Japanese folk tales are called, "mukashi banashi". They begin with a set phrase like, "Once upon a time (Mukashi Mukashi aru tokoro ni ...)". The characters of a "mukashi banashi" often include an old man and an old woman, or man with a name like Taro or Jiro. There are a few hundred stories that are considered standard Japanese folktales. Many Japanese grow up being very familiar with them. There was a popular TV series called, "Manga Nihon Mukashi Banashi", which is an animated version of famous folktales. You can watch some of them on Youtube. I noticed one of the stories; " Hanasaka Jiisan (Grandfather Cherry Blossom)" has English sub-titles, which I think would be great to use for listening practice. I wrote out the dialogue for the first two minutes in Japanese and romaji. I hope you can use it as a study aid. If you find it useful, please let me know and I will add more dialogue in the future.
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Comments
sounds interesting, heard the word but didn’t know it had a place in the culture, like old folklore.. I’ll check it out, thx
Namiko-san,
Thank you so much for this write-up! Just last week I was thinking of these old folk tales and was trying to search on You Tube for them (but was not successful). This television series is something I remember watching during my childhood in Hawaii. What I remembered most was that every episode began with “Mukashi, mukashi. . .” What a coincidence that you have written about this now. You’ve put a smile on my face today!
Thank you!
~Jason~
That one was very interesting! I really love reading your blogs!
I do want to tell you something. Please create a Facebook page. I really love Facebook. It is a great way to connect with friends, family, and teachers. You can also make new friends too. We can be friends on Facebook, and connect with each other that way.
Thanks. Great Post!
thank you very mutch..
great article..and I think that there is a relationship between “Mukashi Mukashi aru tokoro ni” and the sentence Once upon a time in Arabian Nights
thanks for a nice tip in learning Japanese! looking forward to more fairy-tales
Namiko-sensei, thank you for these links in Youtube! I agree with you, that it’s very useful tool to learn Japanese and Japanese culture. Greetings from Spain.
As part of my Japanese study program, I’ve decided to read folktales written for pre-school and elementary-age students. These are mostly written in hiragana and use the simplest kanji (with furigana, of course). First I’m re-writing each page in a notebook to practice writing Japanese; next I’ll work on translating the text as best I can. My first challenge is reading “Kaguyahime”, one of my favorite Japanese folktales. Thank you for the interesting information you share about Japanese culture, customs, and language. And thank you too, for all the encouragement you give to your many followers worldwide!