Once Upon a Time in Japan

by Ralph F. McCarthy (Compiler), Ralph F. McCarthy (Translator)

Japan has an ancient oral tradition of folk stories for children that are highly evocative and impart a valuable moral lesson. This is a collection of eight of the stories, accompanied by "manga" illustrations from the television animated version.

This book contains following tales:

Issun Boshi, the Inch-High Samurai
Momotaro, the Peach Boy
Grandfather Cherry Blossom
Tanabata
Kintaro
The Bamboo-Cutter's Tale
Click-Clack Mountain
Urashima Taro

Genres: Japan, Fiction, Fantasy, Classics, Japanese Literature

160 pages, Paperback

First published December 20, 1985

About the author

RALPH F. McCARTHY is a writer, lyricist, and translator from Michigan and California. Among his translations are another collection of stories by Osamu Dazai, Self Portraits, and 69 by Ryu Murakami.

Reviews

[Esmé]

This is probably one of the first books I ever read based on the way I’ve written my name on the front of my copy in red pencil crayon and honestly like what a great book of stories. So silly and actually helped me know the stories of my background when I was a kid since idk who was gonna tell me. The images have lived in my head for years and the art style being different for every story is pretty iconic. Anyway, I used this to help my first tutoring student practice his reading and he loved it cuz there was so much violence and revenge 💀 Did not realize when I was a kid that this book is actually made for Japanese student learning English, so actually a perfect book for a kid who needs to get his reading level up.

[vicalicalic]

Surprisingly violent

[Ley]

Cute stories. :) I love that it's bilingual! Thanks, Khonie, for letting me borrow your book. :)

[Rex]

Took me a while to get through all the stories but here we are. I love the dark stories combined with the cute drawings. My favorite stories are ‘How the old man lost his wen’ which I read to my kids all the time (and my mom read to me all the time), ‘why the jellyfish has no bones’ (which I shamelessly plagiarized for a school project in 1999), and Click-clack mountain, a mean spirited and shockingly dark story of revenge and cruelty toward grandmas. I can’t wait to take 20 years to read volume 2.

[Steffanie]

I started with volume 3, and liked so much that I went back and bought 1 and 2.

This is 1, and the stories contained are:

1. Bamboo Hats for Jizo
2. The Monkey and the Crabs
3. Click-Clack Mountain
4. Issun Boshi, the Inch-High Samurai
5. The Tanuki Band of Shojoji
6. The One-Straw Millionaire
7. Momotaro, the Peach Boy
8. How the Old Man Lost His Wen
9. Why the Jellyfish has No Bones
10. The Magic Bandanna

So many of these stories are about poor men becoming rich, my just being good people. Unlucky men becoming lucky, grumpy men becoming marred. They all involve talking animals, or demons or gods. Love the tales, and want to teach them to my kids, especially if they come out Japanese.

'Why the Jellyfish Has No Bones' also reveals why the tortoise shell is alligatored. Well, I can go on and on, but you should read these fables. Ask me if you want to borrow the book. I can send it to you, no prob.

[Hiina Shiota]

This book contained stories that are very popular in Japan, and to be known by others who do not know about the Japanese cultures. There were many famous Japanese stories that people who yet have never come to Japan or have never known their fairytales should know. For example, there was a popular story called Momotaro, the Peach Boy, where this main character goes on a journey to fight against the evil demons. There were other stories, and each story contained several morals that people should understand. This book is very great to be read by children and young adults who have never heard of Japanese fairytales or stories.

[Reem]

Of course I didn't understand anything except for a few words from the Japanese part (it is though an achievement that I am able to read Japanese). However, the English translation was quite good for me to enjoy the stories and learn about Japanese folk tales.

[Rose]

It was cute and a simple way to pass some time.

[Linda]

This is a quick read into the world of Japanese folk tales. What makes this also interesting is the fact that this is a bilingual story book, so for Japanese learners, this is a story that is filled with easy to read words in Japanese. Stories mentioned in this book include Momotaro, Tanabata, and other well known Japanese stories. The images used in this book is from a dated cartoon depictions. This is an easy book that is a series from the publisher. Good for adult readers learning the language.

[Anita Bakhtiar]

I read this book as a child, and what made the fairy tales stand out were the amazing illustrations that accompanied them. A must-read for anyone interested in Japanese folklore!

[Melissa]

３.５★ The book has the following eight classic Japanese 昔話（むかしばなし）(fairy tales): 一寸法師 (Issun Boshi, the Inch-High Samurai), 桃太郎 (Momotaro, the Peach Boy), 花咲か爺さん (Grandfather Cherry Blossom), 七夕さま (Tanabata), 金太郎 (Kintaro), かぐや姫 (The Bamboo-Cutter's Tale), かちかち山 (Click-Clack Mountain), 浦島太郎 (Urashima Taro). I mostly enjoyed each story, though some of them had sad endings (unlike Americanized fairy tales). The story of Tanabata was different from one that I had heard previously, so I'm curious to find other tellings of Tanabata now. I read through the stories in Japanese, sometimes peeking at the English if I felt like I was missing something.

All the stories are bilingual texts with the Japanese on the left page and English translation on the facing page. Unfortunately, like most children's stories, though the Japanese text has some kanji (all with furigana), there is still quite a bit of hiragana (I guess of kanji that's not learned in the first few grades?). I don't see why they couldn't have fully kanji-fied text with furigana.

Something else to note is that the English translation is *not* a sentence-by-sentence translation of the Japanese text. Sometimes the sentences match up, sometimes they're re-ordered, sometimes they differ in details, and sometimes there's simply no equivalent sentence(s) (or thought(s)) on the facing page.

[Johncady]

This is a wonderful children's book filled with Japanese folk tales that translate into any culture. I first read this as a child and loved it, especially the tale of the "inch high Samurai". Each tale has its own message about overcoming adversity, kindness to strangers, and the value of self confidence. I would recommend this book to anyone with children.

[Amy]

Recently I have read two other books in this series, and this book has a repeat of stories! So I was not happy about that.

However, it does have some very famous stories, like "Momotaro" and "Urashima Taro."

[David]

This was a lot of fun. Great tales, intended for kids or not, and the illustrations are neat. My Japanese is way too basic to make use of the bilingual part, but that's my own problem. The book was thoroughly enjoyable regardless.

[adya]

A great collection of short stories with adorable illustrations as well. It doesn't shy away from the somewhat brutal aspects of the folk tales, which I liked. Many of the stories serve as moral lessons as well.

[Snufkin]

A good selection and a decent selection, grew up to these stories :-)

[Sree Parvathi]

cute and inspiring...