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

The Man who made flowers bloom

(Japanese classical stories)

Translation　Laurence Hunter

Japanese　←→　Japanese ＆ English　←→　English

　Once upon a time, there lived an old man and his wife.

　Since they did not have any children they lovingly cherished their dog called Shiro.



　One day Shiro was digging in the fields.

"Dig here, woof woof, dig here, woof woof" went Shiro.

　You want me to dig here eh？. Ok, I will start digging"


　After digging a while what do you think he found?

"Wow, this is amazing!"

　Out from the ground came a bag bursting with gold coins ,some large and some small.



　But a greedy old man from the next house had heard all of this

"I would also like to get my hands on some of those gold coins. Lend me your dog for a while "

　The greedy old man, then forcibly took Shiro by the scruff of the neck and walked off.

　Whimpering, Shiro unwillingly dug at the ground and revealed what seemed to be a lot of bad smelling rubbish.

"Bah, what a useless dog you are!"

　And with that, the greedy old man proceeded to beat poor Shiro to death.

　When the old man and his wife found Shiro, they cried and cried. They then buried Shiro in the field and put a stick in the ground as a grave for him.



　When the old man and his wife went to the field the next day to pray at Shiro's grave, they were astonished to find that the stick they had put in the ground had turned into a giant tree overnight.

　So the old man and his wife made a mortar from the tree trunk and pounded rice for rice cakes.

　But then a strange thing happened. From out of the rice cakes came all sorts of treasures and such.

　The greedy old man had been listening nearby again.

"I also wish to pound some rice and receive treasures like you. Lend me your mortar now."

　The greedy old man then snatched up the mortar and took it home to make rice cakes with.

　But no matter how hard he tried, all he got from there mortar were rocks and stones.

"What a useless mortar you are!"

　The greedy old man then picked up his axe and split the mortar in two, and burnt it ,until all that was left was ash.

　The old man who's mortar had been burnt to ash, took the ash home with him in a basket.

　But a strong wind blew up and sent the ash flying and presently it landed on a dead tree.

　Then, what do you think happened?

　The dead tree suddenly burst out in full bloom and came back to life.

　The old man became very cheerful once more.

"I will make the whole tree bloom again, there you go.

　The old man then continued to throw ash all over the tree and flowers bloomed in every place.

　At precisely that time, the lord of a local castle was riding by.

"Wow, this is a remarkable thing- "

　The lord was so pleased with what he saw, that he presently showered the old man with gifts of all sorts.

　But, the greedy old man had been watching again.

"Hey, I will also make the flowers bloom and receive presents for sure. Hand over that ash to me! "

　He then grabbed the ash from the old man and spoke out to the lord.

"Lord, this is my ash.

　I will make this dead tree bloom once more, so please reward me for it.

　Fly ash!

　The greedy old man tried to make the flowers bloom, threw all the ash up in the air at one go and straight into the face of the lord.

　The ash went straight into the lord’s eyes , so his soldiers beat that greedy old man soundly.

The end

One point of advice: One good turn leads to another. One bad deed after another leads to tragedy.

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