Once Upon a Time in Japan. Japan Broadcasting Corporation NHK
Once Upon Time in JAPAN
Once Upon Time
in Japan
Translated by
Roger Pulvers & Juliet Winters Carpenter
Illustrated by
Manami Yamada
Tomonori Taniguchi
Nao Takabatake &
Takumi Nishio
PUBLISHED IN COOPERATION WITH
NHK JAPAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION
TUTTLE Publishing
Tokyo | Rutland, Vermont | Singapore
Published by Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd.
Copyright © 2015 by NHK Japan Broadcasting Corporation
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher.
ISBN 978-4-8053-1359-6
ISBN 978-1-4629-1726-6 (ebook)
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Contents
translated by Roger Pulvers illustrated by Manami Yamada
translated by Roger Pulvers illustrated by Manami Yamada
translated by Roger Pulvers illustrated by Manami Yamada
translated by Roger Pulvers illustrated by Tomonori Taniguchi
Sleepyhead Taro and the Children
translated by Roger Pulvers illustrated by Nao Takabatake
translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter illustrated by Nao Takabatake
translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter illustrated by Takumi Nishio
translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter illustrated by Takumi Nishio
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A Second Childhood BY ROGER PULVERS
I have a very personal and nostalgic tie to stories such as the ones you have before you in this book. My wife, who is British-Australian, and I brought up our four children in Japan. They were born in Japan and we sent them to Japanese schools. Thanks to their reading and loving the Japanese folktales they were introduced to in their childhood, my wife and I were able to share the joys of reading them for the first time with them. It was as if we were having a second childhood ourselves, and a very Japanese one at that.
But though I say “Japanese,” if you strip away those special elements that are tied to Japan—for instance, the myrtle grass bath in “The Wife Who Never Eats”—there is nothing in these stories that would prevent them from being set in almost any country in the world.
In fact, these are moral tales of truly universal value. Their values transcend geography, era and ethnicity. Their themes appeal to us all. Greedy and selfish people are punished and the rewards for generosity and mercy are large. Cooperation and harmony among people are seen as great virtues.
Japan is today a wealthy country, but for most of history its people lived very modest and frugal lives, depending on each other in order to create sufficient food to sustain themselves. While there is an abundance of water in Japan, rice farming depended upon people sharing and looking after water resources. One traditional expression for selfishness is gaden insui, which means “drawing all the water into your own rice paddy.” Nothing in the village was seen to be more despicable than this. It is the equivalent of the English expression “feathering your own nest” knowing