Momotarō (The Peach Boy)

Long, long ago, there lived an old man and an old woman in a small village among the mountains of Japan. They were poor and had no children, and the only thing they wished for was a child of their own. The old man went every day to the hills to cut wood, and the old woman went down to the river to wash the family clothes.

One bright morning the old woman was kneeling by the river, washing, when something came floating down on the current. It was a peach, larger than any peach she had ever seen, round and rosy and so beautiful she could not believe her eyes. She caught it from the water and brought it home to share with her husband.

When the old man came back from the hills, the old woman set the peach on the table between them and was about to cut it with a knife. The peach split open by itself, and from inside it stepped a small boy, healthy and laughing. The old man and the old woman were astonished and full of joy. "Heaven has heard our wish," they said. "Heaven has sent us a son." They named him Momotarō, the Peach Boy.

Momotarō grew quickly. Whatever he ate, he doubled in size and strength. By the time he was fifteen years old, he was taller than any man in the village and stronger than ten men together. The old man and the old woman could hardly believe how he had grown.

Now in those days there was an island far across the sea called Onigashima, the island of demons. The demons there had been raiding villages along the coast, taking treasure and people away with them, and no one had been able to stop them. Momotarō went to his parents and said, "I am going to Onigashima to fight the demons. Make me some millet dumplings, the best you can, to take with me on the journey." The old people wept, but they were proud, and they made him a great supply of millet dumplings, the finest in all Japan.

Momotarō took up a sword, fastened a banner to his belt, and set out. He had not gone far before a spotted dog ran up to him on the road. The dog growled and showed his teeth and would have bitten him. Momotarō said, "I am Momotarō. I am going to Onigashima to fight the demons. Will you come with me?" The dog bowed his head. "Give me one of your millet dumplings, and I will go with you." Momotarō gave him one, and they walked on together.

Soon a monkey came down from a tree by the road. He was a clever-looking monkey with bright eyes, and he asked, "Where are you going, Momotarō?" "I am going to Onigashima to fight the demons. Will you come?" The monkey said, "Give me one of your millet dumplings, and I will go." Momotarō gave him one, and the dog and the monkey went along together with him, though they did not at first like each other.

A little farther on, a pheasant flew down from the sky and landed in front of him. "Momotarō," said the pheasant, "where are you going?" "I am going to Onigashima to fight the demons." "Give me one of your millet dumplings, and I will fly with you." Momotarō gave him one, and now there were four of them, the boy and the dog and the monkey and the pheasant, walking and flying together along the road to the sea.

When they came to the shore, Momotarō built a boat, and they all got into it and pushed off. They sailed for many days. At last they saw an island in the distance, a black rock rising out of the water with a great iron gate set into the cliff. "There is Onigashima," said Momotarō. The pheasant flew on ahead and circled over the island. He saw the demons inside, with their red and blue and yellow skins, drinking and shouting. He flew down to a tower and called: "Demons of Onigashima, Momotarō has come from Japan to punish you. Come out and fight." The demons laughed. They threw stones at him, but he flew up out of reach.

Momotarō and the dog and the monkey came up to the gate and battered on it. The monkey climbed the wall and unbarred it from inside, and the dog rushed in barking, and the pheasant came down on the demons' heads with his sharp beak, and Momotarō went among them with his sword swinging. The demons could not stand against them. Some fled into corners, some fell down weeping, and the chief of the demons, a huge red one with a horn in the middle of his forehead, came at Momotarō with an iron club. Momotarō stepped aside and struck him on the wrist, and the club fell. The chief fell on his knees and begged for mercy.

"I will spare your life," said Momotarō, "if you swear never to harm humans again, and if you give back all the treasure you have taken from the villages." The demon chief swore, kneeling, with his head on the ground. He gave back gold and silver, fine cloth, jewels, and the people they had captured. Momotarō and his three companions loaded the boat with the treasure and the freed people, and they sailed back to Japan.

When they came home, the old man and the old woman were watching from the gate, almost afraid to hope. They saw Momotarō coming up the road in his armor, with the dog and the monkey and the pheasant beside him, and a great train of treasure carried by the people he had saved. They wept for joy, and Momotarō knelt before them, and the village made a great feast that lasted many days. The old man and the old woman lived happily for the rest of their days, and Momotarō, the boy who had come out of a peach, was honored throughout the land.