The Spider Weaver

Folk tales often provide fanciful explanations for everyday events.
We don’t really believe these explanations—or do we? Both
“The Spider Weaver” and “The Grateful Statues” describe strange,
wonderful happenings. Whether you believe these stories or not,
there’s something valuable to be learned.
Here’s what you need to know before you begin these folk tales:
• Jizo is a Japanese Buddha who is the protector of children.
• Traditionally Japanese people celebrate the new year by
eating special foods. Sweet, sticky rice cakes are a traditional
new year’s food.
retold by Florence Sakade
The Spider Weaver
Long ago there was a young farmer named Yosaku. One day
he was working in the fields and saw a snake getting ready
to eat a spider. Yosaku felt very sorry for the spider. So he
ran at the snake with his hoe and drove the snake away,
thus saving the spider’s life. Then the spider disappeared
into the grass, but first it seemed to pause a minute and
bow in thanks toward Yosaku.
From Japanese Children’s Favorite Stories, edited by Florence Sakade. Copyright © 1958 by Charles E. Tuttle
Co., Inc. Reprinted by permission of Charles E. Tuttle Co., Inc. of Boston, MA, and Tokyo, Japan.
Reading
Standard 3.2
Analyze the
effect of the
qualities of
the character
(for example,
courage or
cowardice,
ambition or
laziness) on
the plot and
resolution of
the conflict.
What amazing event is
related in this paragraph?
Underline it.
Two Japanese Folk Tales 89

In many folk tales a person
is helped or promised something,
but on some condition.
What rule does the girl
say Yosaku must obey?
Underline it.
Why is Yosaku’s curiosity
aroused by the girl’s response
to his question? What does
he do about it?
Like many folk tales, this one
includes a metamorphosis
(met •¥ •môr√f¥ •sis), a
marvelous change from
one form to another. Circle
the description of a metamorphosis.
Why did the spider take a
human form? Underline the
passage that tells you why.
90 Chapter 2 Characters: The People You’ll Meet
10
20
30
One morning not long after that, Yosaku was in his
house when he heard a tiny voice outside calling: “Mr.
Yosaku, Mr. Yosaku.” He went to the door and saw a
beautiful young girl standing in the yard.
“I heard that you are looking for someone to weave
cloth for you,” said the girl. “Won’t you please let me live
here and weave for you?”
Yosaku was very pleased because he did need a weaving
girl. So he showed the girl the weaving room and she
started to work at the loom. At the end of the day Yosaku
went to see what she’d done and was very surprised to find
that she’d woven eight long pieces of cloth, enough to make
eight kimonos. He’d never known anyone could weave so
much in just a single day.
“How ever did you weave so much?” he asked the girl.
But instead of answering him, she said a very strange
thing: “You mustn’t ask me that. And you must never come
into the weaving room while I am at work.”
But Yosaku was very curious. So one day he slipped
very quietly up to the weaving room and peeped in the
window. What he saw really surprised him! Because it was
not the girl who was seated at the loom, but a large spider,
weaving very fast with its eight legs, and for thread it was
using its own spider web, which came out of its mouth.
Yosaku looked very closely and saw that it was the
same spider which he’d saved from the snake. Then Yosaku
understood. The spider had been so thankful that it had
wanted to do something to help Yosaku. So it had turned
itself into a beautiful young girl and come to weave cloth
for him. Just by eating the cotton in the weaving room it
could spin it into thread inside its own body, and then with

40
50
60
70
its eight legs it could weave the thread into cloth very,
very fast.
Yosaku was very grateful for the spider’s help. He saw
that the cotton was almost used up. So next morning he set
out for the nearest village, on the other side of the mountains,
to buy some more cotton. He bought a big bundle of
cotton and started home, carrying it on his back.
Along the way a very terrible thing happened. Yosaku
sat down to rest, and the same snake that he’d driven away
from the spider came up and slipped inside the bundle of
cotton. But Yosaku didn’t know anything about this. So he
carried the cotton home and gave it to the weaving girl.
She was very glad to get the cotton, because she’d now
used up all the cotton that was left. So she took it and went
to the weaving room.
As soon as the girl was inside the weaving room, she
turned back into a spider and began eating the cotton very,
very fast, just as though it were something very delicious,
so she could spin it into thread inside her body. The spider
ate and ate and ate, and then suddenly, when it had eaten
down to the bottom of the bundle—the snake jumped out
of the cotton. It opened its mouth wide to swallow the
spider. The spider was very frightened and jumped out
of the window. The snake went wriggling very fast after it.
And the spider had eaten so much cotton that it couldn’t
run very fast. So the snake gradually caught up with the
spider. Again the snake opened its mouth wide to gulp the
spider down. But just then a wonderful thing happened.
Old Man Sun, up in the sky, had been watching what
was happening. He knew how kind the spider had been to
Yosaku and he felt very sorry for the poor little spider. So
he reached down with a sunbeam and caught hold of the
Pause at line 50. What new
problem has come up?
Underline it.
Read aloud the boxed passage.
As you read, vary your
volume, rate of speech, and
pitch to help your listeners
feel the scene’s excitement.
Then, re-read the passage to
improve the smoothness of
your delivery.
• • • • • • Notes • • • • • •
Two Japanese Folk Tales 91

Why did Old Man Sun save
the spider?
What natural feature of
our world is explained in the
story?
Underline words in lines 1–10
that describe the old man.
Circle passages that tell what
he wants. Box passages that
tell what he does.
• • • • • • Notes • • • • • •
92 Chapter 2 Characters: The People You’ll Meet
80
10
end of the web that was sticking out of the spider’s mouth,
and he lifted the spider high up into the sky, where the
snake couldn’t reach it at all.
The spider was very grateful to Old Man Sun for
saving him from the snake. So he used all the cotton that
was inside his body to weave beautiful fleecy clouds up
in the sky. That’s the reason, they say, why clouds are soft
and white like cotton, and also that is the reason why
both a spider and a cloud are called by the same name
in Japan—kumo.
“Fine Wind, Clear Morning,” hand-colored woodblock print
by Katsushika Hokusai, 1831.
The Grateful Statues
Once upon a time an old man and an old woman were living
in a country village in Japan. They were very poor and
spent every day weaving big hats out of straw. Whenever
they finished a number of hats, the old man would take
them to the nearest town to sell them.
One day the old man said to the old woman: “New
Year’s is the day after tomorrow. How I wish we had some
rice cakes to eat on New Year’s Day! Even one or two little
cakes would be enough. Without some rice cakes we can’t
even celebrate New Year’s.”

20
30
40
“Well, then,” said the old woman, “after you’ve sold
these hats, why don’t you buy some rice cakes and bring
them back with you?”
So early the next morning the old man took the
five new hats that they had made, and went to town to
sell them. But after he got to town, he was unable to sell
a single hat. And to make things still worse, it began to
snow very hard.
The old man was very sad as he began trudging wearily
back toward his village. He was going along a lonesome
mountain trail when he suddenly came upon a row of six
stone statues of Jizo, the protector of children, all covered
with snow.
“My, my! Now isn’t this a pity,” the old man said.
“These are only stone statues of Jizo, but even so just think
how cold they must be standing here in the snow.”
“I know what I’ll do!” the old man suddenly said to
himself. “This will be just the thing.”
So he unfastened the five new hats from his back and
began tying them, one by one, on the heads of the Jizo
statues.
When he came to the last statue, he suddenly realized
that all the hats were gone. “Oh, my!” he said, “I don’t have
enough hats.” But then he remembered his own hat. So he
took it off his head and tied it on the head of the last Jizo.
Then he went on his way home.
When he reached his house, the old woman was waiting
for him by the fire. She took one look at him and cried:
“You must be frozen half to death. Quick! Come to the fire.
What did you do with your hat?”
The old man shook the snow out of his hair and came
to the fire. He told the old woman how he had given all the
Pause at line 36. Box the
passage that tells what the
old man does for the statues.
What do the old man’s
actions reveal about his
character?
Two Japanese Folk Tales 93

Circle what the old woman
says to the old man. What
does her reaction tell you
about her character?
Pause at line 53. What “very
wonderful thing” might
happen?
How are the old man and
the old woman rewarded
for their actions?
94 Chapter 2 Characters: The People You’ll Meet
50
60
70
new hats, and even his own hat, to the six stone Jizo. He
told her he was sorry that he hadn’t been able to bring any
rice cakes.
“My! That was a very kind thing you did for the Jizo,”
said the old woman. She was very proud of the old man,
and went on: “It’s better to do a kind thing like that than to
have all the rice cakes in the world. We’ll get along without
any rice cakes for New Year’s.”
By this time it was late at night, so the old man and
woman went to bed. And just before dawn, while they were
still asleep, a very wonderful thing happened. Suddenly
there was the sound of voices in the distance, singing:
“A kind old man walking in the snow
Gave all his hats to the stone Jizo.
So we bring him gifts with a yo-heave-ho!”
The voices came nearer and nearer, and then you could
hear the sound of footsteps on the snow.
The sounds came right up to the house where the old
man and woman were sleeping. And then all at once there
was a great noise, as though something had been put down
just in front of the house.
The old couple jumped out of bed and ran to the front
door. When they opened it, what do you suppose they
found? Well, right there at the door someone had spread a
straw mat, and arranged very neatly on the mat was one of
the biggest and most beautiful and freshest rice cakes the
old people had ever seen.
“Whoever could have brought us such a wonderful
gift?” they said, and looked about wonderingly.

80
They saw some tracks in the snow leading away from
their house. The snow was all tinted with the colors of
dawn, and there in the distance, walking over the snow,
were the six stone Jizo, still wearing the hats which the old
man had given them.
The old man said: “It was the stone Jizo who brought
this wonderful rice cake to us.”
The old woman said: “You did them a kind favor when
you gave them your hats, so they brought this rice cake to
show their gratitude.”
The old couple had a very wonderful New Year’s Day
celebration after all, because now they had this wonderful
rice cake to eat.
What would you say is the
“lesson” of this folk tale?
Compare this lesson to
the lesson in “The Spider
Weaver.”
Two Japanese Folk Tales 95

Comparing Characters and Events Complete the Venn diagram
below. Show how the characters and events in the two folk tales are
the same and how they are different. Then, share your work with a
partner, and comment on each other’s work.
Personal Word List Record this academic term in your Personal
Word List: metamorphosis.
The Spider
Weaver
Personal Reading Log As you add this selection to your Personal
Reading Log, indicate whether you would like to read more Japanese
folk tales. Give yourself 3 points on the Reading Meter.
Checklist for Standards Mastery Use the Checklist for Standards
Mastery to see how much you have learned.
96 Chapter 2 Characters: The People You’ll Meet
Both
The Grateful
Statues

Two Japanese Folk Tales Interactive Reading, page 89
Go Beyond Literary Texts
Story Map The folk tales you have read have a great deal in common.
Both folk tales are about ordinary people who do kind deeds and
receive great rewards for their actions. Both folk tales contain strong
moral messages about the kind of people we should all try to be.
Tell a “folk tale” of your own. Include some of these characteristics
of a folk tale:
•characters who want
something very much
•supernatural characters
•a moral lesson
Before you write your folk tale, gather your details in a story map
like the one that follows:
Moral:
Characters
•a condition or test
• an explanation of how something
in our world came to be
•a marvelous metamorphosis
What characters want
Why they can’t get it
Resolution
Setting
Event 1:
What happens
Event 2: Event 3 (and so on):
Graphic Organizer 97

DIFFERENTIATING INSTRUCTION
Two Japanese Folk Tales
■ Learners Having Difficulty
These folk tales are appropriate
for the struggling reader.
You may wish to model the
reading strategy for them
before they begin to read.
■ Benchmark Students
Encourage on-level learners to
make connections between
these tales and other folk tales
they have read from other
cultures.
■ Advanced Students
Advanced readers will have no
difficulties with these folk
tales. You may wish to have
these students extend their
reading by citing examples of
folk tales from other cultures
that impart the same lessons
as these two Japanese folk
tales.
TEACHER TO TEACHER
Students will enjoy the transformation
in the first story, as the
spider becomes the beautiful
young weaver. They will also like
the second story, in which the
statues come alive. As a class,
discuss ways in which these
transformations might be portrayed
onstage with live actors,
stage effects, and technology.
READING OPTION
Folk tales are usually dramatic,
so this selection is ideal for
classroom performance. You
may wish to perform the stories
as improvisations or staged
readings or to try using a theater
game such as “Paper Bag
Theater,” an improvisational
technique in which small groups
of students are given paper bags
filled with small everyday
objects to use as props.
22 Interactive Reading: Teacher’s Edition
Two Japanese Folk Tales
retold by Florence Sakade ■ page 89
■ Tell students that they are going to read two Japanese folk tales.
Make sure students understand that a folk tale is a story that has its
origins in a particular culture and is handed down from generation
to generation.
■ Have students read the Before You Read note. As a class, explore
how folk tales often depart from reality to include fantastic elements
such as talking spiders, statues that come alive, and other
transformations and improbable feats. Invite students to predict
what they think will happen in these two tales.
■ Read the first paragraph of the first folk tale aloud; then go on to
read the Identify note aloud.
■ After students identify the amazing event of a spider bowing to a
human being in thanks, ask them to speculate what this story
detail may indicate, thinking about other folk tales they have read.
■ Have students read the rest of the first folk tale and the second
folk tale on their own, noting their responses to the side-column
questions.
■ After students have finished each tale, have them take turns reading
it aloud and sharing their responses.
■ Read the Fluency note aloud. Have volunteers read aloud with
expression, making use of the short, terse sentences to create a
sense of excitement.
■ Have students add these folk tales to their Personal Reading Logs.
■ Students can compare the characters in the two folk tales by completing
the Venn diagram on Interactive Reading page 96.
■ Have students complete the Story Map project on Interactive
Reading page 97 to review the characters in the folk tales and how
their actions and character traits influenced the plot and outcome
of each tale.
■ Use the Comprehension Check on Teacher’s Edition page 29 to
evaluate mastery of the literary standard.

Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.
Name ______________________________ Class _____________ Date _____________
Two Japanese Folk Tales
■ Interactive Reading, page 89
Reading Standard 3.2 Analyze the effect of the qualities of the
character on the plot and resolution of the conflict.
hero
metamorphosis
moral
Academic Vocabulary
Comprehension Check
major character in a story who shows qualities we admire
marvelous change from one form to another
lesson taught in a fable or folk tale
A. Circle the letter of the correct response to each item below.
1. What event in “The Spider Woman” helps readers see that the
spider is grateful?
A The spider bows to Yosaku.
B The spider brings Yosaku a bale of cotton.
C The spider makes the sun shine on Yosaku’s farm.
D The spider brings rice cakes to Yosaku.
2. What metamorphosis occurs in “The Spider Weaver”?
F The weaver turns into Old Man Sun.
G The spider turns into a statue.
H The statues come alive.
J The spider changes into a beautiful young woman.
3. Why is the old man the hero of “The Grateful Statues”?
A He is clever. C He is loyal and hard working.
B He is kind and self-sacrificing. D He is lucky.
4. What is the moral of “The Grateful Statues”?
F People have the ability to be good.
G Don’t judge someone by his or her looks.
H Spiders are helpful creatures.
J Goodness is rewarded.
B. Suppose the old couple from “The Grateful Statues” was selfish instead of
generous. What might have happened then? Write a new ending for the story.
Chapter 2 29

Chapter 2
Practice Read: Sparring
Vocabulary Check, page 23
A: 1. neutral
2. karate
3. glowering
4. samurai
5. solution
B: Sentences will vary, but should show an understanding
of the meanings of the words.
Comprehension Check, page 24
A: 1. A
2. F
3. D
4. H
B: Answers will vary. Strong answers will cite specific
details from the story.
Foreigner in Japan
Vocabulary Check, page 25
A: 1. mosquito
2. gong
3. saunter
4. bouillon
5. turmoil
6. belied
7. kimono
B: 1. bunches of cut flowers
2. large room for gathering together
3. stir-fried Japanese food dish, prepared
tableside
Comprehension Check, page 26
A: 1. C
2. H
3. D
4. H
B: Answers will vary. A rebellious or insecure or
narrow-minded Yoshiko would not have
accepted her dual heritage so wisely.
The Samurai
Vocabulary Check, page 27
A: 1. provinces
2. tumultuous
3. samurai
4. shogun
5. frontier
B: 1. shogun
2. shogunate
3. samurai
Comprehension Check, page 28
A: 1. B
2. H
3. B
B: Answers will vary. Strong answers will state who
they would choose to live as and will provide an
explanation for their choice.
Two Japanese Folk Tales
Comprehension Check, page 29
A: 1. A
2. J
3. B
4. J
B: Answers will vary. A good answer would explain
how the couple would have been punished,
instead of rewarded, for their behavior.
Answer Key 111

The Samurai Interactive Reading, page 83
Go Beyond an Informational Text
Folk tales often provide fanciful explanations for everyday events.
We don’t really believe these explanations—or do we? Both
“The Spider Weaver” and “The Grateful Statues” describe strange,
wonderful happenings. Whether you believe these stories or not,
Research Template The samurai of long ago provide a fascinating
topic for research. Use the template below to learn more about these
warriors of feudal Japan.
164 Interactive Reading: Teacher’s Edition
Project Samurai
Reading
Standard 3.2
Analyze the
effect of the
qualities of
the character
(for example,
courage or
cowardice,
ambition or
laziness) on
the plot and
resolution of
the conflict.
there’s something valuable to be learned.
Questions for Research Resource
Here’s what you need to know before you begin these folk tales:
• Jizo is a Japanese Buddha who is the protector of children.
• Traditionally Japanese people celebrate the new year by
eating special foods. Sweet, sticky rice cakes are a traditional
Who were the samurai?
new year’s food.
When did they live?
What was their purpose?
retold by Florence Sakade
The Spider Weaver
What amazing event is
related in this paragraph?
Underline it.
The spider bows in
Why were they so feared?
thanks to Yosaku.
Long ago there was a young farmer named Yosaku. One day
he was working in the fields and saw a snake getting ready
to eat a spider. Yosaku felt very sorry for the spider. So he
ran at the snake with his hoe and drove the snake away,
thus saving the spider’s life. Then the spider disappeared
into the grass, but first it seemed to pause a minute and
Why did they cease to exist?
Chapter 2
Pupil Pages 56–97
bow in thanks toward Yosaku.
From Japanese Children’s Favorite Stories, edited by Florence Sakade. Copyright © 1958 by Charles E. Tuttle
Co., Inc. Reprinted by permission of Charles E. Tuttle Co., Inc. of Boston, MA, and Tokyo, Japan.
Two Japanese Folk Tales 89
88 Chapter 2 Characters: The People You’ll Meet

Pause at line 50. What new
problem has come up?
Underline it.
its eight legs it could weave the thread into cloth very,
very fast.
Yosaku was very grateful for the spider’s help. He saw
that the cotton was almost used up. So next morning he set
out for the nearest village, on the other side of the mountains,
to buy some more cotton. He bought a big bundle of
cotton and started home, carrying it on his back.
Along the way a very terrible thing happened. Yosaku
sat down to rest, and the same snake that he’d driven away
from the spider came up and slipped inside the bundle of
cotton. But Yosaku didn’t know anything about this. So he
carried the cotton home and gave it to the weaving girl.
She was very glad to get the cotton, because she’d now
used up all the cotton that was left. So she took it and went
to the weaving room.
As soon as the girl was inside the weaving room, she
turned back into a spider and began eating the cotton very,
very fast, just as though it were something very delicious,
so she could spin it into thread inside her body. The spider
ate and ate and ate, and then suddenly, when it had eaten
down to the bottom of the bundle—the snake jumped out
of the cotton. It opened its mouth wide to swallow the
spider. The spider was very frightened and jumped out
of the window. The snake went wriggling very fast after it.
And the spider had eaten so much cotton that it couldn’t
run very fast. So the snake gradually caught up with the
spider. Again the snake opened its mouth wide to gulp the
spider down. But just then a wonderful thing happened.
Old Man Sun, up in the sky, had been watching what
was happening. He knew how kind the spider had been to
Yosaku and he felt very sorry for the poor little spider. So
he reached down with a sunbeam and caught hold of the
40
One morning not long after that, Yosaku was in his
house when he heard a tiny voice outside calling: “Mr.
Yosaku, Mr. Yosaku.” He went to the door and saw a
beautiful young girl standing in the yard.
10
In many folk tales a person
is helped or promised something,
but on some condition.
What rule does the girl
say Yosaku must obey?
Underline it.
“I heard that you are looking for someone to weave
cloth for you,” said the girl. “Won’t you please let me live
Read aloud the boxed passage.
As you read, vary your
volume, rate of speech, and
pitch to help your listeners
feel the scene’s excitement.
Then, re-read the passage to
improve the smoothness of
your delivery.
50
• • • • • • Notes • • • • • •
here and weave for you?”
Yosaku was very pleased because he did need a weaving
girl. So he showed the girl the weaving room and she
started to work at the loom. At the end of the day Yosaku
went to see what she’d done and was very surprised to find
that she’d woven eight long pieces of cloth, enough to make
eight kimonos. He’d never known anyone could weave so
much in just a single day.
“How ever did you weave so much?” he asked the girl.
But instead of answering him, she said a very strange
thing: “You mustn’t ask me that. And you must never come
into the weaving room while I am at work.”
But Yosaku was very curious. So one day he slipped
very quietly up to the weaving room and peeped in the
window. What he saw really surprised him! Because it was
not the girl who was seated at the loom, but a large spider,
weaving very fast with its eight legs, and for thread it was
using its own spider web, which came out of its mouth.
Yosaku looked very closely and saw that it was the
same spider which he’d saved from the snake. Then Yosaku
understood. The spider had been so thankful that it had
wanted to do something to help Yosaku. So it had turned
itself into a beautiful young girl and come to weave cloth
for him. Just by eating the cotton in the weaving room it
could spin it into thread inside its own body, and then with
Why is Yosaku’s curiosity
aroused by the girl’s response
to his question? What does
he do about it?
He is curious because
he doesn’t understand
20
why he can never
see her at work.
He disobeys the rule
and looks to see
what she is doing.
60
30
Like many folk tales, this one
includes a metamorphosis
(met •¥ •môr√f¥ •sis), a
marvelous change from
one form to another. Circle
the description of a metamorphosis.
Chapter 2
Pupil Pages 56–97
70
Why did the spider take a
human form? Underline the
passage that tells you why.
Pupil Pages with Answers 165
Two Japanese Folk Tales 91
90 Chapter 2 Characters: The People You’ll Meet

“Well, then,” said the old woman, “after you’ve sold
these hats, why don’t you buy some rice cakes and bring
Pause at line 36. Box the
passage that tells what the
old man does for the statues.
What do the old man’s
actions reveal about his
character?
He is kind, thoughtful,
them back with you?”
So early the next morning the old man took the
five new hats that they had made, and went to town to
sell them. But after he got to town, he was unable to sell
166 Interactive Reading: Teacher’s Edition
and unselfish.
end of the web that was sticking out of the spider’s mouth,
and he lifted the spider high up into the sky, where the
snake couldn’t reach it at all.
The spider was very grateful to Old Man Sun for
saving him from the snake. So he used all the cotton that
was inside his body to weave beautiful fleecy clouds up
in the sky. That’s the reason, they say, why clouds are soft
and white like cotton, and also that is the reason why
both a spider and a cloud are called by the same name
in Japan—kumo.
Why did Old Man Sun save
the spider?
He knew how kind the
spider had been.
a single hat. And to make things still worse, it began to
snow very hard.
The old man was very sad as he began trudging wearily
back toward his village. He was going along a lonesome
mountain trail when he suddenly came upon a row of six
stone statues of Jizo, the protector of children, all covered
with snow.
“My, my! Now isn’t this a pity,” the old man said.
“These are only stone statues of Jizo, but even so just think
how cold they must be standing here in the snow.”
“I know what I’ll do!” the old man suddenly said to
himself. “This will be just the thing.”
So he unfastened the five new hats from his back and
began tying them, one by one, on the heads of the Jizo
statues.
When he came to the last statue, he suddenly realized
that all the hats were gone. “Oh, my!” he said, “I don’t have
enough hats.” But then he remembered his own hat. So he
took it off his head and tied it on the head of the last Jizo.
Then he went on his way home.
When he reached his house, the old woman was waiting
for him by the fire. She took one look at him and cried:
“You must be frozen half to death. Quick! Come to the fire.
What did you do with your hat?”
The old man shook the snow out of his hair and came
to the fire. He told the old woman how he had given all the
20
80
What natural feature of
our world is explained in the
story?
Why clouds are fleecy,
and why spiders and
clouds are called kumo
“Fine Wind, Clear Morning,” hand-colored woodblock print
by Katsushika Hokusai, 1831.
30
The Grateful Statues
40
Once upon a time an old man and an old woman were living
in a country village in Japan. They were very poor and
spent every day weaving big hats out of straw. Whenever
they finished a number of hats, the old man would take
them to the nearest town to sell them.
One day the old man said to the old woman: “New
Year’s is the day after tomorrow. How I wish we had some
rice cakes to eat on New Year’s Day! Even one or two little
cakes would be enough. Without some rice cakes we can’t
even celebrate New Year’s.”
Underline words in lines 1–10
that describe the old man.
Circle passages that tell what
he wants. Box passages that
tell what he does.
• • • • • • Notes • • • • • •
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Two Japanese Folk Tales 93
92 Chapter 2 Characters: The People You’ll Meet

What would you say is the
“lesson” of this folk tale?
Compare this lesson to
the lesson in “The Spider
Weaver.”
Suggested response:
The lesson is that
kindness to others will
They saw some tracks in the snow leading away from
their house. The snow was all tinted with the colors of
dawn, and there in the distance, walking over the snow,
were the six stone Jizo, still wearing the hats which the old
man had given them.
The old man said: “It was the stone Jizo who brought
this wonderful rice cake to us.”
The old woman said: “You did them a kind favor when
you gave them your hats, so they brought this rice cake to
show their gratitude.”
The old couple had a very wonderful New Year’s Day
celebration after all, because now they had this wonderful
80
be rewarded. This is
similar to the lesson in
new hats, and even his own hat, to the six stone Jizo. He
told her he was sorry that he hadn’t been able to bring any
rice cakes.
“My! That was a very kind thing you did for the Jizo,”
said the old woman. She was very proud of the old man,
and went on: “It’s better to do a kind thing like that than to
have all the rice cakes in the world. We’ll get along without
any rice cakes for New Year’s.”
By this time it was late at night, so the old man and
woman went to bed. And just before dawn, while they were
still asleep, a very wonderful thing happened. Suddenly
there was the sound of voices in the distance, singing:
Circle what the old woman
says to the old man. What
does her reaction tell you
about her character?
Suggested response:
She is just as kind
50
and generous as
her husband.
“The Spider Weaver,”
in which Yosaku was
rice cake to eat.
rewarded for his kind-
ness to the spider and
“A kind old man walking in the snow
Gave all his hats to the stone Jizo.
So we bring him gifts with a yo-heave-ho!”
Pause at line 53. What “very
wonderful thing” might
happen?
Predictions will vary.
the spider was saved
because of her
kindness to Yosaku.
The voices came nearer and nearer, and then you could
hear the sound of footsteps on the snow.
The sounds came right up to the house where the old
man and woman were sleeping. And then all at once there
was a great noise, as though something had been put down
just in front of the house.
The old couple jumped out of bed and ran to the front
door. When they opened it, what do you suppose they
found? Well, right there at the door someone had spread a
straw mat, and arranged very neatly on the mat was one of
the biggest and most beautiful and freshest rice cakes the
old people had ever seen.
“Whoever could have brought us such a wonderful
gift?” they said, and looked about wonderingly.
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How are the old man and
the old woman rewarded
for their actions?
The old man and
woman find a giant
rice cake on their
doorstep.
Chapter 2
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Pupil Pages with Answers 167
Two Japanese Folk Tales 95
94 Chapter 2 Characters: The People You’ll Meet

Two Japanese Folk Tales Interactive Reading, page 89
Go Beyond Literary Texts
Story Map The folk tales you have read have a great deal in common.
Both folk tales are about ordinary people who do kind deeds and
receive great rewards for their actions. Both folk tales contain strong
moral messages about the kind of people we should all try to be.
Comparing Characters and Events Complete the Venn diagram
below. Show how the characters and events in the two folk tales are
the same and how they are different. Then, share your work with a
partner, and comment on each other’s work.
Tell a “folk tale” of your own. Include some of these characteristics
of a folk tale:
•characters who want
•a condition or test
something very much
• an explanation of how something
•supernatural characters
in our world came to be
•a moral lesson
•a marvelous metamorphosis
Before you write your folk tale, gather your details in a story map
like the one that follows:
The Grateful
Statues
Both
Main characters:
Fantastic
old man,
events happen old woman
The Spider
Weaver
Main characters:
Yosaku, girl-spider
168 Interactive Reading: Teacher’s Edition
Metamorphosis of
spider into girl
Setting
Characters
Good deed:
old man
gives hats
to statues
Set long ago
in Japan
Good deed: girl-spider
weaves cloth for
man who saved her
Moral is that
good deeds are
rewarded
Talking animals
What characters want
Sun comes to rescue
Statues come to life
Explains origins of
clouds and word kumo
Why they can’t get it
What happens
Event 1: Event 2: Event 3 (and so on):
Personal Word List Record this academic term in your Personal
Word List: metamorphosis.
Personal Reading Log As you add this selection to your Personal
Reading Log, indicate whether you would like to read more Japanese
Resolution
Chapter 2
Pupil Pages 56–97
folk tales. Give yourself 3 points on the Reading Meter.
Moral:
Checklist for Standards Mastery Use the Checklist for Standards
Mastery to see how much you have learned.
Graphic Organizer 97
96 Chapter 2 Characters: The People You’ll Meet