Legends and Folktales
Legends are stories tied to a hero, a place or an event. Folktales travel more freely. In Japan both passed through chronicles, medieval illustrated storybooks (otogi-zoshi), theater and, later, children's books. A tale you know from a picture book may have a much older, stranger ancestor.
These scrolls begin with the earliest text we can verify and follow the story forward. Where a legendary figure is attached to a real historical person, we put the history first and the legend second, and we say where the two meet.
How to read this shelf
- Look at the table of records: it shows when each version appears.
- A figure can be a real person in one source and a pure legend in another.
- Modern uses of a tale, such as in schoolbooks, are part of its history. We mention them calmly and factually.
The 9 scrolls
Who Is Momotaro? The Peach Boy Tale from Edo Picture Books to Meiji Schoolbooks
Momotaro is a Japanese folktale about a boy who sets out with a dog, a monkey and a pheasant for an island of ogres. It is known from Edo-period picture books, and Meiji-era books and schoolbooks fixed its modern form.
Who Is Urashima Taro? The Fisherman, the Tortoise and the Box in Early Records
Urashima Taro is a fisherman of Japanese legend who visits a land beneath the sea and returns to a changed world. His story appears in an early chronicle, a provincial record and a poem, and later in medieval tales and Meiji retellings.
Who Is Kintaro? The Strong Boy of Mount Ashigara and the Warrior Behind Him
Kintaro is a legendary strong boy raised in the Mount Ashigara hills, later said to have become the warrior Sakata no Kintoki. The warrior is named in medieval tale collections, while the childhood story comes mostly from Edo-period works and prints.
Who Is Issun-boshi? The Tiny Hero of the Otogizoshi and His Bowl Boat
Issun-boshi is a tiny hero of a Japanese tale who sails to the capital in a bowl, defeats an ogre and gains a magic mallet. The medieval text is an Otogizoshi story, and the gentler children's version is much later.
Who Is Yamato Takeru? The Prince of the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, Compared
Yamato Takeru is a prince-hero of the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki, sent west and east by his father, given the sword Kusanagi and said to die as a white bird. The two chronicles differ, and he is a legendary figure, not a verified person.
Who Is Tamamo-no-Mae? The Fox Court Lady and the Killing Stone
Tamamo-no-Mae is a court lady who is unmasked as a fox and hunted on the Nasu plain. She is a legend built from medieval tales, a printed book of 1653, Noh and puppet theater, not a figure of worship.
Who Is Shuten-doji? The Ogre of Mount Oe in Scrolls and Tales
Shuten-doji is the ogre chief of a mountain palace in a medieval tale, defeated by a warrior band with help from the gods of three shrines. Its oldest surviving form is a fourteenth-century picture scroll. It is legend, not worship.
Who Is Kaguya-hime? The Shining Child of a Heian Prose Tale
Kaguya-hime is the heroine of an anonymous Heian-period prose story: a child found glowing in a plant stalk who sets her suitors impossible tasks and returns to her own people. Her source is a written literary tale, not a cult.
Who Was Raiko? The Real Heian Warrior Behind the Monster Legends
Raiko is a real Heian-period warrior, 948 to 1021, whose name later became attached to legends of an ogre hunt and a giant spider. The legends come from medieval scrolls, war tales and theater, written centuries after his death.
Want to meet these beings as riddles first? Play the lantern game and choose this shelf.