Welcome to Gaia! ::

The Enchanted Watch:
"A rich man's oldest two sons went out and saw the world for three years apiece, and came back. The foolish youngest son also wanted to go, and his father finally let him, expecting never to see him again. On the way, he saw men about to kill a dog, and asked them to give it to him instead; they did. He acquired a cat and a snake by the same manner. The snake brought him to the king of snakes, telling him how he would have to explain his absence, but then the king would want to reward the son. He told him to ask for a watch, which, when he rubbed it, would give him whatever he wanted.

He went home. Because he wore the same dirty clothing he set out in, his father flew into a rage. A few days later, he used the watch to make a house and invite his father to a feast there. Then he invited the king and the princess. The king was impressed by the marvels the son conjured to entertain them, and married the princess to him. Soon, because he was so foolish, his wife wearied of him. She learned of the watch, stole it, and fled.

The son set out with the dog and cat. They saw an island with a house where the princess had fled and conjured up the house to live. The dog swam to it with the cat on its back; the cat stole it and carried it back in its mouth. The dog asked it how far it was to land, and the cat finally answered; the watch fell from its mouth. The cat caught a fish and freed it only when it promised to bring back the watch. It did so, and they restored the watch to the son. He wished the princess and her house and island to drown in the sea, and went back home."

Kintarō:
"Several competing stories tell of Kintarō's childhood. In one, he was raised by his mother, Princess Yaegiri, daughter of a wealthy man named Shiman-chōja, in the village of Jizodo, near Mt. Kintoki. In a competing legend, his mother gave birth to him in what is now Sakata. She was forced to flee, however, due to fighting between her husband, a samurai named Sakata, and his uncle. She finally settled in the forests of Mt. Kintoki to raise her son. Alternatively, Kintarō's real mother left the child in the wilds or died and left him an orphan, and he was raised by the mountain witch Yama-uba (one tale says Kintarō's mother raised him in the wilds, but due to her haggard appearance, she came to be called Yama-uba). In the most fanciful version of the tale, Yama-uba was Kintarō's mother, impregnated by a clap of thunder sent from a red dragon of Mt. Ashigara.

The legends agree that even as a toddler, Kintarō was active and indefatigable, plump and ruddy, wearing only a bib with the kanji for "gold" (金) on it. His only other accoutrement was a hatchet (ono and masakari). He was bossy to other children (or there simply were no other children in the forest), so his friends were mainly the animals of Mt. Kintoki and Mt. Ashigara. He was also phenomenally strong, able to smash rocks into pieces, uproot trees, and bend trunks like twigs. His animal friends served him as messengers and mounts, and some legends say that he even learned to speak their language. Several tales tell of Kintarō's adventures, fighting monsters and demons, beating bears in sumo wrestling, and helping the local woodcutters fell trees.

As an adult, Kintarō changed his name to Sakata no Kintoki. He met the samurai Minamoto no Yorimitsu as he passed through the area around Mt. Kintoki. Yorimitsu was impressed by Kintarō's enormous strength, so he took him as one of his personal retainers to live with him in Kyoto. Kintoki studied martial arts there and eventually became the chief of Yorimitsu's Shitennō ("four braves"), renowned for his strength and martial prowess. He eventually went back for his mother and brought her to Kyoto as well."

Yotsuya Kaidan:
"Act 1

Tamiya Iemon, a rōnin, is having a heated exchange with his father-in-law, Yotsuya Samon, concerning Samon's daughter Oiwa. After it is suggested by Samon that Iemon and his daughter should separate, the ronin becomes enraged and murders Samon. The next scene focuses on the character Naosuke who is sexually obsessed with Oiwa's sister, the prostitute Osode, despite her being already married to another man, Satô Yomoshichi. As this scene begins, Naosuke is at the local brothel making romantic advances toward Osode when Yomoshichi and the brothel's owner, Takuetsu, enter. Unable to pay a fee demanded by Takuetsu, he is mocked by both Yomoshichi and Osode and forcibly removed. Shortly thereafter an intoxicated Naosuke murders Okuda Shôzaburô, his former master, whom he mistakes for Yomoshichi. This is implied to occur at the precise time of the slaying of Samon. It is at this point that Iemon and Naosuke unite and conspire to mislead Oiwa and Osode into believing that they will exact revenge on the persons responsible for their father's death. In return Osode agrees to marry Naosuke.
[edit] Act 2

Oume, the granddaughter of Itô Kihei, has fallen in love with Iemon. However, believing herself to be less attractive than Oiwa, she doesn't think Iemon will ever want to become her husband. Sympathizing with Oume's plight, the Itôs scheme to have Oiwa disfigured by sending her a topical poison disguised as a facial cream. Oiwa, unbeknown to her at the time, is instantly scarred by the cream when she applies it. Upon seeing his wife's ghastly new countenance, Iemon decides he can no longer remain with her. He asks Takuetsu to rape Oiwa so that he will have an honorable basis for divorce. Takuetsu cannot bring himself to do this so, instead, he simply shows Oiwa her reflection in a mirror. Realizing that she has been deceived, Oiwa becomes hysterical and, picking up a sword, runs towards the door. Takuetsu moves to grab her but Oiwa, attempting to evade him, accidentally punctures her own throat with the sword's tip. As she lies bleeding to death before a stunned Takuetsu, she curses Iemon's name. Not long after Iemon becomes engaged to Oume. Act 2 closes with Iemon being tricked by Oiwa's ghost into slaying both Oume and her grandfather on the night of the wedding.
[edit] Act 3

The remaining members of the Itô household are annihilated. Iemon kicks Oyumi, the mother of Oume, into the Onbô Canal and Omaki, the servant of Oyumi drowns by accident. Naosuke arrives in disguise as Gonbei, an eel vendor, and blackmails Iemon into handing over a valuable document. Iemon contemplates his prospects while fishing at the Onbô canal. On the embankment above the canal Iemon, Yomoshichi and Naosuke appear to fumble as they struggle for possession of a note which passes from hand to hand in the darkness.
[edit] Act 4

At the opening Naosuke is pressuring to Osode to consummate their marriage, to which she seems oddly averse. Yomoshichi appears and accuses Osode of adultery. Osode resigns herself to death in atonement and convinces Naosuke and Yomoshichi that they should kill her. She leaves a farewell note from which Naosuke learns that Osode was, in fact, his own younger sister. For the shame of this, as well as for the killing of his former master, he commits suicide.
[edit] Act 5

Iemon, still haunted by the ghost of Oiwa, flees to an isolated mountain retreat. There he rapidly descends into madness as his dreams and reality begin to merge and Oiwa's haunting intensifies. The act closes with Yomoshichi slaying Iemon out of both vengeance and compassion."

Fair Brow:
"A merchant sent his son off to make money. Once he spent it all paying off a dead man's debts, so he could be buried, and another time, he bought a slave woman, the Sultan's kidnapped daughter, and married her. His father beat them both and drove them out of his home. The wife said that she would paint, and her husband would sell the paintings, though he must not tell where they came from. Turks saw them, recognized the work, and told him they wanted more. He said to come to his house, where his wife painted them, and they seized her and carried her off.

He walked on the shore, and an old man agreed to have him fish with him. They were captured by Turks and sold to the Sultan as slaves. The old man was made a gardener, and the young man to carry bouquets to the Sultan's daughter, whom the Sultan had imprisoned in a tower as punishment. One day his wife recognized him while he was singing. They escaped with a great deal of treasure.

The old man said that they must divide the treasure. The young man offered him half. When the old man asked if his wife was also half his, the young man offered him three quarters. The old man told him that he was the dead man whose debts he had paid, and vanished. The young man was reconciled with his father, who died not long after, leaving him all his wealth."

The Fair Fiorita:
"A king with three daughters and a son married his daughters to the first men to pass before the castle at noon: a swineherd, a huntsman, and a grave-digger. His son did not go to the wedding, but walked in the garden, where he heard a voice saying that the man was happy who was kissed by the fair Fiorita. He set out in search of her.

Three years later, he saw a palace with a fountain in front of it, and a child playing in the fountain. He approached, and the child cried for his mother, who proved to be his oldest sister. He was glad at her good fortune, stemming from the enchantments of a magician on her husband, as on his other brothers-in-law. They told him to go toward the sunrise, which was the way both to his other two sisters and to Fiorita, and gave him hogs' bristles to throw to the ground if he were in great need.

He went toward the sunrise, and found his other two sisters. The middle one gave him feathers, and the youngest a human bone and told him that an old woman could give him more directions about Fiorita. The old woman lived across from the castle where Fiorita lived, and she came by the window. He fell in love at once, but the old woman warned him that the king would marry her only to a man who found her in a hidden place, and many princes had already died, trying.

He commissioned a cymbal that he could hide in, and had the maker sell it to the king on the condition that he take it every three days to repair it. The king bought it and gave it to Fiorita, who took it to her room. At night, the prince called to her, until she and her maids of honor had searched, and she had concluded that she had imagined the repeated calls, and told them not to come again. He emerged and begged a kiss from her. She allowed it, and a rose formed. She told him that the rose would let him find her first in her hiding place, then among a hundred maidens, but that her father would set other tasks afterwards, more terrible.

After he had found Fiorita, twice, the king put him in a room, filled with fruit, and commanded that he eat it all. He threw down the hogs' bristles, and a great herd of swine appeared and ate it all. The king then demanded birds that sang so sweetly that they would put the princess to sleep. The prince threw down the feathers, and birds appeared that put not only the princess but the king to sleep. The third time, the king demanded that they produce, on the next morning, a two-year-old child who could speak, or he would execute them both. The prince threw down the bone, and the child sprung up.

The king gave his son-in-law his crown and held a great feast for their wedding, to which his sisters and their husbands, and the prince's father came. So the prince and Fiorita reigned over two kingdoms."

~still~
.///.~pretends to be a bride while James is the groom~

Fairy Gifts:
"The Flower Fairy raised princes and princesses in her house and never sent them away grown without a gift. Her favorite was the Princess Sylvia, but she was curious how some other princesses had prospered with their gifts.

One day, she sent Sylvia to visit a former charge, Iris, who had received the gift of beauty. Sylvia returned with news that Iris thought that beauty supplied everything and she need do nothing else; unfortunately, she had fallen ill during the visit, and lost her looks. The fairy regretted that she could give such gifts once.

She sent her to others, but the princess who received eloquence would not be quiet and wearied all her listeners in time; the princess who received the gift of pleasing was insincere and made all her lovers weary of her; the princess who received wit was always turning everything into an occasion for it and took nothing seriously.

Sylvia asked for herself a quiet spirit, which made her and everyone around her happy."