Mythology Blog

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 ...

Hello! Earlier in the semester I got to read one of the stories from the Japanese Mythology Unit and really enjoyed it. So, when it was on the list of options for this week I was excited to get more into it. So, I chose it for my part A reading. I think the neatest part about these stories is that they start out with the creation of the earth and the gods and then continue through time to explain the creation of humans, Emperors, and then stories of the Emperor Yamato. Out of all the stories I think that I enjoyed the stories of Yamato the best. At the beginning of his story, I liked it because there was something relatable about him dreaming of a beautiful mermaid and a cave that he never found after waking up. To me it reminded me of when you are having a great dream, you wake up, and although you try to remember what made you wake up feeling so happy, you can’t. It feels like if you just tried hard enough maybe you could find the memory, but you can’t. That is how I imag...