Week 7 Story: The Ever-Present Dragon.
Story One:
Susanoo searched for inhabitants and came upon two Gods: Ashinadzuchi and Tenadzuchi. Asking of their sorrow, as he found them mourning, a daughter held between them, the god learned that eight of their nine daughters had been swallowed by the devastating Yamata no Orochi. Red, smelly, eight-headed with eight forked tails, the creature likewise had various trees scattered about its back. It was a monstrous thing.
"I will slay it, but I ask for your last daughter's hand in marriage." Susanoo asked, and it was granted.
So, he slew the beast after getting it drunk, cutting it into multiple pieces.
(Wikipedia Commons)
Takeuchi retired from court, intent on committing seppuku* for his disgrace. Alas, a fisher-maid who yearned for him for years stopped him.
"I will retrieve the jewel, and my desire shall be given to you," so said the fisher-maid before jumping into the sea. Seizing the jewel, the sea-dragon made his presence known, accompanied by hundreds of other fishes to stop her. Knowing death was upon her, Tamatori gored her breast and put the jewel inside. Dragons don't touch corpses.
So, Takeuchi got the jewel back to the Empress, and the fisher-maid was enshrined as the Princess of Heart's Desire.
Author's Note:
For this one, I did The Jewel of Heart's Desire: The Quest found in Romance of Old Japan, Part I: Mythology and Legend by E. W. Champney and F. Champney. This is the second part of the story, so what occurs is the Empress loses the jewel to the sea-dragon and his daughter, and she asked Takeuchi to retrieve it. He fails and was going to kill himself, but the fisher-maid retrieves it, but dies doing so. So, she's enshrined as the Princess of Heart's Desire. Again, I followed the original storyline and didn't change anything besides shorten it. I'm really enjoying how these microfictions are coming out with these tales!
- *Seppuku: Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment.
Having lost his sacred sword, Yamato beseeched Kwannon to help him locate its location. The Goddess of Mercy told him he'd find it with a deer. Yamato began to search, but realized he had no weapon.
He asked the Goddess again, and she gave him one.
He asked for hounds to help, and she gave him her wolves.
They chased after the deer until the wolves could no longer follow. The deer lunged in the lake, and seeing the sword on its great antlers, Yamato threw his lance. It plunged into the deer's heart, and Yamato retrieved his sacred sword.
Author's Note:
Finally, I did The Labors of Yamato: The Sacred Sword (cont.) found in Romance of Old Japan, Part I: Mythology and Legend by E. W. Champney and F. Champney. This is also a second part of a story, so initially Yamato loses his sword to Benito, the sea-dragon's daughter, and the deer was going to bring the sword to him. Kwannon, Goddess of Mercy, helps Yamato out, and he goes after the deer. I followed the original storyline on this as well; I'm a sucker for original telling's. But, microfiction really works for these tales, and I enjoy the simplicity of it.
Hi, Jaicee. I have also come to really enjoy reading and writing microfiction in this class. So many of these stories fit so well in the format. I thought you did a great job condensing down the stories. I wonder if you could add a line at the beginning of the second story about why he wanted to commit seppuku. It's explained in the author's note and I know you're working with limited space. However, I was a bit confused by the tale at first before reading the author's note.
ReplyDeleteHi Jaicee! I love microfictions! I've also found that a lot of stories fit this format really well. I also read these stories in the textbook and really liked them so I'm glad that I'm not the only one. I was wondering if the highlighted titles were a personal choice or a default setting of the blog template? I felt like the white font on yellow highlight was a little difficult to read, but I still really enjoyed the stories!
ReplyDelete