is a popular hero of Japanese folklore. His name is often translated as Peach Boy, but is directly translated as Peach + Tarà Â, a common Japanese given name. Momotarà  is also the title of various books, films and other works that portray the tale of this hero.
There is a popular notion that Momotarà  is a local hero of Okayama Prefecture, but this claim was invented in the modern era. This notion is not accepted as consensus in scholarly circles.
The present conventional form of the tale (Standard Type) can be summarized as follows:
<blockquote> Momotarà  was born from a giant peach, which was found floating down a river by an old, childless woman who was washing clothes there. The woman and her husband discovered the child when they tried to open the peach to eat it. The child explained that he had been bestowed by the gods to be their son. The couple named him Momotarà Â, from momo (peach) and tarà  (eldest son in the family). When he was just five years old, he was able to cut a big tree with just an old knife.
When he matured into adolescence, Momotarà  left his parents to fight a band of Oni (demons or ogres) who marauded over their land, by seeking them out in the distant island where they dwelled (a place called Onigashima or "Demon Island"). En route, Momotarà  met and befriended a talking dog, monkey and pheasant, who agreed to help him in his quest in exchange for a portion of his rations (kibi dango or "millet dumplings"). At the island, Momotarà  and his animal friends penetrated the demons' fort and beat the band of demons into surrendering. Momotarà  and his new friends returned home with the demons' plundered treasure and the demon chief as a captive. </blockquote>
This Standard Type of "Momotarà Â" was defined and popularized due to them being printed in school textbooks during the Meiji Period.
This is the result of development of the literary "Momotarà Â", which had been handwritten and printed since the early Edo period into Meiji. One significant change is that in most examples of Edo Period literature, Momotarà  was not born from a peach, but born naturally to the elderly couple who ate the peach and regained their youth. Such subtypes are classed as , whereas the now conventional subtypes are termed .
Although the oral version of the story may have emerged during the Muromachi period (1392âÂÂ1573), it may not have been set down in writing until the Edo period (1603âÂÂ1867). The oldest works of Momotaro known to have existed had been dated to the Genroku era (1688âÂÂ1704) or perhaps earlier.
These older texts from around the Genroku era (e.g. Momotarà  mukashigatari) are lost, but surviving examples of later dates, such as the reprint () purportedly preserve the older tradition, and form the first (most primitive) group of texts according to . The late date of the reprint has sometimes caused it to be classed as kibyà Âshi ("yellow cover" book, directed primarily at an adult audience) or later type of kusazà Âshi literature (intended for a more general audience, including women and children), but it should properly be classed as akahon ("red book") or early type.
A second group of texts, which Koike considered to be younger, includes the miniature , , printed in Kyà Âhà  8 (1723). This miniature book is now considered to be the oldest surviving copy of any written Momotarà  story.
Whether belonging to the first or second groups, texts from the Edo Period generally follow the same general plot as the modern standard versions but exhibit certain differences in detail.
Momotarà  is not supplied with kibi dango ("millet dumplings"), but rather with and other treats in the oldest Genroku era texts and the first group. In the first group, the old man goes out to cut grass, rather than to cut . The same three companion beasts (pheasant, monkey, then dog) appear in both groups, but in a different order. Though the order of the animals is not significant to the story, the most common order that appear is the dog, the monkey, and then the pheasant. In nearly every variation, all three animal companions agree to help Momotarà  in exchange for a portion of his food. In one variation from the Edo Period, the dog is given half a portion, the monkey willingly comes, and Momotarà  threatens the pheasant.
As noted above, in most of the Edo Period books, Momotarà  is not born from a peach but from the woman who consumes a peach and grows years younger in age. Both the first and second groups consist entirely of "rejuvenation" types. The "birth from the peach" type examples (such as the version in Takizawa Bakin's 1811 essay "Swallowstone Miscellany") are found among tales that have deviated further, which Koike assigns to a third group of texts. While "birth from the peach" version has not been confirmed in earlier written texts from the Edo Period, one tantalizing sculpture dating to 1614 depicted a man standing in the middle of a split peach. This purported Momotarà  carving at Kehi Shrine in Tsuruga, Fukui, was lost during the air raids of 1945.
It was noted that the protagonist Momotarà  was being drawn progressively younger by artists over the years. In one subjective estimation, Momotarà  appeared approximately 30 until c. 1735, 25 up to c. 1800, and 20 until the end of Edo Period in 1867.
Not every text specifies age, but in the version in (1798âÂÂ1861)'s Momotarà Â's was 15 years and 6 months when he set out on his expedition. And in Momotarà  takara no kurairi (c. 1830âÂÂ1840), Momotarà  was aged sixteen. The Momotarà  in Iwaya Sazanami's version of 1894 was of similar age (15 years old) when he resolved to go to devil island.
Researcher also noticed the trend of Momotarà  being depicted younger and younger, and he dubbed the phenomenon .
After Japan abandoned the feudal system and entered the Meiji era, Iwaya Sazanami became a seminal figure in how the Momotaro story was shaped and became familiarized to the Japanese populace. Sazanami was the author of the Momotaro tales in his commercially successful folktale collections, and also a major contributor to the textbook versions.
The "Momotarà Â" tale was first incorporated into nationalized textbooks for elementary schools by the Meiji government in 1887. It was subsequently omitted from the 1st edition of the National Language Reader or but reappeared from the 2nd edition onward to the 5th edition. It has been generally accepted that the 2nd edition reader of 1910 was de facto written by storybook author Iwaya Sazanami, who had joined the Ministry of Education as nonpermanent staff in 1906.
Iwaya had already published a version of "Momotaro" (1894) for his Nihon mukashibanashi (Japanese Folktales), where Momotaro is cast as a military soldier or commander (shà Âgun) of Great Japan (Dainihon), dispatched on a punitive campaign to quell the ogres who live in the northeast. Older texts took the punishing of oni for granted and dispensed with explaining what crimes the oni committed to deserve condemnation. But in Iwaya's version, the ogres were explicitly stated as being evil beings, who devoured the "poor people" and taken "plunder" from the Emperor's land of Japan (Ozaki's translation), thus morally justifying Momotaro's expedition. It has been suggested these ogres represented the Qing dynasty of China since the publication occurred in 1895, which saw the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War.
From the 3rd edition National Language Reader (1918âÂÂ1932) onwards (until the end of World War II), "Momotaro" has occupied the spot of the last tale in Book 1 of these nationalized elementary textbook series. Teachers in essays submitted in 1917 stated that the perception of the Momotaro tale was shifting, so that they were seen as containing lessons of assertiveness and helping in the material advancement of one's country. There was criticism from the liberalism side, for example, the novelist Yamamoto Yà «zà  (1925) protesting that the oni were being punished for no apparent reason, and is "tantamount to telling [children] to think of foreigners as oni".
In the early Shà Âwa era, after Emperor Hirohito assumed the throne, Momotarà  continued to be used to instill patriotism (or the teachings of the Rescript on Education) pupils with the 4th edition National Language Reader (1933âÂÂ1938) which begins with the picture of the cherry blossom. The "Momotarà Â" of the 4th edition was modified so that the oni now stated "We will no longer torment the people nor take things. Please spare our lives", and forfeits their treasures out of their own volition, thus addressing the foregoing issues (i.e., Momotarà  accused of attacking oni for no legitimate reason).
The use of Momotarà  in wartime propaganda against the U.S. and its Allies was discussed extensively by John W. Dower in his book War Without Mercy (1986). Dower is credited with coining the term "Momotarà  paradigm" in this respect. Momotarà  disappeared from Japanese textbooks at the end of World War II.
The story has some regional variations in oral telling.
In some variants, a red and white box are seen floating down the river, and when the red box is chosen to be recovered, Momotarà  is found inside. These may be a red box and a black box, or the box may contain a peach inside. These types are often seen in the northern parts of Japan (Tà Âhoku and Hokuriku regions).
Or Momotarà  may exhibit the characteristic of the lazy protagonist in the "Sleeping Boy" stories. These subtypes have been collected mainly in the Shikoku and Chà «goku regions.
There are variances about the Momotarà Â's process of growth; one is that he grew up to meet the expectation of the old couple to be a fine boy. Another is that he grew up to be a strong but lazy person who just sleeps all day and does not do anything. It is possible that the Momotarà  being a fine boy version is more famous to give lessons to children. Nowadays, Momotarà  is one of the most famous characters in Japan, as an ideal model for young kids for his kind-heartedness, bravery, power, and care for his parents.
Grown up, Momotarà  goes on his journey to defeat the demons when he hears about the demons of the Onigashima (demon island). In some versions of the story, Momotarà  volunteered to go help the people by repelling the demons, but in some stories he was forced by the townspeople or others to go on a journey. However, all the stories describe Momotarà  defeating the Oni and living 'happily ever after' with the old couple.
Momotarà  now enjoys popular association with Okayama City or its prefecture, but this association was only created in the modern era. The publication of a book by Nanba Kinnosuke entitled Momotarà  no Shijitsu (1930) for example helped the notion of Momotarà Â's origins in Okayama to gain wider familiarity. Still, even as late as the antebellum period before World War II (1941âÂÂ1945), Okayama was considered only the third contender behind two other regions known as Momotarà Â's homeland.
The demon island () of the story is sometimes associated with Megijima Island, an island in the Seto Inland Sea near Takamatsu, due to the vast manmade caves found there.
Inuyama, Aichi has with a legend associated with it. In the 1920s and 1930s, lyricist Ujà  Noguchi wrote three "folk songs" for the locality alluding to the Momotaro legend.
The story has been translated into English many times. "The Adventures of Little Peachling" appeared in A.B. Mitford's Tales of Old Japan in 1871. William Elliot Griffis published a version in 1880, which remained obscure even to researchers, even though English translations in subsequent decades apparently borrowed from Griffis's phraseology and use of idiom, sometimes even copying outright.
Rev. David Thompson's translation as "Little Peachling" appeared as the first volume of Hasegawa Takejirà Â's Japanese Fairy Tale series in 1885. A second edition appeared in 1886, with a different set of illustrations, drawn by Kobayashi Eitaku
Susan Ballard included the tale in Fairy Tales from Far Japan (1899).
Yei Theodora Ozaki included a loosely translated version in her Japanese Fairy Tales (1903); Ozaki's retellings were based on a version by "Sadanami sanjin" (sic., i.e., Sazanami Iwaya). Ozaki was credited with spreading Japanese folktales to the English-speaking nations by researchers such as .
There was another English translation that used the same source as Ozaki and published around the same time, namely, "The Story of Peach-Boy" in Iwaya's Fairy Tales of Old Japan (1903, repub. 1914) translated by Hannah Riddell. The translation of the collection was a collaborative effort with other translators, such as Fanny B. Greene, Tsuda Umeko and others. This latter effort was acknowledged by Iwaya himself.
Teresa Peirce Williston in her Japanese Fairy Tales, Second Series, in 1911.
The tale was translated as Peach-Prince and the Demons and included in the compilation Fairy stories my children love best of all, although the compiler did not indicate its Japanese origin.
The popular children's song about Momotarà  titled (Momotarà Â's Song) was first published in 1911; the text's author is unattributed, while the melody was written by Teiichi Okano. The first two stanzas, with romanization and translation, are given below.
Portrayal of Momotarà  as a soldier in the Japanese Imperial Army fighting hostile nations was already happening by the (First) Sino-Japanese War (1894âÂÂ1895). The Momotaro tale was altered by Iwaya Sazanami in 1894 so that the oni lived to the northeast of Japan, a thinly veiled reference to Qing China given the then current geopolitics. Iwaya was not purely a major figure in children's literature, but a government official working as the head of the editorial bureau of the Ministry of Education, since 1878. Iwaya would later pen a whole book of essay on the use of Momotaro as an instructional tool, ("the Education Theory Based on Principles in Momotaro", 1915).
Comic images picturing Momotarà  defending Japan against Oni representing Russian "Northern Devils" were given out during the 1904âÂÂ1905 Russo-Japanese War.
Momotarà  was an immensely popular figure in Japan during World War II, appearing in many wartime films and cartoons. Momotarà  represented the Japanese government, and the enemy states, namely the Allies, later including the United States was symbolized by the oni, the demonic figure. One wartime film, in which Momotarà  and his animals mount on a military operation for the Japanese Armed Forces (against the British) is '.