Japanese Culture: Hana-saka Jii-san Hana-saka Jii-san - The Old Man Who Made Flowers Bloom justdubsonline.net/japanese-culture/hana-saka-jii-san Once upon a time, in a certain place, there lived a kind-hearted old man and kind-hearted old woman. They had no children. One rainy night, they heard something outside their door. The old man and woman opened the door, and there was a puppy dog there, wet to the bone, shivering and whining pitifully. The old couple let the puppy into their room, started up a fire in the irori fireplace and warmed the puppy, feeding it some porridge. The couple were poor, but took very good care of the puppy, and brought it up with love and care. They took the puppy with them wherever they went, be it to the fields or to the mountains. And the puppy grew and grew. One day, the old man was tilling the fields when his dog stopped over a certain spot, barked, and started to dig with its forepaws. The old man, wondering, started to dig there as well, and… … to his amazement, found gold coins in the ground, both large and small.The old man and woman, overjoyed, shared the coins with their neighbours. A mean old man saw all of this, and demanded of the old man, “Lend me your dog.” The kind-hearted old man didn’t want to, but felt he could not say no, and he lent his dog to the mean-hearted old man. The mean old man kicked the dog, saying, “Tell me where there’s buried treasure.” The dog, on being kicked, whined with pain. “You’re telling me to dig here, are you?” The mean old man then dug into the ground. But all that was found was rubbish and trash. Furious, the mean old man killed the dog, and buried it in the ground. Along came the kind-hearted old man. “Where is my dog?,”the old man asked. “I killed the useless creature, and buried it in the ground!” The kind old man was devastated. Together, the kind old man and woman planted a tree in the spot where they were told their dog had been buried. The tree grew large and tall. But one stormy day, lightening fell on the tree and it toppled right over. The old man used wood from the tree to make a mortar, and placed rice in the mortar to make some rice cakes. He pounded on the rice, upon which … … gold coins, both large and small, came tumbling out of the mortar. The mean old man heard about this, and this time, he managed to borrow the mortar from the kind old man. The mean old man then pounded on some rice to make rice cakes, but to his horror and dismay, nasty insects and rubbish and trash came tumbling out. The mean old man, furious, burned the mortar to ashes. Along came the kind-hearted old man, and asked the mean old man to give the mortar back. To which the mean old man replied, “I burned your mortar into ashes. If you want the ashes, you can take them home!” The kind old man placed the ashes in a basket and took them home. On his way home, a gust of wind came blowing, and some of the ashes were swept against a dead tree. That’s when an amazing thing happened … Amazingly, the dead tree started to flower. Just then, a feudal lord was passing by with his entourage. The old man declared, “I am an old man who makes flowers bloom! I will make dead trees break into flower!” And he scattered ashes into the air. Countless blossoms flowered on the dead trees. The lord happily piled the old man with generous rewards. The mean old man was watching this, and he copied the kind old man, grabbing the ashes and flinging them against the dead trees. But the ashes all fell into the eyes of the lord and his vassals. The lord, enraged, threw the mean old man into prison.
Posted on: Wed, 19 Nov 2014 10:00:01 +0000
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