Three more tales from old Japan continue the shelf's second book — William Elliot Griffis's Japanese Fairy World, in a shelf that brings together the two founding English collections, Ozaki's and Griffis's, read in full, in their own order. First, Lord Cuttle-Fish Gives a Concert: the Queen of the World under the Sea, well again after her long illness, hears strange music from the mansion of her palace physician, slips out with only her two maids, and from a green rock above his garden watches Lord Cuttle-Fish play three instruments at once — guitar, shoulder-drum and bass drum — while a lobster holds his candle and the tai, the gar-fish, the frog and the scandalised mackerel sing the chorus. Then, Yorimasa, the Brave Archer: the emperor Narahito cannot sleep for the frightful night-beast — monkey-headed, tiger-bodied, serpent-tailed — that howls and scratches on the palace roof, and Yorimasa, newly made chief guard, strings his bow and keeps the stormy night watch with his faithful retainer. Last, Watanabe Kills the Great Spider: Raiko lies sick while the three-eyed imp Mitsume Kozo plagues his chamber; his men follow the trail to a cavern in the mountains and find what waits there, and Raiko, recovered, receives the mikado's commission and sets out in disguise with his four trusty men.
Disclosure: this performance is narrated by AI-generated voices.
A note on the second and third tales. In Yorimasa, the stroke itself is not read here: the passage that tells the shot and the beast's end is left unread, and the tale passes from the night watch to the congratulations, the famous sword and the marriage, which stand complete. In Watanabe Kills the Great Spider, the strokes are likewise not read here: Raiko's sword-cut and the fight in the cavern are left unread, and the tale passes from the spider found in the gloom to the triumphant return and the feast, which stand complete. No completeness is claimed for those passages.
Chapters:
00:35 Introduction
01:31 Lord Cuttle-Fish Gives a Concert
14:03 Yorimasa, the Brave Archer
17:08 Watanabe Kills the Great Spider
From Japanese Fairy World by William Elliot Griffis (1880), public domain; told in fresh in-house renderings.
Music: "Desert Cello Rhapsody" (instrumental) — opening and closing theme, with a short excerpt between stories.
KacheliTV — world classics, read aloud.
