What are some interesting folk tales from ancient Japan

Once upon a time, there was a place where a fisherman called Urasushima Taro lived.

This Urajima Taro rowed his boat out to sea every day and fished for a living.

Taro's life was very poor, but this young man was not only fond of fantasy, but also kind-hearted.

He stood on the shore, looking out over the sea, and thought to himself:

"If only I could become a fish, how wonderful!"

It can be seen that rather than enjoying fishing, he preferred to fantasize in this way.

If the dream really became a reality, how beautiful it would be.

Taro fantasized about it all the time, longing for it with all his heart.

One day, something like this happened.

Taro came back from a trip to the sea and walked down to the beach just in time to see a group of children wooing and shouting. Low and behold, it turned out that they had caught a baby turtle and were teasing it.

"Those naughty boys! Stop it! Do you think it's a dumb animal to bully?"

Taro saved the turtle and released it back into the sea.

"Have a safe journey. You can be more careful in the future, so you don't get caught again."

The kind-hearted Taro, standing on the beach, stared for a long, long time in the direction the little turtle had swum.

A few years later, another incident happened.

One day, Taro was fishing leisurely, as usual.

"How wonderful it would be to turn into a seagull!"

Taro was fantasizing again.

Thinking about it, the turtle that Taro had saved, came out of there.

"Taro, I can't repay you enough for saving your life. I would like to take you down to the bottom of the sea to that beautiful crystal palace. That Crystal Palace, the said Dragon's Palace, with beautiful sea flowers surrounding it, is a fine place indeed. Alas, go, please ride on my back."

The sea turtle carried Taro, and with a "stab" he dug into the sea.

"Oooooh!"

Once he saw the beautiful underwater world． Taro was very shocked.

This place, just as Taro had fantasized, was infinitely beautiful and vast.

Here and there ...... were seaflowers everywhere. The seaflowers competed with each other, beautiful and fragrant.

"How's that? Wonderful, isn't it?"

Taro was already intoxicated, and the turtle looked on with a smug look.

Taro did feel like he was in a dream.

A little while later... Taro arrived at the glittering coral courtyard. It was a colorful place． It was a dazzling sight to behold.

'What a beautiful place this ...... is!"

Looking around, Taro couldn't help but shout.

At that moment, the coral island moved gently, revealing a section of pearl steps.

At the top of that section stood the beautiful princess - the goddess of the dragon palace city.

Taro was stunned.

"Welcome, Taro! Your rescue of the turtles is y appreciated. Don't be busy, please stay here for more days."

The beautiful goddess herself thanked him, which made Taro fidget.

Suddenly the goddess shook her fan, and schools of colorful fish swam over and danced around Taro, wagging their heads and tails.

And so it was that Taro lived a good life every day in the Dragon Palace.

Eating delicious sea food, and the fish dancing so beautifully, and the gentle goddess ......

It was a dreamy life for Taro.

But good dreams don't last long.

"Our village, what is it now?"

"Mom is healthy, right?"

Taro was unconsciously reminded of home. So, everything around him was tasteless.

"Taro, you need to go back!"

Seeing that Taro was preoccupied all day, the goddess said fondly,

"I'm happy for you to stay as long as you want. But there's no way."

"Well, this treasure chest, as a gift, is for you. You must not open it, no matter what difficult things come your way."

Taro decided after all to ride the turtle and go back to the homeland he missed.

"Goodbye, Princess! Thanks a lot!"

On the way, Taro returned, his heart filling up with the hometown he hadn't seen in days.

"Thank you, turtle friend."

On his return, Taro's heart was overjoyed: flowers were blooming on the hills, and his hometown had a new look everywhere.

But all was not well. At a closer look, the village was in a state of disrepair.

Home, can not be found; mom, not there; and not only that, acquaintances, are gone.

Taro's heart was half-cold, and he didn't know what to do.

Then he remembered the treasure chest the goddess had given him.

"That's right! Open it and maybe we'll figure everything out."

With that thought in mind, Taro, wary, opened the treasure chest.

Suddenly ...... Oops, strange? How is it that from the treasure chest, gurgling, gurgling, a large stream of white smoke came out.

So, in the twinkling of an eye, Urashima Taro turned into a white-bearded old man.

That was it. Taro spent a few days in the Dragon's Palace, living fast, while at the same time, hundreds of years were spent on the ground.

One was the beautiful underwater world and the other was this present earthly world, which was the dream world, Taro could not tell the difference.

Motaro:

Once upon a time, there lived an old couple in a small, remote village. Although they were not well off, they lived quietly and frugally. One day, the old man wanted to go to the mountains to collect some firewood, so he left the house early in the morning.

After seeing her husband off, the old woman packed up her dishes, filled a large wooden tub with clothes, and went to the river to wash them. "The weather is so sunny today!" The old woman felt pleasant in her heart and quickly made her way to the river.

Just as the old woman was working hard to wash her clothes, she raised her head inadvertently, and happened to see what seemed to be floating upstream from the river. When she took a closer look, it turned out to be a large peach that she had never seen before and was slowly floating towards her. "Hey! This is really amazing." The old woman had never seen such a big peach even in all her years of living! It was as if the moon in the sky had accidentally given way. The old woman did have an eye-opening experience.

"Hey! Big peach ah! Quickly float over ah!" The old lady shouted loudly. As if the peach really heard the old lady's shout, it drifted over in this direction.

"What an incredible thing!" The old woman walked down to the river and scooped up the peach. This big peach is really heavy! It took a lot of effort for the old woman to lift this peach onto the shore. But by this time the old woman was panting like a cow. She then put the big peach on the wooden basin and walked home with great effort.

It took the old woman a great deal of effort to get home. When it was dusk, the old man also came back from the mountains, carrying a lot of firewood, and shouting cheerfully, "I'm back! I'm back! Is there anything good to eat at home? I'm so hungry!" At that moment, the old man looked as if he had discovered a new continent: "Ouch! What is this strange thing? It scared me. It's a big peach! It's so big and looks delicious." The old man said.

When the old lady saw the old man's gluttonous look, she took out a kitchen knife and cut the peach open. But when she cut the peach open, she heard "Wow! Wow!" cries. It turned out that there was a healthy and cute baby boy bursting out from the center of the peach, and he was crying loudly. What a strange thing! The peach was actually hiding such a cute baby! The old woman hurriedly took this little baby out and was rocking it happily, for they had been looking forward to having a child. So, unexpectedly having this little baby, the old couple was very happy in their hearts.

"Could it be that the God in heaven took pity on us for not having a child and rewarded us specially?" The old man said with gratitude in his heart. So they knelt down on the ground and thanked the God of heaven for his blessings. At this time the old man then wanted to think of a good name for the little baby, and he thought and thought and thought. He thought and thought and thought, and then he realized that since the baby was born from a peach, he should be named Momotaro.

The Snow Maiden:

It is said that in the early days of the Japanese civilization, when the people were not yet enlightened, the older generation of the people believed in the legends of the gods and monsters, and even thought that the gods and monsters were responsible for the calamities of the nature, which is why there is a strange story about the Snow Maiden in the snowy land. As long as someone is lost in the harsh environment of the snow and ice, he will surely meet the Snow Maiden who feeds on people's popularity. Moreover, the unpredictable demon Snow Maiden will intentionally play on the inferiority of men's fickleness and unfaithfulness, and she will sometimes intentionally leave behind a frightened human male, threatening him that he has to keep the "promise" and abide by the Laws of the Demon Realm to survive, and must not tell other people about her. She will sometimes leave a frightened human male behind, threatening him that if he wants to live, he must keep his "promise" and abide by the laws of the demon world, and must not tell anyone else about her existence or his encounter with her, or the betrayed Yuki-onna will surely go and take the man's life, as a reminder of the laws of demons. However, the man who wants to live will panic and beg for the Snow Maiden's trust, and promise to keep his promise and not to tell others about the Snow Maiden's behavior. However, the evil Snow Maiden, who likes to test the man's qualities, will then disguise herself as an ordinary and virtuous human woman, and intentionally seek out the man who has made a promise to her to win the man's favor, and then further marry him and have a child with him, and then follow him around for the rest of his life. She followed him all his life, monitoring whether the man could keep his promise, and she was safe and sound until old age, but the unforgettable thrilling encounters always haunted the man's puzzled and scared heart, finally until one day, the man was determined to tell the truth of the encounter with the snow woman to the closest wife of his side, in the hope that she could share his nightmares, but the man never thought that the person next to the pillow was the person in his midnight nightmare! But the man never realized that the pillow is his midnight dreams in the most afraid of the nightmare, the original days since he is a long time with the enemy *** pillow, breaking the "promise", the snow woman had to tearfully kill and he *** birth of children with the man, and sadly with the child back to the ice and snow.

The ancient Snow Maiden legend, first recorded in the Japanese monster novels, the classical Liaozhai "Koizumi Yakumo's strange story", it fully describes the characteristics of the monster cold and unforgiving and through this story of betrayal to reflect the men and women

between the marriage of the also pro and also away from and belonging to the woman's delicate and sensitive and Although this old legend is both sad and cold, the old moral concept of "keeping promises", but in today's world where people's hearts are not what they used to be, how many people maintain a reverent respect for traditions, and even go to keep them? There is also a legend that the Snow Maiden will be in the snowy wilderness to travelers to help care for the child in her arms.