Category Archives: Life cycle

Urashima Taro

AGE: 18

DATE OF PERFORMANCE: 04/06/2025

LANGUAGE: English and Japanese  

NATIONALITY: American 

OCCUPATION: Student 

PRIMARY LANGUAGE: English 

RESIDENCE: New York 

CONTEXT:

The person I interviewed is Japanese and Caucasian. He can speak fluent Japanese and is deeply connected to his culture. I don’t know him that well, so it came as quite a surprise to hear him tell me a Japanese fairytale off the top of his head.

Interviewer: Are there any distinct folktales or myths that you grew up hearing about?

NS: “Peter Pan, Boy who cried wolf, urashima taro.”

Interviewer: I’m not familiar with the last one, could you tell the story to me?

NS: “Sure. It’s a story about this boy who is on the beach one day and saves this turtle. The turtle then comes back one day and takes the boy back to some fantasy Atlantis ocean world. There the boy finds a wife…who is a beautiful mermaid [he adds that part in]…and who is the princess of the ocean world… and the boy has to choose between staying there or going back to his family. And he chooses to go back to his family.”

Interviewer: Where did you hear this story?

NS: “Mom told it to me. But I also read about it multiple times in Japanese school.”

PERSONAL INTERPRETATION:

I had never heard this fairytale before, so his retelling of it definitely intrigued me. Upon a basic online search, I was shown a slightly different version of the tale. In the one I found online, the boy is a fisherman who is rewarded with the sea princess for saving the turtle. He spends a couple of days with her, but when he goes back home he realizes that he had been gone for 100 years. When he then opens the forbidden box given to him by the princess, he turns into an old man. After reading this version, it was really interesting to see the differences in the iterations. It is worthy to note that I did not do that deep of a search into the tale itself, so perhaps the version I read could have been “wrong.” But even then, that is still a viable version of the tale. It also intrigues me more because my interviewee seemed very familiar with this tale, as he told it so easily. If he’s read it multiple times I’m wondering if he had ever read the version I just saw, or if the iteration he told me was just from whatever he could remember. But I think even if the version of the tale he told me is not found anywhere else, it’s still a viable form of the tale too. I do wonder what the implications or meanings behind this tale were. Is it simply just a children’s fairytale, or does it intend to tell of a deeper life lesson?

Momotaro

AGE: 20   

DATE OF PERFORMANCE: 04/07/2025

LANGUAGE: English 

NATIONALITY: American 

OCCUPATION: Student 

PRIMARY LANGUAGE: English 

RESIDENCE: Cerritos, CA  

Interviewer: Are there any distinct folktales or myths that you grew up hearing about?

NB: “Tooth fairy…[continues to think]…Oh! Momotaro.”

Interviewer: Who is that? Could you tell me that story?

NB: “The little peach boy. I think it’s something like there were old grandparents who always wanted a kid but couldn’t have one. But one day they were blessed with a peach that came down the river stream who ended up being a baby boy so they ended up raising him.”

Interviewer: When did you hear this story?

NB: “I think when I was 6 or 7 years old.”

Interviewer: What do you think the tale is about? Any life lessons or moral stories you think it’s trying to accomplish?

NB: “Mmmm I’m not really sure. [thinks about it for a little] I think it’s about life blessings maybe?”

PERSONAL INTERPRETATION:

Again, this was yet another tale that I had never heard of, so I went online to do some light digging. This tale is about a hero named (quite literally, this is the translation) Peach Boy. This hero can be found in many Japanese tales, movies, books, etc., you name it. According to my basic online sources, he was the local hero of the Okayama Prefecture. In the version of the tale I found online, he was born from a giant peach found floating down a river by an old, childless woman. As he grew older, he became significantly stronger and eventually left his parents behind to fight demons alongside his friends a talking dog, monkey, and pheasant. In the version of the tale NB told me, there was no mention of his fighting demons, simply just that he was a blessing from the gods in the form of a peach. This tale creates many questions for me, such as: why was he born from a peach? What is the significance of the peach? Why did he go off to fight demons? It also just reminds me of more Asian folktales I have heard of that have really interesting or weird characters (often involving fruit or talking animals of some kind, actually) and that the moral of the story isn’t really quite evident. Sometimes stories are just told for entertainment purposes. Does that still count as a part of folklore if it doesn’t have any deeper meaning behind it?

‘El Cadejo’

Age: 48


Date of performance: 4/5/25


Language: Spanish


Nationality: Latino/a


Occupation: Caregiver


Primary Language: Spanish


Residence: United States

Text:

‘El Cadejo’ are two huge dogs, one white, the other black, one representing good and the other evil.

Context:

My informant heard the story of ‘El Cadejo’ from their father who encountered one of the two dogs returning from work at night. According to their father, upon walking back home from a long day of work, he encountered the huge white Cadejo. Aware of the tales of the creature, he remained calm upon its presence, turning away from it and walking forth home as it guided him back through the night.

Deriving from their father’s story of ‘El Cadejo,’ my informant interprets the white Cadejo to reveal themselves to people in place of their spiritual animal companion, there to guide them through difficult times. On the other hand, they interpret the black Cadejo to reveal themselves to those who do wrong in the world, present to punish them for their actions.

Analysis:

I agree with my informants interpretation, as I’ve personally heard the Cadejo were sent down to manage and help balance the world from the malice accumulating from peoples actions. Nevertheless, I believe it is also another folktale about being careful at night and to avoid at all wandering at night from factors that can be unavoidable.

‘El Cipitio’

Age: 48


Date of performance: 4/5/25


Language: Spanish


Nationality: Latino/a


Occupation: Caregiver


Primary Language: Spanish


Residence: United States

Text:

  • El Cipitio is a legendary character from Salvadoran folklore portrayed as a 8-10 year old boy with a large conical hat and a pot-belly.

Context:

  • ‘El Cipitio’s’ name is derived from the Salvadoran word for child, “cipote” translating‘El Cipitio’ to ‘The boy’. Cursed by the god Teotl, Cipitio was condemned to live eternity as a small boy with backwards feet. He is known to be a trickster, wandering into farmers fields, throwing pebbles at beautiful ladies, hiding in bushes to scare people, and eating ashes leftover in rural kitchens.

Growing up in the rural parts of El Salvador, my informant has heard various stories about the Cipitio. Considering their family always cooked in lumber fueled stoves, when ashes laid scattered the day after cooking, the fault would always lay to ‘El Cipitio.’ Or whenever foot prints would lead to no suspecting figure, it would be perceived as a trick from ‘El Cipitio’ and his backwards feet.

My informant interpreted these stories from ‘El Cipitio’ to explain some of the oddities of life, or some of the things children would do but would never explicitly take fault for.

Analysis:

I interpret ‘El Cipitio’ as a legendary character who is just meant to be an entertaining factor in life. Made to make light of some oddities and serve as a easy cop out for things we just aren’t able to explain. I find that he is made to represent childish wonder and all that makes up being a kid growing up. In term, I believe that he is meant to represent the literal sense of a child, a boy to be exact as he is described to do some of the ‘stereotypical’ actions of a boy at his age.

‘La Llorona’

Age: 48


Date of performance: 4/5/25


Language: Spanish


Nationality: Latino/a


Occupation: Caregiver


Primary Language: Spanish


Residence: United States

Text:

“La Llorona” is the name of a sad ghost who roams along riverbanks looking for wandering children at night.

Context:

“She is said to have lost her children in a tragic accident along a riverbank to drowning. Mournful for her children, she took her own life and drowned herself. As a result of this, she wasn’t allowed to cross into the afterlife and remains on earth as a vengeful spirit looking to reunite with her children. She cries out loud, wandering around searching for her children, often mistaking living humans for her deceased children and taking them to riverbank to drown them to reunite in the afterlife.”

Growing up in a small village in El Salvador my informant often listened to this story from some of the older people in their community such as their grandparents, specifically Grandma. They’ve never first hand experienced hearing the wails of a lady in the night, but have continued to hear some of the older generations tell their own personal stories encountering such when they were younger.

My informant interprets the myth of “La Llorona” as a folk story told to children to deter them from wandering out in the village at night through the use of fear. It worked for them as these stories they were told growing up all felt like scary stories and not lessons so they were always scared to go against them and question their validity.


Analysis:

I agree with my informants interpretation of this myth. Commonly, most Hispanic folk stories are meant to teach the younger generation to be careful in the vast fields that surround our home. These pose dangerous environments with wild animals out in the wild in the midst, especially at night. I find that it makes sense for the elders to warn children in a more ‘grounded’ format that’d stick to a children’s mind through fear. Considering the location and environment my informant grew up in, the myth is further amplified by the common misinterpretation of the screams or wails of a big cat to that of a woman’s. A factor, that could’ve served as the foundation of the myth itself.