The first Japanese fairy tale, "The Goblin of Adachigahara", starts off with a little role reversal compared to your usual fairy tale. Instead of a damsel in distress, the priest was looking for help from the old woman spinning her yarn (the goblin). I guess technically the old woman is actually a male goblin, but still, the roles are somewhat reversed. I think disguising himself as an old woman is definitely a neat idea. Older women would pose the least threatening, but it would be a little suspicious that this woman would be out in the woods all alone. Sort of a "Hansel and Gretel" kind of vibe. Don't eat the candy/spend the night at the goblin's abode. When will the dame/damsel in distress ever learn? Don't go looking in a room means to not go into the room. "Curiosity killed the cat."
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(curiosity challenge -- ankakay)
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Wow! In this case curiosity did not kill the priest. It actually saved him. I definitely like that spin on the usual plot where someone gets too curious and it leads to their downfall. I was happy to see the priest made it out alive as well. His reactions to the situations that arose seemed pretty realistic too. I wonder what happened to the goblin afterwards? Maybe I could add on to the story by introducing a new character the priest hires to go back and defeat the goblin?
The next story is similar with tales of a cannibal monster (disguised as elderly women), but the protagonists reactions are very different. Watanabe looks to fight and the priest ran. I could use Watanabe as my mercenary hired to kill the goblin of Adachigahara. If he lives through "The Ogre of Rahomon". Interesting ending that the Ogre was not killed, but the conflict was resolved because the knight frightened him so much.
Bibliography: Japanese Fairy Tales, Ozaki
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