Original Publication Date: March 1886 (Meiji 19)
This Printing: August 1888 (Meiji 21); Kōbunsha Imprint for Griffith & Farran
Binding: hidden musubi-toji binding to mimic a Western style with glue along the spine, spine covered with a small strip of white silk
Call Number: Special Collections (General Locked Shelving): By Appointment Only; PZ8.J272
Cataloger: Laura Smith
Author/Translator: David Thompson
Printer: Nakao Mokuji
An old farmer is out in the field on a mountain and his wife brings him his dinner, which a badger steals. Angry, the old man catches the badger and ties it to the rafters of his home. He tells his wife they will make it into soup and goes back into the field. As the wife is pounding barley, the badger pleads for its life in exchange for pounding the barley for her. Pitying the badger, the old woman frees it, and it immediately kills her. The badger makes the wife into a soup and disguises itself as her. The old man returns home and the badger serves him the wife-soup, and reveals itself and the soup’s contents. The badger leaves, laughing, while the old man cries. On the same mountain is an old rabbit, who hears the old man grieving. The rabbit comforts the old man and vows revenge on the badger. The rabbit asks the old man for parched beans, and then sets out. The badger, enticed by the smell of beans, asks them from the rabbit, who refuses to give the badger any until he carries a bundle of dry grass for him. The badger carries the dry grass on his back, and the rabbit sets it on fire without it noticing. Hearing the noise, the badger asks what it is, and the rabbit tells him it’s “Kachi-Kachi Mountain,” which Thompson notes is “Click-Click Mountain, or the Mountain of Victory” (13). As the fire spreads, the badger again asks what it is, and the rabbit says it is “Bo-Bo Mountain,” which Thompson notes is “Crackle Mountain, or Mountain of Defeat.” The fire burns the badger’s back, and he runs away. The rabbit makes a sticky paste of red pepper and sauce, puts on a hat, and markets it as “a cure for blisters and burns” (15). The badger falls for the trick, and buys some from the rabbit, putting it on his back. The badger is consequently in indescribable pain, and his burns take around 20 days to heal. By then, the rabbit is making a boat, and when the badger sees him he asks what he’s going to do with it, and the rabbit tells him he’s going to go fishing. The badger, envious, builds a boat out of clay. When they go out on the water, the badger’s boat begins to sink. The rabbit then takes its oar and beats the badger to death, thus succeeding in his revenge plot.
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