Reading Notes B: More Japanese Mythology

In section B of the Japanese Mythology stories, I was really interested in "The Labors of Yamato - The Golden Apple." Jofuku searches for the Isle of Life Eternal for the Golden Apple and after years of sailing, he finds it.  He stayed on the island for 100 years and never felt any passage of time.  One day he wanted to leave and he had a stork fly him away from the island and back home.  Upon returning, Jofuku become the Khan of Khans.  This is not the ending I was expecting to come from this.  As I read the story, I expected Jofuku to run into some trouble upon trying to leave the island with the Golden Apple.  I think I was expecting the immortality to not work unless he was on the island.  It would give the lesson that you cannot be selfish in wanting eternal life and also have the happiness of being with those you love and be worshiped.

"The Labors of Yamato - The Golden Apple" from Romance of Old Japan, Part I: Mythology and Legend by E. W. Champney and F. Champney (1917)


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