Momotaro

It's a pretty intimidating crew.

Hello, reader. This week's fairy tale comes to us from Japan. Momotaro is a story about a teenager and some animals taking on a stronghold of demons. Click the link to read the story and then continue with me below to analyze it.

I suppose any woman who wants a child should go down to the river every day. Seems like a legit way to get a kid to adopt, although this is the first story I've read where the baby comes out of a piece of fruit. I wonder if they ate that fruit after Momotaro came out of it.

It is very brave of Momotaro to go fight the demons, but I have to wonder how he heard about them. It seems like he travels a long way over land and about as far over sea before he gets to their stronghold. How did some rural kid hear about these demons all the way up there? Is that why he was sent on the river in a peach? To defeat the demons years later? It's also fortunate that Momotaro knew exactly where to find them. Although, maybe he didn't, and that's why the trip took so long.

An interesting departure from the usual story is that Momotaro doesn't do something nice for his animal friends to get their loyalty. Typically in fairy tales, the hero saves an animal's life before it will help him. In this story, Momotaro is pretty rude to the animals and they are begging him to go with and fight the demons. Maybe there is something special about Momotaro after all.

Finally, when Momotaro brings home two daughters of lords, he doesn't marry either one. This is very different from the Grimm fairy tales we're familiar with. In those stories, most happily ever afters come from marrying royalty. In this story, Momotaro doesn't marry a daughter of a lord, or a humble peasant girl he'd fallen in love with, or anyone else. He set out to defeat the demons and that's all he wanted to do. I dig it.

The moral of this story is if you're a demon and a bird shows up and tells you some kid named "Peach son" is going to take over your stronghold, you'd better get ready for a fight. Alternatively, if you want a son who is chosen for some larger destiny, get a kid from the river.

Liked this story? Have a different moral? Have a story you want me to talk about? Comment below!