Reading Notes: Japanese Fairy Tales, Part B

Hi!

I missed the second reading for this week, so I am making it up today with these reading notes over Japanese fairy tales. This reading included three stories, one of and Ogre, a Goblin, and a Princess not unlike the story of Cinderella. All three of these are from Japanese Fairy Tales by Yei Theodora Ozaki, who is pictured above with her husband. Out of the three stories, I liked the story about the Princes Hase the best, so I took notes over that story specifically. Here are those notes.

The story of Princess Hase is told from a third person perspective. In the story there is very little dialogue. In fact, the only dialogue in the pieces, is that of the step-mother right before her poisoning attempt backfires and at the end when Hase’s father finds her hiding in the mountains. I think that this sparing use of dialogue at the worst and best point in the story is an interesting style choice that creased a stronger connection to the story at those points. I think that trying this out in a more emphasized manner could create a lot of suspense in a story, particularly one with a lot of action. Although this isn’t something I would base a whole story around I think that it would be something interesting to add into a story.

Another thing that I noticed about this story is its resemblance to the story of Cinderella as I mentioned before. In both stories an evil stepmother is mistreating the main character but papering her own children. I find it interesting that this is a theme that shows up in more than one culture and what that might say about people and our instincts surrounding offspring. Personally, I come from a family with lost of divorce and remarriage, but there always seems to be a lot of love for the children regardless of who birthed them and who didn’t. So, hearing stories like this, where the step-parent mistreats their step-child really makes my heart ache. Because of this, it might be nice to write a story where for once the step-mother loves her step children and is nice to them.

Bibliography

Japanese Fairy Tales by Yei Theodora Ozaki, with illustrations by Japanese artists (1905)

Photo Credit

[Yukio Ozaki, 1858-1954, head and shoulders portrait, facing left, and wife Yei Theodora (Ozaki) Ozaki. Mayor of Tokyo] from Amer. Press Assn., N.Y. via The Library of Congress

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