Japanese Fairy Tales
pointing to the shinansha could find his way and directed the army
without a single mistake. He closely pursued the rebel army and drove
them backward till they came to a big river. This river Kotei and his
men found was swollen by the floods and impossible to cross.
Shiyu by using his magic art quickly passed over with his army and shut
himself up in a fortress on the opposite bank.
When Kotei found his march checked he was wild with disappointment, for
he had very nearly overtaken the rebel when the river stopped him.
He could do nothing, for there were no boats in those days, so the
Emperor ordered his tent to be pitched in the pleasantest spot that the
place afforded.
One day he stepped forth from his tent and after walking about for a
short time he came to a pond. Here he sat down on the bank and was lost
in thought.
It was autumn. The trees growing along the edge of the water were
shedding their leaves, which floated hither and thither on the surface
of the pond. By and by, Kotei’s attention was attracted to a spider on
the brink of the water. The little insect was trying to get on to one
of the floating leaves near by. It did so at last, and was soon
floating over the water to the other side of the pond.
This little incident made the clever Emperor think that he might try to
make something that could carry himself and his men over the river in
the same way that the leaf had carried over the spider. He set to work
and persevered till he invented the first boat. When he found that it
was a success he set all his men to make more, and in time there were
enough boats for the whole army.
Kotei now took his army across the river, and attacked Shiyu’s
headquarters. He gained a complete victory, and so put an end to the
war which had troubled his country for so long.
This wise and good Emperor did not rest till he had secured peace and
prosperity throughout his whole land. He was beloved by his subjects,
who now enjoyed their happiness of peace for many long years under him.
He spent a great deal of time in making inventions which would benefit
his people, and he succeeded in many besides the boat and the South
Pointing shinansha.
He had reigned about a hundred years when one day, as Kotei was looking
upwards, the sky became suddenly red, and something came glittering
like gold towards the earth. As it came nearer Kotei saw that it was a
great Dragon. The Dragon approached and bowed down its head before the
Emperor. The Empress and the courtiers were so frightened that they ran
away screaming.
But the Emperor only smiled and called to them to stop, and said:
“Do not be afraid. This is a messenger from Heaven. My time here is
finished!” He then mounted the Dragon, which began to ascend towards
the sky.
When the Empress and the courtiers saw this they all cried out
together:
“Wait a moment! We wish to come too.” And they all ran and caught hold
of the Dragon’s beard and tried to mount him.
But it was impossible for so many people to ride on the Dragon. Several
of them hung on to the creature’s beard so that when it tried to mount
the hair was pulled out and they fell to the ground.
Meanwhile the Empress and a few of the courtiers were safely seated on
the Dragon’s back. The Dragon flew up so high in the heavens that in a
short time the inmates of the Palace, who had been left behind
disappointed, could see them no more.
After some time a bow and an arrow dropped to the earth in the
courtyard of the Palace. They were recognized as having belonged to the
Emperor Kotei. The courtiers took them up carefully and preserved them
as sacred relics in the Palace.
THE ADVENTURES OF KINTARO, THE GOLDEN BOY
Long, long ago there lived in Kyoto a brave soldier named Kintoki. Now
he fell in love with a beautiful lady and married her. Not long after
this, through the malice of some of his friends, he fell into disgrace
at Court and was dismissed. This misfortune so preyed upon his mind
that he did not long survive his dismissal—he died, leaving behind him
his beautiful young wife to face the world alone. Fearing her husband’s
enemies, she fled to the Ashigara Mountains as soon as her husband was
dead, and there in the lonely forests where no one ever came except
woodcutters, a little boy was born to her. She called him Kintaro or
the Golden Boy. Now the remarkable thing about this child was his great
strength, and as he grew older he grew stronger and stronger, so that
by the time he was eight years of age he was able to cut down trees as
quickly as the woodcutters. Then his mother gave him a large ax, and he
used to go out in the forest and help the woodcutters, who called him
“Wonder-child,” and his mother the “Old Nurse of the Mountains,” for
they did not know her high rank. Another favorite pastime of Kintaro’s
was to smash up rocks and stones. You can imagine how strong he was!
Quite unlike other boys, Kintaro, grew up all alone in the mountain
wilds, and as he had no companions he made friends with all the animals
and learned to understand them and to speak their strange talk. By
degrees they all grew quite tame and looked upon Kintaro as their
master, and he used them as his servants and messengers. But his
special retainers were the bear, the deer, the monkey and the hare.
The bear often brought her cubs for Kintaro to romp with, and when she
came to take them home Kintaro would get on her back and have a ride to
her cave. He was very fond of the deer too, and would often put his
arms round the creature’s neck to show that its long horns did not
frighten him. Great was the fun they all had together.
One day, as usual, Kintaro went up into the mountains, followed by the
bear, the deer, the monkey, and the hare. After walking for some time
up hill and down dale and over rough roads, they suddenly came out upon
a wide and grassy plain covered with pretty wild flowers.
Here, indeed, was a nice place where they could all have a good romp
together. The deer rubbed his horns against a tree for pleasure, the
monkey scratched his back, the hare smoothed his long ears, and the
bear gave a grunt of satisfaction.
Kintaro said, “Here is a place for a good game. What do you all say to
a wrestling match?”
The bear being the biggest and the oldest, answered for the others:
“That will be great fun,” said she. “I am the strongest animal, so I
will make the platform for the wrestlers;” and she set to work with a
will to dig up the earth and to pat it into shape.
“All right,” said Kintaro, “I will look on while you all wrestle with
each other. I shall give a prize to the one who wins in each round.”
“What fun! we shall all try to get the prize,” said the bear.
The deer, the monkey and the hare set to work to help the bear raise
the platform on which they were all to wrestle. When this was finished,
Kintaro cried out:
“Now begin! the monkey and the hare shall open the sports and the deer
shall be umpire. Now, Mr. Deer, you are to be umpire!”
“He, he!” answered the deer. “I will be umpire. Now, Mr. Monkey and Mr.
Hare, if you are both ready, please walk out and take your places on
the platform.”
Then the monkey and the hare both hopped out, quickly and nimbly, to
the wrestling platform. The deer, as umpire, stood between the two and
called out:
“Red-back! Red-back!” (this to the monkey, who has a red back in
Japan). “Are you ready?”
Then he turned to the hare:
“Long-ears! Long-ears! are you ready?”
Both the little wrestlers faced each other while the deer raised a leaf
on high as signal. When he dropped the leaf the monkey and the hare
rushed upon each other, crying “Yoisho, yoisho!”
While the monkey and the hare wrestled, the deer called out
encouragingly or shouted warnings to each of them as the hare or the
monkey pushed each other near the edge of the platform and were in
danger of falling over.
“Red-back! Red-back! stand your ground!” called out the deer.
“Long-ears! Long-ears! be strong, be strong—don’t let the monkey beat
you!” grunted the bear.
So the monkey and the hare, encouraged by their friends, tried their
very hardest to beat each other. The hare at last gained on the monkey.
The monkey seemed to trip up, and the hare giving him a good push sent
him flying off the platform with a bound.
The poor monkey sat up rubbing his back, and his face was very long as
he screamed angrily. “Oh, oh! how my back hurts—my back hurts me!”
Seeing the monkey in this plight on the ground, the deer holding his
leaf on high said:
“This round is finished—the hare has won.”
Kintaro then opened his luncheon box and taking out a rice-dumpling,
gave it to the hare saying:
“Here is your prize, and you have earned, it well!”
Now the monkey got up looking very cross, and as they say in Japan “his
stomach stood up,” for he felt that he had not been fairly beaten. So
he said to Kintaro and the others who were standing by:
“I have not been fairly beaten. My foot slipped and I tumbled. Please
give me another chance and let the hare wrestle with me for another
round.”
Then Kintaro consenting, the hare and the monkey began to wrestle
again. Now, as every one knows, the monkey is a cunning animal by
nature, and he made up his mind to get the best of the hare this time
if it were possible. To do this, he thought that the best and surest
way would be to get hold of the hare’s long ear. This he soon managed
to do. The hare was quite thrown off his guard by the pain of having
his long ear pulled so hard, and the monkey seizing his opportunity at
last, caught hold of one of the hare’s legs and sent him sprawling in
the middle of the dais. The monkey was now the victor and received, a
rice-dumpling from Kintaro, which pleased him so much that he quite
forgot his sore back.
The deer now came up and asked the hare if he felt ready for another
round, and if so whether he would try a round with him, and the hare
consenting, they both stood up to wrestle. The bear came forward as
umpire.
The deer with long horns and the hare with long ears, it must have been
an amusing sight to those who watched this queer match. Suddenly the
deer went down on one of his knees, and the bear with the leaf on high
declared him beaten. In this way, sometimes the one, sometimes the
other, conquering, the little party amused themselves till they were
tired.
At last Kintaro got up and said:
“This is enough for to-day. What a nice place we have found for
wrestling; let us come again to-morrow. Now, we will all go home. Come
along!” So saying, Kintaro led the way while the animals followed.
After walking some little distance they came out on the banks of a
river flowing through a valley. Kintaro and his four furry friends
stood and looked about for some means of crossing. Bridge there was
none. The river rushed “don, don” on its way. All the animals looked
serious, wondering how they could cross the stream and get home that
evening.
Kintaro, however, said:
“Wait a moment. I will make a good bridge for you all in a few
minutes.”
The bear, the deer, the monkey and the hare looked at him to see what
he would do now.
Kintaro went from one tree to another that grew along the river bank.
At last he stopped in front of a very large tree that was growing at
the water’s edge. He took hold of the trunk and pulled it with all his
might, once, twice, thrice! At the third pull, so great was Kintaro’s
strength that the roots gave way, and “meri, meri” (crash, crash), over
fell the tree, forming an excellent bridge across the stream.
“There,” said Kintaro, “what do you think of my bridge? It is quite
safe, so follow me,” and he stepped across first. The four animals
followed. Never had they seen any one so strong before, and they all
exclaimed: