Favourite children’s fairy tales
Mi-te, an illustrated book community aimed at parents with pre-school children recently conducted a survey on traditional Japanese fairy tales.
Demographics
Between the 19th of February and 4th of March 2013 480 members of their 400,000 people-strong web site completed a members-only survey, accessible through both computers and mobile phones. 309 people used a computer, 190 a mobile devicce (obviously some used both), 120 people had an “iku-memo” (shared child-growth calendar. I would presume) and 19 a “yomi-log” (blog?), and 13 a photo-bee (photo album?). 97.7% of the respondents were female, 0.8% 20 years old or younger, 5.4% between 21 and 25 years old, 16.5% between 26 and 30 years old, 33.1% between 31 and 35 years old, 26.9% between 36 and 40 years old, 13.1% between 41 and 45 years old, and 4.2% aged 46 years old or more. Furthermore, the youngest child of 31.8% was zero years old, 20.4% was one year old, 9.8% was two years old, 12.5% was three years old, 7.5% was four years old, 4.2% was five years old, and 13.8% six or more years old. Finally, 55.8% had one child, 34.2% two children, 8.3% three children, and 1.7% four or more children.
Like many of the Western fairy tales, the stories have been considerably revised and cleaned up over the years. In Momotaro, for instance, the current story has Momotaro appearing from a peach and being adopted by an elderly couple; the original tale was that a spirit grants the old couple a wish, they ask for their youth back for one night, and Granny ends up pregnant with Momotaro…
I’ve linked below to translations of the various Japanese stories.
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