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"Maihime" (The Dancing Girl), by Ougai Mori, is a novel about Toyotaro Ota, a government worker who discovers his true self and future while he was studying in Germany.  While there, he falls in love with a dancer named Eris, at the cost of losing his post.  Although he manages to return to Japan with the help of his friend, he has to part with both his freedom and his now-crazed lover.

    -Nana Kikuchi

SUMMER 1997

AE1-A Core

Summaries of Native Literature

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In Japan, there is a fairy tale, "Kaguya-hime."  The author says that Kaguya-hime is a princess of the moon.  One day, an old man was cutting bamboo.  He found a shining stalk of bamboo.  He cut the bamboo.  Then, in the bamboo was a little girl.  He took her home.  She grew.  She helped the old man and his wife.  And then they were rich.  She was very beautiful.  so, many guys wanted to get married with her.  They came to her house every day.  so, she set conditions for them.  They were to get a dragon's scale and find a medicinal herb that couldn't be found easily.  They couldn't bring them.  After that she went back to the moon.
   In my opinion, this story has a dream.  This story isn't true, but it can give us a dream.  This story is also called "Taketori-Monogatari."  It was written a long long time ago.  Then people were wearing
"kimono."  So, I think the author was smart.

   Do you know the story?
It's famous in Japan.  It's a movie too.

   -Kumi Ishihara

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SUMMER 1997

"Tale of Heike," by anonymous, tells about the fall of Heike, the first clan of warriors that enjoyed strong power in Japan.  The main theme of this tale is transience.  Transience is one of the most important views of the world in Buddhism; it refers to the notion of the transmigration of souls, which hold that all souls certainly die and everything is certain to change.  Therefore, this tale begins with a view of the world as transient.

   However, I think this view of the world still holds true every time; for example, the overthrow of the Roman Empire and the Ching Dynasty, etc., which were strong nations.

   -Chika Hirama,

Rabbit and Turtle

   A long time ago, there was a rabbit and a turtle.  One day the rabbit said, "Let's race from here to the top of the mountain."  The turtle said, "No, because I know you'll win."  However, the race was started.  The rabbit ran very fast, but the turtle walked very slowly, so on the way to the race the rabbit took a rest and slept.  The turtle walked hard without rest even though his pace was very slow.  And at last, the turtle passed the rabbit but the rabbit didn't notice.  In the end the turtle arrived on the top of the mountain, and the rabbit noticed that the turtle wasn't in back of him, so the rabbit ran very fast but didn't catch up with the turtle.  The rabbit cried a lot but the turtle smiled!!
   -Yuki, Japan

Hachitarou

Hachitarou was one lazy farmer.  He never worked very much.  One day he was sleeping underneath a tree.  A bee came from somewhere and went into Hachitarou's nostril.  At that time, he had a dream.  Chosan's daughter was terribly ill.  He had already tried many ways to heal her, but he hadn't done it yet.  The cause was a young tree.  This tree was trying to grow, but it couldn't grow, because of the house.  The tree was growing under the house, and this was the cause of her illness.
   When the bee came out from Hachitarou's nose, the dream ended.  The next day Hachitarou went to Chosen's house.  Truly, the family was in trouble, and the young tree was there.  Hachitarou told Chosan, "If I make her well, would you give me your daugher?"  Chosan said "Yes."  Hachitarou opened the floor and dug up the young tree, and moved it outside.  After this, Chosan's daughter got well and Chosan became happy.  And Hachitarou married his daughter.  Everybody got happiness, and this story is going to end here.

Rabbit and Tortoise

Once upon a time, there was a rabbit that could run fast and a tortoise that couldn't run fast.
   One day, while the tortoise was walking along very slowly, the rabbit came up to him and asked him, "Why are you so slow?" and "Can you run very fast?"  The tortoise answered, "Of course, I can run faster than you."  Then, the rabbit thought, "He must be a liar, he can't run faster than me," so he asked the tortoise to race with him.  The tortoise said "Yes."
   The next day, the rabbit was waiting for the tortoise under a big tree.  He was coming very slowly.  Both of them made a rule; they had to start to race from the line near the big tree to the hill over there.
   Finally, the rabbit said, "Ready, go!"  He ran as fast as he could.  However, the tortoise started to walk after him.
   When the rabbit noticed that the the tortoise was still walking near the start line, he had already finished halfway.  The rabbit felt so funny and safe.  So he decided to take a nap and rest.
   On the other hand, the tortoise was still walking 3/4 of the way when the rabbit woke up.  Two hours ahd already passed.  However, the rabbit thought that maybe only a half an hour had passed.
   Then he started to run fast again.  When he  saw the flag on the hill, the tortoise had already arrived and had been sleeping near the flag.
   After that, the rabbit never teased the tortoise.

Parasol Guardian (Kasa Jizo)

Long long ago, there was an old couple on the outside of the village.  They were not rich but they  both had good warm hearts.
   Today was the end of the last day in December.  He had to earn some money to prepare the New Year's celebration.  They had made some straw parasols the previous night.  So he went to sell them in the village early in the morning, while he wife cleaned their old home.
   Since he'd got to the village, he tried to sell the parasols.  The atmosphere in the village was very active and noisy; the people who were there were moving busily.  He made an effort to sell them, but he couldn't sell anything in the end.
   It was getting dark when he gave up selling them.  He felt very sad, because he knew his wife was waiting for him and something.  He thought about the next day (New Year's day) for a while, and he started to walk to his house.  It began to snow at that time.
   While returning, he found six guardians standing.  All their heads were covered with snow.  He thought they looked very cold.  So he stopped to wipe the snow off their heads, and he covered their heads with his parasols.  But he had only five parasols, lacking one.  He thought and he gave his own parasol to the guardians.  He felt very happy and he hurried to walk home.
   When he got to his house, he talked about that story to his wife.  She didn't get angry; she felt happy, too.
   The next morning, they found much gold and food outside of their house.  The six guardians had give it to them, because they were thankful for the old man's kindness.  So this old couple spent a good New Year.

Momotaro (Taro who comes from a peach)

A long long time ago, there were an old man and old woman who lived in the mountains.  They always went with one another.  The old man went to get a bunch of branches every day, and the old woman went to wash their clothes in the river.  While she was washing them, something came to her in the river.  It was a huge peach.  Although she was surprised at it, she took it home in a hurry.  Then, she told her husband about it.  They decided to cut it eventually, but as it was so hard, they couldn't cut it.  They tried to cut it again.  The huge peach was cut at last.  They were really surprised at it because a small boy came out of the broken peach.  He was really cute and small.  They decided to bring him up.  They didn't have any children.  As he ate a lot, he grew well.  After three months, he was taller than both the old man and the old woman.  The boy, whose name was Momotaro, heard from them about a devil.  The devil sometimes appeared at their town, and he killed people.  After a year, Momotaro was already an adult.  He was strong enough to fight with the devil.
   Then, he began his struggle to kill the devil.  He had much Kibidango, which is made from egg, to get power.  On the way to go to kill the devil, he got friends, a big bird, a big dog, and a big monkey.  They went to kill the devil while singing.  They found the devil but he was really strong.  At that time, Momotaro ate some more Kibidango, and got really strong power.  His friends, the bird, dog, and monkey, cooperated with im, and they killed the devil at last.
  He went back home.  The old man and woman were waiting for him.  They were really glad to see him again.  Then they lived together forever, happily and peacefully.

Draemon

Once upon a time, a boy lived in a small town.  His name was Nobita.  He was very weak, so he was always teased by bullies.
   One day, when he got up in the morning, his drawer opened suddenly and he said, "I'm Draemon.  I intend to help you life because my master is your grandchild; he is always talking to you.  Nobita couldn't believe it.  But a few days later they became friends and his life was happy and successful.  It continued for a long time.
   "Hey dad, look at Nobita.  He smiled!"  said Nobita's mother in the hospital.  Nobita was very sick.  He hadn't moved in his life.  But this story was Nobita's dream!

The Bird

Long long ago, an aunt and uncle were living in a small house.  The uncle went to the mountain, because the uncle needed more small trees.  In the mountain, a bird was caught.  The uncle looked at the bird and the uncle thought he would help the bird.  This uncle was a very good man.  The bird was glad, so this bird thought of a gift for the uncle.  So the bird gave clothes to the uncle.  The uncle was very happy, because they were poor, so they couldn't buy many clothes.  It was winter.  It was very cold.  The uncle said, "Thank you very much,"  and he wanted the bird to live with him.  But the bird said, "No, because I am a bird, I can't live with you."  The uncle was sad.  Three days later, the uncle went to the mountain again, but the uncle couldn't find the bird, so he gave up looking for him.
 
   -Satoshi

There was a nice, kind and honest man a long time ago.  He was not rich, but had never complained about it.
   One day, he found a crane which had been hurt in the leg.  He tended to it until it recovered.  After that, he let it go.
   A few days later, a lady came over to his house.  She told him that she was a traveler and was looking for a place where she could stay the night.  He decided to let her stay at his house.  Moreover, he fell in love with her right away.
   She stayed there a few weeks.  EVery night she wove on a loom by herself in a room, and advised him not to open the door and not to watch.  Every morning, she made him sell what she had made, to earn money, and he was getting rich.  However, he wanted to know about it, out of curiosity, and then he opened the door one night finally.  To his surprise, she was the crane he had saved, and was weaving on the loom, using her own feathers.  The crane told him that it had come to repay his kindness, and it left.

   -Kazumi Nakada

A Mujina

Oct.-Dec. 1996

Long, long ago there was a lonely slope in the city of Edo.  People stayed away from the slope at night, because a Mujina lived there.

   This is a story about the Mujina.  One night at a late hour, and old man was hurring up the slope.  Then he saw a woman under a tree.  She was sitting alone, and crying, "Why is she crying here at this late hour?"  he wondered.  "She looks like a young girl."  He went up to her and said, "What's the matter?  Why are you crying?"  But the girl did not answer.  She was covering her face with one of her long sleeves.  "This is not a place for a young girl at night!  Don't cry, please!"  Slowly she stood up, but she was still covering her face.  He put his left hand on her shoulder, and said again, "Please, don't cry!"  Then the young girl turned around, and dropped her sleeve.

    Look!  He was surprised.  She had no eyes, or nose, or mouth.  He cried out and ran away.  He ran and ran up the slope.  And at last he saw a light far away.  The light was from a soba, or Japanese noodle, stand.  The old man ran up to the stand, and the feet of the soba man.  "Did anyone hurt you?"  "Oh, no!"  said the old man.  "I saw a woman; her face had no eyes, no nose and no mouth."  "Well, was her face like this?" asked the soba man.  He stroked his face.  Then his face became like an egg.  And, at the same time, the light went out.

   -Keiko Shimizu

The Rice Cake that Rolled Away

Long ago, a kind old man and woman lived in a small village in Japan.  They were helping each other to make rice cakes.  Suddenly, one of the rice cakes rolled away and fell to the ground.
   When the old man saw this happen, he shouted and ran as fast as he could.  The rice cake disappeared into a little hole, so he also went inside.  The inside of the hole made him surprised because it was pretty large and roomy.
   When he blinked his eye and brushed the dirt from his clothes, and looked up, he was in front of the stone statue of Ojizo-sama.  He apologized to the Ojizo-sama, saying that he didn't know he had come to the Ojizo-sama, and he explained that the reason he came here was that he had been trying to catch the rice cake which had rolled away from his front porch.  He offered a rice cake to the Ojizo-sama.
   When the Ojizo-sama saw him and learned of his good nature, the Ojizo-sama ordered him to climb up on his lap.  The old man was surprised about the Ojizo-sama's words, so at first he hesitated to do that.
   But as the Ojizo-sama gave him orders continuously, and finally the old man got up on the Ojizo-sama's head.  The Ojizo-sama told him to wave the fan which Ojizo-sama gave him, and to crow like a cock when some gambler came to drink and gamble in front of the Ojizo-sama.  The old man did as the Ojizo-sama told him.
   Then, the gamblers ran away from the Ojizo-sama because they thought it was already morning.  They left behind all their gold.  The Ojizo-sama gave all the gold to the old man.
   When a greedy old man and woman next door heard about this story, the greedy old man did the same things with his wife.
   The greedy old man pushed a rice cake to the Ojizo-sama's shrine.  And he crowed like a cock when some gamblers came in front of the Ojizo-sama.
   Unfortunately, he was noticed by the gamblers, who dragged the greedy man and beat him with their fists.  He managed to go back to his house somehow, but he learned that he couldn't imitate his good neighbor.
   This story made me very interested because it is true that the greedy person will fail because of his bad character.  The Ojizo-sama knowing very well about both men's characters made me interested too.

   -Sakiko Fukuda

Kachi Kachi Mountain

Once upon a time, an old man and an old woman lived in a house that faced the mountains.  They grew some vegetables in the garden, but it was often ruined by a tanuki, a raccoon dog who lived on the mountain.  Since they were annoyed by the tanuki, they wanted to get rid of him.  One day, the old man set a trap, and he succeeded in catching the tanuki,  He returned home with the tanuki, and after a while, he went to the garden again.  Only the old woman stayed in the house with the tanuki.  He knew that the old woman was kind.  So he schemed to escape, and he deceived her.  He said, "I would never play a trick.  Please set me free."  She believed him and set him free, but the tanuki killed her.  When the old man returned, he found her, and he felt very sad.  While he was feeling sad, a rabbit came, and said, "Please don't be sad; I won't fail to revenge her."
   Another day, the rabbit asked the tanuki to carry firewood on his back.  When he carried that, the rabbit struck a fire with a flint, then the flint made the noise "kachi kachi."  The tanuki asked the rabbit, "What is that noise?"  "This is called Kachi Kachi Mountain.  Don't worry."  At last, the rabbit succeeded in setting a fire, and the tanuki was burned.
   Another day, the rabbit pretended to be another rabbit, and said to the tanuki, "Oh, you got terribly burned.  I have some good ointment, and I'll give it to you."  The tanuki put it on his back, and he felt sore.  In fact, it was not ointment but mustard.  The tanuki was very angry.
   On a different day, the rabbit pretended to be another rabbit again.  He made a wooden boat, and invited the tanuki to catch fish.  The rabbit advised the tanuki, "If you make a mud boat, you can catch many fish."  The tanuki believed that, and made a mud boat.  At the same time, they started catching fish; of course, the mud boat sank with the tanuki.
   The tanuki regretted what he did, and promised that he would never play another trick.
   Thanks to the rabbit, the old man could live in peace for a long time.
1996
   -Akiko Iwano

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A long long time ago, an old man went to the mountain to mow the grass, and an old woman washed clothes in the river.  By and by, a big peach was carried away from the other side of the river.  She picked it up and opened it.  There was a little boy in the big peach.  The boy was named Momotarou.  When he grew up, he heard that ogres, who had bad character, were threatening the village, so he went to the island of the ogres to exterminate them.  When he went there, the old woman gave millet dumplings to him.  While he was eating them, he met various animals who became his company; a monkey, a pheasant, and a dog.  They each asked him for a millet dumpling, and he gave each of them one in exchange for becoming his company.  He and they went to the island of ogres.  They finally won the battle after a tough fight.
1996
   -Mari Shibata, Japan

Kaguyahime (Kaguya-princess)

A long long time ago, there were an old man and an old woman.  One day the old man went to a clump of bamboo.  Then he heard a baby crying.  He looked toward the baby.  The baby was in the bamboo.  He cut the bamboo immediately, then he found a cute girl.  He said, "What a cute girl!"  So, he decided to take the baby to his house.
   He explained about this happening to his wife.  They didn't have any children, so they decided to bring up this baby, and they named the baby "Kaguyahime."
   About three years later, the baby became a beautiful woman.  She was the pride of the old man and the old woman.  Then, some men heard about this beautiful woman, and they wanted to see her.
   One day, five men could meet Kaguyahime.  All of the guys said, "What a beautiful woman, and they wanted to see her.
   One day, five men could meet Kaguyahime.  All of the guys said, "What a beautiful woman she is!" and all of the guys wanted to marry her.  But Kaguyahime didn't want to marry any man, so she gave a difficult question to them.  If anyone could answer the question, that man could marry her.  All of the guys worked hard but they couldn't answer thee question.  Kaguyahime already knew that would happen.
   Kaguyahime had to say goodbye to her parents, because the time was drawing near that she had to go back to the moon.  Her parents were sad to hear that.
   At last Kaguyahime left these words:  "I'll never forget your kindness."  And she parted from her parents.

1996
-Makiko Kato

The Sparrow Whose Tongue was Cut

A long time ago, an old man and woman lived together.  One day, the old woman made paste and left it in a porch-like wooden floor outside a Japanese tongue.  The sparrow was crying.  Then a kind old man treated her.  She was grateful for his kindness.  She took the old man to her palace.  The location of her palace was a bamboo thicket.  The old man ate a gorgeous dinner, got drunk and watched the dancing of the sparrows.  He had a lot of fun.  When it was time to return to his house, the sparrow showed him two gifts.  One was big, the other was small.  The old man chose the small gift because he couldn't do heavy work.  The old man returned to his house with the small gift and he told the old woman everything.  The small gift was a very good thing, money and clothes.  As the old woman was greedy, she was angry at his behavior.  She said, "Why didn't you choose the big gift?"  She went to the palace of sparrows.  And she did like the old man did.  The sparrow showed her two gifts.  She chose the big gift right away.  She returned to her house.  She opened the big gift.  The contents were garbage.
1996
-Chieko

Issun-Boushi (One Inch Boy)

Long, long ago, there lived an old man and his wife in a village.  They had no children so they prayed to God to give them a baby every day.  One day, to their surprise, they were endowed with a small boy whose height was one inch.  They named him "Issun-boushi" - One Inch Boy.  They loved him and treated him like a treasure, so One Inch Boy grew up strong; however, he couldn't become a tall boy.
   One day, he said "Father and mother, please give me a needle, a straw, a bowl and a chopstick".  "What are you going to do with them?" his mother asked.  "A needle is a sword, a straw is a sheath, a bowl is a boat, and a chopstick is an oar. I'll go to the capital city and become a samurai", he said.  His parents let him; therefore he left the city.
   He hopped into the bowl and arrived at the river, then went down the river like an arrow.  Then a fish attacked him, so he drove the fish away with the chopstick.  The fish mistook him for a tasty food.  Then he was thrown by a wave, whipped by rain, and blew by wind.  At last, he made it to the city.
   He decided to work for a wealthy man's house after he arrived at the city.  One day he went to a shrine with the wealthy man's beautiful daugher.  Halfway, they met a big demon.  The demon was going to kidnap her.  One Inch Boy stood up to the demon bravely.  "Bad demon!  If you touch her, I'll kill you!"
   "Insolent boy!  I'll eat you!"  the demon said and quickly swallowed him down.  Then, "ouch!....ouch!"  The dmeon felt pain.  One Inch Boy pricked him with  the sword of needle in his stomach.  "Oouch! ... I'll die.  I'll give up.  Help me!"  The demon vomited him out and ran like a rabbit.
   "Thank you so much for helping me, said the princess.  "You are so small but so brave.  Look!  The demon has dropped something.  This is an uchide-no-kezuchi - mallet of luck.  If we shake this, we can get anything we hope for.  What do you hope?"
   "I'd like to be tall.  Please make me a tall boy."  She shook it; therefore he rapidly became a tall young man.  Moreover, he married her and became a neat samurai as he had wished.

   -Eriko

Urashima Tarou

One day, a young man found that a turtle was being persecuted by children and helped it.  The turtle thanked him and invited him to a castle in the sea.  Tehre were many beautiful fish and beautiful princess.  The man enjoyed dancing and eating good food, but the princess told him to go back to shore as soon as possible and gave him a box.  She found that many years had passed and that all of his acquaintances had grown old because the time had passed much faster in the castle than on shore.  He felt very sad and opened the box.  Then smoke came from the box and covered him, and suddenly became old.  So, he lived with his friends and became happy.

"End"

   -Hajime

One day a monkey and a crab were under a persimmon tree.  Both the monkey and the mother crab wanted to eat persimmons.
   "I will pick one for you," the monkey said  He climbed the tree.  After that he threw the hard persimmons to the crab.  One hit her and she died.  After it hit her, many babies were born.  The monkey left the tree.
   "What happened?" said the babies.
   A piece of mortar, some chestnuts, and some bees came near the babies.  "Why are you crying" said the mortar, the chestnuts, and the bees.
   "The monkey killed my mother," said the babies.
   "Let's get revenge on the monkey," said the mortar.
   They went to the old house.
   "We'll hide in the fire," said the chestnuts.
   "We'll hide in a pail," the bees said.
   "I'll hide on the roof," said the mortar.
   A few minutes later the monkey came to the house to rest.  He sat near the fireplace.  And then, the chestnuts jumped on the monkey.  He got burnt.  He went to the pail.  Many bees came to the monkey.  He opened the door to escape from the house.  The mortar fell down on him.  Finally many baby crabs came to poke at him.
   "Why did you kill our mother.  Don't do that any more," said the babies.

   -Akira Tomii