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The Japanese Folktale, The Marriage of a Mouse, was retold in Junko Morimoto's 1986, The Mouse's Marriage. This tale's central theme is to satirize, or poke fun at, individuals who see themselves as worth more than others. And the moral of the story is that the answer to your search is sometimes right in front of you all along.
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The story starts with an overly-arrogant mouse who proclaims himself the king of all mice. He formed the Mouse Kingdom, which was a large, open field. Afterward, he elevates his status to a king, his wife to a queen, and his daughter to a princess. With his nose turned to the sky, he firmly believed his family to be better than others.
Due to the Mouse King's pride, he refused every mouse who wished to befriend the young Mouse Princess, as no one met his regal standards. Therefore, the Mouse Princess grew up alone without any playmates. Even when the Mouse Princess came of age to be married to a suitor, the Mouse King declared that no mouse was worthy of her hand.
Searching for the strongest suitor for his daughter, the Mouse King embarked on a journey. As no mouse dared to propose to the lovely Mouse Princess, the Mouse King went and asked for advice from his older and wiser uncle, who directed him to go search for the Sun – the strongest being in the land. So, off the Mouse King went to find the Sun.
Climbing mountains, walking on rainbows, and traversing through arduous terrains, King Mouse finally reached the Sun's palace. Cheery as can be, the Sun inquired why King Mouse and his family were there to see him. After King Mouse explained his grand desire for the Sun to marry his daughter, the Sun laughed, saying it was the clouds who were stronger than him. Clouds, after all, can cover the Sun and thwart the Sun's power for a significant amount of time. Hearing these words, the Mouse King told the Sun that he indeed wasn't the suitor, after all.
Although the Mouse King left without even a single squeak, the Sun smiled and waved as his guests went on their merry way. The Mouse King and his family went even higher in the sky, reaching the southernmost tower where the Clouds could be found. The Clouds inquired why the Mouse King had ventured all that way to see him. After explaining what the Sun had said about the Clouds, the Clouds sighed and rectified the misunderstanding:
Similar to what the Sun had said, the Clouds spoke of a far greater being than himself – The Wind. Yes! The Wind, who easily moves the Clouds to and fro, is a certainly more powerful entity than the Clouds. Stating that the Clouds weren't worthy of the Mouse King's daughter, the Mouse Family went on their way once again.
Spanning the whole sky, the Mouse King went north and discovered the almighty Wind. Laughing as loudly as can be, the Wind inquired why they had come to see him. Proclaiming that the Wind was the strongest being to exist, the Wind let out a violent gust, denying the Mouse King's claims. For the Wind was at the mercy of the unmovable fortress. Dismayed once more, the Mouse King took his family and went to find the being stronger than the Wind.
Progressing onward, the Mouse King found himself nearly right back where he began his journey – at a city next to the wide, open field that made up the Mouse Kingdom. The fortress wall's response to the Mouse King's marriage proposal was to immediately decline his statement. "For there is someone even stronger than me," the city walls yelled. The Mouse King asked who this mysteriously powerful being could be...
Lo and behold, the strongest being in the land was none other than a Gray Mouse who gnawed away furiously at the inside of the castle walls. Giving up all hope of finding someone stronger, the Mouse King allowed the Gray Mouse to marry his daughter, the Mouse Princess. Unbeknownst to the Mouse King, the Mouse Princess secretly was in love with the Gray Mouse found in the castle walls, so she was over the moon with happiness at this turn of events.
