Retold from: Japanese folk tales

Japanese folk tales are ancient stories about a boy born from a peach, a grateful sparrow and a fisherman in an underwater palace, told for centuries.

Some Japanese tales are more than a thousand years old: the story of the fisherman Urashima was written down as early as the 8th century, in ancient chronicles and poems. These tales value kindness, gratitude and modesty, while greed and cunning do not go unpunished. Animals and magical creatures often appear beside the people and repay kindness with kindness.

These tales were opened up to English-language readers by Yei Theodora Ozaki (1870–1932), the daughter of a Japanese baron and an Englishwoman. Her “Japanese Fairy Book” came out in 1903. Ozaki did not translate word for word; she retold the tales so that they would be easy to read to children.

We have “Momotaro, the Peach Boy” and “The Sparrow and the Two Chests”, and for older children “Urashima Taro and the Sea Princess’s Box”.