Editing Japanese folktales

{{Short description|Classic Japanese tales}}
{{About||folklore more generally|Japanese folklore|mythical folk-ballad of the Ainu|yukar}}
{{Lead rewrite|date=December 2014}}

'''Japanese folktales ''' are an important cultural aspect of [[Japan]]. In commonplace usage, they signify a certain set of well-known classic tales, with a vague distinction of whether they fit the rigorous definition of "[[Oral tradition|folktale]]" or not among various types of [[folklore]]. The admixed impostors are literate written pieces, dating back to the [[Muromachi period]] (14th–16th centuries) or even earlier times in the [[Middle Ages]]. These would not normally qualify for the English description "folktales" (i.e., pieces collected from oral tradition among the populace).

In a more stringent sense, "Japanese folktales" refers to orally transmitted folk narrative. Systematic collection of specimens was pioneered by the folklorist [[Kunio Yanagita]]. Yanagita disliked the word '''{{Nihongo |''minwa''|民話}}''', a coined term directly translated from "folktale" (Yanagita stated that the term was not familiar to actual old folk he collected folktales from, and was not willing to "go along" with the conventions of other countries).<ref>Yanagita, "Preface to the 1960 edition", appended to ''Nihon no mukashibanashi'' (Folk tales of Japan), Shinchosha, 1983, p.175</ref> He therefore proposed the use of the term {{Nihongo |'''''mukashibanashi'''''|昔話||"tales of long ago"}} to apply to all creative types of folktales (i.e., those that are not "legendary" types which are more of a reportage).<ref name= heibonsha-minwa>{{cite book |editor=Heibonsha |script-title=ja:世界百科事典 |title=Sekai hyakka jiten |year=1969 |orig-year=1968 |volume=21 |page=492 |chapter=minwa |script-chapter=ja:民話 |first=Katsumi |last=Masuda}}</ref>

==Overview==
A representative sampling of Japanese folklore would definitely include the quintessential '''''[[Momotarō]]''''' ('''Peach Boy'''), and perhaps other folktales listed among the so-called {{nihongo|"five great fairy tales"|五大昔話|Go-dai Mukashi banashi}}:<ref name=asakura>{{cite book|last=Asakura|first=Haruhiko(朝倉治彦)|title=神話伝説事典|publisher=東京堂出版|year=1963 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Uo8xAQAAIAAJ7|isbn=978-4-490-10033-4}}, p.198. quote:"ごだいおとぎぱなし（五大御伽話）。五大昔話ともいう。桃太郎、猿蟹合戦、舌切雀、花咲爺、かちかち山の五話"</ref> the battle between ''[[The Crab and the Monkey]]'', ''[[Shita-kiri Suzume]]'' (Tongue-cut sparrow), ''[[Hanasaka Jiisan]]'' (Flower-blooming old man), and ''[[Kachi-kachi Yama]]''.

===History===
These stories just named are considered genuine folktales, having been so characterized by folklorist Kunio Yanagita.<ref>{{cite book |last=Yanagita |first=Kunio(柳田國男) |title= Collected Works (柳田國男全集) |volume=6 |publisher=Tsukuma Shobo |year=1998 |isbn=9784480750662 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g1Q0AQAAIAAJ}}, p.253, says calling them ''otogibanashi'' (see below) is a misnomer, since they are ''mukashi banashi'' (Yanagita's preferred term for folktales orally transmitted)</ref> During the [[Edo period]] these tales had been adapted by professional writers and woodblock-printed in a form a called ''[[kusazōshi]]'' (cf. [[chapbooks]]), but a number of local variant versions of the tales have been collected in the field as well.

As stated above, non-genuine folktales are those already committed to writing long ago, the earliest being the tale of Princess Kaguya (or ''[[The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter]]''), an example of the [[monogatari]] type of romance dated to as early as the 10th century,<ref>{{cite book |last=Dickins |first= F. Victor (Frederick Victor), 1838-1915 |title =The Old Bamboo-Hewer's Story (Taketori no okina no monogatari): The earliest of the Japanese romances, written in the 10th century |via=[[Internet Archive]] |publisher=Trübner |year=1888 |url=https://archive.org/details/oldbamboohewers00dickgoog}}</ref> though extant manuscripts are much later. The text mentions, for example, the flame-proof "{{nihongo |''fire rat'' |[[:ja:火鼠|火鼠]] |[[huoshu|Hinezumi]]}} (or [[Salamander (legendary creature)|salamander]])'s fur robe," which attests to a considerable degree of book-knowledge and learning by its author.

Other examples of pseudo-folktales composed in the Middle Ages are the ''[[Uji Shūi Monogatari]]'' (13th century) that includes <!-- the nucleus of classics as--> [[Kobutori Jisan|''Kobutori Jīsan'']] &mdash; the old man with the hump on his cheek &mdash; and ''[[Straw Millionaire]]''. This and the ''[[Konjaku Monogatarishū]]'' (12th century) contain a number of a type of tales called ''[[setsuwa]]'', a generic term for narratives of various nature, anything from moralizing to comical. Both works are divided into parts containing tales from India, tales from China, and tales from Japan. In the ''Konjaku Monogatarishū'' can be seen the early developments of the [[Kintarō]] legend, familiar in folktale-type form.

The Japanese word used to correspond to "folktale" has undergone development over the years. From the [[Edo period]], the term used was {{Nihongo |''otokibanashi'' |お伽話}}, i.e., tales told by the ''otogii-shū'', professional storytellers hired to entertain the daimyō lord at the bedside.<ref name=heibonsha-mukashibanashi>{{cite book |editor=Heibonsha |script-title=ja:世界百科事典 |title=Sekai hyakka jiten |year=1969 |orig-year=1968 |volume=21 |pages=499–504 |chapter=mukashibanashi |script-chapter=ja:昔話 |first1=Shizuka |last1=Yamamuro |first2=Taizo |last2=Tanaka}}</ref> That term remained in currency through the [[Meiji era]] (late 19th century), when imported terms such as ''minwa'' began to be used.<ref name =heibonsha-mukashibanashi/> In the [[Taishō era]] the word ''dōwa'' (lit. "children's story", a [[loan translation]] for [[fairy tales]] or ''[[wikt:Märchen|märchen]]'') was used.<ref name=heibonsha-mukashibanashi/> Later Yanagita popularized the use of ''mukashi-banashi'' "tales of long ago", as mentioned before.

Some Japanese ghost stories or ''[[kaidan (parapsychology)|kaidan]]'', such as the story of the [[Yuki-onna]] ("snow woman"), might be considered examples of folktales, but even though some overlaps may exist, they are usually treated as another genre. The familiar forms of stories are embellished works of literature by [[gesaku]] writers, or retooled for the [[kabuki]] theater performance, in the case of the [[bakeneko]] or monstrous cat. The famous collection ''[[Kwaidan]]'' by [[Lafcadio Hearn]] also consists of original retellings. Yanagita published a collection, '{{nihongo |''Legends of Tōno'' |[[:ja:遠野物語|遠野物語]] |Tōno Monogatari}}' (1910), which featured a number of fantastical ''[[yōkai]]'' creatures such as [[Zashiki-warashi]] and [[kappa (folklore)|kappa]].
<!--
''namidabanashi'', sad stories; ''obakebanashi'', ghost stories; ''ongaeshibanashi'', stories of repaying kindness; ''tonchibanashi'', witty stories; ''waraibanashi'', funny stories; and ''yokubaribanashi'', stories of greed. (These are not standard or commonplace terms or classifications, except perhaps ''warai banashi''. ''Tonchi banashi'' is a term but perhaps not a category.)
-->

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

==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/>

==Theorized influences==
{{Fringe theories|section|date=May 2012}}
The folklore of Japan has been influenced by foreign literature as well as the kind of [[spirit worship]] prevalent all throughout prehistoric Asia.

The monkey stories of Japanese folklore have been influenced both by the [[Sanskrit]] [[Indian epic poetry|epic]] [[Ramayana]] and the [[Chinese literature|Chinese]] classic ''[[Journey to the West]]''.<ref>On the Road to Baghdad Or Traveling Biculturalism: Theorizing a Bicultural Approach to... By Gonul Pultar, ed., Gönül Pultar. Published 2005. New Academia Publishing, LLC. {{ISBN|0-9767042-1-8}}. Page 193</ref> The stories mentioned in the Buddhist [[Jataka]] tales appear in a modified form throughout the Japanese collection of popular stories.<ref>The Hindu World By Sushil Mittal. Published 2004. Routledge. {{ISBN|0-415-21527-7}}. pp93</ref><ref>Discovering the Arts of Japan: A Historical Overview By Tsuneko S. Sadao, Stephanie Wada. Published 2003. Kodansha International. {{ISBN|4-7700-2939-X}}. pp41</ref>

Some stories of [[History of India|ancient India]] were influential in shaping Japanese stories by providing them with materials. [[India]]n materials were greatly modified and adapted in such a way as would appeal to the sensibilities of common people of Japan in general, transmitted through China and Korea.<ref>Miraculous Stories from the Japanese Buddhist Tradition: The [[Nihon Ryōiki]] of the Monk Kyōkai By Kyōkai. Published 1997. Routledge. {{ISBN|0-7007-0449-3}}</ref><ref>The Sanskrit Epics By John L Brockington. Published 1998. Brill Academic Publishers. {{ISBN|90-04-02642-8}}. pp514</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Japan}}
*[[Gesaku]]
**Tale of the Gallant [[Jiraiya]] (''{{Interlanguage link|Jiraiya Goketsu Monogatari|ja|vertical-align=sup}}'')
*[[Kaidan (parapsychology)|Kaidan]]
**[[Banchō Sarayashiki]], the ghost story of Okiku and the Nine Plates.
**[[Yotsuya Kaidan]], the ghost story of Oiwa.
**[[Yukionna]], the snow woman.
*[[Japanese legends|Legends]]
**{{Interlanguage link|Hagoromo legend|ja|vertical-align=sup}}, related to [[Hagoromo (play)]]
**[[Kiyohime]] legend; passionate for a priest, she turned into a dragon.
**[[Tamamo-no-Mae]], a vixen-type [[yōkai]] monster, masquerading as a woman.
**[[Ushiwakamaru]], about Yoshitsune's youth and training with the [[tengu]] of [[Mount Kurama|Kurama]].
*[[Japanese mythology|Mythology]]
** [[Luck of the Sea]] and Luck of the Mountains
* [[Setsuwa]]
*[[Japanese Urban Legends|Urban Legends]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{Refbegin}}

==Further sources==
* Brauns, David. ''Japanische Märchen und Sagen''. Leipzig: Verlag von Wilhelm Friedrich. 1885.
* [[Richard Dorson|Dorson, Richard M.]] "[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=inu.39000002538523&view=1up&seq=149&skin=2021 National Characteristics of Japanese Folktales]". In: ''Folklore, Nationalism and Politics''. Edited by Felix J. Oinas. Indiana University Folklore Institute Monograph Series, Vol. 30. Columbus, Ohio: Slavica Publishers, 1978. pp.&nbsp;147–162.
* Dorson, Richard M. ''Journal of the American Oriental Society'' 95, no. 3 (1975): 512–14. Accessed July 1, 2020. {{doi|10.2307/599376}}.
* {{cite book|ref=none|last=Gordon Smith|first=Richard|title=Ancient Tales and Folklore of Japan |place=London|publisher=A. & C. Black|year=1908|url=https://archive.org/details/ancienttalesand00mongoog |isbn=9781606200919}}
* {{cite book|ref=none|author=Heibonsha|title=世界百科事典(Sekai hyakka jiten)|year=1969|orig-year=1968 |volume=15|pages=804–6}}, Article under {{Nihongo|densetsu|伝説}}, by Keigo Seki ([[:ja:関敬吾]])
* James, Grace; Goble, Warwick, III. ''Green Willow and other Japanese fairy tales''. London: Macmillan and Co. 1910.
* Mayer, Fanny Hagin. "Recent Collections of Japanese Folk Tales". In: ''The Journal of Asian Studies'' 31, no. 4 (1972): 911–914. Accessed July 1, 2020. {{doi|10.2307/2052110}}.
* Mayer, Fanny Hagin. "Religious Concepts in the Japanese Folk Tale". In: ''Japanese Journal of Religious Studies'' 1, no. 1 (1974): 73–101. Accessed July 1, 2020. {{JSTOR|30234416}}.
* Mayer, Fanny Hagin. "Japan's Folk Tale Boom". In: ''Journal of Japanese Studies'' 4, no. 1 (1978): 215–24. Accessed July 25, 2021. doi:10.2307/132081.
* Mulhern, Chieko Irie and Mayer, Fanny Hagin. “Ancient Tales in Modern Japan: An Anthology of Japanese Folk Tales” (1986).
* Nakawaki Hatsue. "Japanese Heroine Tales and the Significance of Storytelling in Contemporary Society". In: ''Re-Orienting the Fairy Tale: Contemporary Adaptations across Cultures''. Edited by Mayako Murai and Luciana Cardi. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. 2020. pp.&nbsp;139–168. {{ISBN|978-0-8143-4537-5}}.
* Rasch, Carsten: TALES OF OLD JAPAN FAIRY TALE - FOLKLORE - GHOST STORIES - MYTHOLOGY: INTRODUCTION IN THE JAPANESE LITERATURE OF THE GENRE OF FAIRY TALES - FOLKLORE - GHOST STORIES AND MYTHOLOGY, Hamburg. 2015.
* Seki, Keigo. "Types of Japanese Folktales". In: ''Asian Folklore Studies'' 25 (1966): 1–220. {{doi|10.2307/1177478}}.

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