Hanasaka Jiisan


The story
Hanasaka Jiisan is a folktale from Japan that tells the story of "the old man that made the flowers bloom." It starts with a greedy old couple and a kindly old couple. A dog belonging to the greedy couple, that had been beaten and mistreated, ran to the kindly couple's farm for safety. The nice old couple took him in and took care of him. In some variations of the story he is called Pochi and in others his name is Shiro (meaning "white" in Japanese), for his pure white coat. The couple grew to love the puppy and fed him well. One day as the old man was out working the fields, his loving pet led him up to the mountains. When they reached a secret spot, the dog began to bark. When the kind old man dug in the indicated spot, heaping piles of gold sprang up from the ground.

Upon witnessing this the greedy old man and his wife stole the puppy away from his new owners, in hope of getting themselves some gold. When they threatened the poor dog, it began to whimper and cry. Thinking that the dog was telling them where the gold was, the couple began to dig. Instead of gold pouring up from the ground, garbage and monsters were there. Out of rage the nasty old couple beat the poor dog to death. The kind couple were striken with grief and made a grave for their departed pet. The next day a sapling had sprouted from the ground above the dog's grave which soon grew into an enormous tree. The kind couple chopped down the tree and made a mortar. The planned to make mochi using the mortar and bring it to their departed pet's grave. However, when the began to pound the rice it suddenly turned into more gold.

Seeing this miracle, the greedy old man and his wife stole away the mortar to produce their own gold. But yet again, when they pounded the rice it only turned into black mud before their eyes. Angered, they broke the mortar into pieces and burned it in the fire. The kind old couple gathered up the ashes of their destroyed mortar and put them into a box. They planned to spread the ashes across their field to grow the daikon radish that their former pet had loved so much. However, when the old man sprinkled the ashes, they flew up into the air and blew into the branches of a dead tree. Flowers sprang to life on the tree's limbs. He then went and sprinkled the ashes on all the dead trees in the land, creating beautiful pink blossoms wherever he went. The news of the miracle was spread far throughout the lands and soon reached the ears of the lord, and he went to see the "Hanasaka Jiisan's" miracle for himself.

When he witnessed the blooming flowers he cried out in joy and rewarded the kind old man. Finally, in a surge of anger and greed, the nasty old man rushed forward and stole the box from the kind old man. He claimed the kind man himself had no magic, it was just the ashes. When he tried spreading them over the dead trees, the ashes blew into the face of the lord and made him cough and choke. Furiously, he ordered his men to take the greedy old man to prison and lock him up forever. Afterwards, Hanasaka Jiisan lived forever in peace, wealth, and happiness.

 

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