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.



Once upon a time, there lived a kind old man and a mean old man. The kind old man had a big lump on his right cheek, and the mean old man had one on his left cheek.



One day, the kind old man went to the mountains to get firewood.
He was tired from working and fell asleep in the shade of a big tree.



The old man woke up to lively, loud voices, and from behind a tree he saw red and blue demons sit in a circle, drinking rice wine.



At first the old man was astonished and scared by the sight, but he slowly became happy as he watched the demons sing and dance.

“Hmm, this looks like fun. Why don’t I join them and dance?”he said, and walked up to the demons without fear. 



“Hey, hey, who is this old guy?”
said the demons surprised at the stranger’s appearance.

But soon, they started clapping for the old man’s funny dance.



When the old man finished dancing, one demon said to him,

“Hey, old man, we sure liked your unique dance. Come again and dance for us.”
“Yeah, do come again. And take this treasure as a reward,”
said another demon.

“Come again next month. We’ll keep your lump until then so you won’t forget to come,”
said the third demon, and took the lump from the old man’s cheek.



This kind old man’s story made the mean old man very anxious to meet the demons; so he went to the mountain on the day of their next party. When the demons started drinking, the mean old man went right up to them, and began dancing.
However, his dance was so bad that the demons got angry at him.



“Hey, you, stop. Your dancing is no fun at all,”
shouted one demon.

“Yeah, it’s so different from the other day. We don’t wanna see such boring dancing,”
said another demon, thinking this was the kind old man.

“Just stop and go home,”
said the third.

“Here, take this lump of yours, too, and never come back,”

Still mistaking the two old men, another demon said, and he put the kind old man’s lump on the mean old man’s right cheek.



Now with a lump on both cheeks, the mean old man walked home crying full of regret for being so selfish.

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?