Shita-kiri Suzume

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Shita-kiri Suzume (舌切り雀　shitakirisuzume), translated literally into "Tongue-Cut Sparrow," is a traditional Japanese fable, telling of a kind old man, his avaricious wife, and an injured sparrow. The story explores the effects of greed, friendship, and jealousy on the characters.

Andrew Lang included it as The Sparrow with the Slit Tongue in The Pink Fairy Book.

The basic form of the tale is common throughout the world.

1 The Story
- 1.1 Themes
2 Variants
3 Contemporary Connections
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

[edit] The Story

An old man went on his usual hike into the mountains to cut timber one morning and came upon an injured sparrow crying for help. Feeling sorry for the creature, the man takes it back to his home and feeds it some rice to try to help it recover. His wife, being very greedy and ill-natured, is annoyed that he would waste precious food on such a filthy little thing as the sparrow. The old man, however, continued caring for the bird.

The man had to return to the mountain one day and left the bird in the care of the old woman, who had no intention of feeding it. After her husband left, she went out fishing. While she was gone, the sparrow got into some starch that was left out and eventually ate it all. The old woman was so outraged upon her return that she cut out the bird's tongue, sending it flying back into the mountains from whence it came.

The old man went searching for the bird and, with the help of other sparrows, found his way into a bamboo grove in which the sparrow's inn was located. A multitude of sparrows greeted him and led him to his friend, the little sparrow he saved. The others brought him food and sang and danced for him.

Upon his departure, they presented him with a choice of a large basket or a small basket as a prize. Being old, he chose the small basket since he figured it would be the least heavy. When he arrived home, he opened the basket and an enormous amount of treasure was found inside. The wife, finding out there was a larger basket, then runs to the inn, hoping to gain more treasure for herself. Immediately, she chooses the larger basket but is warned not to open it before getting home.

Being the greedy woman she was, however, she couldn't resist opening the basket on the way home. Much to her surprise, the box was full of ogres, snakes, and other monsters. They scared her so badly that she tumbled completely down the mountain, presumably to her death.

[edit] Themes

The purity of friendship overcomes the evil of greed and jealousy.
Greed only leads one to their own demise.

[edit] Variants

The tale is classified as Aarne-Thompson type 480, "The Kind and the Unkind Girls." Others of this type include Diamonds and Toads, Mother Hulda, The Three Heads in the Well, Father Frost, The Three Little Men in the Wood, The Enchanted Wreath, The Old Witch, and The Two Caskets.^[1]

[edit] Contemporary Connections

In the recently released video game, Ōkami, among many other Japanese mythological references, one segment is very similar to Shitakiri Suzume. In this scene, you reach the sparrow's inn to find that the king sparrow's daughter is missing. The main character is then pointed toward an old house by a bamboo salesman, who said the last thing he sold was a cage to an old couple who generally were not fond of pets.(This was the last thing he had sold because the bamboo he got came from the inn, which was shut off after the disappearance of the sparrow princess). You then traverse over a field to reach a dilapidated house with spooky owners, an old man and woman. The difference between this and the story is that the old man is also evil. When exposed to moonlight, the two are shown as monsters, who must then be vanquished. Afterwards, the sparrow is retrieved and brought back to the inn, where everything is then set right.
Again in the game Ōkami, there is a second possible reference. In the sparrow's inn is a hunter who is eating ravenously. When you listen to him he tells of how he once rescued a young sparrow and now has a suspicion that he is receiving abnormally generous hospitality because of it. Talking to the servant sparrow waiting on him reveals that she is the sparrow he rescued.
In Japan, "shita-kiri suzume" is a colloquialism for someone who is afraid to speak his or her mind.