “nothingness” (Kawai, 1977: 219). He loses not only his wife but his happiness too by his active behaviour in driving her away; in tale 113 the man violates the taboo twice. The female character reminds the one of the active wife responsible for man’s luck and misfortune.

In tale 115 a bachelor saves the life of a crane, buying the bird with his last coins and setting it free on New Year’s Eve. One evening a beautiful woman comes and wishes to stay as his wife, she starts weaving precious cloths sold at very high price which makes the family quickly prosper. The man wishes to know her parents and then the wife reveals the truth of being a crane, who from gratitude has turned into a woman. In the attempt to fly away having used all her feathers for weaving, the crane falls down on the ground and dies. Toshio Ozawa considers this tale to represent in the best way the concept of nature in the traditionally agricultural Japan (Ozawa, 1996: 631). The bird comes from the nature and goes back there once her true nature has been discovered; the tale as if makes a circle and ends where it has started. This particular version here does not use the motif of breaking a taboo, but there are many other versions which state that the woman forbids the man to enter the room while she is weaving, which promise he violates and the crane leaves, most often dying in the same way. In this version though the crane uses the word “giri” in regard to her human appearance – she speaks of her bound duty to show gratitude towards the saviour taking woman’s shape and weaving valuable materials. The kindness of the man is repaid and then follows the death of the bird after the completed duty. It is possible also that not the taboo-breaking, or the taboo itself, but the violation of a promise is the reason for the separation. On the other hand Kawai takes the motivation of any action in the tales to be the desire to know shiritagaru, which is not simply curiosity, but a leading feature of human development and progress (Kawai, 1977: 53). For Allan Miller such stories represent best the shamanism tradition and the bird symbolism (Miller, 1987: 74). Generally the Europeans find the tale of the Crane-wife unfinished; they expect a continuation of the plot - the man to search for his wife in case she has not died (Ozawa, 1994: 135), but one should consider a definite difference in viewpoints – the crane belongs to nature, so she goes back to where she belongs. Seeking the lost wife is very untypical for Japan; in fact the only exception could be seen in the tale “The sky-nymph”, studied a bit later in this chapter. The last example before we summarise the character is tale 196a. There no wife appears and no marriage or family exists, but the tale is a good example for breaking a taboo and is important for further conclusions.

A man follows a beautiful woman to a forest inn. The woman welcomes the man warmly and asks him to look over the house while she is away shopping. She forbids him to open the last of twelve rooms. He does not keep his promise and finds in each room a representation of the twelve months. In the forbidden one he only hears a bird’s voice and then everything disappears and he is at the same place in the forest but no house around. This tale is examined because of the link between the broken taboo and the disappearance of the initial scene - as the tale starts, so it finishes, bringing nothing good or bad to the character, all that happens between the two poles of “nothingness” shows gratitude or good intentions from animals, which bring some luck to the lonely bachelors, but the human beings having “touched” the beautiful lose it again (also Katō, 1998: 64). The essence of the

49 taboos is usually a visual one - miru-na – not to see the face or the body of the partner; and according to Seki (Seki, I: 96-97) it has mythological origin – not to see the face of God. Seeing means knowing, knowledge is a revelation of the sacred nature corresponding to Adam and Eve and the apple (Kawai, 1977: 83 and Bochkov, 1995: 20-29). Thomas believes that the wife leaves because “love cannot live where there is no trust” (Thomas, 1989: 157); Luethi and Ranke see taboo and beauty as the two typical elements of all tales with a super-natural wife (Ranke, 1979: 707-710 and Luethi, 1987: 38). Typical for the Japanese example is the wife leaving in the end, the wife disappearing forever and the interpretation of this fact has long interested folktale scholars. The taboos are all connected to different female actions like giving birth, breastfeeding, bathing, weaving, cooking, etc. and one could suggest that all these actions reveal without fail the woman’s essence. The divine pair Izanagi and Izanami also separated because of a broken taboo – Izanagi saw Izanami rotting in the Land of Death, according to mythology. Seeing the wife when she does not want it brings final separation of the couple. Then in fact not the taboo is the direct reason for the supernatural being to leave, but the disclosure of its true nature (Katō, 1998: 61-63). Another possible explanation could be offered from other tales of the supernatural – the tales of ghosts-bakemono. Bakemono reveal themselves in their true shape only after death, while they are alive they exist in another shape (Ozawa, 1998: 17). Spider, badger or crab could appear in the shape of a monster or ghost and only after it is killed, it assumes its original shape of an animal (tales like 261, 266, 269, etc.). Making the parallel between the two types of tales one could suggest that revealing the true shape of the animal-wife is literally meaning death, so she is bound to leave as she has died already for the plot. She belongs simultaneously to both worlds, unlike human beings who cannot belong to animal realms and although the two worlds come in touch with one another they cannot long co-exist. There is also the possibility this woman to be an unrecognized kami who wants to be celebrated as a deity, so she reveals herself as such to the human being, supported by such elements of divinity like evening, darkness, weaving, water. Transitional character of this type is shown in the tale “The cat-wife” (117).

A very poor man welcomes at home the chased away cat of the rich neighbour. The cat stays with him as he treats her well. The cat prays to gods for a human shape, for she feels herself unable to perform the best gratitude to the poor man in the shape of a cat. Finally she is given the shape of a woman and the new family prospers. In this tale the conflict between the poor and the rich, the good and the evil to animals characters is made to stand out. The good nature of the poor man leads eventually to his becoming rich and happily married. The cat feels herself unable to return the kindness of the poor man, she feels her giri hanging over her - a duty to repay this kindness which she is not capable of performing in animal shape. The man is passive in action but active in heart and it is the wife who brings good luck to the family, yet they acquire wealth with common efforts and after hard work as a family. The woman despite her animal origin can stay forever in the human world – a new element in this category. But this stay is possible only in human shape, after her transformation and this is the only way for animal-bridegrooms to stay in human world too, as we shall see later. The last possible realisation of this sort is revealed in the tale “Picture-wife” (120b). It is much different from the previous ones, where all wives were definitely of animal origin, but it still carries all common elements with them and is seen not only as a transitional type but also as the quintessence of this type.

One day as if from heaven a beautiful woman comes to the poorest man in Japan and becomes his wife. Her portrait accidentally falls in the hands of the local landlord. He sets tasks to the husband, hoping to gain the wife. The wife helps her husband and fulfills the tasks for him. The man is rewarded with money. Bringing him this wealth, the

50 wife leaves him. Passers-by tell the man that the woman was a goddess, who wanted to praise the man for his good heart, honesty and modesty. The man celebrates the goddess in the local shrine. The man here is extremely passive, but the wife turns out to be on the highest level of non-humanity – she is a goddess. The woman is again initiator of the marriage, she is the one to make him rich, and then to carry out the tasks set by the master. She cannot stay forever in human-world, but she does not make it a topic of conversation at all. Just as suggested above, here we see a deity, a goddess which on one hand praises the good-hearted man, on the other – will be praised by him and celebrated as deity after she leaves (for more see also Miura, 1985).

The next group of tales is about the sky-nymph bride tenjin-nyōbō in “The sky-nymph” (118), “The flute player” (119), and “Picture-wife” (120).

In tale 118 a young man finds in the mountains the clothes of a bathing sky-nymph and steals them. He forces the woman to become his wife. They have three children. On the seventh year the nymph finally succeeds in finding out her magic clothes and flies back to the sky, but leaves instructions to her husband how to reach the sky kingdom. Getting there he is tested by the father of the nymph and he succeeds with the help of his wife. For the last task he disregards his wife’s advice and fails, so both partners turn in the stars Altair and Vega. In tale 120a a man steals the clothes of a sky-nymph and marries her. But he is so much in love with her face that he cannot concentrate on his work. So she draws a picture of herself and gives it to him to have it while he’s working. One day the picture falls into the river and the local landlord seeing her face orders her to come to his palace. She gives exact instructions to her husband how to win her back. The husband follows them and they manage to outwit the tonosama and take his place. The first tale is very popular and beloved in Japan, one of the best known Noh-theatre plays “Hagoromo” is based on it and the origin of the tale could be traced back to “Fūdoki”. The man is active all through the tale – he steals the clothes, initiates the undesired marriage, he hides the clothes, so that the nymph can never go back to her realm, he follows the instructions to get to the sky and then to fulfill the tasks, set by the father-in-law. In the same time both stories lack love feelings in the beginning, it is a forced marriage, but obviously the love feeling develops with the time and the wife tries to help her husband pass the tests. In the first case being a sky creature she cannot stay forever on earth and seizes the first opportunity to go back to her realm, but leaving exact instructions for her husband to find her. Therefore she wants him to find her and she wants him to win, so that the family can live on happily together. Luckily the wife in the second tale is allowed to stay forever on earth and enjoy her family happiness with the man who adores her. It is interesting also that the first tale has a very wide distribution in Japan and many versions offer interesting conclusions - the man is praying to gods for a woman and he is advised to steal the clothes, or a very honest and hard-working man is advised in a dream how to get a sky-wife as a reward for his kindness, or a man saves an animal and receives as a gratitude token a good piece of advice how to make a sky-nymph his wife. The three possibilities make the tale belong to different cycles – the grateful animal or the suitor with outside (magic) help, let alone the fact that going to the sky, the man is facing “re-marriage tasks” in order to be accepted as a lawful husband (see also Seki, IV: 74-90). The last example of a male character marrying a sky-nymph is “The flute player” (119).

To a childless couple a boy is born. He is very talented and plays flute amazingly. His flute is heard in the Moon Kingdom and the daughter of the Moon marries the young man. The newly married husband meets his wife’s parents in their realm. On his way back home he feels pity for an imprisoned oni-devil and gives him the received present – strength-giving rice. The oni escapes and kidnaps the wife. After a lot of hardships and with the help of the Moon-king the young family re-unites and lives happily thereafter. Here no involuntary marriage takes place, on the contrary - it is the sky-nymph wishing to marry the flute-player, but later too much activity on man’s part turns crucial again - the man alone initiates the trouble by pitying the oni. The marriage is possible after the man proves himself as husband by saving his kidnapped wife and this tale is another exception which only

51 proves that on certain conditions human beings and divine brides can find family happiness eventually.

The husband of the fox In his collection Keigo Seki unites all tales with fox characters in one separate chapter because although the tales belong to different types and cycles, there is the very special relation between the human beings and the fox characters which matters, there are also very typical elements, distinguishing them from the types of the animal wife and the super-natural wife. First of all “The magic listening-hood” (164b) and “The fox-wife” (116) will be examined. The famous tale of Dōji Maru (164b) is often used in Kabuki-theatre and has its origins back in “Nihon Ryōiki” and “Konjaku Monogatari”.

A man saves a white fox buying her from her torturers with his last money. They marry and have a boy. The son undergoes different adventures - because of his kindness to animals (he saves a turtle) he acquires magic objects which make him rich and famous. In tale 116 a man saves a fox from captivity and later marries a beautiful unknown woman. They have a son who discovers that his mother is a fox and she is bound to leave the human world. When the boy grows up he saves a turtle and is awarded with a magic listening hood. With its help he saves an ill empress and is very highly rewarded. The result of the marriage between a human being and a fox is good to see – the birth of a hero. It is of no importance whether the mother can stay in human world or not, whether the father breaks some taboo or not. The kindness of the man towards the animal is rewarded by the animal in human shape, the disclosure of her animal origin bounds the wife to leave, but on the whole the tale focuses mainly on the activities of the new-born son and his future destiny in acquisition of wealth and fame. His success is the positive result of this “impossible” marriage.

In “The grateful fox” (239) a young man saves the life of a fox. One day he meets her in the shape of a beautiful girl. They marry. As the man once saved her life, the parents of the fox give them as a wedding present a magic gourd giving sake. They open a sake-pub and make good money, but the fox-wife seems not satisfied with her good effect on the husband so she teaches him to sell her as a prostitute in Edo. The man does it unwillingly, without her the sake-pub declines. He goes for her to Edo but he finds her just passed-away. The separation of the two partners in this tale is not due to taboo-breaking or discovery, the death of the fox comes as a result of her attempts to repay the kindness of the man - the man is seen as a master of her life, having saved her once. In a different way, here again the fox wife is destined to leave the human world and she leaves nothing behind her but the mourning husband. For him the tale ends with “nothingness”. To close the presentation of the husband to a fox-wife, let us take another example from the collection - it is the tale “The betrothal of the fox” (285).

A young man is married to a girl and is asked by her to play drums whenever he goes to see her and her servants working in the forest. One day the young husband notices that the instance he stops playing the drum all the people, including his wife turn automatically to foxes. The husband is advised by a priest how to outwit the tricksters. They invite all the relatives of the wife at home, drink them up, lock them and set the house on fire. All the foxes are killed, only one manages to escape and continue the species. In this tale the animal is definitely a trickster; there is no link to the other types of fox-wives studied till now. As if the husband is only an object of use - no descriptions, no action, no thinking. He stands between the fox and the priest, between the trickster and its master, but as an object not as an active human being. So with this tale the image of the fox-wife is enriched further – she is not only a divine wife, she is also a trickster and as such she continues to be the most important partner. In the image of the fox merge all types of wives – divine and animal, negative and positive, beautiful and deceiving, she can stay on earth or be bound to leave

52 forever, so one could conclude that the fox-wife is the quintessence of the possibilities about a non-human bride.

* * * The description of the character of the husband to a non-human wife would not be complete without the last example drawing our attention – “The wife who does not eat” (244).

A very stingy bachelor declares that he will marry only on the condition his wife to be non-eating. One day a beautiful woman comes and wishes to become his wife, saying she fulfills the condition. As with the time the rice in the house gets less and less, the man watches secretly his wife to discover that she cooks herself enormous quantities of rice, then the top of her head opens and she throws inside all that. Noticing her husband the wife-ogre takes him in a tub to the forest, but the husband manages to escape. What needs to be noted from this example is the nature of the man - a stingy, unpleasant person, although in some regions of Japan there are versions where the character is considered positive (Satake, 1990: 37). This tale is the only example of a human man marrying a non-human woman in which the union is of so much horror. Bottigheimer notices that there are generally more examples of a woman and a hideous man than of a man and a hideous woman (Bottigheimer, 1989: 79). The impossibility of the long co-existence between the two is obvious but the cannibal nature of the wife is shocking. May be that is why Katō calls such tales “shock-effect-tales”, in which only with the passage of time the danger appears (Katō, 1998: 71-73). To a certain extend there is a taboo-breaking element – the discovery of the true origin of the wife, yet it is not the wife leaving anymore but the wife trying to kill her husband for having discovered her secret (for more see also Ōmori, 1984). The realities drawn in this tale differ enormously from the other ones studied before, but the tale is an exception and as such cannot become a criterion for further conclusions.

* * * On the whole in marriages with a non-human bride the man initiates the separation of the couple by violating a taboo or discovering the true nature of his wife. The wife can stay in human realm in order to repay or reward the man only until her true nature is discovered. The man’s activity brings him usually to a loss and he cannot bring back his wife. Even having children cannot stop the wife from leaving – the rules of her realm are stronger than the rules of maternity. In marriages to a sky-creature the wife can stay in the human world forever; the partnership, having started by force, usually develops into love and attachment, the marriage and coexistence is possible unless the man initiates their separation by his activity. Temporary separation occurs but the man and his wife together make the reunion possible. The highest rank of coexistence is that with a goddess, but it is only for a short time. Generally the marriages to a non-human bride are impossible to last probably because the woman belongs to a different tribe, or species, she is thus an outsider to the human realm and she either needs to transform into a human being or to have divine power to make the marriage last. The more active and strong character the wife is, the weaker becomes that of the man and in these tales we see a strong dependence of the male characters on their female partners.

53 The non-human bridegroom The monster comes in house to take away a wife. His hideous, beastly nature is destined to be crushed - he has no place in human world; he has no place in woman’s heart. A husband who is not a human being will never be successful, unless he changes, becomes a real man, and only then is he the One. Immediately after the study of the non-human wife follows the study of the non-human bridegroom and this is not accidental. If we juxtapose the motifs appearing in both groups we can speak of a certain similarity, despite the obvious differences. First of all we shall see the non-human suitor in “The snake-bridegroom” (101), “The oni-bridegroom” (102), “The monkey-bridegroom” (103), “The grateful frog” (104a), “Stork’s eggs” (105) and “Oni’s child Kozuna” (247a). With the exception of the last one Keigo Seki arranges them all in one group.

An unknown suitor visits secretly every night one of the daughters in a certain house. The mother gets suspicious and they follow the suitor to discover he is a snake. He dies, yet the girl is already pregnant. With some outside help she manages to avert the birth of the snake children (101a). A father is helped by a snake. In return for the favour he promises one of his daughters. The third one agrees and plays a trick on the snake killing the suitor. The story ends with the happy marriage of the daughter to a human (101b). A father asks for a favour a kappa-monster. In return he promises one of his three daughters. The third one agrees, plays a trick on the kappa and makes him serve her family for the rest of his life (101c). A mother promises one of her daughters to an oni for help to cross the river. The youngest agrees and goes away with the oni. He drowns on the way. The story ends with the marriage of the daughter to a human (102). A father promises one of his three daughters to the one who helps him in the fields. It is the monkey. The youngest daughter agrees to marry him, but plays a trick and the monkey kills himself (103). A father in order to save the life of a frog promises one of his three daughters to a snake. The youngest agrees and the saved frog helps the girl to kill the undesired suitor (104a), (105 follows generally the same plot structure as 104a, only the motif of pregnancy additionally appears and is avoided like in tale 101a). In return for some help a father promises one of his daughters to an oni. The youngest agrees and marries the ogre. They have a child, but eventually the woman escapes with the child and goes back home (247a). Six from eight tales finish with the death of the suitor (the exceptions are only tales 101c and 247a). The necessity to kill the suitor comes from the fear of him coming back later, so Ozawa believes the actions of the human beings are justified (Ozawa, 1994: 242-244). The heroines in tales 101a, 104a and 105 receive help from outside to kill the suitor and these are all examples with a bridegroom-snake, in the rest of the examples the young women use their wits to kill or overwhelm the non-human partner. In all these cases the young woman does not murder directly the animal or supernatural suitor, but rather makes him do something which brings death to him. Max Luethi notices the intention to kill the undesired suitor as one of the different and typical features of the Japanese tales in comparison to the European - the youngest daughter makes plans how to kill the non-human bridegroom from the very beginning of the tale (Luethi, 1976: 122). Comparing the Japanese and the French versions of the Scarlet flower, Ozawa also notices the striking difference between the main two heroines - the woman in the French version feels pity towards the beast, wants to save him, while the Japanese girl is thinking of his death (Ozawa, 1994: 45)20. It is possible to think of the animal-bridegroom as of a deity – the help with field work corresponds to the help of the deity of the fields. Ozawa suggests that with the time the rites gradually faded and the oral tradition transformed the motif into a new one (Ozawa, 1994: 34-39). In such tales according to Roehrich not love towards the bridegroom, but love towards the father is the leading motif (Roehrich, 1956: 85-86). The suitor dies because in fact he is only an animal in human form, not real human being, and there is no other alternative for him but death (Roehrich, 1953: 184-185).

20 On the whole there are not many analogues in European tradition of this type of tale; the tale is classified in types AaTh 433A or AaTh 425. Analogues are found on the Korean peninsula, in Eskimo tales and in gypsy tales (Ozawa, 1994: 106).

54 Interesting element in the plot of all these tales is that there is a certain link to water in the most crucial moments of the plot – the inception of the action is at the river side in 102 and 247a, the culmination with the death of the suitor happens in water (101b, 101c and 103). It is only the tales with the snake-bridegroom which on the surface speak of no connection to water, but the image of the serpent is in fact the image of the water deity (see also Yanagida, 1998: 261; Komatsu, 1987: 80-91; Seki, I: 67-71)21. Although this tale is widely distributed in Japan with different versions, the end knows only two possibilities – killing the undesired suitor and getting rid of pregnancy, or birth of a child who later becomes a famous man. The first possibility is closely linked to the seasonal celebrations and local traditions, the second is definitely linked to the myth of the serpent-god, revealed first in “Kojiki”, later in “Fūdoki” and “Nihon Shoki”, and the tales could be added to the group of the Birth of the Hero22. After a thorough analysis Seki comes to the conclusion that the tales of the birth-of-the-hero cycle are original, the ones with the death of the serpent have developed later (Seki, IV: 28-58). Komatsu, studying the above corpus of tales in the light of the structural and functional text analysis comes to the conclusion that the serpent-bridegroom could be substituted by other animals like monkey, kappa, badger, but functionally there will be no change in the plot. The needed help is also optional – watering the field, digging the field, etc. The killer is also optional – could be the girl, could be a grateful frog. What is impossible though in Japanese tales is a man who marries in this way a supernatural wife (Komatsu, 1994: 23-25), which suggests a total dependence on the choice of gender in these tales - gender is relevant even if not as a leading motif. Thomas though thinks that the choice of the serpent for a bridegroom is on purpose and not at random, because he sees in the snake a symbol of the phallus, and thus this type of suitor proves to be very male (Thomas, 1989: 159). Campbell on the other hand suggests that the serpent is directly linked to the rites of passage, where the initiated is symbolically devoured by the snake. For him the serpent (and the dragon) symbolise life-creating energy (Campbell, 1960: 11). The next group of characters in this sense unites the male figures in “The spider-bridegroom” (107), “Oni’s child Kozuna” (247b), “Gambling with oni” (248), and “Pressing fat out” (251).

The husband in tale 107 is a spider. He appears in front of a woman in the forest as a handsome man. The woman gets pregnant. The children born are little spiders who are killed by the fellow villagers. The woman starts to have nightmares and finally dies. In 251 a woman meets a man in the forest; he takes her to his house, feeds her and forbids her to go out. One day though she breaks the taboo and finds a neighbouring house where women hang from the ceiling, their fat dropping down and collected in jars. She tries to escape from the man and goes home successfully. In both cases the woman is unaware of the true nature of the man, the man is supernatural – one is a spider, the other is not defined, but he is definitely not a “normal” human. In both cases the woman is lost deep in the forest getting in touch in this way with the supernatural realm. She is deceived, used and abused by the male figures. Thomas notices that in such cases the only hope for the bride is the death of the man, if he is not killed, the woman would die because he is not enchanted, he is himself and this self is monstrous (Thomas, 1989: 164).

21 There are well-known rites of putting on water a female doll as an offering to the water-deity – symbolical sacrifice of a woman. This could be also interpreted as ikenie-live sacrifice of a young woman to the deities. There is also the belief that the great serpent was originally a girl, maltreated by her step-mother, who left her home and became a human sacrifice hitohashira (Komatsu, 1987: 104). 22 In “Kojiki” there is a story of a secret lover coming at night, the family follow him with a thread and find out he is a child of gods. Children born from such a union become respected ancestors of the whole family (for more see Ozawa, 1994: 90-92).

55 The other two examples in tales 247b and 248 speak of an oni-husband who has kidnapped an already married woman (247b) or a sister (248). The first tale follows closely the actions of the ex-husband to save his wife from the hands of the kidnapper which he manages to do after three years and not without the help of his wife. The second tale is about the kidnapping of a sister. The brother goes to search for her and finally manages to win her back with the help and advice of his sister. In both cases an important element exists – the wealth acquired by the woman and her saviour in the end, killing the kidnapper makes them possess his magic objects and his enormous treasures. In both cases there is a certain period of time in which the woman lives at the house of the kidnapper, the kidnapper definitely wants her as his wife but cannot keep her, for her saviour proves stronger, cleverer and in the end but not less important - very persistent in searching and winning her back. In fact the monsters are opposed to two opponents – the man and the woman acting together in a team. The pseudo-husbands are killed inevitably in the end – this is the only way out of the situation. It is interesting also that in the Japanese tales the abduction of wives is limited, so the action for their salvation is taken away from the hands of their husbands. The mythological transformation of gods in animal shape in order to marry human brides is not the Japanese case either, as the link between the animal suitor and the water deity is suggested but not proved. In most of the cases in Japan the tendency leans towards the hero-saviour, who saves the life of a young woman promised to a demon as a live offering. So it is suggested that the Brautraub, or the Bride-abduction was not a settled tradition in Japan as it was presumably elsewhere (compare Dalgat, 1979: 753-762). Very different in this aspect are the next two tales “The dog-bridegroom” (106) and “The silkworm deity” (108a) with definite Chinese origin.

Tale 106 tells the story of a girl promised to a dog. They marry in due time and the dog turns to be a very good husband. But a man wants the wife and kills the dog. He marries the widow and just after three years he tells her the truth. The wife kills the human husband in response to him murdering the dog. Tale 108a describes the love between a horse and a girl. The father of the girl is against this marriage and kills the horse. The mourning girl is wrapped by the horse skin and they fly together in the skies. The tale explains the beginning of the silk production. In both cases the union turns impossible – the marriage does not succeed, but unlike in the examples above this union is desired by the human bride. In both cases it is another human being who destroys the initial happiness – another suitor or the father of the bride. The tales at first defend the possibility of love between a human wife and an animal-husband but the “failure” of the marriage, although caused by another man, speaks of the impossibility of such long-term connection. Here the animal cannot take human shape – he remains an animal, he is permanently a non-human, which is a very important fact. The woman suffers from the social unacceptance of her marriage to a dog or a horse and Ozawa calls this “the social suffering” of the main characters (Ozawa, 1994: 84). The case is totally different though in the next three examples of the tales “The mud-snail son” (134), “The frog son” (135) and “Issun Bōshi” (136 a, b).

In the three tales after long and persistent prayers a childless couple is granted a child. He is a mud-snail (134), a frog (135) or a thumbing (136 a, b). He falls in love with the daughter of the rich man and after various adventures he is transformed into a handsome young man and marries her. He plays a trick to win her (134), he is love-sick and is swallowed by a fish (135), he beats an oni and is transformed to human with oni’s magic mallet (136). All tales end with a happy marriage. These tales are quite different from the tales studied earlier. Only in tale 134 there are some indications of enchantment of initially human being into a mud-snail, but more often there is no enchantment at all (unlike KHM 1 “Froschkoenig” or KHM 161 “Schneeweisschen und Rosenrot”, for example). There is disenchantment in the sense of transformation, but not in the sense of undoing initial enchantment, which is the case in most European tales where a prince or

56 a young man is enchanted by some evil witch or step-mother into an animal. The fact that in the Japanese tales the animal-partner transforms from himself and is not enchanted could be understood as divine origin of the partner (Ozawa, 1993: 489). This statement is supported also by Yanagida, who considers the supernatural heroes and animal-suitors to be remains of ancient beliefs about marriages between people and gods (Yanagida, 1998: 262). In the three cases the man is active – clever in outwitting the father of the bride and winning her – so intellectually active in 134, emotionally active in his love-sickness in 135 and physically active through his courage and strength in 136. In this way this type of bridegroom is realised in all basic bridegroom forms of activity – intellectual, emotional and physical. The final transformation could be seen in different ways – as a growing up, initiation and readiness to enter the world of married men (see also Propp, 1986); the lack of magic replaced by the presence of nature on the other hand and the interconnection between man and nature is the typical Japanese layer in comparison to Christian influences in Europe, making the Japanese tales resemble more the tales of Naturvoelker (Ozawa, 1994: 106).

* * * To summarize the non-human partner cycle of tales, few conclusions come immediately to mind. The tales revealing the relationship between human beings and animals start with their marriage. There are two basic forms of human-animal marriage – an animal is only temporary in human shape, which marriage ends with separation; or an animal transforms eventually into a human being, which marriage finishes happily. Then there are two possibilities for the partner – a non-human bride and a non-human suitor. The possibilities facing the human partner are very distinct. When he marries a non-human wife she is desired, rarely dies, brings good to the man, but the man alone loses her and his happiness in the end. When the story is about a non-human suitor he is as a rule undesired, often dies, brings misfortune, outside help is needed often to get rid of him. Both types of non-human characters belong to two dimensions simultaneously and their marriage with human beings is generally impossible. In both types of marriages the partner comes from the nature and goes back there in the end of the story, the human being is left with nothing more than s/he possessed before meeting the non-human partner. There is a touch of taboo-breaking, or a secret in both cases and the new family does not last long. The breaking of the taboo on the other hand means that the human beings want to know, to touch, to feel the supernatural (Katō, 1998: 88). Roehrich mentions also that in earlier societies the marriage was connected to many taboos (Roehrich, 1956: 103-105). In any case it is the human being who, with his/her actions, brings the couple to separation. Exactly as Luethi has predicted, the otherworld and ordinary beings “only meet, they do not enter into an intimate relationship. In spite of the encounter they continue to exist side by side” (Luethi, 1986: 19). Ozawa sees in the fairy tales of Japan reflection of general fear from Nature, which fear is mixed with worship and deepest respect, but simultaneously with an attempt to gain control over nature and its beings (Ozawa, 1996: 637). It is quite possible, according to Roehrich, to see the separation or death of the animal partner only as a step toward the humanisation of this partner – the partner dies to be reborn a human being and come back as a human being (Roehrich, 1953: 187-188). Ranke sees in the non-human brides and bridegrooms only two possibilities – that of gods and deities as suitors/wives and that of the co-existence between man and animal (Ranke, 1979: 705). Analysing these tales Seki comes to the conclusion that such marriage in fairy tales is “rebirth and death simultaneously”, and that the separation in the end means that the attempt for rebirth has failed (Seki, I: 107). The impossibility for a long-term marriage between a human

57 and a supernatural being comes from the fact that marriage is possible only between two beings belonging to one world, between members of the same species (Seki, IV: 121-123). In short – for a successful, lasting marriage the man and the woman should be of a suit, otherwise their attempt to live together will fail eventually.

THE HUSBAND One thing is to deserve and marry a woman; another - to be her husband. Again and again the man is to prove his love, his affection, heroism, readiness to save. To make his task more difficult, life has turned him into a father too. In this group we shall examine the relationship between already married partners. Here the suitor- (bridegroom-) role of the man is not any more of importance, neither are the ways which the man has used to marry the woman, what matters is the flow of the events after the marriage. First of all let us take “The step-children and the bird” (216), “The step-children and the flute” (217) and “The step-child and the boiling pot” (219). As the titles reveal, the theme of the tales is the family with a second wife/mother, where the husband has lost his wife and remarries, so his role of a husband overlaps partly with that of a father.

In the three tales the step-mother treats cruelly her step-children. She kills them either because she hates them or because she does not want them to become some kind of rivals to her own children. The husband is away from home when the murder takes place. Coming back home and not finding his children, the father discovers the truth. In two of the three cases he kills his second wife. As we shall see in the chapter of the absent father, there are many examples of this kind – the step-mother killing the step-children during father’s absence. It is interesting that in very few examples the husband takes some contra-action against his second wife – in the most cases he does not react at all, as if his power is less than that of the cruel step-mother. Sadly enough, even in the case of some contra-action on husband’s side represented by punishment of his second wife, the children could not be brought back to life. The only conclusion, shown also in the chapter of the absent father where we shall more closely inspect these tales, is that with the rise of the activity and the power of the second wife, the activity and the power of her husband sinks. Yet in the same time the bigger the cruelty in the murder is, the harsher the punishment on father’s side becomes. As mentioned earlier second marriage does not bring the expected happiness to the man; the conflict which arises between the second wife and the children from the first marriage is always present and brings to misfortune. Of course one should always keep in mind that the tales are interested in the action, in the conflict and as such they ignore the thematic of a happy second marriage where no possible conflicts follow (see also Roehrich, 1981: 1025). The absence of the remarried man away from home is always the only necessary condition for the mishap to follow - it is the crucial point in the destiny of all family members. Conflicts happen not only in families of remarried men. The tales “The tongue-cut sparrow” (191) and “The crab-shell” (193) tell the stories of husbands and wives after long time of happy co-existence.

In both cases the man treats well an animal, the woman mistreats it (she cuts off the tongue of the sparrow in 191 or she kills the crab in 193). In the first tale the man searches his mistreated friend and finds it, the sparrow rewards him with a treasure. The woman tries also to get some reward she does not deserve and follows the steps of her husband but is punished in her greediness. In the second tale the man just finds the remains of the killed animal without any following contra-action on his part. In both stories the man is opposed to his wife, the man is the positive figure, the woman

58 – the negative. No similar stories are noted to tell of reverse roles – of a good woman and her cruel to animals husband, of a positive female character and a negative male one. Here again we can see that negativeness is attached to female characters, not to male, which fact brings a certain balance with the earlier conclusion that a female character is much more often granted good luck and brings good luck to her husband than a male character is. Let us now move on and see two controversial examples of man-woman relationship in family showing equal possibilities. In the tale “Money turns leaves” (274) after a quarrel between a man and his wife, the man is chased away from home by her. The story ends with a reunion and no bad luck. In the tale “The char-coal burning chōja” (149) the man drives away his wife for wasting too much money. This time though his behaviour is proved to be a mistake, as after his wife leaves him, he becomes very poor losing all his previous wealth. Extremely strong in his affection to his wife is the man in the tale “The girl without hands” (208).

A rich man marries a found girl without arms. During his absence she gives birth to their first son. Despite the rewritten by his mother letter lying his son is a beast, he writes back that the child is his and he will accept it as it is, in spite of his look. The grandmother rewrites the letter again and the wife and the child are chased away from home without the knowledge of the father. The husband comes back home and sets on a trip to find his family. It takes him four years and a good deal of help from a priest to get reunited with them again. By miracle the wife has her arms back again and the family lives on happily. This tale is very limited in its distribution around Japan and very similar to the European tale, which suggests the tale has been introduced to Japan and is not genuine. The above three examples are very “exceptional” and do not leave space for much analyses, but they give more details on the general picture of the husband in Japanese fairy tales. Another group of tales includes “The length of one’s life” (152), “Ash-boy” (211), “Oni’s child Kozuna” (247b) and “The younger sister is oni” (249). Leading theme in all of them is the wife saving the life of her husband.

In tale 152 the husband leaves his wife in order to see his parents but he dies on his way. The woman goes to the Kingdom of Death to search for him and saves him from there. Tale 211 starts with the marriage of the man and the woman. Years later the husband once goes home to see his parents and despite of the advice of his wife not to eat mulberries on his way, he eats them and dies. The wife searches for the water of life and manages to bring her husband back to life. Tale 249 is the story of a brother driven away from home because he said his sister is an oni. He marries far away and as he goes home to see his parents one day, his sister, being really an oni, tries to kill him. His wife feeling the disaster hanging over her husband manages to save him by sending a tiger to kill the oni-sister. In the three cases the man is active, but at a certain point of the plot he is in need of help. The activity automatically switches to his wife – if she does not help her husband, he is irreversibly dead. The husband does not ask for help, the woman knows she must act if she wants her husband back to her. * * * There is one more group of tales (102, 114, 120, 122, 205, 206, 215) which could be studied in this chapter – tales about tonosama as partner. But the character of the man as a partner (suitor, husband) to a woman when he is tonosama, a local landlord, a king or a master with other words, carries specific functions defined by his social status and this is why we shall spare this character for later, when we shall examine the male character of the tonosama in Chapter 3.2.3.

59 3.1.2. THE BROTHER The figure of the brother is one of the most strictly outlined ones in the collection and only five possible types of characters are depicted, varying neither in the tales, nor in their versions: the two positive brothers, the two brothers – positive and negative, the three equal brothers, the three brothers – two fail, one wins type, winning a contest type and the brother to a sister. On the whole there are twenty seven tales where the above mentioned characters act which makes about a seventh of all the tales in the collection. In his study “Genealogy and development of the myth about the eight-headed dragon” Seki compares brother-tales with similar tales from East and South-East Asia and reviews once again the work of Ranke “Die zwei Brueder” (Seki, IV: 149-199). Seki divides the tales in two main groups – with a woman in the centre, around whose destiny the plot develops; and with a man who performing a heroic deed kills a monster. When the man is in the centre of the plot, one possibility is his marriage and then he is either opposing to his brothers or together with them he kills the monster. In another group of tales the relationship between the brothers is in the centre – they save each other’s life and/or one brings back to life his dead brother(s). In all these tales parallel to the marriage motif and the fraternal relationship motif, there is also a very strong presence of motifs of initiation and suitor’s (hero’s) tests. In detail these observations made by Seki do reflect the present classification because we shall see how the main theme and the development of the plot is in interdependence with the choice of the main characters. Special attention in the present study is paid to the relations brother-brother, brother-sister, brother-brothers, developed in situations of marriage, inheritance, competition, help, salvation, enmity, and revenge.

THE TWO POSITIVE BROTHERS The brothers need each other and they complete each other. They exist in one dimension, though not with the same role. They make together an inseparable whole. The male characters of this type are given in the two variants of the tale “The two brothers” (178a and 178b):

Two brothers leave home involuntarily (driven away by the step-mother in 178a or by the father accusing them of laziness in 178b). In the first tale each of them takes an arrow, which shows when the other one is dead. The younger brother works for ten years as a guard in a certain place but when he leaves he is paid only with an old but magic whip which kills simply by pointing at the nose of the enemy. On his way the younger brother unexpectedly kills an oni-monster and takes his magic life-whip. He sees his brother’s arrow broken in two. The younger goes to the funeral of his brother and revives him. Both get married to the daughters of the West and the East kings. The second tale starts with a present from the teacher of the boys – a bow and an arrow. The brothers walk into a village where a single crying girl is seen who is to be devoured by a monster. The two brothers decide to help, the younger gives the idea how to kill the monster and they kill it. The elder gets married to the girl and stays in this village. The younger goes on to walk into another village and save in a similar way another girl, whom he marries. In the first tale the younger brother is the saviour, the elder is hardly seen active on the scene. In the second the younger does not save his brother’s life, but gives him quite a present – being the initiator of the heroic deed he does not marry the girl but continues his way. According to Confucianism which has great influence as philosophic and ethic movement in Japan between the 6th and the 9th and since the 17th century, filial piety and respect towards the elder in any sense is a leading principle, which is well reflected in this tale as well. The younger brother is more active, he is stronger and cleverer, but both of them obviously have very good relations, no contest stands between them, no bad feelings, no envy. Another such example is the tale “How the two brothers reconciled” (182):

60 Two brothers do not go along very well. The younger goes hunting and hits something very big which he believes is a man. He runs to his best friend to ask for help to cover the crime but his best friend refuses to help. The desperate “criminal” goes to his elder brother and asks for help though they have not spoken to each other long time. The elder accompanies his brother to the forest where they find a dead wild boar. They happily admit the mistake and reconcile. Here the plot starts with bad relations between brothers to end with their reconciliation. Taking for granted the morals of this tale, where the importance of good brother-relationship is clearly stated, it is possible that exactly because of the self-evidence, the “normality” of such type of relations, they are not extensively represented in the collection. As we shall see in the next chapters strong family relations appear again in the type of three equal brothers, while extreme conflicts between a positive and a negative brother are actually conflicts on economic ground not intra-family ones and are not typical to represent the relationship between brothers in Japanese folk narrative.

THE TWO OPPOSITE BROTHERS The one is good, the other – evil; the one is rich, the other – poor; the one succeeds, the other fails; the one deserves to die, the other – to be happy. Four tales reveal the figure of the brother in this realisation – “The salt-grinding mill” (167), “The straw-snake” (181), “The guest at New Year’s Eve” (199a) and “The letter of the swamp-deity” (225).

In tale 181 the story is about two brothers who gather cinnabar to make their living. The younger makes a straw snake in order to scare the elder and to have the cinnabar all for himself. The elder sees the straw snake, takes it for real and escapes. The younger is very satisfied that he would make good money but one day that same straw snake becomes alive, scares the younger brother who falls from the rocks and kills himself. The other three stories develop with a similar plot structure: the poor brother is the younger (167, 199a) or the elder (225). The poor gets in a certain way a magic object (a salt-grinding mill in 167, an all-giving box in 199a or a gold-giving horse in 225), the rich steals it away (167, 225) or takes it by force (199a) and misuses it. Tales 167 and 199a end with the death of the elder brother, tale 225 – with the escape of the magic horse. In tale 199a the younger acquires again in a magic way some wealth, the elder tries to kill the younger, who manages to escape by letting another man in the sack to replace him, then lies to the elder, who in his greediness follows the advice and kills himself. What these tales describe is the opposition of two brothers - one is a positive character, a poor man, usually; the other – negative and rich. Their conflict begins on the base of something which the poor one possesses and the richer takes from him; the end is usually happy for the poor and lethal to the rich. The pattern corresponds much to that of the rich and the poor type, but the stories distinctly use the characters of the brothers (see also Inada, 1985). The story in 181 is the only one which speaks of no poor-rich conflict directly, but it is not difficult to see that this conflict lingers throughout the plot. Tale 199a is a mixture of different motifs, but the interesting fact here is that actually the positive poor younger brother turns in the end into a double-killer and is still justified. Here rises the question of the difference between crimes. Obviously the crime has different dimensions - if the crime is initial, primal, original, then it deserves punishment, but if it is a crime performed as an answer to another crime, then it is justified. Ozawa notices that when there is cruelty towards the main character this is cruelty which makes us feel sorry for the hero, but when the main character acts cruelly towards other character it is a cruelty that makes sense and is “a good cruelty” (Ozawa, 1975: 21). Kerbelyte also notes that: “… the trickeries and even cruel actions of the ‘positive’ heroes are justified as they occur in a dangerous situation of dependence upon the antipode or saving one’s life. They are also justified when the heroes feel danger awaiting them…” (Kerbelyte, 1996: 737). This tale shows very distinct differentiation between crimes – the one is punished, the other is justified. Similar many-sidedness appears

61 not only here, as we shall see later, so it deserves our attention. Another interesting fact in these three stories is the time or the occasion on which the events take place. Two of them (167 and 199a) happen on New Year’s Eve, tale 225 – on a pilgrimage to the famous Ise Shrine. In the three tales a magic donor exists – an old man giving advice (167), a stranger treated in different ways (199a) and a swamp-deity presenting the horse after the clever interference of a rokubu-priest. These few elements speak much more of the rich-poor tale cycle than of brother-tales. To this conclusion comes also Jason, studying the reward and punishment tale, and says that the conflict in such tales is not an intra-family conflict, but a conflict between the rich and the poor (Jason, 1988: 140). Then, the positive and the negative roles are equally divided – the younger could be positive (167 and 199a) or negative (181 and 225), respectively the elder is good (181 and 225) or bad (167 and 199a), which shows irrelevance of younger-elder relationship. Further, brother- as well as neighbour-tales often use the same schema of the plot, like the tales about the priest and his acolyte, notices Satake (Satake, 1990: 94). As we shall see in the corresponding chapter, the relationship between oshō and kozō are in fact the same as between the rich and the poor, the master and the slave. Inada also sees a definite link between neighbour-type tales and brothers-contest type tales (Inada, 1976: 148). With other words, theories drawn on the idea of complementation of the two or the dual identity are hardly applicable - the conflict is socio-economical, not family, let alone intrapersonal. This is why the roles vary - each of the brothers could be replaced. In fact, the frequent death of the negative character can give place for speculations about inner fighting and victory of one’s good side, but it seems not the case given the fact how similar these tales are to the social conflicts of poor and rich, where there is no duality of the individual.

THE THREE EQUAL BROTHERS No matter where they are and what they do, they are a family. They have chosen different paths, they have become different people since they last saw each other, but no matter how changed they are still and most of all bothers. The term “positive” though expected is not used in the title above because it is very difficult to be so unconditional with the next two stories. Let us first see the tales “The three brothers” (173) and “The bandit’s younger brother” (183).

Tale 173 tells about three brothers, who leave home to search for their happiness. The first brother, after losing all of his money frivolously in a swamp, finds a magic wand and becomes a famous robber. The second brother finds a magic mortar with the help of which he heals an ill rich man’s daughter whom he marries. The third brother kills an enormous snake by chance but the passing-by local landlord praises him highly and makes him a samurai to bring justice among people. Some twenty years later the first brother is taken to court for trying to steal from the second brother and the third is asked to judge the guilty. They recognise each other and clear out that the first was trying to steal a present for the father. The father also comes and the tale ends happily with a reunion. In tale 183 after the death of their parents two brothers and a sister separate. One day the younger brother decides to go back home but on his way he stays at an inn where the inn-hostess tries to get him drunk. A thief is planning to rob him but the younger escapes. Lost in the forest he finally finds himself in the dwelling of the thief. He gives him all his money and receives an old sword in return. Later he sells the sword at a price higher than he left to the thief, so he returns to give him back some change. After a conversation between the two they clear out they are brothers and go back to the inn for the woman there is their sister. Both stories end up happily with a reunion after a long period of separation. The lives of the brothers are not all worth of high appraisal, yet the stories justify the characters, bringing to the attention the good relations, the long-desired reunion and the happiness in family.

62 One may say that these two stories are best examples for family relations - disregarding even the social morals, the tales promote the idea of the family above all individual features of the characters. These, of course, are not the only examples of the “negative” being justified, but they are very emblematic even compared with the others. Family reunion is put above the social norms; no doubt, the “crime” of the thieves is not so heavy and we speak here only of petty theft, but nevertheless here theft, or crime is neglected for the sake of the “family” in such stories.

THE THREE BROTHERS – TWO FAIL, ONE WINS Among three brothers one is always the hero of the family. He is the youngest, whom nobody considers capable of heroic deeds. He is strong and decisive, he is clever and courageous. This character type is well developed in seven tales and the motif is used in four more. First we shall see the stories “Hold fast or stick fast?” (163a), “Going for wild pears” (176) and “The three brothers and the ghost” (177).

Tales 176 and 177 are about three brothers who meet an ogre (they meet it in order to save their mother from illness in 176 or they go to kill it on purpose in 177). In both cases the first two brothers do not listen to the advice of a stranger and are swallowed by the ogre. The youngest listens, kills the ogre and saves his brothers’ lives (176) or at least collects their bones (177). The hero is rewarded by the local landlord (177) or the mother gets healthy again (176). Tale 177 corresponds to a more general level, making the heroic deed of the youngest brother go outside the family circle into the society – the significance of his deed is rewarded significantly, the death of the two elder brothers is irreversible. Tale 176 remains inside the family layer – the deed of the youngest brings only the recovery of the mother and the revival of the elder two brothers. This tendency to separate two possibilities for the hero in brother-tales – his actions pointing only at his promotion inside the family layer or his actions being useful for the whole tribe are studied also by Kerbelyte (for more see Kerbelyte, 1996). On the other hand, the difference between the actions of the youngest brother and the failing two other brothers is mainly in listening to the advisor on the way to the ogre. The youngest hears what he is said and follows the advice, while the other two neglect the advice. Campbell would say that those two have not responded to “the call”, which only the chosen, the hero hears (Campbell, 1960: 73), and this is similar to the ideas of Horn who says that the elder brothers are in fact not grown-up enough and that is why they lose (Horn, 1983: 20). So, what makes the youngest succeed is again his being predestined to success as hero. Thomas says: “…The youngest is a positive ascription, for it indicates that one is the recipient of all previous history’s and civilisation’s attainments” (Thomas, 1989: 112). But is he really a hero? To this question let us search for an answer in tale 163a.

The elder two brothers get scared in the forest one after the other. The youngest goes but instead of being afraid from the fearful voice, he takes the creature on his back and goes back home to discover it is not a monster but a great treasure. It is a test in courage in which only the youngest succeeds and is rewarded with wealth. The little brother is considered by Luethi as the isolated and this makes him a hero, while his brothers are seen as anti-heroes (Unhelden) or pseudo-heroes (Luethi, 1986: 41). In such tales it is always the youngest as if the most unprepared who is though able to cope with the complicated situation. It should be noted here also that in tales of three sisters a common pattern is used. The first two sisters refuse to marry an ogre, but the third one agrees and actually wins in a way. It is a

63 kind of heroic deed too (outwitting an ogre, self-sacrifice, risk, victory – like in tales 101a, b, c, 102, 103, 247a), though more often the happy end is achieved through cleverness, not strength unlike in brother-tales and the effect does not leave the circle of family and personal happiness.

WINNING A CONTEST It is the eldest of three brothers who may possess no real virtues, but manages to prove himself before the others, to win, to beat the others when it comes to the inheritance of father’s estate and wealth. Yet when it comes to marriage it is not him, but the youngest who succeeds. He is cleverer and more talented, more pure-hearted, good in riddles and poetry - marriage is his domain of success. The figure of the brother is developed also in tales about three brothers who are tested in order to be chosen either for a husband or for an heir. Such are the tales “A three-binding story” (132), “The three brothers and the treasure” (174) and “Stupid but first born” (175). They all tell how one of three brothers succeeds in a test and becomes the heir of father’s estate (174 and 175) or the husband (132). In tale 132 by answering a riddle, the youngest of three brothers is chosen for a husband to a rich man’s daughter. Cleverness and talent are the criteria for the choice, just like in the already studied tales 123, 127, 128 and 133. In all cases – be it brothers, friends or simple candidates – the first two try but fail, the third one succeeds. For the success of the youngest there are different possible explanations – epic laws, when the most important comes in the last place; the possibility of social injustice corrected; a tool for making impressive contrast; development of the sub-conscious; and others. But let us see the inheritance-type before drawing any final conclusion.

In tale 174 three brothers are sent by their father to learn some craft, come back and show their skills. The second becomes a carpenter and his father is very pleased with him. The third brother learns the art of trade, which pleases also the father. But then the first son comes from a long journey on which he has lost all of his money. The last coins in his pocket he has given for the renovation of four temples. As a token of gratitude the gods present him with four magic objects23. Coming back home the eldest son makes a great feast on which he demonstrates the magic tools. The father chooses the eldest son to inherit him. In 175 a father tests his sons to choose an heir among them. He sets a task with horses, won eventually by the first good-for-nothing son with his shuffling weak horse. Dissatisfied with this result the father thinks of another test. He asks his children to make the boldest wishes they can think of. The second wishes much food and money. The third – so many servants that for a month to eat the food wished by the second brother. At last speaks the first brother who wishes himself three ox testicles to plug up the mouths of his brothers and his father. In the first tale the two younger brothers are good by nature, they have all necessary merits to inherit father's estate, but the one with the questionable merits is the one to receive it. Nelly Naumann also notes that in Japanese tales it is the eldest son who is the Dummling, not the youngest as in Europe (Naumann, 1998: 311). The distribution of the second tale is rather limited - it appears rarely and only in two prefectures – Niigata and Aomori, so it could be considered as an exception, but nevertheless eldest sons are given credit in inheritance in the Japanese folklore. Here comes the question what real merit the eldest son shows to be chosen as an heir. In the first tale he loses all his money but with the last few coins wins his fortune and this fortune makes the father choose him despite the merits of the other two brothers. In the second tale he is inventive and with sense of humour which seems enough for the father to choose him or with other words he “resembles those who find the Grail precisely because they are not searching for it” (Luethi, 1986: 65).

23 A never-ceasing bottle giving sake and soya-sauce, a magic pot which cooks everything by itself, a never-ending cloth for kimono and a mortar, producing money.

64 In this collection unlike many tales from around the world we do not encounter evil ready-to-fratricide characters. In Afanasiev’s collection of Russian folktales, for example, there are many tales where the two brothers leave in danger the third one or even kill him to achieve their goals (for example Af 530). This is entirely missing in Japan - no matter the few examples of some negative relations between the brothers, on the whole the tales defend the idea of a strong positive brotherhood. To a certain extent these tales show a tendency in the society which for Japan has not been studied yet, but for Sicily, for example, is well motivated. In their research N. Radanova and colleagues make an attempt for a structural analysis of dramatis personae in Italian fairy tales and come to the conclusion that in Sicilian tradition the relations between brothers (and/or sisters) are always very positive without any contra-actions, betrayals and fratricide. And the very strong blood-relations of family members in the area explain this phenomenon (Radanova, 1989). This example shows well how the real family relations are directly represented in folklore and we can see that it is very much correct for Japan too – strong family relations typical for the traditional Japanese society result in a more positive family picture throughout the collection. In fact competition between brothers appears only on base “inheritance”. Brothers originally help each other in Indian folklore too and this tendency has been transmitted probably to Japan via China and Korea to stress the cooperation and collaboration between brothers and sisters. To conclude this sub-type it is necessary to point out once again that in winning a contest the brother relations are expressed in two main directions – that of marriage and that of inheritance. As shown above the marriage situation is not as explicit as that of the inheritance in regard to brothers. In the fact that the eldest succeeds in inheritance conflicts is hidden most probably the law of primogeniture, typical for the Japanese traditional society. But on the other hand the conflicts around inheritance are always more drastic than those around marriage when brothers are concerned. Seki sees a definite tendency according to which if it is a three-brother story it speaks of inheritance, if it is a three-sister story it is about marriage (Seki, III: 182-183).

THE BROTHER TO A SISTER The younger little brother is in need of help from his sister when parents are not around. He is in a difficult or dangerous situation with which he cannot cope alone, he needs help from his elder sister because he is teased, tortured, scared and helpless. The figure of the brother appears in this realisation as the only brother to a sister. The relationship with the sister has nothing in common with that between brothers – two or three; here we see no opposition of any kind, but rather mutual help. This could be seen in five tales – “The sister and the brother” (180), “The elder sister – white bird” (215), “The sister, the younger brother and yamauba” (246), “Gambling with oni” (248) and “The younger sister is oni” (249), where the motif of the younger brother helped by his elder sister appears (Compare also KHM 11).

In tale 180 the sister takes care of the brother after the death of their parents and does everything in her power for the well-being of the younger. She undergoes hardships to save him and bring him back to life, when he dies. The figure of the brother is helpless and passive. In tale 215 after the death of the mother and the remarriage of the father the hardships for the step-children – an elder sister and a younger brother begin. The sister is killed, the brother is teased. Even dead the sister appears as a ghost to help her brother in need and in the end with the help of her bridegroom she is brought back to life. The figure of the brother is passive and helpless, his emotions are well expressed and take

65 considerable part of the narration. The sister on the other hand could be seen in the light of Nitschke’s “schenkende Frau” (Nitschke, 1977-I: 71). The foe, or the antagonist in such tales is the step-mother, or as Thomas concludes - an adult, in one way or another (Thomas, 1989: 46). Another similar example is seen in tale 246:

A brother and a sister go into the forest and stay overnight at yamauba’s house. During the night the brother sees how the monster devours his sister, but cannot help and runs away. He manages to outwit yamauba and has her even killed by her companions. The figure of the brother here, though active, is not very explicit. In many versions the brother is killed and the sister escapes (versions from Iwasaki and Niigata prefectures). Thomas believes that such tales “portray an essentially asexual or androgynous protagonist, given the dualism of the sexes and their combined role as protagonist” (Thomas, 1989: 43), neither child alone constitutes the protagonist, the roles of the male and the female are interchangeable. The plot is wide-spread varying in outcome and main characters, but the plot structure is impressively similar all over the world (Compare Af 327). One can interpret such characters in a Jungian way as well, seeing the child as an archetype of the self, of one’s undeveloped personality, the element with the devouring corresponding to the loss of one’s identity (Thomas, 1989: 49-50). The gradation of the activity of the little brother reaches its climax in tale 248.

A brother and an elder sister gather chestnuts in the forest. The sister suddenly disappears, the brother tries to find her. He manages to outwit three oni-monsters and wins two contests with the chief oni, who has kidnapped the sister. The brother and the sister take all of oni’s treasures and make the other three oni their servants. Here the sister helps immensely her brother to beat the oni, but the brother takes the initiative and shows great courage and persistence. Kawai sees in this and similar stories the step towards independence and growing-up (Kawai, 1977: 74), although in Japan we do not encounter the plot of Grimms’ “Haensel and Gretel” (KHM 15) in respect to parental relations. In “Haensel and Gretel” the separation from the parents is more obvious, the growing-up and the process of acquiring independence is visible, the conflict is clear; while in the Japanese stories implications of some conflict children-parents do not even exist. Diametrically opposite but still very active is the figure of the brother in the tale “The younger sister is oni” (249).

An elder brother discovers that his sister feeds on cows and is an oni-monster, who has killed the sister and taken her skin. The parents do not believe his story and drive him away from home. After some time he goes back to his home-village to find everybody disappeared, only his sister alive. Two mice appear – the souls of his dead parents, help him run away from the monster-sister and in the end the sister-oni is killed by the brother’s friend – the tiger (in some versions – by the brother himself). As we can see the figure of the brother varies from very passive and helpless to considerably active and fearless. In most of the cases in a tandem of a brother and a sister, the brother is younger, which justifies his helplessness. The case of an elder sister taking care alone of the younger brother appears permanently, while the opposite – an elder brother taking care alone of a younger sister does not appear at all (in the exceptional tale 249 the brother faces actually an ogre). The responsibility in such cases seen as parental responsibility is given to the female figure not to the male, whereas heroic deeds against monsters and devils are more often handed down to the male figures. Bottigheimer speaks of this separation of roles as “…natural processes understood to be under feminine control, while acts of aggression and governing fall to the male sphere” (Bottigheimer, 1987: 43). Joyce Thomas also says that the testing of the female protagonists is more of domestic character, while that of the male – of physical (Thomas, 1989: 37). Hamashita speaks of the role and the spiritual power of the sister and the woman in Japanese tradition, comparing it with examples from other cultural areas

66 (Hamashita, 2002). Kawai speaks of the elder sister ready to self-sacrifice in the name of her brother, which he believes is a very beloved element to all Japanese people (Kawai, 1982). Examples of incest in Japanese folktale heritage are not recorded at all.

* * * As we have seen so far, the presence of the brother in the family dimension of Japanese fairy tales is in a very active way. His figure is revealed in all main possible realisations in an intensive interaction with other family members. The stylised number of the acting characters opposing the historically larger family units is explained by the laws of narration (Olrik, 1965). On the number of brothers appearing in the folktale, Luethi says: “The three stands between singularity and amorphous multiplicity. Coming after the one which represents the individual, and the two, which represents at the same time the pair and the possibility for polarity, the three is the first representative of real plurality. […] The three is not only the first but also the most impressive representative of plurality…” (Luethi, 1987: 45). In folktales one can see real family conflicts – trying to gain the respect of the others, trying to prove oneself, striving for happiness and wealth, getting out of the situation of being useless and helpless, etc. Just as in life such brother competition is strongly supported by the parents, in folktales - by the father. Proving oneself before the elder brothers and the whole family is a common motif - the development of the “good-for-nothing” into a respect-deserving person, the difference between “to look like” and “to be”, the appearance and the reality is a central motif in brother-tales. Very typical for these tales is also the strong polarisation of the characters – good and evil, poor and rich, master and slave, but in the Japanese case the negative relationships between brothers or sisters are not made to stand out. In fact even step-sisters help each other, without envy and competition (like for example in tale 202 “Ogin and Kogin”), which makes a great difference compared to the European versions. There are few studies like Ranke’s “Die zwei Brueder” (Ranke, 1934), Gherts’ “Das Maerchen und das Opfer: Untersuchungen zum europaeischen Bruedermaerchen” (Gherts, 1967) and Ward’s “The divine twins” (Ward, 1968) which examine the figure of the brother closely. Ranke makes a profound study of “The two brothers” (Aarne 303, KHM 60), traces its versions in different countries and works with immense quantities of material - from Germany across whole Europe, as well as with some local versions from Asia, Japan included, Africa, North America, Middle America and South America. He studies motif by motif the plot of the tale from birth of the heroes, their separation, dragon-killing, enchantment of one of the two, salvation by the other, happy end. He pays special attention to the link between this tale and Aarne 300 “The dragon-killer”, as well as the Three-Brother Tale (Af. 136 “Iwan Cowson”). He searches for the Urform, the genuine tale, as well as the similarities and possible historical links between the three types. Ward offers another mythological and historical study of the brother-motif. He tries to determine whether the Indo-European tradition of the Divine Twins was known among Germanic peoples. Ward comes to few important for us conclusions – that the Divine Twins are by no means limited to the Indo-European tradition but are found throughout the world; and that biologically all peoples know the phenomenon of the multiple birth (cross-twins and parallel). One of the most interesting features of the parallel twins is that they have complementing natures or contrasting characters. Chimura sees a definite thematic of superiority and inferiority in brother-tales. He

67 mentions the four existing till now theories on the success of the youngest: 1. sympathy of the audience towards the weaker; 2. artistic tool; 3. inheritance system; 4. link to the myth of the youngest god. He comes to the conclusion that the number of the tales about the success of the youngest is equal to that of the eldest. The geographic distribution of these two types corresponds to the geographic division of the two inheritance law-systems in Japan. Chimura speaks also of the importance of the story-teller for the choice of the main character - inheritance tales tend to be male tales, while step-child tales are usually female (Chimura, 1984). In the relationship between brothers, sisters, brothers and sisters Seki definitely sees a link to the religious beliefs in gods and deities, with other words to mythology (Seki, IV: 259). In the two-brother tales Horn sees the ultimate combination of “weakness and strength, power and helplessness, success and failure” (Horn, 1983: 88). A great part of the interpretations belongs to the Jungian school for which the tales about the two brothers (taken for granted are also the three-brothers considered as a double pattern) represent the duality of the personality, they speak of two people but mean only two sides, two faces of one and the same person. The Jungian school calls it “a shadow” – the shadow enriches the personality, it is not one-sided and it cannot be determined positive or negative, it could help or play against the main character (see also Kawai, 1977). Bettelheim claims that the youngest of three brothers is chosen because he, the Simpleton, “unites conscious and unconscious, while his brothers rely only on cleverness” (Bettelheim, 1976: 103). It is necessary to mention also that step-brothers do not come in interaction, unlike step-sisters, for example. Like in the figure of the father as we shall see later, the male figure does not act as a step-one. This is an interesting topic but it will remain outside the scope of the present research unfortunately, we shall only mention that very interesting for the study of the step-child tales is the born in the 10th century “Ochikubo Monogatari” and the earlier “Kojiki”, where the good relationships between brothers and sisters from different mothers are typical. One can easily see in those old writings that the competition between siblings starts when inheritance comes into question and, as expected, mainly with male siblings, while female step-sisters having common blood are not opposed to each other. On the whole in the Japanese tales the conflict of the two bothers – one negative and one positive – is seen on economic basis, rather than on family one. The reunion of brothers after long years of separation is regarded more important and valuable than the general social norms. In the tales of three competing brothers the characters are more explicit in regard to inheritance than to marriage - in the first case the eldest brother proves his inborn right to inherit while the youngest brother is preferred in marriage situations, when proof of wits, strength or courage is required. The brother to a sister is always younger, thus helpless and in need of parental care, realised by the elder sister.

68 3.1.3. THE FATHER We have already seen two of the four typical male roles in family. In contrast to them, the figure of the father carries predominantly a supporting, secondary role, which calls for a new method for consideration. The father is determined as the male parent, the one of the two responsible for the child and he exists only in the dimension of his responsibilities to the child. Between the characters of the husband and the father comes the character of the father opposing his second wife (step-child tales)24. The father is revealed in four main character types - the father who makes a promise which changes the life of his child, the father who is looking for a partner to his child, the father who sends away from home his children and the caring father-saviour. An additional group is formed by the image of the absent father, which is believed to represent best the significance of this character for all other family members. From all the tales in the studied collection the figure of the father realised in any of the above character types appears in sixty-three tales, or with other words - in every third tale.

FATHER’S PROMISE In a moment of difficulty a father promises one of his daughters to an ogre in exchange for some help. He regrets his deed but he leaves his children to find the way out of the situation. He is obeyed by his youngest daughter who succeeds in finding a happy life for herself. This character type is revealed in the tales “The snake-bridegroom” (101), “The oni-bridegroom” (102), “The monkey-bridegroom” (103) and “Oni’s child Kozuna” (247), though common pattern could be seen in other tales as well. The plot develops according to the following structure:

In a moment of difficulty (needed help in watering the rice field 101b, 101c, 247a or in digging up the field 103) the father promises one of his three daughters to anyone who helps. The helping suitor is a snake (101b), a water spirit kappa (101c), a monkey (103) or an oni-ogre (247a). The youngest daughter agrees to marry the ogre on certain conditions, planning to kill him. In these stories the father needs help in agricultural work, thus he prays to the corresponding deities: to the water spirit for rain, represented by the kappa and the serpent (in Chapter 3.1.1 we have already seen the link between the two); or to the field deity, represented by the monkey and possibly the oni. His prayers could be seen as “ama-goi” (ritual praying for rain) and such ritual praying is very often associated with human sacrifices, or in this case – with the human sacrifice for the wellbeing of the whole village (Komatsu, 1987: 76-77). According to Seki in such tales another folk practice is reflected. In the motif of the fathers who promise their children for a favour done by the suitor the model of the so-called “Arbeitsheirat”, or “paid-by-work” marriage could be seen (Seki, I: 83). Such marriages were in fact historical reality in which the bridegroom officially undertook the task to do some work for the family of the woman as if to compensate for taking her labour force away from this family. A final question is why the father does not oppose the ogre himself. Katalin Horn sees a distinct tendency in similar situations for the behaviour of the father - fathers usually only “deal” with the supernatural beings while it is the hero to fight them (Horn, 1983: 14-15).

24 It is necessary to note that if the mother is alone with the children, second marriage does not necessarily come, but if a father is left alone with children, he marries a second time, which could be explained by different social necessities not studied here.

69 Fathers never really take the leading role in the story; they simply act as mediators or catalysts. On the other hand the figure of the mother can also appear in similar situations, like in some versions or in the tale “The oni-bridegroom” (102), but on the whole such parental “frivolity” is more typical for the figure of the father than the mother. This “frivolity” though is explained by the fact that in earlier Japan it was entirely father’s privilege, being the absolute head of the family, to agree to a marriage or accept a bridegroom; marriage and betrothal thus is seen as predominantly male domain (see under “Family” in EJ). This tendency is also expressed in the tales of fathers who test suitors and choose the best husband for their daughters. Yet later in the plot of these tales the father looks worried how to announce the news to his daughters. The texts unquestionably give details on the regret he shows and only in one tale (101c) there are indications that the non-human threatens or forces the father to keep his promise. In all other tales the father acts in correspondence with his conscience and morals – he has given his word and he has to keep it. Kawai would say that here one can speak again of the moral duty “giri” which we have already seen earlier – a moral obligation to keep one’s promise, expressed often by a grateful animal or a saved being towards the saviour, but also in cases of a given word (Kawai, 1977: 199). The model of the conversation with the three daughters is identical; the last daughter’s agreement comes somehow logical25. The agreement of the youngest to marry the ogre is usually expressed with the words: “Otō-san no iu kotonara nandemo kikimas”26, showing the obedience of the girl to the father’s authority which happens also to the daughter in Grimms’ tales too27. Studying the female picture in Grimms’ tales Noguchi sees in similar tales the social order in earlier times when the marriage and the choice of the partner was not daughter’s right but parents’ way (Noguchi, 1991: 87). From that point on this daughter becomes the main character in the tale and the father is no longer present (except for an episodic appearance in tale 247a). The final scene of the tales proves that the mistake of the fathers is not that fatal to the girls, though often lethal for the suitors – all tales find a happy end for the human characters and therefore no blame is thrown on the wrong father, his mistake is even supported as necessary for the development of the daughter’s destiny and her definite growing up, he is justified exactly by the agreement of the youngest daughter to marry a non-human and the happy ending of the story. A slight derivation from the above studied tales are “The grateful frog” (104a) and “Stork’s eggs” (105).

A father saves a frog from a snake. In tale 104b the snake demands one of his three daughters as a bride, but then is killed by the grateful frog. In tale 105 the daughter marries a man who turns out to be the snake. The frog helps to get rid of the husband and the undesired pregnancy. Compared to the previously studied stories, these two differ in few aspects - there are no three daughters but simply one, and the promise of the father is not really clear. Here the father acts as a human being and as a father simultaneously and we can see distinct overlapping of characters – the male character acts not only in his family role but also in his relation to nature and other beings which would be examined once again in the last part of the present research. The only negative image of the father is found in “The silkworm deity” (108a), where the whole plot develops as if on an opposite structural axis.

25 Compare with Af 425 for example, where we can see again the promise of the father and the agreement of the youngest from three daughters. 26 “If it is my father who asks I would follow every word of his.” 27 “Liebster Vater, was Ihr versprochen habt, muss auch gehalten werden: ich will hingehen…” (Dearest Father, what you have promised must I keep and I shall do it).

70 The daughter is in love with a horse and they marry. The father is furious; he kills the new husband and stretches the skin of the horse which wraps around the girl’s body and so they fly into the skies. The story ends with an explanation of the origin of the silk related to the two personages. This story is one of the two only examples in which a human woman takes a non-human husband (the other is tale 106 “The dog-bridegroom”). The story is an exception and the scarce number of such stories only leads our attention to the fact that it is not considered a logical or “natural” thing. As we have seen, the marriage with a supernatural being followed by the successive long co-existence as family partners is impossible. So, despite the obvious negative image of the cruel father in this story, to a certain extent his actions are justified if not directly then indirectly through the lack of similar examples in the rest of the collection.

FATHER IS LOOKING FOR A PARTNER TO HIS CHILD To continue the theme of father’s role in betrothals we shall examine the character of the father who is searching for a partner to his child. The figure of the father is built in few main directions – the father poses riddles to the suitor, the father tests the suitor in a non-verbal way or the father is cheated by the suitor.

Father uses verbal tests A father is looking for a suitable husband for his child and he makes his decision using riddles and verbal tests in which common sense, creativity and wisdom can be revealed in their best way. We have already seen how a suitor is tested with riddles which in the Japanese tales often test the ability for poem-composition - choosing a partner for a daughter through riddles is a common method all around the world, but making the decision via poetry is very Japanese28. Good examples are tales like 129 and 130 (with no figure of the father) and “A three-binding story” (132) and “Yamada Shirataki” (133) which we shall study closer.

In the first tale a father is looking for a son-in-law who is able to recite “a three-binding story”. Three brothers try out their luck and the last one succeeds in answering this riddle: “The sky and the ground are bound by the rain, the mountain and the sea – by the river, the man and the woman – by their children”. In the second tale the master of a house overhears the wishes of his three servants. As the third one wishes to marry his daughter the father decides to ask him to finish her poem. The man does it in a beautiful way and is given the permission to marry. Here the father has chosen the husband on the base of intellectual abilities - the father is looking for a suitable, good partner to his daughter and he makes his decision on the base of the intellectual capabilities of the candidates. It is easy to see here again that exactly the father is the one to decide on the marriage partner of his daughter, the figure of the mother does not appear at all. No matter how subjective the final decision is, the method for choosing a partner by the way of riddles and poems is very close to reality and such tales do not cross the borders with the impossible. In this sense the father is friendly to the suitor, he does not oppose him, but on the contrary – he helps the suitor prove himself.

28 Short poetry like waka, tanka and haiku is a typical characteristic of the Japanese literature and culture. In the past, contests in poem composition were held regularly among the aristocracy. Talent in poetry as well as proficiency in Chinese texts were two of the basic criteria for appraisal of a person (see under “Poetry” in EJ).

71 Father tests in a non-verbal way A father can choose a suitor through a variety of non-verbal tests which reveal courage, creativity and strength. Very often though such tests border with impossibility and either a help from outside or a miracle is needed for their accomplishment. The stories which represent this type of character are “The sky-nymph” (118), “The girl, who ate babies” (123), “Bee’s help” (127) and “The girl’s advice” (128). Tales 123, 127 and 128 are very similar in plot structure.

A father is testing three candidates (friends, brothers, servants). The first two fail, the last succeeds and marries the daughter. In tale 123 there are two tests. The first one is to do ten-day field work in only one day, which all three candidates pass. At night the first two see through a hole the daughter eating a baby’s corpse and run away, the third one does not get scared but recognises a rice-doll in the baby’s figure. He passes the test set by the father in this way and marries the daughter. Here the father first tests the suitors in agricultural work, and only after that, in courage. Although not directly present the figure of the father is seen in tale 127 as well where the suitors are asked to prove their suitability in various ways - through completing work-tasks, showing inventiveness and good work of mind29. In the next tale 128 the father tests the suitors again in physical way – he puts difficult tasks, which the suitor manages to complete only with some outside help from the daughter or the baby-sitter30. There is a tendency of “out-tricking” the father in these tales - somebody helps the suitor; so father’s decision is no longer objective and correct based on a deceiving reality. And it happens not only in human families but also in heaven – tale 118 tells the story of the father of a heaven nymph testing his son-in-law31. The wife helps her husband in all cases, but in the end the husband does not listen to his wife’s last advice and loses her forever. There is also a certain unfriendly attitude of the father toward the suitor in the tales - the father as if wants the suitor to fail and gives him impossible tasks to accomplish. On one hand he obviously wants his daughter married but on the other hand no suitor is good enough and the father simply provokes the daughter (or other accomplices) to help the deserving young man.

Father outwitted Sometimes the father can be outwitted - he acts as clever as he can, as determined as possible, as honourable as required, but still it is the suitor who holds the curb and reigns over the situation. We have already noticed a certain tendency of outwitting the fathers, which in the following two examples is very explicit.

In “The gambler-bridegroom” (125) and “Pigeon lantern” (126) the father is deluded by a lazy but clever candidate who plays the trick of being a god who advises the father to let his daughter marry the same lazy boy. In tale 126 the young family prospers which justifies the trick of the candidate. In tale 125 the father does not agree but pays out a considerable sum of money to that lazy boy in order not to marry his daughter. In both cases the father is mislead and the candidate wins, but simultaneously the father is very rich, so the trick played here reminds more of the social relations between the poor and the rich than of the family relations between the future father-in-law and the suitor. The same is

29 Tasks: 1. to sweep a floor, 2. to earn money just with one straw, 3. to count the bamboo, 4. to recognise his betrothed among others. 30 Tasks: to guess the contents of a straw bag and to roll down some heavy logs. 31 Tasks: 1. to cut down a forest in one day, 2. to dig up the land, 3. to plant the place, 4. to gather the harvest.

72 the case in the tale “The mud-snail son” (134) where a father gives the hand of his daughter to a mud-snail who has outwitted them both:

During the night the animal, who is staying at the rich man’s house, puts some rice around and in the mouth of the sleeping daughter and in the morning accuses her of eating his rice. As an apology the father gives the hand of his daughter to the mud-snail. The story ends happily with the disenchantment of the mud-snail into a handsome young man.

* * * In the end we shall mention also another type of choosing a partner to one’s daughter. Here the character of the father is very slightly visible but he again makes decision on his daughter’s marriage. This happens after a heroic deed or help in need on the part of the main male character. The examples for that are many but let’s take the tales “Acolyte’s dream” (156) and “The magic listening hood” (164a) where the main male character saves the life of a rich man’s daughter. This is enough for the father to entrust his daughter into the hands of the hero – no other testimony of courage, intelligence or other “suitability” is needed. The case resembles the tales about the promise of the father in return for some help, studied earlier in this chapter, but the union here is seen as a positive one, the marriage is happy and the girl is no sharei-yome reward bride, but a bride to her saviour. There is just one example of a father who finds a partner to his son in “The octopus choja” (124), so it could be concluded that the father predominantly appears in choosing a partner for his daughter, and that father’s betrothal responsibilities focus on the daughter and not on the son.

FATHER SENDS CHILDREN AWAY FROM HOME There are two types of fathers who send their children away from home – the first one is that of the strict father, who punishes his children or who encourages them to go away and seek their happiness; the second is the figure of the heartless father who destines his own children to death.

The just father A father sends his children away from home for different reasons – to choose an heir, to punish them, to do some good. But the end of these stories is always positive – the growing-up of the children as professionals and individuals. Four are the tales which illustrate this type of father – “The three brothers” (173), “The three brothers and the treasure” (174), “Stupid but first born” (175) and “The two brothers” (178b). In 173 and 174 the father sends his three sons to learn some professions, leading to wealth acquisition and a reunion of the brothers after years (173) or a choice of an heir among them (174). Tale 178b corresponds to the story in 173, yet there the father pushes away his two sons because of their laziness. In tale 174 the father chooses the son who possesses magic objects, not the other two who have learnt good professions. Whether from practical reasons or individual value system, the father in this case is believed to have made the right decision – after all, the son who possesses magic objects, no matter how he has acquired them, is the most promising of the three.

73 The father acts only as a switch-on button which makes the necessary for the flow of the light. His image is positive – obviously in tales 173 and 174 where he sends his children to learn some skills and not so obviously in tale 178b where he pushes away his sons for training only archery and doing nothing else. But here again it is possible to view his figure from another perspective – the results from the behaviour of the father prove positive and the happy ending of the stories justifies the behaviour of the father just like in the tales studied in the beginning of this chapter. Much more material for consideration gives the figure of the father in tale 175. The first test set by the father in order to choose an heir is physical, the second – intellectual – a contest of wishes. Hearing his brothers wishing themselves much rice, much money, many servants and many houses, the first brother declares: “All I want are just three ox testicles with which to close the mouths of my boasting brothers and my too much asking father.” And the eldest is chosen for an heir. The father chooses exactly him despite his obvious disrespect, but it seems that either the father had a good sense of humour or the wish of the son really proves he is the most deserving of all three. Traditionally in Japan the heir is the first son born, but in many cases fathers are allowed to choose another heir if the lawful one seems unpromising. In this case the father obviously follows the established rules and admits the right of the eldest son to inherit him (for more see also under “Family” in EJ; as well as Leims, 1990).

The cruel father Violence and cruelty are features not to be praised in any way, but cruel fathers rarely inhabit the realm of Japanese fairy tales. Their cruelty is no domestic violence but a deed justified by the inner logic of the tale. Only three are the tales illustrating the cruelty of the father in Japanese fairy tales and they do it in an obscure way - “The son with the hatchets” (138), “The life and the death whips” (168) and “Ash-boy” (211). To start with let us take the least cruel story of the three, revealed in tale 211.

A remarried father listens to the words of his wife and pushes away from home undeservedly his own son, but being absent in the last months from home32, there isn’t much choice left for him. After many adventures the son marries, travels back home, dies on the way and is revived by his wife on his funeral in his father’s house. In this tale very important is the presence of the step-mother, so the father here is opposed as a husband to his second wife whose importance and dominance over him will be studied later in this chapter. In the end of the tale the father regrets his deed and asks his son for forgiveness but the son leaves, punishing in this symbolical way his father. Unlike the tales with daughters who do not blame their fathers for having promised them to an ogre, here the son definitely is not so “friendly”. Of course, the son respects his father, that is why he has come to see him after long years of separation; but on the other hand the son has broken free from dependence on his father and returns to his wife’s place.

In 138 a strange child is born with hatchets instead of feet and planes instead of hands. The resentment of the father is so strong that after trying hard but unsuccessfully to find a cure, the father decides to leave his son on a boat in the sea, destining him either to death or if granted good luck at least to much suffering. His son reaches Onigashima, wins over the oni-devils and takes their treasures. Coming back home so rich he finds a magic cure and his limbs become normal.

32 Long-term separations from family were a typical way of service of the aristocracy in Feudal Japan. For a better control over the local governors the Shogun had them serve away from home for very long periods of time (over six months). This weakened the local feudal rulers and supported the stability of the Shogunate.

74 The cruelty of the father in this tale is obvious, but it seems “weak”, especially compared with the cruelty of step-mothers, who burn, boil, bury alive or slaughter in any other way step-children (see tales 214, 215, 219 for example). In this tale the father is embarrassed and helpless to cure his son, so he sends him away from home. The son undergoes a growing-up process and comes back home a normal person, so the father again has acted as a switch-on button for the development of the son, as a catalyst for his growing-up.

In tale 186 a tonosama has two sons – a legitimate one and an illegitimate one. The illegitimate dreams he will take his father’s place and his father, afraid for the throne, tries to drown him in the river. The son survives, wins magic objects, comes back, kills the tonosama and his legitimate son and takes their place. This tale carries the cruelest motif in this collection – before letting the child in the river, the king ties the boy to the horse and gallops for some time which typically for fairy tale characters does not cause any harm to the son. Definitely the cruelty here is in its climax, but on the other hand we enter different relations here – not only the family but rather the social affiliation determines the actions of the father who is first of all a “king” and then a father. The throne is a symbol of so many lives that the loss (or sacrifice in other cases) of a single life is a priori justified for the sake of the rest and in this last tale the cruel father is mixed with the image of the king, defending his authority and power.

THE FATHER-SAVIOUR It is the father to save the child and to take care of him or her even after death. It is the father to become the saviour of the young and be there any time the young may need him. The character of the father in this category is many-facet, but one of the main features which unites the images in one is the salvation which father brings to his children. There are many examples of this kind but here four tales will be examined – “The frog son” (135), “The thumb boy” (137), “The cat’s parishioner” (230) and “The grateful skeleton” (236).

Tales 135 and 137 are the stories of Tom Thumb – a strange child is born (a frog or a thumb-high boy), follow his adventures around the world and in the end he is swallowed either by a fish (135) or by a wolf (137) and his father saves him from inside the animal and brings him back to life. The figure of the father is very schematic, but it deserves special attention because in cases of two existing parents there is not a single example of a mother saving her child in this way – from the man and the woman it is always the man who saves the child. The same applies to the male figures in tales 230 and 236.

Those are stories about a dead person (a skeleton of the son fed by a stranger in 236 or a flying coffin with the dead daughter’s body in 230). The stranger who helps the father of the dead is generously repaid by him. The dead children are not revived, but the helpers make it possible for the fathers to bury properly their children. Here again no possibility for a mother’s figure appears in any of the versions, and this is probably because it is the responsibility of the head of the family to take care of the dead. Venerating the ancestors and burial ceremonies in Japanese tradition are conducted mainly by the heads of the families, namely – the fathers (see also under “Family” in EJ), so in the tales this practice is reflected. Only fathers and no mothers act as tale characters when child’s life is predestined and only fathers witness or overhear deities’ conversations on the destiny of the children like in tales “The prophecy of the deities” (151) and “The length of one’s life” (152). The stories usually end sadly no matter how hard the efforts of the father are. The only two examples with a similar role played by the mother are the tales “The ghost-mother” (147) and “Raised by an eagle” (148). In

75 the first case the dead mother helps her new born baby and in the second the mother is looking for her kidnapped child. In both cases the father is missing, so the only hope for the child remains the care of his mother.

THE ABSENT FATHER When a father is not at home the balance is destroyed. The pillar of the family well-being is missing, which often brings terrible disasters to the rest of the family members. The formation of this category may seem very strange – to describe a character which does not appear in the plot at all, but as it will be proved later it turns to be a very important detail which not only changes the plot but the life of the acting main character – a son or a daughter. The absence of the father (be it his death or his going away from home) is not only the starting point of the story but the main engine for its later development. The quoted over thirty tales which follow are just a part of all the tales in which the absence of the father plays a crucial role. First, the absence of the father in a family with a step-mother will be seen. Studying the step-child cycle Seki notices that in order the step-mother to act, the father either is not mentioned at all, has died or is away from home, but is definitely not present (Seki, IV: 14-27), his absence thus frees away the evil-doing of the step-mother. Let us start with the tales “The step-children and the bird” (216), “The step-children and the flute” (217), “The step-child and the boiling pot” (219) and “Death through snakes” (221).

The father marries a second wife who is very cruel to the children. During one of his absences the step-mother kills the children and tries to deceive the father, but discovering the truth, usually with the help from outside, he punishes the mother with death. The father in these examples is alive, but is away from home and his absence provokes the step-mother to realise her cruel intentions. In three of the four mentioned examples the father punishes the evil-doer (216, 219 and 221), yet this deed cannot bring back the children. More often the killing of the step-children not only remains unpunished, it does not even cause any reaction on father’s side as it happens in “The silkworm deity” (108b), “The girl without hands” (208), “The seven swans” (214) and “The elder sister – white bird” (215).

In tale 108b the step-child is sentenced to death four times by her step-mother and the figure of the father is not even mentioned. In tale 208 the step-mother orders a servant to cut off step-daughter’s two hands and leave her so in the forest. The father is not only missing but in some versions he is the one to cut off the hands of his own daughter33. In tale 214 the father has no reaction to the enchantment of his seven sons into swans done by the cruel step-mother. In tale 215 the father tries hard to leave alone for ten years but after marrying a second time he remains outside the plot again, which brings death to one of his children and suffering to the other. The father in these tales brings indirectly the evil at home by marrying a second time and as we have already seen second marriage for men is never successful, although his guilt is obvious, he lacks any power for contra-action. But if for the dead children in tales 216, 217, 219 and 108b there is no revival, at least their deaths are revenged in the above stories - the step-mother gets blind (208), turns into a white bird (214) or dies seeing the cut off head of her own daughter (215). Step-mother’s cruelty is described in other stories too but luckily with no step-children dying. Such are “The two brothers” (178a), “Komebuku and Awabuku” (205a), “Mountain in a

33 The tale “The girl without hands” is found only in Tōhoku-area, so presumably the tale is imported rather than genuine Japanese due to its very limited distribution.

76 dish” (206), “The girl with the wooden bowl” (210) and “The step-child and the well” (220a). In those stories the father is missing, his “presence” is only implied by the fact that if there is a step-mother, he definitely exists having married her, but still he is not mentioned.

The step-mother chases away the children (178a), teases the step-child (205a, 210), deceives the suitor of the step-daughter (206) or tries to kill the step-son (220a). All the stories end happily for the step-children. Fatal to the step-mother are just two of them (205a, 206), where she turns into a mud-snail. The pattern here is even more fixed and steady than the previous one – the absence of the father brings disaster to the child, but in the end the child finds happiness alone, just like in “Ogin and Kogin” (207) and “Ash-boy” (211):

The step-mother tries to kill three times the step-daughter without success. But the child, saved by his step-sister, disappears and the father spends years in mourning and searching for his daughters. He gets blind, but the story ends happily for all of them. In the second tale listening to his wife’s evil words, the father chases away his own son, but the boy finds happiness and marries successfully. Again we see a mourning father and again he is helpless in the situation, just as he was in the first tales of this chapter. His passivity in the first part of the tale is punished through the blindness, but his repentance later is rewarded by the reunion with the children34. In both tales the children find happiness by themselves, alone; the step-mother as if plays the role of the catalyst for their growing-up and independence; the father is often under her control and follows her orders (for more on the figure of the step-mother see Blasius, 1980: 1241-1242). The figure of the step-mother is not the topic of this research, but it deserves attention especially in its relation to the figure of the father. According to Kawai there is a stable tendency – the stronger the mother (or step-mother), the weaker the father and vice versa (Kawai, 1977: 74). The activity of the father obviously slows down whereas in the above quoted examples, step-mother’s activity grows up to extremes. Such tendency is also found by Thomas, who speaks of the two as follow: “His passivity is contraposed beside her activity […] like a weak, ineffectual, flat shadow alongside her strong, effectual aggression. […] Her sphere of activity and dominance is the home, whereas his traditionally lies beyond the home, in the outside world of work” (Thomas, 1989: 60-61). The step-mother is in the same time the poisoned part of the Great Mother (Bly, 1992: 184) and is believed to be “… cosmic power, the totality of the universe, the harmonisation of all the pairs of opposites, combining wonderfully the terror of absolute destruction with an impersonal yet motherly reassurance” (Campbell, 1960: 115). In the next tales no step-mothers appear but the absence of the father still plays an important role as it leads to tragic consequences in “The heel-boy” (141) and “The melon princess” (144).

In the first tale while the father is away shopping a cannibal-ogre comes into the house and devours the mother. Years later the son takes revenge on the ogre. In the second tale the absence of the father and the mother of an adopted child makes it possible for a cannibal-ogre to kill the daughter. The parents kill the ogre. The absence of the father in both stories causes irreversible events to take place. The father is absent and either his wife or his child suffers from that and there is no revival for the dead, although revenge takes place. In other tales like 136c the death of the father brings poverty to his wife and son and the latter is forced to undertake some actions to save the family. He succeeds in the end which could be seen as a growing up and readiness to take the role of a father and of a head of the family. The son is the one to undertake the responsibilities of the father, to substitute him, to grow up enough and to play from now on father’s role, which is

34 Kawai suggests association “blindness - ignorance, not-knowing” (Kawai, 1977: 83), but it is believed that this motif in the tales above is a kind of punishment or test for the father.

77 also the case in the tales “The magic geta” (171) and “Going for wild pears” (176), where the sons of a dead father act for him. The absence of the father pushes the development of the son and gives him the chance to take up the role of the head of the family and to start taking care for the family wellbeing. In the same way could be regarded also the tales “The sake-spring” (154), “The sister and the brother” (180), “The bandit’s younger brother” (183) and “The guest at New Year’s Eve” (199a), where both parents are dead and the children are expected to succeed in life on their own. The quoted examples have been chosen to prove the importance of the father in family. Through his absence in any way the family is no longer a stable unit, it is taken into a shattered position and many efforts, adventures, hardships or even victims and sacrifices are needed to recover the balance. To interpret the figure of the absent father one may take Propp’s function one - “Retreat”, the starting point of many tales. In his “Morphology of the folktale” Propp develops the initial starting-function of the plot, calling it “retreat” (Propp, 1969) which means not only leaving home or going somewhere, but also - death of parents. So the death of the parents is often the important key event which leads to the development of the whole plot thereafter. * * * On the whole they are few important relations where father acts which have to be summarized in the end. Kawai sees a relation between the figure of the mother and the death, whereas the father is linked to life. He studies the relation shi-onna-haha (death-woman-mother) but he does not come into details as for any similar relation connected to father, man and life (Kawai, 1977: 47). Campbell believes that the father and the mother reflect each other and are in fact the same (Campbell, 1960: 131). On the other hand there are no figures of the step-father, let alone of the cruel step-father, so the inner-family conflicts develop around two figures – father and step-mother, while conflicts with a step-father and a real mother do not usually occur. It is important also that in early Japan, especially in the families of aristocracy men often had more than one wife - the so-called futasaisei system typical for the Heian period (Miura, 1992: 56-90), while the reverse case was not a practice. More frequently the conflict between the step-mother and the step-children appears, especially when this step-mother sees a definite danger to her son in inheritance matters or to her daughter in marriage matters. Thomas sees a fixed pattern of the plot in the step-child stories (Thomas, 1989: 59), according to which whenever there is a conflict between a child and a step-mother, the child dies in the end of the tale (as in tales 216, 217 or 219 for example); but when the conflict is between the step-mother and a more grown-up step-daughter the tale ends with a victory for the daughter (which happens in the happy ending of 206, 207, 210 or 215). The conflicts in these tales could have other interpretations as well, like for example the “child-parent conflict”, which usually ends with a step towards independence on the part of the child, a growing-up and a break-away from parental dependence. This conflict has a sublevel of father-son and father-daughter conflict - the father-son conflict develops usually around inheritance and less often around marriage while the father-daughter relationship is always somehow linked to betrothal and marriage matters as we have already seen. Campbell considers the father as a sign for the future tasks of the son and for the future husband of the daughter (Campbell, 1960: 136). Bly sees a certain “possessiveness” that mothers typically exercise on sons and fathers – on daughters (Bly, 1992: 12), but in Japanese tales the conflict or inter-action between mothers and sons is very rare. The ultimate conflict “father-son”, so often and well developed in epos for example (see also Bochkov, 1995: 23), is not cultivated in Japanese fairy tales. Scherf comes to the conclusion that in some 50% of the tales there is a father-son conflict

78 in the centre, in 20% - father-daughter or mother-daughter, and in 10% a mother-son conflict (Scherf, 1983: 163). Thomas Schweizer speaks about the differentiation of the responsibilities between man and woman in family and claims that there are two different domains – that of the woman, the home, the inner family level and that of the father, the social, outer family level (Schweizer, 1990: 23). So, if man and woman in family have strictly defined, recognisable functions in fairy tales too, then to that of the father unquestionably belong betrothal, marriage, inheritance, care after child’s death, salvation. And although on the surface it might seem that the figure of the mother is better developed in texts, both figures of the father and the mother appear equally in the collection, yet their importance is revealed in different situations and therefore it is difficult to compare them on one and the same scale. For the figure of the father in Japanese tales the authority is typical, as are his responsibilities for the well-being of the whole family, the decision making for his children, the necessity of his presence for the life of the family members, his weakness in the conflict with the stronger figure of the step-mother. Fathers are generally caring and good, no duality of their personality comes into question; there are no step-fathers either. On a psychological level the relations father-daughter are more common than those of father-son, unless inheritance is concerned. Severe father-son conflicts are rare in Japanese tradition, while father-daughter relations in connection with marriage represent the predominance of the father in the decision making – he is the one to set tasks for the suitors, not the daughter as in other folk traditions, thus a patriarchal social structure could be traced in tales; in such tales the authority of the father in a strong patriarchal family order is also visible (Roehrich, 1981: 1037). Yet, whether the Japanese society has been really a patriarchal society and whether exactly this patriarchy is reflected in Japanese tales is very questionable (Seki, I: 84). Fathers are in complete charge of betrothal, choice of an heir or salvation of the child, for which mothers act very rarely if at all. Father’s absence is a turning point in the narration and brings often disasters sometimes irreversible to the rest of the family35.

35 For an additional picture of fatherhood, father’s role and importance, his relations to other family members, his functions in the family and in the society from the Palaeolithic age up till present day see also Lenzen 1997: 87-113.

79 3.1.4. THE SON The character of the son appears as a main or as a secondary figure in almost every fifth tale in the collection, but it is not as clearly outlined as that of the brother, the partner, or the father. The son is a transitional character and “melts” into the roles of the brother, the bridegroom and the hero, and this inexplicitness comes probably from the fact that he is on his way of becoming, but is still not a fully developed man. The realisations of the son in Japanese tales will be studied in three main directions – the desired son, the undesired son (the step-son) and the son and his parents. It could be said also that to a certain extent the character of the son covers the space between all other strictly outlined male figures in family. In folktales the child is very dependent on his/her parents and the main conflict or theme is how to break this close bond and give the independence to the child (Blasius, 1980: 1240-1242). The paths for this “breaking of the dependence bond” Blasius arranges in five groups: 1. Parents in need (poverty or danger) send children away from home; 2. Step-mother sends step-children away or tries to kill them; 3. Enchantment through the fervent desire of a child, “no matter what”; 4. Setting tasks to children to test them or choose an heir among them; and 5. Killing a child as a sacrifice to save someone else’s life. We shall see that for the Japanese tales the last group is entirely missing, the first and the fourth we have examined inside the study of the father while the second and the third correspond to the grouping in the present research.

THE DESIRED SON After prayers a son is born but he is not quite the same as other children. He is half way between this and other worlds, between his past and his future, between childhood and maturity. No foe can beat him, no task is unaccomplishable, no miracle – impossible. He is the hero – a child in the beginning, a man in the end. Eleven stories outline the figure of the son in this cycle. These are “The flute player” (119), “The mud-snail son” (134), “The frog son” (135), “Issun Bōshi” (136), “Thumb boy” (137), “The son with the hatchets” (138), “Torachiyo Maru” (139), “The strong Tarō” (140), “The snake son” (142), “The peach boy Momotarō” (143) and “The life and the death whips” (168) – all of them united by Keigo Seki in one chapter – supernatural birth36, which actually is the key motif in all the twelve stories. First tales 134, 135 and 136 will be examined.

After long persistent prayers of a childless couple, the woman gives birth to a mud-snail (134), a frog (135) or a Thumbling (136). The first one outwits a rich man and receives his daughter’s hand, the second gets love-sick because of the rich man’s daughter and the third one gets hired at a rich man’s house. The rich man’s daughter marries the mud-snail, then she loses him in a swamp and then he is transformed into a handsome man (134); the frog-son gets lost, is swallowed by a fish and the moment his father cuts the fish, the frog turns into a handsome young man and then marries the desired woman (135). The hero of tale 136 accompanies the rich man’s daughter to a temple and defeats on the way a fearful oni. With oni’s magic mallet, the Thumbling turns into a handsome young man and marries his beloved. In the first place our attention is drawn by the childlessness of the three couples, which is a motif very strongly present in folk narrative. From a social point of view childlessness is considered a sad misfortune to the family concerned (Roehrich, 1981: 1028-1029) and it is an extreme situation which brings to miracles (Horn, 1983: 15). On the other hand the community kyōdōtai is supported by the existence of the three generations – old people, grown-ups and children and in tales of old couples this balance is heavily destroyed. All such childless characters are described as conscious workers, very industrious people, who work for their

36 The only exception here is tale 168, which belongs to the group of Magic-treasure tales.

80 existence with all their energy but have no ability for reproduction on this stage (see also Miura, 1992: 209-210). The desired child comes after prayers to ujigami – or the family deity, and this fact explains one of its typical characteristics – the supernatural birth. This child is born by human parents but is also a god’s child (Seki, IV: 307; and Ozawa, 1994: 110), a hero and a half-god (T. Takeda, 1992: 257), although controversial views also exist, saying it cannot be directly proved that such children are really children of gods (Sakurai, 1996: 185-6). The desired child is born usually a boy in Japan, which reflects the family system37, where the male heirs were important for the social system of the past (Seki, I: 119 and Seki, IV: 307). In their strong desire for a child (“even a mud-snail will do”) the old couple determine in a way their future child, this “Verwuenschung” especially through parents’ fervent desire of a child “no matter what” plays a very crucial role later on child’s destiny (Blasius, 1980: 1408). One of the most typical features of the children born after fervent prayers is that they all grow-up very quickly. This shows us their connection to otherworld, where we know that time runs differently from human time, these children are bestowed by gods and belong partly to the divine world (see also Momota, 1999: 55-56). Such extraordinary children are born very small or from a small thing, but this is another way to emphasise the contrast between their initial small figure and the following extraordinary growth (Yanagida, 1998: 317-319). Another feature of the male character is the way in which he wins the hand of the desired woman – in 134 he plays a trick (he shows intellectual strength), in tale 135 he falls love-sick (he proves emotionally very active) and in tale 136 he performs a courageous heroic deed (thus active physically). So the heroes are very active and prove in different ways their adequacy to their desire – to marry the most beautiful. As typical bridegrooms they undergo the psycho-physico-intellectual testing. Next comes the transformation – for the mud-snail it takes place near mud, swamps and water sites. No obvious help from outside is received, the miracle happens simply on its own as if the exact moment is reached when the mud-snail is to become a human being. In some versions there is a hint that the mud-snail could have been swallowed by a bird and then the transformation comes. The frog is swallowed by a fish; it goes under water then back to earth. The transformation takes place with the help of the father of the frog-son who liberates him from inside the fish. The moment of the transformation is exactly the moment of the appearance from inside the fish, the miracle again happens without obvious cause or performer. The last hero wins himself the object to make him handsome and normal, but it has not been his initial aim – he fights with the oni to save the girl, he is then swallowed by the monster - the miracle takes place when the girl takes the magic mallet and hits with it on Thumbling’s head – then only is he transformed. As we have seen, the motif of the animal-son who is swallowed by another being is the step towards his humanisation. Being swallowed up directs our attention to the initiation rites as possible interpretation for the phenomenon. The elements we have studied in the above tales all speak somehow of initiation practices – the hero is swallowed and then reborn; the tests of courage, strength, endurance, etc. in the episodes with beating an ogre are a part of the ritual; the donor as the instructor, the one who helps the initiated also exists in some of the tales (see also Seki, I: 125-135). The transformation to a human being on the other hand allows the marriage to succeed – it

37 Similar tales with a main heroine – an animal or a thumbling, are not recorded. Two examples of supernatural birth of girls though exist in “Uriko Hime” (144) and “The bamboo maiden” (146), none of which follows any similar pattern like the one studied here.

81 is not the type of an undesired supernatural suitor like in the tales already studied, the marriage is happy because the male character turns human in the end, no initial enchantment is implied, unlike similar stories in European folk heritage38. The hero needs to prove himself adequate for such a marriage – either by showing wits, strong emotions, courage or by performing a heroic deed but he makes it clear that he deserves the hand of the desired woman. These three tales show outstandingly well the inner development of the male character coming to its climax in the hyperbolised outside change at the end of the tale, where one could say that only after reaching maturity, a human shape could also be reached. The next three stories 136b, 136c and 137 are very similar to the previous ones, but here no final transformation takes place, and this fact seems to be of great importance. Tale 136b starts and develops similar to tale 136a, but in the end the Thumbling does not turn into a normal man - he stays as a servant in the rich man’s house. It is not because his deed is less important than the one performed by the hero in 136a, but because he wishes himself no human-shape, he is satisfied with his new job. Significant here seems also the fact that the Thumbling does not wish to marry the girl. Indeed, marriage proves to be the key condition for the transformation – the marriage needs a handsome and adequate husband and the tale provides it with the transformation. When no marriage or a desire for it exist, then no transformation is necessary even if the main character performs a heroic deed. The next two examples only strengthen this conclusion. The hero in tale 136c is a Thumbling who goes into the world and overpowers two oni-monsters from whom he takes away magic objects – everlasting money-, food- and clothes-boxes. Coming back home his family prospers but he remains a Thumbling. From all the characters in the previous tales, this one seems the most heroic beating whole two powerful oni-devils, but the condition is not sufficient to grant him human shape. Again a possible explanation is the lack of the marriage element – for a successful marriage the hero needs his human shape, while for a successful and rich life alone with his family he does not need it, so he is not granted one. Very much alike is tale 137 which corresponds most of all to the European versions of Thumb-boy. The child is desired and is born supernaturally. He is a thumbling, he undergoes various adventures just like his European brothers and is carried back home by the wolf, who is killed by the father and the Thumbling is taken from inside it. What matters is his adventure which makes him learn, experience and develop but despite his growing-up he is not given human shape in the end, most probably because he does not need it for a successful life with his parents at home. In the next three stories 119, 139 and 140 no transformation takes place and all the three characters are born in a supernatural way after fervent prayers of childless couples.

In tale 119 the son born after fervent prayers plays flute outstandingly and the daughter of the Moon wishes him for a husband. They marry. After some adventures their marriage proves very successful. The hero of tale 139 is born from a red flower after the fervent prayers of his childless parents. He undergoes various supernatural adventures (with supernatural objects, anti-heroes and a visit to the Kingdom of Death), proving he is courageous, clever and good in heart. In the end he becomes a socially high stated man. Tale 140 tells the story of a boy born supernaturally from the dirt of his parents. His supernatural birth gives the hero supernatural power with the help of which he saves a girl from death in a village and is granted her hand as a reward. In these tales the marriage is not an aim; it is a logical conclusion of the performed heroic deed; the strength of the hero is extraordinary and is defined by his supernatural birth. Through the heroic deed this supernatural hero deserves his place in human world, he is accepted as husband and recognised as respected man; through the heroic deed the main character wins his place in human world although he initially does not belong to it. Everywhere

38 The male characters appearing in the shape of animals in tales like “Der Froschkoenig” (KHM 1) or “Schneeweisschen und Rosenrot” (KHM 161) are definitely enchanted human beings who, when the spell is taken off, return to their initial shape of human beings.

82 in the Japanese folklore a child born after prayers to gods becomes often a hero, an important person, a famous priest (Seki, IV: 307) just like in the cases above. The next story is not typical, but is interesting as a proof to the above conclusions. It is revealed in “The snake son” (142).

After fervent prayers a childless couple is granted a son – a normal human being. But with the time he gradually changes to become a big serpent. The parents take good care of him till the snake grows strong enough and then they leave him in the woods where he belongs. In times of continuous drought the parents of the snake-son go into the woods to ask their son for help. Grateful for all their previous care, the snake sends seven days of rain to the earth, giving joy to everyone. This tale is unique in the collection and is more representative for the bond between a human and a being of nature, but it is examined here to support some of the previous conclusions. Especially the fact that no animal in his animal shape can stay in the world of the human beings – he needs either to transform into a human being or to go back to his realm. The supernatural children that come to the people (the childless couple) as a matter of fact for a short period resemble the supernatural wife who comes for a short period of time to the man – unless they transform into human beings they rarely stay together with the people; they reward kindness, but leave human world in the end. The last three stories in this sequel are “The son with the hatchets” (138), “The peach boy Momotarō” (143) and “The life and the death whips” (168) which are united by a common feature beside the supernatural birth – the visit to the island Onigashima.

The first character is a strange boy born with hatchets instead of legs and planes instead of arms. His father is forced to send him away from home. The son reaches Onigashima, kills the chief oni and takes away his treasures. The hero returns home and is cured. In 143 a boy is born from a peach, he grows quickly, he is clever and strong. One day he sets off on a journey to Onigashima together with some animal-friends, because he is indirectly destined to a fight with the onis. He wins over the oni-monsters and takes away all their treasures, he goes back home and is granted a happy and wealthy life with his family. In the last tale the illegitimate son of a landlord dreams he will overtake the kingdom so the father afraid for his throne tries to kill the illegitimate son by drowning him in the river. The son survives and reaches Onigashima where he beats the monsters and takes their magic objects. Coming back home he uses the objects, kills the landlord and takes his place just as predicted. In these tales the child is not normal in the beginning but having undergone heroic adventures he deserves a better fate and is granted normal shape which makes him adequate for human society. It is the heroic deed; it is his heroic nature which helps him go back to human society and encourages his development into a normal human being. No transformation takes place, because the hero is a human being, it is only his supernatural birth which makes him different from the others. In Momotarō’s action one finds no real motivation, which speaks of some possible “mission” of this hero who is half way between the human and the supernatural worlds. The trip to Onigashima is the crucial moment – it is the only and sufficient condition for the hero to change his life for better. Seki concludes that what the heroes of this cycle undergo by their visit to Onigashima, is the same for the heroines who go in the forest to gather chestnuts and meet there the divine donor (Seki, I: 327; see also Gherts, 1984 for the forest-motif in fairy tales). The three characters are courageous, clever and strong, initially they do not belong to human world, they somehow oppose its status quo but after the trip to Onigashima and the heroic deed there, they win the opportunity to come back home as winners and as adequate to human world. In general, for all characters studied above, it is the going away from home which consequentially prepares them for the human world. This going away from home makes it possible for them to grow-up, to change and to deserve their place in human world as heroes. They all possess something unusual, something supernatural – their birth, their abilities, their look. In all tales there is certainly an element of miracle, of magic objects and transformations, of supernatural beings met and defeated. All characters undergo their trip to maturity and all of them end up with their acceptance in human world – through transformation, magic, heroism;

83 all of them start their way from the point of being sons to end up at the point of being heroes and losing the magic of childhood such heroes enter the reality of maturity.

THE STEP-SON The step-child suffers from his second mother, but his suffering is only a prelude to his success. If he has grown-up enough he will not only survive this suffering, but he will be the winner in the end. Now let us examine the situation in a house with a step-mother - the step-child tales are called by Miura “success-stories” (Miura, 1992: 17). In Japan the folktales with a step-mother motif are usually divided into two groups - the first is the so-called mama-musume or step-daughter cycle where one can see the development of the main female character from a girl to a woman; the corresponding success story for boys is actually the hero-cycle eiyū-tan39. The tales of the conflict between step-mother and step-children are found all around Japan, although there are also theories that the step-child tales are introduced from other countries (China and India). The one absolutely necessary element for these tales is the presence of both – step-child and step-mother, the step-child could be female or male, in some cases gender really does not matter at all, but the presence of both parts defines the cycle, and even if all other elements, motifs, plot structure and development change, the presence of these two remains. Miura sees these tales linked to the initiation rites and the growing-up of young people. He goes back to “Kojiki” and “Nihon Shoki” to find the motif there - the conflict most often appears between royal brothers and is linked to inheritance, political power and authority. Very interesting to him appears the fact how the story develops from male protagonists (in “Kojiki” and “Nihon Shoki”) to female protagonists in folktales (Miura, 1992: 90-119), but in the present study we shall consider the two belonging to two separate “genres” – the family theme and the inheritance theme. In “The two brothers” (178) and “Ash-boy” (211) the step-mother drives away her step-sons (two in 178 and one in 211), but this conflict brings only good luck to the sons. They undergo numerous adventures but their destiny is a successful one. So, the step-mother plays the role of the catalyst for the individual development of the step-sons. She plays exactly the same role which plays the father when he sends his sons away from home to make them learn a profession and grow-up to become heirs of his estate. In “The step-child and the ghosts” (186), “The step-child and the well” (220) and “The step-child and the fish” (222) the actions of the step-mother are supported by the birth of her son. Thus, seeing the step-children as hindrance to the success of her own son, she tries to kill the step-child in 186 and 220, or she just mistreats the step-son in 222. In all cases the step-children succeed and if the step-mother sends her son to follow their success – he fails. This pattern is more typical for the tales about step-sisters and Seki draws the attention also to another link - that between the stories of the step-child cycle and the neighbour-cycle, especially in the presence of the magic donor, the success of the good and the failure of the evil character in the end of the story (Seki, IV: 14-27). In many cases though, when the step-child is very young the story often ends with his death and “success is less the issue than mere survival” (Thomas, 1989: 42), as we have already seen in the stories 216, 217, or 219 for example. Ozawa thinks that such stories show only that

39 On the theme of step-child’s success refer also to Kamiya, 1984; Ōchi, 1984 and Niikura, 1991.

84 the element of catharsis, coming with the resurrection of the dead in similar European tales is much weaker in Japanese folklore (Ozawa, 1975: 18). On the other hand one cannot really speak of assassination attempt always on the part of the step-mother - many examples of teasing in fact describe in an exaggerated way everyday duties like cleaning, bringing water, bathing, gathering chest-nuts, etc. The tales of the step-child usually belong in the same time to the marriage-cycle and could be described as tales of initiation of the main character no matter male or female (Seki, IV: 140-2). As we have already mentioned, the tales of this relationship could be generally divided into two – the step-mother type (opposing the step-daughter) and the step-son type. The conflict in these stories is pure parent-child conflict according to Seki (Seki, I: 141), growing up and reaching independence is accompanied with a conflict with the parents. On one hand as we can see, there is no hint that the step-mother and the father are in bad relations, for example, the conflict between the step-mother and the step-children comes only from the conflict parent-child in the process of growing-up. As Seki notes the conflict is neither psychological, nor social, it is simply intra-family and is connected to the growing-up and breaking away from parental dependence. The girl grows up to be a woman and gets out of the control of the mother and the father, she competes with the mother as a woman and simultaneously slips away from the family structure. The boy becomes a man, on one hand he is independent to take his own decisions, on the other - he is ready to become the head of the family and the estate, substituting the father. The process could be defined as getting out of the control of the parents and becoming finally independent.

THE SON AND HIS PARENTS The son saves his parents and is saved by them, the son searches his happiness and brings it back home, he is good, he is respectful and loyal and caring, he loves and is devotedly loved, he is tested and punished, and sometimes dishonoured. This group unites probably the most representative realisations of the male character in his role of a son, but the pattern of classification is very scattered and inhomogeneous. Nevertheless the uniting feature is the relationship between a son and his parents - his mother, his father, or both together. One of the leading motifs in the Japanese tales of a child and its parents is the so called oya-kōkō – respect towards parents, filial piety. This strong moral code is reflected in folktales and compared to other cultures the conflicts between children and parents in Japanese oral tradition are relatively few. First of all we shall see the relations of the son and his mother in “The ghost-mother” (147), “Raised by an eagle” (148), “The magic geta” (171) and “The grateful wolf” (228). To start with let us take the character of the son who takes care of his sick mother represented in tales 171 and 228.

In both tales the son is expected to act and save his sick mother. In tale 171 he goes to his rich uncle to ask for help to buy medicine for his mother but he is refused help by the stingy relative. The son receives magic money-giving wooden clogs from a stranger. The uncle steals them away but misuses them and is punished, the son gets the geta, becomes rich, cures his mother and they live happily thereafter. In the last story the mother is ill; the son saves a wolf and it becomes his servant – with the time the house prospers and the mother gets healthy again. In both stories the son does not perform a heroic deed but deserves magical help, which he receives. His strong and decisive desire to help his sick mother is rewarded not only with a medicine, but with a treasure to last for all their lives – in this way his inner virtues, his good-heart, his need more than his real deed are in fact rewarded. In the above stories we can see the important element of the missing father too – as the father is absent from the plot it is

85 the son who should take over the action, the son should compensate for the lack of his father. The next two stories communicate another side of this character - now it is not the son who saves his mother, but the mother who saves her son.

In tale 148 the father is missing when the mother loses her child who is carried away by an eagle. The mother searches for her son for years and finally finds him in a monastery. The tale ends happily with a reunion of the two. Tale 147 in its both variants 147a and 147b tells the story of a pregnant woman who dies before the child is born. She is buried. Every night after the funeral a woman comes to the village to buy milk. The villagers get suspicious and follow her to see she is a ghost feeding a baby in the night. In the morning the villagers dig up the grave to find beside the death body of the mother her sleeping child. The child is taken to a monastery and becomes a famous priest40. Contrary to the previous two examples, here it is the mother who looks after her son. The father is missing again and it seems that exactly in such an extreme situation, under these hard circumstances the narrative finds the best way to describe the relations between the mother and the child. The attitude of the dead mother proves the strong relation between a mother and her son. In both cases the son becomes a famous priest, he grows up without his mother in a monastery, but the care and feelings of the mother are very well represented. Different is the bond between the son and his father. In some tales we can follow the well-known maxim “like father - like son” like for example in “The fox-wife” (116), “The octopus-chōja” (124) and “The magic listening hood” (164b).

Tales 116 and 164 tell the story of a man who saves a fox, marries her and they have a son. When the son grows up, exactly like his father years before, he helps an animal. This deed of his good heart brings him luck – he becomes prosperous, famous and happy. The stories prove the importance of kindness, which seems to have passed from the father to his son – their good hearts toward animals bring them both success and happiness. The tales do not follow any close relations between the two, but show the importance of the “genetically” transmitted kindness. Same law is valid also for the father and the son in 124, but the effect is different. The story tells us how the father gets scared of some ghosts one evening and how on the next evening the son gets scared in the same way. Here not kindness but fear seems to be “genetically” transmitted. Tales telling of a son saving his father’s life similar to the son saving his ill mother do not exist in the collection, but a father trying to save his son is found at least in one tale - “The prophecy of the deities” (151). The story is about a father who has overheard deities to destine his son to death. The father tries hard to change the destiny of his son, in most versions though the destiny turns stronger than father’s desire, but of course there exist also versions in which the hard efforts of the father are rewarded with a successful outcome for the son (see also Maruyama, 1984). In the end of this group two more tales will be discussed showing the importance of the parents, even dead, to their son.

In “The younger sister is oni” (249) the parents appear in the shape of mice to warn and help their son escape from the oni-ogre. In “The sister and the brother” (180) the parents appear in a dream to give advice to their daughter how to bring her brother back to life. The caring nature of the parents towards their children is very well represented in these two tales, where the link child-parent exists even after the death of the parents. It must be noted that in such relations it is the parents helping the child - as we have seen, parents tend to save child’s life, while the child, only in the case of a lonely mother (absent father tales) is in charge

40 For a further interpretation of the tale see also Tsutsumi, 1995.

86 of salvation. More about the relations of parents and sons we can find in the tales of the three brothers, like “The three brothers” (173), “The three brothers and the treasure” (174), “Stupid but first born” (175) and “Going for wild pears” (176). We have already studied profoundly those stories; here few important conclusions need be mentioned. The first three tales develop around the situation of a father’s choice between his three sons as to who will inherit father’s estate. Inheritance is a central theme in many tales, it is usually the father who tests and decides who deserves to take over his estate, to take over his functions. Tale 176 is about a sick mother and her three sons. Here, just like in the single son to a sick mother tales, the sons are expected to act as their father is absent and there is no one else to save their mother.

87 3.2. MAN IN SOCIETY

3.2.1. PATH TO WEALTH Male characters in tales about the rich and the poor The theme of the rich and the poor is one of the most exploited themes in fairy tales - it lingers in various ways between the lines of all tales, be it mixed with other themes like brother competition, step-children relationship or successful marriage of a suitor inside the family tale cycle, or in pure rich-poor type tales – in direct conflict between opposite characters or in the reward-and-punishment tales. In the next pages we shall see some forty-three tales which are the most representative part of all the tales in Seki’s collection which use the motif of getting rich. There are few key rules about the problematic which are considered very important for the following classification of tales and tale characters. When a rich and a poor character oppose each other, it is an opposition on social and economic grounds; the poor is always the good one and the winner, while the rich – the loser and the negative figure in the tale. But the path of becoming rich is never negatively charged when a poor man fights for wealth or becomes in an active or a passive way rich. So, being rich and becoming rich in tales are two very different dimensions, reflecting “a kind of social critic” (Seki, I: 311; also Jason, 1988: 140). The rich characters are rarely positive but the poor getting rich are never negative. The difference is only in the state of being rich and the process of getting rich. This important side of the phenomenon should always be kept in mind throughout the present chapter. Another important side is the fact that marriage almost always comes with wealth acquisition; even if the tale directly does not say so, the main character marrying a rich man’s daughter gets promoted into the society of rich people. So, although acquisition of riches is not the main theme in marriage-type tales it comes as a logical result in the end and even if getting rich does not necessarily speak of marriage, getting married in most of the cases means wealth acquisition (see also Kawamori, 2000: 108-9). According to Seki the sub-groups of getting-rich tales are four – neighbour-type, role of destiny, the guest at New Year’s Eve and trips to other realms. Additionally Seki adds that there should be made a distinct separation between getting rich through magical object and getting rich in neighbour-type tales where there is a moral message (Seki, I: 329-330). This was one of the reasons to take the second away from this chapter and form with them a separate one. Taking into consideration the classification method applied by Seki in Shusei and Taisei and the sub-grouping suggested in Tsukan, the guideline for the present chapter is seen in the scheme of analysis applied already in the partner-study. As it was mentioned in the first chapter, where we saw paths for getting married, in this chapter again the four “principles” would be leading to group the types of wealth acquisition. Earlier these four paths were: getting married through physical strength, courage and physical activity; through good work of mind, by being clever and inventive; through strong emotional activity, showing kindness and active heart; and through a woman in a passive way. Now the motive of the poor who gets rich will be studied in exactly the same four directions. Seki believes that the tales are about two things – getting married and getting rich and explains the second part as a natural necessity after a successful marriage to support economicly the family, so acquisition of riches is the next logical step of an already married man (Seki, I: 308). So it will be interesting to see that Seki’s suggestion is strongly supported by the structure of the tales – the paths to the riches are exactly the same as those towards marriage.

88 Excluded, though mentioned, will be tales which indirectly imply this theme, use it not as central in the plot, such as marriage-type tales, relationship of man and animal, intra-family conflicts and others. Moreover, as many of the stories studied here have already been presented in the previous chapters, the plot will be very briefly described omitting the unimportant for this theme details.

BEING BRAVE - GETTING RICH THANKS TO PHYSICAL ACTIVITY The one to win a wealth is the hero, who relies on his courage, strength and authority. His physical activity helps him succeed. In the first part of this group of tales we shall pay attention to tales where the main characters manage to win from supernatural beings magic objects which make them rich and bring them happiness like in “The son with the hatchets” (138), “The peach boy Momotarō” (143), and “Issun Bōshi” (136).

In tale 138 the young man with hatchets instead of feet and planes instead of arms is chased away from home, he goes to the island of all oni devils, kills the chief-oni and manages to take all his treasures. He comes home very rich and respected; later on his limbs regain normal shape. The strange son born from a peach in tale 143 also goes to the island to conquer the devils. He manages to overpower all oni and take all their treasures. He comes home very rich and respected. In tale 136 the main character is born as a Thumbling, but saves the life of a rich man’s daughter by defeating an oni-ogre and takes his magic mallet. He either marries the girl in the end (136a) or receives honours for his heroic deed (136b). The characters of the three heroes we know already from the birth of the hero cycle. We know also the characteristics of these tales – the strong desire of a childless couple, the supernatural birth, the half-divine nature of the heroes, their supernatural powers and the happy ending of their stories of growing up and acceptance in human society. These heroes show courage, intelligence and strength and acquire magic objects or other treasures which make them rich and famous for the rest of their lives. In the next group of tales “Acolyte’s dream” (156) and “The life and the death whips” (168) the main characters are again “physical heroes”.

In tale 156 a student is expelled form school by his teacher for refusing to share his first dream in the New Year night. He reaches the island of oni, where he wins a magic listening hood and a life-whip with the help of which he saves two princesses and marries them, which follows exactly the predictions of the New Year dream he refused to tell. Refusing to tell his first dream in the New Year night the main character in tale 168 follows the same destiny – he is let in the waters to drown but he manages to reach Onigashima, where he kills the devils and takes their magic objects. He comes back home, kills the tonosama and takes his place, exactly as the dream has predicted. Here the battle with the ogres is of much importance - the characters show their courage and strength with which they manage to overwhelm the powerful foes. Both heroes not only prove themselves by beating the ogres, but they find their place in the world – one marries successfully, the other becomes a tonosama. In these tales very important is also the role of the dream, which will become a topic for discussion later in this part.

The last two stories “The turnip chōja” (121) and “Gambling with oni” (248) speak of no supernatural birth and no supernatural intervention before the meeting with the supernatural beings.

In tale 121 a young married man meets an oni–ogre and manages to win his magic mallet, which makes the young family prosper. In tale 248 an oni kidnaps a girl, her brother manages to win her back and take all the treasures by killing the oni and subordinating his fellows. Again like in the other cases the protagonist proves that he is a great hero and he takes all

89 the treasures from the oni to live happily thereafter. He meets the oni as if by chance, somewhere in the forest, not on their island. The first tale speaks directly of Seki’s suggestion that after a successful marriage naturally comes the necessity to support economicly the family. In all these seven tales the pattern of the story is very similar. The characters are definite heroes, the path to wealth which passes by Onigashima is a chosen path only for heroes - for those who prove their courage and physical power. No unlucky fellows are seen around, no good-for-nothings go this way - this road to wealth is reserved for heroes alone. We have already spoken about initiation rites and their possible reflection in similar tales too, which is another possible way for interpretation. The strongest argument of this theory is the battle with the oni and the following “acceptance” of the hero in human world; all characters leave home, meet the supernatural, win the battle and come back to the human world as heroes. The next three tales deal with the theme of unsettled spirits which are in fact buried treasures, the ghosts of which appear in the shape of a monster until a hero “disenchants” them and they return their shape of a treasure. The tales are “Hold fast or stick fast?” (163c), “The treasure ghost” (258) and “The temple of ghosts” (259).

In tale 163c a brave young man enters a haunted house. He hears a terrible voice of bakemono-ghost but does not get scared, takes the creature on his back and returns home. Putting the heavy creature on the ground he sees it has turned to gold. In tale 258 a traveller stops at a haunted temple. The first night a strange woman comes to scare him, then a snake, then a man. On the forth night the woman appears again and reveals that all those figures were mere ghosts of buried money. So the man is told where to dig and find the money. In 259 a samurai stays overnight at a haunted shrine. At midnight a ghost comes out singing strange verses. The samurai does not escape but thinks over the verses and following their instructions digs up the buried treasures. The treasure in these stories is given a monstrous shape, which tests hero’s courage - when the hero manages in not getting scared, he is granted the treasures in their true shape. Very often in such tales the main characters are travelling priests or religious figures, and the setting is most often an old temple or shrine. In such tales the strangers are the ones to “disenchant” the ghost-treasure while the people living in the vicinity are all very scared to visit the haunted places. So, it is the new-comer, the stranger, the passer-by who is exceptionally courageous to succeed in the end.

BEING CLEVER - THE ROLE OF MIND If one is clever enough one will succeed to outwit bad luck and win a treasure. If one is witty and inventive one will manage to become rich and prosperous. Now let us see characters who rely entirely on their brains in order to get rich. Such characters are revealed in tales “The gambler-bridegroom” (125) and “Piece of straw” (131).

The lazy Netarō in tale 125 is poor, but clever. He plays a trick on the neighbouring rich man and pretends to be a deity advising the rich man to let his daughter marry Lazy Netarō. The rich man is very unwilling to do so and gives in return a great amount of money to Netarō. In tale 131 a rich house is looking for a successor. For all candidates there is a riddle to be solved. A clever young man solves the riddle and becomes a rich heir41. In the first case it is the inventiveness which brings luck to the male character - without being a hard and diligent worker, lazy Netarō shows outstanding inventiveness, which is

41 Adoption practices in Japan differ slightly from those in other countries, because not the wellbeing of the orphan is the main aim, but the wellbeing of the family in a house lacking male or suitable and promising heirs. Hence, the adoption very often is done at a later stage, when the person is grown-up and fully developed to be seen as an appropriate future head of the family (see also “Adoption” in EJ).

90 rewarded in the end. In the second tale the wits of the protagonist bring him luck and wealth - no miracle is necessary but only a clever mind to answer the expectations of the master. Unlike the partner using his wits, the group of getting rich clever protagonists is not large - explicit are only two examples, though implied cleverness could be seen in many other tales. For example, brothers are tested for their wits to become suitable heirs (tales 174 and 175); showing cleverness suitors win rich brides and rich life in the already studied tales 126, 129, 130, 132 and 133. In both groups getting rich is not the main theme – in the first it is brothers’ competition, in the second – marriage, which are the central themes of the tales, but parallel to the main theme the acquisition of riches as theme also appears. In these tales cleverness and good work of mind bring wealth to the main character no matter whether he opposes his brothers, finds a wife or simply wishes himself to get richer.

BEING KIND IS REWARDED - THE ROLE OF HEART To be poor is already a blessing. The surest path to success is that of the humble, kind, good-hearted and honest man. He is rewarded for his inner virtues by deities, gods, grateful animals or ghosts. We have come to the largest group of tales which reveals the path to wealth in the Japanese case. In the first part of this group we shall see tales where the main characters receive the benevolence of supernatural beings that reward their kindness, helpfulness, modesty, sincerity. The protagonists suffer from poverty and need help and a supernatural being rewards their good heart.

In tale 146 “The bamboo maiden” a man finds a girl in a bamboo stem and takes good care of her for many years but she is a sky nymph and before leaving forever for her heavenly realm she rewards him with a magic rice-box and a magic ladle, providing food and well-being for the rest of his life. In tale 169 “The fish-bead” a poor fisher meets two men who pity him and give him money. The man loses part of the money and a year later he meets the strangers again and they give him this time a piece of lead. The old man gives the piece to his neighbour’s children to play with. To repay his kindness the neighbour-fisher gives him in return a fish. The poor man opens the fish to find inside a treasure ball which he sells for very good money. A year later he meets those two friends and thanks them generously. The man in both tales is rewarded for his inner virtues – for his honest life and caring nature. In the first case the supernatural being rewards him with what he needs most – food, necessary for survival; in the second tale the nature of the two donors is not necessarily supernatural, we are not given any hint of their origin or true face, but they decide to help twice the poor man. In this tale we are not shown the true merits of the main character to deserve a reward, but it is his natural kindness and modesty which are rewarded. The man does not need to act at all, no actions on his part are necessary; not his deeds but his inborn good heart matters.

In “The jizō with the straw hats” (203) a very poor man has no luck on the New Year’s market. On his way home he meets a straw-hat maker and they exchange the unsold goods. In the snowy cold evening the first man sees six jizō-statues alongside the road. Having pity on them, he puts on their heads the five acquired hats; on the sixth jizō he puts his own head-towel. Together with his wife he goes to bed hungry and at mid-night they wake up to see that the six jizō-statues have come to bring them food and money as a gratitude for the old man’s kind deed. In “The three brothers and the treasure” (174) the eldest of three brothers gives his last coins for the reparation of four temples. In return he is granted by the deities a never-empty bottle of sake, a self-cooking pot, a never-ending piece of cloth and a mortar producing money.

The compassion which the man shows towards the jizō-statues in the first tale is paid back by them with what the man needs most – food and money to make the existence of his family easier. The grateful donors are of supernatural origin; they give their supernatural blessing and

91 help those who cannot make it alone in the human world. In the second tale the man is again rewarded for his generosity towards temples, he is given magic objects which will end his sufferings and poor life. In this tale again we can see that kindness and generosity towards a representative of the heavenly forces is always rewarded - on one hand it is a sign of gratitude of these heavenly forces, but on the other - a reward for the inner virtues of the character. The next group of tales speaks of presents from gratitude to the man who saves an animal - “The fox-wife” (116), “The magic listening hood” (164 a, b), “The dog, the cat and the ring” (165), “The wolf’s eyebrow” (172), “The child from the Dragon Palace” (223), “Urashima Tarō” (224), “The grateful wolf” (228), “The magic tea-kettle” (237), and “The grateful fox” (239).

In tale 165 a good man saves a dog, a cat and a snake. From gratitude the snake rewards him with a magic ball giving one golden coin every morning. The neighbouring rich man steals the magic object but the animals bring it back to their good-hearted master. The character of this tale undergoes different states. He starts poor and becomes rich, then again poor and ends rich and happy. His initial kindness towards animals makes him a hero deserving a better fate - the man saves their lives, so he is chosen to receive their gratitude in the shape of a magic object.

In tale 172 a very poor man goes into the woods to let wolves devour him and end his miserable existence. But instead of devouring the man, a wolf rewards him for his kindness with his own eye-brow, with the help of which the man is able to see the true face of people and soon becomes a respected and rich man. In tale 228 a man helps a wolf suffering from injuries. On his way back home the man is attacked by other wolves but the saved one appears and chases them away. The wolf stays with the man and gradually the man’s family prospers. In 237 a very poor man asks a badger for help. The badger helps the poor by transforming into a tea-kettle to be sold. The man receives very good money, the badger escapes. The inner personal values seem to matter in these tales – in the first tale no deed from the man is seen, nevertheless he receives a reward for his natural kindness and his good heart. In the second tale the actual path to wealth is not clear – the family prospers just because of the presence of the wolf in their house. The man has saved its life, so the grateful animal makes it possible for the man to get richer. In the next tale we see a path to wealth without direct indications about the worthiness of the man. It is enough that he is poor and probably with good heart which makes him eligible for help. Now, let us see tales where the main characters are granted magic objects from the Sea Kingdom.

The stories of tales 116 a, b and c are about the sons of a fox and a man. Each of them saves a turtle and receives as a token of gratitude a magic listening hood from the Sea Kingdom. The male characters either cure a princess and are richly rewarded by tonosama or are able to understand animal’s language and prosper much in life. Tale 164a tells the story of a man who saves a fish to be killed. He is granted a magic listening hood. With its help the man overhears sparrows and digs up a treasure. Then he overhears crows and heals the daughter of a tonosama, for which he is given her hand. The story in tale 164b is similar – the son of a man and a fox saves a turtle and is taken to the Underwater Kingdom where he is granted a magic listening hood. With its help the young man saves a king’s son from death and becomes a very respected and rich person. The structure of the plot in the above tales is composed of few very important motifs - the good-hearted deed in saving an animal is rewarded with a magic listening hood with the help of which the protagonist starts to understand animal language. With the acquisition of the magic object begins the real prosperity of the characters – the new ability brings them money, wife and highest social status. The men can keep this new happiness or may lose it, as it happens in the following stories.

Tale 223 tells the story of a flower vendor who throws all unsold flowers in the river as a present to the Sea Princess. One day he is rewarded by her with a magic boy fulfilling all wishes. The man returns home and becomes

92 very rich, but he feels very uneasy about the boy who looks dirty. He asks the boy to wash himself clean but the boy refuses, so the man drives him away. The minute the boy leaves his house, the place turns again into a poor dwelling and the man – a poor flower trader. In 224 a fisher saves a turtle from cruel children. One day he is taken by the turtle underwater and is given a magic listening hood and a box fulfilling wishes as a reward for his noble deed. The six days spent underwater turn 800 years on earth. Using his magic listening hood the fisher Urashima overhears birds and cures the sick tonosama for which he is rewarded. The servants of the tonosama ask Urashima to lend them the box. It does not work in their hands, the servants open it – a smoke flies away from inside the box and it is no longer magic42. The human characters are rewarded for their long poverty and good heart and are given the opportunity to become rich, but the men fail to keep the given treasure – in the first tale becoming rich, the man enters the world of rich men who can easily lose their money the instance they prove unworthy of it. In the first part of the tale the man is on his way of getting rich, just like all similar characters studied before, but in the second part of the tale his figure belongs to the undeserving rich characters. This character describes best the striking difference between the attitude of the narrative towards the process of becoming rich and the state of being rich. For him personally the tale does not change anything – he starts poor and he finishes poor, somewhere in-between he is granted the chance to be a rich man. For a certain period of time he lives in a parallel world created by the magic boy, but he fails to keep his happiness43. In this tale an honest and good person develops, melts into his opposite and becomes greedy and bad, so transforming in the end of the tale in the greedy-neighbour type of character (Satake, 1990: 110). In other versions of the second tale which is probably one of the most popular Japanese tales, the fisher receives only a box which is never to be opened. Going back to his world after so many years, Urashima opens the lid in despair, a smoke flies away and the man in a second gets as old as the passed three-hundred earthly years and dies. In this tale just like in the previous, a human being is praised for his good heart and is given the opportunity to change his life but the man fails being unable to keep what he is given by the supernatural forces.

In tale 237a a very poor man saves a fox from cruel children. To repay his kindness the fox turns into a tea-kettle for sale. The man sells it and receives good money for it. The fox escapes during the night and after some time appears again before the man as a beautiful woman. This time she asks him to sell her as a prostitute. The man receives good money for her and after a year of service the fox escapes again. The fox appears before the man again and asks him to sell her after she turns into a horse and then disappears forever. The man - already a rich chōja - builds a temple to celebrate the kindness of the fox. In 239 a young man saves a fox. The fox disappears for some time during which the man works hard and becomes rich. After years he meets again the fox in the shape of a beautiful woman and they marry. The fox-wife brings a magic never-ending bottle for sake, so the young couple opens a road restaurant. The restaurant is very successful, but the wife asks her husband to sell her as a prostitute in Edo. Unwillingly the man follows his wife’s instructions but without her the restaurant declines quickly. The man decides to go and seek his wife but he finds her just passed-away. The man is rewarded for his good heart and inner beauty and becomes what he could not have even dreamt of – a rich man. The only gratitude he can show after becoming so rich is the establishment of a shrine to celebrate the fox that has helped him get rich. Not so lucky is the fellow in tale 239 though his fate is not much different - the tale moves from getting rich tales to the tales of marriage between a man and an animal. Like in the marriage-type tales the man gets in touch with beauty and success but he fails to keep it by his side and his wife leaves the human world. Yet in this tale a very interesting element comes to our attention, explaining well

42 According to Miura, the story of Urashima is found in many of the classical collections like “Nihon Shoki”, “Man’yōshū”, “Urashima Koden”, many picture books and others and is considered one of the most famous tales in Japan., but many of its elements and motifs told recently do not exist in the old versions. The main character is named and placed in time and space and thus the tale of Urashima Tarō cannot be seen as a pure fairy tale, it is much closer to legends (Sh. Miura, 2002: 114). 43 The divine boy could also be associated with gohō-dōji beneficent deities protecting the Law. The belief in the divine boy as a guardian of the house says that so long the boy stays at the house, the house would prosper, but as soon as he leaves or is driven away, the house declines (see also Blacker, 1963).

93 the enormous gratitude of animals - the fox explains that if the man has saved her life, her life belongs to him; the man is the master of the saved animal from that point on. The next group of tales includes “The snake-wife” (110), “The fish-wife” (113), “The Sea-princess” (114), “The crane-wife” (115), and “The grateful fox” (239), all of them already studied in the chapter about the marriage between a man and a non-human wife. In these tales the male characters are given the opportunity to become richer and happier but they “gamble” it away. Because of a kind deed performed by a poor bachelor towards an animal in need (a snake, a turtle, the Sea-princess herself, a crane or a fox respectively) the saved animal appears in the shape of a beautiful woman to become wife-from-gratitude to the poor man. The man breaks his promise and watches his wife discovering her true shape and making her obliged to leave human world; or he just overuses her kindness and loses her in the end. The man is definitely poor in all stories, he is a good person, kind to animals, he is their saviour, thus he deserves their gratitude, but in the same time he is the one to spoil the happiness – with his curiosity, misunderstanding and even somehow too soft masculinity. The tales in general bring the male characters nothing – they start poor and they end poor. In all tales we have just seen, one very strong feature comes to our attention and this is the reason for the reward - it is the kindness, the good heart, the natural inner beauty that are rewarded by the supernatural or the animals, not the deed or the actual happening. Studying similar Grimms’ tales, Bottigheimer comes to the conclusion: “…to elicit reward, good deeds must proceed from the goodness of the individual, and it is, further, the individual’s goodness, rather than the good works, that supernatural creatures reward with great and unexpected wealth” (Bottigheimer, 1987: 136). We have seen that in Japanese tales this rule is exactly the same – no deed is necessary for a reward, it is enough just to have a good heart and to possess inborn kindness. Next comes compassion. Initially it has been believed that compassion comes directly from the Buddhist religious influence, but then some studies on European tales proved that the motif is wide spread outside the countries of Buddhism. Studying the heroes of Grimms’ tales Maria Tatar discovers the importance of compassion – all characters possess it and it is the sure condition for their success. It is the compassion towards creatures of earth, water, sky (with other words: creatures of nature), that matter most of all (Tatar, 1986: 95–114). And this is exactly what we have seen in the above examples. Now, let us move to the heroes of the next cycle who prove their eligibility for wealth by believing in dreams and this faith helps them earn a heavenly reward. The tales we shall see are “The chōja of the bought dream” (158), “The dragon-fly chōja” (159) and “The bridge of miso-sellers” (160).

In 158 two fellow traders take a nap in the open. While the one is sleeping the other sees a fly entering his nose. When the first trader wakes up he retells a strange dream of a buried treasure. The second trader asks him to buy this dream. Following the instructions given in the dream, the man finds the buried treasure. In tale 159 a wife sees a fly while her husband is sleeping and when he awakes asks him what he has dreamt of. He retells a dream of a lake filled with sake somewhere in the forest. The wife urges her husband to search for the lake and they really find it. They open a pub and become very rich. The main character in tale 160 dreams of a bridge where he would hear something very useful. He goes there and waits for five days for the miracle to happen. Curious, one of the local people asks him what he is waiting for. The local laughs over the dreamer and says that he personally does not believe in dreams and that few days ago he had a dream about a man called so-and-so who had a treasure in his backyard. The first man thanks the stranger and hurries back home because he recognises his name in the retold dream. Digging his yard he finds the promised treasure. In all these cases the supernatural element is strongly present in the sacred message of the dreams. What the characters need to prove in order to become rich is their sincere belief in the truth of dreams. None of them is terribly poor, none of them becomes an important man after the miracle, but all of them get richer and happier. Their activity here is spiritual – it is the belief which is tested and the main characters prove their utmost trust in the truth of dreams. Sakurai

94 would probably disagree with the fact that these tales have been arranged in the chapter of “getting rich” cycle. For him much more important in such tales is the trip of the soul, getting rich is just a final result (Sakurai, 1996: 194). And he is right as far as the emphasis of the tale falls – the centre of rotation for this tale is the dream, not what follows, but we have said already, that “getting rich” thematic is one of the most exploited in fairy tales and it permeates almost all thematic cycles.

In 155 a man prays in a temple for better destiny. A voice advises him to take the first thing that his hand touches when he steps outside the temple. The young man goes out, falls unexpectedly on the ground and his hand touches a piece of straw. The man takes the straw, wraps it around a fly and gives it to a crying child. In return he receives broad leaves to make sweets. He exchanges the leaves for a horse with a sweets-trader who needs them. With this horse the man reaches a house, where he stays. Some time later the master of the house goes abroad and leaves the young man in charge of the house. The master never comes back and the young man lives happily as a rich and important person for the rest of his life. The character here is tested for his belief, he is helped by a supernatural presence, but he works out his own happiness. His belief is a key element for his success, but it is the successful actions of the protagonist that take him to wealth – from a piece of straw he has really managed to win himself a great future. The supernatural here helps those characters who believe in it.

THE ROLE OF THE WOMAN A man needs a woman. The woman is the one to bring success and happiness and wealth. The woman, like a goddess, comes to man to make his life a better one. As all tales that follow have already been studied in the chapter about the man as a partner, their stories will not be retold again, but the main paths for acquisition of riches through female characters will be noted from another point of view. Typical representatives are the tales “The charcoal burning chōja” (149), “The crippled chōja” (150), “The prophecy of the deities” (151), and “The potato chōja” (153). The male characters here are all without exception poor, they are the poorest men in all of Japan, their existence is miserable, isolated and hopeless. But then a human woman comes to them advised by deities and they marry despite men’s poverty, terrible look or signs of stupidity. The moment she enters his house the woman finds a treasure somewhere – a treasure that has always been there but the man has never recognised it as such. The poorest man in Japan becomes the richest, although all the time he has been in possession of gold or diamonds, the value of which he has never known. It is the wife to open the door of happiness for him. The man in these stories is totally passive, he has no merits at all but he ends as a happy man, a happy husband and a happy chōja. The percentage of the tales is not great so this path to wealth, although existing, is not given much space in folk narrative (for more see also Petrova, 2002).

* * * In all the tales studied in this chapter we have seen how a poor man is given the chance to get rich. The outcome of these stories is very typical - it is a happy ending for the deserving poor man. The paths towards the happy wealthy future are four, the same four we have seen studying the paths of the man on his way to marriage – physical activity, intellectual activity, emotional activity and passivity, when a woman moves the plot. From all the paths towards wealth, the work of heart seems to have the greatest importance in Japanese tales. The belief that the good and kind will succeed, that the caring and compassionate towards animals man will be rewarded, that the fervent believer will find his happiness, seem all very explicit in

95 Japanese tradition. From the quoted about forty tales, twenty-three belong to the group of the emotional activity, showing that the path towards wealth lies in the heart of every human being and sooner or later the one who deserves will be rewarded. Again we shall mention that the destiny of the rich, when opposed to the poor in this cycle follows the strict rule – he is to lose his wealth. If a man gets rich but this wealth spoils him he is destined to lose – he starts with the destiny of the poor but good-hearted and he is given the chance to improve his fate, but once being already rich he belongs to the group of the rich men, destined to lose their wealth if they are ungrateful, too greedy and cannot appreciate correspondingly their new state. It is important also that marriage comes almost always together with wealth, or with other words - wealth acquisition is a natural continuation of marriage. Where there is no other way to wealth, the supernatural intervenes to help those who deserve, but in the same time there exists the perception of strict social division - happiness in Japanese folktales does not mean getting a higher social rank, the poor men do not necessarily become kings or tonosama. Happiness in Japanese case is simple and of everyday origin, it is an escape from hunger and poverty, without the romantic perspectives of high social ranks, or as Seki says: “The poor does not need much to feel happy, even the smallest things make him happy” (Seki, I: 311).

96 3.2.2. THE NEIGHBOUR The figure of the neighbour and the theme of the relationships among neighbours appear in twenty-two tales (about ten percent) of the whole collection. Seki arranges the pure neighbour type tales in a separate chapter, unifying tales 184-196 and calling them “The old man next door”, but figures of the neighbour or similar relationships appear in tales included in other chapters too. As it was said earlier, the neighbour-cycle derives from the rich-poor cycle and is its best representation in fairy tales. On one hand it is the reward-and-punishment tale, on the other it is “the Japanese answer” to the numerous sibling-competitions in the folk narratives around the world (Seki, IV: 304-305). The tale of the kind and the unkind girls, which is well-known in Europe is not widely distributed in Japan but the scheme of the plot is well known all around the country, the difference comes only in the choice of main characters – in the European versions (like KHM 24: “Frau Holle” for example) the main characters are female (step-sisters) and the conflict could be defined as inner-family conflict while in the Japanese examples the characters are male neighbours. The fact that the Japanese choose neighbours as acting characters for these tales is not by chance, but is a reflection of social realities in the Japanese village. The neighbourhood is a social unit with much importance for the historical development of the country (Kawamori, 2000: 122). All around the world the heroes of similar tales are usually middle-aged, married, middle class members; the reward is always wealth, which represents the wishes of the middle class. In these tales one can see an attempt for restoration of social justice, establishment of economic equality, punishment of wrong doers of diverse sorts and levels (Jason, 1988: 139-147). Very typical for such tales is the principle of equilibrium (Jason, 1988: 142) and the tendency to take the protagonist from a less desirable state in the beginning of the tale (poverty) to a more desirable one (wealth). From a narrative point of view these tales use one of the most favourite forms of contrast in fairy tales - the pattern of unsuccessful imitation (Luethi, 1987: 97). The contrast created by the figures of the greedy and the evil neighbour plays a substantial role which only strengthens the positive figure of the good old man. There is no possible middle-point for the characters – they are either positive or negative, either successful or failing (see also Inada, 1996: 177). The title of the cycle “The old man next door” suggests already that the emphasis of the tales would probably fall on the neighbour-antagonist rather than on the actual protagonist and that more details could be expected exactly from him.

UNSUCCESSFUL IMITATION The one is poor, the other greedy. The one is kind, the other cruel. The one is helped, the other often punished. The one’s good heart can win a fortune, the other’s cruel way can lead to ashes. Nine tales in Seki’s collection represent the most renowned group about neighbours - the unsuccessful imitation when the good neighbour acquires wealth or fame in some way and the negative neighbour tries to follow his steps but fails in the end because of too much greediness, stupidity or evil heart. The structure of these tales is formed by two parallel, opposed moves following each other; this pattern is used by the sacred legend and etiological tales too, emphasising the moral lesson of these tales. The model of unsuccessful repetition is a special case of the more general model “task set and accomplished” (see also Jason, 1988: 137-138). First we shall pay attention to the tales “The land of jizō” (184), “The kingdom of rats” (185), “The forbidden chamber” (196b) and “The golden axe” (226).

97 Tale 184 tells the story of an old couple who by chance let go a small bean which rolls down a hole in the ground. The old man goes searching the bean and finds in the underworld a jizō-image who gives him two pieces of advice – how to win some garments from underworld rats and how to win money from oni-devils, so the kind man comes home rich. The greedy neighbour is pushed by his wife to try out his luck, but because of rudeness and stupidity he does not succeed. In tale 185 an old man on his way to the market place meets a rat who asks him for a favour. The old man agrees for which he is presented the choice of a box among two – a bigger and a smaller. The old man takes the lighter one and going back home finds inside a treasure. The greedy neighbour tries to go the same steps with the precise aim to win a treasure. He fails and goes home all in bleeding scratches. One of the important elements in these tales is that the good man is not looking for any reward or wealth – he is just searching a lost bean or he is doing a favour. The two opposite men receive only a piece of advice – what is to follow depends entirely on each of them. The good heart of the first old man makes him help the rats and receive a reward, his cleverness and resourcefulness helps him gain oni’s money. The evil neighbour despite his rudeness receives also the same piece of advice but he fails all by himself twice. The kindness, the friendly behaviour of the first man and his modesty win him a treasure while the greediness, the love of money and the stupidity play against the imitating neighbour. Another interesting element is that the wife of the neighbour visits the good couple and learning the way to success convinces her husband to follow the steps of the good old man – so she is the initiator of his following actions.

In tale 196b a wood-cutter is cutting wood when he suddenly meets a woman who asks him not to cut the trees around because of her house. She invites him to her house, shows him twelve rooms and asks him not to look in the second room while she is away. The man obeys and his respectfulness is rewarded with a magic self-cooking pot. The greedy neighbour tries to go the same way but his curiosity takes over and he opens the forbidden chamber – in the same instant a bird flies away from the window and the man finds himself under a tree with no house around. Tale 226 tells the story of two wood-cutters. The first one – very poor but good-hearted, modest and hard-working man, drops his axe in a river while working. He prays to the water deity to give him back his axe. The water deity presents first a golden axe, but the old man refuses to take it because it does not belong to him, so the deity rewards him with the golden axe. Gradually the family prospers and becomes rich, celebrating every year the kindness of the water spirit. The evil neighbour tries his luck by throwing on purpose his axe in the waters. Seeing the golden axe in the hands of the deity, the greedy neighbour demands it as his. The water deity disappears in the waters and gives back neither the old axe, nor the golden. The family of the greedy neighbour gradually declines. In the first tale we meet a single supernatural donor testing the two men for their respectfulness and lack of curiosity44. The reward provides the good man with eternal escape from poverty and hunger, for the unsuccessful antagonist there is no reward, but no punishment either – he just receives nothing in the end. Again we see the figure of the wife initiating the actions of the imitator. In the second tale the protagonist’s personal values are tested, his kindness, modesty and sincerity are on trial; greediness is deservedly punished in the case of the neighbour. The good old wood-cutter even before meeting the deity says that “...who works hard and is good in his heart he will have a good destiny”, and this is exactly what happens later in the story. The donor is invisible in “Hold fast or stick fast?” (163b), though in all other aspects the story is similar to the above ones.

A good-hearted poor wood-cutter is working in the mountains when he hears a strange voice asking: “Shall I stick fast or hold fast?”. The man answers that whatever pleases the voice is welcome, so he receives a treasure. The greedy neighbour follows the steps of his fellow, but as the voice asks him the same question, the neighbour answers: “Oh, stick fast, stick fast as much as you can!”, thinking of the treasures sticking to his body, but his greedy wish receives only tree resin covering the man from top to foot. The interesting element different from the above examples is the invisibility of the donor -

44 According to Noguchi in the forbidden chamber motif the curious women in Grimms’ tales are much harder punished than the curious men, probably because women’s curiosity is equal to sex desire. The taboo in this motif is the same all around the world, but the person who breaks it is dealt with in different ways, according to gender (Noguchi, 1991: 90). In fact in the present collection such breaking of taboo is typical for male characters, not for female, which is a great difference, compared to Grimms’ collection.

98 it is only a voice, coming from nowhere. Then again greediness is severely punished, painfully punished, while modesty and hard-working seem to be the virtues praised in the story. The theme of the unsuccessful imitation develops also in “The old man who has swallowed a bird” (188), “The bamboo cutting old men” (189), “The old men with the bumps” (194) and “The monkey’s jizō” (195).

The story in tale 188 is about a good old man who hears a bird singing beautifully and asks it to sing on his tongue. He swallows it by chance, but the bird advises him to mount a tree and wait for the procession of the tonosama. The procession comes; the old man pats slightly his belly and the bird inside sings wonderfully. The tonosama rewards the man with money. The greedy neighbour tries to do the same by swallowing a bird on purpose, but when tonosama comes, the bird does not sing, the old man falls from the tree and the landlord orders him be punished. In tale 189 a good old man swallows by chance a bird, which stuck in his bottom makes interesting sounds when pulled for the tail. The clever wife advises her husband to wait for the local landlord’s procession. The procession comes, the old man pulls the tail of the bird and it makes funny sounds which please the lord and he rewards “Japan’s best breaking wind man” with money. The neighbour decides to imitate him and without swallowing any bird farts terribly in the face of the tonosama who cuts with his sword the buttocks of the disrespectful man. Here again we can see the good-hearted, hard-working, sincere and modest man opposed to his greedy, lazy and evil-hearted neighbour. The donor is split into two – on the part of the supernatural the role is played by a bird, but the real money award comes from a human being – the local landlord tonosama. The part of the donor in the second tale is split even to three – the role of the advisor is played by the wife, the supernatural help is given by the bird and the material reward comes from the tonosama. And even if the virtues of the good old man are not so obvious, very distinct is the greediness and stupidity of the neighbour who tries unsuccessfully to imitate his fellow. Another element in this story is the figure of the waiting for her husband greedy wife, who seeing her husband in the distance, thinks that the red colour which in fact is blood, is a new red horse awarded to her husband and she burns hastily all old clothes in expectation of a new wealth, so the couple is left with no fortune in the end.

In 195 a man suffers from the constant mischief of few monkeys, so he decides to play a trick on them. He makes himself look like a jizō-sculpture and when the monkeys come they take him for real, carry him with great respect to their forest temple and bring numerous presents to honour him. The greedy neighbour decides to follow his actions but fails. His wife meanwhile burns away all old clothes as she expects new wealth. The figures of the two men in this story are very well described – the good one is clever, resourceful and patient, he is not driven in his actions by some greed, but because he wants to get rid of the mischievous monkeys; he is not rewarded, he wins himself this wealth. The other man on the contrary is driven by his greediness, he is impatient to get rich and he is not as clever as his neighbour. Again the greedy couple ruin their chances of getting rich all by themselves - the wife initiates the actions of her husband and destroys their present wealth in her greedy expectation of the new one.

In 194 two neighbours suffer from the same uncomfortable tumours on their cheeks. They go to a temple to pray, but celebrating tengu-devils pass by and make them both dance. The first man dances cheerfully and pleases the devils; to see his expression better the devils take away the tumour from his face. The second man dances as well but he is so afraid of the devils that his dance is awkward and he bursts out in tears. The devils are disappointed and hurt: “Do we look that terrible that you are so afraid of us?”. To punish his disrespect they stick the taken away tumour to his other cheek. The men in this story suffer from the same inconvenience, they share the same lot and they are given the same opportunity to change it. The donor here is supernatural – tengu-devils, who are shown as merry celebrating creatures who wish a good amusement. But it is not only the awkward dance that displeases them; it is the disrespect of the second man, his fear in front of their faces that is punished. The dance in front of the ogres could be seen also as an act of making deities happy, as a ritual dance for the deities (Miura, 1992: 267). Other versions of the same story praise the resourcefulness of the first man who tricks out the devils. Ozawa suggests

99 that the neighbour fails going to otherworld because he does not know its rules (Ozawa, 1998: 6), but such tales could be seen also as a typical joke, which only aims to make the listener laugh, with no further meanings in the plot. Unsuccessful imitation is the theme of other tales with no neighbours acting. In the tales “Chestnut-gathering” (212) and “The step-child who went for strawberries” (213) the main characters are a good and a greedy step-sisters; in “The tongue-cut sparrow” (191) and “The crab-shell” (193) the good old man is opposed to his greedy wife. The structure of the plots of these four stories is very similar to the already studied ones, only the personage system differs. Nevertheless attention deserves the fact that the predominant part of such stories in Japan chooses the opposition of two men - a good and an evil, a modest and a greedy, a clever and a stupid, it is a story of two opposite characters who belong to the same social strata and not the conflict between the rich and the poor, but the problem of moral values is central. All nine examples studied above make clear the opposition of the two characters – sharply outlined is the greediness, rudeness, stupidity, evil-heart, fear and disrespect which are punished sometimes very severely in the end of the tale. Not so clearly the tales reveal the virtues of the rewarded men who show some natural kindness, gratefulness, cleverness, respect, modesty and diligence; they are considered worth of praise for one merit or another, but the punishment of the undeserving imitators who driven by greediness try to win a wealth they are not worth of is much more important. Because of the more distinct images of the negative figures compared to those of the positive ones it is believed that although the two opposing characters are both main, it is the negative ones who occupy the central part of the tales, it is because of them that the story exists and it is them who carry the message to the audience.

MISUSED OR STOLEN OBJECT The poor man gets suddenly a magic object which makes him rich. The greedy fellow steals it away, but his success is not to come. The magic object helps the one who has deserved it and not the one who stole it away. The next six tales continue the theme of the opposition of two neighbours but concentrate not on the attempts of the second to imitate the first but on his definite active action to gain profit from an object possessed by the protagonist. The main theme is no longer the imitation, but the conscious action towards acquisition of a magic object possessed by the good and misused by the evil. We shall see also that the magic object does not work for the antagonist, it is magic only in the hands of the protagonist; and in contrast to the previous examples the conflict here is between the rich and the poor. These stories are “Luck from heaven, luck from earth” (161), “The salt-grinding mill” (167), “The magic geta” (171), “The man who caught wild geese” (187), “The man who made trees blossom” (190) and “The turtle at New Year’s Eve” (204a).

Tale 161 tells the story of a poor old man who dreams how a great luck will come to him from heaven. While digging his field he finds a pot filled with golden coins, but he says his luck is due to come from heaven not from earth, so he leaves the pot in the ground. The greedy neighbour who is watching all this digs up the pot but instead of coins, he finds snakes inside. To take revenge, the evil neighbour throws the contents of the pot down the chimney of the good man. In their flight the snakes turn to gold. This time the luck falls from heaven as predicted and the good old man accepts it. No obvious donor exists in the tale, though the dream implies the existence of the supernatural. The man is put to trial, but he passes the test by believing in his dream and by not taking possession of what is not predicted. The greediness of the neighbour though is obvious - he is not punished but he is not rewarded either. The magic pot works only for the man who

100 deserves and does not work for the one who does not. The next two stories 167 and 171 are very similar to this one but they all use different main characters.

In tale 167 the story tells about two brothers – a very poor but good one and a very rich but greedy one. The first is rewarded with an advice by a stranger and then with a magic all-producing mill by supernatural beings kobito. He gradually prospers; his brother steals away the mill but misusing it, drowns in the sea unable to make the mill stop producing salt. In tale 171 a very greedy uncle refuses help to his nephew. An old man gives the boy magic wooden clogs producing money. The uncle forces the boy to give him these geta but misuses them and turns into a fly. The boy gets back his magic geta and lives happily thereafter. The pattern of the stories is the one of the neighbour-type tales but the characters are brothers or other relatives. It seems that in such stories it does not matter in what blood relationship the characters are, but what kind of men they are – a poor and a rich, a kind and an evil. The conflict here is more between the rich and the poor, not between brothers or relatives. The pattern is strictly based on economic and moral grounds and cannot be seen as an inner-family relationship. Miura sees also the link between the tales of neighbours and the tales of opposite brothers, but he bases his conclusions on mythological examples (Miura, 1992: 225-244). Interesting is the question what has made the brother-motif transform into a neighbour conflict. Taking for granted that the initial story was about brothers two possible reasons might be found to explain the transition. The first is the neighbourhood reality in early and Middle Ages, when few houses united in a neighbourhood were much dependent on each other for good or bad, forming a small community. The second possible reason for the decrease of the brother-motif in similar tales is the strong blood relationship, developed during the centuries of influence of Confucianism and Buddhism. Another important feature of this plot is that the magic object works only in the hands of the man who has deserved it. The magic geta are misused by the greedy uncle and they punish him, the magic mill works correctly only in the hands of the positive character. Similar attempt to benefit from something that the character does not morally deserve is revealed in the next stories too.

Tale 187 tells the story of an old couple who take care of a white dog. The dog shows the old man a place with honey. The neighbour borrows the dog but maltreats it and the dog shows a place full of stinging bees. The evil neighbour kills the dog. The good old man finds a tree grown from the dog’s grave, he cuts it and makes a trough. The trough produces anything wished for. The neighbours borrow it but get only dung to any wish, so they burn it. The good old man gathers the ashes left in the hearth. Blown by the wind they make the wild ducks paralysed, so the old man can catch them easily. The greedy neighbour follows his steps but falls from the roof. His wife, waiting for the ducks, kills him by mistake. In tale 190 a good-hearted couple finds a dog in a peach. The dog shows the man a place with treasures. The neighbour kills the dog after it has shown a place with reptiles. The magic tree grown from the dog’s grave is made into a trough giving golden and silver coins. Horse and cow dung is presented to the greedy couple who burns the trough. The ashes gathered by the good man make trees blossom which pleases the tonosama who generously awards the old man with money. The greedy neighbour tries the same but the ashes get in tonosama’s eyes and the angry lord punishes severely the false hero. The stories use three times the element of the borrowed magic object by the greedy neighbour and its unsuccessful use. The positive character of the good old man and his wife are left again in shadows - all they need is food to survive and this is what they get every time from the dog and its reincarnations in wood and ashes in the first tale. The neighbours are driven from pure greed, their cruel hearts deserve a punishment, but it comes from their actions alone. The greedy and evil couple ruins their life alone and no outside punishment is needed in the first tale, while in the second the figure of the tonosama is given the right to reward the good and punish the greedy. The magic object (the dog and its reincarnations) in both tales seem to choose alone for whom to work.

101 In 204a a poor old man presents unsold goods to the sea king. In return he finds a speaking turtle. He shows it to the local landlord and is richly rewarded. The greedy neighbour borrows it but it does not sing in front of tonosama, so the evil man kills the animal. The good man buries the turtle and from its grave a pillar as high as heaven grows up and from above gold and money rain. The greedy neighbours borrow it but instead of gold, dung falls and kills them. Here again we have the intervention of the supernatural to praise the kindness of the good old man, in the same time the magic object (the turtle and its shell) works only for the deserving person. The punishment for the greedy is severe - he has killed and he is killed in the end – the contra-action is equal to his act of assassination. Very interesting in such stories is the severe punishment of the antagonist. Jason says about the value system of the tales that: “… the genre of fairy tale has its peculiar system of values and norms independent of the narrating society’s value system. […] The system forms a pseudo base for the evaluation of the heroes’ deeds. Pseudo-base, for it is not actually that hero A is so righteous and therefore rewarded, nor that hero B is so unambiguously morally wicked to be punished as severely as he is punished […] Thus hero A is not rewarded for his virtue but, as the typical fairy tale hero, marked from the start as the hero, who is endowed with the ability to contact the Marvellous and with innate knowledge of the rules of the marvellous world” (Jason, 1988: 145). Death punishment in the above examples is given to those who have tried to kill earlier in the plot; death punishment comes as a contra-action to an assassination attempt on the part of the greedy and evil neighbour, so although severe, the punishment seems just. There exists of course a cultural code system for understanding a certain pattern and whether a deed is considered negative and deserving a very severe punishment depends also on the understanding of good and evil in different cultures. Or as Lagler says: “The actions are evaluated and interpreted as successful or unsuccessful by the cultural context which is its referent at the same time. This can be either another person or a society, which shares the same formula for understanding and interpreting the given situation” (Lagler, 1996: 447). The character of the negative figure is also interesting. He possesses two typical characteristics – he is greedy and stingy on one hand, and lazy on the other. Before Edo period the good and the evil old men were called also mameji – coming from majimena (serious, hard-working) and gedaiji, or namake-mono (a lazy person) respectively. Originally the tale does not name the two characters good and evil, or envious, but rather emphasises on the industriousness of the one and the laziness of the other. The valence of definition adjectives is: good is equal to hard-working and not greedy, while evil is equal to greedy and lazy. In all these stories the negative figure of the greedy and cruel man deserving punishment is central - the story is about him, he is the active part in the contrast-making; the natural kindness, good-heart and modesty of the other man are rewarded without need of further proof, sometimes these virtues are not even mentioned directly. The opposition is very clear – the good against the evil, the kind against the cruel, the modest against the greedy; the polarisation is strong; the choice of main characters does not vary significantly. The setting of the tale is often around New Year; the occasion on which neighbours learn about the acquired wealth of the couple next door is very often when the neighbour’s wife comes to borrow fire. The figure of the neighbour does not necessarily bear only negative taste but possesses a positive picture too. In the tales “The step-child and the well” (220) and “The cat and the iron lid of a pot” (253c) we can see a realisation of the figure of the neighbour in a different light. The character is not main, but a supporting, episodic one. The figure of the neighbour here is positive – he is a good advisor in 253c and a saviour of the protagonist in 220a, but we shall come back to these two tales once again when we speak about male helpers, advisors and donors.

102 3.2.3. FIGURES WITH SPECIFIC SOCIAL ROLE People of higher social status and religious figures In this chapter we shall examine few very distinctly outlined Japanese fairy tale figures like tonosama, chōja and samurai, as well as a number of religious figures who play a considerable role in the folk narrative. All figures are derived from the socio-historical reality in Japan and represent existing hierarchy and social organisation, they are social creations but they carry also their folktale conventionality to which special attention is paid hereby.

TONOSAMA, CHŌJA AND SAMURAI The term tonosama linguistically means “lord”, “sir” or “mister” and refers historically to the local landlords in the provinces of ancient Japan, tono is a person of high social position and the word is applied also to address one’s master or other persons of higher status. In Edo Period (1600-1868) daimyō local feudal lords and hatamoto direct retainers of the shogun were called also tonosama (for more see also Gensen, 1988: 1679). The tonosama in Japanese folktales, as we shall soon see, plays exactly the same role which the European “King”, “Koenig” and “Zar” play, but for a number of reasons is preferred to the figures of the emperor or the shōgun, which are in fact analogues of the European royalties - the most important reason is probably the strong belief in the divine origin of the emperor, so a certain conviction still exists that no one can intervene in the royal inheritance system. Naumann calls him the nobleman, the Master, the Landlord, the Latin dominus (Naumann, 1998: 305), the tonosama is the authority in a certain region or the master of a certain house.

The chōja (literally: “a great man”) will also be a topic in this chapter, as this term describes a rich and prosperous person; a wealthy, virtuous and lucky man; chōja is called also the head of the family or the clan (see also Gensen, 1988: 1518). Socially chōja is above the plain folk, above villagers and farmers which in the Japanese case means above the predominant part of the population. The chōja represents the local society, the village (Komatsu, 1987: 93) and as such is most often chosen as a main acting character or a desired state for the acting main characters.

In the folktales the difference between the characters of tonosama and chōja is sometimes very obscure due to the fact that both figures are considered wealthy and possess certain authority among the plain folk. The main difference comes from the more visible social power of the tonosama, who often plays the reward-and-punishment institution in tales, while the chōja represents often the desired state of richness to be acquired by the main acting character. In certain cases both characters are interchangeable - often in marriage type tales or when rewards are given, but it rarely happens in cases of punishment and death penalties – only tonosama is in power to act in such situations; on the other hand when getting rich, one usually becomes chōja, not tonosama. The rich but cruel and greedy negative characters are also usually chōja, not tonosama; while the second are never charged with such an extreme negativeness; tonosama is always respected; chōja is sometimes laughed over. But first let us examine the character of the tonosama. The figure of the tonosama is rarely the main character in tales, he lacks description of his appearance and is not named. Despite his episodic functions in many tales, there are only two groups of tales in which his character is best represented – tonosama as suitor and tonosama as judge, giving prizes and punishments. The first one corresponds to the family realisation of the male character and will be studied in eight tales of the collection; the second one corresponds to the social realisation of the male figure and will be studied in six tales.

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Tonosama as suitor Tonosama is a man who can admire a beautiful and clever woman and want to marry her, just as all men do. For him marriage comes quickly because of his authority – he does not have to pass numerous tests like his colleagues, yet his higher status does not offer him always an immediate success. The most explicit stories, revealing the positive image of tonosama as suitor are “Mountain in a dish” (206), “Ogin and Kogin” (207), “The girl without hands” (208) and “The elder sister - white bird” (215), all of them of the step-child cycle.

In 206 the tonosama wishes to marry one of two step-sisters. He makes them compose a poem in order to choose the more talented among them. In tale 207 the step-mother tries to kill her step-daughter, who is saved by her step-sister. Both of them escape from the cruel mother and are accepted in the palace of the tonosama. In 208 a tonosama marries a chased away step-daughter despite her cut-off arms. After numerous adventures, proving the great love of the husband towards his wife and son, the family is reunited and lives happily thereafter. In tale 215 the step-mother kills her step-daughter and substitutes her with her own daughter to marry the tonosama. After some troubles and misfortunes, the killed girl is brought back to life and she marries finally her chosen one. In the first two tales we see the figure of the tonosama in his powerful state – he is the one to choose between two girls (206) or he is the saviour of two step-sisters (207). Unlike normal suitors he does not undergo any tests in order to marry the desired woman. The same happens in the next two tales too (208 and 215), but there the strong figure of the step-mother is opposing the authority of the bridegroom many times. So, there is comparatively equal distribution of possibilities – his unquestionable authority in (206 and 207) as opposed to the long way towards final happiness as suitor (208 and 215), where his social authority does not provide him immediate success. The beauty of the women concerned is the initial and most important motor for his actions, which makes his character just the same as all similar characters of suitors; he is thus much more human than authoritarian, much more male than royal. In the next tales “The Sea-princess” (114), and “Picture-wife” (120 a, b), tonosama tries to use his authority in order to take the woman he wants, but in all cases he loses the “battle” with the existing husband of the woman. In these tales a poor, honest and good-hearted man is married to a supernatural, divine wife of incredible beauty; tonosama wants her and puts the husband in front of impossible tasks (114 and 120b) or simply takes the wife away by force using his authority (120a). In the three cases it is the wife who acts for her husband and opposes the tonosama; she wins the competition in tale 120b, tricks the tonosama and reunites with her previous husband taking the place of the tonosama in tale 120a or fulfils various tasks set by the master but finally gets angry at his persistence and destroys the whole region (114). Similar motifs are not found with other suitors – it is only the authoritarian tonosama who tries to “steal” the wife of a common man. The three wives are supernatural – a normal human husband of a normal human wife is not able to oppose master’s authority – to match him one needs supernatural presence and help, and with the supernatural fighting against him, tonosama is destined to fail, his authority is not as great as the power of the supernatural women concerned. But there is one more example, belonging more to the jokes than to the fairy tales, which describes how a tonosama, dazzled by the beauty of an accidentally met bride of another person, steals her and deceives the bridegroom. This happens in the tale “The cow in the bride’s palanquin” (122), where the tonosama is completely supported by the plot and is not scalded for his authoritarian behaviour. He acts as a clever and inventive suitor and wins his bride in this way; it is not exactly his authority that matters here, but his good work of mind.

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Tonosama as judge The tonosama is the one to praise and punish, the lives of his subordinates lie in his hands, of him justice is expected and no bias. He is the one to reward the heroes and punish the criminals. He is the highest possible human authority. The previous examples referred to tonosama in his male realisation, now his social one comes to attention. In all five tales the figure of tonosama appears in the end, as an episodic but very important one for the outcome of the tale. In “The old man who has swallowed a bird” (188), “The bamboo cutting old man” (189), “The man who made trees blossom” (190) and “The turtle at New Year’s Eve” (204a), all belonging to the neighbour-tale cycle, two main characters oppose each other – a good hearted poor man and his cruel and greedy neighbour; the prize for the first and the punishment for the second are decided in the end of the tale by the tonosama. The tonosama is amazed, pleased, happy, amused by the first man and his magic abilities and he gives him a big money reward; the unsuccessful imitator makes the tonosama angry, displeased, dishonoured and he is punished even with death. Not the supernatural being which appears in the first part of these tales brings the reward and the punishment, but the human figure of the tonosama - so, tonosama is seen as a court of justice for human deeds. In many tales the character of tonosama is present, but not as explicit as in the tales above - he remains the one who awards the hero or punishes the criminal in the end of the tale like in the next few examples:

In “The tree spirit” (109) the tonosama richly rewards the magic abilities of the heroine. The tonosama in “The fox-wife” (116a) rewards the magic abilities of a young man saving the life of his wife. The salvation from drought makes the local landlord give a great prize in “The snake son” (142). “The peach boy Momotarō” (143) subordinates few oni-devils and despite all the treasures received from them, the hero is rewarded additionally by the tonosama. In “The magic listening hood” (164a) the tonosama gives the hand of his daughter to the man who cures her illness. In “The three brothers and the ghost” (177) the young hero is richly rewarded by the tonosama for the heroic deed he has performed. These illustrative examples of the reward-function of tonosama are only few from many, but they clearly show us that together with the money-reward the tonosama gives, very important for the heroic main characters is the honour they receive – the present of the tonosama is actually the honour, the respect. On the other hand the tonosama is responsible for the province and clearly estimates the deed of the heroes - they take care of a problem which exists in his province, thus is his problem; so the reward he gives is in fact a reward for a well done job. The punishments imposed by the tonosama are often too cruel for our understanding – he orders the failing imitator be beaten, his buttocks cut or have him even killed. Interesting to note is that whenever tonosama orders death penalty for the false hero, such punishments are given only by him – none of his usual substitutes like chōja or samurai take such extreme decisions; it is only in the power of tonosama to decide on someone’s life, which clearly shows his authority, his higher social and political status. Very good example of the typical political side of the figure is found in “The life and the death whips” (168). The story tells of two sons born to a tonosama – a legitimate and an illegitimate. The tonosama, fearing the dreams of the illegitimate son, tries to drown him. The son does not die, but after successful fight with oni-devils, comes back home and kills the tonosama, taking his place and thus realising his dream. The character of the tonosama here is very complex - first of all he plays as father, but his cruelty and decision to drown the illegitimate son comes from his responsibilities as master of the estate or the region. The

105 tonosama leaves his father’s responsibilities, transforms from a generally passive and caring father figure to a cruel father figure, acting on behalf of his social duties; yet his behaviour seems justifiable in the lights of his social responsibilities. In the same time there are so many cases when the role of tonosama is easily interchanged with that of the chōja that it seems difficult to say which realisation is typical for whom. The examples include tales of young heroes who marry a rich man’s (tonosama’s or chōja’s) daughters like in “The gambler-bridegroom” (125), “Bee’s help” (127), “The riddle-bridegroom” (130), “The mud-snail son” (134), “The frog son” (135), “Issun Bōshi” (136a), and “The two brothers” (178a). There are also tales of heroes winning themselves a place as chōja or tonosama by heroism like in “The fox-wife” (116b) and “Acolyte’s dream” (156) for example. Chōja or tonosama can test their servants and then reward the servant’s wits or loyalty like in “The girl who ate babies” (123), “The girl’s advice” (128), “Piece of straw” (131), “Yamada Shirataki” (133), “The straw chōja” (155), “The wolf’s eyebrow” (172), and “The cat’s parishioner” (230). Tonosama’s or chōja’s sons fall in love and can be love-sick for days and weeks because of beautiful women like in the tales “The snake-bridegroom” (101b), “The oni-bridegroom” (102), “Komebuku and Awabuku” (205a), “The skin that made one old” (209), and “The girl with the wooden bowl” (210). Tales about the destiny of the rich man’s or tonosama’s houses include “The silkworm deity” (108b), “The prophecy of the deities” (151), “The letter of the swamp-deity” (225), “The golden axe” (226a), “The grateful skeleton” (236a).

On the whole in such cases it does not matter whether the tale is about a chōja or a tonosama, both figures are interchanged easily and the figures of the chōja and the tonosama are given equal distribution.

The Samurai The samurai is clever, courageous and respected. He has the power of his authority to praise and punish, he has the power of his brain and heart to defeat monsters and save villages. He is not a warrior, he is not a soldier, but a wise man with much authority and never-ending courage. The figure of the samurai in fairy tales appears just in six tales of this collection. As we shall see in most cases it is interchangeable with that of the Buddhist priests, where travelling and wisdom are their main two characteristics or with that of the tonosama, whenever judgement, rewards or justice are concerned. Literally the word samurai means “a man who serves” and refers to military gentry. The samurai class appears around the 10th century and becomes ruling in the country around the 12th century. They are charged with the management of the provincial governments and their activity reaches its climax in the 16th century when they are respected also as outstanding warriors and highly educated people. With the establishment of the Tokugawa Shogunate during the Edo Period (1600-1868) two big groups form inside the samurai class – the employed and very influential half and the travelling or free samurai without lords (for more see also “Samurai” in EJ). The fact that the samurai are high-positioned soldiers tempts one to refer their folklore figures to those of soldiers appearing in the folk heritage in Central or Eastern Europe, yet the case is quite different and the figure of the samurai does not take the functions of his European colleagues. The first two tales to be examined in this chapter are “The temple of ghosts” (259) and “The questions of the ghost” (260).

106 In tale 259 a samurai rests at a haunted temple. During the night he hears strange voices singing a song, but he does not run away, spends the night and in the morning, following the instructions given in the verses, he finds treasures in and around the temple. In tale 260 a travelling samurai stays at a haunted temple. During the night he sees four successive lights appearing in the darkness and hears voices reciting riddles. The samurai does not get scared and solves the riddles, settling down the spirits and freeing the temple of its fearful ghosts. The stories here are about those unsettled spirits of buried treasures, which appear fearfully during the night and only the most courageous and clever people are destined to settle the spirits down by discovering their true nature and digging out the treasures. Common people usually stay away from such places and only “chosen” heroes can do the heroic deed. The figure of the samurai is very much interchangeable with the figures of Buddhist priests, but in any case the hero must be “special”, different, fearless and wise, in order to manage. The samurai comes to the village, he is a stranger to the vicinity, he is a passer-by, a traveller, whom the villagers “send” to the haunted temple in hope he will defeat all ghosts and spirits. The samurai is a typical ikenie live offering, but from a foreseen victim he turns out a winner and a saviour of the village. Thinking of Komatsu’s theory one can trace the typical features of this tale – a village and a stranger to this village, who is sent by the villagers as a sacrifice to the haunted temple to settle the spirits down (Komatsu, 1987). The village sacrifices the new-comer in order to survive and in fact the samurai-ikenie frees the village from the evil through his heroic deed. A bit different is the next tale “The secret lullaby” (264) where the samurai needs his courage and wisdom to oppose cruel inn-keepers.

Inn-keepers welcome travellers, whom they kill during the night and steal their possessions. The baby-sitter in the house always sings a secret song to warn the unlucky fellows, but no one understands it. Once a samurai stays at the inn, hears the song and correctly guesses the verses. He discloses the criminals and leads them to the tonosama for punishment. As we can see the samurai shows fearlessness and wisdom in dealing with the situation; he plays the role of the saviour, the hero, who opposes human criminals and this comes probably from his military image and historical duties, but the punishment of the evil-doers is left to the higher authority of the tonosama. In the next two tales “The three brothers” (173) and “The man who made trees blossom” (190) the samurai is the one to praise and punish – a role, typical for tonosama, but this time performed naturally by the samurai.

Three brothers go into the world to search for their happiness. The third one kills by chance a big serpent, which has long time tortured a village. For this exploit he is presented with a samurai title by the local tonosama. He is given the right to judge people and decide on their life. In the other tale a passing-by samurai praises the good old man who makes trees blossom and severely punishes the imitator. The tales show perfectly the interchangeability of the figures of tonosama and samurai. The second tale refers to the neighbour cycle, and is a typical reward-and-punishment tale where in the end the figure of the samurai appears to give a rich reward to the good man and to punish severely the false imitator. Many similar tales though use the figure of the local landlord in the end of the plot, so one is made to believe that the character of the samurai in this function is possible but not typical. The most outstanding example of the importance of the samurai in the society is shown in the tale “The bamboo boy” (145), where the figure is not directly present.

The tale is about a young acolyte who finds by chance a sky-boy in a bamboo. Having saved him he has the right to wish himself as many wishes as he can think of. But the young man says he has just one single wish, and it is to become a samurai. His wish is fulfilled. As we can see, being a samurai or becoming a samurai means much and such tales show

107 high respect in the thoughts of people – there are no negative images of samurai throughout the whole collection and the versions of the tales. The samurai may appear rarely but he is definitely positive, he shows courage, wisdom and authority, his figure is not linked to wealth acquisition but to justice – in human society as well as beyond it where the supernatural interferes. The samurai is respected and honoured and he is not referable in any case to the similar warrior- or soldier-figures in other folk heritages. He is never a fighter, he does not enter battles, and he does not lead wars; he does not strive for marriage either and does not act as a suitor. He is, seen in the light of the functional analysis, a transitional figure – he is bearing the functions of the referee, played by tonosama and the function of the wise man, played usually by religious figures, he shares common features and functions with the tonosama figure and the religious figures simultaneously. And in the same time he does not really bear warrior nature despite his military function in Japanese history.

As for the three figures of chōja, tonosama and samurai, it is necessary to recapitulate that tonosama is the highest human authority; he continues as if the heavenly role of the supernatural donors, praising the protagonists with earthly riches. As a judge of human behaviour, as an executive of social law, the tonosama could be interchanged with the samurai – severe punishments and death penalties though are imposed only by the tonosama. Yet to become a tonosama is rarely the aim of the main characters - they usually become simply rich people chōja. The usual aim of poor people is to become rich – kanemochi, helped by supernatural forces they can become even chōja, but they do not usually aim at the tonosama’s post.

RELIGIOUS FIGURES The priest is respected, he is wise and bold, the priest is the best advisor of all. He is a teacher and he knows a lot. He saves whole villages from mischievous foes. He is not rewarded, he dreams of no wealth yet people dream of taking his place. Richard Dorson considers the Buddhist priest in Japanese tales the most prominent human character, which character is revealed in two types of tales – the priest and the acolyte cycle, where the acolyte seeks to emulate his master, and the rest in which the priest is a serious figure, a religious magician who continually combats foxes, mountain ogres, swamp serpents, deceitful badgers and vexatious ghosts (Dorson, 1975: 244). Eder speaks of the Buddhist priest in Japanese tales as of a superior being with special magic powers, the “guru”, the teacher (Eder, 1969: 24). And indeed religious figures appear often in Japanese folktales - in the whole collection more than thirty tales mention religious figures as main or secondary characters. They are most often seen as advisors, as helpers of the main characters, but in many cases they could well inspire the run of the whole plot. It is necessary also to mention that oshō, kozō, rokubu, yamabushi, bōsama and tabi-sō are representatives of Buddhism with various religious functions and roles. In most of the cases the figures are interchangeable; the only exception is the figure of the definitely negative yamabushi. The first group of tales in which the religious figures play an important role comprises four tales – “Beating the monkeys” (256), “The questions of the crab-ghost” (261), “The monk and the fox” (279) and “The betrothal of the fox” (285).

Tale 256 speaks of a travelling oshō-priest who comes to a village suffering from ghosts residing in the nearby temple. The oshō finds out that the ghosts are monkeys who fear a certain “Shippei Tarō”. The oshō searches for this Shippei Taro (a dog), finds him, takes him to the temple and the dog deals with all the monkeys there. In tale 261 a travelling monk tabi-sō stays at a haunted temple. During the night he hears terrible noise and faces in the darkness a monster who poses him a riddle. The monk answers it correctly and the monster disappears. On the next morning the villagers find a dead crab by the temple entrance. In tale 279 a travelling bō-sama saves a village from a mischievous fox – he plays a trick on the fox and makes it enter a bag; the villagers then kill the fox. In tale 285 a bō-sama helps a

108 family to get rid of a fox, which has enchanted all of them by pretending to be a human wife. The roles of the priests vary, but could be summarised in their advisory and life-saving function – people who help other people, advisors who support the main characters or who play the main role. The priests are clever; they do not fight but find the solution to defeat the tricksters. They are seen as saviours of the village - just like the samurai, the priest comes as a stranger to the village and helps the people – defeats ogres, settles spirits, outwits tricksters. It seems that such religious characters possess knowledge, unknown to common people; they are wiser and experienced. Here we have also the element of ikenie-practice – young women are sent to the ghost as an offering and the passing-by priest ends the practice by going himself to the ghosts. Contrary to the hero-type tales, where a young man saves in the same way a village, there is no reward for the deed of the priests mentioned - they receive no money, no honours, no wives, as if it is their duty to help people. It is necessary here to unveil the image of these haunted temples and shrines and see why exactly the priest is the one to clean them from the ghosts. First, the religious places and the people are in an inseparable bond - no matter how distant or isolated the shrine is, it is always in the vicinity of a village. The appearance of bakemono, the unsettled spirit, is for unknown reasons, the villagers have tried in the past to beat it, but as they have not succeeded, only a stranger, a new-comer is their hope (see also Murakami, 1998). In many cases the new-comer is not warned of the monster in the shrine and very often the bakemono turns out to be an animal from the group of animal-tricksters with special abilities like the badger, the cat, the spider, the monkey; or simple objects of everyday life like mallet, drum, bowl, umbrella. The reason for which the animal or the object appears as bakemono is not known, to beat them the human being calls their true name or reveals their true nature, imitates fearful sounds or dances with them, he behaves like them, but even when he uses strength to beat them this strength comes first and most of all from wisdom. With a reward but with not so many other differences are the next two examples “The cat’s parishioner” (230) and “The picture-cat and the rats” (232b).

In 230 an old oshō takes good care of a cat. Being grateful the cat plays a trick on the local chōja and the old good-hearted oshō is given a rich reward for bringing back the flying coffin of chōja’s daughter. In tale 232b for his “hobby” of drawing cats a kozō is chased away from the monastery and stays overnight at a haunted old temple. At midnight an enormous rat-ogre comes to him, but the cats from his pictures become alive and fight the monster. The kozō stays at the temple as its priest. Here the characters of the oshō and the kozō respectively leave the domain of the religious characters and enter the one of the relations with grateful animals. They are no longer saviours of whole villages or palaces, but normal men who treat well an animal and deserve for this a good reward. In these two examples the religious characters receive something for themselves – the reward is a temple to reside for the rest of their lives. But the common features with the previous four examples are obvious: the religious characters act in the vicinity of temples or in religious situations. They are positive, wise, good-hearted and courageous; they are respected and needed by the common people – and not because of their religious teachings but because of other earthly merits like courage, wisdom, kindness. Of some secondary functions are the two religious characters in the tales “Harima Itonaga” (129) and “The step-child and the boiling pot” (219). In the first one an oshō helps the main character to find and win a bride by solving the riddles for the bridegroom and advising him exactly what to do; in the second tale the oshō tells a father how to find his dead children. The oshō in these tales plays the role of the helper, the advisor, not the main character and we shall refer to his figure once again later. The other very distinguished religious figure is that of the rokubu pilgrim represented in

109 four tales “The girl without hands” (208), “The letter of the swamp-deity” (225), “The cats’ mansion” (231) and “The cat and the pumpkin” (254).

In tale 225 a rokubu helps the main character escape a terrible destiny – he rewrites a letter from a swamp-deity in which she asks her sister to kill the messenger. In tale 254 the rokubu tries to save a family from the deadly influence of an evil cat, but the people do not listen to him and die. Both characters try to intervene actively in the destiny of the main characters - in one case the rokubu succeeds, in the other – unfortunately not. Nevertheless, as we can see, the figure is shown as wise and very helpful – but whether or not people will benefit from him depends entirely and only on the people themselves. In tales 208 and 231 rokubu’s function is only episodic – he appears as an advisor of the main character. In the first tale he reveals a man how to find his disappeared wife, in the second – he says to a girl how to find her disappeared cat. His function is clearly that of a helper, an advisor, but not supernatural one. He is human, may be with extreme knowledge and wisdom, but he is not a supernatural helper. The rokubu-believers travelled long distances as pilgrims and from this historical reality comes probably the image of the rokubu, who as every experienced traveller, has learned much on the road and possesses knowledge and wisdom. In “Torachiyo Maru” (139), “The ghost-mother” (147 a, b) and “Raised by an eagle” (148) the story is about a boy, born supernaturally (139, 147a, b) or having survived in a supernatural way (148). After different hardships and tests; the main character becomes a very famous priest. The end of the tale in its great success for the main character corresponds to those tales, in which the main character marries, becomes a chōja or a famous hero. These tales prove once again the exceptional place which religious figures occupy in the folk beliefs of Japanese people. Yet may be the most outstanding tales representing religious figures are those about the relationship and the conflicts between oshō and kozō, the master and his acolyte, the teacher and his student. The theme belongs predominantly to the tales of joke, where the main tendency shows the clever kozō tricking out, making fun of or just giving a good lesson to his teacher. The dialogues between oshō and kozō reflect the sense of humour of the Japanese, their riddles and jokes have always been bringing a lot of pleasure to the listener or the reader, but in the following six tales we shall see a different type of relationship among those two male characters. In the first three examples – “Money are snakes” (162a), “Three lucky charms” (240) and “Dan’ichi with the bitten ears” (242), the figure of the kozō, unlike in the tales of jokes, is rather helpless, shown lazy and stupid, while his master oshō is presented in his respectful role.

In 162a the kozō buries money and tells them to turn into frogs if somebody else finds them. The oshō digs them up and puts frogs in the place secretly. The kozō tries unsuccessfully to make the frogs turn back to money. In 240 the lazy acolyte is chased away from the temple. During the night he gets into yamauba’s house where the mountain ogress tries to eat him, but with the lucky charms, received from the oshō, the kozō manages to run away and come back to his temple. Years later the kozō becomes one of the most renowned priests. In tale 242 the kozō is lost in the forest and a yamauba chases him. He gets to a temple and asks the oshō for help. The oshō writes sutras all over kozō’s body but forgets the ears. Yamauba comes and unable to eat the whole kozō because of the sutra-writings, she eats only his ears.

The oshō in these tales is trying to help and save his kozō and gives him the needed lesson, as a good teacher to his rather stupid, not very courageous and not at all virtuous student. The oshō is a saviour of the acolyte and is opposed to the supernatural (a yamauba who turns out to be a badger in 240 or simply a mountain ogress in 242). In the three cases we see the superiority of the oshō and the inferiority of the kozō, the second being only a student who may become one day a great priest though. In tales like “The magic tea-kettle” (237a, b) and

110 “The sham Buddhist image” (282) the oshō and the kozō act together in a team and are opposed to animal-tricksters, whom they outwit (282) or by whom they are outwitted (237). In the last part of this chapter we shall have a look at the negative religious characters. The first three tales “The mysterious wild pear tree” (268), “The tonsured fox” (272) and “The fox in the straw bag” (280) speak of no real priests but fake ones.

The tales are about a spirit, ghost or animal-trickster (a tree spirit, a fox and a badger respectively), who transforms himself in a religious figure (a lay monk in 268, an oshō in 272 and a kozō in 280) and plays a trick on a kozō, a young man and a traveller respectively. In the first tale the clever oshō helps his kozō to get rid of the trickster, in the other two tales the transformed animals manage to trick out the men. The tales are built around the respect towards religious figures – this is how the tricksters manage to outwit their human opponents at least in the beginning – they take the shape of a religious priest who no one doubts or questions and this shape insures their success. In fact, such tales speak of the strong unquestionable authority of the religious figures, misused by the tricksters and the impossibility of human non-religious characters to deal with them. The single truly negative image of a religious figure appears in the three tales about yamabushi-monks (mountain ascetics).

In the three cases “The ascetic and the fox” (275a, b) and “The ascetic and the mountain hut” (276) the monk wakes up a badger or a fox with a sudden blow from his trumpet. The animal startles and runs away. Later the animal uses its magic abilities to transform in different beings or to enchant humans and pays back for the trick of the yamabushi. The revenge is more often a kind of public disgrace than a physical punishment of the monk. Immediately here the question comes why yamabushi is the only really negative figure, the tricked one, the loser and to what extend the attitude shown in tales corresponds to the attitude towards yamabushi-monks in reality. One possible explanation of the negative image of the ascetic is that in folk beliefs the fearful abductors of human beings – supernatural beings as tengu, yamaotoko, etc. - may appear in the shape of yamabushi. They are sinister enemies of Buddhism and this is a kind of revenge they take on the mountain ascetics by presenting or transforming themselves in yamabushi (Blacker, 1967: 116), therefore in tales it is possible to have the image of the trickster in human shape, not the real yamabushi. The word yamabushi literary means “lying in the mountains” and refers to ascetics who used to practise austerities in the mountains. They belonged to different religious groups and were to be found all around Japan; moreover such men were believed to train special magic powers and were famous for exorcism and medical knowledge. Stories are told about fire-walking yamabushi and spectacular healers; in Edo period they formed their own shrines which resembled monasteries. Among the specific items of the yamabushi outfit carried usually on the mountain roads was their typical conch-shell trumpet hora – the musical instrument with which yamabushi plays tricks on the animals in fairy tales. On the whole we have studied religious figures opposing the supernatural or some animal-trickster. The power which the priests exercise on the supernatural is seen in European tales too, a good example is the work of Healai, where the author states that “when the priest and the people are featured together in legends, the most frequently occurring form of their interaction is that which shows the priest exercising total control over the fairies.” (Healai, 1996: 609). The priest can exercise control over them because they are seen as fallen angels, as off-springs of Eve and the human. Fairies are bound to suffer defeat when they oppose the priest, says also Healai (Healai, 1996: 613); and we have seen that to a greater extent this is true about the Buddhist priest too. With these conclusions we have closed the study of the religious characters but only temporarily as they will come back in the research with the image of the male helpers and advisors.

111 3.3. MAN AND NATURE

3.1.1. MAN AND ANIMAL Just over a hundred is the number of tales in which an animal appears – as a main, secondary, supporting or just as an episodic figure, the animal constitutes the highest percentage of presence after the figures of the human beings in Seki’s collection. If the proposed research focused on animals appearing in animal tales, the classification of these figures would have followed a different pattern based on the character of these animals, on their typical features like wisdom, stupidity, inventiveness, strength, etc. or on their species. But the research is interested in the human characters appearing in ordinary tales, so the figures of animals hereby are studied in their relevance to the human characters in the plot, so another classification is applied – a classification of relationship, rather than of individual features45. In the Shusei Seki suggests a classification in three groups - Escape from ogre tales, Stupid animal tales, and Grateful animals. Another type of classification according to the roles of the animals in fairy tales, forming three basic groups is suggested by Sakurai: The grateful animal tales where a saved animal repays the kindness of the man; The helpful animal tales where both main character and animal are active, and the animal helps the man acquire wealth; and The episodic animal roles (Sakurai, 1996: 256-7). Much more suitable for the aim of this study is a classification based on the functions taken by animal characters in regard to human figures. To a great extent the next chapter will follow the scheme suggested by Joyce Thomas in his study of animal characters in ordinary tales (Thomas, 1989: 103–170), as it provides the necessary ground for examination of the role of animals for the development of the plot and the destiny of the fairy tale main character. Thomas distinguishes five types of animals – fabular, helpful, supernatural, animal-human and human-monsters, according to the function these animal undertake and says that “…animals constitute a proportionately large segment of fairy tale characters and seem the most versatile players of all. They fill most of the roles written for the tale’s script, whether as donor, helper, dispatcher, villain, object, giver, sender, receiver or opponent…” (Thomas, 1989: 103). To get closer to the Japanese original texts, the classification in the following pages remains some half way between the groupings of Seki, Sakurai and Thomas. First, the tales will be combined in three main groups according to the relationship between man and animal – man helped by the positive animal, man meets ambivalent human-animal characters and man faces the negative animal-trickster. Inside the three main groups subgroups will be formed to depict better the relationship between humans and animals.

MAN HELPED BY ANIMAL If one is kind in heart and saves a creature’s life, one will be richly rewarded. If one has helped, he will be helped by the wisest advisors, the magic donors, the friendly supporters – the animals. The tales depicting positively the animal as helper to the human being are predominant - of all about hundred tales in concern, to this group belong forty-two, in two thirds of which the animal plays a very important if not leading role; in all tales the animal helps the main character

45 Studies on animal species appearing in Japanese tales have been conducted by Mayer (Mayer, 1981: 23-32) and by Takeda (T. Takeda, 1992: 246-249).

112 no matter in what way or for what reason. First of all we shall turn our attention to tales in which the good nature of the human being, especially toward an animal is richly rewarded. Sakurai believes that the tales of this cycle, emphasising on the grateful animal, are typically Buddhist (Sakurai, 1996: 249). Among the most common examples of such relationship are tales like “The dog, the cat and the ring” (165) and “The grateful monkey” (233).

In tale 165 a man saves three animals – a snake, a cat and a dog. The snake grants him a magic gold-giving ball and the animals live together with the man a happy life. A greedy rich man steals the magic object away, the dog and the cat set off on a journey to bring back the magic object, in which task they succeed after various adventures. A man saves an animal in need (233 a, b, c), and this animal shows gratitude by picking some fruits for the man, warning or helping the man against other animals, or presenting him with an object to bring luck and happiness. The human character has performed his kind deed in the beginning of the story and from that point on he can rely on his grateful friends. The lives of the man and the animals seem much dependent on each other – the man saves the animals, later they take care of his wellbeing; and this kindness-repaid motif appears so often in tales about men and animals that it has turned into proverbial. More examples of this relationship could be seen in “The snake son” (142a), “The grateful wolf” (228) and “The cat’s parishioner” (230).

Tale 142a tells the story of a childless couple who wish a child. A son is born who with the time grows up as a big snake. The old couple take care of him, but finally set him free in the woods. After years a period of extreme drought comes and the parents of the snake ask their child to help people. The serpent sends seven days of rain as gratitude for his parents’ care when he was young. In tale 228 a poor man helps a wolf in the forest. The wolf helps the man escape from starving wolves and stays with the man as a servant. With the time the good relationship between the man and the wolf brings prosperity and wealth to this house. An old priest in tale 230 is cast out of his temple because of his age. The old man shares the last piece of his food with his loyal cat. The cat is grateful for the attitude towards her and of pity and gratitude she performs a miracle to make the priest win a new temple and a good life. The connection nature-animal-human is very distinctly seen in these tales - the human being and the animal are connected with invisible bonds; the man and the animal are inter-dependent - man takes good care of an animal; the animal helps him back showing a mixture of pity, gratitude and duty simultaneously. Picture-cats save their master’s life in “The picture-cat and the rats” (232), where beating the temple ghost-rats, the cats make it a suitable place for an honourable life of their creator – the kozō. The animals are not saved in the beginning of the tale, but they are “created” by the man and they repay him in their best way. We can see here a best example of how animals help the main characters mainly with their natural, realistic abilities (cats beating rats or mice) which was suggested also by Roehrich and Thomas (Roehrich, 1956: 165; as well as Thomas, 1989: 126). The behaviour of the fox (badger) which usually plays the role of the mischievous trickster is quite uncommon in the next examples where it helps the human being. The ambivalence of its character comes probably from the concept of the fox as a mountain spirit which belongs to the whole complex of the belief in the mountain god (Eder, 1969: 23). The tales are “The magic tea-kettle” (237) and “The grateful fox” (239):

A man saves the life of a fox (239) or a badger (237). From gratitude the fox transforms itself in a tea-kettle, in a horse and in a woman to be sold as a prostitute. The badger transforms in a tea-kettle. In both tales the man receives good amount of money for the sold transformed animal. The little action on man’s part is answered with a chain of grateful actions taken by the animal, especially in tale 239, which deserves our attention. “You saved my life; you are now the master of my life”, says the fox to the man and undergoes various transformations to bring some happiness and repay the good deed. Two important conclusions come from these examples – saving the life of an animal means by the laws of nature a life-long debt on the part of the

113 saved; paying it off is a long process and the grateful part is the one to decide on the amount of the pay-off despite the modesty of the saviour. Similar to the above examples is the plot of the neighbour-type tales, but it is enriched with one more character – that of the antagonist, to show more distinctly the link between an animal and a human being. The scheme of the plot is already known – a good old man receives help, wealth or magic presents, the evil and greedy neighbour tries to imitate the good but fails like in “The kingdom of rats” (185), “The tongue-cut sparrow” (191) and “The saved sparrow” (192). The attitude of the man toward the animal in these tales is rewarded or punished correspondingly - the good in heart person is taking good care of a sparrow, is very kind to it and receives as a token of gratitude a box of gold (191) or a magic flower bearing rice (192). The antagonist in her/his desire to become rich mistreats the animal and is punished with a box of dangerous reptiles (191) or is scratched to blood (185). In the three examples the choice of the main characters – two men (185), a man and a woman (191) and two women (192) shows that in man-animal relationship not gender but humanity matters – anyone could be good or cruel to animals and anyone could be helped by them; there is no special link between man and animal or woman and animal in this case - in such a relationship not gender but human nature defines the plot and the response of the animal. Well-treated or mistreated animal brings luck or punishment in the tales “The man who caught wild geese” (187) and “The man who made trees blossom” (190) too. The stories are about animals who praise the good-hearted men and who, mistreated by the evil neighbours, bring justice by punishing them. Again we have a human opposition in the centre of the tale – a good heart opposed to an evil, cruel and greedy human being; the magic animal is just the medium between the two, the judge; humans are left to act alone and to deserve their destinies - the animal is just a magic donor. In these cases the animal plays as a typical donor who tests the main character to see whether he deserves the help or not; the human character proves himself suitable not only in action but mostly in heart, with his attitude showing the inner invisible bond between an animal and a human, the bond of nature.

In “The wolf’s eyebrow” (172) a very poor old man is so desperate that he goes in the woods to ask the wolves for death. A wolf appears but instead of devouring him, the wolf gives him as a present its own eyebrow – this eyebrow brings prosperity to the man as he is able to see the true face of people and is recognised as the most just person among all human beings. In “The loyal wolf” (235) a hunter keeps a wolf; he brings him up with care and attention; they co-exist happily for years. One day the wolf barks unexpectedly and the man thinks it is called the wild so he shoots him. In the next instance he sees a big serpent approaching and understands his mistake. The present of the animal-donor here has its reason – the wolf clearly declares that the poor man has always been kind, honest and good-hearted, he deserves no death but a happier life and is granted one; the human character does not need to act at all, enough is his inner beauty. In the second tale the wolf saves the life of the man and thus rewards him for the long years of tender care. The death of the wolf is sad, but it halos a good co-existence; the wolf acts as if on behalf of the whole nature and is a representative of nature – a divine donor to bring happiness to the deserving. It is possible to find proof of this even in folk beliefs, where the wolf is often celebrated in shrines (Yanagida, 1998: 478). Now we come to the most famous supernatural donor of all – the King of the Sea Kingdom who becomes the magic donor only after a man has performed some kind deed on earth, usually by saving an animal. Typical examples include “The magic listening hood” (164 a, b), “The child from the Dragon Palace” (223) and “Urashima Tarō” (224). In tales 164 and 224 a man saves a water creature – a fish or a turtle, for which he is taken to the Palace of the Sea Dragon to be rewarded – the present is a magic listening hood or a magic box. The scheme of the plot is

114 clear – a man saves an animal and is rewarded, the animal though is not the direct donor; what the man becomes for his kind deed is a strange object – a listening hood making one understand animal’s language. This present obviously strengthens the bond between men and animals, yet the human beings work out their happiness alone. The interdependence of all nature is very distinct – an animal’s life depends on the benevolence of the man, then a human life depends on the animal. The magic object is nothing more than the ability to listen and hear the voice of nature – voice which could be heard by those who have the ears; understanding the language of animals could be considered also equal to “knowing” and “knowledge” in general (Horn, 1983: 66-67). Another possibility also exists and it is when the human being fails to better his life. The male character in tale 223 is rewarded for showing respect to the Underwater Kingdom by flower-offerings and is given a magic boy who fulfils wishes, but going back to his world the man does not succeed to build his happiness with the boy and ends as poor as he started. His good, respectful attitude towards the Sea Princess brings him luck, he deserves the present, but after receiving it the man is the one to create his life alone, his is the choice but he fails to remain happy and rich. The tales where animals appear as helpers, advisors, as “the right hand” of the main character are numerous. The animals in many tales are no main characters themselves but nonetheless play an important role in the plot development - they can advise, make a magic present, punish, help win a contest, support in some way the main character or the action of the tale. Typical examples are those of the neighbour-cycle tales like “The land of jizō” (184), “The old man who has swallowed a bird” (188), “The bamboo cutting old man” (189) and “The turtle at New Year’s Eve” (204).

In 184 the main male character receives his wealth and treasure from rats, who in the same time punish the neighbour - unsuccessful imitator. In tale 188 an old man is working in the mountains and suddenly swallows a bird whose song he likes so much. The bird advises him how to make money. The greedy neighbour tries to have the same luck, but fails and is punished by the tonosama. Same happens in 189, where a bird makes sounds as of breaking wind and the greedy neighbour actually breaks wind in the face of the tonosama. In tale 204 the turtle sings only in the hands of the good old man and not in those of the neighbour. It makes a rainfall of gold for the first and kills the second with a rainfall of dung. The birds in the above examples are not central, they are just “tools” for the acquisition of riches in the hands of the poor man and an opportunity to punish the greedy neighbour. The men are presented with the chance to make fortune - being industrious, good in heart, honest and modest, they have a definite positive attitude towards nature; they enjoy even its small details, like for example, the bird’s song. On the other hand, the use of a bird to develop the conflict between the good and the greedy, speaks of the link between human nature and nature at all - nature in these tales is just a medium, a background for human society with its rules and ways of behaviour; nature is just a bit player emphasising that the human beings with the closest link to nature are more likely to succeed than those who have forgotten nature. Another group of tales takes us further away from the main acting characters, but still the representatives of nature play a very crucial role even in their remote positions. The tales are “Bee’s help” (127), “The peach boy Momotarō” (143), “The younger sister is oni” (249) and “Zuitonbō” (262).

In 127 a bee helps the main male character to count the bamboo-stems in the nearby grove and to recognise his true bride. In tale 143 in return for some food three animals (a monkey, a dog and a rooster) help the main character beat oni-devils. In 249 a tiger appears exactly at the crucial moment to save his master from death. In tale 262 an otter frees a girl and her grandmother from the continuous mischief of a fox. The animals in these tales help the human being in his task – to win a contest, to beat a foe, to outwit a trickster. In the prehistory of these tales lies a possible grateful-animal motif but it is

115 not as distinct as in other cases. The animals are somehow betrothed, fraternised, befriended with the main acting character; this shows also the link between such tales and the primitive tales of hunting peoples (Roehrich, 1953: 170); some see a direct link between the helping animal and the totemistic myths where such animals are not inferior to the man, but on the contrary are at his or even higher level (for more see Roehrich, 1953; as well as Nitschke, 1977). The most common sign of help is that the animal brings good luck and wealth out of gratitude; often it is enough for the man just to be good and kind to the animal or even just to be good in his heart to receive help and presents from the animal, playing the role of the divine donor. On the other hand unlike the divine donor, the animal helps with its natural abilities, its actions are appropriate to its natural self (Thomas, 1989: 126; also Roehrich, 1956: 72); Thomas believes also that animals “being helpers which advise or act for man, they might also be regarded as man’s own thoughts, deeds and attributes given external form, projected onto another, different creature. […] Combined represent the complete person and have been split apart for purposes of fantasy, and perhaps, the tale’s social acceptance” (Thomas, 1989: 136), which reflection is similar to the one suggested by the Jungian school for the animal as shadow of the main character (Kawai, 1977).

MAN AND ANIMAL-TRICKSTER The man is tricked by a mischievous animal but he can also win against the little devil. If one is clever and courageous no tricks will pass and spells will not be cast, but if one mistreats a badger, a fox or a monkey, he will be punished and disgraced. Trickster defeated This time the study of the relationship between a man and an animal will follow a different pattern – that of the species. That the man will win over the animal is clear from the title above, but the paths to victory are defined by the nature of the animal and its image in folk beliefs. One of the most popular and dual characters is that of the fox. The fox has many incarnations in folktales – as helper, divine wife, wise advisor, needed donor; as well as trickster, who plays with human beings and who sometimes is defeated by them. Foxes are believed to possess magic abilities like the ability to transform and assume human or other shape - the fox turns few times around its tail and it is already a girl or a horse-dealer, a tea-kettle or a stone, a baby or an old man. This magic ability raises the fox above the other ordinary animals, brings it closer to kami deities and gives it a certain flare of divinity (T. Takeda, 1992: 250). The fox is clever, cunning and fond of tricks, it enjoys molesting people but in the same time it is one of the most important partners of human beings. The character of the fox is so complex and rich that a study of it is worth a life-time and even Seki groups all tales with fox characters in a separate chapter (tales 270 to 287). The fox as trickster appears in eight tales of all twenty-one tales of this chapter. In “The fox and the horse-dealer” (238), “Oni at a gulp” (241), “Overhearing foxes” (278), “The mirror reflection” (281) and “The eight-charm hood” (283) the fox uses its ability to transform, to change into human form and to play a trick on the men but loses to the inventiveness and cleverness of the human characters.

In tale 238 a man overhears the conversation of two foxes who want to play a trick on the man but he outwits them – they change into a horse and a horse-dealer, but the man sells the horse. The main male character in 278 overhears foxes molesting his wife, so he uses a rat to make them kill each other. The old woman in tale 281 welcomes home her old man but notices his left eye is not marked as usual. The old woman guesses it is a

116 transformed fox and with the help of some villagers and her real husband she manages to kill the trickster. The events run well for the fox in the beginning of tale 285 – changed into a bride she marries a certain man. Days and months pass before the husband notices that the minute he stops playing his drum all the relatives of his wife turn to foxes. With the help of a priest, they entrap all foxes. In 241 the fox plays with her ability to transform to anything she likes, so a boy makes her change into a small fly and swallows her. A man outwits the fox in tale 283 by telling her he has eight lucky charms against her seven, so she trades her seven charms for nothing and loses. The fox in tale 282 transforms two times – into an oshō-priest and into a Buddhist statue, but in both cases she is recognised and outwitted by the priest and his acolyte. The fox is often interchangeable with the badger as long as it plays the role of the trickster, who is able to transform itself. In his study of the magic transformations of the fox Itō unites in one image fox, tanuki- and mujina-badgers as three interchangeable animals in folklore (Itō, 1998: 26). The badger has generally a negative image and just like the fox can transform itself in various shapes, usually assuming human shape to trick a human being. There are no obvious reasons for the badger to molest people, no motifs of revenge could be traced, the animal simply enjoys playing tricks.

In “The horse-driver and yamauba” (243) a horse-dealer is chased by a yamauba-ogress. He hides in her house and kills the ogress with fire – in the ashes he finds a badger’s dead corpse. In “The house of the badger” (266) a tatami-maker stays overnight at a nun’s house deep in the forest. The tatami carpet seems strangely hairy to the man and he picks few hairs, which makes the nun scream out with pain. Using his sword the man cuts the tatami into pieces. In the morning he finds a dead badger with cut off testicles. In “The funeral messenger” (277) a badger molests a whole village and a young man decides to oppose the animal. The badger tries to play a trick on the man by transforming into his brother, his sister and the ghost of his mother, but the man does not give in and kills the trickster. As we have seen the male characters here need courage, decisiveness and inventiveness to beat the trickster. The badger seems a good mixture of negative features, and is linked even to the image of the mountain ogress. The male characters are no religious figures and no strangers unlike similar tales we have studied earlier, they are no heroes, they receive nothing in return for their deed. The fox-trickster as we have seen needs the intervention of a priest, while the badger is dealt with by common people. Almost the same is the case with the cat, which we have seen as helper and as grateful friend in the previous chapters. In “The grateful cock” (229), “Blacksmith’s old mother” (252) and “The cat and the iron lid of the pot” (253) the cat assumes other shapes and molests the main male characters. The male characters need not be “special” to beat the cat and the cat in fact is a reincarnation of the wild cat, from which comes the negative features in the image of this otherwise positive animal.

In tale 229 a cat plays tricks in a house but with the clever intervention of a passing-by sailor the cat is outwitted and finally killed. In 252 a trader is lost at night in the forest. He is attacked by a wild cat but playing a trick by offering an old woman some fish the sailor disguises the trickster and kills it. In 253 a hunter is chasing a wild cat and with his secret last bullet he manages to kill the cat. He finds out that it was his home cat transforming itself all the time and playing the tricks. Another typical trickster is the monkey. The monkey cannot transform itself in anything, but in the animal tales it is shown as a clever and cunning creature. When a monkey is opposed to man it usually loses. In folk beliefs the monkey is often considered as yama-no kami – the mountain deity, or as a servant of mizu-no kami – the water deity (see also T. Takeda, 1992: 249-251). Here the male characters have to be special, they are “strangers” who serve the deity and in this way free the vicinity of its negative effect.

In “The monkey jizō” (195) monkeys are playing tricks on a farmer and he finally decides to play a trick on them by disguising himself as jizō. He is worshiped by the monkeys and receives presents. In “Beating the monkeys” (256) monkeys pretend ghosts in a temple and frighten local people. A travelling oshō discloses their secret so he is able to defeat them. In “Beating the monkey demon” (257) the main male character goes to the Underworld Kingdom where girls are offered to a fearful monster. The monster turns out to be a monkey and the man kills it. Other animals who act in a similar way are the owl, the crab and the spider, for example. In

117 the following examples the male characters are taken aback at night, they have to show courage and good work of mind in order to beat the trickster.

In tale 253c a man meets an old woman spinning on a tree. He tries to kill her but she does not die. Finally with a paper lamp the old woman is cheated and in the morning a dead owl is found under the tree. In 261 a monk stays at a haunted temple. During the night he hears a fearful voice chanting a riddle. The monk answers successfully and in the morning he finds four dead crabs in the temple. In 269 a trader stays overnight at an old temple. In the midst of the night a woman comes from the roof and plays shamisen. The man feels terribly every tune in his throat so he kills the woman. In the morning he finds a dead spider. The characters of all animals studied above possess few common features. They can transform themselves into humans or other things, their true nature is to be revealed by the main human character if he wants to defeat them, they act usually at night just like evil spirits do, their abilities correspond to their nature, their essence is ambivalent – their figures appear as helpers as well as tricksters in different tales. Courage, inventiveness and wisdom are expected of the main character to face them. These images of animal-tricksters and their relations with human beings have been formed in a long history of folk traditions and fairy tales represent just one part of the enormous complex of folk beliefs linked with the animals.

Man is outwitted Very often when opposing tricksters like the cat, the fox, the monkey or the badger the man is outwitted. How and why this happens will be revealed in the following pages. First of all we shall have a look at a typical negative image stronger than the man.

In “The cats’ mansion” (231) a cat disappears from a house. The maid finds it in the forest house of all cats where the girl is rewarded for all the years of tender care and is lead back home. The greedy and cruel mistress wishes the same treasure, so she goes to the house of the cats where she is terribly scratched all over by them. In “The dancing cat” (255) a woman sees her cat dancing. The cat makes the woman promise she will not say anything to her husband, but the woman cannot hold herself and she tells the secret. The cat is furious and scratches the woman to death46. The cat is a mischievous and dangerous creature with evil nature, revengeful and cruel. The duality of the character is typical – we have seen examples where the cat plays the role of the grateful animal, perfect wife and good friend. It seems that the cat does not possess really specific magic powers but yet is able to perform occasionally miracles. The man opposing the cat opposes in fact the wildcat yamaneko and entering its realm, the human being becomes vulnerable. The next two animals that behave in the same way, have similar effect on human beings and are in the most cases interchangeable are the fox and the badger. The two animals succeed because of their ability to assume human shape and their special skill to enchant, to bewitch, to cast a spell over human beings, both abilities deeply rooted in the Japanese folk beliefs. Generally, there is a certain pattern of behaviour the human being is following - the man is looking for trouble, he tries to outwit, to play a trick or to prove himself stronger and cleverer than the animal. He, the man, this time plays the role of the antagonist and the loser in the end of tales like “Looking into the buttocks” (270), “The horse-dung dumplings” (271), “The tonsured fox” (272), “The fox in the straw bag” (280) and “The invisible hood” (284).

In 270 a man decides one evening to check how strong the magic power of the badger (or the fox) is. The animal transforms itself into a priest and enters a temple. The man finds a small hole in the sliding door and spies on the priest inside the temple. A stranger’s voice asks the man why he is looking through horse buttocks. In 271a a man

46 The dancing cat motif comes possibly from the traditional performances of “dancing” on a hot steel plate cats in Edo period (for more see also Kojima, 1999).

118 carrying fish meets a fox in the mountains and is invited to a wedding. He leaves his fish nearby while he is taking a bath offered by the host. He hears his neighbour asking why he is taking a bath in the lavatory. The fish is gone. In 272 a bakemono is molesting a village. A young man hides to find out who the monster is. He sees a fox transforming itself into a woman and a child and entering a certain house. The man accuses the woman of being a fox and to prove his statement he throws the woman and the child into the fire but they never turn a fox. The man leaves the house very ashamed and meets a priest to whom he conveys his crime. The priest advises him to take the vows and cut his hair. The priest (the transformed fox) cuts the man’s hair painfully. In 280 a man meets a kozō in the mountains whose legs are strangely hairy. The man ties him to his horse and brings him home. He puts him over the fire and the kozō turns a badger. The badger promises never to misbehave again and the man lets it go. The man never finds his horse again and is disgraced before his villagers. In 284 an old man is tricked by a fox that lies that it has given him a magic invisible charm and the old man is caught trying to steal sweets with the fake charm. In the cases above one can find few very important elements – first of all the man thinks he can outwit the fox (or the badger); he is so convinced that he would not be enchanted by the animal that he easily finds himself entrapped. The animal as if creates a parallel world to the real existing one – the dimensions come strangely together and the man is made to believe that what his eyes see is the reality; when the man is taught his lesson, the world reconstructs itself to its normal dimension. The same happens in the following examples too, where human characters deserve to be punished because they play against the animal and deserve a good lesson.

In tale 271b a man frightens a fox while it is washing itself on the river-bank. Then he follows it to see her transforming in a woman and entering a beautiful house. The man warns the people that the woman is a fox, but the family says she is their daughter and no fox. The man is invited by the family to share with them few delicious dangos. A passer-by remarks that what the man is eating alone on the meadow is horse dung. In tale 275a a yamabushi startles with his trumpet an old sleeping badger. The badger runs away. It gets dark in the forest and a burial procession is approaching. The yamabushi climbs a tree, but the dead man rises and chases the monk. In panic the yamabushi blows his trumpet. Suddenly he sees it is daytime again and passing-by villagers are laughing at him for climbing so high a pine tree. In tale 276 a monk startles a sleeping fox and it falls in the river. It gets dark unexpectedly and the man is forced to look for shelter in a lonely hut in the forest. There he sees an old woman with malicious eyes and terrible appearance. She frightens him to death and he jumps out of the house in panic. He finds himself in the river in broad daylight. In 275b a monk startles a fox with his trumpet. A passer-by watches a fox transforming into yamabushi and entering a house. The man accuses the real ascetic to be a fox and the people in the house beat him severely. The man deserves punishment - it seems that the fox and the badger creating this false reality for their molester do not affect the sight of other people, neither change they the reality – the strangers and passers-by do not see the created by the fox false reality but the actual punishment of the man. The character of the punishment in all cases is linked more to public disgrace than to physical suffering. The animals play the role of the moral regulator on one hand and a trickster on the other; in most of the cases they use their “natural ability” to transform and enchant, they are though no way corresponding to witches or fees. If one puts on scales all the tales where a man wins over fox and badger and where these animals outwit the man one should find that the numbers are quite equal. There is no preference in folk beliefs for one or the other and this fact shows the inner interdependence of the characters - the human and the animal are given a chance, each is given some power, each is given equal presence. Very typical is this parallel world, this different dimension which the fox and the badger can create for the man. Together with their ability to assume human shape these animal characters stand somewhere in-between human world, animal world and supernatural world. They belong simultaneously to all these three worlds, they move easily from one to the other – this makes them perfect helpers to the man, often antagonists, possible winners and unlucky losers; they combine features of the human, the animal and the supernatural – they have their houses, they are caring parents, they can feel pity or get angry like common people, they know more about nature and various places, they reside in forests and they communicate with other animals, they keep their link to nature in any sense and in the same time they possess magic abilities to transform into humans or objects and to enchant

119 people, to put spells on them, to create a false new dimension, a parallel universe. They are in this sense positive and negative together, protagonist and antagonist in one, helper and trickster, foe and friend. Their image, their figure is rich, diverse and many-facet (for more see also Ogawa, 1988). The human beings on the other hand are given two opportunities in this relationship – they can help these animals or they can maltreat them. If the man chooses the first path, he is helped and praised by the animal, but if he chooses to oppose the animal, to play the role of the mischievous trickster, than the animal punishes the man. So, in these tales the relationship between a man and an animal depends only on the desire of the two sides to co-exist peacefully – if this desire exists on both sides, then the relationship is fruitful and positive, but if one of the sides has negative intentions, then it is bound to lose.

OTHER RELATIONS BETWEEN MAN AND ANIMAL. EPISODIC ROLES. A very great part of this chapter could be occupied by examples of marriage and family co-existence between human beings and animals but it will repeat word by word the conclusions drawn in the chapter about the partner in the beginning of this study. We shall point out here only that in Japanese folk tradition the marriage between human beings and animals is one of the most typical and beloved themes, but on the whole such marriages are not given a chance for long-term existence. Many authors consider this theme to be the most Japanese in fairy tales, which proves the strong link between man and animal in Japanese folk beliefs (for more see also Miller, 1995; Nomura, 2000; Ozawa 1994; Seki, 1963b). To complete the picture of the relationship between man and animal in Japanese folktales there are only few tales left, showing animals in their episodic roles. One of them is the motif of a person assuming animal shape (bird) after death to come back to human world. In “The elder sister - white bird” (215) the killed by the step-mother sister appears as a white bird to help her brother survive. In the tale “The step-children - birds” (216), the children killed by the cruel step-mother appear in the shape of birds, to reveal to their father the crime but with no chance for revival. In “The crab-shell” (193) and “The step-child and the boiling pot” (219) for example, the killed animal and the children appear in the shape of birds to reveal the crime of their cruel executor. The belief about the soul of the death coming back in bird-shape has long history; Thomas calls birds “threshold creatures” because they belong to more than one world, they are agents of fate, they are associated with foresight and gods and often with the soul of the dead (Thomas, 1989: 122). In Japanese tales this prophetic role is very distinct together with the concept of the soul assuming a “flying” shape47. The animals can also appear as independent object-like figures serving the plot; the antagonists could be transformed into animals as punishment. In the tales “The chōja of the bought dream” (158) and “The dragon-fly chōja” (159) flies appear as a sign of prophetic dream48. Temporary in animal shape live the characters in two other tales – “The seven swans” (214) and “The travellers who were turned into horses” (250); the greedy and evil rich characters in the tale “The chōja who became a monkey” (197) are changed for good in monkeys and dogs, in a horse-fly shape ends the story for the male character in the tale “The magic geta” (171) and in mud-snails find themselves transformed the female antagonists in

47 For a classification and all possible roles of birds in Japanese tales see also Seki, IV: 59-65. 48 According to folk beliefs the body of the dead goes back to nothingness, but the soul tamashi does not die (Sakurai, 1996: 187). The forms which the soul can take are different – bees, flies, other flying insects. The fly can mistake the nose and then people change their identities or if the fly does not come back or is killed, the person dies (see also Ii, 2000 for the trips of the soul in the shape of a fly).

120 “Komebuku and Awabuku” (205). One should note that enchantment into an animal shape does not occur very often in Japanese fairy tales and is not seen as a tragic destiny of the main character, as his “dehumanisation” (Roehrich, 1953: 174). One of the reasons could be the still existing strong link between human beings and animals in Japan. The smooth and self-evident transformation of human to animal or animal to human is very typical for the beliefs of the hunting peoples and it possesses no negative connotations. According to Roehrich the steps of development of the man-animal transformations together with the social and cultural development are three: man and animal are one; the man transforms himself in animal (and v.v.); the man is transformed in animal (Roehrich, 1953: 179). In Japan we come very rarely to the last level which speaks of different socio-historical realities and it is true that in their tales of animals and humans the Japanese get closer to the natural peoples, yet being in the same time similar to the tales of later societies in the impossibility of human-animal co-existence for long time. In Japanese fairy tales animals and nature are in the same time representatives of the supernatural, animals play the role of supernatural beings or are the bridge between the human and the supernatural worlds (Ozawa, 1998: 45-46). Takeda on the other hand sees the link between animals and supernatural beings-bakemono, who both just like gods and deities have two functions – as helpers and as ogres. They are born in the same well together with the heroes, belong to the supernatural, but are a different subgroup (T. Takeda, 1992: 254). On the other hand the marriage between a human being and an animal in Japanese folk tradition reflects the shared sympathy for each other and the link predecessor (human) – ancestor (animal) (see also Seki, I: 100-103). It is important to remember also that in a country of Buddhist and Shintō traditions the link between a human being and an animal is additionally strengthened.

121 3.3.2. MALE SUPERNATURAL BEINGS In this chapter we shall see what kinds of supernatural beings carry definite male nature. Each supernatural character will be given a general description as it appears in folk beliefs (based mainly on encyclopaedias and dictionaries like EJ, NMD and MTJ) and then the figure will be studied in the examples from the collection. Japan is rich in different figures of bakemono – a general term for various monsters, apparitions, goblins and other supernatural beings (different from yūrei – ghosts and spirits). Bakemono may appear in various non-human forms, as a sound or a voice or a fireball, or may have their typical external appearance. They are many in number – oni, tengu, kappa, yamauba, deities of house, roads, mountains, water, etc. and all have their own names and typical portrait (for more see also Baba, 1971; Iwai, 2000; Satō 2000). To the big band of bakemono-ogres belong also some of the animals with magic abilities like the fox and the badger for example. The place and the time of story-telling – the hearth around which the stories were told in the evening is a suitable time-space setting for the introduction of different magic or supernatural beings. The Edo period, in which most of such stories are born, is a period which could be considered the cradle of different supernatural beliefs (Chie, 1989: 43-46). Besides, compared to different beings like Zwerg, Kobold, Elf, Fee, Nixe, etc. who were gradually chased away by Christianity in Europe, in Japan the beliefs remained alive for very long time (Ozawa, 1994: 192). Together with their fearful look and generally negative image these ogres carry some sadness and loneliness (T. Takeda, 1992: 272) and are very much linked to deities and gods, which enriches their image with benevolence and duality.

ONI The oni is big, fearful, and clever; he possesses magical powers and magical objects. He is a respected adversary and an undesired bridegroom. His power is so great that only a hero, granted good wits and magical objects can face him, escaping from death. The figure of oni appears in seventeen tales in this collection and is the most exploited supernatural figure. Oni is a supernatural character with monstrous outlook, great height, cannibalistic nature, possession of magical objects; he is mainly an adversary to the main character but in the same time in his opposition to the hero he serves also as an unwilling donor of magic objects. Oni is horned, ferocious and scarlet-faced and is definitely male49. His true nature however is more complex and ambivalent in that he has a benevolent, tutelary face as well as a demonic one. His negative image is strengthened by the Buddhist images of tortures in Hell, but in many indigenous festivals oni is celebrated and believed to sweep away evil influences. In the study of Akiko Baba on the character of oni-monsters, the author also suggests his close link to gods and deities, which explains his dual character (for more see Baba, 1971 and Chie, 1989: 40-41). The first typical role of oni is that of the bridegroom – never desired, opposed by the female character and a loser in the end. As we have already seen in tales like “The oni-bridegroom” (102), “The flute player” (119), “Oni’s child Kozuna” (247) and “Gambling with oni” (248), oni plays the role of the undesired bridegroom. He receives the right to marry

49 The female analogue of oni is yamauba – literary translated as “the old Weib of the mountains”, but often the symbols of “mother”, “maiden” and “princess” appear to substitute the neutral “old woman”. This fact reveals her ambivalent nature – although she is believed to devour human beings, her image comes most probably from that of the deity of the mountains yama-no kami. Despite her general cannibalistic image in certain places around Japan she is celebrated as a protecting and benevolent helper. Through the motifs of child-upbringing and care, her image is often linked to that of the “mountain mother” originating from the goddess-mother Izanami.

122 in return for a favour he has granted to the father of the bride (102 and 247); he is drowned by the clever bride (102) or is outwitted later in their marriage (247). Very typical is the way in which the humans manage to escape in tale 247 - as they run away from the chasing oni on a boat and the oni almost catches them, the wife reveals her buttocks and slapping them, makes oni laugh and spit out the swallowed river water, which enables the human beings escape on a boat - the way in which the woman makes oni laugh shows clearly his sexual affiliation. Oni is also believed to steal women - in tale 248 he steals a sister but is overpowered by her brother and is killed in the end; in 119 the oni who has stolen the moon wife of a flute player is killed with the help of the supernatural parents of the bride and the persistence of her loving human husband (for more on the escape-from-ogre motif see also Fujimoto, 1998). In some Japanese tales (like 247 and 248 for example) oni behaves much like his European colleague – the giant. He comes home and smells human flesh; he is deceived by his human wife and is outwitted by a human adversary; he possesses treasures, his house is somewhere not in the human realm though it is not defined in the sky, underground or underwater; it is simply said that he lives far away, there is a river separating the two worlds (247) or three guarded gates to his dwelling (248). If we can see in an oni a giant, then we can also adopt some of the conclusions which Thomas draws on the character of the giant – he sees in the giant the living embodiment of natural formations coming from the image of the titans in the creation myths; they live on the periphery of human world and could be considered outcasts of this world (Thomas, 1989: 76-79). In another group of tales the “kingdom” of oni is even better described - tales dealing no more with oni as bridegroom but with oni as an adversary and unwilling donor. “The son with the hatchets” (138), “The peach boy Momotarō” (143), “Acolyte’s dream” (156) and “The life and the death whips” (168) are all heroic tales in which the main male character performs heroic deeds in the realm of oni. This realm is not a house anymore but a whole magic island called Onigashima50, where all oni-devils live with their treasures. In tales 138 and 143, the main character is a boy, born with hatchets instead of legs and planes instead of arms (138) or a boy born from a peach who is very clever and strong (143); both of them succeed against oni using their brains, courage and inventiveness. Oni takes the role of the unwilling donor and the forced helper of these heroes - they provide the main character with what he has deserved through his courage, wits and decisiveness; they provide him with wealth on one hand but also with recognition in the world of human beings, which seems very important for the isolated and “estranged” heroes. Different is the “present” received on Onigashima in tales 156 and 168 - the main character is forced to go to Onigashima as he is driven away for refusing to tell his first dream (156) or for his too bold a dream to become a king (168). Both characters come “by chance” to Onigashima and are faced with the group of powerful monsters from whom they take away magic objects – a magic listening hood and a life-whip (156) and a death-and-life whip as well as a flying garment (168). With the help of those the first hero revives two princesses and marries them, the second kills a king and takes his place, both characters fulfilling their dreams51. In the tale “The carpenter and Oniroku” (263) an oni helps a carpenter to build a bridge over a flooded river but in return the oni wants the man’s eyes unless the carpenter guesses correctly the name of the ogre. In despair the man wanders in the woods and hears by chance a

50 Onigashima is believed to be a real island, called Megijima, situated north of the city of Takamatsu, Kagawa prefecture, Shikoku (for more see also under “Oni” and “Onigashima” in EJ). 51 There is a strong belief that by not telling the first dream at New Year, one secures its fulfillment. If the dream is shared, then it will not come true (for more see Imoto, 1991: 3-4).

123 song, revealing the name - Oniroku. The character of the oni here reminds much of his European colleague – Rumpelstilzchen (KHM 55). The protagonists in “The turnip chōja” (121) and “Issun Bōshi” (136c) also defeat more than one oni at a time; three oni-monsters are outwitted by a human and robbed of their magic mallet, fulfilling any wish (121) or even killed (136c). In these examples the oni-ogres have tried earlier to kill the human being and they respectively face death danger52. But killing an oni is a hard task even when one is a hero - most often one can fulfil this task by using one of oni’s magic objects against him, like in tale 136c – the thumb-high hero outwits the oni by saying he wants to try out the magic life-and-death whip, then he uses the death-whip against the first oni and kills him. Similar is the case in “The two brothers” (178a) where no normal strength or wit is enough to defeat the oni – the protagonist uses a magic sword, killing anyone just by pointing at his nose (for more see also Satodate, 1991). Oni’s magic objects are very important in tales - the most typical are the life-and-death whips, the flying rain-hat and umbrella, never-ceasing springs, magic lake, others53. One of the most interesting is his magic hammer fulfilling one’s wish by a simple hit on the ground54. We have already seen few of the main characteristics of oni – he is male, he lives isolated, far away from human world, in a separate realm, he is powerful, he keeps his magic objects and enormous treasures in his realm far from the touch of humans, he can drink, get angry, get scared, he laughs, he can have children, his best adversary is a born hero. But is he a cannibal? In “The strong Tarō” (140) and “The two brothers” (178) a girl is offered to an oni to serve his hunger - the village suffers and offers the monster at regular intervals a female victim. In both stories heroes appear to save the girls, to oppose in an open fight the monster; with wits, courage and good deal of strength the heroes manage to kill the oni and save the girl. Oni definitely prefers women, girls to boys – his hunger is satisfied only through female offerings, which is another hint for his male essence55.

TENGU The tengu is dancing and singing and playing. He is feared because he has magic objects and terrifying appearance. But he is not unbeatable, he is not that great - one simply needn’t be afraid. Tengu is another supernatural creature with deep roots in Japanese folk beliefs. Tengu is half-man, half-bird creature, feared and honoured simultaneously among Japanese people. It is believed to have long beak and wings (nearing his image to that of a bird) and man’s body, arms and legs; it is seen as a certain transformation of the deity of mountains yama-no kami (see also Naumann, 1963: 345-346). In medieval times it opposed Buddhism playing tricks on travelling priests and monks; he is feared also as an abductor of children, but is at the same time honoured as protector with supernatural skills, there are also numerous stories about how he takes people away with him on mantic voyages; he could also be an instructor, a master, a teacher in such local legends (for more see Blacker, 1967: 146); he is also believed to possess powers of illusion and is closely associated with the image of yamabushi. Among the most typical features of the

52 The hero kills the ogre because it has tried earlier to kill him - such stories are called tatakai mukashi-banashi – tales of fight (Inada, 1996: 218). 53 For more on the link between oni’s magic objects and the divination belief of the Way of Yin and Yang see Ko’ike, 1998: 8-26. 54 Maruyama thinks that not the hammer but actually the action of hitting, striking, knocking makes the magic – in folk traditions in different cultures this action is used to chase evil away, to get to the soul, the core of everything living and non-living (Maruyama, 1998: 58- 70). 55 The only existing example of a man being devoured by oni is in the tale “Issun Bōshi” (136a) but there the initial intent of oni was to eat the girl and the young hero in order to save her life willingly enters an open battle with the monster.

124 tengu are his long nose, red face and magic feather fan which can make one’s nose grow; another magic ability is that tengu can read thoughts. Tengu are believed to live in the woods, often in groups and have a merry nature though they could be harmful to people sometimes. Although tengu appears often in folk beliefs, in Seki’s collection his character is present only in two tales – “The old men with the bumps” (194) and “The charcoal burner and tengu” (265).

Two old men with tumours on their right and left cheeks respectively are praying in a temple when a band of celebrating tengus comes in. The tengus make the old men dance and sing, which the first man does well and is taken away his tumour, while the second, because of his fear, does not perform satisfactory and is given one more tumour as punishment. The different versions of this tale reveal the character of the ogre in different ways - in some versions tengu are shown very funny and they reward the first man for bringing more joy to their feast; to the second man their attitude is severe – they dislike the fear in his voice which is considered for a sign of disrespect towards them. In other versions the situation differs, because tengu-devils are outwitted by the first man who says the tumour is the most precious thing for him.

A man is working in front of his house when a tengu comes and bets he can read his thoughts. The man is terrified by the ogre and in panic the stick which he is holding flies by chance in the direction of tengu who runs away saying: “People do things which they don’t even think they are doing”. In both cases as we have seen, people are afraid of tengu though the supernatural characters are not so fearful like oni, they are not cannibals or real monsters, but rather a bunch of merry supernatural figures. Tengu are true tricksters, not real adversaries of the main characters, they do not come in the plot as bridegrooms to human women; their gender is not as distinct as that of oni.

KAPPA The kappa who steals horses and seduces good wives lives hidden away in swamps and moistures. He tries to marry but he often fails. He is no real ghost, no real monster, no dwarf and no cannibal – he is simply the lord of wetlands. The figure of kappa is the last one with permanent and defined male characteristics in Japanese fairy tales. Kappa is an amphibious supernatural creature thought to be a transformation of the water deity. His other names like kawappa, kawako, mizuchi and suitengu reveal the essential link to water too (for more on the link between kappa, serpent and water deity see Yanagida, 1998: 387-389 and Foster, 1998). Although its picture varies from place to place, kappa is believed to be about the size and the shape of a thirteen-fourteen year old boy, its face like a tiger with a snout, its hair - bobbed, its head with a saucer-like depression on top containing water. When the supply of this water diminishes, kappa’s supernatural power is impaired. Its body is slippery, with blue-green scales and emits a fishy odour, kappa has webbed feet and hands and can rotate its arm and leg joints freely, it can have wings or a beak, can resemble a turtle or an otter. Its nature is ambivalent – kappa is believed to help people with rice-planting and irrigation but in the same time its negative image includes preying on humans and animals; kappa is also believed to have male nature and seduce women, especially in toilets. Kappa-belief appears already in “Nihon Shoki” where he is called “vicious and mischievous”, its image corresponds to water spirits like Flusskobolds or dwarfs and resembles to a certain extend the Russian Dyedushka Vodyanoy who drowns people, marries girls and coaxes women. Despite the numerous folk beliefs in kappa, the collection of Seki includes only two

125 examples – “The snake-bridegroom” (101) and “The prophecy of the deities” (151).

In 101 a kappa helps a farmer to water his fields and wants in return to have one of his daughters as wife. The youngest daughter agrees but she manages to outwit the monster by giving him an impossible task to complete – to drown empty gourds. As kappa cannot manage he is made a servant to the family for the rest of his life. This tale shows kappa’s male realisation - as all supernatural and undesired bridegrooms, he suffers and loses his wife in the end; he is a bridegroom not to become a life-long family partner and he is outwitted by the woman in an easy way. His help in watering the fields implies his link to the water deity, moreover the kappa is often substituted by the snake, the dragon, the water-deity and the mud-snail in similar tales (Dorson, 1975: 244). Another of his roles is revealed in tale 151c. A prophecy predicts that a boy will be seduced and killed by a kappa just in accordance with the folk beliefs of people. In few versions the kappa is outwitted by the boy’s father and the boy’s life is saved, but the versions are limited not because of the impossibility of humans to defeat kappa, but because the power of destiny and prophecy is considered greater than that of human beings.

* * * As we have seen oni, tengu and kappa are the three most typical male supernatural figures appearing in the collection which are definite adversaries to the main characters, have a definite male image in folk beliefs and play a negative role in the plot. Additional to these three figures it is necessary to mention other figures which may appear in male’s shape but whose gender is not that clear. Such figures include the deity of poverty and house deities (199, 201) shown as an old man residing at the house of the main characters; the stranger at New Year’s Eve coming in the shape of a beggar or a poor priest (197); the deity of plague rewarding good hosts (200); the deity of swamp (225) or the sky-man tenjin rewarding good-hearted people (145). As mentioned, such deities rarely reveal their gender affiliation – in different tales or in different versions of the same tale the deity can be a she-one or a he-one according to the local beliefs. On one hand such deities can assume any shape they want – male or female, human or non-human; on the other – their gender does not play a crucial role for the plot; just in few cases the female shape of the deity can affect the plot and its main character because the female deity marries the human protagonist, but as for the male shape – it seems of no relevance at all, except for the fact that in most of the tales the deity is shown male. Such deities are not main characters, even not main adversaries, most often they are donors or helpers, they can reward the kindness or punish the greed, they can advise and give magic presents to those who deserve. Their figures are wrapped in mystery, typical for the group of helpers, advisors and donors, so they are studied thoroughly in the next chapter.

126 3.3.3. MALE HELPERS, ADVISORS AND DONORS The priest is the best advisor, a person of much wisdom and extensive knowledge. He has no supernatural powers, but he knows the answers to all questions. The stranger is the one who offers magic objects. If one happens to need them he will surely have to face the unknown old man. And if the best advice and the best magic object are still not enough, there is no other way for the hero but to ask gods, deities and the whole supernatural to help him on his way. There are different ways to classify helpers in fairy tales. Seki divides them in two groups – those who help directly the main character and those who help him indirectly by granting him a magic object or advice (Seki, III: 189-193). Horn uses different criteria to classify helpers in three groups: those, who show the right path (very often a grateful animal); those who give advice and those who give magic presents (Horn, 1983: 75). Luethi classifies them in five groups: otherworld beings, magical animals, grateful dead, heavenly bodies and humans (Luethi, 1987: 138). In the present research they are grouped in three – religious characters; strangers and supernatural beings. The criterion for classification is their level of “humanisation”, hence the first group encompasses entirely human helpers, the characters of the second bridge the human world and the supernatural, and the third are members entirely of non-human realms (for more see also Betz, 1998).

RELIGIOUS CHARACTERS AS HELPERS The greatest part of human advisors and helpers is composed of the religious characters – the wisdom of Buddhist oshō-priests, the knowledge, sometimes even supernatural of rokubu-pilgrims, travelling monks and hermits. Earlier we have already seen their main realisations, here we shall just repeat some of their most important characteristics. All of these figures are human beings; there is no magic in their origin or essence, but they know more than common people, they possess wisdom beyond the normal human, they can see in future, they possess a kind of supernatural knowledge. Their duty is to help people find their way – to their beloved, to the wealth or simply their way through life; they solve riddles on behalf of the hero, but never act for him; they deal successfully with tricksters like the fox or the badger and save whole villages from suffering; they never expect or win material rewards, even when they perform a heroic deed. The number of tales with religious helpers and advisors is considerably great – rokubu, oshō, bō-sama, tabi-sō are the helpers whom the people address in fourteen tales “Harima Itonaga” (129), “Torachiyo Maru” (139), “Stupid but first born” (175), “The sister and the brother” (180), “The magic towel” (198), “Komebuku and Awabuku” (205), “The girl without hands” (208), “The letter of the swamp-deity” (225), “The Princess of the bead” (227), “The cats’ mansion” (231), “Three lucky charms” (240), “Dan’ichi with the bitten ears” (242), “The cat and the pumpkin” (254), and “Beating the monkeys” (256). The religious characters in these tales are no donors – they do not possess magic objects (with the exceptions of tales 198 and 240 where the characters do present magic objects to help the protagonists), they can give the protagonist just their advice but very often this piece of advice requires more than normal human knowledge (like in tales 227 and 139). Such helpers never test the protagonists in order to give them the valuable advice (tests usually appear only together with definite magic – with a magic object or a supernatural help, but not when a simple advice is given). Typical is also their actions and knowledge against supernatural beings or animals-tricksters (like in tales 225, 231, 242, 254 and 256).

127 THE STRANGER Similar simply advice-giving figures but with no religious background is the figure of the stranger, the old man-advisor – a definite human character. In six tales an old man appears and helps the main character - “The turnip-chōja” (121), “The length of one’s life” (152), “The sister and the brother” (180), “Ash-boy” (211), “Oni’s child Kozuna” (247), and “The travellers who were turned into horses” (250). In these tales the old man advises the main character how to marry a certain girl (121), how to enter a rich man’s house and succeed in marrying the daughter there (211), how to find a cure for his enchanted friend (250), how to find his disappeared wife (247), and gives advice to the female character how to save her brother’s life (180) or how to bring back her husband from the Kingdom of Death (152). All these characters appear suddenly just at the time when the main character needs help; the advice received does not call for magic, it is only a sign of wisdom, possessed by the old men and presented to the young and inexperienced heroes and heroines. The host of such helpers are male, in similar situation there are just two examples of a stranger - old woman, giving advice to the main male characters how to succeed – in “Going for wild pears” (176) and “The three brothers and the ghost” (177). The old man can also be a neighbour - “The step-child and the well” (220) and “The cat and the iron lid of the pot” (253), or a friend – “The fish-bead” (169). It is emphasised that he is old, probably because of the implication of his long-year experience and wisdom. The case is different when the stranger does not only advise the main character but also presents him with a magic object. In “The salt-grinding mill” (167) an old man gives the main character a magic rice-dango which he exchanges later for a magic salt-grinding mill. In “The magic geta” (171) an old man gives to a boy magic geta-sandals with which the boy is able to produce golden coins and save his mother’s life; in “The guest at New Year’s Eve” (199a) a grateful stranger presents the poor but good-hearted brother with a magic box. But generally when the main character is given a magic present it is done by old women (like in 205a, 209, 212, 251 and other tales) and almost all of these examples belong to the step-child cycle of tales. The characters of the helpers seem human, or at least they are not definitely supernatural though obviously they come into contact with the supernatural; they are half-way between the human and the supernatural characters (see also Mihailova, 1995; Holbek, 1996). They often test the main character, unlike the case with the advice-giving and their present is of supernatural essence, but the effect though in both cases – be it a simple advice as we have seen in the earlier examples or a magic present - is the same for the main characters – they are helped on their way to success and happiness.

SUPERNATURAL HELPERS Moving on to the supernatural we come to a group of tales where the helpers belong entirely to the supernatural domain. First of all we shall pay some attention to the advisors appearing in dreams. In the tale “The riddle-bridegroom” (130) a young man dreams of a riddle given by a deity revealing the way to a beautiful girl; the help is not direct, but a mere supernatural hint for his successive life. In “The seven swans” (214) the young heroine sees in a dream an old man telling her how to save her enchanted brothers - again, it is up to her to act, the help received in her dream does not automatically help the protagonist and her brothers. In other tales the dream itself helps the main characters on their way to success; with or without dream-figures of old men, the dream itself plays a very important role for the heroes in more than fourteen tales like “The crippled chōja” (150) and “The potato chōja” (153) where the deities in a dream give advice to a girl whom to marry, “The prophecy of the deities” (151)

128 where deities appear in a dream to reveal the destiny of the characters, “Acolyte’s dream” (156) and “The life and the death whips” (168) where the first dream in the new year reveals the future, many are the dreams with instructions how to find a treasure like in “The chōja of the bought dream” (158), “The dragon-fly chōja” (159), “The bridge of miso-sellers” (160), “Luck from heaven, luck from earth” (161), and others. Another group of supernatural helpers is represented by the tales about the guest at New Year’s Eve. The guest is kami-deity, a god, who comes to the people to test their inner virtues, to praise the good ones and to punish the evil (see also Suzuki, 1984). The guest usually takes the shape of a beggar, a stranger, a traveller, he comes to the house of the rich where he is chased away, then goes to the house of the poor to be warmly welcomed. He usually leaves a treasure to the good-hearted and often punishes the rich, who have treated him wrong. The figure is not an advisor and not a helper, but a typical donor in a typical reward-and-punishment tale. To illustrate the figure we shall refer to the two most explicit examples - “The chōja who became a monkey” (197) and “The fire at New Year’s Eve” (202).

A god comes to the people on New Year’s Eve in the garments of a beggar. He is rudely refused shelter and food by a rich family. The poor neighbours accept the beggar. He asks them what would they like most of all and they wish to become seventeen year old youngsters again. Learning about the miracle, the rich man invites the beggar and serves him with great respect. But to their wish to become young again the beggar responds by turning all house-members in monkeys, dogs and wild animals. The poor couple is given their estate. In the second tale in a house one evening a stranger comes who helps the female servant in keeping the fire in return for a favour – she must take the sack with the corpse of a dead man he is carrying. The girl agrees. In the morning she finds in the bag not a corpse but a pile of gold. Very important for this type of tales is the occasion – New Year’s Eve and the appearance of the travelling deity. This deity is believed to be marebito, a divine guest, who travels around in the sacred evening to give blessing to the deserving people. Recently there are more and more comparative studies about the guest at New Year in China, Korea and Japan; the typical Japanese elements in this cycle of tales are the guarding of the fire and the transformation of the dead body into gold (Tanaka, 1996: 11-13). To add to the thoughts of Tanaka, let us recall one of the most typical motifs from the neighbour-cycle – the neighbour-wife comes to borrow fire from the main characters and learns about their luck, so coming back home she makes her husband try winning a wealth following the good-neighbour’s example. The sacred visitors test the respect to the ancestors as they are believed to be the great spirit of the ancestor; such tales prove the link between the celebrated deities and the celebrating them people (Miura, 1992: 223-233). The holy evening before New Year is sacred Space and Time when miracles happen just like they happen in other non-human realms. In such tales we have again the motif of the unknown true shape - the beggar coming to the house shows one face in the evening and another shape in the morning; the essence of the deity is ambivalent – positive and negative simultaneously, punishing and rewarding at the same time. From the pantheon of all kinds of Japanese deities many appear often in fairy tales as saviours, advice-giving personalities or donors. The sky boy, entrapped in a bamboo but saved by a young monk, fulfils his wish in “The bamboo boy” (145), a sky-nymph rewards an old man for his kindness by presenting him with never-ending box for rice and a self-cooking pot for soup in “The bamboo maiden” (146). In “The step-child who went for strawberries” (213) an old man (the deity of the month of June) saves the life of a suffering step-daughter and punishes with death her step-mother and step-sister. In the tale “The bamboo cutting old man” (189) the representative of the deities of the months - the uguisu-bird - rewards the good-natured man for showing respect to her wish. The deity of plague saves the life of a whole family in “The deity of plague” (200) in return for their natural kindness; the deity of the river rewards the poor wood-cutter and punishes his greedy antipode in “The golden axe” (226a). The deity of poverty

129 is the most common among them – s/he lives in the house making it poor, but s/he is able to help the main characters if they are good in their heart; in “The guest at New Year’s Eve” (199b) and “The deity of poverty” (201a, b), the deity helps the man acquire wealth and become prosperous. Yet the deities are not really preferred to animals or other donors – only one from the fourteen tales of the neighbour-cycle and only one of ten tales from the step-child cycle mention a deity, while the rest prefer the grateful animal motif or simply the stranger, who is as mentioned, half human – half supernatural. The Buddhist supernatural characters also act as helpers like for example Kannon who rewards a good-hearted man in the “The picture-wife” (120); Buddhist supernatural gratitude receives the hero who has financed four temples in “The three brothers and the treasure” (174), the statues of jizō usually help the poor with advice or a magic object like in “The land of jizō” (184) and “The jizō with the straw hats” (203). One of the most beloved supernatural donors is the King of the Dragon Palace or his daughter. They reward the good-hearted, kind men for their inner virtues, for having saved an animal or just for being good to animals with magic props like listening hood, never-ceasing boxes of food, drink, cloth, money, a magic wish-fulfilling boy, a celestial wife. Whether the main characters win or lose being in possession of such magic objects is up to them, but they are initially rewarded for their natural kindness; examples of such rewards can be seen in tales like “The fish-wife” (113), “The Sea-princess” (114), “The magic listening hood” (164), “The sea-dragon and the fisher’s net” (179), “The turtle at New Year’s Eve” (204a), “The child from the Dragon Palace” (223), “Urashima Tarō” (224), and others. Animals are probably the most preferred helpers and donors to the main characters in Japan but we have already had a closer look at this human-animal relationship. Horn believes that the animal-helpers somehow constitute one unity with the hero, while other donors appear episodically, give their magic present to the hero and then leave him deal alone with the situation (Horn, 1983: 76). In more than twenty-five tales in the present collection the animal acts as helper, which makes the greatest number compared to all other helpers and donors. For Seki the helpers usually donate objects which help the main character find happiness and marry; some helpers do it from gratitude for the heroes’ earlier help, some do it from unknown reasons. The animals acting as helpers, in contrast to the animals in tales of animals, possess partly divine, majestic nature; the belief in animal helpers and animals as ancestors could be seen clearly too; the stronger the supernatural nature of the animal is, the older the tale is, reflecting earlier human development (for more see Seki, III: 189-193 and Seki, IV: 90-115). For Miura the helper with supernatural abilities is in fact an incarnation of a guarding deity (Miura, 1992: 30), for Kawai such helpers are simply the shadow of the main hero (Kawai, 1977: 132); Horn concludes that the hero and his helpers form an inseparable unity (Horn, 1983: 24); for Thomas the super-natural helpers are usually creatures with ambivalent character, they could be harmful and benevolent simultaneously and reflect directly the folk beliefs and ascribes them “an internal inseparable magic” (Thomas, 1989: 87). In the end let us mention also another tendency for the helpers which could be a theme for a separate research. Thomas discovers a tendency of male-male and female-female pairings of antagonist and protagonist (Thomas, 1989: 59), but studying the Japanese tales and especially the figure of the helper and the donor, a similar tendency comes to attention. In most of the cases when there is a male protagonist he is helped by a male helper, and when there is a female protagonists, she is usually supported by a female helper. It could well be said that what Bly discovers about the donor-instructor (Bly, 1992) – namely, that a male protagonist needs his male-master in the initiation process – could be very true about female protagonists too, needing female supporters. But to this interesting topic here no further attention will be paid.

130 PART 4. CONCLUSIONS

The present research aims at the elaboration of a classification and analysis of male characters in Japanese fairy tales, using the methodological tool-set of literary analysis, text structural study, comparative folkloristics, psychology and gender studies. To explain some features and other plot motifs, the present research refers to many studies on Japanese culture, philosophy, religion and folk beliefs, history and sociology. Interpretations from various scientific schools and fields are applied for the analysis of each character, providing a more objective view on the figures in an attempt to supply a three-dimensional picture of each character. As there have been found no similar studies on male characters, the present work is believed to introduce a new possible path for analysis of folktale characters. Using as a starting point the general psychology and the literary analysis, especially the text structural study, the research suggests a classification of male characters in three main groups – man in family, man in society and man in nature. Isolated cases and exceptions are not taken into account, only general trends and existing stereotypes of behaviour are followed to make the portrait of man in Japanese fairy tale. In many parts of the research questions are raised, opening the door for possible future investigations. For source material is used the collection and classification of Keigo Seki “Nihon Mukashi-banashi Shūsei” (Shusei), but references and comparisons to Seki’s enlarged edition “Nihon Mukashi-banashi Taisei” (Taisei), his classification of tale-types appearing in Asian Folklore Studies (AFS), Kunio Yanagida’s “Nihon Mukashi-banashi Mei’I” (Mei’i) and the edition of Ozawa and Inada “Nihon Mukashi-banashi Tsūkan” (Tsukan) are also made in order to supply a more complete form of tale texts. Occasionally comparisons with European examples appear mainly with texts from Grimms’ “Kinder- und Hausmaerchen” (KHM); Afanas’ev’s “Narodnye russkie skazki” (Af) and with the international tale-type index by Aarne and Thompson (AaTh) and its Japanese version by Ikeda (Ikeda). The scope of the research is limited to ordinary tales (Zaubermaerchen) only, carrying numbers 101-286 in Shusei II: 1-3, excluding tales of animals and jokes. The texts cover generally the whole geographic area of Japan, historically their origins could be found in the period from the VII-VIII c. till XIX c., as given by Seki. The texts are processed in order to classify the appearing male characters in three groups according to the activity area (in family, in society and in nature). Inside each group the character types are formed and presented in a zebra-style sequence of small introduction, text examples, analysis and interpretation, summary. For the analysis and interpretation around 250 titles of researches and reference works by Japanese and non-Japanese scholars have been used (from them 110 in Japanese, 61 in German, 57 in English, 9 in Bulgarian and 6 in Russian), additional information has also been gathered from encyclopaedias and periodicals. The research is divided in four parts. The first part introduces the aims and motivation of the work as well as the methods applied and outlines the frame of the study. The second part is composed of three chapters, each introducing necessary theoretical background - the first of them gives an overview of all works by non-Japanese authors which have found their place in the present research; the second draws a picture of the Japanese folktale study and introduces Keigo Seki as folklorist, further it also gives the motivation for the choice of the Shusei in front of other similar collections; the last chapter presents few important characteristics of Japanese folktales and theories of Japanese folklorists studying the phenomena. All these three chapters serve as reference material for the following classification of male characters.

131 The male characters in Japanese tales are classified in three groups according to sphere of activity. In the first group male characters inside the family circle are studied which form the greatest part of the present research. The most exploited role generally is that of the man as partner, be it as bridegroom, non-human partner or husband. The bridegroom is studied in four possible types of action and behaviour – physical (physical power, heroic deed, supernatural possessions), intellectual (suitors tested by the father of the bride in inventiveness and intellectual tasks), emotional (intensity of feelings as active state with which to deserve the hand of the desired woman) and passive (unequal marriages initiated by the woman who brings happiness to the man). The study of the non-human partner proceeds in two directions. The first one examines the figure of the partner to a non-human bride, where the man is rewarded by a grateful animal that becomes his wife but leaves if her true nature is discovered, usually after a broken taboo; while the forced marriage between a man and a sky-creature develops into a love-story with a happy ending. For the non-human bridegroom two possibilities exist – the undesired and abhorred suitor who is killed by the woman or the suitor who eventually turns human and is allowed to stay in human world as a proper husband (possible initiation rite). In the last subgroup the figure of the husband is studied, who stands between the roles of the partner and the father, and as such can act as a father protecting his children from the cruel step-mother or as a husband who saves or is saved by his wife. In the tales about brothers the problem of fraternal friendship and competition stands out. The two brother-tales prove that when two brothers are not opposed they help each other, especially active and heroic is the younger of the two and when the two brothers are opposed, they are opposed on social and economic grounds. In tales about three equal brothers the family reunion after long years of separation is put above the social norms; when the tales speak of three brothers in the case when the brothers undergo same tests, the eldest is the winner in tales of inheritance and the youngest is the winner in tales of marriage. The figure of the brother to a sister presents the younger brother as helpless and passive, in need of his sister’s care (tales from the step-child cycle). The figure of the father is probably the second most exploited figure in folk texts, although it is usually secondary; the image is not negative and is formed by the natural duty of the father to support the wellbeing of the family. The father can be looking for a partner to his child (various marriage practices like Arbeitsheirat, testing suitors in physical work or through intellectual tasks, giving the daughter as a reward for heroic deeds, etc); the figure of the father proves in the same time that marriage and betrothal are predominantly male domain. The figure of the father who sends his children away is studied according to the reasons for this separation (to choose an heir or to chase children away forever); then the father-saviour is studied showing how the father takes care for the wellbeing of the children and of the dead (this role is undertaken by mothers only if the father has already died). A great part of the study of the father is dedicated to the figure of the absent father (temporal absence from home or permanent by his death in cases with step-mother) who missing from home leaves his children in danger; other cases of absent father include the ogre-tales, where the father is missing and his sons have to oppose an ogre. In many tales not only father, but mother has also died and this marks the starting point for the children to grow up and develop. The figure of the son melts into the figures of the brother, the bridegroom and the hero, covering the space between almost all male figures. The main motif of such tales remains the breaking of dependence bond between child and parents. In the first group the case with a child born after fervent prayers of childless couple is studied - key motif of such tales is the child’s path to maturity and marriage and such tales are not really son’s stories but rather hero-epos.

132 The tales about the step-son are stories of the development of children through the catalytic function of the step-mother - when this undesired child is too young, he faces death and when the child succeeds then the story is built of marriage and initiation motifs. In other tales the son can also take care of his mother when father is missing and the mother can save son in tales of absent father. In the next part of the research the male characters with their roles and functions in society (public life) are studied. On the path of getting rich the main characters show four types of activity (the same which the bridegroom shows on his path to marriage) – the physical (defeating ogres, male characters become rich), the intellectual (using wits and inventiveness), the emotional (getting rich because of good heart and kind deeds) and the passive (the woman makes the man rich and happy). The tales of neighbours are studied in two groups - the unsuccessful imitation tales (where neighbours belong to the same social and economic strata, but have different morals) and the misused or stolen object tales (where the two opposite characters belong to different social and economic level and the conflict is in fact a rich-and-poor conflict). A separate chapter reveals few characters appearing very often in Japanese tales – tonosama (judge, suitor and social authority), chōja (preferable final state for the protagonist), samurai (wise and courageous) and various priests, all of them reflecting existing social realities mixed with folk beliefs. In the last part of the research the relationship between man and animal is studied (the grateful animal cycle, man and trickster cycle, and other episodic roles). And as in Japan animals and nature are simultaneously representatives of the supernatural, in this part the figures of the supernatural beings (oni, tengu and kappa) and helpers (religious, stranger, supernatural) are also studied. The analysis and synthesis of the information transmitted as a message in the Japanese fairy tales has brought to a summary of the most typical features about the male characters and their living environment – the Japanese tale. The male characters are tabibito-travellers on their way to happiness, they are Wanderers and strangers in unknown lands, and as such they are also lonely, lonesome are even the supernatural male characters seeking warmth and intimacy with other beings. Walking along the path to happiness, men are adventurers and need to prove themselves. The concept of happiness often includes only a shelter for the night, a good meal and dry clothes, the happiness is simple and transitional, in which the size of wealth does not really matter (even the tiniest thing could be strong, successful, beautiful or meaningful). Typical for the Japanese tales is the result of nothingness, in which the male characters end the story in no different state than they have started it, which brings the tales much closer to reality. Very often the male characters reach happiness in marriage parallel to which comes usually wealth, simultaneously the man has to deserve the woman and he undergoes a number of tests to become a successful husband. Love is not a priority and cannot conquer all, but the woman is of much importance in the life of the man, she can bring happiness in his house and she can take it away with her when she leaves him forever. Each man has the choice which path to take in order to reach his happiness, expressed usually by marriage or wealth, or both together. If he has physical power and strength, he grows up, becomes a hero, defeating oni-ogres and getting rich. Yet not every strong man is granted the good luck of becoming the final winner. Using his intellectual abilities, his wits and inventiveness (even if he is the laziest man in the country), he can also find happiness, but such clever men are very few according to the Japanese folklore. The surest path towards happiness in Japanese tales is the path of heart – for those whose heart is pure and kind there will be no

133 obstacles towards happiness, they may receive all they need without any deed or action. Humbleness, kindness, industriousness at work are richly rewarded, cleverness is appreciated, greediness is severely punished. The family is the most important unit in Japanese tales, it is the most common environment for all male characters and most of the tales are in fact family stories telling about the joys and the sorrows of family life. This family is ruled by the filial piety, by the respect of younger towards elder and from here come the main conflicts – how to break away from parental dependence, yet preserving that filial piety; how to become treated on equal terms by the elder brothers – by opposition or ingratiation, is it better to agree or to disagree with the existing rules of the family, what is true – appearance or reality, shein or sein – these are the problems developed in the tales. The importance of the family as a concept brings disaster to the childless couples whose “abnormality” calls for magic. The family in Japanese tales is ruled by the father, who takes care of the family wellbeing, who chooses the right suitor for his daughter, who decides on the right heir among his sons, who by simply missing from home may bring to catastrophe the whole family. But the tales show a certain tendency that when the character of the mother gets stronger and more powerful, the character of the father becomes weaker and weaker, especially visible this is in cases of a second wife (step-mother tales). In the family one needs also a certain taboo, a secret to be respected by the partners, the private space and inner sanctum of the individual, which is not to be shared even with the beloved. On the whole in the Japanese family good relations between its members reign, the blood-bonds are strong, no fratricide intentions are visible, no great child-parents conflict stands out. The Japanese social structure in tales is strictly defined; everyone knows her/his/its place and Japanese tales are no “rags-to-riches” myths. The group and the individual are inter-dependent – the hero must be accepted, acknowledged by the group, but he, the hero, is the saviour of this group in the same time. The individual who is outside the society is a stranger, who comes in the village to help its people, the village in the same time sacrifices the life of its saviour and deifies him. The distinction between in and out, between soto and uchi is very definite. The role of the neighbourhood is great – the neighbourhood is the living environment in which the characters act, but it is simultaneously an envy-ronment, causing often feelings of insecurity and threat. Getting rich in such society is not the same as being rich, the process of acquisition of riches differs substantially from the negative state of being rich. Usually rich become people who are already rich in their hearts – the kind, the poor but honest and hard-working farmers and fishers receive in the end their material rewards. The Japanese concept of nature (as well as super-nature) revealed in fairy tales defines another living environment in which male characters act. In this environment time and space are relative terms, as are past and future, life and death; space itself is a multi-dimensional creation with parallel worlds of human beings, animals and the supernatural - all living in their realms and all penetrating the world of the other. Being separate they are simultaneously one whole, so human beings, animals, deities and ogres easily transform into each other. They are also dependent on each other – if one is in need – the other responds and so on and so forth till the circle is closed. Miracles are inside Nature itself according to the Japanese tales, nature is the medium and the space in which human beings are rewarded or punished, in fact – the space in which they live their lives. The role of destiny is strong, the belief in dreams can make them really happen. As the most expressive representative of nature, animals play the role of the partner, the trickster, the helper, the deity and the opponent. The response of the animals is not defined by gender affiliation of the main human character but by his/her kind human nature. If a human being disgraces an animal, he is punished - same happens to the cruel men who hurt or kill animals, same happens to the husbands who disgrace their animal-wives by revealing their secret. The impossible marriage with a supernatural being (or animal) takes us back to the

134 concept of the unaccepted stranger, the outsider who either becomes a part of the majority or will be forever cast away by it. The present research offers a classification of male characters in Japanese fairy tales accompanied by a many-facet interpretation portrait of each character. So far this has been done neither for the Japanese tales, nor for the characters of other folk narratives and the present research is believed to be innovative in this sense. The combination of literary, folkloristic, anthropological, psychological and gender studies approaches, enriched with structural and functional text analysis makes it possible to achieve a complex, multi-dimensional portrait of the studied characters and offers a new study technique in which the final portrait of the tale character is as all-inclusive and thorough as possible. The characters receive more flesh and blood, more realism and more content; their behaviour is seen inside the cultural tradition which brings to a closer link to historical reality; simultaneously the psychological and gender studies interpretations lead to general conclusions applicable outside the Japanese tradition as well. The combination of these various approaches enables the study of tale characters to raise more questions and receive more answers, which in the same time does not mean that in the present study all questions have found their answers. The complexity of the folktale as a narrative and pre-literary phenomenon calls for a many-sided approach, but undoubtedly, the present research has left many questions open especially in those parts where the complex-approach unveils new problematic nests originating in the collision of the applied techniques. In this way the study is seen not as a final result at all, but as a starting point for future research on general and typical features of tale characters inside a cultural tradition or outside the existing interpretation schemes. The present research could be used as an example for possible classification of male characters; the conclusions inside the groupings could be tested with other folklore materials and the suggested approach could be applied for the study of other literary texts as well. For the general public the research offers an introduction to the Japanese tale and its features, the introductory chapters give an overview of the Japanese tale, its history and characteristics; the references to the Japanese cultural and social realities supply the reader with new knowledge and new standpoint to view folktales and cultural traditions in general. To the specialists belonging to one of the applied fields the study offers a new possibility for future researches, the open questions left along the way call for further investigations and if this study manages to inspire and help such future complex-approach researches, it would have reached its aim and it would have served its purpose. And if by any chance it did succeed in preserving the pleasure of the acquaintance with fairy tales then it was worth all the efforts invested on the way.

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138 GOBRECHT, Barbara, 1998: “Die schoene Zauberin: Sind Maerchen Liebes-geschichten?”, pp. 200-215 in Zaubermaerchen: Forschungsberichte aus der Welt der Maerchen, 1998 Munchen GONOBOLIN, F. N., 1973: Psihologia (Psychology), 1973 Prosveshenie, Moskva HACHINO, Nozomi, 1998: “Nihon no mukashi-banashi ni okeru oto” in Nihon mukashi-banashi no imēji, ed. Ozawa, 1998 Kokonsha; 鉢野のぞみ「日本の昔話におけ る音」小澤編『日本昔話のイメージ』1998 古今社 HAMASHITA, Masahiro, 2002: Imōtochikara to sono hen’yō - joseigaku no kokoromi, 2002 Kindaibungeisha; 濱下昌宏『妹力とその変容ー女性学の試み』2002 近代文芸社 HANABE, Hideo, 2002: “Minwa to kindaibungaku” in Nihon no minwa wo manabu hito no tame ni, 2002 Sekai Shisōsha; 花部英雄「民話と近代文学」福田晃/常光徹/斉藤寿始 子（編）『日本の民話を学ぶ人のために』2002 世界思想社 HARADA, Nobuyuki, 2002: “Minwa to chūkobungaku” in Nihon no minwa wo manabu hito no tame ni, 2002 Sekai Shisōsha; 原田信之「民話と中古文学」福田晃/常光徹/斉藤寿始 子（編）『日本の民話を学ぶ人のために』2002 世界思想社 O HEALAI, Padraig, 1996: “The priest in Irish fairy legends”, pp. 609-622 in Folk narrative and world view, ed. Petzoldt, 1996 Frankfurt am Main HEINDRICHS, Ursula, 1984: “Der Brunnen”, pp. 53-73 in Die Welt im Maerchen, ed. Janning and Gehrts, 1984 Europaeische Maerchengesellschaft Rheine HISHIKAWA, Akiko, 1998: “Washa to kikite no sei ni tsuite” in Mukashi-banashi densetsu kenkyū; 菱川晶子「話者と聞き手の性について」『昔話伝説研究』1998 昔話伝説研 究会 HOLBEK, Bengt, 1996: “Stories about strangers”, pp. 303-312 in Folk narrative and world view, ed. Petzoldt, 1996 Frankfurt am Main HORN, Katalin, 1983: Der aktive und der passive Märchenheld, 1983 Basel HORN, Katalin, 1984: “Der Weg”, pp. 22-36 in Die Welt im Maerchen, ed. Janning and Gehrts, 1984 Europaeische Maerchengesellschaft Rheine HORN, Katalin, 1995: “Die Identitaet des Helden und der Heldin”, pp. 191-207 in Symbolik des menschlichen Leibes. Schriften zur Symbolforschung, 1995 Bern II, Mikiko, 2000: “Mukashi-banashi ‘yume no hachi’ to yūritamashi shinkō” in Mukashi-banashi Densetsu Kenkyū; 井伊美紀子「昔話‘夢の蜂’と遊離魂信仰」『昔 話伝説研究』2000 昔話伝説研究会 IKUTA, Yoshiaki, 2002: “Mukashi-banashi no zankokusei” in Mukashi-banashi to mukashi-banashi ehon no sekaiten, 2002 Setagaya, Tokyo; 生田美秋「昔話の残酷性」 『昔話と昔話絵本の世界展』2002 Setagayabungakkan IMOTO, Ei’ichi; 1991: “Yume wo kau hanashi” in Mukashi-banashi Densetsu Kenkyū; 井本英 一｢夢を買う話｣『昔話伝説研究』1991 昔話伝説研究会 INADA, Kōji, 1985: “Kyōdaitan to tonari no jiitan” in Mukashi-banshi no jidai, 1985 Chikuma Shobō; 稲田浩二「兄弟譚と隣の爺譚」『昔話の時代』1985 筑摩書房 INADA, Kōji, 1996: Mukashi-bananashi wa ikiteiru, 1996 Chikuma Shobō; 稲田浩二『昔話は 生きている』1996 筑摩書房 INADA, Kōji / TAKEDA, Tadashi / OZAWA, Toshio, 1976: “Watashitachi no seikatsu no nakadeno minwa” in Nihonjin to minwa, ed. Ozawa, 1976 Gyōsei; 稲田浩二/武田正/小 澤俊夫「私たちの生活の中での民話」小澤編『日本人と民話』1976 ぎょうせい INADA, Kōji / ŌBAYASHI, Taryō / OZAWA, Toshio / TAKEDA, Tadashi, 1976: “Minwa no naka no nihonjin” in Nihonjin to minwa, ed. Ozawa, 1976 Gyōsei; 稲田浩二/大林太良/ 小澤俊夫/武田正「民話の中の日本人」小澤編『日本人と民話』1976 ぎょうせい INADA, Kōji / ŌBAYASHI, Taryō / OZAWA, Toshio, 1976: “Sekai ni okeru nihon minwa no ichi” in Nihonjin to minwa, ed. Ozawa, 1976 Gyōsei; 稲田浩二/大林太良/小澤俊夫「世

139 界におけるにほんみんわの位置」小澤編『日本人と民話』1976 ぎょうせい INADA, Kōji / INADA, Kazuko, 2001: Nihon mukashi-banashi handobukku, 2001 Sanseidō; 稲田浩二/稲田和子『日本昔話ハンドブック』2001 三省堂 ITŌ, Ryōhei, 1998: “Meihashi kamikata – kitsunekatan no kōsatsu” in Mukashi-banashi Densetsu Kenkyū; 伊藤龍平「迷ハシ神型ー狐化譚の考察」『昔話伝説研究』1998 昔話伝説研究会 ITŌ, Ryōhei, 2000: “Yanagida yamahitoron no genfūkei” in Mukashi-banashi Densetsu Kenkyū; 伊藤龍平「柳田山人論の原風景」『昔話伝説研究』2000 昔話伝説研究会 ITŌ, Seiji, 1989: “Imohori chōja no hikaku – seiritsu ni kansuru kōsatsu” in Taisei-Kenkyūhen N 12, ed. Seki; 伊藤清司「芋掘り長者の比較ー成立に関する一考察」関編『日本昔 話大成-研究篇』1989 角川書店 IWAI, Hiromi, 2000: Nihon no yōkai hyakka, volumes I-V, 2000 Kawadeshobōshinsha; 岩井宏 實『日本の妖怪百科 I-V』2000 河出書房新社 IWAZAKI, Mariko, 2002: “Nihon naradewa no miryoku wo tsutaetai” in Mukashi-banashi to mukashi-banashi no ehon, 2002 Setagaya Bungakkan; 岩崎真理子「日本ならではの魅 力を伝えたい」『昔話と昔話絵本の世界』2002 世田谷文学館 JASON, Heda, 1988: “Whom does the god favour: the wicked or the righteous? The reward and punishment fairy tale”, pp. 9-147 in FFC 240, 1988 Helsinki JUNG, C. G., 1999: Die Archetypen und das kollektive Unbewusste (transl.), 1999 Pleven: EA KAMAN, Erzsebet, 1996: “Die Poesie des Humors in den Zaubermaerchen”, pp. 355-364 in Folk narrative and world view, ed. Petzoldt, 1996 Frankfurt am Main KAMIYA, Yoshiyuki, 1984: “Masshi seikōtan dankō” in Mukashi-banashi kenkyū shūsei N 3, 1984 Meicho Shuppan; 神谷吉行｢末子成功譚断考｣『昔話研究集成３』1984 名著出 版 KANNO, Yoshiharu, 1996: “Hashi-hime to kodama” in Mukashi-banashi kenkyū to shiryō N 23; 神野善治「橋姫と木霊」『昔話研究と資料 23 号』1996 三弥井書店 KAST, Verena, 1988: Familienkonflikte im Maerchen, 1988 Muenchen KATŌ, Kōgi, 1998: “Nihon no mukashi-banashi ni okeru shōtai roken” in Nihon mukashi-banashi no imēji, ed. Ozawa, 1998 Kokonsha; 加藤耕義「日本の昔話におけ る正体露見」小澤編『日本昔話のイメージ』1998 古今社 KATŌ, Yasuko, 1999: “Edo chūki kara Meiji shōki no Kintarō” in Mukashi-banashi Kenkyū to Shiryō N 26; 加藤康子「江戸中期から明治初期の金太郎」『昔話研究と資料 26 号』 1999 三弥井書店 KAWAI, Hayao, 1977: Mukashi-banashi no shinsō, 1977 Kōdansha; 河合隼雄『昔話の深層』 講談社 KAWAI, Hayao, 1982: Mukashi-banashi to nihonjin no kokoro, 1982 Iwanami Shoten; 河合隼 雄『昔話と日本人の心』1982 岩波書店 KAWAI, Hayao, 1989: “Mukashi-banashi no shinrigakuteki kenkyū” in Taisei-Kenkyūhen N 12, ed. Seki; 河合隼雄「昔話の心理学的研究」関編『日本昔話大成-研究篇』1989 角川 書店 KAWAMORI, Hiroshi, 2000: Nihon mukashi-banashi no kōzō to katari te, 2000 Osaka Daigaku Shuppankai; 川森博司『日本昔話の構造と語り手』2000 大阪大学出版会 KERBELYTE, Bronislava, 1996: “Evaluation of human beings’ behaviour in folktales”, pp. 371 – 380 in Folk narrative and world view, ed. Petzoldt, 1996 Frankfurt am Main KIMMICH, Dorothee, 1997: “Herakles, Heldenposen und Narrenpossen. Stationen eines Maennermythos?”, pp. 173-191 in Wann ist der Mann ein Mann?, ed. Erhart and Herrmann, 1997 Mezler KOBAYASHI, Yukio, 2002: “Minwa to kinseibungaku” in Nihon no minwa wo manabu hito no

140 tame ni, 2002 Sekai Shisōsha; 小林幸夫「民話と近世文学」福田晃/常光徹/斉藤寿始 子（編）『日本の民話を学ぶ人のために』2002 世界思想社 KOIKE, Jun’ichi, 1998: “Oni no noroitakara no keifu” in Mukashi-banashi kenkyū to shiryō N 25; 小池淳一「鬼の呪宝の系譜」『昔話研究と資料 25 号』1998 三弥井書店 KOJIMA, Eirei, 1999: Neko no Ō, 1999 Shōgakkan; 小島瓔禮『猫の王』1999 小学館 KOMATSU, Kazuhiko, 1984a: “Mukashi-bananashi to shakai” in Mukashi-banashi kenkyū shūsei N 3, 1984 Meicho Shuppan; 小松和彦「昔話と社会」『日本昔話研究集成３』 1984 名著出版 KOMATSU, Kazuhiko, 1984b: “Sarumuko he no satsui” in Mukashi-banashi kenkyū shūsei N 4, 1984 Meicho Shuppan; 小松和彦「猿婿への殺意」『日本昔話研究集成４』1984 名 著出版 KOMATSU, Kazuhiko, 1987: Setsuwa no uchū, 1987 Jinbun Shoin; 小松和彦『説話の宇宙』 1987 人文書院 KOMATSU, Kazuhiko, 1989: “Mukashi-banashi no keitaironteki kenkyū” in Taisei-Kenkyūhen N 12, ed. Seki; 小松和彦「昔話の形態論的研究」関編『日本昔話大成-研究篇』1989 角川書店 KOVACHEVA, Ivanka, 1985: Da razkajesh prikazka (Telling a fairy tale), 1985 Sofia KOVALEV, G., 1965: Psihologiya Lichnosti (Psychology of the individual), 1965 Moskva KREINER, Josef, 1990: “Altersklassenordnung, Burschengruppen und Kultbuende in Japan” in Maenner Bande Maenner Buende. Zur Rolle des Mannes im Kulturvergleich, 1990 Koeln LAGLER, Peter, 1996: “Hero- and Victim-formula in Stories, in Mind and in Behaviour”, pp. 443-448 in Folk narrative and world view, ed. Petzoldt, 1996 Frankfurt am Main LEIMS, Thomas, 1990: “Das japanische Kabuki-Theater: Maennerbund - Maennerbuehne?” in Maenner Bande Maenner Buende. Zur Rolle des Mannes im Kulturvergleich, 1990 Koeln LENZEN, Dieter, 1997: “Kulturgeschichte der Vaterschaft”, pp. 87-113 in Wann ist der Mann ein Mann?, ed. Erhart and Herrmann, 1997 Mezler LILLEHOJ, Elizabeth, 1995: “Magic objects and demons of objects”, pp. 7-34 in AFS N 54, 1995 Nagoya LIPP, Wolfgang, 1990: “Maennerbuende, Frauen und Charisma: Geschlechterdrama im Kulturprozess”, in Maenner Bande Maenner Buende. Zur Rolle des Mannes im Kulturvergleich, 1990 Koeln LITTLETON, C. Scott, 1995: “Yamamoto Takeru: An ‘Arthurian’ hero in Japanese tradition”, pp. 259-274 in AFS N 54, 1995 Nagoya LUETHI, Max, 1968: “Familie und Natur im Maerchen”, pp. 181-196 in Volksueberlieferung. Festschrift fuer K. Ranke, 1968 Goettingen LUETHI, Max, 1976: “Nihon no mukashi-banashi ni wa samazamano tokuchō ga aru” in Nihonjin to minwa, ed. Ozawa, 1976 Gyōsei; マックス・リュティ「日本の昔話にはさ まざまの特徴がある」『日本人と民話』小澤編 1976 ぎょうせい LUETHI, Max, 1979: “Bruder”, pp. 844-861 in EM-II, ed. Ranke, 1977ff de Gruyter LUETHI, Max, 1984: “Diesseits- und Jenseits im Maerchen”, pp. 9-21, in Die Welt im Maerchen, ed. Janning and Gehrts, 1984 Europaeische Maerchengesellschaft Rheine LUETHI, Max, 1986: The European Folktale: Form and Nature (Das europaeische Maerchen: Form und Wesen, transl.), 1986 Bloomington LUETHI, Max, 1987: The fairy tale as art form and portrait of man (Das Volksmärchen als Dichtung – Ästhetik und Anthropologie, transl.), 1987 First Midland Book Edition LUETHI, Max, 1990: Maerchen, ed. H. Roelleke, 1990 Stuttgart LYLE, Emily, 1996: “The inscription of gender and power in cosmogonic narrative”, pp. 469-474 in Folk narrative and world view, ed. Petzoldt, 1996 Frankfurt am Main MAMIYA, Fumiko, 1998: “Ikyō hōmontan ni okeru san’ya no ikyō no imēji” in Nihon mukashi-banashi no imēji, ed. Ozawa, 1998 Kokonsha; 間宮史子「異郷訪問譚における

141 山野の異郷のイメージ」小澤編『日本昔話のイメージ』1998 古今社 MANABE, Masahiro, 1984: “History of Japanese folk literature”, pp. 23-38 in Indian and Japanese Folklore, ed. Mathur and Manabe, 1984 Kufs Publication, Tokyo MANABE, Masahiro / MATHUR, Ramesh, 1984: Indian and Japanese Folklore: an introductory assessment, (ed.), 1984 Kufs Publication, Tokyo MARUYAMA, Akinori, 1984: “Kodomo no jumyō” in Mukashi-banashi Kenkyū Shūsei N 4, 1984 Meicho Shuppan; 丸山顕「子どもの寿命」『昔話研究集成４』1984 名著出版 MARUYAMA, Akinori, 1998: “Mukashi-banashi ni okeru jubutsu, noroitakara – uchide no kozuchi wo tōshite” in Mukashi-banashi Kenkyū to Shiryō N 25; 丸山顕徳「昔話におけ る呪物、呪宝 － 打出の小槌をとおして」『昔話研究と資料 25 号』1998 三弥井 書店 MARUYAMA, Akinori, 1999: “Mukashi-banashi no jikan – ikyōtan ni okeru jikan kannen” in Mukashi-banashi Kenkyū to Shiryō N 26; 丸山顕徳「昔話の時間ー異郷譚における時 間観念」『昔話研究と資料 26 号』1999 三弥井書店 MASHIMO, Atsushi, 2002: “Nihon no minwa to Ryūkyū” in Nihon no minwa wo manabu hito no tame ni, 2002 Sekai Shisōsha; 真下厚「日本の民話と琉球」福田晃/常光徹/斉藤寿 始子（編）『日本の民話を学ぶ人のために』2002 世界思想社 MASHIMO, Miyako, 2002: “Minwa to chūseibungaku” in Nihon no minwa wo manabu hito no tame ni, 2002 Sekai Shisōsha; 真下美弥子「民話と中世文学」福田晃/常光徹/斉藤寿 始子（編）『日本の民話を学ぶ人のために』2002 世界思想社 MATSUMOTO, Kōsan, 2002: “Minwa no fi-rudowa-ku” in Nihon no minwa wo manabu hito no tame ni, 2002 Sekai Shisōsha; 松本孝三「民話のフィールドワーク」福田晃/常光 徹/斉藤寿始子（編）『日本の民話を学ぶ人のために』2002 世界思想社 MAYER, Fanny Hagin, 1972: Introducing the Japanese Folktales, 1972 The Chinese Association for Folklore, Taipei MAYER, Fanny Hagin, 1981: “Fauna and flora in Japanese folktales”, pp. 23-32 in AFS N 40, 1981 Nagoya of MENAR, August von Loewis, 1912: Der Held im russischen und deutschen Maerchen, 1912 Jena MERTENS, Wolfgang, 1997: “Maenlichkeit aus psychoanalytischer Sicht”, pp. 58-86, in Wann ist der Mann ein Mann?, ed. Erhart and Herrmann, 1997 Mezler MIHAILOVA, Katia, 1995: “On the sacrality of the Beggar as a character in the folklore culture of Slavs”, pp. 27-39 in Bulgarian Folklore 1-2, 1995 BAS, Sofia MILFORD, A. B. (Lord Redesdale), 1903: Tales of old Japan, 1903 London MILLER, Allan L., 1987: “The swan-maiden revisited: Religious significance of the “divine-wife” folktales with special reference to Japan”, pp. 55-86 in AFS N 46, 1987 Nagoya MILLER, Allan L., 1995: “The woman who married a horse”, pp. 275-305 in AFS N 54, 1995 Nagoya MIURA, Shunsuke, 1985: “ ‘Esugata nyobō’ no tenkai” in Mukashi-banashi Kenkyū to Shiryō N 14; 三浦俊介「‘絵姿女房’の展開」『昔話研究と資料１４号』1985 三弥井書店 MIURA, Shunsuke, 2002: “Minwa to kodaibungaku” in Nihon no minwa wo manabu hito no tame ni, 2002 Sekai Shisōsha; 三浦俊介「民話と古代文学」福田晃/常光徹/斉藤寿始 子（編）『日本の民話を学ぶ人のために』2002 世界思想社 MIURA, Sukeyuki, 1992: Mukashi-banashi ni miru aku to yobō, 1992 Shinyōsha; 三浦佑之 『昔話にみる悪と欲望』1992 新曜社 MIURA, Sukeyuki, 2002: “Nihon no minwa to ainu” in Nihon no minwa wo manabu hito no tame ni; 三浦佑之「日本の民話とアイヌ」福田晃/常光徹/斉藤寿始子（編）『日本 の民話を学ぶ人のために』2002 世界思想社

142 MIYATA, Noboru, 1989: “Hisabetsu to mukashi-banashi” in Taisei-Kenkyūhen N 12, ed. Seki; 宮田登「被差別と昔話」関編『日本昔話大成-研究篇』1989 角川書店 MIZUSAWA, Ken’ichi, 1970: Mukashi-banashi nōto: saishū to kenkyū, 1970 Nojima Shuppan; 水沢謙一『昔話ノート：採集と研究』1970 野島出版 MOMOTA, Yaeko, 1999: “Denshō manchara no jikan kannen” in Mukashi-banashi kenkyū to shiryō N 26; 百田弥栄子「伝承曼茶羅の時間観念」『昔話研究と資料２６号』1999 三弥井書店 MOSER-RATH, Elfriede, 1979: “Brautproben”, pp. 745-753 in EM-II, ed. Ranke, 1977ff de Gruyter MURAKAMI, Kenta, 1998: “Nihon no mukashi-banashi ni okeru tera” in Nihon mukashi-banashi no imēji, ed. Ozawa, 1998 Kokonsha ; 村上健太「日本の昔話における 寺」小澤編『日本昔話のイメージ』1998 古今社 NAGANO, Akiko, 1996: “Gyōji wo meguru mukashi-banashi to gyōji ni katareru mukashi-banashi” in Mukashi-banashi kenkyū to shiryō N 23; 長野晃子「行事をめぐる 昔話と行事に語れる昔話」『昔話研究と資料２３号』1996 三弥井書店 NAKAMURA, Ikuo, 2001: Saishi to tomogi – nihonjin no shizenkan, dōbutsukan, 2001 Hōkuradate; 中村生雄『祭祀と供犠－日本人の自然観、動物観』2001 法蔵館 NAUMANN, Nelly, 1963: “Yama-no kami – die japanische Berggottheit”, pp. 133-336 in AFS N 22, 1963 Nagoya NAUMANN, Nelly, 1998: “Gibt es japanische Zaubermaerchen?”, pp. 303-314 in Zaubermaerchen: Forschungsberichte aus der Welt der Maerchen, ed. Heindrichs and Heindrichs, 1998 Diederichs, Munchen NIIKURA, Akiko, 1991: “Haibō to furansu no mukashibanshi wo meguru oboegaki” in Mukashi-banashi densetsu kenkyū; 新倉あきこ「灰坊とフランスの昔話をめぐろ覚 書」『昔話伝説研究』1991 昔話伝説研究会 NITZSCHKE, Augustus, 1977: Sociale Ordnungen im Spiegel der Maerchen, vols. I and II, 1977 Friedrich Frommann Verlag, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt NOGUCHI, Yoshiko, 1991: “Das Frauenbild im Maerchen der Brueder Grimm”, pp. 81-94 in Protokoll 13, 1991 Goethe-Institut Kansai NOMURA, Jun’ichi, 2000: “Mukashi-banashi” in Nihon Minzoku Daijiten 1999-2000 Yoshikawa Kōbunkan; 野村純一「むかしばなし」『日本民俗大事典』1999-2000 吉 川弘文官 ŌBAYASHI, Taryō, 1989: “Setsuwa no hikakukenkyū no hōhō” in Taisei-Kenkyūhen N 12, ed. Seki; 大林太良「説話の比較研究の方法」関編『日本昔話大成-研究篇』1989 角川 書店 ŌCHI, Yuriko, 1984: “Ubakawakata Mamako no isō” in Mukashi-banashi kenkyū shūsei N 4, 1984 Meicho Shuppan; 黄地百合子「姥皮型継子話の位相」『昔話研究集成４』1984 名著出版 ŌFUJI, Tokihiko, 1984: “Utai gaikotsu” in Mukashi-banashi kenkyū shūsei N 4, 1984 Meicho Shuppan; 大藤時彦「歌い骸骨」『昔話研究集成４』1984 名著出版 OGAWA, Ryō, 1988: Torikkusutā, 1988 Uminarisha; 小川了「トリックスター」1988 海鳴 社 OLRIK, Alex, 1965: “Epic Laws of Folk Narrative”, pp. 129-141 in The Study of Folklore, ed. Alan Dundes, 1965 Prentice Hall ŌMORI, Ikunosuke, 1984: “Kuwazu nyōbō no tanesei”, in Mukashi-banashi kenkyū shūsei N 4, 1984 Meicho Shuppan; 大森郁之助「食わず女房の種性」『昔話研究集成３』1984 名著出版 ŌSHIMA, Hiroshi, 1991: “Seki Keigo hakase to zasshi mukashi-banashi densetsu kenkyū” in Mukashi-banashi densetsu kenkyū; 大島広志「関敬吾博士と雑誌昔話伝説研究」『昔

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144 ROEHRICH, Lutz, 1998: “Wer sind die Zwei mit zehn Fuessen, drei Augen und einem Schwanz? Erzaehlfunktionen des Raetsels in Mythos, Maerchen und Witz”, pp. 216-235 in Zaubermaerchen: Forschungsberichte aus der Welt der Maerchen, 1998 Munchen ROELLEKE, Heinz, 1998: “Zaubermaerchen – Maerchenzauber”, pp. 9-18 in Zaubermaerchen: Forschungsberichte aus der Welt der Maerchen, 1998 Munchen ROTH, Klaus, 1999: “Mann”, pp. 144-162 in EM-IX, ed. Ranke, 1977ff de Gruyter SAITŌ, Naoko, 2002: “Kōshō bungei kara mukashi-banashi - e” in Mukashi-banashi to mukashi-banashi no ehon, 2002 Setagaya Bungakkan; 斉藤直子「口承文芸から昔話へ」 『昔話と昔話絵本の世界』2002 世田谷文学館 SAITŌ, Toshiko, 2002a: “Minwa to jidō bungaku” in Nihon no minwa wo manabu hito no tame ni, ed. Fukuda/ Tsunemitsu/ Saito, 2002 Sekai Shisōsha; 斉藤寿始子「民話と児童文学」 福田晃/常光徹/斉藤寿始子（編）『日本の民話を学ぶ人のために』2002 世界思想 社 SAITŌ, Toshiko, 2002b: “Chiiki kyōdōtai” in Nihon no minwa wo manabu hito no tame ni, ed. Fukuda/ Tsunemitsu/ Saito, 2002 Sekai Shisōsha; 斉藤寿始子「地域共同体」福田晃/常 光徹/斉藤寿始子（編）『日本の民話を学ぶ人のために』2002 世界思想社 SAKAKURA, Tokugi, 1989: “Mukashi-banashi no keishiki to gengo” in Taisei-Kenkyūhen N 12, ed. Seki; 阪倉篤義 「昔話の形式と言語」関編『日本昔話大成-研究篇』1989 角 川書店 SAKURAI, Tokutarō, 1996: Mukashi-banashi no minzokugaku 1996 Kōdansha; 桜井徳太郎 『昔話の民俗学』1996 講談社 SATAKE, Akihiro, 1990: Minwa no shisō, 1990 Chūōkōronsha; 佐竹昭広『民話の思想』1990 中央公論社 SATŌ, Taichi, 2000: “Seowareru bakemono no hanashi” in Mukashi-banashi densetsu kenkyū 2000; 佐藤太二「背負われる化物の話」『昔話伝説研究』2000 昔話伝説研究会 SATODATE, Fumiko, 1991: “Oni uchi densetsu no seisei” in Mukashi-banashi densetsu kenkyū 1991; 里舘文子「鬼打ち伝説の生成」『昔話伝説研究』1991 昔話伝説研究会 SAWADA, Mizuho, 1984: “Ryūgū densho – mizukami ni tegami wo todokeru hanashi” in Mukashi-banashi kenkyū shūsei N 3, 1984 Meicho Shuppan; 沢田瑞穂「竜宮伝書－水神 に手紙を届ける話」『日本昔話研究集成』1984 名著出版 SCHENDA, Rudolf, 1976: “Nihon no mukashi-banashi no naka de nihontekina mono wa nanika” in Nihonjin to minwa, ed. Ozawa 1976 Gyōsei; ルードルフ・シェンダ「日本の 昔話の中で日本的なものは何か」小澤編『日本人と民話』1976 ぎょうせい SCHENDA, Rudolf, 1976b: “Prinzipien einer sozialgeschichtlichen Einordnung von Volkserzaehlungsinhalten” in Studia Fennica 20, 1976 SCHERF, Walter, 1983: “Psychologische Funktionen und inner Aufbau des Zaubermaerchens”, pp. 162-174 in Maerchenerzaehler-Erzaehlgemeinschaft, 1983 Kassel SCHWEIZER, Thomas, 1990: “Maennerbuende und ihr kultureller Kontext im weltweiten interkulturellen Vergleich”, in Maenner Bande Maenner Buende. Zur Rolle des Mannes im Kulturvergleich, 1990 Koeln SEKI, Keigo, 1941: Mukashi-banashi, 1941 Guroria Sosaete; 関敬吾『昔話』1941 ぐろりあ・ そさえて SEKI, Keigo, 1963b: “The spool of thread. A subtype of the Japanese Serpent-bridegroom tale” in Studies of Japanese folklore, ed. Dorson, 1963 Bloomington SEKI, Keigo, 1977: “Mukashi-banashi kenkyū no shomondai to hōhō” in Mukashi-banashi densetsu kenkyū; 関敬吾「昔話研究の諸問題と方法」『昔話伝説研究』1977 昔話伝 説研究会 SEKI, Keigo, 1980-1982 (I-IX): Seki Keigo chosakushū volumes I-IX, 1980-1982 Dōhōsha; 関

145 敬吾『関敬吾著作集』1980-1982 同朋社 SEKI, Keigo, 1989: Nihon Mukashi-banashi Taisei-Kenkyūhen N 12, ed. Seki, 1989 Kadokawa Shoten; 関敬吾編『日本昔話大成-研究篇』1989 角川書店 SEKI, Keigo, 1996: Mukashi-banashi to warai-banashi, 1996 Iwasaki Bijutsusha; 関敬吾『昔 話と笑い話』1996 岩崎美術社 SOLMS, Wilhelm, 1998: “Das Maerchenwunder”, pp. 30-44 in Zaubermaerchen: Forschungsberichte aus der Welt der Maerchen, 1998 Munchen SUZUKI, Masahiko, 1984: “Toshi no yoru no hōkyaku” in Mukashi-banashi kenkyū shūsei N 3, 1984 Meicho Shuppan; 鈴木正彦「歳の夜の訪客」『日本昔話研究集成３』1984 名 著出版 TAKAGI, Shito, 1997: “Mukashi-banashi no ‘ba’ to ‘toki’” in Iwanami Kōza – nihon bungakushi 17:1-25; 高木史人「昔話の“場”と“時”」『岩波講座ー日本文学史 17： 1-25』1997 岩波書店 TAKAYA, Shigeo, 1984: “Popular beliefs and folk religions in Japan”, pp. 403-421 in Indian and Japanese Folklore, ed. Mathur and Manabe, 1984 Kufs Publication, Tokyo TAKEDA, Tadashi, 1992: Nihon mukashi-banashi no denshō kōzō, 1992 Meicho Shuppan; 武 田正『日本昔話の伝承構造』1992 名著出版 TAKEDA, Tadashi, 1996: “Katari no za no kinchō kankei” in Mukashi-banashi Kenkyū to Shiryō N 23; 武田正「語りの座の緊張関係」『昔話研究と資料 23 号』1996 三弥井 書店 TAKEDA, Tadashi, 1999: “Mukashi-banashi no naka no ‘yoru’” in Mukashi-banashi Kenkyū to Shiryō N 26; 武田正「昔話の中の‘夜’」『昔話研究と資料 26 号』1999 三弥井書店 TAKEDA, Tadashi, 2002: “Minwa (mukashi-banashi) no katarite to kikite” in Nihon no minwa wo manabu hito no tame ni, ed. Fukuda/ Tsunemitsu/ Saito, 2002 Sekai Shisōsha; 武田 正「民話(昔話)の語り手と聞き手」福田晃/常光徹/斉藤寿始子（編）『日本の民話 を学ぶ人のために』2002 世界思想社 TAKEDA, Yūko, 1982: “Mukashi-banashi to dōbutsu” in Mukashi-banashi kenkyū to shiryō N 11, 1982 Miyai Shoten; 武田裕子「昔話と動物」『昔話研究と資料１１号』1982 三 弥井書店 TANAKA, Sen’ichi, 1995: “Sumiyaki Kogorō ga ‘koto’ no tanjō to mukashi-banashi kenkyū” in Mukashi-banashi kenkyū to shiryō N 22; 田中宣一「炭焼小五郎が‘事’の誕生と昔話 研究」『昔話研究と資料２２号』1995 三弥井書店 TANAKA, Sen’ichi, 1996: “Mukashi-banashi to nenjū gyōji – ōtoshi no hi wo megutte” in Mukashi-banashi kenkyū to shiryō N 23; 田中宣一「昔話と年中行事ー大歳の火をめぐ って」『昔話研究と資料２３号』1996 三弥井書店 TATAR, Maria M., 1986: “Born Yesterday: Heroes in the Grimms Fairy tales”, pp. 95–114 in Fairy tales and society: illusion, allusion and paradigm, ed. Bottigheimer, 1986 University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia THOMAS, Joyce, 1989: Inside the wolf’s belly: Aspects of the fairy tale, 1989 Sheffield Academic Press THOMPSON, Stith, 1978: The Folktale, 1978 The University of California Press THOMPSON, Stith, 1989: Motif Index of Folk Literature, 1989 Bloomington TSUNEMITSU, Tōru, 2002: “Gendai no hanashi no seisei” in Nihon no minwa wo manabu hito no tame ni, ed. Fukuda/ Tsunemitsu/ Saito, 2002 Sekai Shisōsha; 常光徹「現代の話の生 成」福田晃/常光徹/斉藤寿始子（編）『日本の民話を学ぶ人のために』2002 世界 思想社 TSUTSUMI, Kunihiko, 1995: “Yūrei nyōbō no henyō” in Mukashi-banashi kenkyū to shiryō N 22; 堤邦彦「幽霊女房譚の変容」『昔話研究と資料２２号』1995 三井書店

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147 Cross-reference table of tale-types in

Shusei, Asian Folklore Studies (ASF) and the present research

101-133 婚姻 Kon’in Marriage 101-109 美女と獣 Bijo-to Kemono The beauty and the beast 110-119 異類女房 Irui nyōbō Different brides 120-133 難題聟 Nandai muko The riddle bridegroom 134-148 誕生 Tanjō Birth 149-163 致福 Chifuku Acquisition of riches 164-172 呪宝 Noroi takara Magic treasures 173-183 兄弟譚 Kyōdaitan Tales about brothers 184-196 隣の爺 Tonari-no jiji The neighbour old man 197-204 大歳の客 Ōtoshi-no kyaku The guest at New Year’s Eve 205-222 継子譚 Mamako-tan Tales about the step-child 223-227 異郷 Ikyō Other worlds 228-239 動物報恩 Dobutsu hō’on Grateful animals 240-251 逃竄譚 Nogasantan Escape from ogre 252-269 愚かな動物 Orokana dōbutsu Stupid animals 270-287 人と狐 Hito-to kitsune Man and fox

Shusei N AFS N Japanese Title 1 Japanese Title 2 Title in English

101 133a/b 蛇聟入 Hebi-mukoiri The snake-bridegroom 102 134 鬼聟入 Oni-mukoiri The oni-bridegroom 103 135 猿聟入 Saru-mukoiri The monkey-bridegroom 104 136/126 蛙報恩 Kaeru-hō’on The grateful frog 105 137 鴻の卵 Ōtori-no tamago Stork’s eggs 106 138 犬聟入 Inu-mukoiri The dog-bridegroom 107 蜘蛛聟入 Kumo-mukoiri The spider-bridegroom 108 139 蚕神 Kaiko-gami The silkworm deity 109 140 木魂聟入 Mokukon mukoiri The tree spirit 110 141 蛇女房 Hebi nyōbō The Snake-wife 111 142 蛙女房 Kaeru nyōbō The Frog-wife

148 112 143 蛤女房 Hamaguri nyōbō The Clam-wife 113 144 魚女房 Sakana nyōbō The Fish-wife 114 145 竜宮女房 Ryūgū nyōbō The Sea princess 115 146 鶴女房 Tsuru nyōbō The Crane-wife 116 147 狐女房 Kitsune nyōbō The Fox-wife 117 148 猫女房 Neko nyōbō The Cat-wife 118 149 天人女房 Tennin nyōbō The Sky-nymph 119 150 笛吹聟 Fuefuki muko The flute player 120 189 絵姿女房 E-sugata nyōbō Picture- wife 121 191 蕪焼長者 Kabuyaki chōja The turnip chōja 122 192 嫁の輿に牛 Yome-no koshi ni ushi The cow in the bride’s palanquin 123 193 ぼっこ食い娘 Bokko-kui musume The girl who ate babies 124 194/461 蛸長者 Tako chōja The octopus-chōja 125 195 博徒聟入 Bakuto mukoiri The gambler-bridegroom 126 195 鳩提灯 Hato-chōchin Pigeon lantern 127 196 蜂の援助 Hachi-no enjo Bee’s help 128 197 娘の助言 Musume-no jogen The girl’s advice 129 198 播磨糸長 Harima Itonaga Harima Itonaga 130 199 謎聟 Nazo-muko The riddle-bridegroom 131 一把の藁 Ichi-wa no wara Piece of straw 132 話三荷 Hanashi san-ni A three-binding story 133 200 山田白滝 Yamada Shirataki Yamada Shirataki 134 151 田螺息子 Tanishi musuko The mud-snail son 135 152 蛙息子 Kaeru musuko The frog son 136 153 一寸法師 Issun Bōshi Issun Bōshi 137 154 指太郎 Yubi Tarō Thumb boy 138 手斧息子 Teono musuko The son with the hatchets 139 156 寅千代丸 Torachiyomaru Torachiyo Maru 140 157 力太郎 Chikara Tarō The strong Tarō 141 158 踵太郎 Kakato Tarō The heel-boy 142 155 蛇息子 Hebi musuko The snake son 143 159 桃の子太郎 Momonoko Tarō The peach boy Momotarō 144 160 瓜子織姫 Uriko Orihime The melon-princess 145 161 竹の子童子 Takenoko Dōji The bamboo boy 146 162 竹姫 Takehime The bamboo maiden

149 147 a/b 163/164 子育て幽霊 Kosodate Yūrei The ghost-mother 幽霊女房 Yurei-nyōbō The ghost-wife 148 165/234 鷲の育て児 Washi-no sodate ji Raised by an eagle 149 183a/b 炭焼長者 Sumiyaki Chōja The charcoal burning chōja 150 184 躄長者 Izari chōja The crippled chōja 151 185 産神問答 Ubugami mondō The prophecy of the deities 152 186 子供の寿命 Kodomo-no jumyō The length of one’s life 153 187 芋掘長者 Imohori chōja The potato chōja 154 188 酒泉 Sake-izumi The sake-spring 155 201 藁しべ長者 Warashibe chōja The straw chōja 156 202 夢見小僧 Yumemi kozō Acolyte’s dream 157 203 山神と童子 Yamagami to dōji The mountain god and the boy 158 204 夢買長者 Yumekai chōja The chōja of the bought dream 159 205 だんぶり長者 Danburi chōja The dragon-fly chōja 160 206 味噌買橋 Misokaibashi The bridge of the miso-sellers 161 207 天福地福 Tenbuku-chibuku Luck from heaven, luck from earth 162 208 金は蛇 Kane-wa hebi Money are snakes 牡丹餅は蛙 Botamochi-wa kaeru Sweets turn frogs 163 209 取付く引付く Toritsuku-hikitsuku Hold fast or stick fast? 164 171a/b 聴耳 Kikimimi The magic listening hood 165 172 犬と猫と指輪 Inu-to neko-to yubiwa The dog, the cat and the ring 166 225 五郎の欠椀 Gorō-no kakuwan The empty bowl of Gorō 167 173 塩吹臼 Shiofuki-usu The salt-grinding mill 168 174 生鞭死鞭 Ikimuchi-shinimuchi The life and the death whips 169 175 魚の玉 Sakana-no tama The fish-bead 170 176 宝瓢 Takara-hisago The treasure gourd 171 177 宝下駄 Takara geta The magic geta 172 178 狼の眉毛 Ōkami-no mayuge The wolf’s eyebrow 173 224 三人兄弟 Sannin kyōdai The three brothers 174 224 三人兄弟・宝物型 Sannin kyodai The three brothers and the treasure 175 226 馬鹿でも総領 Bakademo sōryō Stupid but first born 176 227 奈良梨採り Naranashi tori Going for wild pears 177 227 三人兄弟・化物退治型 Sannin kyōdai – bakemono taiji The three brothers and the ghost 178 228 二人兄弟 Futari kyōdai The two brothers 179 229 竜神と釣縄 Ryūjin to tsurinawa The sea-dragon and the fisher’s net

150 180 230 姉と弟 Ane-to otōto The sister and the brother 181 231 糧の上漆 Kate-no ueurushi The straw-snake 182 232 兄弟仲間直り Kyōdai nakama-naori How the two brothers reconciled 183 233 山賊の弟 Sanzoku-no otōto The bandit’s younger brother 184 234 地蔵浄土 Jizō-jōdo The land of Jizō 185 235 鼠浄土 Nezumi-jōdo The kingdom of rats 186 460 継子と亡者 Mamako-to mōja The step-child and the ghosts 187 238 雁取爺 Karitori jiji The man who caught wild geese 188 237 鳥呑爺 Torinomi jiji The old man who has swallowed a bird 189 236 竹取爺 Taketori jiji The bamboo cutting old man 190 236 花咲爺 Hanasaki jiji The man who made trees blossom 191 239a 舌切り雀 Shitakiri suzume The tongue-cut sparrow 192 239b 腰折すずめ Koshiori suzume The saved sparrow 193 240 蟹の甲 Kani-no kō The crab-shell 194 241 瘤取爺 Kobutori jiji The old men with the bumps 195 242 猿地蔵 Saru jizō The monkey’s jizō 196 243 見るなの座敷 Miruna-no zashiki The forbidden chamber 197 243 猿長者 Saru-chōja The chōja who became a monkey 198 245 宝手拭 Takara te-nugui The magic towel 199 247a/b 大歳の客 Ōtoshi-no kyaku The guest at New Year’s Eve 200 248 厄病神 Yakubyō kami The deity of plague 201 249a/b 貧乏神 Binbō kami The deity of poverty 202 250 大歳の火 Ōtoshi-no hi The fire at New Year’s Eve 203 213/251 笠地蔵 Kasa jizō The jizō with the straw hats 204a/b 252/253 大歳の亀 Ōtoshi-no kame The turtle at New Year’s Eve ものいう動物 Monoiu dōbutsu The speaking animal 205 210 米福粟福 Komebuku Awafuku Komebuku and Awabuku 206 211 皿々山 Sarasara yama Mountain in a dish 207 212 お銀小銀 O-gin Ko-gin Ogin and Kogin 208 213 手無し娘 Tenashi musume The girl without hands 209 214 姥皮 Ubakawa The skin that made one old 210 215 鉢かつぎ Hachikatsugi The girl with the wooden bowl 211 216 灰坊 Haibō Ash-boy 212 217 栗拾い Kuribiroi Chestnut gathering 213 218 継子の苺拾い Mamako-no ichigobiroi The step-child who went for strawberries

151 214 219 七羽の白鳥 Shichiwa-no shirotori The seven swans 215 220 白鳥の姉 Shirotori-no ane The elder sister - white birth 216 221 継子と鳥 Mamako-to tori The step-children – birds 217 222 継子と笛 Mamako-to fue The step-children and the flute 218 223 唄い骸骨 Utaigaikotsu The singing bones 219 継子の釜茹 Mamako-no kamayu The step-child and the boiling pot 220 継子と井戸 Mamako-to ido The step-child and the well 221 継子の蛇責 Mamako-no hebiseki Death through snakes 222 継子と魚 Mamako-to sakana The step-child and the fish 223 166 竜宮童子 Ryūgū dōji The child from the Dragon Palace 224 浦島太郎 Urashima Tarō Urashima Tarō 225 167/168 沼神の手紙 Numakami-no tegami The letter of the swamp-deity 226 169 黄金の斧 Ōgon-no ono The golden axe 227 170 玉取姫 Tamatorihime The Princess of the bead 228 119 狼報恩 Ōkami hō’on The grateful wolf 229 120 鶏報恩 Niwatori hō’on The grateful cock 230 121 猫檀家 Nekodanka The cat’s parishioner 231 122 猫又屋敷 Nekomata yashiki The cats’ mansion 232 a/b 123/124 鼠退治 Nezumi taiji Beating the old rat 絵猫と鼠 Eneko-to nezumi The picture-cat and the rats

233 125 猿報恩 Saru hō’on The grateful monkey 234 127 恩知らずの人 Onshirazuno hito The ungrateful human being 235 128 忠義ないぬ Chūgina inu The loyal wolf 236 129 枯骨報恩 Karehone hō’on The grateful skeleton 237 130 文福茶釜 Bunbuku chagama The magic tea-kettle 238 131 狐と博労 Kitsune to bakurō The fox and the horse-dealer 239 132 狐遊女 Kitsune yūjo The grateful fox 240 75 三枚の護符 Sanmai-no gofu Three lucky charms 241 76 鬼を一口 Oni-o hitokuchi Oni at a gulp 242 77 耳切団一 Mimikiri Dan’ichi Dan’ichi with the bitten ears 243 78 牛方山姥 Ushikata yamauba The horse-driver and yamauba 244 79 食わず女房 Kuwazu nyōbō The wife who does not eat 245 80 天道さん金の鎖 Tendōsan kin-no kusari The golden chain to Heaven 246 81 姉弟と山姥 Shitei to yamauba The sister, the brother and yamauba 247 82 鬼の子小綱 Oni-no-ko Kozuna Oni’s child Kozuna

152 248 83 鬼と賭 Oni-to to Gambling with oni 249 84 妹は鬼 Imōto wa oni The younger sister is oni 250 85 旅人馬 Tabibito-uma The travellers who were turned into horses 251 86 脂取り Aburatori Pressing fat out 252 87 鍛冶屋の婆 Kajiya-no ba Blacksmith’s old mother 253 88 猫と釜蓋 Neko-to kamafuta The cat and the iron lid of the pot 山姥と糸車 Yamauba-to itoguruma 254 89 猫と南瓜 Neko-to kabocha The cat and the pumpkin 255 90 猫の踊 Neko-no odori The dancing cat 256 91 猿神退治 Sarukami taiji Beating the monkeys 257 91 猿の経立 Saru-no kyōritsu Beating the monkey demon 258 92 宝化物 Takara bakemono The treasure ghost 259 93 化物寺 Bakemono tera The temple of ghosts 260 94 化物問答 Bakemono mondō The questions of the ghost 261 95 蟹問答 Kani mondō The questions of the crab-ghost 262 98 ずいとん坊 Zuitonbō Zuitonbō 263 97 大工と鬼六 Daiku-to Oniroku The carpenter and Oniroku 264 子守唄内通 Komoriuta naitsū The secret lullaby 265 96 山姥と桶屋 Yamauba to okeya The charcoal burner and tengu 266 99 狸の八畳屋 Tanuki-no hachi-tatamiya The house of the badger 267 100 山姥と石餅 Yamauba to ishi-mochi Yamauba and the stone cakes 268 101 山梨の怪 Yamanashi-no kai The mysterious wild-pear tree 269 102 蜘蛛女 Kumo-onna The spider-woman 270 103 尻のぞき Shirinozoki Looking into the buttocks 271 104/105 馬の糞団子 Uma-no kuso dango The horse-dung dumplings 272 106 髪剃狐 Kamisori Kitsune The tonsured fox 273 107 狐の婚礼 Kitsune-no konrei The fox’s wedding 274 108 銭は木の葉 Zeni-wa ki-no-ha Money turn leaves 275 109a 山伏狐 Yamabushi kitsune The ascetic and the fox 276 109c 山伏と一軒家 Yamabushi-to ikken’ya The ascetic and the mountain hut 277 110 葬式の使い Sōshiki-no tsukai The funeral messenger 278 111 狐の立聴 Kitsune-no tachikiki Overhearing foxes 279 112/297 坊様と狐 Bōsama-to kitsune The monk and the fox 280 113a 叺狐 Kamasu-kitsune The fox in the straw bag

153 281 113b 片目違い Katame-chigai The mirror reflection 282 114 似せ本尊 Nise honzon The sham Buddhist image 283 115 八化け頭巾 Hachibake zukin The eight-charm hood 284 116 隠れ頭巾 Kakure zukin The invisible hood 285 117 狐の嫁取 Kitsune-no yometori The betrothal of the fox 286 118 狐のお産 Kitsune-no osan The fox childbirth

154 Appendix 2 Male Characters in the Japanese Fairy Tale Classification Tables

1. The Partner

Type of realisation Tales N Specific features THE BRIDEGROOM - physically tested 136, 140, 156, 157, 164, 173, The Protagonist: man saves a woman and marries her as a reward; the protagonist is a stranger to the vicinity; possesses 178, 186, 257 courage and physical power; undergoes a natural test in heroism; The Story: the tale speaks of one-sided but happy marriage and includes supernatural elements (supernatural donor, magic object or supernatural adversary)

- intellectually tested 121, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, The Protagonist: often tested by the father of the bride (through riddles), in a fair intellectual competition with other suitors; 130, 132, 133 receives sometimes help; shows inventiveness, cleverness, persistence, desire, will; could be lazy, but clever The Story: the use of riddles and poems for the choice of a bridegroom

- emotionally tested 101, 209, 210 The Protagonist: falls in love with a girl and becomes love-sick, highest emotional activity The Story: love-sickness as an active, not passive state, as an emotional test of the suitor, showing also the intensity of male feelings

- passive 149, 150, 151, 153 The Protagonist: is not aware of his wealth until a woman comes and ask him to marry; the poorest man in Japan, often stupid, unpromising, dirty, his role is that of a passive observer The Story: re-marriage motif (second marriage happy for female characters and unlucky for male ones), prophecy motif, very important is the wealth acquisition at the end of the story THE NON-HUMAN PARTNER 110, 111, 112, 113 , 115, 116, The Protagonist: good in heart, saves an animal, but breaks a taboo, shows disrespect in this way; he ends the story as he - the partner of the 117, 118, 119, 120, 164, 239, has started it non-human wife 285 The Story: “the result of nothingness”, a grateful animal or a benevolent deity disguised as a woman comes from gratitude to the man, initiates the marriage, leaves after her true origin is discovered, duty repaid; successful marriage possible only after final transformation of the wife in human being or if wife is sky-nymph

101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, The Protagonist: if undesired and abhorred by the bride or if an animal – faces death; often deceives bride; some link to - the non-human 107, 108, 134, 135, 136, 247, water and the water-deity, if final transformation takes place – initiation and happy marriage bridegroom 248, 251 The Story: marriage between a non-human bridegroom and a human woman is impossible, unless bridegroom transforms eventually into human THE HUSBAND 149, 152, 191, 193, 208, 211, The Protagonist: in step-mother tales weak and passive; if opposing his wife – a positive figure; as a whole – loving and 216, 217, 219, 247, 249, 274, caring; if in need – saved by his wife The Story: second marriage for men unsuccessful 2. Brother

Type of realisation Tales N Specific features - the two positive brothers 178, 182 The Protagonist: younger saves elder; younger is stronger, cleverer, more active The Story: good brother relationship - the two opposite 167, 181, 199, 225 The Protagonist: opposition of a positive, poor character and a cruel, greedy and rich character; equal distribution of brothers positive and negative elder/younger brother The Story: the rich and the poor type of tales; occasion on which the events take place – New Year’s Eve; magic donor and magic objects typical; not intra-family conflict but socio-economic - The three equal brothers 173, 183 The Protagonist: opposed on the surface, not necessarily positive characters The Story: family reunion more important than social morals - the three brothers: two 153, 176, 177 The Protagonist: the younger succeeds, hears “the call”; more courageous fail, one wins The Story: listening to the advisor important - winning a contest 132, 174, 175 The Protagonist: youngest succeeds in tales of marriage; eldest succeeds in tales of inheritance; equal distribution of success The Story: strong family relations, no fratricide - the brother to a sister 180, 215, 246, 248, 249 The Protagonist: younger brother helped or saved by elder sister The Story: children oppose ogres or step-mothers; roles of the brother and the sister often interchangeable

3. Father

Type of realisation Tales N Specific features Father’s promise 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 108, The Protagonist: promises one of his daughters in return for a favour from an ogre; respected and obeyed by the youngest 247 daughter; strong link between man and nature The Story: human sacrifice practices to the water-deity; the plot justifies father’s deed by the successful ending of the story Father is looking for a 118, 123, 125, 126, 127, 128, The Protagonist: tests suitors with verbal tests (riddles and poems), friendly to the suitor; tests suitors in non-verbal way partner to his child 132, 133 (tasks in agricultural work, in courage, and others, father - unfriendly towards the suitor); father is outwitted by suitor (rich-poor tale); gives permission to marriage after heroic deed of the suitor The Story: father is responsible for betrothal in family (not mother), focus on daughter’s marriage (not son’s) Father sends children 138, 168, 173, 174, 175, 178, The Protagonist: sends sons to acquire new skills and choose among them the best heir, positive figure; unjust to sons when away from home 211 opposed to second-wife (father as husband) The Story: no figures of really cruel fathers, the story supports actions of father as necessary for son’s development; father-son relationship around inheritance; step-father as catalyst for son’s development The father-saviour 135, 137, 151, 152, 230, 236 The Protagonist: saves the life of his children, takes care for the dead The Story: mothers act as saviours only after father’s death or disappearance The absent father 108, 141, 144, 171, 176, 178, The Protagonist: opposes as husband his second wife (cruel step-mother tales); gets weaker, the stronger his wife becomes; 180, 183, 199, 205, 206, 207, his absence brings even to death of his children; he is helpless, cannot protect them 211, 208, 210, 214, 215, 216, The Story: second marriage for men is not successful; son gets more active in father’s absence; children develop and 217, 219, 220, 221, ... become independent when both parents dead; children-parents conflict visible

156 4. Son

Type of realisation Tales N Specific features The desired son 119, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, The Protagonist: marked by supernatural birth or supernatural abilities, usually a boy, grows-up quickly, courageous, clever 139, 140, 142, 143, 168 and strong; undergoes psycho-physico-intellectual testing; transforms in the end and marries; heroic deeds and adventures The Story: childless couples wish a child “no matter what”; initiation rites; path to maturity The step-son 178, 186, 211, 216, 217, 219, The Protagonist: grows-up, reaches independence, undergoes catharsis; breaks away from parental dependence 220, 222 The Story: step-daughter opposes step-mother, marries happily in the end; step-son opposes step-mother and becomes a hero; initiation rites; step-mother as catalyst for development of children; the story resembles the neighbour-tales The son and his parents 116, 124, 147, 148, 151, 164, The Protagonist: helps and saves mother when father is absent; is saved by mother and/or father; resembles father; is tested 171, 173, 174, 175, 176, 180, by father to become an heir 228, 249 The Story: sings of filial piety and respect of children towards parents and elder; strong bond between mother and son

5. Path to wealth

Type of realisation Tales N Specific features Getting rich thanks to 121, 138, 143, 136, 156, 163, The Protagonist: wins magic objects from supernatural beings in a fight; shows courage and strength; half-divine origin; a - physical activity 168, 248, 258, 259 new-comer in the vicinity, a stranger The Story: after marriage comes the necessity to support it economicly; the path to wealth in these stories is only for heroes; initiation rites - intellectual activity 125, 131 The Protagonist: shows inventiveness, wits, cleverness The Story: small group of tales, but implied cleverness on the way to wealth in many other tales (especially clever suitors marrying rich brides or brothers tested for heirs) - emotional activity 110, 113, 114, 115, 116, 146, The Protagonist: suffers from poverty, needs help; no deed is expected from him, rewarded for his good heart, inborn (kindness rewarded) 158, 159, 160, 164, 165, 169, kindness, modesty, compassion; saves animals in need; if he from a kind but poor person becomes rich, but cruel and 172, 174, 203, 223, 224, 228, greedy, his wealth is taken away and he is punished; believes in dreams and predestination 237, 239 The Story: largest group of tales, the surest path to wealth; donors are saved animals or grateful supernatural beings; the process of becoming rich and the state of being rich juxtaposed - passive 149, 150, 151, 153 The Protagonist: is not aware of his wealth until a woman comes and ask him to marry, the poorest man in Japan, often (the role of the woman) stupid, unpromising, dirty, his role is that of a passive observer The Story: re-marriage motif (second marriage happy for female characters and unlucky for male ones); prophecy motif; very important is the wealth acquisition at the end of the story

157

6. Neighbour

Type of realisation Tales N Specific features Unsuccessful imitation 163, 184, 185, 188, 189, 194, The Protagonist: a good-hearted man acquires wealth, his greedy neighbour follows his steps but fails; the good one is 195, 196, 226 modest, industrious, kind, sincere, not curious and he is rewarded by animals or supernatural donors, his neighbour is his opposite in every aspect and is punished; both characters are given the same opportunity – the one uses it correctly, the other fails The Story: moral lesson; the contrast between the two characters is central for the story (not the rich-poor conflict); the role of the neighbourhood Misused or stolen object 161, 167, 171, 187, 190, 204 The Protagonist: the poor acquires magic object, the rich steals it and misuses it; the poor is good, the rich is cruel and greedy The Story: the conflict is between the rich and the poor; the magic object works only for the man who deserves it; the occasion is New Year’s Eve; restoration of social justice implied

7. Figures with specific social role

Type of realisation Tales N Specific features Tonosama, chōja, samurai 109, 114, 116, 120, 142, 143, The Protagonist: tonosama: dominus, master, social power, positive image, court of justice for human deeds; chōja: 145, 164, 173, 177, 190, 206, represents the local society, desired state of richness; samurai: wise and brave, a traveller, no warrior 207, 208, 215, 259, 260, 264 The Story: figures often interchangeable, tonosama is highest human authority, praises protagonists, punishes criminals, death penalties only by him; chōja is rich and respected, sometimes negative when rich and cruel; samurai is respected Religious figures 129, 162, 208, 219, 225, 230, The Protagonist: priests advise and help, save villages from supernatural beings, defeat animal-tricksters, possess 231, 232, 240, 242, 254, 256, knowledge and wisdom, expect no reward; yamabushi - the only negative image 261, 279, 285, ... The Story: religious figures make a bridge between human and non-human realms

158

8. Man and Animal

Type of realisation Tales N Specific features Man helped by animal 127, 142, 143, 164, 165, 172, The Protagonist: the good nature of the man and his compassion toward an animal is rewarded; man saves the life of an 184, 185, 187, 188, 189, 190, animal and is rewarded; good and evil neighbours are rewarded or punished by animals correspondingly; the human being 191, 192, 204, 228, 230, 323, responds to the call of nature or fails to better his life; the protagonist is often helped by animals without need to prove his 224, 233, 235, 237, 239, 262, ... kindness; the human beings with the closest link to nature are more likely to succeed The Story: grateful animal tales use kindness-repaid motif, distinctly seen connection nature-animal-man, man and animal interdependent; not gender but human nature defines the response of animals; totemistic myths Man and animals trickster 195, 229, 231, 238, 241, 243, The Protagonist: man wins over trickster fox, badger, cat and monkey by outwitting them, not falling under their magic 252, 253, 255, 256, 257, 261, powers; the transformed animals cannot deceive the clever man; man is outwitted by the animals when he dishonours the 266, 269, 270, 271, 272, 275, animals, man’s disrespect towards animals and nature in general is punished by animal-tricksters, the man is enchanted by 276, 277, 278, 280, 281, 283, the animal and is then punished, the man acts as a trickster and as an antagonist and therefore is deservedly punished, the 284, ... man thinks he is stronger and cleverer than the animals and is taught a good lesson by an act of public disgrace The Story: animals keep some link to deities and the supernatural; very often they are representatives of the whole nature and the supernatural; they occupy a transitional space between the world of man and the world of the non-human; the animals create a false reality, a parallel world Other relations between 158, 159, 171, 193, 197, 205, The Protagonist: can marry an animal in human shape, in most cases the marriage is happy but cannot last long unless man and animal. Episodic 214, 215, 216, 219, 250, ... animal turns eventually human; man assuming animal shape as punishment or after death; temporarily in animal shape roles through enchantment (rare examples), man is rarely enchanted in Japanese tales The Story: marriage between human beings and animals; the soul of the dead in the shape of a bird; strong link between human beings and animals, mutual respect

9. Male supernatural beings

Type of realisation Tales N Specific features Oni 102, 119, 121, 136, 138, 140, The Protagonist: ambivalent nature, but generally negative; cannibalistic; as undesired bridegroom loses (outwitted by bride 143, 156, 168, 178, 247, 248, or defeated by hero); acts as unwilling donor to the hero (hero wins from oni magic objects); appears as an adversary in 263 hero-tales The Story: trips in other realms, magic objects Tengu 194, 265 The Protagonist: outwitted by human beings, acts as trickster The Story: possibly a transformation of the deity of the mountain, takes people away on mantic voyages, could be also a teacher, instructor; merry nature but could be harmful to people Kappa 101, 151 The Protagonist: seduces women (acts as bridegroom), can kill a human being by drowning him in the swamps The Story: possible link to the water-deity, ambivalent nature – could be harmful and helpful to people

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10. Male advisors and helpers

Type of realisation Tales N Specific features Religious characters 129, 139, 175, 180, 198, 205, The Protagonist: definitely a human being, thanks to wisdom, knowledge, experience gathered on the way as pilgrim helps 208, 225, 227, 231, 240, 242, with advice; stands between human beings and animals (and the supernatural) and helps human beings to oppose tricksters; 254, 256 does not possess magic objects and does not test the human beings before helping them The Story: influence of Buddhism; conflict between the human world and the supernatural, as well as between human world and animal world The Stranger 121, 152, 167, 169, 171, 176, The Protagonist: not so definitely human, half way between human world and supernatural; helps human beings with 177, 180, 199, 211, 220, 247, advice or magic objects, often tests the human beings before granting them help; the stranger appears suddenly and exactly 250, 253 on time; very often old and experienced The Story: magic objects often given to the male main character by the stranger Supernatural Helpers 120, 130, 145, 146, 150, 151, The Protagonist: advisors appearing in dreams, the travelling disguised deity (rewards the kind human beings and punishes 153, 156, 158, 159, 160, 161 the greedy and evil); Buddhist supernatural figures; the King of the Dragon Palace; animals though are the most preferred 168, 174, 184, 189, 197, 199, advisor and helper in Japanese tales; all advisors and helpers reward human kindness and good heart and sometimes punish 200, 201, 202, 203, 213, 214, greediness and cruelty 226, ... The Story: the role of the prophetic dream; the New Year’s Eve festivities; the motif of the divine guest; the motif of the unknown true shape; grateful animal motif; the helper is like a guardian deity, sometimes ambivalent nature; a tendency male helpers to help male main characters while female advisors and helpers to support the heroines

160 GLOSSARY OF SOME JAPANESE TERMS

Bakemono [化物]: A general term for various monsters, apparitions, goblins and other supernatural beings (different from yūrei – ghosts and spirits). Bakemono are called also obake (spell-laying creatures), yōkai – generalising term for all supernatural beings. Bakemono may appear in different nonhuman form, only as sound or voice, or fireball, or may have their typical figure like for example tengu and kappa (refer to Iwai, 2000).

Dango [団子]: Confection made of dough, consisting mainly of rice flour that is kneaded and shaped into small balls, which are steamed or boiled; the balls are then given any of various coatings, such as sweet bean paste, soybean flour, or are dipped in soy sauce and grilled.

Geta [下駄]: Outdoor footwear made of a wooden platform with two crosswise supports. It has served as daily footwear, but nowadays is a part of informal footwear to yukata-kimono.

Ise shrine [伊勢神宮]: One of the most important Shintō shrines, located in the city of Ise, Mie prefecture. Since the 10th century, Ise became a popular pilgrimage site (ise-mairi 伊勢参 り); during the fifteenth century clerics of the shrine went around the provinces collecting funds and preaching the benefits of visiting Ise, adding that seven pilgrimages ensured salvation. Associations for pilgrimages to the shrine were formed at various places all around Japan.

Kami [神]: A superior and mysterious force of either creative or destructive character, which resides in natural elements, animals and certain human beings；it causes ambivalent feelings of fear and gratitude. On the whole kami appear to be benevolent, but natural calamities are attributed to the spirits of humans wrongly accused, leaving a vengeful spirit needing to be pacified and transformed into a benevolent force. Some of the most typical representations are yama-no kami, ta-no kami, mizu-no kami, ujigami, others.

Kappa [河童]: An amphibious supernatural creature, thought to be a transformation of the water deity. Although its picture varies from place to place, kappa is believed to be about the size and shape of a 12-14 year boy, with a face much like a tiger with a snout, its hair is bobbed, and a saucer-like depression on top of its head contains water. When the supply of water diminishes, kappa’s supernatural power is impaired. Its body is slippery, with blue-green scales and emits a fishy odour. It has webbed feet and hands, kappa can rotate its arm and leg joints freely, it can have wings or beaks, can resemble a turtle or an otter. Its nature is ambivalent – kappa is believed to help people with rice-planting and irrigation, but in the same time its negative image includes preying on humans and animals.

161 Koto [琴]: The wooden, over 1m long zither with thirteen strings is a very old Japanese instrument, known already in Nara period (710-794). The music is played putting special picks on the thumb and first two fingers of the right hand and the stings are thus pulled to make a sound.

Miso [味噌]: Bean paste, a mixture of steamed soybeans, soy sauce and fermenting rice, wheat or soy beans with very specific taste. Most popular is the miso-soup, but dressings and marinade are also prepared of it. Miso is an indispensable part of the Japanese cuisine and daily life from ancient past till present days.

Mochi [餅]: Rice cakes, consisting of highly glutinous variety of rice that is steamed, kneaded by mortar and mallet and formed into rounds or sheets, mochi participates as food offerings in many festivals and celebrations in Japan.

Oni [鬼]: A horned, ferocious, scarlet-faced figure, corresponding to the image of a demon or an ogre. His true nature however is more complex and ambivalent, in that he has a benevolent, tutelary face as well as a demonic one. His negative image is strengthened by the Buddhist images of tortures in Hell, but in many indigenous festivals, oni is celebrated and believed to sweep away evil influences. The Kingdom of all oni is Onigashima, which is believed to be a real island, called Megijima, situated north of the city of Takamatsu, Kagawa prefecture, Shikoku.

Oshōgatsu [お正月] – New Year. The most important and elaborate of Japan’s annual events. Initially, the celebrations begin on 13th December and are composed to greet the coming toshigami (deity of the forthcoming year). The whole house is thoroughly cleaned, then decorated, typical is the arrangement of pine tree branches, a special altar with rice cakes, and other food. The night before New Year is called ōmisoka. The first full moon of the year is known as koshōgatsu (Small New Year) and is calculated by the Gregorian lunar calendar. On both occasions, deities are welcomed and rites for a fruitful and happy year are performed. On the base of the belief of the visiting toshigami develops the complex of tales called ōtoshi-no kyaku – the guest at New Year’s Eve.

Shamisen [三味線]: A wooden lute with three usually silk strings, comparatively recently introduced to Japan (Edo period – 1600-1868), associated with urban artistic life.

Shizenkan [自然観]: Concept of nature. The basic etymological meaning of the word is the power of spontaneous self-development and what results from that power. The Chinese characters literally mean “from itself thus it is”, expressing the mode of being rather than the existence of a natural order. The term shizen (nature) as a general expression is not found in

162 ancient Japanese. The ancient Japanese people recognised every phenomenon as a manifestation of kami (gods, deities). According to mythology, the first offspring of the primordial couple Izanagi and Izanami were neither kami, nor human, but islands and landmasses. Thus human beings are not considered to be superior or opposed to nature, as in Western thought, but related as if in one family.

Shūkyō [宗教]: Religion (different from shinkō [信仰] local beliefs). Religious life in Japan has a long history of interaction among a number of religious traditions – the indigenous Shintō, Indian Buddhism, Chinese Confucianism and Taoism, and much later Christianity. The basic features of the Japanese religion are that there are not one but many deities; there is no one sacred book, but many religious scriptures; no emphasise on sin as disobedience, but rather a concern with ritual impurity; ethical codes are more closely related to family life and philosophy than to organised religion. Religious rites focus on seasonal celebrations and are a sign of respect and gratitude towards the ancestral spirits. With the coming of Buddhism, the dilemma was not “either-or”, but rather the concept of “both-and”, which continues up to present day. Local myths and traditions are unified around one account of creation and the divinity of the emperor as a descent from the Gods. The seven major principles of traditional Japanese religion are as follows: 1) Mutual interaction among several religious traditions; 2) Intimate relationship between men and gods and the sacredness of nature; 3) The religious significance of the family and the ancestors; 4) Purification as the basic principle of religious life (not sin, but impurity separates one man from his fellowmen and the kami); 5) Festivals as the major means of religious celebration (among them the most important are around New Year and Bon-festival in honour of the dead); 6) Religion in daily life (Japanese religion is not an organisation apart from daily life, but on the contrary, a part of daily life); 7) Close relationship between religion and state (mythology has sanctioned the unity of ritual and government, through the notion that kami created the Japanese islands as a sacred land to be ruled by a sacred emperor who was a descendent of the supreme kami, the sun goddess Amaterasu.

Tengu [ 天狗]: Tengu is a half-man, half-bird creature, feared and honoured simultaneously among Japanese people. It is believed to have long beak and wings (nearing the image to that of a bird) and man’s body, arms and legs. It is seen as a certain transformation of the deity of mountains yama-no kami. In medieval times it opposed Buddhism, playing tricks on travelling priests and monks. He is feared as an abductor of children, but is at the same time honoured as a protector with supernatural skills. He is believed to possess powers of illusion and is closely associated with the image of yamabushi, wearing some of his costume items. Among the most typical features of tengu are his long nose, red face and magic feather-fan.

Yamabito [山人]: The term describes people who live in the mountains, where they hunt,

163 work, found their families. Some of the most popular representatives are the char-coal burners and the wood-cutters. But there is a second dimension to this term (often pronounced yamahito) which describes a folk half-human, half-bestiary (see also Itō, 2000).

Yamauba (also – yamamba) [山姥]: Literary translated as “the old Weib of the mountains”, but often the symbols of “mother”, “maiden” and “princess” appear to substitute the neutral “old woman”. This fact reveals her ambivalent nature – although she is believed to devour human beings, her image comes most probably from that of the deity of the mountains – yama-no kami. Despite her general cannibalistic image, in certain places around Japan she is celebrated as protector and benevolent helper. Through the motifs of child upbringing and care, her image is often linked to that of a “mountain mother”, originating from the goddess-mother Izanami. She is portrayed as a tall being, having a big mouth reaching to the ears, long hairs and glittering eyes.

164 Gergana Petrova is born in 1975 in Sofia, Bulgaria. She graduates Ist English Language School, Sofia in 1994. In 1999 she graduates the University of Sofia, Section of Japanese Studies with MA in Japanese Studies; graduation paper: “Characteristics of the Japanese Fairy Tale”. In 2000 she starts her PhD thesis “Male characters in the Japanese fairy tale” at the University of Zurich, Section of Japanese Studies which she successfully completes in 2004. Gergana Petrova has realised one-year language training in Japan 1997-1998 and a 6-month field research at Seijo University, Tokyo in 2002, supported by the Japan Foundation. In the period 1994-2004 she carries out translation, interpretation and teaching projects and participates in numerous conferences, seminars and meetings in the fields of Japanese Studies, Gender Studies, Folklore and Literature with written papers, some of which already published. At present she teaches at Sofia University, Section of Japanese Studies.

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