Author Archives: Matthew Karatsu

Tale – Japanese

Nationality: Japanese-American
Occupation: Retired
Residence: Manhattan Beach, CA
Performance Date: March 15, 2008
Primary Language: English
Language: Japanese

Momo Taro is a tale about a married couple that could not have a child. They really wanted to have a child and one day a peach pit came to them down a stream and from this a child was born. The child was know as the peach boy.

Momo Taro is a well know Japanese tale about how a child was brought to a couple in a peach pit/leaf/peach. In fact Momo in Japanese means peach and Taro is a common and popular name for a boy. I came across this tale three times while doing this collection project. I was first told this tale by my grandmother, who was able to give me the above description. My mother also told me that tale, but she had more gaps in the tale, and finally Nicky from class was asking about this tale and if I had heard of it. I find it very interesting that my grandmother and mother would know this tale.

I think my mother knows the tale because she can put herself in the place of the married women in the tale. She was unable to have children, and so her and my father adopted both myself and my sister. We are like the boy that was delivered in the peach to the married couple in the tale.

I also couldn’t not help but notice that this is kind of like the English story of James and the Giant Peach. In this tale the boy travels away from evil caretakers and travels by way of peach from England to New York. I think that this is very interesting that two tales have such similar main characters and similar points and morals.

I find that the meaning of the tales is that if you are patient that you will be able to have what you most desire. I also think that these tales are also told so that you know to be thankful for the fact that you have family and that they should also be thankful for you.

Annotation:

Seki, Keigo. Asian Folklore Studies, vol. 25. Nagoya Japan: Nanzan University: 1966

Contemporary Legend – Boise, Idaho

Nationality: Caucasian
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Boise, ID
Performance Date: April 15, 2008
Primary Language: English

There’s a legend that is kind of like a ghost story, but it’s kind of like an urban legend, near Boise, kind of up in the mountains there’s this street kind of on a hill and apparently a girl was run over by a school bus or something, like a small girl, so the story goes that if you park on that hill with your car and you take the emergency brake off and you just sit there the car will move up the hill because the girl is pushing the car up the hill.

This is a ghost story and urban legend in one piece of folklore. Here a girl’s ghost is pushing cars up the hill where she was run over by a bus. The urban legend part is that you can experience this by stopping on the hill and not using you emergency brake. Stephanie heard the story from a friend as they were driving past the hill. They were in a hurry, so they were unable to stop and try the legend out for themselves, so the mystery still remains for them. Another part of the ghost story is that if after you get out of your car you can see foot prints behind your car.

Stephanie thought that this legend continues to be popular because people still go out and try to see if they park on the hill and take their emergency brake off, if their car will go up the hill. She believes that it is popular because if give people something to do on the weekends and when they are really bored.

This also means that the audience that is most likely going to keep this legend continuing are going to be teenagers with cars. If you do not have a car, or can not drive I don’t think that this legend is going to be as interesting for you. I would find it interesting to try if I was bored. It seems like it would be really interesting if something like this could happen.

Contemporary Legend – University of Southern California

Nationality: Japanese-American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Manhattan Beach, CA
Performance Date: April 20, 2008
Primary Language: English

There are a few legends behind why every year Tommy Trojan get wound in duct tape. I come from a family that has had a few generations go through USC and I have heard a few different reasons why Tommy is dressed in duct tape during the UCLA vs. USC football game week. I originally heard from my dad that UCLA had a few students who got a helicopter and tried to dump blue and gold paint on Tommy, but because of the rotor wash and their bad aim, they were unable to get Tommy with the paint. The other story I heard was that they tired to use cow manure, and instead got a lot of it in the helicopter because of the rotor wash. I think I even heard a variation where the helicopter crashed, but I find that hard to believe.

The fact is that this legend has become very much a part of folklore on the campus of USC. Every year the Trojan Knights camp out in front of Tommy to make sure that nothing happens to him. Also, every year he is wrapped up in duct tape. These two fact keep this legend going. The other reason that they legend is still popular is the fact that we would like to think that we are that much better than people from UCLA, and that these stupid plans and actions are signs of our superiority. The thing is I also know a few people who go to UCLA.

The way their story goes, they succeed in getting Tommy with either the paint, the manure, and in one case both, and that it was because of this success that Tommy is wrapped in duct tape every year. At USC we like to think we are taking precautions from keep this from ever working even though UCLA has failed on numerous occasions to try to do something to Tommy.

Another important fact is that the legend is popular to both people at USC, and UCLA, but probably not even know in other school that do not play either school in sports. This means that they legends around Tommy and the duct tape are continued and popular among a small group of people who go to either school.

Contemporary Legend – University of Southern California

Nationality: Japanese-American
Occupation: Accountant
Residence: Manhattan Beach, CA
Performance Date: March 10, 2008
Primary Language: English

In the past there was a great visible rivalry between USC and the Cal marching Bands. I have heard that one year there were a bunch of Cal band members that were dressed up in USC band uniforms and that their plan was to go out during half time and make a mess of the half time show for USC on national television. Apparently though the members of the USC marching band were smarter than this and when they were about to take the field they all punched out the Cal members that were in the band that day.

My father told me this legend when I brought up the fact that there must be some folklore that surrounds USC. He found out about this legend when he first started school at USC. He thought about this legend because it always sounded like it could have happened.

He thought that this legend has kept going through all the years because of  the marching band. The marching band has traditionally been one of the bigger and louder college marching bands in the nation, and for this reason people are always trying to compete with the marching band. He believes that this legend continues on because it makes it seem like USC’s marching band was able to prevent something bad from happening to their field show.

Another reason why I think the legend continues today is because today we live in a society that need for us to all be politically correct. It would not be appropriate for our students to try to do that to another school. It makes us long to be back in the old days when things like this were expected rather than worried about.

I also find that this legend continues today because the marching band is still very well known. If the band had not been as famous as it is then I doubt that a legend like this would ever continue to be popular on campus. Again, this kind of legend is only popular among students of the schools because we feel that we need to be a part of our school, and this is just one more way that as a group we build special connections.

Folk Belief

Nationality: Caucasian
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Boise, ID
Performance Date: April 15, 2008
Primary Language: English

Every time I lost a tooth I would put it under my pillow, and in the morning the tooth fairy would leave me a note, in my mother’s handwriting,  and a sliver dollar, and give me the tooth back which I would keep in a jar.

The idea of the tooth fairy is very popular in most western cultures. The general idea is that the tooth fairy comes if you lose a tooth and put it under your pillow, and that the tooth fairy leaves you money in exchange for the tooth.

The interesting part about Stephanie’s tooth fairy tale is that they tooth fair leaves a note, in her mom’s handwriting, and gives her the tooth back. For me I got a little money, like a quarter, but I did not keep the tooth. I find it interesting that for one family the idea of keeping the tooth is expected and that in another the idea of keeping the tooth is very strange.

This is kind of a tale that would be told to young children because they are the ones that are going to be losing teeth. The other reason why the tooth fairy is popular among children is because you are getting a present for something that was yours, you get a sort of reward for losing a tooth.

The other reason why the tooth fairy persists today is because of the interactions between children at school. Many children find out that their friends have been visited by the tooth fairy and I think that may start some other parents telling their own version of the tooth fairy tale.

Annotation:

Wynbrandt, James. The Excruciating History of Dentisty. St. Martin’s Press: 1998