| The Story of "Hanasaka-jijii" (The Old Man Who Made Trees Blossom) |
| Once upon a time there lived a kind old man and his wife in a certain village. One day their white dog named Shiro started barking in the farmyard at the back of their house. It seemed as if he were asking the old man to dig the ground. The old man dug the ground and found a large pot full of many pieces of gold money. A mean old man living next door happened to see all this, and asked the kind old man to lend him Shiro. Shiro started barking at his farmyard, so the mean old man dug the ground. What he found in the hole he dug, however, was only terrible smelling garbage. Disappointed and angry, the mean old man killed Shiro. Feeling very sad about Shiro, the kind old man and his wife burried him in their field, and planted a pine tree over Shiro's grave. They continued watering the plant every day. The pine tree grew and grew very quickly to become a big tree. The kind old man cut down the tree to make a mortar out of its trunk to make some rice-cakes in memory of Shiro; Shiro loved to eat rice-cakes very much. When the old man began pounding the steamed rice in the mortar, all the rice turned into gold. So the kind old man and his wife became richer than ever. The mean old man next door saw all this and borrowed it from them. When he began pounding the steamed rice in the mortar, all the rice turned into terrible smelling garbage. Disappointed and angry, the mean old man cut the mortar into pieces with his axe and burned them. The kind old man was very sad to see the ashes and brought some of the ashes home. It was the middle of winter and all the trees in his garden were bare. He thought of scattering some of the ashes around in the garden. When he did this, all the cherry trees in the garden suddenly began to bloom. Villagers came to see the beautiful cherry blossoms, and the prince who lived in a nearby castle came to see them, too. He wished beautiful blossoms on his favorite cherry tree in his garden, and asked the kind old man to come to his garden with some of the ashes. The old man climbed the tree and threw the ashes up into the bare branches. Then the cherry tree was soon covered with most beautiful blossoms. The prince was so pleased with the beautiful cherry blossoms that he gave the kind old man a lot of gold and many presents. The kind old man and his wife were now very rich, and they lived very happily for many more years. Source; "Japanese Children's Favorite Stories", edited by Florence Sakade. (Tuttle Publishing) |
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| Created on March 17, 2003 Updated on February 9, 07) |