Japanese Children's Favorite Stories Book 1 (7 page)

Little One-Inch

There was once a kindly couple who had no children. One day they went to a shrine and prayed for a baby, saying, "Oh, please give us a child. We want a child very badly."

On their way home from the shrine, they heard a tiny crying sound coming from a patch of grass. They looked in the grass, and there they found a tiny little baby boy, wrapped in a bright red blanket. "This child has come in answer to our prayers," they said. So they took the little baby home with them and raised him as their son.

Now this baby was so tiny that he wasn't as large as your thumb, and even as he grew older he stayed the same size. He was just about an inch tall, so the couple named him Little One-Inch.

One day, when he had grown older, Little One-Inch said to his mother and father, "Thank you very much for raising me so well. But now I must go out into the world and make my fortune."

The couple tried to keep him from leaving, saying he was too tiny to go out into the world. But Little One-Inch insisted, so finally they said, "All right, we'll help you get ready." And they gave him a needle to use for a sword, a rice bowl to use for a boat, and a chopstick to use for an oar.

Little One-Inch got in his boat and waved goodbye to his parents, promising to return home when he had made his fortune. Then he went floating down the river in his rice bowl boat, paddling with his chopstick.

Little One-Inch had floated along for many, many leagues when a frog accidentally knocked into his boat and turned it over. Little One-Inch was a very good swimmer and he swam to the riverbank, where he found himself standing before a great lord's house.

Little One-Inch looked at the house and saw that it must belong to a very wealthy lord. He walked boldly up to the front door and called out. A servant came to the door, but he couldn't see anyone.

"Here I am, down here!" cried Little One-Inch. "Look down here!"

The servant looked down at the ground. At first all he could see was a pair of wooden sandals that his lord used when he went out walking. Then the servant looked closer and saw the tiny figure of Little One-Inch standing beside the sandals. He was so surprised that he hurried off to tell his lord.

The lord came to the front door himself and looked down at Little One-Inch standing there proudly, his needle-sword at his hip. "Why, hello there, little warrior," he said. "What do you want here?"

"I've come out into the world to seek my fortune," said Little One -Inch. "And if you'll have me, let me become one of your guards. I may be small, but I can fight very well with this fine sword."

The lord was very amused to hear the tiny boy speak such bold words. "All right," he said, "you can come and be a playmate for my daughter, the princess."

So Little One-Inch became the companion of the princess. They soon became good friends, reading and playing together every day. The princess even made a bed for Little One-Inch in her jewel box.

One day Little One-Inch and the princess went to visit a temple near the lord's house. Suddenly, a terrible green devil appeared, carrying a magic hammer. When the devil saw the princess he ran towards her to carry her off.

Little One-Inch quickly drew his needle-sword and began sticking the green devil's toes with it. But the devil's skin was so thick that the tiny sword couldn't go through it. As the devil got closer to the princess, Little One-Inch climbed up the devil's body and out onto his arm. Then he waved his sword at the devil's nose. This made the devil so angry that he opened his mouth wide to let out a roar.

At that moment Little One-Inch gave a big leap and jumped right onto the green devil's face and began poking his nose with the sword. Now the devil's nose was very tender and the needle hurt very much. He was so surprised that he jumped up, yelled and went running away. He even dropped his magic hammer.

The princess said, "Thank you, Little One-Inch," and picked up the magic hammer. "Now we can use this to make a wish!" She shook the hammer in the air and said, "Please let Little One-Inch grow taller!"

Sure enough, each time she shook the hammer, Little One-Inch grew one inch taller. The princess kept shaking it until he was just as tall as she was. They were both very happy, and the lord was very grateful when he heard what Little One-Inch had done.

When they were a few years older, Little One-Inch and the princess were married, and they lived very happily ever after.

The Badger and the Magic Fan

In Japan, goblins are called tengu and they all have very long noses. Now once upon a time three little tengu children were playing in the forest. They had a magic fan with them, and when they fanned their noses with one side of the fan, their noses would grow longer and longer, and when they fanned their noses with the other side, their noses would shrink back to their original sizes.

The three tengu children were having a wonderful time fanning their noses. But just then a badger came by and saw what they were doing. "My! How I'd like to have a fan like that!" he said to himself. And then he thought of a good trick. Badgers are always playing tricks and can change themselves into any shape they want. So the badger changed himself into a little girl. He took four bean-jam buns with him and went to the tengu children.

"Hello, children," said the badger. "I've brought you some wonderful bean-jam buns. Please let me play with you!"

The tengu children were delighted because they loved to eat bean-jam buns. But there were four delicious buns to be divided among the three of them, and they immediately started arguing over who would get the very last bun.

Finally the badger said, "I know how to decide who gets the last bun. Close your eyes, and the one who can keep his eyes closed and hold his breath the longest will win the last bun."

The tengu children all agreed. The badger counted, "One! Two! Three!" and they closed their eyes hard. As soon as they did, the badger grabbed the magic fan and went running away with it as fast as he could, leaving the tengu children in the forest with their eyes closed and still holding their breath.

"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed the badger. "I certainly made fools out of those tengu children!" he said, and went walking along his way.

Soon the badger came to a temple. There he saw a beautiful girl dressed in very expensive clothes. He felt sure she was the daughter of a wealthy man, and in fact her father was a great lord and the richest man in all of Japan. So the badger crept up quietly behind her on tiptoe. Quick as a flash he fanned her nose with the magic fan. Instantly her nose grew a yard long!

What a terrible to-do there was! Here was the beautiful little rich girl with the nose a yard long! Her father called all the doctors in the land, but none of them could do anything to make her nose shorter. He spent a lot of money on medicines, but nothing did any good. Finally in desperation he said, "I'll give my daughter as a wife and half my fortune to anyone who can make her nose grow short again!"

When the badger heard this, he said, "That's what I've been waiting for." He quickly went to the great lord and announced that he had come to fix her nose. So the great lord took the badger to his daughter's room. The badger took out the magic fan and fanned her nose with the other side of it. In the twinkling of an eye her nose was short again!

The great lord was very happy and started making preparations for the wedding. The badger was very happy too because not only was he going to get a beautiful wife, he was also going to get a large fortune.

On the day of the wedding, the badger was so happy that he ate and drank too much and became very hot and sleepy. Without thinking, he lay back on some pillows, closed his eyes and began fanning himself with the magic fan. Instantly his nose began to grow longer. But as he was half asleep, he didn't know this was happening. So he kept fanning and fanning himself and his nose kept on growing and growing. It went right through the ceiling and high into the sky until it pierced the clouds.

Now, above the clouds some heavenly workers were building a bridge across the Milky Way. "Look at that!" they cried, pointing to the badger's nose. "That pole's just the right size for our bridge. Come on, let's pull it up!"

And they began pulling on the badger's nose. How this surprised the badger! He started out of his sleep, crying, "Ouch! Help, help!" And he began to fan his nose with the other side of the fan as fast as he possibly could.

But it was much too late. The heavenly workers kept on pulling, crying, "Heave, ho!" until they had pulled the badger into the sky, and no one ever saw him again.