Japan Fairy Tales Essay Week 7

King Killing Centipede

For this week I read the unit Japan Fairy Tales by Ozaki. Most of the stories in this unit played out like a typical western style fairy tale, but with a mix of eastern influences. One of the things that I found most surprising was that in these stories there really was not a whole lot of action. In the Bag of Rice story there was a lot of time given to establishing the problem with the centipede and the reward given to the king along with the king’s life, but the actual battle with the centipede seemed to happen quickly. It was over before it started. In the story about the boy that was strong, there was a huge amount of time given to the life of the boy when he was young, but as far as the boy in action there was very little, although there companions of the boy did get a lot of time. There seemed to be a lot of time dedicated to the animals as they wrestled but when it came time for the boy it mirrored the bag of rice story because his action was over quickly. These stories seemed to focus mostly on the peripheral characters in the story much more than the main characters. I am not sure but this is possibly because the characters in the story are supposed to represent the personality of the main characters and also work to establish the values of the main characters. Still I was pleased with the stories and much like the western fairy tales I heard as a child these stories all had lessons to teach. They were positive in nature and also hinted at possible fate scenarios, in which each person on earth has a destiny and that they should accept their place in the world because there is a plan for each of their lives.










Picture Attribution

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, Fujiwara no Hidesato, August 1890. From the Thirty-six Ghosts series. 9.25" x 14.25". The print depicts Fujiwara no Hidesato shooting a giant centipede at the palace of the Dragon King.