Momotarō

☞ Public‐domain character. Folkloric. First appearance, evidently one of a number of lost 17th‐century texts.

Real name: 桃太郎, Momotaro, Monirtaro

When a poor, childless couple find a huge peach floating down the river, they bring it home with the intent of eating it but are shocked to find a child inside it who claims to have been sent to them from Heaven. They name him Momotarō and raise him, and he later goes out on his first adventure: fighting hostile oni (variously described in the English‐language stories as demons, devils, spirits or monsters) on their island with (in most versions) the help of talking animals—a dog, a monkey and a pheasant—that he encounters on the way. The leader of the oni is sometimes named as Akandoji.

Some works portray him as undertaking his first adventure as a young man while others portray him as still being a child. Some describe him as having great strength, even super strength, with one story (the 1874) describing him as also being of giant size for his age. Stories in English have translated his name as Peach‐Boy, Little Peachling, Son of a Peach and Peach Darling.

Public domain literary works

• • “The Peach‐Boy: A Japanese Fairy Story,” trans. Isaac Yaunkahama, St. Nicholas, vol. 1, no. 7, May 1874. The character is called Monirtaro and he commands an army with no mention of animal helpers. An oni is defined as “a devil.” <http://www.archive.org/details/stnicholasserial01dodg> + <http://books.google.com/books?id=TFs3AQAAMAAJ> “Once upon a time, there was a very old couple living in a wood ….”

  • Momotaro, trans. David Thomson, Japanese Fairy Tale Series, vol. 1, 1885. The oni are called “devils.” <http://www.archive.org/details/japanesefairytalseser01no01thom> “A long long time ago there lived an old man and an old woman.”

    • Reprint, 1890s, with different illustrations. <http://www.archive.org/details/momotaroorlittle00londiala>

    • Reprinted as “Momotaro, or Little Peachling: A Japanese Fairy Tale,” A Book of Famous Fairy Tales, ed. Thomas Bailey Aldrich, The Young Folks’ Library, vol. 3, 1901, 320. <http://books.google.com/books?id=mu8EAAAAYAAJ>

    • Reprinted as “Momotaro, or Little Peachling,” Childhood’s Favorites and Fairy Stories, ed. Hamilton Wright Mabie, Young Folks’ Treasury, vol. 1, 1909. <http://books.google.com/books?id=pYSMj6dzy_4C>

  • “Momotaro; or, Little Peachling: A Story for Children from the Japanese,” The Picture Magazine, vol. 7, 1896, 104. The oni are called “demons” and “wicked spirits.” <http://books.google.com/books?id=gLUcAQAAMAAJ> “A long, long time ago there lived an old man and an old woman in a remote district ….”

  • “Momotaro; or The Peach‐Boy,” trans. Susan Ballard, Fairy Tales from Far Japan, 1898. The oni are called “demons,” and Momotaro is referred to as “The messenger of the great Sun Goddess” (i.e., Amaterasu). <http://www.archive.org/details/fairytalesfromfa00balliala> + <http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924023513520> “It was the beginning of summer.”

  • “Momotaro, or The Story of the Son of a Peach,” trans. Yei Theodora Ozaki (d. 1932), The Japanese Fairy Book, 1903. The oni are called “devils,” and Momotaro is said to be fifteen years old at the onset of his adventure. <http://books.google.com/books?id=V_RyPbadxJgC> + <http://www.archive.org/details/japanesefairybo00ozakgoog> “Long, long ago there lived an old man and an old woman; they were peasants ….”

    • 1903. <http://www.archive.org/details/japanesefairyboo00oza> + <http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924023423464> + <http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Japanese_Fairy_Book/Momotaro,_or_the_Story_of_the_Son_of_a_Peach>

    • 2nd ed., 1922. <http://www.archive.org/details/japanesefairyboo00ozak2> + <http://www.archive.org/details/japanesefairyboo00ozak>

    • Reprinted in Japanese Fairy Tales, [1911]. <http://www.archive.org/details/japanesefairytal00ozak>

  • “もゝ太郎 Peach Darling,” trans. Teresa Peirce Williston, illustrated by Sanchi Ogawa (d. 1928), Japanese Fairy Tales: Second Series, 1911. Akandoji appears to be working alone, and he is called a “monster.” <http://www.archive.org/details/japanesefairytalwill> + <http://www.archive.org/details/japanesefairytal00will> + <http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924005603901> “There once lived an old man and an old woman who had no child of their own.”

Note

The copyright situation for works first published in Japan is complex. A decision by a Japanese court would seem to say that Japanese movies released before 1953 might all now be in the public domain, which would mean that the 1940s animated Momotaro cartoons are in the public domain, but further research is needed.