The Stonecutter

The Stonecutter is a Japanese folklore of unknown authorship. It is closely related to the themes of The Fisherman and His Wife, a well known fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm.

Plot synopsis

Once upon a time a stonecutter was working near the side of a mighty rock. As he stood to pause from his hard labour for a minute, he observed a local landlord and his party pass underneath the shade of the trees nearby.

When the stonecutter saw this rich man in all his comfort, his work suddenly felt heavier and harder to him. "Oh, if only I were a rich man," he sighed, "how happy I should be!" Suddenly a voice answered from the mountain: "Your wish is heard; a rich man you shall be!"

When the stonecutter returned home that evening, he found a magnificent palace where his hut once stood. The poor man was nearly beside himself with joy, and in his new life the old one was soon forgotten. One day, while he was walking around the marketplace, he felt the sun burn sharply on his face, and as he saw a prince, sitting in the cool shade of his carriage, he wished he was a prince. A prince he became, but still the sun scorched his face. The stonecutter then wished he would become the sun itself, and immediately it was granted.

As the sun, he felt mightier than all. His light stretched around the entire world and his rays shone on kings and fishers alike. But as he burned bright in the sky, a cloud moved in front of him and obscured his sight. "What is this!" he wondered, "a cloud is mightier than me! Oh how I wish I was a cloud."

And a cloud he was, and he lay between the sun and the earth. He caught the sun's beams and held them, and for days and week he poured forth rain till the rivers overflowed their banks, and the crops of rice stood in water. Towns and villages were destroyed by the power of the rain, only the great rock on the mountainside remained unmoved. "What is this!" he cried, "a rock is mightier than me! Oh how I wish I was a rock."

And the rock he was, and gloried in his power. Proudly he stood, and neither the heat of the sun nor the force of the rain could move him. "This is better than all!" he said to himself. But one day he heard a strange noise at his feet, and when he looked down to see what it could be, he saw a stonecutter driving tools into his surface. Even while he looked a trembling feeling ran all through him, and a great block broke off and fell upon the ground. Then he cried in his wrath: "Is a mere child of earth mightier than a rock? Oh, if I were only a man!"

And the mountain spirit answered: "Your wish is heard. A man once more you shall be!" And the poor man was content to remain a stonecutter for the rest of his life.

Origins

The exact author of The Stonecutter is unknown but the tale was already widespread in China and Japan before it was first translated by David Brauns in Japanische Märchen und Sagen (1885). Andrew Lang drew upon this source to publish his translation of the tale in The Crimson Fairy Book (1903). Variants appear across cultures and continents, including The Fisherman and His Wife by the Brothers Grimm.

Analysis

According to the Aarne and Thompson classification of fairy tales, The Stonecutter is a tale of type 555, The Fisherman and His Wife.

The story of the Stonecutter is a prime example of cyclical thinking in Eastern philosophy. While The Fisherman and His Wife is explicitly moralist in tone, The Stonecutter's lesson proceeds from a more philosophical viewpoint. At the end, the stonecutter simply realises that his greedy longings are futile because power is relative (compare: food chain). The fisherman's wife however has no end to her ambition, and keeps asking for more influence; first nobleman, then king, then emperor, then pope until at last she wants to become God himself. The magic fish then punishes her (blasphemous) greed by sending her back to her poor hut (compare "hubris" in Greek mythology.)

The Stonecutter's central theme is reflected in the popular hand game paper, rock, scissors, which (unsurprisingly) also has its origins in East Asia.

See also

• The Husband of the Rat's Daughter

External links and references

• The Stonecutter - original translation by Andrew Lang from The Crimson Fairy Tale Book.

The Kingdom Keepers by Ridley Pearson