Week 6 Reading Diary : Japanese Tale

From the stories of the Japanese Tale. I like about the story of the stonecuttter because the message it is conveying is so powerful.

While I was reading this story, I could agree no more that I wish to be someone else sometimes.

"One day the stonecutter carried a gravestone to the house of a rich man and saw there all sorts of beautiful things of which he had never even dreamed. Suddenly his daily work seemed to grow harder and heavier, and he said to himself: 'Oh, if only I were a rich man and could sleep in a bed with silken curtains and golden tassels, how happy I should be!'"

This is about satisfaction. Sometimes, I feel like I could be more happier with something that I do not have right now. When I get tired of studying and working, I just want to wish that I am rich so I do not have to do anything. It could be just me, but people dream about what they do not have, just like the stonecutter.

However, although you get what you wanted to, you will never be satisfied. That is the message of the story. In the stories,

"And a prince he was. Before his carriage rode one company of men and another behind it; servants dressed in scarlet and gold bore him along, the coveted umbrella was held over his head, everything a heart could desire was his."

He was not satisfied with being rich so became a prince.

"And the sun he was, and felt himself proud in his power. He shot his beams above and below, on earth and in heaven; he burnt up the grass in the fields and scorched the faces of princes as well as of poorer folk."

Then he came sun to be mightier, then cloud, then rock. He desired more and more as he obtained the strength of his desire, but the stories lead the stonecutter back to what he was.

"And a man he was, and in the sweat of his brow he toiled again at his trade of stone-cutting. His bed was hard and his food scanty, but he had learned to be satisfied with it and did not long to be something or somebody else."


The important message from the stories was the real happiness is not about being rich, not about being mighty, not able to being strong, but real happiness lies in the heart of himself/herself. This story had a lot of meaning.


I would like to rewrite the story based on the message of this story, but more straightforward with different materials.

(Rocks by Jos van Wunnlk)

From Andrew Lang's Japanese Fairy Tales