The tongue-cut sparrow

A visit made out of care

An older man cherishes a sparrow. His wife becomes furious when the bird eats starch prepared for her work; she cuts its tongue and drives it away. The husband searches through the countryside because he wants to know what has happened to it. At a bamboo grove he finds the sparrow alive, speaking and able to welcome him. The story moves from the familiar scale of a household pet to an animal community with the manners and resources of a grand home.

The sparrow entertains her visitor and offers a choice between a heavy and a light box. He chooses the lighter burden because he is old. Only after he reaches home does he discover treasure inside. His choice was made without knowing the reward. This sequence distinguishes gratitude and practical judgment from bargaining for a prize.

His wife now repeats the journey, but she wants the large box left behind. She dispenses with the visit's social courtesies and demands it. On the return journey its weight exhausts her, and she opens it early. Frightening beings burst out. She flees home, where her husband rebukes her conduct. In Ozaki's version she survives and gradually changes, and the couple live on the first box's treasure.

Source: Japanese Fairy Tales · “The Tongue-Cut Sparrow”

Why the ending needs a source label

A brief account that ends with the frightening box would miss this witness's final reconciliation. The husband and wife are contrasted very strongly by the narrator, and the wife's transformation closes a domestic moral lesson. Readers can examine that gendered characterization without accepting it as a neutral description of real women or marriage.

Ozaki's preface calls the collection an adaptation for Western children rather than literal translation. The courteous sparrow-house, the supernatural punishment, and the closing moral reach us through that editorial voice. This is one Japanese literary telling, not a survey of present-day Japanese beliefs. Its resemblance to other tales of rewarded and unrewarded visitors is useful for comparison, but does not by itself establish a route of borrowing. Follow the helpful-animal entry to compare what kind of obligation each story creates.

Source: Japanese Fairy Tales · Preface; “The Tongue-Cut Sparrow,” closing paragraphs