Common Motifs and Story-lines between Japanese Folktales and Modern Manga and Anime

Hiroko Miyashita

School for Graduate Studies, Empire State College, The State University of New York

Masters in Liberal Studies

January 31, 2017

 Miyashita 1

Hayao Miyazaki's Academy award-winning animated film Spirited Away intrigued me

with the similarities between Japanese folk tales and Japanese manga and anime tales. Spirited

Away has common themes which are present in Japanese folk tales such as morals, love, justice,

and heroes. Moreover, Spirited Away is not the only manga and anime story of today that

displays this influence from Japanese folk tales; rather many of today's manga and anime stories

also are affected by Japanese old tales. According to Gail de Vos, both folk tales and comics

depend on dialogue, tone of voice, and gestures, and both old folk tales and today's comics

require the audiences to participate in the understanding of the stories actively.1 In addition, as

Banks and Wein noted, the use of folk tales in modern comics could range from reproductions to

alterations of folk narratives, and from motifs, references, story-lines to characterizations.2 This

phenomenon would be highly credible in the fields of Japanese folk tales and manga and anime

tales. The presence of particular themes and motifs in folktales might have some effect on

Japanese manga and anime. One explanation could be because historically, Japan has been good

at reaching acceptance and merging two or more elements together into one, for example,

Shintoism and Buddhism,3 and Chinese characters and original Japanese characters. Therefore, it

is not farfetched to assume that some aspects of folk tales have been passed down to modern

manga and anime, displaying a quiet yet pervasive impact on the medium.

1. Gail de Vos, "Storytelling, Folktales and the Comic Book Format," Language &
Literacy: A Canadian Educational E-Journal (2001), 1.

2. Amanda C. Banks and Elizabeth Wein, "Folklore and the Comic Book: The
Traditional Meets the Popular," New Directions in Folklore 2 (January 1998): 2, accessed
October 3, 2016, https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/ndif/article/view/19861

3. Katharine Buljan and Carole M. Cusack, Anime, Religion and Spirituality: Profane
and Sacred Worlds in Contemporary Japan (Equinox Publishing Ltd., Sheffield, UK, 2015), 63.
 Miyashita 2

First, this paper will explain what folk tales are, and then it will explore common motifs

and story types between Japanese folk tales and manga and amine tales of today.

First of all, the definition of old tales should be clear. Bascom classified folktales, myths,

and legends as follows: (1) Folktales are prose fictions and usually have the adventures of human

and animal characters;4 (2) Myths are also prose stories, but the stories are considered the

truthful accounts of what happened in the remote past in the society in which the myths are told5;

and (3) Legends are prose narratives like myths, and are regarded as a fact, but they are set in a

period considered less remote when the world was much as it is today. The principal characters

of legends are human. Legends tell of migrations, wars and victories, deeds of past heroes, chiefs,

kings, and the succession in ruling dynasties.6 Since folk tales are fiction which happens at any

time and any place as Bascom noted, folk tales have the particular phrases that tell listeners the

story is a fiction. Bascom discussed the similarities of the particular phrases in some societies

such as European countries, Ashanti, Yoruba, and Kimbundu of Africa, and the Marshallese of

the Pacific. According to him, they have the phrases like "once upon a time" and "they lived

happily ever after,"7 which acknowledge the fictional nature of the story.

The similarities of the particular phrases can be seen not only in folk tales of those

countries but also in Japanese folk tales. Ancient Japanese tales begin with the phrase mukashi

mukashi aru tokoro ni, "once upon a time in a certain place" and end with the phrase medetashi

medetashi, "happily ever after." This similarity could be considered as the evidence that

4. William R. Bascom, “The Forms of Folklore,” The Journal of American Folklore 78,
no. 307 (1965): 4.

5. Ibid., 4.

6. Ibid., 4.

7. Ibid., 6.
 Miyashita 3

humankind has a common sense toward folk tales even though people lived in unaffiliated

geographic regions. Thus, folk tales can be seen all over the world and have been passed down to

the present in each society.

In addition, the Japanese scholar Seki discussed what characterizes folk tales, and that is

the structure and the form of expression. According to Seki, in folktales, each motif and episode

closely connects each other such as the opening and ending phrases8 as Bascom said. In addition,

the storyteller unfolds the tale with the certain way of speaking in an objective tone of voice. In

other words, the storytellers will not be the subjects or characters in the folktale stories. The

storytellers are the third parties who deliver the stories to the audiences. Seki also pointed out

that folk tales had no certain era in stories like Bascom did, but Seki noted one additional

characteristic of Japanese folk tales that the tales also had no seasons.9

Bascom mentioned that folklore is a part of culture.10 If so, a folklore would reflect

history, lifestyle, and ethics in the society where the tale is told. Indeed, in Japan, even though it

is rare for people today to listen to a folk tale directly from a storyteller, themes and motifs in

folktales have been passed down to the culture of today even in modern manga and anime. In

fact, Hüsing argued that folk tales show a variety of motifs if the tales are preserved well.11 He

discussed the variety of motifs in tales from the geographical point of view, comparing differing

versions of the same tale in distant cultures. However, it would also be valuable to study a

8. Keigo Seki, Minwa (Tokyo, Japan: Iwanami Shoten, 1955), 105.

9. Ibid., 105-112.

10. William R. Bascom, “Four Functions of Folklore,” The Journal of American

Folklore 67. no. 266 (1954): 337.

11. Georg Hüsing. "Is Little Red Riding Hood a Myth?," In Little Red Riding Hood: A
Casebook, ed. Alan Dudes (Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press. 1989), 66.
 Miyashita 4

variety of motifs in old narratives and modern stories in the same culture and their receptiveness

from past to present because, as Bascom mentioned, the folk stories are a part of the culture in

which the tales are told.12

Now that this paper has defined what folk tales are, this paper will now more deeply

examine the relation of Japanese folk tales to Japanese manga and anime of today. Banks and

Wein asserted that many comic creators of today borrowed the ideas and themes from folk tales

to create their modern comic narratives.13 It can be seen in Japanese manga and anime as well. In

fact, Drazen listed Ayashi no Ceres, Minky Momo, and Kujaku-ō as examples of modern

Japanese manga and anime which have connections to Japanese folk tales.14 However, they are

just a few. One Piece, Pokémon, and Urusei Yatsura are also manga and anime stories influenced

by Japanese folktales, and interestingly, these manga and anime stories are quite popular among

not only Japanese people but also people in the world.

One Piece is a case point of the connection between modern Japanese manga and anime

and Japanese folk tales. One Piece is one of the most famous manga and anime tales not only in

Japan but also in the world. In 2015, this story was listed in the Guinness World Records as the

No.1 published comic story in the world.15 One Piece is the adventure story of a young pirate. He

12. William R. Bascom, “Four Functions of Folklore,” The Journal of American
Folklore 67. no. 266 (1954): 337.

13. Gail de Vos, "Storytelling, Folktales and the Comic Book Format," Language &
Literacy: A Canadian Educational E-Journal (2001), 5.

14. Patrick Drazen, Anime Explosion! The What? Why? & How? of Japanese Animation
(Stone Bridge Press, Berkley, California, 2003), 40-46.

15. Rachel Swatman, "Japanese Manga One Piece Sets Record for Most Printed Comic
Series by One Author Ever," Guinness World Records, June 26, 2015, accessed December 17,
2016, http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2015/6/japanese-manga-%E2%80%9Cone-
piece%E2%80%9D-is-most-printed-comic-series-by-one-author-ever-385868.
 Miyashita 5

learns love, friendship, courage, and justice through his journey. The theme is universal to

humankind, so people in the world can relate to the story easily. At the same time, the subject is

unique to Japanese culture because this topic can be seen in Japanese folktales as well. For

example, One Piece reminds audiences of a Japanese famous folktale Momotarō "The Peach

Boy." (See Table 1, Common motifs in The Peach Boy and One Piece.) In the story, the

protagonist Momotarō came to the Earth inside a giant peach which was found floating down a

river by an old, childless woman who was washing clothes there. When the old woman and her

husband tried to open the peach to eat it, they discovered a child inside of it. The boy explained

that he had been sent by Heaven to be a son of the old couple. The couple named him Momotarō;

momo means peach and tarō means the eldest son in the family in Japanese. Years later,

Momotarō left his parents to fight a band of marauding oni, "demons or ogres" on a distant island.

En route, Momotarō met and befriended a dog, monkey, and pheasant, who agreed to help him in

his quest. At the island, Momotarō and his animal friends beat the band of demons into

surrendering. Momotarō and his new friends returned home with the demons' plundered treasure

and the demon chief as a captive. Momotarō and his family lived comfortably from then on.

Table 1. Common motifs in The Peach Boy and One Piece

Motif The Peach Boy One Piece
Protagonist - hero A young boy A young boy
Dispatcher An old childless couple A grandfather
A former bounty hunter, a cook, a
Companion - helper A dog, a monkey, a pheasant navigator, a sniper, an archaeologist,
a cyborg, a skeleton, a deer
Villain oni (ogre) Scoundrelly pirates
Scene A island in the distant ocean The distant ocean
Treasure Ogre's treasure Hidden treasure of legendary pirate
 Miyashita 6

The stories of One Piece and The Peach Boy have a quite few common motifs. (1) The

protagonists. Both of them are young boys. (2) Dispatchers. The protagonists from both stories

were nurtured by elderly people. Momotarō was raised by an elderly couple. Luffy, the

protagonist of One Piece, was taken care by his grandfather. (3) Companions. Momotarō and

Luffy met new friends during their journeys. As Momotarō met his animal friends, Luffy met his

new friends including an animal. In both stories, these new friends became companions of the

protagonists and helped them when the protagonists fought against the villains. (4) Villains.

Momotaō defeated oni "ogre," and Luffy brought down enemies one after another during his

journey. (5) Ocean. Both Momotarō and Luffy journeyed across the seas to the islands. (6)

Treasure. At the end of both stories, at the islands, the main characters discovered and brought

the treasure back home.

Meanwhile, since The Peach Boy is an old folktale, thus the tale has multiple versions

like other folktales. The story generally known today is the one dating to the Edo period. Before

that, Momotarō was not born from the giant peach. In the old version of The Peach Boy, an old,

childless woman ate the peach, and because of the miracle fruit, she became a pregnant and gave

birth to Momotarō. By contrast, in the story of One Piece, Luffy accidentally ate a fruit called

gomu-gomu-no-mi, "gummy fruit," got superhuman powers and became very strong. The Peach

Boy and One Piece also show interesting similarities such as the motif of fruit and its superpower.

In addition, in the tale of The Peach Boy, when Momotarō met his new animal friends, he

gave them his dumplings, and in return, they became his companions. The dumplings gave these

animals incredible power and made them strong enough to fight against demons. In the story of

One Piece, the protagonist Luffy did not give his new friends food when he met them first.
 Miyashita 7

However, his third companion is a cook, and the cook often cooks for the crew. His dishes make

Luffy and his friends better able to fight.

The story-lines of Momotarō and One Piece are also quite similar. A young boy grew up

in the countryside among adults. One day, the boy left his family and the village and went off on

adventures. This scene could be considered a kind of rite of passage which can be seen in many

folk stories. On the way to a distant island, the boy protagonist met his new friends. He and his

friends sometimes faced difficulties. They gradually learned love, friendship, loyalty, and justice

by experiencing many unexpected trials and errors. After these many trials, they became strong

enough to do battle with evil. After they had defeated evil, they discovered treasure and brought

them back home. Then they lived with their loved ones happily ever after.

Another modern anime story, this time about a girl, is influenced by the old tale

Momotarō, The Peach Boy as well, and the anime tale is Minky Momo.16 (See Table 2, Common

motifs in The Peach Boy and Minky Momo.)

Table 2. Common motifs in The Peach Boy and Minky Momo

Motif The Peach Boy Minky Momo
Protagonist -
A young boy A young girl
hero/heroine
Dispatcher An old childless couple A childless couple
Companion - helper A dog, a monkey, a pheasant A dog, a monkey, a bird

Minky Momo was a Japanese TV anime series which was broadcasted in 1982. In the

story of Minky Momo, the teenage girl protagonist is called Momo not just because of her pink-

color-hair, momo means peach and the word for pink is momo-iro literally means peach-color in

Japanese, but also because of the influence from the old tale The Peach Boy on this modern

16. Patrick Drazen, Anime Explosion! The What? Why? & How? of Japanese Animation
(Stone Bridge Press, Berkley, California, 2003), 43-44.
 Miyashita 8

anime story. In fact, some common motifs can be seen on both The Peach Boy and Minky Momo.

(1) The protagonists. Although Momo of Minky Momo is a girl not a boy like Momotarō of The

Peach Boy, both of the protagonists are children. (2) Dispatchers. In the story of Minky Momo,

the protagonist Momo is actually the princess of the fairy land and sent to the childless couple

who strongly wished to have a child. Momotarō was sent to the childless couple, too. Both

protagonists were sent to the Earth to become a child of childless couples. (3) Companions.

Momo has three pets that aided a dog, a monkey, and a bird from the story of The Peach Boy.

In the anime story Minky Momo, the protagonist Momo has no visible enemy or villain

but using her magical power, she helps her adopted parents and friends when they face

difficulties. One day, her magical pendant is accidentally broken, and Momo loses her power. At

the end of the story, she has a traffic accident and dies. However, her strong love to her foster

parents, not the magical power, brings Momo back to life, and Momo and her family live happily

ever after.

The Japanese folktale The Peach Boy and today's manga and anime One Piece and Minky

Momo are not the only stories that bear similarities to the between folk tales and modern manga

and anime. There are a lot of Japanese folktales such as Momotarō "The Peach Boy" and Issun-

bōshi "The Inch-High Samurai" where evil characters are defeated by a child heroes. For

example, the story of The Inch-High Samurai begins with an old, childless couple wishing for a

child. Finally, a son was born to them, but he was incredibly small so was named Issun-bōshi;

issun means a measure of approximately one inch and bōshi means a boy in Japanese. The old

couple loved their son very much and cherished him. However, one day, Issun-bos̄ hi realized

that he would never grow, so he went on a journey to seek his place in the world. The old couple

gave him a sewing needle for a sword, a soup bowl for a boat, and chopsticks for oars. Issun-
 Miyashita 9

bōshi traveled down the river and arrived in the city. He was hired as a playmate of a princess

although he wanted to work for the princess's family as a samurai. One day, an oni, "demons or

ogres" suddenly attacked the family and swallowed Issun-bōshi. However, Issun-bōshi never

gave up. He pricked the oni from within with his needle sword and finally defeated it. The oni

spat out Issun-bōshi and dropped a magical mallet as he ran away. As a reward for his bravery,

the princess used the power of the mallet to grow Issun-bōshi to full size, and they married.

To put it in perspective, the tales of The Peach Boy and The Inch-High Samurai exerted

influences on many modern manga and anime tales, Pokémon being yet another. (See Table 3,

Common motifs in The Peach Boy, The Inch-High Samurai and Pokémon.) In the story of

Pokémon, the protagonist Satoshi is a ten-year-old boy. He left his town to be a Pokémon master.

The story of adventure is another key influence by Japanese folktales on today's narratives.

Satoshi met his new Pokémon friends during his journey. Pokémon themselves seem weak like

Issun-bōshi of The Inch-High Samurai because they are relatively small in size (they can be

fitted in a pocket) yet have powerful attacks. At the beginning of the story, Satoshi was full of

himself, so he was difficult to be friends with. However, during his journey, Satoshi learned love,

friendship, loyalty, and justice in reaching his new Pokémon friends, and from the difficulties he

faced, he became kind and strong through his journey. Notably, Pokémon is also very popular all

over the world like One Piece. In fact, Pokémon is broadcast on TVs in sixty-five countries and

has become a global sensation.17 The theme of Pokémon and One Piece has universal appeal to

people.

Table 3. Common motifs in The Peach Boy, The Inch-High Samurai and Pokémon

17. Anne Allison, Millennial Monsters: Japanese Toys and the Global Imagination
(University of California Press, Berkeley, California, 2006), 193.
 Miyashita 10

Motif The Peach Boy The Inch-High Samurai Pokémon

Protagonist - hero A young boy A young boy A young boy
Companion - A monkey, a dog, a 47 pokémons
-
helper pheasant
Villain oni (ogre) oni (ogre) Gangs
Reward Ogre's treasure Ogre's magical mallet No.1 Pokémon master

Rumiko Takahashi's modern manga and anime Urusei Yatsura is another example which

shows the similarities of motifs between her modern manga and anime stories and Japanese

folktales. In the story of Urusei Yatsura, one day, the protagonist Lum, a cute, young, ogre-like

girl, comes to the Earth from space. She falls in love with a high school boy Ataru. She moves to

his house and spends her days as a human high school girl. This story has similarities to a

Japanese folktale called Taketori Monogatari "The Tale of the Bamboo-Cutter." (See Table 4.

Common motifs in The Tale of the Bamboo-Cutter and Urusei Yatsura.) One day, a childless, old

bamboo-cutter founded a shiny bamboo in the forest. When he cut it, he found a small, cute girl

in it. He and his wife fostered the little girl and named her Kaguya-hime "Princess Kaguya."

After Kaguya-hime had come to the old couple's place, the couple became richer and richer

because the bamboo-cutter found shiny bamboo which had gold and money inside whenever he

went to the forest. Kaguya-hime became a charming lady, and many men asked her to marry

them. However, she did not accept any of these suitors. She finally told her foster parents why

she did not want to marry anyone. She came from the moon and had to return to the moon on the

night of harvest moon. The old couple was shocked, and not wanting to let their beloved

daughter go, they consulted with the Emperor to devise a plan. On the night of harvest moon, the

Emperor sent his guards to Kaguya-hime's place and surrounded it to protect her from the Moon

people. However, when the Moon people came to pick up Kaguya-hime, no one on the Earth
 Miyashita 11

could move and protect her because of the very strong ardor of the Moon people. Kaguya-hime

finally went back to the moon.

Table 4. Common motifs in The Tale of the Bamboo-Cutter and Urusei Yatsura
Motif The Tale of the Bamboo-Cutter Urusei Yatsura
Protagonist - heroine A young beautiful girl A young beautiful girl
Non-human beings Moon princess Ogre like alien
Ogre like alien and a high school
Heterogeneous marriage Moon princess and human
boy

The stories of Urusei Yatsura and The Tale of the Bamboo-Cutter have some similar

motifs. (1) The protagonists. Both of them are young, beautiful girls. (2) Aliens or non-human

characters. Both Lum and Kaguya-hime came from space and lived with their human family on

the Earth. (3) The love between human beings and non-human beings. Even though Kaguya-

hime rejected of marriage in the story, many men asked the moon princess to marry them and

sent her lots of love letters and presents. She exchanged letters several times with the Emperor

who was one of the men. On the other hand, Lum, the protagonist of Urusei Yatsura eventually

became lovers with a high school boy Ataru, and they got married at the end of the story.

Takahashi, the author of Urusei Yatsura, picked some pieces from the old tale The Tale of the

Bamboo-Cutter but gave her modern manga and anime tales the different ending. However, at

the beginning of Urusei Yatsura, Ataru was not interested in Lum, so Lum tried to attract him

like the men who asked Kaguya-him for marrying.

Another interesting influence from Japanese folktales which can be seen in Urusei

Yatsura is Lum's appearance. She looks like oni "ogre." She wears a tiger-skin bikini and knee

high boots. On the other hand, in Japanese folktales, oni wears tiger-shorts. In addition, Lum has

blue-green hair and unobtrusive, tiny horns. According to Reider, the typical image of oni (a
 Miyashita 12

Japanese ogre) was established during the medieval period, and the image of oni was horns

protruding from their scalps, tiger skin costume, and varying skin colors such as red, blue, and

yellow.18 Even though Lum is a cute, young girl, her appearance shows the influence of Japanese

oni story from the past. In addition, Lum's mouth becomes bigger, and her canine teeth appear

when she feels jealous of Ataru's lecherous ways to other girls. This depiction alludes to

cannibalism in folktales.

This paper has focused on motifs in today's manga and anime which shows the influence

of Japanese folktales. Rasch notes, "for many centuries, the most beautiful Japanese tales are

collected and retold for generations as an expression of their history, philosophy, culture, religion,

morality and spectrum of their worldview."19 Indeed, according to a study and research on

elementary school children by Sato and Muroga in 2015, the children answered that they liked

Japanese folktales because they could learn Japanese history and life lessons from the folktales.20

These answers by elementary school children show that Japanese folktales deal with common

practices that are timeless and universal, therefore the tales appeal to young generations of today.

As Bascom noted, one of the four functions of folklore which includes folktale narratives is

education.21 In addition, folktales have two aspects: one is they are universal to humankind, and

18. Noriko T. Reider, "Transformation of the Oni: From the Frightening and Diabolical
to the Cute and Sexy." Asian Folklore Studies 62. no. 1 (2003), 135.

19. Carsten Rasch, Tales of Old Japan: Fairy Tale-Folklore-Ghost Stories-Mythology

(Books on Demand, Hamburg, Germany, 2015), 7.

20. Yoichi Sato and Miki Muroga, "Class Development for the Traditional of Language
through the Fascination of Old Tales." The Bulletin of the Graduate School of Practitioners in
Education, Aichi University of Education 5. (2015), 45.

21. William R. Bascom, “Four Functions of Folklore,” The Journal of American

Folklore 67. no. 266 (1954): 344.
 Miyashita 13

the other is peculiar to the culture in which the tale is told.22 Japanese culture appears very

prominently in manga and anime. These facts that Japanese folktales are universal and have been

handed down for generations are key to understanding why Japanese manga and anime attract

not only Japanese people but also people around the world regardless of age and sex.

22. Hayao Kawai, The Japanese Psyche: Major Motifs in the Fairy Tales of Japan
(Spring Publications, Woodstock, Connecticut, 1996), 8.
 Miyashita 14

Bibliography

Allison, Anne. Millennial Monsters: Japanese Toys and the Global Imagination. Berkeley,
California: University of California Press, 2006.

Banks, Amanda C. and Elizabeth Wein. "Folklore and the Comic Book: The Traditional Meets
the Popular." New Directions in Folklore 2 (January 1998). Accessed October 3, 2016,
https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/ndif/article/view/19861

Bascom, William R. “Four Functions of Folklore.” The Journal of American Folklore 67, no.
266 (1954): 333-349.

Bascom, William R. “The Forms of Folklore.” The Journal of American Folklore 78, no. 307
(1965): 3-20.

Buljan, Katharine. and Carole M. Cusack. Anime, Religion and Spirituality: Profane and Sacred
Worlds in Contemporary Japan. Sheffield, UK: Equinox Publishing Ltd., 2015.

Drazen, Patrick. Anime Explosion! The What? Why? & Wow! of Japanese Animation. Berkeley,
California: Stone Bridge Press. 2003.

Gail de Vos. "Storytelling, Folktales and the Comic Book Format" Language & Literacy: A
Canadian Educational E-Journal (2001). (the URL would be great here)

Hüsing, Georg. "Is Little Red Riding Hood a Myth?" In Little Red Riding Hood: A Casebook,
edited by Alan Dudes, 64-88. Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press. 1989.

Kawai, Hayao. The Japanese Psyche: Major Motifs in the Fairy Tales of Japan. Woodstock,
Connecticut: Spring Publications. 1996.

Rasch, Carsten. Tales of Old Japan: Fairy Tale-Folklore-Ghost Stories-Mythology. Hamburg,

Germany: Books on Demand. 2015.

Reider, Noriko T. "Transformation of the Oni: From the Frightening and Diabolical to the Cute
and Sexy." Asian Folklore Studies 62, no. 1 (2003): 133-157.

Sato, Yoichi. and Miki Muroga. "Class Development for the Traditional of Language through the
Fascination of Old Tales." The Bulletin of the Graduate School of Practitioners in
Education, Aichi University of Education 5. (2015): 45-58.

Seki, Keigo. Minwa. Tokyo, Japan: Iwanami Shoten, 1955.

Swatman, Rachel. "Japanese Manga One Piece Sets Record for Most Printed Comic Series by
One Author Ever," Guinness World Records, June 26, 2015, accessed December 17,
2016, http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2015/6/japanese-manga-
 Miyashita 15

%E2%80%9Cone-piece%E2%80%9D-is-most-printed-comic-series-by-one-author-ever-
385868.