Tuesday, March 24, 2015

From Camellia Festival (part 2)

*Conch Shell and Local Folk Tale*
In old days "conch shell" ‘which has a loud sound’ was used to make communication between far places or to avoid the beast in mountains etc,; for example used by Buddhist monk. Conch Shell is called ‘法螺貝; Hora-gai, hora-shell’ in Japanese. We call a person who ‘talk tall’ or exaggerate thing “hora-fuki; hora-blower”


      There was a "Picture-Story Show" at Camellia Festival.
I found many children enjoying hearing this story about a man who had a big mouth.  It seems this story is connected with call for water’
A man who was a good swimmer saw a BIG snake in the water but people thought it was a 'tall story'.  After persistent drought, the river dried up. Then the long bone and a human's were found in the river. When people knew it was the braggart 'hora-fuki', they called out his name. Suddenly the blessed rain started to fall.



I was happy to see children were enjoying this picture story in this day and age. I couldn't find the English version of this story from pc. So my writing is really simple and short(^^;)  I wish you could understand what I wrote and had fun with the pictures.

Thank you so much for stopping by; I always appreciate your sweet visits;



13 comments:

  1. Thank you for sharing these, I sure would be enjoying each and everyone if I were there too. Enjoy your day!

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  2. Loved the story and pictures. Thanks for sharing!

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  3. nice to see simple ways of storytelling still in play today!

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  4. Picture books are always fun for children...and for me. I'm a visual person, so like to have illustrations.

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  5. Dear Miyako, what a fun story! I like the conch shell, it has patterns that look somewhat like the feather patterns of some ducks. How clever to make them into horns! I would like to hear them. Hugs from the PNW! Hannah

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  6. I've seen the conch blown in Hawaii at one festival. It is good to know this story. I really enjoyed it.

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  7. Wow! I don't think I've actually seen hora-gai being blown. It's so neat!
    It's very nice that they had kamishibai at the festival and that children enjoyed it! Beautiful illustrations. It's wonderful to see a good old simple entertainment in this age of technology :-)

    Happy birthday to your husband, Miyako san! Have a lovely day xoxo

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  8. I loved the folk tale in pictures (and yes, it is lovely to know children can still enjoy those 'old-fashioned' pleasures).

    That's a beautiful conch-shell the man is playing. We would say for the person who talks too much and acts like he knows everything 'he is full of hot-air' . So that's pretty much the same (I'm sure there are people like that everywhere in the world; how interesting to think how similar the idioms are.)

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  9. Miyako, adorei conhecer a história e ver as ilustrações...
    Beijos, tenha uma semana abençoada.

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  10. Dearest Miyako,
    Lovely post with so much historical information again. Love those conch shells and “hora-fuki; hora-blower” for the one playing them. The other meaning for a big-mouth is quite to the point.
    The story telling for the kids looks really captivating.
    Hugs,
    Mariette

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  11. I enjoyed your post, interesting to learn about the conch - hora gai - i 'd love to hear it blown.
    And the picture story was fun.

    Greetings from New Zealand,

    Diana

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