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The Two Frogs - Japan - 1 frog lived in a ditch in Osaka, the other by a stream in Kioto. Both wanted to explore the world, set off in each other's direction. They had to climb a mountain and they met at the top. They hit it off and decide that if they stand on their hind legs and hold onto each other they can see each other's town from there. They pointed their noses towards each other's city, but forgot that their eyes are on the side of their heads, so they thought the cities looked exactly like each other. They decided to go home, and spent their lives thinking two completely different places looked just alike.
The Maiden With the Wooden Helmet - A beautiful girl's father becomes ill and dies, and it is only her and her mother left. When her mother gets older she begins to worry about how beautiful her daughter is and begs her to wear a wooden helmet when she goes out to hide her beauty. She promises, and her mother passes away. She gets a job working in the fields. Her master sees her and sees how hard she works and offers her a job as maid to his sick wife. When their son moves back home, he thinks it's curious and laughs when they tell him she won't take it off. He catches a glimpse of her beauty when she washes her face in the stream, and begins asking her daily to marry him. She always says no, until she has a dream of her mother telling her to marry him. On their wedding day, the helmet won't come off, so she gets married in it. After, they share wine and the helmet cracks, breaking into jewels, and everyone is captivated by her beauty.
Made me think of Futaba wearing her mask and everyone finding it startling and weird that she would hide behind it.
The Cat's Elopement - A beautiful cat named Gon lives with a music master, and a lady nearby owns a lovely female cat named Koma. One night the cats both went out for a stroll and met under a cherry tree and fell in love. Gon asks his master to buy Koma so he can marry her, but the lady won't sell her. They ran off together and ended up in a large park. A big dog showed up and scared Koma up a tree, and Gon stood up to it. Koma screamed for help and one of the princess who owned the park's servants came, scared the dog off and took Gon home with him. Koma was left alone and the princess became Gon's new owner. Everyone loved her because she was so nice, and a serpent fell in love with her and she was annoyed by him so the servants kept driving him away. It was sly and would sneak in to scare the princess. It snuck in and tried to kiss her and Gon grabbed it and killed it. She gave Gon love and pets and yummy food and a comfy bed. One morning he was sunbathing in front of the house, and saw a big cat messing with a little one and chased it away. The little cat turned out to be Koma. They were happy to be reunited and told the princess their story, and she said they should stay with her forever.
Japanese Fairy Tales from The Violet Fairy Book by Andrew Lang. Web Source.
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