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Kobutori Jiisan

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Old man with lump sees the oni marching.
―Cover of the 1886 translation.

"Kobutori Jiisan" (こぶとりじいさん, Kobutori jīsan) literally "Lump-removing Old Man" is a Japanese Folktale about an old man who lost his lump (or wen) after joining a party of demons (oni) celebrate and dance for a night.

The tale is a rendition of a tale about a woodcutter (firewood-gatherer) from the early 13th century anthology Uji Shūi Monogatari.

Textual notes

The tale, which may be known in Japanese as "Kobutori" (瘤取り),[1] "Kobutori Jiisan" (瘤取り爺さん),[2] or "Kobutori jijii" (瘤取り爺い),[3] is arguably among the top ten native fairy tales that are frequently recounted to children in modern Japan.[3]

English translations

The tale was translated as The Old Man and the Devils (1886)[4] by James Curtis Hepburn.[5][a]

Hepburn translated the oni as "devils" where a more modern editions might give "demons" or "ogres", but it was commonplace during this time period to replace native Japanese concepts with equivalent Christian ones in these translated stories.[7][b]

"How an Old Man Lost his Wen" by Yei Theodora Ozaki (1903) was a retelling baseds on a published Japanese text edited by Sazanami Iwaya [ja].[8] Though not a literal translation by her own admission, it has been assessed as deserving more credit as to its fidelity.[9][c]

There is another translation also using Sazanami Iwaya as the Japanese source. "The Old Man with the Wen" found in Iwaya's Fairy tales of old Japan (1914) credited to Hannah Riddell as translator,[1] although this edition was an omnibus of separate volumes, and each tale tale was originally printed separately in 1903,[10] by different female translators.[11]

A similar version "Story of the Man with the Wen", which names the locale as "mount Taiko", was printed in the Transactions of the Japan Society in 1885.[12] A more recent translation effort is "Lump off, Lump On" (1987) by Royall Tyler.[13]

Plot

The man's lump is taken by the oni (devils).
The second old man returns home with two lumps on his face

There was an old man with a lump[14][13] (or wen[15][16]) on the right side of his face.[17][d] The Spanish translation adds that the lump was the size of a peach (Spanish: melocotón).[18][e][f]

One day he went into the mountain to cut wood, and was caught in the rain. He took refuge in the hollow of a tree.[g] He was soon to witness a gathering of strange beings nearby, some one-eyed and some mouth-less.[14][15][13][h] They were the oni[21] (demons or ogres; "devils" being the Christendom equivalent[7]).[i]

The oni created a great bonfire as light as day. The began to drink sake wine,[22] sing and dance. They old man overcame his fears and was lured to join the dance. The greatly entertained oni wanted him to return the next day[23] (or "always"[14]) for an encore. To ensure the old man's return, the oni wanted keep custody of some valuable possession, and of all things, decided the old man's lump should be taken as pledge. They then proceed to remove the unwanted tumor.[24] The old man was elated to find the lump gone, with not a remnant of it remaining,[14] and no soreness in the cheek where it was removed.[25]

There lived next door an old man who had a big lump on his left cheek.[26] When he heard his neighbor's story about losing the lump, he wanted to emulate, and therefore asked to take the place of performing in front of the oni, and the neighbor yielded him the opportunity. The left-lump old man went to the same tree hollow, and when the oni assembled, the chief demon was particularly eagerly awaiting.[27] Unfortunately, the left-lump old man did not have the same level of skill in the art of dancing, and was a disappointment to the demons, who bid him to take back his lump and leave. And the demons slapped on (or threw) the piece of flesh which stuck to the clean side of his face,[28][29] and this old man returned home chagrined, now with two lumps on his face.[14][30]

Origins

This folktale can be traced to the tale collection Uji Shūi Monogatari compiled in early 13th century.[12][20] The medieval version has been translated as "How Someone Had a Wen Removed by Demons".[20]

Here the man explicitly "made his living gathering firewood". The medieval version concludes with a one-liner moral cautioning against envy.[20] Also it is added in the variant text that the lump was the size of an orange (大柑子, ōkōji), and this prevented him from engaging in a profession that mingles with people.[20][31] It is speculated this refers to the citrus variety known today as natsumikan.[32]

Analysis

Variants

The version given by A. B. Mitford in 1871 "The Elves and the Envious Neighbour" features two men with a wen on the forehead, and the second visitor earns another wen on top of his own. The second man could not be faulted for his poor dancing or companionship, and it was just a case of mistaken identity. Mitford"s version also concludes with a moral against envy.[33]

Another variant called The tumor doubled (瘤二つ, Kobu futatsu), where the protagonist priest has a tumor over the eye, was collected by Kunio Yanagita. Here, the tumor is taken by the tengu ("long-nosed demons"), and given to a second priest with a tumor. Here again, the second priest suffered his ill fate despite his dancing being entertaining enough. The locality of the tale was not given.[34][35]

Analogues

The kobutori tale has been finely classified as tale type AT 503A "The Gifts of the Tengu" by Hiroko Ikeda,[36][37] but is type 503 "The Gifts of the Little Folk"[38] for purposes of cross-referencing international analogues.

Asian analogues

There is a Chinese analogue to be found in Chinese: Yang Maoqian's book Chinese: Xiaolinping (1611).[j][39] A version written in Chinese also occurs in Sango (産語) edited by Dazai Shundai [ja] and published 1749,[k] and purports to be a reprint of a texts lost before the Han Dynasty, but the general consensus is that this is "faked ancient text" (疑古文) by the editor.[41][40]

A number of specimens of the analogous tale also occurs in Korea.[l][39] Tōru Takahashi [ja] translated one version of the Korean Kobutori. Here the first old man deceives the goblins (dokkaebi) saying the source of his bel canto voice is the lump on his cheek, and sells it. The second old man with a lump was a fine singer too, but receives the detached lump which goblins discovered to be useless.[43] Chʻoe In-hak's selected anthology also includes a kobutori tale.[44]

European analogues

Charles Wycliffe Goodwin noticed that the Japanese "Kobutori" tale was analogous to the Irish "The Legend of Knockgrafton", presenting his finding in 1875, though this was not printed for the public at large until 1885.[12] The Irish tale had been published by Thomas Crofton Croker in 1824 or 1825, and Goodwin first noticed the similarity after reading Mitford's brief version of the Japanese tale. Goodwin subsequently obtained a fuller version of the story which he printed in his paper.[12] The resemblance of "The Legend of Knockgrafton" to the Japanese folktale was also noted by Joseph Jacobs in 1894.[4]

Joseph Bédier in 1895 noted the resemblance between the Japanese tale and a tale from Picardy which contains the same formula as the Irish one: the fairies sing the beginning days of the week, and the second hunchback upsets them by adding days.[38][45]

Explantory notes

  1. ^ This title was No. 7 of the English-translated Japanese Fairy Tale Series, produced by wood-block printing on crepe paper by Hasegawa Takejirō.[5] The illustrator for the volume is indeterminate.[6]
  2. ^ Cf. Shippeitaro where the temple becomes a "chapel".
  3. ^ Lucy Fraser, lecturer in Japanese at the University of Queensland, Australia.
  4. ^ In Iwaya (1927), Riddell tr. (1914), and Ozaki (1903), the swelling was a source irritation and he tried to remove it consulting the physician.
  5. ^ Compare with the "orange" size lump (text says "large-type orange" conjectured be natsumikan), according to the medieval Uji Shūi Monogatari version of the tale. See below.
  6. ^ Ozaki's translation describes it to be "like a tennis-ball".
  7. ^ [19]; A hollow (うろ) by the root of a large tree. In Ozaki (1903), the old man first sees a charcoal-burner's hut. There are additional details in Iwaya (1927), p. 136–137 (and Riddell tr. (1914)): the old man sees a flash of lightning and chants "Kuwabara kuwabara". He then expected to see "the other wood-cutters" (他の木樵達). Note that in the medieval tale he is unequivocably a wood-cutter who earned his living selling firewood.[20]
  8. ^ One-eyed individuals are illustrated in Hepburn (1888) but the details is wanting in the Iwaya (1927) Japanese and Riddell tr. (1914).
  9. ^ Rendered "demons" (Ozaki (1903), Riddell tr. (1914)); "devils" (Hepburn (1888); "monsters" (Tyler (1987)).
  10. ^ As already noted during the Edo Period by Kitamura Nobuyo [ja] in his Kiyūshōran [ja] (1830).
  11. ^ A woodcutter with a lump on his nape has it removed by oni, and a different man of the hamlet with a lump on his neck gets a second lump.[40]
  12. ^ Chʻoe In-hak (崔仁鶴（チェ・インハク）) 최인학 Kankoku mukashibanashi no kenkyū classifies the Korean version as "476 the old man with his lump removed", and specifies 11 tale examples.[39][42]

References

Citations
  1. ^ a b Iwaya (1927) "Kobutori" (in Japanese)
  2. ^ Seki, Keigo, ed. (1927). "16. Kobutori Jiisan" 16 こぶとり爺さん. Nihon no mukashibanashi dai-ichi (Kobutori jiisan, Kachikachi yama) 日本の昔ばなし 第1 (こぶとり爺さん・かちかち山) (in Japanese). Iwanami. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  3. ^ a b Lanham, Betty B.; Shimura, Masao (January–March 1967), "Folktales Commonly Told American and Japanese Children: Ethical Themes of Omission and Commission", The Journal of American Folklore, 80 (315): 36 et passim., JSTOR 538416
  4. ^ a b Jacobs, Joseph, ed. (1894), "(Notes to) XL The Legend of Knockgrafton", More Celtic Fairy Tales, pp. 230–231; online via Internet Archive.
  5. ^ a b Sharf, Frederic Alan (1994), Takejiro Hasegawa: Meiji Japan's Preeminent Publisher of Wood-block-illustrated Crepe-paper Books, Peabody Essex Museum Collections, vol. 130, Salem: Peabody Essex Museum
  6. ^ "The Old Man & the Devils" 『瘤取』（Kobutori）. Crepe-Paper Books and Woodblock Prints at the Dawn of Cultural Enlightenment in Japan. Kyoto University of Foreign Studies. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
  7. ^ a b Guth, Christine M. E. (2008), Pellizzi, Francesco (ed.), "Hasegawa's fairy tales: Toying with Japan", Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics, vol. 53/54, Harvard University Press, p. 273, ISBN 087365840X
  8. ^ Ozaki (1903). J. Fairy Book: "translated from.. Sadanami Sanjin". Herring, Ann King (1988). "Early Translations of Japanese Fairy-Tales and Children's Literature". Phaedrus: 100. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help): "..»Sadanami«. This name is a misprint of the nom de plume of Sazanami Iwaya".
  9. ^ Fraser, Lucy. "Foreword" in Ozaki, Yei Theodora (2018). Japanese Folktales: Classic Stories from Japan's Enchanted Past. Tuttle. ISBN 1462920101.
  10. ^ Rogala, Jozef (2001). A Collector's Guide to Books on Japan in English. Taylor & Francis. pp. 102–103. ISBN 9781873410912. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  11. ^ Herring (1988), p. 100. Others such as Fanny Greene.
  12. ^ a b c d Goodwin, Charles Wycliffe Goodwin (1885), "On Some Japanese Legends", Transactions The Asiatic Society Of Japan, 3 (Part 2): 46–52
  13. ^ a b c Tyler (1987) tr. "Lump off, Lump On". pp. 239–241.
  14. ^ a b c d e Hepburn (1888) tr. "The Old Man and the Devils". Reprinted in Hearn (1918) Japanese Fairy Tales. pp. 73–76.
  15. ^ a b Ozaki (1903) tr. "How an Old Man Lost his Wen". pp. 273–282.
  16. ^ Riddell tr. (1914) Part 10 of 12. "The Old Man with the Wen".
  17. ^ kobu (瘤) is "lump" or "wen". The tale says it grows on the right side (Hepburn (1888), and Iwaya (1927) in Japanese), but was overlooked by Riddell tr. (1914).
  18. ^ Espada, Gonzalo J. de la, tr.,, ed. (1914). El viejo y los demonios. Cuentos del Japón viejo, No. 6 (in Spanish). Anonymous (illustr.). T. Hasegawa. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link)
  19. ^ Iwaya (1927), p. 136.
  20. ^ a b c d e f Shirane, Haruo, ed. (1894), "A Collection of Tales from Uji", Traditional Japanese Literature: An Anthology, Beginnings to 1600, New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 329–332, ISBN 0231157304
  21. ^ Iwaya (1927), pp. 137–139 Japanese text. First referred to as bakemono (化け物) then interchangeably as oni (鬼).
  22. ^ Iwaya (1927), pp. 138–139.
  23. ^ Iwaya (1927), p. 142. Riddell tr. (1914) Ozaki (1903)
  24. ^ In Iwaya (1927), p. 142, Riddell tr. (1914), Ozaki (1903), the demons arrive at their own conclusion that the lump is some sort of lucky charm, without the old man's contrivance. In Hepburn (1888), the old man encourages them to believe it by saying the lump was something he would not willingly part with.
  25. ^ Iwaya (1927), p. 143, Riddell tr. (1914), Ozaki (1903).
  26. ^ Hepburn (1888); Iwaya (1927), p. 143 Riddell tr. (1914) Ozaki (1903)
  27. ^ Iwaya (1927), p. 145: kashira no ōoni (頭の大鬼) literally "chief big-demon" Riddell tr. (1914): "King Demon", Ozaki (1903): "the demon chief".
  28. ^ Hepburn (1888): "brought the lump and stuck it on the other side of his face".
  29. ^ Iwaya (1927), p. 146: (瘤をば頬（ほっ）ぺためがけて打ちつけ) literally "struck aiming at the cheek", and Iwaya (1911) has the (おしつける) literally "press at", which Ozaki (1903) and Riddell tr. (1914) translate as "threw at". The medieval tale actually agrees: (今片方の顔に投げ付けたりければ) tr. "threw the wen at the old man's other cheek"..[20]
  30. ^ Iwaya (1927), p. 146: the two lumps looked like calabash (瓢箪, hyōtan), which Ozaki (1903) closely renders as "Japanese gourd".Riddell tr. (1914) gives "ends of a dumbell".
  31. ^ Tsukamoto (1922) ed., p. 4 note. The variant's plain text @ Komazawa U.
  32. ^ Seisen-ban Nihon kokugo dai-jiten 精選版 日本国語大辞典. s. v. "ōkōji 大柑子" via Kotobank. Accessed 2020-04-24.
  33. ^ Mitford, A. B., ed. (1894), "The Elves and the Envious Neighbour", Tales of Old Japan In Two Volumes, London: Macmillan, pp. 276–277
  34. ^ Yanagita, Kunio, ed. (1941) [1934], "Kobu futatsu" 瘤二つ, Nihon no mukashibanashi 日本の昔話, Mikuni Shobō, pp. 155–157
  35. ^ "The tumor doubled (瘤二つ, Kobu futatsu)". Mayer, Fanny Hagin; Yanagita, Kunio (1952), "'Yanagita Kunio': Japanese Folk Tales", Folklore Studies, 11 (1), JSTOR 1177324
  36. ^ Ikeda, Hiroko (1971), A type and motif index of Japanese folk-literature, FF Communications 209, Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, p. 128
  37. ^ Antoni, Klaus (1991), "Momotaro (The Peach Boy) and the Spirit of Japan: Concerning the Function of a Fairy Tale in Japanese Nationalism of the Early Showa Age", Asian Folklore Studies, 50: 182, n19
  38. ^ a b Matsubara, Hideichi (1990-01-01), "The Migration of a Buddhist Theme", in Toyama, Jean Yamasaki; Ochner, Nobuko (eds.), Literary Relations East and West: Selected Essays, III, University of Hawaii at Manoa, pp. 162–165
  39. ^ a b c Oshima (1984)[1977]. p. 302.
  40. ^ a b Nagayoshi, Masao (1989), "Dazai Shundai to Sango" 太宰春台と「産語」 [Dazai Syundai and Sango], Bulletin of the Faculty of Literature, Otemon Gakuin University (23): 311–309
  41. ^ Nagayoshi 1989, pp. 313–311.
  42. ^ Kawamori, Hiroshi (1991-03-30), "Nihon mukashibanashi ni okeru tairitsu no kōzō" 日本昔話における対立の構造--隣モチ-フを中心に [Typical Antagonism Revealed in Japanese Folktales], Bulletin of the National Museum of Japanese History (in Japanese), 32: 14–15, doi:10.15024/00000469
  43. ^ Takahashi, Toru [in Japanese] (1910), "Kobutori" 瘤取, Chōsen no monogatarishū 朝鮮の物語集, Seoul: Nikkan shobō, pp. 1–5
  44. ^ Chʻoe (1974), p. 55.
  45. ^ Bédier, Joseph (1895). Les fabliaux: études de littérature populaire et d'histoire littéraire du moyen âge. Cuentos del Japón viejo, No. 6 (in French). É. Bouillon. p. 276. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
Bibliography

Chʻoe, In-hak, ed. (1974), Chōsen mukashibnashi hyakusen 朝鮮昔話百選 (in Japanese), Nihon Hōsō Shuppan Kyōkai

  • Oshima, Takehiko [in Japanese] (1984), "Uji shūi monogatari to mukashibanashi" 『宇治拾遺物語』と昔話, in Seki, Keigo (ed.), 昔話と文学 (in Japanese), pp. 302–. First appeared in Setsuwa bungaku kenkyū (12), 1977, pp. 49–56.
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