{"id":3339,"date":"2020-12-04T01:12:13","date_gmt":"2020-12-04T01:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maido-bob.osaka\/?p=3339"},"modified":"2023-11-06T14:31:50","modified_gmt":"2023-11-06T05:31:50","slug":"one-inch-boy-issunboshi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maido-bob.osaka\/en\/2020\/12\/04\/one-inch-boy-issunboshi\/","title":{"rendered":"A fairytale set in Osaka
Issun-boshi (Little One Inch)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The tale of “Issun-boshi”, also called “Little One Inch” or “The One-Inch Samurai” in English, is an old fairytale about an incredibly small boy who was born to a couple who longed for a child of their own. The story goes, that the couple visited the well-known Sumiyoshi Taisha Shrine to pray for a child. Their prayers were answered with an very small son, who never seemed to grow any larger than one sun<\/em> (an ancient unit of measurement equivalent to slightly more than an inch).<\/p>\n

Realizing that he would never grow any bigger, Issun-boshi set off on a journey to the big city in Kyoto when he reached the age of 16, hoping to become a great man. He traveled by river to Kyoto using a bowl as a boat and a chopstick to steer. In his scabbard was a needle, which he used as his sword. Eventually Issun-boshi met a giant ogre and was swallowed whole. He then used his needle-sword to stab the ogre from within its stomach and defeated the monster. He claimed the monster’s magical hammer and used it to transform himself into a regular sized man.<\/p>\n

A few places in Osaka are mentioned in the story, so I set out to visit some of them and retrace the steps of “Little One Inch”.<\/p>\n

\u25cfSumiyoshi Taisha Shrine\u2013 Issun-boshi’s Birthplace<\/h2>\n

\"\u962a\u583a\u96fb\u8eca\u306e\u5929\u738b\u5bfa\u99c5\u524d\u99c5\"
\nFirst, I boarded the Hankai Tram from Tennoji Station.<\/p>\n

\"\u962a\u583a\u96fb\u8eca\u306e\u4f4f\u5409\u9ce5\u5c45\u524d\u99c5\"
\nThe Hankai is fun to ride too, because it is a street tram. It runs right through the middle of Tennoji and nearby neighborhoods, so you can enjoy the sights as you go.<\/p>\n

Just a few stops and I arrived at the entrance to Sumiyoshi Taisha Shrine.<\/p>\n

\"\u4f4f\u5409\u5927\u793e\u306e\u77f3\u706f\u7c60\"
\n\"\u6731\u5857\u308a\u3067\u98a8\u60c5\u3092\u611f\u3058\u308b\u4f4f\u5409\u5927\u793e\u306e\u53cd\u6a4b\"
\nAs you approach the shrine you will either cross or, if you take a side route, pass Sorihashi Bridge. It’s beautiful red reflection shines in the pond making it appear like a round drum (earning it the nickname Taiko-bashi, meaning drum bridge). And on the shrine grounds there are over 600 stone lanterns!<\/p>\n

I headed to the Tanekashi-sha Shrine area of the shrine grounds to visit the birthplace of Little One Inch.
\n\"\u4e00\u5bf8\u6cd5\u5e2b\u3086\u304b\u308a\u306e\u7a2e\u8cb8\u793e\"
\n\"\u7a2e\u8cb8\u793e\u306e\u624b\u6c34\u5834\"
\nHere he is! He’s so tiny, navigating the waters of the hand-cleansing area.<\/p>\n

\"\u7a2e\u8cb8\u793e\u306e\u624b\u6c34\u5834\u306b\u306f\u4e00\u5bf8\u6cd5\u5e2b\"
\nHe’s so cute in his little bowl holding a chopstick!<\/p>\n

\"\u7a2e\u8cb8\u793e\u306b\u3042\u308b\u5de8\u5927\u306a\u304a\u6900\"
\nThere’s even a photo spot, where you can pose as Issun-boshi and imagine what it would have been like to travel by bowl.<\/p>\n

This particular bowl is about 2 meters wide and was built to scale for what Issun-boshi would have experienced. This bowl was actually used in the Issun-boshi race, which was held in 2002 in the Dotonbori Canal.
\n\"\u7a2e\u8cb8\u793e\u306e\u304a\u6900\u306f\u672c\u5f53\u306b\u4e57\u308c\u308b\"
\nThis little girl was so cute pretending to be Issun-boshi. (Adults are allowed inside the bowl too, in case you’re wondering.)<\/p>\n

The Tanekashi-sha Shrine is a popular place for couples hoping to bear children to visit.
\n\"\u5b50\u5b9d\u306e\u3054\u5229\u76ca\u304c\u3042\u308b\u7a2e\u8cb8\u793e\"
\n\"\u5b50\u5b9d\u7948\u9858\u3067\u5949\u7d0d\u3055\u308c\u305f\u7a2e\u8cb8\u4eba\u5f62\"
\nLook at all the little Tanekashi dolls. They are little mothers holding their babies and are said to bring you good luck.<\/p>\n

\u25cfDotonbori\u2013 The Beginning of Issun-boshi’s Journey<\/h2>\n

Next, I headed to Namba to see where Issunboshi set off on his adventure.
\n\"\u4f4f\u5409\u5927\u793e\u3059\u3050\u306b\u3042\u308b\u5357\u6d77\u96fb\u8eca\u306e\u4f4f\u5409\u5927\u793e\u99c5\"
\nNamba is only one train ride away from Sumiyoshi Taisha Shrine. You can go straight there from Sumiyoshi Station on the Nankai Line.<\/p>\n

\"\u6cd5\u5584\u5bfa\u6a2a\u4e01\u306e\u5165\u308a\u53e3\"
\n\"\u5927\u962a\u30df\u30ca\u30df\u306e\u6cd5\u5584\u5bfa\"
\nFirst I walked through the small alleyways in Hozenji Yokocho, turned a few corners and… Here I am, in Ukiyo Koji. Now this is a tiny alley!<\/p>\n

\"\u6cd5\u5584\u5bfa\u6a2a\u4e01\u304b\u3089\u6d6e\u4e16\u5c0f\u8def\u3078\"
\nSomewhere in here I heard there was a spot related to Little One Inch. And what do you know? I found it.<\/p>\n

\"\u6d6e\u4e16\u5c0f\u8def\u306b\u3042\u308b\u4e00\u5bf8\u6cd5\u5e2b\u5927\u660e\u795e\"
\nIt’s just a tiny little shrine. How cute. It’s the perfect size for someone small like Issun-boshi!<\/p>\n

The shrine is very near to Dotonbori, which is where Issun-boshi is fabled to have passed or possibly even began his journey.<\/p>\n

\"\u6d6e\u4e16\u5c0f\u8def\u306b\u3042\u308b\u4e00\u5bf8\u6cd5\u5e2b\u5927\u660e\u795e\"
\n\"\u6d6e\u4e16\u5c0f\u8def\u306b\u3042\u308b\u4e00\u5bf8\u6cd5\u5e2b\u5927\u660e\u795e\"
\nYou can purchase a fortune from the shrine for \u00a5100. (Please note: the fortunes are written in Japanese.)<\/p>\n

Sidenote: Based on my calculations, it would have taken Issun-boshi a very, very long time to reach Kyoto. Not only would he have been traveling against the current, but judging from his size, it would have been the equivalent of us making a 3,000 kilometer journey. That’s more than the length of modern-day Japan!<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The tale of “Issun-boshi”, also called “Little One Inch” or “The One-Inch Samurai” in English, is an old fairytale about an incredibly small boy who was born to a couple who longed for a child of their own. The story goes, that the couple visited the well-known Sumiyoshi Taisha Shrine to pray for a child. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3360,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[209,200,143,201,142,155,134],"tags":[288,292,289,290,269,293,291],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"author_id":"","author_name":"","author_image":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maido-bob.osaka\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3339"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maido-bob.osaka\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maido-bob.osaka\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maido-bob.osaka\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maido-bob.osaka\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3339"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/maido-bob.osaka\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3907,"href":"https:\/\/maido-bob.osaka\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3339\/revisions\/3907"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maido-bob.osaka\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maido-bob.osaka\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maido-bob.osaka\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maido-bob.osaka\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}