Princess Hachikazuki and Prince Saisho pledge their love
Hachikazuki orHachi Katsugi (Japanese: 鉢かづき; English: "The bowl-bearer princess")[1][2] is aJapanese folktale of theOtogi-zōshi genre. It refers to a maiden of noble birth who wears a bowl on her head and marries a prince.[3]
Hachikazuki hime was first written in theMuromachi period (14th-16th centuries).[1] An akahon (red book) with many drawings for children was published in the middle of the Edo period (18th century, circa 1735-45) by Urokogataya.[1]
The maiden Hachikazuki, depicted in the style of a Sanzōshi-emaki.
In olden times, there lived a couple with a beautiful daughter, sometimes called Hachibime.[4] On her deathbed, the girl's elderly mother makes her promise to always wear a wooden bowl on her head to cover her beauty. As an alternate opening, the girl is born with a wooden bowl on her head.[2] Whatever the case, her father remarries, and her step-mother is cruel to the girl.
The girl escapes from home to another town and employs herself in a menial position in a lord's mansion. One day, the lord's son takes a peek inside the wooden bowl and sees a woman of great beauty. He falls in love with her. When it is time for him to choose a wife, Hachikazuki takes part in the bride selection and is chosen by the youth. The girl says the bowl must stay on her head through the ceremony.
After they marry, the bowl falls from Hachikazuki's head and she discovers it contained jewels and other treasures.[4] Alternatively, the bowl breaks in many pieces and they turn into precious gems.[5]
The lord's son sights the beautiful maiden without her helmet. Art by Henry Justice Ford forThe Violet Fairy Book (1906).
The tale was translated intoGerman language asDas Mädchen mit dem Holznapfe ("The Girl with the Wooden Bowl") by David August Brauns (de).[6]
InEnglish language compilations, the tale is known asThe Wooden Bowl,[7]The Black Bowl,[8]The Maiden with the Wooden Bowl,[9] orThe Maiden with the Wooden Helmet (Andrew Lang's translation).[10]
FolkloristMarian Roalfe Cox, in her workCinderella: Three Hundred and Forty-Five Variants of Cinderella, Catskin and, Cap O' Rushes, listedHachihazuki ("The Girl with the Wooden Bowl") as belonging to the cycle ofCinderella stories,[11] albeit of a indeterminate affiliation.[12] In the same vein, professor Chieko Irie Mulhern listsHachikazuki as part of the Japanese Cinderella cycle, which she states has been introduced and developed by literary works of Jesuits.[13][14]
Japanese scholar Hiroko Ikeda classified the tale, translated asPrincess Bowl-on-the-Head, as type 510C of her Japanese tale index,[15] thus close to otherPersecuted Heroine types in theAarne-Thompson-Uther Index: ATU 510A, "Cinderella", and ATU 510B, "Donkeyskin".
^Mulhern, Chieko Irie. "[Reviewed Work: Japanese Folk Literature: A Core Collection and Reference Guide. by Joanne P. Algarin]". In:Monumenta Nipponica 39, no. 2 (1984): 202. Accessed July 24, 2021. doi:10.2307/2385022.
^Mulhern, Chieko Irie (1979). "Cinderella and the Jesuits. An Otogizōshi Cycle as Christian Literature".Monumenta Nipponica.34 (4):409–410.doi:10.2307/2384103.JSTOR2384103. Accessed January 12, 2023.
^Mulhern, Chieko Irie (1985). "Analysis of Cinderella Motifs, Italian and Japanese".Asian Folklore Studies.44 (1): 2, 6,16–20.doi:10.2307/1177981.JSTOR1177981. Accessed January 12, 2023.
小林 健二 (2007). "御伽草子「鉢かづき」諸本における本文の流動と固定--宰相の乳母と嫁比べの進言者をめぐって" [On the text-variation of the Hachikazuki stories: a study of the characterization and roles of Saisho's nurse and the advisor of the bride-contest]. In:The Journal of Kokugakuin University 108 (7): 13-23.ISSN0288-2051.https://ci.nii.ac.jp/naid/40015514802/en/
_(14751052534).jpg)
