Reading Notes: Reading A: Japanese Fairy Tales

For this week’s reading, I chose the Japanese Fairy Tales retold by Yei Theodora Ozaki. The reading consisted of only three longer tales, instead of the usual eight to ten in the previous readings. In the first tale, My Lord Bag of Rice, the author does a great job describing the different scenes so that the reader can picture vivid images of the scenes on their own. The description of the dragon and the underwater palace are very detailed. I need to start adding better descriptions of the places my stories take place. In the second story, The Adventures of Kintaro, The Golden Boy, we learn about a strong young boy becoming a samurai. For Kintaro to become a samurai he goes to train in the Capital. The story only talks about Kintaro defeating one monster to prove that he is the “greatest hero of his country”. In most heroic stories the hero has to prove that he is the strongest by defeating multiple monsters. Stories could be added in of the different adventure that Kintaro has to go through in his beginning training as a samurai. And the third tale, The Story of the Man Who Did Not Wish to Die, was a classic tale about a man wanting to find the fountain of youth or the “Elixir of Life”. In the end, the man chooses not to look for it but instead live his life well but, what if he could find what was needed to have everlasting life. This storyline as many possibilities of going into the search for the fountain of youth.

A samurai warrior with his sword. Source: Wikipedia