Issun-boshi, the One-Inch Boy

An old husband and wife went to the shrine of the Empress Jingo, who had been made a goddess, and prayed for a child, even one no bigger than a finger. A voice came from behind the bamboo curtain of the shrine, telling them that their wish would be granted.

In time the old woman had a baby. But when she and her husband saw that this tiny scrap of a person was no bigger than a little finger, they were very angry and thought the Empress Jingo had treated them shabbily, though in truth she had answered their prayer exactly as they had asked.

They named the little fellow Issunboshi, which means One-Inch Priest. Every day his parents waited for him to shoot up like other boys, but at thirteen he was still as small as on the day he was born. Little by little they lost patience with him, for it hurt their pride to hear the neighbors call their son Little Finger or Grain-of-Corn. In the end they were so annoyed that they decided to send him away.

Issunboshi did not complain. He asked his mother for a needle, a little soup bowl and a chopstick, and with these he set out to seek his fortune. The soup bowl was his boat, and the chopstick was his oar, and so he paddled down the river until at last he came to Kyoto.

He wandered about the city until he spotted a big gateway with a roof over it. Without a moment’s hesitation he marched in, walked up to the porch of the house and called out in his tiny voice, “I beg an honorable inquiry!”

It was Prince Sanjo himself who heard the little voice, and it took him some time to find out where it was coming from. When he did, he was delighted, and when the little fellow asked if he might live in the prince’s house, the prince gladly agreed. Issunboshi became a great favorite and was soon made page to Princess Sanjo. He went with his mistress everywhere, and small as he was, he took the honor and dignity of his post very seriously.

One day the princess and her page went to the Temple of Kwannon, the Goddess of Mercy. As they were leaving, two oni, wicked spirits, leaped out at them. Issunboshi drew his needle sword from its sheath of hollow straw, shouted at the oni for the villains they were and waved his little weapon in their ugly faces.

One of the oni laughed. “Why, I could swallow you the way a cormorant swallows a trout,” he sneered, “and what’s more, my funny little bean, I will!”

He opened his mouth, and down slid Issunboshi through an enormous throat until he landed in the creature’s huge, dark belly. Not a bit frightened, Issunboshi set to work jabbing with his needle sword. The oni yelled and gave a mighty cough, and out shot the little fellow into the sunshine.

The second oni, who had watched his friend’s trouble, was furious and tried to swallow the extraordinary little page himself, but he did not manage it. This time Issunboshi scrambled up the creature’s nose, and when he reached the end of what seemed to him a very long, gloomy tunnel, he began stabbing at the oni’s eyes. Wild with pain, the oni ran off as fast as he could go, with his howling companion close behind.

Of course the princess was delighted with her page’s courage, and she told him she was sure her father would reward him when he heard about the terrible fight.

On the way home the princess happened to pick up a small wooden mallet. “Oh!” she said. “The wicked oni must have dropped this. It is a lucky mallet! You have only to make a wish and tap it on the ground, and whatever you wish for comes true. My brave Issunboshi, tell me what you would like most of all, and I will tap the mallet for you.”

The little fellow thought for a moment. “Honorable Princess,” he said, “I would like to be as big as other people.” The princess tapped the mallet on the ground and called out her page’s wish, and in an instant Issunboshi changed from a tiny creature into a young man just like other youths his age.

News of these wonders made the Emperor curious, and he sent for Issunboshi. He was so pleased with the young man that he gave him many gifts and made him a high official. In the end Issunboshi became a great lord and married Prince Sanjo’s youngest daughter.

About this telling

This telling follows “The Transformation of Issunboshi” in Chapter XXX of F. Hadland Davis’s Myths & Legends of Japan (1912), where it shares a chapter with Kintaro, the Golden Boy. Davis translates the hero’s name as “One-Inch Priest,” and says the neighbors mocked him as Little Finger and Grain-of-Corn.

In Davis’s version the tiny boy’s parents pray at the shrine of the deified Empress Jingo, and his only equipment is a needle for a sword, a soup bowl for a boat and a chopstick for an oar. The oni drop a lucky mallet that grants any wish when it is tapped on the ground.

Read the original: Myths & Legends of Japan (Project Gutenberg)

Suggested for ages 9–12 with an adult available: includes rejection by parents, swallowing and stabbing an oni’s eyes.

His abilities arrive before his height

The bowl and chopstick are practical at Issunboshi’s scale, and the needle becomes effective where a larger sword could not go. He earns the princess’s gratitude while he is still tiny. His later wish to grow therefore changes his circumstances, not the courage he has already shown. His parents’ embarrassment and the neighbours’ taunts reveal their prejudice, not a failure in him.

Change the scale

Draw the bowl, chopstick and needle beside the small hero, then beside an ordinary-sized person. Explain how the use of each object changes. Find the point in the plot where other characters should already recognise his worth, before the mallet is used.

Talk about it

• What did Issunboshi take with him when he left home, and how did he use each thing?
• How did such a small boy beat two big oni?
• If you found a lucky mallet, what would you wish for?

Related stories

• Momotaro, or the Story of the Son of a Peach — another Japanese boy who takes on demons
• The Adventures of Kintaro, the Golden Boy — the hero who shares Davis’s chapter
• How an Old Man Lost His Wen — a Japanese tale where oni change someone’s looks