The Starting of Japanese Animation

Most pre-war Japanese animation is derived from Japanese fairy tales and mythologies. However, the origins of the story behind Yasuji Murata’s animated folktale adaptation Why is the Sea Water Salty?(海の水はなぜからい / Umi no Mizu wa Naze Karai, 1935) are very complicated. Long before science could explain why oceans are salty, myths and legends were developed to fill the knowledge gap.

Murata’s film seems to have been influenced by a tangled web of European and Japanese folktales. It was the time of rising Japan when television was new merging into a raplidly expanding industrial era of the country.

Two brothers, one rich and one poor, are introduced on title cards. New Year’s is approaching and the younger brother is lacking supplies. He goes to ask his older brother for help. He finds him poundingmochi (glutinous rice). The older brother looks down on the younger one and dismisses his request saying that his younger brother is undeserving of his rice cakes. Disappointed, the younger brother heads home with his head hanging low. Along the way, he encounters an elderly man who almost falls off a footbridge. He rescues the man and to thank him for his kindness, the elderly man gives him somemanjū (sweet bean cakes). He tells him that he should take the manjū to the dwarves in the forest to exchange for their quern (stone mill/ 臼 /usu).

Modern era Japanese animation Totoro

Led by a dwarf waving a hinomaru flag enthusiastically, the dwarves are hard at work in the forest building a house. However, they run into troubles dragging the heavy wood uphill. The younger brother laughs are their dilemma and offers to help them. They offer him a meal in thanks but the younger brother shows them his manjū. The dwarves begin salivating at the sight of the sweet manjū and beg him to share them. They even offer him money for the manjū and he refuses, asking instead for their quern. After some discussion, they agree to this deal and they explain the secret of how to use the magic quern. When he turns it right and makes a wish, what he wishes for appears. To reverse the magic he must turn it to the left.

The younger brother wishes himself a house, a warehouse, and rice fields, and before long his wealth exceeds all the others in his village including his older brother. The older brother is overwhelmed by jealousy and asks his younger brother if he can borrow the quern. The younger brother says it would be useless to the older brother because he is already a wealthy man. So the older brother steals the quern and leaves the village by sea. As he double-checks that he has brought everything he needs, the older brother notices that he forgot to bring salt with him. He then uses the quern for the first time and wishes for salt. Unfortunately, he doesn’t know how to tell the quern to stop and the growing pile of salt causes the boat to sink. The older brother is eaten by a shark and the quern falls to the bottom of the sea where it continues to dispense salt into the ocean for eternity.

Discussion

Chūzō Aoji (青地忠三, 1885-1970) wrote the screenplay for Why is the Sea Water Salty? Aoji worked with Murata (村田安司, 1896-1966) at Yokohama Cinema Shokai where they collaborated on many animated shorts in the 20s and 30s such as Taro’s Toy Train (太郎さんの汽車, 1929) and Momotaro of the Sea (海の桃太郎, 1932). Although versions of this folktale have been recorded in many counties (see: D.L. Ashliman’s Folktexts for some examples), the origins of the tale adapted by Aoji and Murata appears to have roots in both Norway and Japan.

The Norwegian folktale “The Mill That Grinds at the Bottom of the Sea” (Kvernen som maler på havsens bunn) is one of the most well-known salt folktales. It was first published by 19th century folklorists Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Engebretsen Moe in Norwegian Folktales (Norske Folkeeventyr) which appeared in various formats starting with a slim pamphlet in 1852. The tale was translated into English by Sir George Webbe Dasent and can be found in his 1888 publication Popular Tales from the Norse (Project Gutenberg) under the title: “Why the Sea is Salt” (sic). It is believed that this tale likely found its way to Japan in the late Meiji or early Taishō period, sometime after its publication in English. There has also been some evidence that in Taishō 12 (1923), a similar story to the Norwegian one was brought to Japan by people who arrived by boat from Russia (Source). The Norwegian tale is set on Christmas Eve, but the Japanese version changes this to Oshōgatsu (Japanese New Year), as this was (and remains) the most important holiday in Japan.

Ugokie-Ko-Ri-No-Tatehiki (1933)

Anime always was weird, even in 1933. I suppose it is worth clarifying that almost all cartoons were weird in the 1920's and 30's, whether it's Mickey Mouse date raping Minnie in a plane or Betty Boop fleeing in terror from Cab Calloway rendered as a ghost walrus. By contrast, I suppose Ugokie-Ko-Ri-No-Tatehiki is not that weird. In it, a magical fox disguised as a samurai has a wizard's duel with a family of tanuki - the Japanese "racoon dog" gifted with shape-shifting powers - involving a bevy of traditional Japanese monsters. As an insane 1930's classic cartoon and a slice of Japanese mystique, it's wonderful.

The title roughly translates to “Fox and Racoon-Dog Playing Pranks on Each Other” and features two mythologized versions of Japanese wildlife. After a wandering peasant crawls fretfully through a midnight scene worthy of Disney's Skeleton Dance, we are introduced to Kitsune, the Japanese fox. Foxes are indigenous to Japan and have taken on a unique set of folkloric characteristics there. White foxes are considered to be the messengers of Inari, the “kami” (god-like spiritual being) of fertility and harvests. Kyoto's Fushimi-Inari Shrine with its thousands of tori gates lined up in rows – made world famous by Memoirs of a Geisha – is adorned with white foxes. The more tails a fox has, up to nine, the more powerful it is. Amongst its powers are shape-shifting, and foxes are often thought to turn into humans for various purposes good and ill.

In Ugokie-Ko-Ri-No-Tatehiki, the fox turns into a wandering samurai and makes his way to a dilapidated temple. We know something is awry, however, when we see the will-o-wisp Hinotama light up, signifying supernatural activity. Inside the temple, our Kitsune draws the attention of a young Tanuki. Also known as “Racoon-Dogs” in English, Tanuki are a species of wild canine with racoon-like markings found throughout Japan. They are also ascribed special characteristics, foremost of which is shape-shifting and a jovial, playful attitude. You may have seen a statue of one standing in your local sushi restaurant, holding a flask of sake, wearing a straw hat, and flashing his engorged testicles.

Once the Kitsune sits down to enjoy some sake, this curious Tanuki adopts the form of Ichigen-issoku. This one-eyed, one-legged Yokai (monster or supernatural entity) is the ghost of the high priest Jinin of the Mount Hiei Temple in Kyoto, circumnavigating the mountain on midnight strolls. Seeing the ruse, the Kitsune entraps the Tanuki with its love of songs. Bested, the little one calls in the reinforcements. Upon his arrival, the elder Tanuki sneaks up on the Kitsune, in reference to a well-known urban legend. According to an August 1873 illustrated newspaper (Shinbun nishiki-e), a man was woken by the screams of his child, over whom loomed the form of a three-eyed monk. This monk grew larger and larger until it reached the very ceiling of his house. Wise to the trick himself, the father grabbed the monk's sleeve and pulled him down, whereupon the monk transformed back into a Tanuki. What follows is a knock-down, drag-out magic fight between the two shape-shifting pranksters.