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Long ago there lived a poor orange farmer on Mount Ashigara, Japan. He worked long and hard just to make ends meet for his wife and himself. Sadly, the couple was unable to have any children even though they'd always wanted a son to help them with labor in the fields, especially as they grew older.
One evening after a hard day's work, the sun went down, and the farmer noticed heavy storm clouds rolling in quickly. As he scurried to gather his equipment and get out of the rain, he was startled by a bright flash of lightning accompanied by earth-shaking thunder. Immediately, another bright streak in the sky caught his attention, but it wasn't lightning this time. It appeared to be a shooting star with a distinct golden aura. When the shooting star did not fade away but instead grew larger and brighter in appearance, the farmer began to worry. It seemed to be heading right for the top of Mount Ashigara.
The farmer felt the ground shake under his feet as the celestial body crashed into the mountain top. The rain quickly subsided only a minute after it had begun. The farmer was very curious to know what had landed at the top of the mountain; however, it was getting dark and he was tired from a long day's work. He decided to get some rest and investigate later.
Image Source. An orange farm by a tall mountain.
Image Source. The farmer found a giant golden nugget.
The following morning, instead of going straight to work in the field, the farmer made the hour-long hike up Mount Ashigara. When he arrived at the top, he couldn't believe his eyes. He was looking at a watermelon-shaped meteorite - but this meteorite wasn't any regular chunk of space rock - it looked to be made of solid gold. Tears of joy began rolling down his face. He would be rich.
The farmer was sure the gold rock must weigh at least a hundred pounds, and he'd need a wheelbarrow to get it down the mountain. But, when he went to pick it up, to his surprise it was very smooth and only slightly heavy as if it were hollowed out inside. Thus he was able to carry it all the way back. Upon arriving home, his wife was ecstatic to see what her husband found (he'd kept it a secret from her the day before, attributing the ground shaking to the thunder). They talked all day long about what they were going to do with their newfound fortune. She wanted to buy several fancy kimonos made of the finest fabric in Japan, whereas he wanted to hire others so he wouldn't have to work so hard in the field every day. They decided to begin spending the gold the next day and kept it locked away in a closet for the night.
The next morning, the farmer awoke to a surprise. The closet door had been ripped from off its hinges and completely destroyed. He immediately assumed a thief must have broken in and stolen his prized possession. However, as he approached the closet,, he noticed the gold was still there. Strangely, it had been smashed into many tiny pieces. He was shocked and confused. Searching around the rest of his house for any clues to what may have happened during the night, he once again could not believe his eyes when he got to the kitchen.
Crawling around on the kitchen floor was a baby, eating some dragon fruit left in a basket by the farmer the night before. The baby was as small as a newborn, yet he had the muscles of a young man, and he was already eating on his own. "Could it be..." the farmer said out loud, "that this baby was sent by the gods in the golden meteorite?" He nearly expected the baby to answer yes or no himself, but the baby could not speak. He just looked up, smiled, and giggled at the old farmer, who called for his wife to come see the miracle. The two stared in awe at the baby for quite some time. It was well behaved and seemed to learn very quickly.
Because the couple had always wanted a son, they decided to keep the baby. They named him "Kintaro" meaning "golden boy."
Author's Notes: Kintaro's origin has been told several ways in Japanese folklore. My favorite origin story involves a red dragon sending a clap of thunder which impregnated the yamauba (mountain witch) of Mount Ashigara. From this version I have taken the location (Mount Ashigara) and the presence of thunder for my story, but instead of the red dragon and the yamauba, I add my own outer space touch to it. I was also heavily inspired by another Japanese folklore which I like, Momotaro (peach boy). In this tale, an old couple who always wanted a son find a giant peach one day, and inside of that peach is Momotaro. I decided to create similar characters in my story out of the farmer and the wife, and give them a son via a big golden nugget (since Kintaro means "golden boy"). Finally, a small detail but I chose the farmer to have an orange farm because my uncle in Okinawa, Japan has an orange farm himself! It lies on a mountain as well with a beautiful view of the sky, and my uncle has told me many times he has seen strange things like UFOs in the sky. So, in some way, this story is partially inspired by my real life as well.
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