Reading Notes: Japanese Fairytales

For Part A of this unit I read the Japanese Fairytales of My Lord Bag of Rice. I really enjoyed the story because it contained action, adventure and honor. In the first story the main character Hidesato came upon a dragon. This dragon turned into a man and asked Hidesato to be his champion and help save his family from an evil centipede. I knew right from the start that I want the dragon character to be the focal point of my story.

My favorite story was the story of My Lord Bag of Rice. I really enjoyed reading about it and finally learning why he was called that at the end. This story has a lot of similarities to a book series I read called the Tigers Curse. With this reading I want to put it in a modern stetting and see what the ancestors of My Lord Bag of Rice are up to. Have they grown possessive of the endless rice and silk? Or have they learned the lesson of bravery and charity,

I think this could be a really interesting story, especially if the ancestors were to run into the Dragon King again! I wonder what he will ask of them this time! I wanted to focus on this story because the title was intriguing and it said a lot about helping others. Hidesato didn't have to stop to help the dragon, he could have run away scared. However, he persevered and in the end was rewarded for his hard work.

Bibliography: Japanese Fairy Tales by Yei Theodora Ozaki, with illustrations by Japanese artists (1905).

A depiction of a Japanese dragon by Hokusai. Web Source