Skip to main content

Reading Notes: Ozaki, Part B

Japenese Fairytales, Ozaki by Yei Theodora Ozaki
My notes from the second half of the unit:

The Goblin of Adachigahara
The people were scared to go to a certain place after dark and avoided it when they could even during the day because there were stories of a cannibal goblin who lived there and ate men. A priest was walking all day and it had grown cold so he began searching for a place to sleep. He saw a tumbledown cottage and went to it. He met an old woman there who allowed him to stay the night. However, when she went to get firewood, he peeked into the back room and found if filled with human blood and bones. He ran away and though the goblin chased, it did not catch him.

The Ogre of Rashomon
In this story, again a village had tales of an ogre who ate men after dark. A band of knights spoke together about whether or not it was true. One of the knights went to find out. He found the ogre and fought it but it ran away. He had cut off his arm, however, and kept it in a box so the ogre couldn't get it back. One night, his old nurse came, wanting to see the arm. Reluctantly, the knight showed her. She seized the arm and transformed into the ogre. The knight attacked but it escaped through the roof. The knight never caught it but it was too scared to return so the people were safe.

The Story of Princess Hase
In this story, a prince and princess could not have a baby. They prayed to a goddess and were able to conceive so they named their daughter Hase-Hime after the place where the goddess' temple was. The mother died when she was young and the father remarried to a woman who did not like Hase-Hime. She, however, grew up to be very good child. She learned to play the Japenese harp and was praised by the emperor for her skill while her step-mother was unable to play and was embarrassed. The step-mother had a son and tried to poison Hase-Hime but accidentally killed her own child and blamed the girl. Later, Hase-Hime wrote a poem and prayed and was able to stop a flood. Finally, the step-mother told a servant to take the girl into the wilderness and kill her while her father was away. The servant took the girl and together they lived in the wilderness until the father came and found her. The step-mother ran back to her parents and wasn't heard from. Hase-Hime grew up to be an excellent woman.

The last story, particularly, reminded me of the story of Snow White.


Photo Credit: favim

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Week 3 Wikipedia Trail

For this assignment, I started with the article about the Canterbury Tales, since that is what I am working on for my project. First article:  The_Canterbury_Tales This one is very intensive and covers not only a premise of the story but also a historical context, the themes, and the style of the writing. I imagine I am going to use this article a lot when I begin working on my project. From this article, there are links to all the other sections and a bunch of pictures of the different pilgrims. Second article:  General_Prologue This is the prologue and the beginning of the story. It not only gives a premise to the storytelling competition, it gives a background of the pilgrims and their destination. I am going to use a similar premise in my project and will refer to this article when I am working on my introduction. One thing I am debating is whether I will have a "Geoffrey Chaucer" character in my story. In the original, the author inserted himself into the tale, I d...

Reading Notes: Ozaki, Part A

Japenese Fairytales,  Ozaki  by Yei Theodora Ozaki In this unit, there have been three stories so far: My Lord Bag of Rice In this story the name of Tawara Toda, which means "My Lord Bag of Rice" is explained. He was a brave warrior who came across a large dragon on a bridge. Instead of running away, he just climbed over the dragon and continued going, however, someone called out to him and when he looked back he discovered a person where the dragon had been. It was the Dragon King whose family was being killed by a giant centipede every night and he begged for the warrior's help. The warrior agreed and went to wait for the centipede. As it came down a mountain, he shot it with an arrow tipped in saliva which killed the centipede. The Dragon King was so grateful, he gave the warrior, among other things, a sack of rice which never ran out. The Adventures of Kintaro A warrior married a woman, however, he died and his wife ran away to the wilderness in fear of his e...

Week 14 Story: Jason and the Giant's Gold

Jason and the Giant's Gold Jason had always been a poor peasant, unknown by most. He had a job as a shepherd for the Lord of the lands and it provided for himself, his mothers, and his sisters and he was grateful for it. However, he was with the sheep night and day and was unable to do little else. If he didn't have this job, his family would have starved when his father died some years back and so Jason worked hard, both to support his family and from the gratitude he felt toward the Lord for trusting him with his flocks. However, some days back, he had left the sheep, for a little while, when he had come across a giant. He thought that would be the end of him and he briefly wondered who would take care of his family when he died but the giant hadn't killed him. It had needed his help and as a reward, it had taken him to a giant celebration. It had given him a belt of invisibility so he would be safe from the other giants and in this way, Jason had been able to witness...