There are a lot of fairy tales in Japan.
Most of Japanese really love fairy tales. Because we read so many times with parents in childhood.
And the fairy tale still continues to be read from one generation to another.
Let me share famous fairy tale with picture book. Let's try to read it.
This article was produced by General Incorporated Association of International Digital E-hon.
A long time ago, there lived a boy named Senta in a village.
One day, Senta went to the top of a hill with his lunch in a bamboo lunch box.
After eating lunch, he began to play with the lunch box, holding up to his eyes and looking into it.
“This is great. I can see the capital. I can see a big palace, too. Wow, what’s that? A temple?”
He talked to himself as he played with the box.
On the tree just behind Senta was the goblin Tengu, watching him.
Because Senta seemed so happy, Tengu wanted to have Senta’s lunch box.
Overwhelmed with temptation, Tengu came down from the tree and said to Senta,
“Hey, boy, let me see that thing.”
Senta just ignored Tengu and kept looking through his lunch box as he said to himself,
“Hmm, what is that, I wonder?”
So, Tengu said,
“OK. I’ll let you borrow my cloak of invisibility, and you let me borrow your box.”
Just as Senta handed his lunch box to Tengu, he put on Tengu’s cloak.
Then in an instant, he became invisible.
Tengu looked into the lunch box, but he could see nothing.
“Hey, you cheated me!”
shouted Tengu.
However, Senta in the cloak of invisibility could not be found.
“Give me my cloak back, cheater,”
said Tengu in anger, but Senta ran away without being seen.
When he got back home, he greeted his mother,
“Hi, Mom. I’m back.”
“Huh? I thought I heard Senta, but where is he?”
The mother wondered, looking around and not finding her son anywhere.
“This is great. I’m invisible to everyone,”
thought Senta in joyful surprise. He soon started playing tricks with the cloak on.
He stole candies from a store, threw a stone at a neighboring man who always picked on him, destroyed his grandpa’s bonsai, and so on, but nobody could see him doing it.
Fully satisfied with all of the mischief he created, Senta came home and hid the cloak in his chest of drawers. One day, his mother found the cloak in the chest.
“Oh, this is such a dirty cloak. I’ll burn it,”
she said and quickly burned the cloak.
When Senta came home, he asked his mother,
“Mom, didn’t you see my cloak in my chest?”
“I did. I burned it in the kitchen stove because it was so dirty,”
answered his mother.
So, Senta wetted his body with water and then put the ash of the cloak all over himself to become invisible again.
Senta ran outside to the nearby teahouse where he swiped sweet dumplings and a cup of tea there.
As he ate the ash on his lips came off, and just his mouth became visible.
“Oh no! A mouth monster!”
the teahouse master cried in astonishment.
Hearing his cry, people in the town gathered around.
“Look at the mouth! It’s a mouth monster,”
they said.
Just then, Senta needed to urinate and pottied right there.
“Wow! Now it’s a mouth’n penis monster!”
the people shouted as Senta’s penis became visible.
Because Senta’s mouth and penis showed, the people ran after him.
Senta ran away frantically, until at last he came to the river.
With no other choice he jumped into the river.
The ash on his body was all washed away, and his whole body became visible.
“Oh, it’s Senta. You, bad boy,”
people shouted at him.
His trick being uncovered at last, Senta was scolded severely by his mother.
The end
Is there any similar story in your country? Some fairy tales were introduced by other countries and mixed with own culture. I hope that you enjoy reading famous fairy tale.
What do you think of this fairy tale?
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