Japanese Fairy World: Stories from the Wonder-lore of Japan

Unique Elements Detailed 19th-Century Historical Map A Treasured Classic! Synopsis: Japanese Fairy World is a collection of 34 magical stories by American author William Elliot Griffis first published in 1880. Inside you will find tales including: The Meeting of the Star Lovers. The Travels of Two Frogs. The Child of the Thunder. The Tongue-cut Sparrow. The Fire-fly's Lovers. The Battle of the Ape and the Crab. The Wonderful Tea-Kettle. Peach-Prince and the Treasure Island. The Fox and the Badger. The Seven Patrons of Happiness. Daikoku and the Oni. Benkei and the Bell. Little Silver's Dream of the Shoji. The Tengus, or the Elves with Long Noses. Kintaro, or the Wild Baby. Jiraiya, or the Magic Frog. How the Jelly-Fish Lost its Shell. Lord Cuttle-Fish Gives a Concert. Yorimasa, the Brave Archer. Watanabé cuts off the Oni's Arm. Watanabé Kills the Great Spider. Raiko and the Shi Ten Doji. The Sazayé and the Tai. Smells and Jingles. The Lake of the Lute and the Matchless Mountain. The Waterfall of Yoro, or the Fountain of Youth. The Earthquake Fish. The Dream Story of Gojiro. The Procession of Lord Long-Legs. Kiyohimé, or the Power of Love. The Fisherman and the Moon-Maiden. The Jewels of the Ebbing and the Flowing Tide. Kai Riu O, or the Dragon King of the World Under the Sea. The Creation of Heaven and Earth. How the Sun Goddess was Enticed out of her Cave. Excerpt: ‘THE TRAVELS OF TWO FROGS. FORTY miles apart, as the cranes fly, stand the great cities of Ozaka and Kioto. The one is the city of canals and bridges. Its streets are full of bustling trade, and its waterways are ever alive with gondolas, shooting hither and thither like the wooden shuttles in a loom. The other is the sacred city of the Mikado's empire, girdled with green hills and a nine-fold circle of flowers. In its quiet, clean streets, laid out like a chessboard, walk the shaven monks and gowned scholars. And very beautiful is Kioto, with pretty girls, and temple gardens, and castle walls, and towers, and moats in which the white lotus blooms. Long, long ago, in the good old days before the hairy-faced and pale-cheeked men from over the Sea of Great Peace (Pacific Ocean) came to Japan; before the black coal-smoke and snorting engine scared the white heron from the rice-fields; before black crows and fighting sparrows, which fear not man, perched on telegraph wires, or ever a railway was thought of, there lived two frogs—one in a well in Kioto, the other in a lotus-pond in Ozaka. Now it is a common proverb in the Land of the Gods (Japan) that "the frog in the well knows not the great ocean," and the Kioto frog had so often heard this scornful sneer from the maids who came to draw out water, with their long bamboo-handled buckets that he resolved to travel abroad and see the world, and especially the tai kai (the great ocean).’