News
Uozu Folktale Gets 5-Minute Anime Short
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
The Nippon Foundation announced on Tuesday that it is producing a five-minute anime short based on the Uozu folktale "Ikari no Dobu." The project will be part of the city of Uozu, Toyama's "Umi no Minwa no Machi" (The City of Sea Folktales) project, which focuses on passing on local folklore to children. The project will also have six other folktales adapted into anime.
The "Ikari no Dobu" folktale has two parts, titled "Arashi" (Storm) and "Konrei" (Marriage). The "Arashi" part tells of a group of sailors who torment a horned sea serpent, which turns out to be the child of a harbor's dragon lord. The dragon sinks the ship and its sailors in anger, and buries the port town beneath the sand. In "Konrei," a dragon in the form of a warrior borrows from a rich local man for marriage. When it gives a bowl in repayment, and a grain of rice from the bowl is thrown away, the dragon foretells the ruin of the rich man's household. The same myth is depicted in a stone pillar at the "Ikari no Dobu Ruins" in Uozu's Kyoden Nishimachi district.
The "Umi no Minwa no Machi" project adapted 10 folktales into anime from 2018 to 2019.
Source: Chunichi Shimbun
