Lily and The Wooden Bowl

Title: Lily and the Wooden Bowl
Author: Alan Schroeder
Illustrated by: Japanese Folktale

This Japanese folktale tells the story of a young Japanese woman, Lily, and her dying grandmother. Lily's grandmother gives Lily a paper crane and a rice paddle as she is dying. Because Lily is so beautiful, she tells her that she must wear a bowl over her head so that no man may see her beauty and taint her innocence. Soon, Lily is working in a rice field and when the men make fun of her the crane suddenly comes to life and begins attacking them and preventing them from hitting the bowl off of Lily's head. After this, Lily was approached by a man named Yamoto whose wife, Matsu, is sick. He asks Lily to come and take care of her. Lily soon realizes Matsu is a very cruel woman and has troubles with her constantly. The son of Yamoto and Matsu, Kumaso returns home from Kyoto and though he cannot see Lily's face, he begins to fall in love with her. Matsu refuses that he may marry Lily and tells him that only if she can make rice for the wedding can they be married. Matsu gives Lily only one grain of rice; Lily begins to realize that the paddle can create more and more rice, enough for the wedding party. Matsu then calls the rats of the city to come eat all the food. When Yamoto and Kumaso see Matsu above Lily ready to strike her, they see what evil she has caused. As Kumaso and Lily are to be married the bowl will not come off. Yet, when they take the "three times three" to show they become husband and wife the bowl breaks and jewels pour out of it. But the greatest beauty is Lily.

This folktale is a great show of Japanese culture. It speaks of the beauty and gives different artifacts of the culture within the story (the crane and the rice paddle). However, it is very focused on beauty. I would use this book not only to teach about Japanese culture, but how beauty isn't everything. I could have the children create paper cranes like the one in the story and speak about why they are important in Japanese culture. I could also have students create a poster of things they think are beautiful and explain why. This will show that everyone views beauty differently and it is indeed "in the eye of the beholder".