Japanese Folk Tales

Omusubi Kororin

I do not own any of these stories, nor the media/pictures shown. All credits go to the rightful and respectful owners and artists/photographers.

Once upon a time, there lived an old man. He was a nice and generous man, even to his neighbours. One day, the old man went to the hillside to take a break from working in the fields. He took out his packed lunch, which were rice balls*. 

While he was eating, he accidentally dropped some of his rice balls into a mice hole. Surprised, the old man went closer to the small hole to see where his rice ball went. 

As he went closer, he could hear tiny, small voices. 

"Yay! We have food!", A group of mice exclaimed together as they happily danced in their title hole. The mice noticed the old man peering at them, looking a bit confused. 

"Thank you for the food, mister!" A mouse said. "You are very kind to give us some of your food!"

"Oh, it's nothing," the old man replied. "It is my pleasure."

"As a token of our gratitude," the mice took out two different sized boxes. "Please, take one, kind mister!" 

The old man wasn't a selfish and greedy one, so he chose the smaller box. "Thank you, little mice." The old man stood up and walked back home.

When he arrived back at his house, he placed the small box on his table and opened it. To his shock, the box was filled with gold and precious jewels and stones. He was very surprised, but he felt that he should share some of his newly obtained wealth with his neighbours. 

His neighbours gladly accepted his gifts, and thanked him after. However, his next-door neighbour was not pleased. He was jealous at how much wealth the old man got when he was out in the fields. After knowing what the old man had did, he took off with a couple of rice balls in hand.

Impatient, the man placed the rice balls in the mice hole, just like what the old man had done. He then peered inside the little hole. 

"Yay!!! We have food once again!" the mice danced around happily. They looked up and saw the young man. "Thank you very much, kind sir! As a token of our gratitude, please take one box!" the mice then took out two boxes with different sizes. 

Unlike the old man, this young man was very greedy. He wanted both boxes for himself. 'If I scare away these mice, I could get both boxes, or more!' , the young man thought to himself.

Driven by greed, the young man acted as if he was a cat in order to scare the mice. Although the man tried his hardest to scare off the poor mice, the mice were furious at him for showing such behaviour. 

To make him learn his lesson, the mice altogether attacked the young man and murdered him until he was no more. 

*rice balls = can also be called onigiri.

Looking at the picture makes me a bit hungry hehe :D

Another chapter updated again, since there's not much to do during the quarantine haha... This folktale also reminds me of another folktale (Indonesian folklore) that I heard from a friend of mine. There are similar factors in it too, which is quite interesting... 

Anyway, that'll be all from me today! Stay safe and healthy, guys!

- lizbeth