Editing Japanese folktales (section)

==List of Japanese folktales ==
Below is a list of well-known Japanese folktales:

{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|- 
! No.
! Name
! Portrait
! Note
|-
!colspan="6"|'''hero/heroine type'''
|-
| 1
| [[Chikarataro]]
| 
| 
|-
| 2
| [[Issun-bōshi]]
| [[File:Tale of Issun Bōshi from Otogi-zōshi.jpg|100px]]
| the One-inch Boy
|-
| 3
| [[Kintarō]]
| [[File:Kintaro Riding the Carp LACMA M.84.31.339.jpg|100px]]
| the superhuman Golden Boy, based on folk hero Sakata no Kintoki
|-
| 4
| [[Momotarō]]
| [[File:Momotaro Hasegawa cover 1886.jpg|100px]]
| the oni-slaying Peach Boy
|-
| 5
| [[The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter]]
| [[File:The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter - Discovery of Princess Kaguya.jpg|100px]]
| about a mysterious girl called Kaguya-hime who is said to be from the capital of the moon
|-
| 6
| [[Shippeitaro]]
| [[File:Schippeitaro-1888-p13-cropped.jpg|100px]]
| a warrior and a dog who defeated evil spirits
|-
| 7
| [[Uriko-hime]]
| 
| a girl born out of a melon and adopted by an elderly human couple
|-
| 8
| [[Hachikazuki]]
| [[File:Sanzōshi-emaki Hachikazuki.jpg|100px]]
| a girl that wears a bowl on her head
|-
|9
|[[Hagoromo (play)|Hagoromo]]
|
|a [[tennin]] has her feather mantle stolen by a fisherman
|-
!colspan="6"|'''grateful creature motif'''
|-
| 10
| [[Bunbuku Chagama]]
| [[File:Japanesefairytalse01no16thom0008crop.jpg|100px]]
| the story of a teakettle which is actually a shape-changing tanuki
|-
| 11
| [[Hanasaka Jiisan]]
| 
| the story of the old man that made the flowers bloom
|-
| 12
| [[Kasa Jizō]]
| 
| a [[Jizō]] statue given a straw hat and is grateful
|-
| 13
| [[Omusubi Kororin]]
| 
| the story of an old man who drops rice into a mouse hole
|-
| 14
| [[Shita-kiri Suzume]]
| [[File:Hokusai Pair of sissors and sparrow.jpg|100px]]
| the story of the tongue-cut sparrow
|-
| 15
| [[Urashima Tarō]]
| [[File:Matsuki Heikichi(1899)-Urashima-p09.jpg|100px]]
| who rescued a turtle and visited the bottom of the sea
|-
| 16
| [[My Lord Bag of Rice]]
| [[File:Kuniyoshi The Dragon Princess.jpg|100px]]
| 
|-
| 17
| [[Tsuru no Ongaeshi]]
| [[File:Ippontōchō-zu by Hara Zaichū.jpg|100px]]
| the story of a crane returning a favor for saving its life
|-
!colspan="6"|'''good fortune motif'''
|-
| 18
| [[Kobutori Jisan|Kobutori Jīsan]]
|[[File:Japanese Fairy Book - Ozaki - 277.png|100px]]
| a man with a large wen (tumor, kobu) on his cheek, and how he loses it
|-
| 19
| [[Straw Millionaire]]
| 
| {{nihongo|Straw Millionaire|わらしべ長者|Warashibe Chōja}}
|-
!colspan="6"|'''punishment motif'''
|-
| 20
| [[The Crab and the Monkey]]
| [[File:Crab and the Monkey Emaki 1.jpg|100px]]
| {{nihongo|Monkey-Crab Battle|さるかに合戦|saru kani gassen}}
|-
| 21
| [[Kachi-kachi Yama]]
| [[File:Rabbit's Triumph - climax of the Kachi-kachi Yama.markings of Ogata Gekko.detail - image for k-k y article.version 1.wittig collection - painting 22.png|100px]]
| rabbit punishes [[bake-danuki|tanuki]]
|-
|}

===Animals in folklore===
'''Tongue-cut sparrow''': A washer woman cut off the tongue of a sparrow that was pecking at her rice starch. The sparrow had been fed regularly by the washer woman's neighbors, so when the sparrow didn't come, they went in the woods to search for it. They found it, and after a feast and some dancing (which the sparrow prepared), the neighbors were given the choice between two boxes; one large and one small. The neighbors picked the small box, and it was filled with riches. The washer woman saw these riches and heard where they came from, so she went to the sparrow. She too was entertained and given the choice between two boxes. The washer woman picked the largest box and instead of gaining riches, she was devoured by devils.<ref name=piggott>Japanese Mythology: Library of the World's Myths and Legends, by Juliet Piggott</ref>

'''Mandarin Ducks''': A man kills a drake mandarin duck for food. That night he had a dream that a woman was accusing him of murdering her husband, and then told him to return to the lake. The man does this, and a female mandarin walks up to him and tears its chest open.<ref name=piggott/>

'''Tanuki and Rabbit''': A man catches a tanuki and tells his wife to cook it in a stew. The tanuki begs the wife not to cook him and promises to help with the cooking if he is spared. The wife agrees and unties him. The tanuki then transforms into her and kills her, then cooks her in a stew. Disguised as the man's wife, the tanuki feeds him his wife. Once he is done, the tanuki transforms back to his original form and teases the man for eating his wife. A rabbit that was friends with the family was furious, so he had the tanuki carry sticks and, while he wasn't looking, set these sticks on fire. Then the rabbit treated the burn with hot pepper paste. Finally, the rabbit convinced the tanuki to build a boat of clay, and the rabbit followed in a sturdy boat. The clay boat began to sink, so the tanuki tried to escape, but then the rabbit hit him in the head with an oar, knocking him out and making him drown.<ref name=piggott/>

'''Badger and Fox cub''': A badger, vixen, and the vixen's cub lived in a forest that was running out of food, so they came up with the plan of one of them pretending to be dead, the other disguising as a merchant, and the “merchant” selling the “dead” animal to a human. Then they would have money to buy food. The vixen pretended to be dead while the badger was the merchant. While the transaction was happening however, the badger told the human that the vixen wasn't actually dead, so the human killed her. This infuriated the cub, so he proposed a competition. They would both disguise as humans and go into the village at different times. Whoever guessed what “human” was the other first, wins. The cub walked towards the village first, but he hid behind a tree. The badger went into the village, and accused the governor of being the fox, so the bodyguards of the governor beheaded him.<ref name=piggott/>