An Attempt of Comparative Study of Irish and Japanese Folktales

Abstract

When reading folktales, we suddenly realize that the thoughts and daily activities of the people who passed them down are deeply engraved in them. It is surprising to know that some of the Irish folktales are very similar to Japanese folktales, and I wondered if it means that people have been thinking alike since ancient times, or that they somehow made their way from Ireland, on the western edge of Europe, to Japan, on the eastern edge of Asia. In any case, it can be expected that it may be because the Japanese people's ancient way of living and thinking is similar in some respects to that of the Irish people, and that this may have influenced their stories. In this study, we would like to compare Irish and Japanese folktales concretely and consider the differences and similarities between them to approach the clarification of the question.