Edit
The gorilla nyoubou, literally "gorilla wife", is an Okinawan animal bride tale recorded in "A Collection of Folk Tales from the Yomitan Village Vol. 5; Folk Tales from the Gima Section" published in 1983.
Even if we keep in mind that the narrator of this folk tale was born in 1916 and that his telling was recorded in 1977, the appearance of a gorilla in any folktale originating from the vicinity of the Japanese islands is extremely rare.
The book in which the folk tale was published records it in both its original oral Ryukyuan and in its standard Japanese translation.
The full translated text:
Somewhere, there were five to six youths who went exploring from island to island. One day, these youths followed a river and rowed their boat deep into the mountains. This mountain was an unexplored land in which no men had ever set foot. The youths thought that there might be a treasure in this mysterious, deep mountain, and so went to explore it.
Apparently, when they arrived to their destination, one of the group got out of the boats and reached the shore by himself. Just as he stood up, a large gorilla suddenly appeared.
The others looked in horror as he was grabbed by the gorilla. The 5 or 6 remaining youths quickly pushed away from the riverbank with their oars, and desperately tried to escape downriver with their ships. Forgetting all about their friend who had disembarked on shore, they concentrated all of their attention on escaping and ran away by themselves.
Held down by the gorilla, the remaining youth was terrified. Trembling in fear that he would be eaten, he did not have any choice but to try and obey the gorilla's commands. Following the gorilla, he was brought deeper and deeper into the mountain.
When they arrived, the gorilla beckoned others to come out by waving its arms and letting out a great bellowing sound. Apparently, it was the boss of the group.
Its underlings - which were all of the gorillas - completed the commands they were given by it. The boss gorilla ordered tree leaves to be broken, gathered up and laid out in an open area, then ordered the youth "sit, sit." Sitting down, he began trembling. "This is terrible. I just have to sit as I am told." Again reacting to the boss's commands, the lower-ranking gorillas brought some food. They gathered many different types of food, including nuts, fruits, and bananas, and motioned him to eat. This was his meal.
This continued every day for one, then two months. The youth wanted to go home, but couldn't figure out a way of doing so. Since he didn't have a boat, he couldn't simply run away. Before he knew it, he had spent one year eating raw food and living with these gorillas. As time passed, his relationship grew with these animals. He began a relationship with one of them, and got the bear[*1] pregnant. A child was born. His life, stuck in the mountains, continued.
Eventually, the youth began to think, "I can't stay here living like an animal, eating raw food with these gorillas forever. I have to do something." He began to constantly think about possible ways to escape.
He began cutting down tree after tree from the mountain and bringing them to the riverbank. He intended to use them to build a raft. Finally, he gathered enough trees to build one.
Quickly, he started assembling his raft. Dodging the attention of the gorillas, he was able to spend about 2 hours a week on it. Since they are animals, they did not know what he was building. Finally, he completed his raft.
Since everything was ready to go, the youth saw his chance. He prepared to leave without attracting the notice of the boss gorilla. However, on the day when he tried to ride his carefully built raft to escape, he had the bad luck of being seen by the gorillas. One of the large bears [*2] saw the youth trying to run away and quickly approached in anger. "You want to leave me here and run away" she yelled out. Although she was holding her child, she forgot herself in her anger. She grabbed the youth's legs, and her sadness and anger at being left behind burned up inside of her. She ripped the youth open from both legs.
This is the heart of women. It is a story that shows that you shouldn't treat women badly.
[*1][*2]:
Original notes: "bear" - mistaken rendering of gorilla
Note from the quoter: This book contains another folk tale from the same teller entitled "Bear Wife." It is likely that the teller simply confused the two in the retelling.
See also
No posts found.