KINTAROTHE SAMURAI’S FOLLOWER
Kintaro was renowned for his superhuman strength. When
he uprooted a tree to make a bridge, he was spotted by
a man dressed as a woodcutter, who challenged the boy
to an arm-wrestling contest. When Kintaro and the man
proved equally matched, the stranger revealed himself to
be Sadamitsu, a follower of a powerful lord called Raiko,
who invited Kintaro to the capital to become a samurai.
With his mother’s permission, Kintaro departed, and after
a period of service with Raiko, he was promoted to lead
an elite quartet of Raiko’s followers called the Four Braves.
Kintaro led this group against a
fearsome man-eating monster
that preyed on the city, and
used his razor-sharp
sword to slice
of the creature’s
head. Thus he
became a famous
hero throughout Japan.ANIMALS AS FRIENDS
Growing up without other children for company, Kintaro
became friendly with the animals of the forest, especially
the bear, deer, monkey, and hare. One day, a sumo
wrestling match was organized in the forest, and Kintaro
acted as the judge. The monkey wrestled with the hare
and lost, but then complained that he had tripped, and
so the pair fought again. This time the monkey won. On
each occasion, Kintaro awarded a rice cake to the winner,
so both were happy. It
soon became clear that
the bear was strongest
of all the animals. But on
the way home, Kintaro
showed that he was
stronger than the bear,
when he pulled down a
tree with his bare hands
to build a bridge over a
river for them to cross.Wrestling the salmon
Kintaro was a skilled wrestler, and was
as much at home in the water as on
land. Among the creatures he wrestled
were giant fish such as carp and salmon.The samurai
The samurai were mounted
warriors in feudal Japan.
They were highly disciplined
and skilled swordsmen who
protected their patron and
helped to enforce law and order.KINTARO TODAY
Kintaro is a well-known character in Japan and is represented in
various ways in modern popular culture. Parents who have a
newborn boy place Kintaro dolls in the child’s room, in the hope
that the baby will become strong. The hero also features in
television series and computer games, as well as in Japanese anime
series and manga comic books. Other Japanese hero characters in
similar publications share some
of Kintaro’s strength and
characteristics, even if they
do not share his name.
Kintaro is also familiar
through his own kind of
sweet – a cylinder-shaped
candy with his image on
every slice.Kintaro candyJudging the contest
Kintaro watched closely as the hare and the monkey wrestled,
looking out for signs of cheating or false moves that might be
made to beat or push an opponent out of the specified arena.
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