Shita-kiri Suzume
Encyclopedia
, 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.
The man had to return to the mountains 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 all of it. The old woman was so angry upon her return that she cut out the bird's tongue and sent it flying back into the mountains from where 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 present. Being an older man, he chose the small basket as he thought it would be the least heavy. When he arrived home, he opened the basket and discovered a large amount of treasure inside. The wife, learning of the existence of a larger basket, ran to the sparrow's inn in the hope of getting more treasure for herself. She chose the larger basket but was warned not to open it before getting home.
Such was her greed that the wife could not resist opening the basket before she returned to the house. To her surprise, the box was full of deadly snakes and other monsters. They startled her so much that she tumbled all the way down the mountain, presumably to her death.
, 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
. Literary variants include The Three Fairies
and Aurore and Aimée
.
video game Ōkami
, the sparrow's inn exists as an important location, alongside an elderly couple wielding clippers who had captured and were planning to eat one of the sparrows. This is a fairly obvious reference to the tale, although the old man is not friendly like he was in the old tale; instead, he is as mean-spirited as his wife.
Fable
A fable is a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, mythical creatures, plants, inanimate objects or forces of nature which are anthropomorphized , and that illustrates a moral lesson , which may at the end be expressed explicitly in a pithy maxim.A fable differs from...
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
Andrew Lang
Andrew Lang was a Scots poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectures at the University of St Andrews are named after him.- Biography :Lang was born in Selkirk...
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.
Plot
Once upon a time there lived a poor old woodcutter with his wife, who earned their living by cutting wood and fishing. The old man was honest and kind but his wife was arrogant and greedy. One morning, the old man went into the mountains to cut timber and saw an injured sparrow crying out for help. Feeling sorry for the bird, 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 rude, is annoyed that he would waste precious food on such a small little thing as a sparrow. The old man, however, continued caring for the bird.The man had to return to the mountains 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 all of it. The old woman was so angry upon her return that she cut out the bird's tongue and sent it flying back into the mountains from where 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 present. Being an older man, he chose the small basket as he thought it would be the least heavy. When he arrived home, he opened the basket and discovered a large amount of treasure inside. The wife, learning of the existence of a larger basket, ran to the sparrow's inn in the hope of getting more treasure for herself. She chose the larger basket but was warned not to open it before getting home.
Such was her greed that the wife could not resist opening the basket before she returned to the house. To her surprise, the box was full of deadly snakes and other monsters. They startled her so much that she tumbled all the way down the mountain, presumably to her death.
The morale of the story
- The purity of friendship overcomes the evil of greed and jealousy.
- Greed only leads to one's own demise.
Variants
The tale is classified as Aarne-Thompson type 480, "The Kind and the Unkind Girls." Others of this type include Diamonds and ToadsDiamonds and Toads
Diamonds and Toads or Toads and Diamonds is a French fairy tale by Charles Perrault, and titled by him "Les Fées" or "The Fairies." Andrew Lang included it in The Blue Fairy Book....
, Mother Hulda
Mother Hulda
Mother Hulda is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm and first published in 1812 as part of Children's and Household Tales. It was originally known as Frau Holle and is tale number 24.- Synopsis :...
, The Three Heads in the Well
The Three Heads in the Well
The Three Heads in the Well is a fairy tale collected by Joseph Jacobs in English Fairy Tales.It is Aarne-Thompson tale 480, the kind and the unkind girls. Others of this type include Shita-kiri Suzume, Diamonds and Toads, Mother Hulda, Father Frost, The Three Little Men in the Wood, The Enchanted...
, Father Frost
Father Frost (fairy tale)
Father Frost is a Russian fairy tale collected by Alexander Afanasyev in Narodnye russkie skazki. Andrew Lang included it, as "The Story of King Frost", in The Yellow Fairy Book.It is Aarne-Thompson type 480, The Kind and the Unkind Girls...
, The Three Little Men in the Wood
The Three Little Men in the Wood
The Three Little Men in the Wood or The Three Dwarfs is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, number 13. Andrew Lang included it in The Red Fairy Book, and a version of the tale appears in A Book of Dwarfs by Ruth Manning-Sanders.It is Aarne-Thompson type 403B, the black and the...
, The Enchanted Wreath
The Enchanted Wreath
The Enchanted Wreath is a Scandinavian fairy tale, collected in Benjamin Thorpe in his Yule-Tide Stories: A Collection of Scandinavian and North German Popular Tales and Traditions...
, The Old Witch
The Old Witch
The Old Witch is an English fairy tale collected by Joseph Jacobs in his 1894 book, More English Fairy Tales.Also included within A Book of Witches Ruth Manning-Sanders and A Book of British Fairy Tales by Alan Garner....
and The Two Caskets
The Two Caskets
The Two Caskets is a Scandinavian fairy tale included by Benjamin Thorpe in his Yule-Tide Stories: A Collection of Scandinavian and North German Popular Tales and Traditions. Andrew Lang included it in The Orange Fairy Book....
. Literary variants include The Three Fairies
The Three Fairies
The Three Fairies is an Italian literary fairy tale written by Giambattista Basile in his 1634 work, the Pentamerone.It is Aarne-Thompson tale 480, the kind and the unkind girls, and appears to stem from an oral source...
and Aurore and Aimée
Aurore and Aimée
Aurore and Aimée is a French literary fairy tale written by Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont. Like her better known tale Beauty and the Beast, it is among the first fairy tales deliberately written for children....
.
In modern culture
In the Clover StudioClover Studio
Clover Studio was an independent Japanese development studio, funded by Capcom Japan. Clover Studio developed the PlayStation 2 port of Viewtiful Joe, both versions of Viewtiful Joe 2 for the Nintendo GameCube and PlayStation 2, and the PlayStation 2 titles Ōkami and God Hand...
video game Ōkami
Okami
is an action-adventure video game developed by Clover Studio and published by Capcom. It was released for Sony's PlayStation 2 video game console in 2006 in Japan and North America, and 2007 in Europe and Australia...
, the sparrow's inn exists as an important location, alongside an elderly couple wielding clippers who had captured and were planning to eat one of the sparrows. This is a fairly obvious reference to the tale, although the old man is not friendly like he was in the old tale; instead, he is as mean-spirited as his wife.