Reading Notes: Ozaki A

- told with view to interest western students 

- My Lord Bag of Rice was not his true name but an interesting nickname

- is the creature a dragon? yes it is

- the centipede steals the dragon kings children and takes them away

- I find it interesting that the dragon king says that he is powerless to the centipede, but if he is a king and especially on that is a dragon I feel as if he would and should be very powerful?

- Hidestao agreed to help the dragon king and he decided to wait until night 

- The description of the palace reminds me of Zora's Domain from Breath of the Wild

- Like Zelda he uses a bow and arrow... I wonder if there are any pulls and origins from this story?

- The centipede was vulnerable to human saliva 

- He came home with many gifts from the dragon king that were magic and held powers that were never ending

- Kintaro was the son of a young woman living in isolation

- He was born with great strength 

- He was friends with the bear, deer, monkey, and hare

- They decided to have a wrestling match all day long 

- An old man followed Kintaro home after he saw him throw a tree down over the stream

- He had him do a wrestling match to see who was the strongest, but both were evenly matched

- This old man was a warrior sent by the king to find strong men to become samurai and Kintaro was chosen to do so

- He grew up brave and strong, defeating an evil cannibal monster and growing in fame

- He wanted to live years and years and believed if he changed his ways to living frugally he could stay healthy and well until he was 500-600 years

- Sentaro set out to find the hermits who help the power and Elixir of Life

- There was a message at the end of story about selfishness

Man with Samurai Sword (UnSplash)

Story source: Japanese Fairy Tales by Yei Theodora Ozaki (1908).