What would you do if one day you chopped open a melon and a baby fell out?
In today’s episode of Folktales That Folks Tell, I have for you a nice charming story
that takes a left turn at Albuquerque into something real dark.
This story is one that pretty much every Japanese person knows about, and it has many different
versions.
It is the tale of Urikohime (瓜子姫), the Melon Princess.
Mukashi mukashi, there lived an old couple who very much wanted a child, but the gods
would not grant them one, no matter how hard they tried.
Many times they would sit and lament about how wonderful it would be to have a little
girl of their own.
One day, the old couple came across a melon in their garden, larger than any they had
ever seen.
Excited, they brought it into the house and opened it up.
To their surprise, they found a cute lil baby inside.
Yeah I know, but plant babies were common back in fairytale Japan.
The couple said,
“This must be a gift from the gods”
and decided to raise her as their own.
They named her Urikohime (瓜子姫), which meant Melon Princess.
It became clear that Urikohime was not a normal girl, for within two years she grew up into
a lovely young lady ripe for marriage.
“It must be the fertilizer,” her father explained.
Urikohime was the perfect daughter.
She could weave, create poetry, sing, and was kind to everyone she met.
People in the community loved her.
Even people in the surrounding regions heard of the beautiful girl with a whacky name.
Soon her fame reached the ears of a prince, and nibbled on it seductively.
He got real thirsty for some melon, and dreamt about melons, and spent his days longing for
melons.
Then he remembered he was a prince and asked her parents for her hand in marriage, which
they happily accepted.
The old couple had to go to town for a few days to make preparations.
This meant they had to leave their daughter alone in the house.
Remember she grew up really quickly, she had only been among the world for 2 years.
She had only known her home and did not know the dangers of the outside world.
Bandits and spirits and demons walked the earth, her parents could not help but be worried.
Her father gave her one rule that she must not break.
She was not to open the door for anyone.
Urikohime was to stay inside and be safe until her parents returned.
Being a good daughter, she promised, and her parents left, not knowing the troubles that
would befall their daughter.
One night, alone in the house, Urikohime heard a knock at the door.
“Who is it?” she asked.
A strange voice came the other side.
“Please let me in.
I am but a normal man who has traveled from far away.”
Remembering her father’s words, Urikohime refused.
“No, I cannot let anyone enter the house.
Please leave!”
The voice persisted.
“I have heard of your renowned beauty.
Just let me peek at your face for one second and I will be satisfied.
Just open the door one tiny crack, just the width of a finger.”
Being a naturally nice person, Urikohime thought, well, it’s just the width of a finger.
Surely that couldn’t cause any harm.
Urikohime reached for the door, and opened it the width of a finger,
allowing 4 fingers to slip inside.
That was all it took.
The fingers gripped the door and wrenched it open.
It wasn’t a person at all.
It was an amanojaku (天邪鬼).
Now an amanojaku is a yokai that does mischievous or evil deeds.
It’s especially known for manipulating people mentally to make them act out their deepest,
darkest desires.
You might have seen an amanojaku before and not know it.
This is one of the shitenno (四天王), one of the Four Heavenly Kings of the Buddhist
pantheon.
They’re often depicted stomping on amanojaku, subduing these troublesome creatures.
These days in Japan, the word amanojaku is used to describe a person who always contradicts
others, or someone who’s a contrarian, or someone who intentionally does the opposite
of what is asked.
Like if you tell your roommate to turn down the music and he says “sure” and then
turns it louder.
You would call that guy an amanojackass.
Tell me in the comments if you know any amanojackasses.
These are wicked creatures, as we shall see.
The amanojaku tried to use its amano jutsu to take over Urikohime’s thoughts and use
her to cause trouble in the community and maybe even influence the prince.
However, its power didn’t work on her at all.
Why?
Because she wasn’t actually human, she was melon, remember?
Now you might think, oh good, that’s lucky for Urikohime, right?
Wrong.
Here’s where things went crazy.
The creature couldn’t control her, so it opted to kill her instead.
That’s right, it killed her.
But that’s not all, it flayed her skin right off her body.
But that’s not all, it then put her skin on itself, then put on her clothes, disguising
itself as Urikohime.
When her parents came home, they didn’t suspect a thing.
The day came to bring their daughter to meet the prince.
Curiously, as the family traveled to the prince’s palace a sparrow followed them the entire
way.
When the prince saw Urikojaku, he became entranced by her beauty and couldn’t wait to get married.
But then the sparrow flew down and sang a song, a song that revealed the truth.
Turns out the sparrow was Urikohime’s spirit, there to warn the prince and her parents.
After hearing the very clear song, the prince reached out and pulled the Urikohime flesh
off the demon.
Ooh, busted.
The creature ran, but everyone gave chase.
Soon the chasers grew into a mob.
They caught the creature and beat it to a bloody death among the grass.
That autumn, the grass grew red.
Alright so I said last month that we almost reached our next goal on Patreon, but this
month it actually went down wah wah.
Not so much because people stopped contributing, but because there are always some declined
credit cards.
So there may be some people who think they’re contributing, but they’re actually not.
If you think you’re a patron, please do me a favor and just check on Patreon that
your credit card is not expired or something.
C’mon let’s get to that next goal.
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You keep the channel going, you keep food entering my mouth
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Alright much love, and spread the knowledge.