ぶんぶく茶釜 (Bunbuku Chagama)
Bunbuku Chagama is a Japanese folktale about a tanuki that uses its shapeshifting powers to reward its rescuer for his kindness.
A poor man finds a tanuki caught in a trap. Feeling sorry for the animal, he sets it free. That night, the tanuki comes to the poor man’s house to thank him for his kindness. The tanuki transforms itself into a chagama (tea kettle) and tells the man to sell him for money. The man sells the tanuki-teapot to a monk, who takes it home and, after scrubbing it harshly, sets it over the fire to boil water. Unable to stand the heat, the tanuki teapot sprouts legs and, in its half-transformed state, makes a run for it. The tanuki returns to the poor man with another idea. The man would set up a roadside circus-like attraction and charge admission for people to see a teapot walking a tightrope. The plan works, and each gains something good from the other: the man is no longer poor and the tanuki has a new friend and home.
浦島 太郎 (Urashima Taro)
Urashima Taro is a Japanese legend about a fisherman who rescues a turtle and is rewarded a visit to the Ryujin’s palace under the sea for his kindness. He stays there for three days and, upon his return to his village, finds himself 300 years in the future. Before going back, Otohime gave him a box with instructions not to open it but due to Taro’s grief after discovering that everything in his hometown has changed, he opened it and out comes his old age.
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Much better pic.
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