Hukumusume fairy tale collection > Foreign language (English) > Japanese classical stories

イラスト　たつよ　　　提供　らくがきの日常

A gilded kettle

(Japanese classical stories)

Translation　ちいさな翻訳屋さん

Japanese　←→　Japanese ＆ English　←→　English

　A long time ago, there was a raccoon dog which was living under a temple.

　Even though this raccoon dog was called “a bold raccoon dog” for his thin hair,

　this raccoon dog just loved to help people.


　One day at year-end, the bold raccoon dog went to a tofu shop to receive a deep fried tofu,

　a master of the shop was uttering with a sigh.

“I’m in trouble. I am running out of money and I can’t afford to buy beans to make tofu.”

　As the raccoon dog heard the talk, he said to the master of the shop,

“You don’t have to worry about anything.

　I will take care of your problem because you always give me a deep fried tofu.”

　Then the raccoon dog took the shape of a glided kettle,

and told the master to sell the kettle.

　Soon after, the kettle was bought by a rich man who just passed by the shop.

“Well, it was a pretty good deal. Look at this beautiful kettle.

　If I polish this kettle more, it would shine more.”

　The man immediately get started on polishing the kettle.

　It was sometime ticklish and sometime painful for raccoon dog who was actually the kettle.

　However, of course the man shouldn’t know the kettle was a raccoon dog, he had to keep silent. After all, he was too polished

　and his thin hair was all gone.

“Oh my goodness, my dear hair…”

　Because he could not stand to be polished any longer,

the raccoon dog ran away when the master left him alone

　and hid himself under the temple.

“Poor me. It is too embarrassing to go out with this bold head.

　But the good thing was, I could repay the tofu shop master. That’s what I am happy about.”



　Thereafter the bold raccoon dog helped people and people took care of him.

The end

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