Tag Archives: school folklore

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?

The Quran-Reading Jinn

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student

Informant Information:

Age: 18
Date of Performance: 4/01/2025
Language: English
Nationality: American
Occupation: University Student
Primary Language: English
Residence: Los Angeles, California

Legend Text:
“Aight so lemme tell you this story I heard from a Sheikh, right? He was talkin’ about this boy who went to some Islamic boarding school. Real quiet dude—didn’t really vibe with nobody. Like, he’d just be sittin’ by himself all the time, barely said a word to anybody. Never played, never joked, nothin’. Just… there.

But here’s where it gets weird. At night, the other boys start hearin’ this scratchin’—like real scratchin’, on the walls, the floor, soundin’ like somethin’ tryna claw its way through or somethin’. And it wasn’t no small sound either—loud enough to wake ‘em up. So they all freak out, runnin’ to the teachers all panicked like, “Yo! There’s somethin’ in the room!” But every time the teachers came, it was just silence. Nothin’ there. No marks, no animals, nothin’.

Now guess who never woke up? That boy. Slept through all of it like a baby. No tossing, no turning—just peaceful as ever, like he ain’t hear nothin’. And that’s when folks started whisperin’—sayin’ maybe he was possessed or some jinn was up in him. But like, they couldn’t prove nothin’, so it was just rumors.

Then one night, one of the teachers starts recitin’ Quran out loud, tryna bless the room or calm folks down or whatever. And boom—the quiet kid just sits up outta nowhere and starts recitin’ too. But the crazy part? He was killin’ it. Like, word-for-word, smooth, no stumbles. Dude was recitin’ like he’d been doin’ it his whole life, maybe even better than the teacher. Everybody just froze. Like, how you doin’ that with no practice, barely even talkin’ during the day?

So now everybody really trippin’. Cuz now they don’t know—is he just mad gifted? Like, maybe God really blessed him with that kind of talent? Or is it somethin’ else? Cuz the way he spoke, man… it ain’t sound regular. It ain’t sound human. Gave folks goosebumps. After that, nobody really knew what to think. Was it a miracle? Or was it the jinn speakin’ through him?”

Context:
The informant is Muslim and heard this story during Ramadan, a spiritually heightened time when discussions of the supernatural are common in Muslim households. She believed it was told to create awe, fear, and moral reflection.

Analysis:
This legend explores the mysterious boundaries between divine giftedness and supernatural interference. The Jinn here is not malevolent in the traditional sense but instead creates confusion around spiritual authenticity. It highlights the complex role Jinns play in Muslim culture—not just as spirits of fear but as beings capable of deep religious knowledge. The setting in a Quranic school emphasizes the sacred nature of the space and the high stakes of interpreting spiritual phenomena.