Week 10 Story: The Forgotten Son

There once was a boy that lived in the deep woods of Japan. He was a child of nature and spent many hours outside with the animals that were native to the forest. The child's name was Kintaro. He was the son of a ferocious and brave warrior that had been crossed by old friends and nobles. Kintaro lived with this mother deep in the woods. She chose to flee the city after her husband's death and raise her child in secret. He was a gifted boy with many talents. Kintaro was smart and he had a very genuine appreciation for nature. He was friends with the animals of the forest because they respected him. He also had no one else to bond with.

The reality of growing up in the forest was different from a life in the city. Kintaro did not understand how gifted he truly was. There was no one else for Kintaro to compare himself to. He had incredible strength. His own strength rivaled that of a fully grown man. He would play games with the different animals of the forest and he would often wrestle and fight with them. Kintaro would always come out as the victor. He would even challenge his best friend the bear and never lose. He was a truly incredible child.

One day an old lumberjack saw Kintaro playing with his animal friends. The lumberjack was confused by this and decided to follow the animals and Kintaro as they played. He followed the group to a river without a way to cross. Kintaro casually pulled a massive tree out of the ground and used it as a bridge for the group to cross. The man was impressed and continued to follow Kintaro to his home.

The old man introduced himself to Kintaro's mother and explained that he was a general in the army of Japan. He explained that his duty was to find extraordinary children and train them to become warriors of Japan. With a bit of discussion and convincing, Kintaro's mother let her son join the man back to the capital. Kintaro would go on to become one of the greatest and most ferocious warriors that Japan had ever seen. He would return in his adult years to care for his mother and ensure her health and safety.

(A photo of Kintaro with the animals of the forest. Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Author's Note: The story that I told was very similar to the source story. The original story is much longer and has a lot of details that I left out. However, the events that unfold are pretty much the same. Kintaro has many friends in the forest and the old woodcutter spots him the same way. Kintaro goes on to be trained as a samurai and great warrior. He becomes Chief of the Four Braves and serves the Lord Raiko well. 

Bibliography: The Adventures of Kintaro, The Golden Boy from Japanese Fairy Tales by Yei Theodora Ozaki. Source: UnTextbook

Reading Notes: Mississippi Valley/Great Lakes, Part B

I finished the reading for the second unit. I enjoyed the stories, and I like the fact that each one can stand alone by itself. I have definitely noticed that the storytelling style is different from a lot of the other units we have had in this class. I took notes over a couple of my favorite stories from this unit, and I hope I will be able to craft a great story. My favorite story is the tale of how deer used to be man eaters.

• I really liked the description of each predator and its prey
• The story of the wolf shedding its skin to catch the deer was cool
• I also like the confidence of the fish 
• The Fish Hawk was still able to best the fish and track down his food
• The confidence of the second deer to best the human was surprising
• The deer was witness to the wit and power of the human hunter
• I like how the story ends with deer accepting the loss and settling to eat twigs and grass
• The story of the hare and the lynx was also similar 
• It seemed that the hare was determined to find its way back home
• The lynx constantly stalked the hare and made it afraid of its presence
• I really liked the constant riddle-like conversations the two had
• The lynx was just playing with its food the whole time
• The hare was finally confident enough to run without regard for the lynx
• The lynx quietly stalked the hare and devoured it in the end

I really liked the small stories in this unit. I think it is cool to see how the origins of some animals are presented. There are lots of riddles and conversations that occur between animals in these stories. This is something that I found particularly unique about this unit.

(A photo of a deer like the one from the story. Source: Pixaby)

Bibliography: Myths and Legends of the Mississippi Valley and the Great Lakes by Katharine Berry Judson. Source: UnTextbook 

Reading Notes: Mississippi Valley/Great Lakes, Part A

This week I chose to read the Mississippi Valle/Great Lakes unit. I am fairly familiar with some of the Choctaw stories because I took Choctaw 1-3 as my foreign language. I really enjoyed learning about some of the stories from my professor, so I decided to pick this unit. I took notes over a couple of the stories from part A. I might write my story over this reading for next week instead of this week.

• The Earth Maker had a lot of cool details and analogies
• I would like to look into the different story details implemented
• I thought the tortoise was an interesting creation
• Tortoise made war and did not destroy the evil as instructed
• The advice of the grandmother is very notable
• She explains to hare that we cannot all live forever
• It was a painful realization for hare
• Death is a part of our lives and we cannot escape it
• The Creator story was really cool
• I like how the Creator is similar to many different creation stories
• He taught man how to surive
• The earth was created with water first and land later
• The crawfish created the lands by bringing mud
• The animals were foolish to ridicule man
• Creator taught man to hunt and cook
• I like the connection that the animals and man have during council
• The animals would give advice because they were much wiser

(A photo of a hare similar to the Earth Maker story. Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Bibliography: Myths and Legends of the Mississippi Valley and the Great Lakes by Katharine Berry Judson. Source: UnTextbook