Japanese Folk Tale

Stepchildren Stories 57
Fukushima, Iwaki-gun: TD IX 5 75, "Osono who turned into a nightingale"
(Uguisu ni natta Osono). Example; Iwaki 25, 116, "The stepchild
and the bird" (Mamako to tori).
Niigata, Kitauonuma-gun: Fushi 3 97, "Abusing the stepchild" (Mamako
ijime). It is told as a true story.
Nagano, Shimominochi-gun: Shimominochi 196, "The three stepchildren"
(Sannin mamako no hanashi).
Chiisagata-gun: Chiisagata 224, "The weak toy bow and arrow"
(Hama yumi yowaki). A fragment.
Kamiina-gun: Mukashibanashi 64, 121, "I long for my father,
hoyareho" (Toto sama koishi ya hoyareho) and "The three stepchildren"
(Sannin mamako no hanashi).
Yamanashi, Nishiyatsushiro-gun: Kai 63, "The three flutes" (San bon no
fue). The story is about the killing of three stepchildren. Three
stalks of bamboo sprouted from their graves. They were cut and
made into flutes. It is close to "Singing bones." Zoku Kai 147, "The
stepdaughter" (Mamamusume). A girl who was abandoned in the
mountains wrote a note and asked a sparrow to take it to her
uncle. He saved her. 'We can see by this its relationship to "Ogin,
Kogin" and "Ash girl."
Tochigi, Haga-gun: Dai-ni 51, "The chrysanthemum doll" (Kiku ningy6
no hanashi). A girl was put into a box and abandoned. She wrote a
note and asked a pigeon to take it to her father.
This type of story seems unique to Japan. In stories in which
the stepchild is put into a kettle, as well, they often die and turn
into a bamboo flute or sing with the voice of a nightingale. Shimotsuke
40, "The strange flute" (Fushigi na shakuhachi).
Gifu: Utsushibana 70, "The three stepchildren" (Sannin no mamako). A
bamboo grew from the grave of children who had been killed. It
cried "piihoroo" when the father was about to cut it.
Shizuoka: Shizuoka 395, 399, 403, 407, "Stories about stepmothers and
stepchildren" (Mamahaha to mamako no hanashi).
Hiroshima, Asa-gun: Aki 51, "Abusing the stepchild" (Mamako ijime).
Tokushima: Awa Iyayama 55, "The stepchild and the flute" (Mamako to
fue).
Kagawa, Takamatsu: Dai-ni 52, "The bamboo flute" (Takebue).
Fukuoka, Ukiha-gun: Fukuoka 47, 48, "Stepmother hates me, chinchirorin"
(Mamahaha urameshi chinchirorin), and "The stepmother"
(Mamahaha no hanashi).
Itojima: Fukuoka 49, "Killing the stepchild" (Mamako koroshi no
hanashi).
Oita: Buzen. *
Kumamoto, Amakusa-gun: MK I 11 43, 12 22, "The stepchild and the
flute" (Mamako to fue). Two stories with the same title. Kyodo
ken V 3 4, "Folk faith in Banshu" (Banshu noshin tan) by Sasaki
Kizen.
Nagasaki, Kitatakaku-gun: MK II 10 40, "Going to Kyoto" (Kyo nobori).
The flute sounded, "I want my father, chin-chirori." It is evident
that the phrase was emphasized when the tale was told.
Kagoshima: MK I 6 28, "Abusing the stepchild" No. 1 (Mamako ijime);
Kikai 59, "The seven white birds" (Shichiwa no shiradori). This
resembles a foreign story to a strange degree.