Once Upon a Time in Japan. Japan Broadcasting Corporation NHK

      

      Once Upon Time in JAPAN

      Once Upon Time

       in Japan

      Translated by

       Roger Pulvers & Juliet Winters Carpenter

      Illustrated by

       Manami Yamada

       Tomonori Taniguchi

       Nao Takabatake &

       Takumi Nishio

      PUBLISHED IN COOPERATION WITH

       NHK JAPAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION

      TUTTLE Publishing

       Tokyo | Rutland, Vermont | Singapore

      Published by Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd.

       www.tuttlepublishing.com

      Copyright © 2015 by NHK Japan Broadcasting Corporation

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher.

      ISBN 978-4-8053-1359-6

       ISBN 978-1-4629-1726-6 (ebook)

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      Contents

       The Wife Who Never Eats

      translated by Roger Pulvers illustrated by Manami Yamada

       The Mill of the Sea

      translated by Roger Pulvers illustrated by Manami Yamada

       The Monkey and the Crabs

      translated by Roger Pulvers illustrated by Manami Yamada

       The Magical Hood

      translated by Roger Pulvers illustrated by Tomonori Taniguchi

       Sleepyhead Taro and the Children

      translated by Roger Pulvers illustrated by Nao Takabatake

       The Fox and the Otter

      translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter illustrated by Nao Takabatake

       The Gratitude of the Crane

      translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter illustrated by Takumi Nishio

       The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter

      translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter illustrated by Takumi Nishio

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      A Second Childhood BY ROGER PULVERS

      I have a very personal and nostalgic tie to stories such as the ones you have before you in this book. My wife, who is British-Australian, and I brought up our four children in Japan. They were born in Japan and we sent them to Japanese schools. Thanks to their reading and loving the Japanese folktales they were introduced to in their childhood, my wife and I were able to share the joys of reading them for the first time with them. It was as if we were having a second childhood ourselves, and a very Japanese one at that.

      But though I say “Japanese,” if you strip away those special elements that are tied to Japan—for instance, the myrtle grass bath in “The Wife Who Never Eats”—there is nothing in these stories that would prevent them from being set in almost any country in the world.

      In fact, these are moral tales of truly universal value. Their values transcend geography, era and ethnicity. Their themes appeal to us all. Greedy and selfish people are punished and the rewards for generosity and mercy are large. Cooperation and harmony among people are seen as great virtues.

      Japan is today a wealthy country, but for most of history its people lived very modest and frugal lives, depending on each other in order to create sufficient food to sustain themselves. While there is an abundance of water in Japan, rice farming depended upon people sharing and looking after water resources. One traditional expression for selfishness is gaden insui, which means “drawing all the water into your own rice paddy.” Nothing in the village was seen to be more despicable than this. It is the equivalent of the English expression “feathering your own nest” knowing