Japanese Folk Tale

Humorous Stories: Exaggerations 227
222. Matching Long Lives
Okayama: Mitsu 118, "Matching big things" (OkU kurabe).
Nagasaki: Shimabara 28, "When the monkeys gathered chestnuts" (Saru
no kuri hiroD. Three monkeys saw one chestnut. The one that was
the oldest could have it.
223. Lies
These have developed much as exaggerations, turning out to be a
dream at the end of an absurd tale. They are probably older than tales
with word plays. Climbing the Sky, Urashima, and such also have some
with this ending. The following is a good example.
Iwate, Kamihei-gun: Kikimimi 110, "Extracting oil" (Abura torD. This is
exactly the same form as "Koketsu Palace." A man ran into the
house of an old woman to escape. He hid in the straw sack above
the fire shelf. When the man thought his pursuer had found him
and was about to drag him down to be ground up, it proved to be
a dream.
This sort of imagination occurs only in Tohoku.
224. Matching Laziness
Iwate: Shiwa 70, "The lazy men" (Sekkoki otoko). One man thought it
was too much of a bother to take his lunch off his shoulder and
one thought it was too burdensome to tie his sedge hat under his
chin. He kept his mouth open and his chin down to hold the
strings.
Iwasa-gun: Kikimimi 497, "The lazy man" (Kabane yami).
Nagano, Shimoina-gun: Mukashibanashi 45, "The lazy men" {Zokunashi
otoko}. Exactly the same tale as the one in Shiwa.
Yamanashi, Nishiyatsushiro-gun: Zoku Kai 433, "The two lazy men"
(Futari no zukunashi).
Fukuoka, Kurume: Fukuoka 156, "Lazy men meeting" (Busho no deaD.
The lunch and the strings on the sedge hat.
Further reference:
"Shima no machi" Anei 5 (1776). (In Kinsei bungei sosho 6.) The
story is here.