Folktales And Superstitions

The two main things that are going to be discussed in this essay are how superstitions and ethical behavior can be revealed when taking a closer look at the folktales that the people had during those periods of time. Then I am going to talk about how these folktales can reveal what the ethical behavior and the superstitions that people had in the late Heian and Kamakura Japan. When talking about ethical behavior in the folktales, I am going to be defining it as: acting in ways consistent with what society and individuals typically think are good values. When I talk about the superstition that the people had in the folktales, I am going to be defining it as: an unjustified belief in supernatural causation leading to certain consequences of …show more content…
Ethical behavior is acting in ways consistent with what society and individuals typically think are good values. When reading the folktales, I find that there is no one theme among all the tales that connect them all together. I find that each folktale had a different message concerning ethical behavior. In “How Yasusuke Robbed People”, it tells a story about a captain of a band of robbers. About how he, Yasusuke would agree to buy items from many different people, but never paid them. Yasusuke killed them instead by throwing the sellers into the pit. Nobody knew that Yasusuke did this, there was rumors, but no told the truth. It goes on to say that Yasusuke was never caught or arrested. When reading this you can get a feeling that robbing was common at the time, going by the fact that he was never caught or arrested for what he had done. Even though the other sellers had an idea that something was wrong. It suggests that things might have been a very chaotic period of time and very common as well. Showing that people had very low good values at this time. In “How Minamoto no Yorinobu’s Son Yoriyoshi Shot Down a Horse Thief” it is definitely different from the previous folktale, though both contain robbing. Yorinobu bought a superb horse from the east, and a thief saw how perfect this horse was and wanted it for himself, so he followed them back to the capital. The thief then steals the horse from the stable and rides away. Yorinobu and his son Yoriyoshi go after the thief, kill him, then take the horse back. Unlike in “How Yasusuke Robbed People” where the robber got away with everything, in this tale it is the opposite. Yoriyoshi shoots the thief and they get their possession back. It shows in this tale that there was more stability and rules during this time. It also shows us that the people of higher status took care of the punishments of the crimes themselves. It also tells us