SIR World Languages Investigation Abstract
JAPANESE FABLES
Presenter:
Sarah Walter, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, 1500 West Sullivan Road, Aurora, IL 60506; goddes7@imsa.edu
Advisor:
Jonathan Besancon, Foreign Language, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, 1500 West Sullivan Road, Aurora, IL 60506; sensei@imsa.edu; 630-907-5085
Abstract:
As children in Western Civilization, we are taught many lessons and morals through fables and fairy tales that we all know and love. As recipients of these stories we grow older and realize the underlying life lessons taught to us in story form. Recognizing the formality and emphasis on conformity through social behaviors of the Japanese people, one might wonder if such rigid social structure could be transmitted through fables. After due research one would find that the frequency of morals and lessons occurring in Japanese fables is much less than that of occurrences in Western fables, leading one to believe that teaching protocol is not the primary function of Japanese fables. These stories are grounded in the beliefs of Shintoism, the indigenous religion of Japan, whereas Western stories do not focus on religious beliefs. Often characters in Japanese fables come in contact with beings with supernatural powers showing the Japanese belief that the human world and the spirit world are interconnected somehow. Japanese stories are mystical and entertaining, rather than being didactic. Analysis of many Japanese fables allows one to conclude that there is a connection between story and belief, rather than a connection between story and moral as in Western culture.