Japanese literature is immensely rich in stories of
adventure, most interesting historical and biographical
incidents, folk-lore, and fairy tales. All of these
are quite familiar to the Japanese child, whether
boy or girl, whose mind feasts upon, and delights
in, the heroic and the marvellous. The youth and
the adults, also, are not at all averse to such mental
pabulum, and flock, for instance, to the hall of
the professional story-teller, who regales them with
fact and fiction ingeniously blended. Yoshitsune,
Benkei, Momotarō, Kintarō, and others are common
heroes of folk-lore and fiction; while "The Tongue-Cut
Sparrow," "The Matsuyama Mirror," "The Man
who Made Trees Bloom," are examples of hundreds
of popular fairy tales. Japanese folk-lore is an instructive
and most interesting subject, which must, however, be now dismissed with references.[1]
To an audience of Athenians on Mars Hill, Paul said: "Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are altogether superstitious." One might likewise stand before an audience of Japanese and say: "Ye men of Nippon, I perceive that in all things ye are altogether superstitious." For most faithfully and devoutly do the mass of the people still worship their innumerable deities, estimated with the indefinite expression "eight hundred myriads";
- ↑ The best books on this subject are Mitford's "Tales of Old Japan," Miss Ballard's "Fairy Tales from Far Japan," Griffis's "Fire-Fly's Lovers," Mme. Ozaki's "Japanese Fairy Book," and the series of crêpe booklets of "Japanese Fairy Tales," published by the Kobunsha, Tōkyō.
