Reading Notes, Japanese Fairy Tales (Ozaki): Part A

The first story in this set of Japanese Folk Tales was called "My Lord Bag of Rice".  This story was about a brave warrior named My Lord Bag of Rice, better known as Hidesato.  On one of his adventures he came across the land of the Dragon King.  The Dragon King and his family had been terrorized by the Evil Centipede forever and The Dragon King asked Hidesato if he could kill him.  This was no feat for Hidesato, however when the time came, his arrows would not penetrate the huge centipede and they would simply bounce off.  Then, Hidesato remembered that human saliva kills centipedes.  The next arrow that he shot, he put in his mouth first and sure enough it hit the centipede right in the brain and killed him.  The Dragon King gave Hidesato many gifts including a bag of rice that never ran out. 

Hidesato facing the Evil Centipede. Web Source. 

The next story in the reading was called The Adventures of Kintaro.  This story was about a young boy named Kintaro that lived in the woods with this mother and had incredible strength.  One day, as he was playing wrestling with his friends bear, deer, hare and monkey, a general of the army say his great strength and followed him home.  At home, he told Kintaro and his mother who he was and offered to take Kintaro to the capital to be trained as a great samurai.  He did so, and Kintaro became the Chief of the Four Braves, and built a house for his mother to stay with him in the capital for the rest of her days. 

The last story of this reading was called The Man Who Did Not Wish to Die.  This story was about a man who enjoyed life and never wanted to die.  He prayed to the god Jokfu that he may find the elixr of life, and while he was praying he fell asleep and had a great dream where he was flown to the Land of Perpetual Life by a paper crane.  In the Land of Perpetual Life, noone was happy and they all wished to die because they had lived so long.  Sentaro eventually felt this way too and prayed again to go back home.  While praying the paper crane emerged from his pocket and flew him back towards Japan, however they got caught in a storm and fell into the ocean where a shark almost ate him.  Here Sentaro woke up and a messenger of Jokfu told him what happened and to be content with the life he has. 

Bibliography: Japanese Fairy Tales by Yei Theodora Ozaki. Web Source.