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Fairy Tales of Japan — Part 10 of 24 (The Happy Hunter and the Skillful Fisher)
Description
Hohodemi, the Happy Hunter of the Mountains, trades callings with his brother the Skillful Fisher for a single day — and loses his brother's one precious fishing hook in the sea. A thousand new hooks forged from his own broken sword cannot buy forgiveness, so he rides a woven basket down to Ryn Gu, the Dragon King's palace beneath the waves, where a suffering red bream carries the answer in its throat. Three years of feasting in the sea realm pass like days, and he comes home at last on the back of a great crocodile, bearing the two Tide-Jewels of the Sea — the Jewel of the Flood Tide and the Jewel of the Ebbing Tide — and a heart still set on mercy over vengeance. Ozaki's telling of the great Kojiki sea-palace myth: the longest tale on this shelf, and its set-piece.
From Japanese Fairy Tales by Yei Theodora Ozaki (1908), public domain; told in a fresh in-house rendering.
KacheliTV — world classics, read aloud.