Four 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, The Sazaye and the Tai: the sazaye, proud of his high, thick shell — a castle no enemy can force — is flattered by the tai and the herring, snaps his trap-door shut at a splash, and takes a long, safe nap, and wakes to find what his security has brought him to. Then, Smells and Jingles: Kisaburo the miser moves next door to Kichibei the eel-broiler and dines daily on the smell of the broiled eels he will not pay for — until Kichibei presents his bill for the smell, and Kisaburo empties his strong-box and pays him, fairly, in kind. Then, The Lake of the Lute and the Matchless Mountain: in one terrible earthquake night, the earth that sank in Omi became Lake Biwa, blue as the sky and shaped like a four-stringed lute, and the earth that rose in Suruga became Fuji, the matchless mountain — and a king of far-off China, seeking the elixir of life said to be hidden on its summit, sails with five hundred youths and virgins to the Happy Isles of the East. And last, The Waterfall of Yoro, or the Fountain of Youth: in a winter of deep snow, a young woodcutter who goes hungry so his old father may have his warm rice-wine follows the faint scent of wine up a mountain dell, and finds a foaming waterfall that runs with wine itself.
Disclosure: this performance is narrated by AI-generated voices.
Chapters:
00:35 Introduction
01:47 The Sazaye and the Tai
05:21 Smells and Jingles
07:58 The Lake of the Lute and the Matchless Mountain
17:17 The Waterfall of Yoro, or the Fountain of Youth
From Japanese Fairy World by William Elliot Griffis (1880), public domain; told in fresh in-house renderings.
Music: "Avian Impressions" (instrumental) — opening and closing theme, with a short excerpt between stories.
KacheliTV — world classics, read aloud.
