Japanese Folktales Research Articles

Animal Tricksters from Japanese Folktales in Angela Carter’s Work

AbstractThis article explores the role of Japanese folktales in Angela Carter’s oeuvre, focusing especially on the figure of the Japanese fox trickster that appears in Fireworks, Love, and The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman. In these works, the shape-shifting body of the East-Asian fox becomes a site of conflict between contrasting categories (male/female, European/Asian, human/animal) and mirrors the process by which the characters are turned into commodified, fictionalized representations of gender and race. The trickster’s ability to shift across the animal–human border also provides Carter with a narrative device to interrogate the cultural boundaries that define both sexuality and humanity (as opposed to bestiality)—a topic that prefigures her critique of patriarchal and anthropocentric hierarchies in The Bloody Chamber.

Page to Stage: An Empirical Study of Foreign Language Learning (FLL) and Motivation Through Playwriting, Readers Theatre, and Stage Production

This article describes a set of lessons used in a university EFL course and presents empirical, classroom-based research. The set of lessons, Page to Stage, was designed to teach English through the use of drama, dramatic activities, and theatre production—more specifically: dramatic adaptation of Japanese folktales, playwriting, readers theatre, and the rehearsal, memorization, and performance of original, student-written plays. At the end of the lesson and course, students were surveyed on their beliefs regarding the lesson’s effects on their motivation, level of English, use of prosody, and confidence when speaking in public. The students’ enjoyment of certain aspects of the lesson as well as the lesson as a whole was also surveyed. Results showed that the students saw self-improvement along all points, while they feel that their motivation and use of prosody improved most. Regarding enjoyment, students most enjoyed (from most enjoyable to least enjoyable) watching other students perform, working together in groups, using Japanese folktales as reference for the playwriting, the readers theatre, the final performance, and playwriting. Students least enjoyed memorizing the scripts in preparation for the final performances. Based on the results, a case is made for the benefits of drama, readers theatre, and theatre production in the EFL classroom.

Cover Feature: Bioinspired Transformations Using Strictosidine Aglycones: Divergent Total Syntheses of Monoterpenoid Indole Alkaloids in the Early Stage of Biosynthesis (Chem. Eur. J. 10/2022)

Strictosidine is an important molecule in the biosynthesis of higher plants that gives rise to a great variety of structures. A series of bioinspired transformations that are applied to convert strictosidine aglycones into monoterpenoid indole alkaloids is reported. In this image, the strictosidine aglycon is depicted as a gavel that produces treasure in Japanese folktales to represent the production of various natural products from a single molecule. The natural products produced in this study will be very useful as a library for drug discovery. More information can be found in the Research Article by J. Sakamoto and H. Ishikawa (DOI: 10.1002/chem.202104052).

Story Units of the Types of Japanese Folktales and the Combination with a Noun Conceptual Dictionary

Story Units of the Types of Japanese Folktales and the Combination with a Noun Conceptual Dictionary

Japanese Legends and Folklore: Samurai Tales, Ghost Stories, Legends, Fairy Tales, Myths, and Historical Accounts by A. B. Mitford, and: Japanese Folktales: Classic Stories from Japan's Enchanted Past by Yei Theodora Ozaki

Reviewed by: Japanese Legends and Folklore: Samurai Tales, Ghost Stories, Legends, Fairy Tales, Myths, and Historical Accounts by A. B. Mitford, and: Japanese Folktales: Classic Stories from Japan's Enchanted Past by Yei Theodora Ozaki Mayako Murai (bio) Japanese Legends and Folklore: Samurai Tales, Ghost Stories, Legends, Fairy Tales, Myths, and Historical Accounts. By A. B. Mitford. With a new foreword by Michael Dylan Foster, Tuttle, 2019, 320 pp. Japanese Folktales: Classic Stories from Japan's Enchanted Past. Compiled by Yei Theodora Ozaki. With a new foreword by Lucy Fraser, Tuttle, 2018, 253 pp. Originally published in 1871, Algernon Bertram Mitford's Japanese Legends and Folklore: Samurai Tales, Ghost Stories, Legends, Fairy Tales, Myths, and Historical Accounts remains an important collection of traditional narratives and historical records of Japan. Mitford was a British diplomat who was sent to Japan in 1866, when Japan was going through a radical political, economic, and cultural transformation under pressure from Western powers. As the subtitle of the book indicates, it is a miscellaneous collection of literary texts for adults: folktales, legends, myths, and his own eyewitness accounts of traditional customs. As Michael Dylan Foster states in the new foreword, Mitford's collection, which opens with the still popular historical Samurai vendetta "The Forty-Seven Rōnins," as Mitford calls it, and closes with appendixes that include his detailed description of an instance of the Samurai practice of ritual disembowelment that he witnessed, is "chock full of swordplay and other forms of violence" that he "is guilty of romanticizing" (7). To those interested in fairy-tale studies, the significance of this collection lies in its inclusion of tales and legends about yōkai monsters and shape-shifting animals, such as "The Vampire Cat of Nabēshima," "The Grateful Foxes," and "The Accomplished and Lucky Tea-Kettle," that he first introduced to Western readers and that continue to capture the imaginations of children and adults across cultures. As Forster points out, Mitford's emphasis on folklore was in line with the rising scholarly interest in oral narrative tradition in late nineteenth-century Britain and heralded the later work of such Western writers and scholars as Lafcadio Hearn and Basil Hall Chamberlain that came to overshadow Mitford's collection of Japanese tales. As Forster rightly claims, this book is still relevant today "not only because of the stories it tells of old Japan but also because of what it reveals of old England" (8). I would add that it is valuable because "what it reveals of old England" still at least partly applies to the orientalizing gaze often cast on Japanese culture today, as exemplified by the romanticized images of Samurai and hara-kiri that continue to be reimagined in various fields such as film, gaming, and travel marketing. Although there is some overlap in their selections of tales, including "The Tongue-Cut Sparrow," "The Adventures of Little Peach Boy," and "The Story of the Old Man Who Made Withered Trees to Blossom," Yei Theodora Ozaki's Japanese Fairy Tales: Classic Stories from Japan's Enchanted Past, which consists of twenty-two fairy tales and sixty-six illustrations, contrasts with Mitford's collection in several important ways. Originally published in 1903, Ozaki's [End Page 328] collection became immediately popular in Britain and North America. Ozaki was born in London in 1870 to a Japanese baron and an English woman who taught him English while he was studying in London. Ozaki moved to Japan to live with her father at the age of seventeen and, after finishing school, made her living as an English teacher and a secretary. Ozaki states in the preface that the fairy tales in this collection were translated mostly from the modern literary fairy-tale collection published by Sazanami Iwaya (she refers to him by one of his pennames, Sazanami Sanjin, mis-transliterated by her as Sadanami Sanjin), which was the most influential collection in Japan at the time. As Lucy Fraser points out in the foreword, Iwaya is often regarded as the founder of modern children's literature in Japan and was also one of the first translators of the fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen. Iwaya's...

Implementing the Story Units of Japanese Folktales by Using a Verb Conceptual Dictionary

Implementing the Story Units of Japanese Folktales by Using a Verb Conceptual Dictionary

A MUSICAL DRAMA BASED ON FOLK TALES BY JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL SPECIAL NEEDS STUDENTS

This paper discusses a musical drama based on Japanese folk tales presented by a junior high school special needs class and how these activities related to a community music therapy that promotes cultural growth in the local community. The results clarified two points. First, a musical drama that utilized the musical resources and local resources of special needs class students created relationships between regular class students, teachers, and local people, and empowered special needs class students. Second, the knowledge gained from community music therapy is also useful for inclusive education-oriented activities.

Implementing Story Units of Japanese Folktales with Conceptual Dictionaries

Implementing Story Units of Japanese Folktales with Conceptual Dictionaries

Восприятие ценностей, заложенных в японской сказке, англоязычной аудиторией

The paper identifies the problems the English-speaking readers come across when perceiving cultural meanings and values imparted in the Japanese folk tale. Scientific originality of the study is conditioned by the fact that the researcher analyses the value component of the Japanese folk tales, which has not been previously investigated, and also by the fact that cultural meanings of the Japanese tale are for the first time considered in the comparative aspect. The author shows how these values are representted in the English translation and reveals the factors that complicate their perception among the English-speaking audience. The conducted research allows concluding that problems in perceiving the translated Japanese tales can be divided into two categories: more evident lexico-grammatical and deeper ones, sociocultural. Due to linguistic and cultural reasons, some cultural meanings of the original text are not perceived by the English-speaking audience.

Yamaubamotívumok értelmezése a japán népmesékben és legendákban

This article discusses popular yamauba motifs and themes in Japanese legends and folk tales. Yamauba, the Japanese witch, is one of the well-known figures of Japanese folklore. It belongs to the world of monsters and spirits called yōkai 妖怪 that inhabit Japanese myths and legends and that have been explained as personifications of supernatural phenomena originally venerated as deities. A close examination of yamauba motifs shows that yamauba, too, is linked with ancient beliefs regarding fertility and agricultural production as well as with the cult of sacred mountains. In its various appearances, the yamauba, like many other Japanese yōkai, is distinguished by a double character ranging from a fearful monster bringing misfortune to humans to a spirit bringing good luck to those who help her. An analysis of Japanese folk tales thus offers insights into the deeper layers of traditional Japanese folk culture and belief.

Utagawa Hiroshige and New Year's Eve Foxfires at Nettle Tree, Ōji from NATURE/SUPERNATURE: Visions of This World and Beyond in Japanese Woodblock Prints

Utagawa Hiroshige and New Year's Eve Foxfires at Nettle Tree, Ōji from NATURE/SUPERNATURE: Visions of This World and Beyond in Japanese Woodblock Prints Meher McArthur (bio) Click for larger view View full resolution Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858) New Year's Eve Foxfires at Nettle Tree, Ōji, no. 118 from the series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo. Edo period (1603–1868), 1857. Full-color woodblock print, ink on paper 13 ¼ in. x 8 ⅝ in. (33.65 cm. x 21.91 cm.). Scripps College Collection, Gift of Mrs. James W. Johnson, 46.1.108. Meher McArthur is Art and Cultural Director, JAPAN HOUSE Los Angeles and the curator of NATURE/SUPERNATURE: Visions of This World and Beyond in Japanese Woodblock Prints (February 15, 2021–May 31, 2021). Image courtesy of Scripps College, Claremont, CA. [End Page 154] The Japanese have long believed that spiritual or supernatural beings inhabit nature and have a profound impact on human life. Depending on how humans behave toward nature and each other, these forces can be benign or destructive. In the late Edo (1603–1868) and Meiji (1868–1912) periods, natural landscapes and the spiritual beings inhabiting them became popular themes in woodblock prints. Such prints were the focus of NATURE/SUPERNATURE: Visions of This World and Beyond in Japanese Woodblock Prints, an exhibition held at JAPAN HOUSE Los Angeles from February to May 2021. The exhibition featured two main groups of supernatural beings: kami and yōkai. Broadly speaking, kami are spiritual beings that reside in particular places and elements of nature and control nature. Respecting the kami by worshipping them at shrines, offering them food and drink and holding festivals in their honor ensures their support and protection, while dishonor and neglect can invite natural disasters. Yōkai are also thought to impact people's lives in both positive and negative ways. These "mysterious apparitions" can be shape-shifting animals, trickster spirits, ghosts, demons, or monsters. In many Japanese folk tales and legends, careless or cruel behavior toward other humans, animals, and nature can bring about wicked, destructive yōkai (such as demons, angry ghosts, and monsters), while kindness is rewarded by these creatures. In Japanese folklore, foxes (kitsune) are associated with the kami of the rice harvest, but they can also be yōkai attributed with supernatural powers like shapeshifting, bewitching, and possession. In Japanese texts from the early 700s, foxes were described as benign and auspicious. They were spotted in the rice fields catching the mice who eat the rice, so were seen as protectors of the rice crop—even rice deities. Soon after, they were considered messengers of Inari, the kami of the rice harvest, and at shrines to Inari, the presence of the deity is suggested by stone statues of foxes. At some point during the Heian period (794–1185), tales of wicked foxes, who trick, bewitch, and possess [End Page 155] men were introduced into Japan from Chinese and Korean lore, adding complexity to the character of the kitsune. In this print, New Year's Eve Foxfires at Nettle Tree, Ōji by Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858), we see foxes gathering under a tree at nighttime. The print is from the series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, designed during the final two years of the artist's life. The prints spotlighted popular places in the capital city Edo (modern Tokyo) and often featured details relating to traditional beliefs and practices. Here, Hiroshige portrays the natural landscape at Ōji in northern Edo, a site associated with Inari. Many Edoites visited the large Inari Shrine at Ōji in the springtime to pray for an abundant harvest in the fall. Since wealth was measured in units of rice during the Edo period, the deity also became the god of financial prosperity. Tradition also held that on New Year's Eve, sacred foxes from all regions gathered under the nettle tree at Ōji. These foxes were believed to carry torches in their mouths creating kitsune-bi, or "fox fires." Local farmers predicted the success of the coming year's crops by the brightness of these fires. In this particular print, Hiroshige imagines the mysterious atmosphere of a gathering of sacred foxes...

Repackaging Japanese Culture: The Digitalization of Folktales in the Pokémon Franchise

Pokémon is arguably one of the most enduring brands in Japanese pop culture. As of March 2014 the Pokémon video game franchise alone has sold more than 260 million units worldwide (Lien, 2014). The Pokémon series has been the most well known game that the Nintendo Game Boy series has ever produced and marketed internationally. This study looks at Pokémon as a cultural product. Information contained in the Pokédex, an electronic encyclopedia of Pokémon found in the game points to the use of Japanese folklore as inspiration for some of the Pokémon released. There is an intricate give and take in the process of telling and retelling of folktales that is argued to be present even in its currently newer forms. This study explores the digitalization of folklore by looking at the incorporation of Japanese folktales into the Pokémon video game. Looking at how folkloric motifs were integrated in the creation of these pocket monsters inhabiting the world of Pokémon points to the importance of the Japanese folklore in the character designs. These folklore motifs infused in the game characters, and the world itself gives the franchise a Japanese cultural flavor which, as pointed out by other authors like Allison, make the experience more enjoyable (2003, p. 384). As such, this study looks at how the Pokémon franchise fuses socio-cultural elements in the creation Pokémon’s individual and unique pocket monsters. In effect, these new game creatures called Pokémon become new conduits by which old Japanese folktales are revisited, revised, and ultimately renewed. More importantly, it becomes one important avenue in the creation and proliferation of a Japanese cultural identity that is marketed abroad. It is argued that Pokémon is indeed a new medium where Japanese folklore has been appropriated and digitalized. According to Iwabuchi, influence of products of different cultures on everyday life cannot be culturally neutral. Instead, they inevitably carry cultural imprints called “cultural odor.” In terms of cultural odor, this makes Pokémon Japanese in fragrance. The creation of these newly formed folklore is a dynamic interaction between Japanese culture, the technology they are coursed through and gameplay as a form of performance by the consumers. The whole franchise now serves as a digital archive for folkloric beings that influenced directly or indirectly their creation. This resulted in enabling participative interaction between folklore and the individual. For international consumers, they also potentially serve as entryway into picking up an interest and learning more about Japanese culture. More than the ukiyo-e paintings and monster catalogs that proliferated during the Edo Period, Pokémon has fleshed out these folklore motifs and has put them at the front and center through their games, allowing for players to interact with and bond with them in an ever expanding virtual space called the Pokémon world.

Dogs, Gods, and Monsters: The Animal–Human Connection in Bakin’s Hakkenden, Folktales and Legends, and Two Contemporary Retellings

ABSTRACTKyokutei Bakin’s epic novel Nansō Satomi Hakkenden (Chronicle of the Eight Dogs of the Satomi Clan of Nansō; 106 volumes, 1814–42) tells of the adventures of eight human warriors who inherit the spirit of a mysterious dog. Popular during its own day, it has enjoyed countless retellings on the stage, screen, and page. This article compares the shifting representations of dog–human interactions in Bakin’s text with its antecedents in Chinese legend and Japanese folktales, and with two recent retellings: Sakuraba Kazuki’s novel Fuse: Gansaku Satomi Hakkenden (Fuse: A Counterfeit Chronicle of the Eight Dogs of the Satomi Clan, 2010) and its animated-film adaptation, Fuse: Teppō musume no torimonochō (Fuse: A Tale of a Girl with a Hunting Gun, dir. Miyaji Masayuki, 2012). Contemporary retellings confirm the cultural staying power of the strange tradition of stories about marriages between humans and dogs. In the film adaptation, some of Sakuraba’s more imaginative twists on animal–human relationships have been supplanted by global young-adult-fiction conventions such as ‘beastly’ boys and girls who save them. This is a return to the holy bride of Bakin’s novel and the self-sacrificing animal wives of other folktales.

Night and the Japanese Fairy Tale

Time, and particularly night, in folktales can be approached from various perspectives. In the present study, we shall see time in its structural function and will analyze the protagonist’s experience of time, as well as the “anthropic” nature of time and night as structural elements in fairy tales. We shall accomplish this by examining the theme of time, and particularly nighttime with its functions and characteristics, within the framework of the Japanese tale. We shall attempt to rethink the position of night and time in fairy tales as a motif, a background, a facilitator, and an opportunity that exists because of the human factor in the process of storytelling. The present study is based on the subgenre of ordinary folktales (also known as true folktales, or Zaubermärchen). The source material (59 tales out of the total 189 defined as “true”) can be found in volumes ii-vii of Seki Keigo’s Index of Japanese Folktales. All of the 59 tales that form the basis of this study are examined in regard to time, and conclusions are illustrated by a few selected examples. The time-motifs are discussed as originating from the storytelling process; as being part of the binomial world of the folktale; as illustrating the physical and psychological experience of time quantities and qualities; and as forming a framework that facilitates the relationships between the dramatis personae.

일본 소(牛) 관련 민담의 유형 및 서사구조-인간과 소의 관계 맺기 양상을 중심으로-

Japanese folktales that feature cows can be divided into those that describe the mutually beneficial relationship between humans and cows, and those that discuss cows from an ecological perspective. The former includes folklore, such as “Cows and Buddhism” and “Repenting as a Cow,” and the latter includes “The Origin of the Twelve Branches.” The reason cows are depicted as mythical creatures in “Cow and Avalokitesvara” is because the twelve animals that appear in Buddhist scriptures are believed to be akin to Buddha. Thus, it is believed that they deliver enlightenment to people. Kshitigarbha appears as a young monk in the “Cow and Kshitigarbha” because of the unique Japanese faith in Earth, where Kshitigarbha is considered to be a guardian bodhisattva for children. The image of a “boy riding a black cow” metaphorically depicts people whose nature is aligned with Buddhism, as described in the Ten Bulls. “Repenting as a cow” is a widespread folklore that is meant to teach people the value of hard work, life, and good deeds. In these folklores, cows are depicted in light of human laziness, disregard for the value of life, and evil deeds.

The Fate of a Materialistic Buddhist: A Cultural Editioin of "Jikininki" by Lafcadio Hearn

Lafcadio Hearn has written and adapted many Japanese folktales that explore religious and cultural traditions of the civilization. "Jikininki" tells the tale of a Buddhist priest who encounters a cursed, corpse-eating ghost. The authors examine the depiction of this corpse-devouring moster, its relation to teh cultural forces in rural Japan, and the representation of a fear of losing both the global Zen Buddhist and rural traditions through selfish mistreament and material desires.

Unconscious Structures in the Japanese Folk Tales Hebi No Yomeiri, Hato No Koukou, Tsuru No On’gaeshi, and Tanabata

This article analyzes four Japanese folk tales (myths) using the unconscious structures approach pioneered by Levi-Strauss to uncover the connections between these myths and the unconscious structures of the society that holds them. The first step is to find the outer structures of the four analyzed myths and analyze them both synchronically and diachronically to find their component mythemes. The second step is to analyze and identify the inner structures of these mythemes. These inner structures can then be refined into a series of binary oppositions. Subsequently, the structures of these myths are connected to ethnographic data of the Japanese people, thus producing transformations which indicate the unconscious structures under investigatie. This analysis shows there are oppositional logics centered around the concept of duty, a fundamental part of Japanese morality – opposition between “willingness” and “reluctance” as well as between “gimu”and “giri”. These oppositional logics are the unconscious structures of their reason for duty, rooted in the concept of “obeisance”.

Comparison between Korean and Japanese Folktales, Chibyeong Hwalin Keumcheok and Farmhand’s Dream Ⅰ - Focused on Chibyeong Hwalin Keumcheok

Comparison between Korean and Japanese Folktales, Chibyeong Hwalin Keumcheok and Farmhand’s Dream Ⅰ - Focused on Chibyeong Hwalin Keumcheok

A study on the Japanese folktales of aspects about humanbeing and dragon

A study on the Japanese folktales of aspects about humanbeing and dragon

Folktales and Other References in Toriyama’s Dragon Ball

The aim of this article is to show the relationship between Japanese folktales and Japanese anime as a genre, especially how the intertextuality with traditional tales and myth subvert its conventional use. To meet this goal, the author examines Toriyama’s successful Dragon Ball series, which has enjoyed continued popularity right from its first publication in the 1980s. The article analyses the parallelism between Dragon Ball and a classic Chinese novel, Journey to the West, its main source. However, there are many other references present in Dragon Ball that are connected to religion and folktales. The author illustrates this relationship with examples taken from the anime that correspond to traditional Japanese folklore but that are used with a subversive goal, which makes a rich source for analysis and for literary education.