Momotarō (桃太郎, “Peach Boy”) is a popular hero of Japanese folklore. His name is often translated as Peach Boy, but is directly translated as Peach + Tarō, a common Japanese given name. Momotarō was born from a giant peach, which was found floating down a river by an old, childless woman who was washing clothes there. The woman and her husband discovered the child when they tried to open the peach to eat it. The child explained that he had been bestowed by the Gods to be their son. The couple named him Momotarō, from momo (peach) and Tarō (a name meaning ‘eldest son in the family’). When he was just five years old, he was able to cut a big tree with just an old knife. When he matured into adolescence, Momotarō left his parents to fight a band of Oni (demons or ogres) who marauded over their land, by seeking them out in the distant island where they dwelled (a place called Onigashima or “Demon Island”). En route, Momotarō met and befriended a talking dog, monkey and pheasant, who agreed to help him in his quest in exchange for a portion of his rations (kibi dango or “millet dumplings”). At the island, Momotarō and his animal friends penetrated the demons’ fort and beat the band of demons into surrendering. Momotarō and his new friends returned home with the demons’ plundered treasure and the demon chief as a captive Ozaki (“end of the cape”).
First Appearance Japanese folklore of the Edo period (1603–1868)
First Publisher ○
Appearance List Edo Period books, Saihan Momotarō mukashigatari (c. 1777), Tales of Old Japan (1871) by A.B. Mitford, Japanese Fairy Tale (1885) by Hasegawa Takejirō, Nihon mukashibanashi (Japanese Folktales, 1894) by Iwaya Sazanami, Fairy Tales from Far Japan (1899) by Susan Ballard, Iwaya’s Fairy Tales of Old Japan (1903, repub. 1914) translated by Hannah Riddell, Japanese Fairy Tales (1903) by Yei Theodora Ozaki, Japanese Fairy Tales, Second Series (1911) by Teresa Peirce Williston
Description Momotarō (桃太郎, “Peach Boy”) is a popular hero of Japanese folklore. His name is often translated as Peach Boy, but is directly translated as Peach + Tarō, a common Japanese given name. Momotarō was born from a giant peach, which was found floating down a river by an old, childless woman who was washing clothes there. The woman and her husband discovered the child when they tried to open the peach to eat it. The child explained that he had been bestowed by the Gods to be their son. The couple named him Momotarō, from momo (peach) and Tarō (a name meaning ‘eldest son in the family’). When he was just five years old, he was able to cut a big tree with just an old knife. When he matured into adolescence, Momotarō left his parents to fight a band of Oni (demons or ogres) who marauded over their land, by seeking them out in the distant island where they dwelled (a place called Onigashima or “Demon Island”). En route, Momotarō met and befriended a talking dog, monkey and pheasant, who agreed to help him in his quest in exchange for a portion of his rations (kibi dango or “millet dumplings”). At the island, Momotarō and his animal friends penetrated the demons’ fort and beat the band of demons into surrendering. Momotarō and his new friends returned home with the demons’ plundered treasure and the demon chief as a captive Ozaki (“end of the cape”).
