The
Stolen Charm
by Courtney Gentry
E-mail me
Grandma Hisayo and I invited my
great-uncle to have dinner
at the local restaurant tonight, and he gladly accepted.
I was hoping that he would have another story
to share! I really enjoyed his story
about the rooster yesterday when we visited his farm.
This restaurant was supposed to be the
best one on the
island with many different kinds of sushi.
I was not that crazy about sushi, but I liked the kind Grandma
Hisayo
made. She told me that the restaurant’s
sushi was made fresh every day and was even better than hers. We would see…
We drove back to my great-uncle’s farm to
pick him up then
headed to the restaurant and then my stomach was
beginning to growl. I could not wait to
try some authentic Japanese cuisine!
We arrived there and went inside to get a
table. The restaurant was small and cozy,
and I
noticed that there were many statues of small silver ships and animals
such as
the fox, dog and rat. There was also a
large painting of a black rat on the wall.
Maybe the rat was a very special animal in Japan?
“Why are there so many statutes of the
ship and animals?” I asked
Grandma Hisayo.
“Oh, this restaurant is called the Stolen
Charm,” she
replied. “There was a legend on this
island about the stolen charm and the three animals.
Perhaps this is a good time to ask your
great-uncle for another story?”
I smiled and nodded at her.
Absolutely! This sounded like a
really good story.
Grandma Hisayo translated our
conversation for my
great-uncle, and he began to chuckle.
“Yes, I remember the legend,” he said.
“See that woman over there by the fish tank?”
I looked behind me, and I could see an
elderly woman cleaning the fish tank.
She looked like the owner of the restaurant.
My great-uncle began the story…
“She is the great-great-great-great-granddaughter of the man
who once lived here a very long time ago.
He was a wealthy merchant and very well-known on the island.
Everybody liked him.
He had two pets: A fox cub and a
puppy. They were precious to him, but not
as
precious as the silver ship charm. It
looked just like one of those statues but smaller.
Legend says that a god gave him this charm,
but nobody knows what god.
One morning, this
man woke up to find that his charm was
gone! He was so upset that he could not
eat
for days. His heart grieved so much that
it was about to give away. His pets were
worried about him, so they decided to team up and retrieve their
master’s
stolen charm. The fox-cub knew that an
ogre lived on the other side of the island near the end of the world,
and he
was pretty sure that this ogre stole his master’s charm.
He told the puppy about this, and they
set out on a journey
to the ogre’s house. Along the way, they
met a black rat. The rat was very clever
and cunning, so they asked the rat to accompany them.
They all enjoyed one another’s company on the
way.
They reached the ogre’s house and saw
that the ogre was
standing in the direction of the man’s house, watching for any movement. The ogre was hoping that this man would die
so he could steal more things. In the
meantime, the three animals worked together to dig a tunnel under the
ogre’s
house. The rat went to find the box that
contained the charm and began to nibble away.
The
ogre came back to the house for lunch, so the fox-cub
and puppy turned themselves into a little boy and a little girl and
began to
play with the ogre’s things. The ogre
was puzzled at this because his doors were locked.
He began to devise a plan to kill them, but
they all got away once the rat retrieved the charm.
The master was so happy when he woke up
the next morning to
find the charm back in its place! He had
a dream later that night about how the fox-cub, puppy and the rat went
to the
ogre’s house to get the charm. He began
to worship the rat afterwards.
That is why people here do not think very
badly of the
rat! That is also why the fox will
befriend the dog even though the fox is often pursued by dogs. The dog won’t bite the fox if the fox turns
around to face the dog while being pursued.”
As he finished the story, our server came over with green
tea and salad and was ready to take our order for the sushi. How delightful to hear a story as an
appetizer! I thanked my great-uncle for
sharing the story and began to think about what kind of sushi I would
order.
Join
us tomorrow for the final story…
Author's Note
For
my third story, I chose one that would explain two phenomena:
The reason why the Ainu do not perceive the
rat in a bad way and why foxes and dogs can get along sometimes. My great-uncle returns as the storyteller and
tells a longer tale this time. The
original story was a bit longer with more details, so I omitted them to
make
the version shorter. For example, in the
original story, the ogre sees the three animals (two disguised as
children)
fleeing and does not attempt to go after them because he is afraid of
an
encounter with the fox.
I also made up the part
about the restaurant owner being a
descendant of the wealthy merchant. I
thought that would give the story a nice framework and an opportunity
for the
great-uncle to share another Ainu folktale on a personal level.
Image Information:
1. Photograph of a silver ship charm. Photographer
unknown. Weblink
2.
Photograph of restaurant sushi. Weblink
3. Clipart of a puppy. Weblink
4. Graphic of an ogre. Weblink
5. Clipart of fox. Weblink
6. Clipart of a black rat. Weblink
Bibliography:
Title:
The Stolen Charm
Author: Told by Ishanashte; written and translated by Basil Hall
Chamberlain
Book: Aino Folk Tales, 1888
Weblink
