Extra Reading Diary: Filipino Tales

The stories in this unit (Filipino Tales) are really interesting to me. The first few that I read felt really lighthearted, where no one was really punished for doing wrong. However, then there were several stories which were much darker. All of them have been enjoyable to read though, and pretty short!

Chimpanzee

I really liked the story The Enchanted Prince. It was an interesting story to me because the woman who was scorned did not exact a revenge which had a horrible outcome. She instead decreed that the prince would be made into a monkey and his subjects and town into a forest filled with animals for many centuries. However after he would be turned back into a man by the love of a woman, and live happily ever after, ruling his kingdom. I thought it was so interesting that the scorned witch had made it so that he would eventually be able to marry and rule his kingdom instead of ruining his life forever. However, it did allow for a great story of a woman falling in love with a monkey who then turned out to be a prince!

I also really liked the story The Clever Husband and Wife. It was another story that I thought was pretty strange because the husband and wife were really deceitful and had lied their way into getting money from their masters several times, but when the masters found out were not upset at all. Instead they rewarded them by moving them into their house. It seemed weird to me that there was absolutely no punishment for the couple's deceitful methods, nor was anyone upset by their lies. But it was such a different outcome than the other stories I have read about lying and deceit in this class that I ended up really liking it.

Week 6 Storytelling: Two Bottles of Wine

Spilled bottle of wine

Princess Hase-Hime sat in the living room playing with her younger half-brother. As she played she thought about the last few years. Her mother had died when she was just five, and her father had remarried a year later. Where her mom had been loving and kindhearted, her step-mother was cruel and vindictive.

Hase-Hime had tried so hard to be good over the years. She had weathered her step-mothers cruelty without complaint and worked hard to make her father and her proud, however nothing seemed to be able to change her step-mother's feelings towards her. In fact, over the past couple of weeks, things had been worse than ever.

Hase-Hime had been invited by the Emperor to play the koto for him. Her step-mother had even been asked to accompany her on the flute. However, while Hase-Hime had practiced tirelessly, perfecting her songs, and memorizing notes, her step-mother had done neither. It had been a great embarrassment when her step-mother had played so poorly during the performance that another lady had had to step in for her. When the emperor had lavished gifts on her, her step mother had seethed in jealousy.

She'd been especially cruel to Hase-Hime since. Hase-Hime had even overheard her muttering to herself in the kitchen saying, "If only Hase-Hime were not here, my son would have all of the love of his father." Hase-Hime had been disturbed by this, but had quickly put it out of her mind.

Today she was playing in the living room with her half-brother. At four years old, he was playful and goofy, and he idolized her. She loved spending time with him, helping him to play make believe with his toys, telling him wonderful stories about all kinds of magical creatures. They were currently sitting on the floor surrounded by toy warriors, acting out a story with them as Hase-Hime told it aloud.

She glanced up as she saw her step-mother walking into the room with two bottles of sweet wine. Strange she would have two bottles, she thought.

"You two are both so good and so happy that I have brought you some sweet wine, and some cakes," her step-mother said, her voice sounding a little strange. Hase-Hime watched as her step-mother fumbled over the glasses, hands shaking as she poured two cups of wine, one from each bottle.

She seemed flustered and out of sorts as Hase-Hime and her half-brother grabbed their glasses and sipped at the wine. Over the next half hour, Hase-Hime noticed her mother staring at her keenly, but she'd quickly look away when Hase-Hime noticed.

Suddenly her half brother screamed in pain, doubling over and grasping at his stomach. He vomited violently, before collapsing onto the ground, seizing. Hase-Hime jumped toward him terrified and panicked. Her step-mother screamed, eyes wide in shock and horror.

"My baby, oh my baby!" She grabbed at him, fumbling her arms around trying desperately to make him stop shaking, but when he finally did, his body fell limp, his eyes open but unseeing.

Hase-Hime looked on horrified. Her baby brother, her precious baby brother was dead. Just like that. As she stood there, frozen in shock, her step-mother turned toward her, her gaze wild and angry. She opened her mouth to speak, but quickly closed it before turning back to her lifeless son.

Hase-Hime looked around the room, eyes settling on the two separate bottles of wine her mother had brought in from the kitchen, and shivered. Something was not right here.

Author's Note: So I wrote my story based off the second part of the story of Princess Hase from the Japanese Fairy Tales told by Ozkani. I tried to give a little bit of background into who Hase-Hime was before going into the part of the story that I was going to focus on, but basically Hase-Hime's mother died when she was little and on her death bed had told Hase-Hime that no matter what she was to honor her father and to be a good and obedient child. When her father married her step-mother, Hase-Hime continued to be a perfect child, even though her mother was so incredibly cruel. In the story it is pretty matter of fact about how her step-mother accidentally kills her son while trying to poison Hase-Hime. I wanted to make it a little bit less obvious, and just allude to the truth behind her half-brother's death in my version of the story. I know this story is pretty dark, but it just really intrigued me and gave me the chills when I was reading and I wanted to share. You should definitely check out the rest of the story however (Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four), it has a happy ending! Thanks for reading!

Reading Diary B: Japanese Fairy Tales (Ozaki)

Princess Hase and her father illustrated by a Japanese artist
in Ozaki's Japanese Fairy Tales

Okay so after reading the second half of this unit (Japanese Fairy Tales (Ozaki)), my very favorite story is the story about Princess Hase. I think it is such a cool story, and it is a little bit reminiscent of both Cinderella and Snow White. Princess Hase had to deal with the whole evil stepmother thing like Cinderella, although her stepmother was a little more evil than Disney would probably ever allow.

The stepmother even ordered her to be taken off into the wilderness to be killed. This was when I started thinking of Snow White... Remember when the evil queen decides she wants Snow White dead and orders a hunter to kill her in the woods and bring back her heart? The servant doesn't want to kill Princess Hase, so instead he gets his wife, builds a cottage in the mountains and raises her... pretty Snow White like, right?

I loved how this story was so full of Japanese culture and tradition, but read so much like European fairy tales. I really loved the beginning of the story about when Princess Hase was a child. The early death of her mother, and her determination to follow what her mother had instructed her to do made her seem so wise beyond her years.

One of the scenes from when she was young that really stuck out in my mind was when her stepmother poisoned a bottle of wine in an attempt to kill her, but instead accidentally fed it to her son killing him. I can picture the scene so vividly in my mind of how this must have played out, and it absolutely gives me chills.

Reading Diary A: Japanese Fairy Tales (Ozaki)

Oh this unit (Japanese Fairy Tales (Ozaki)) is really cool so far! I love that the stories are 3-4 parts long. I really like the longer stories because I like to feel like I am able to learn about the character more, and spend more time inside of the story. 

So far my favorite story is The Man who did not Wish to Die. I really liked how within the story a good background was given into the "Elixir of Life" that the man was searching for. That one of the most powerful emperor's had searched for it and not been able to obtain it, was a great testament to how elusive and desirable this thing was.

Sentaro flying to the land of Perpetual Life from the book
of Japanese Fairy Tales by Yei Ozaki, illustrated by
Japanese artists

One of my favorite parts of the story is the description of life in the land of Perpetual Life. Sentaro was so determined to live forever or for hundreds and hundreds of years at least that he had never considered that it might not be as grand as he thought. The land of Perpetual Life was beautiful, but the people in it were not happy. They had been alive for hundreds and hundreds of years, no one had died. A priest had told them about Paradise, which was only to be found after death, and the people longed so much to reach that place that they would eat and drink poison in an attempt to get sick and die. I loved the initial contrast made between the people of the land and Sentaro after he first arrived in the land of Perpetual Life. They had such different outlooks of things, and I loved how over the course of the story Sentaro begins to see how living forever is not necessarily a blessing.

I really thought Sentaro was an easy character to read about. He had the same desires as so many people have, to live comfortably and almost lavishly, and to live a long long life. However throughout the story his outlook changes completely, and he seems wiser and to have a better understanding of life and the world and gifts around him.