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Cover of 赤い蝋燭と人魚 (Akai Rōsoku to Ningyo)

Intermediate · JLPT N3

赤い蝋燭と人魚Akai Rōsoku to Ningyo — Red Candles on the Shrine Hill

by Ogawa Mimei (小川未明, 1882–1961)

  • JLPT N3
  • 6,508 characters
  • 5 parts
  • about 54 minutes
  • 2 easier versions

赤い蝋燭と人魚 (Red Candles on the Shrine Hill) is a literary fairy tale by Ogawa Mimei. It opens on a lonely rock in the cold northern sea. A mermaid, expecting a child, decides that her baby should grow up among human beings, whom she has heard are kind. In a small seaside town, an old couple who make candles take in a strange baby girl. Her red paintings on their candles bring fame to the shop and to the shrine on the pine-covered hill above it. Then a showman from the south makes the couple a tempting offer. On the surface the telling is calm and gentle, but it grows steadily more melancholy, and this is not a comforting tale. For learners, the plot is easy to follow and the vocabulary is concrete: the sea, candles, moonlight, the shrine. The main challenge is register. The narrator uses polite です/ます and formal であります, with old-fashioned forms such as 青うございました. The girl speaks humbly, using 妾 and 下さいまし. The long descriptive sentences reward slow, careful reading.

Start reading →Try the easy N5 version

Contents

  1. A Mermaid's Hope for Her Child （一）On a lonely rock in the cold northern sea, a mermaid looks back on long years without companions and longs for the bright world of human beings. She is expecting a child, and because she has heard that humans are kind and never abandon those in their care, she decides to give birth on land so that her child may grow up happily among them. One night she swims toward the shore, where the lights of a shrine on a hill flicker between the waves.
  2. A Foundling on the Shrine Steps （二）An old couple in a small seaside town make and sell candles below a hill where a shrine stands among pine trees. One moonlit night the old woman goes up to pray and finds a baby crying at the foot of the stone steps. The baby is a girl whose body is a fish's from the waist down, and the couple take her in as a gift from the god and raise her into a beautiful, gentle, clever child.
  3. The Painted Candles and the Shrine （三）The mermaid girl grows up hidden away, and she begins painting red pictures on the old man's candles, which sell remarkably well. A rumour spreads that a painted candle stub offered at the hilltop shrine protects sailors from shipwreck, and the shrine becomes famous far and wide. The girl paints until her hands ache, grateful to the old couple, yet no one thinks of her, and on moonlit nights she weeps with longing for the northern sea.
  4. The Mermaid Sold to a Showman （四）A showman from the south secretly offers the old couple a fortune for the mermaid girl. He warns them that mermaids bring bad luck, and they give in and sell her, ignoring her tearful pleas. On a moonlit night he arrives with an iron-barred cage. Rushed by the old couple, the girl paints the candle in her hand plain red, and she leaves a few red candles behind as keepsakes.
  5. Shell Money and the Cursed Shrine （五）On a calm night a pale woman with dripping wet hair buys a red candle from the old woman and pays with seashells. That same night a terrible storm wrecks countless ships, including the one carrying the girl south. From then on, red candles appear at the shrine every night and bring storms and drowning, people come to hate the shrine, and within a few years the town falls into ruin.

Easier versions

This story is also retold in simpler Japanese. Reading an easier version first makes the original much more approachable.

Before you read

  • The narration often ends sentences with 〜のであります, a formal explanatory ending. Read it roughly as 'it was that…' or simply as a plain statement. It sets the storyteller's measured, old-fashioned voice.
  • Learn the old adjective form 〜うございます: 青い becomes 青うございました ('it was blue'). To understand these forms, convert them back to the ordinary adjective (青い, 美しい, and so on).
  • The girl's speech is humble and old-fashioned. 妾 is a humble first-person 'I', and 下さいまし is an older, softer form of 下さいませ / 下さい used when making a request. Her lines are short, so they are good places to practise this register.
  • In Part 1, the mermaid's monologue uses the double negative 〜ないことはない (暮されないことはないだろう, 'it is not that one could not live…'). The narration also uses 〜のが常だ ('it was her habit to…') for her resting on the rock on moonlit nights. Also watch for 〜なければなりません and 〜ない日はない.
  • Words to learn before you start: 蝋燭 (ろうそく, candle), 人魚 (にんぎょ, mermaid), 神様 (god), 嵐 (あらし, storm), and 月 (moon). Moonlit nights mark nearly every turning point in the story.

Words to know

The most useful words from the notes across the story.

WordMeaningJLPT
不吉ふきつunlucky, ill-omenedN1
参詣さんけいvisiting a shrine or temple to worshipA formal word; 参詣する means 'to go and pray at a shrine'.—
香具師やしshowman; travelling huckster who exhibits curiosities or sells goods at fairsAn irregular reading (jukujikun): the kanji do not spell out や・し.—
お蔭おかげthanks to (someone's help or blessing)Survives in the everyday phrase おかげさまで.N4
眺めながらながめるto gaze at, to look out overdictionary form: 眺めるUsed for looking at a view or a scene, often at length.N3
仕合せしあわせhappiness; happilyAn older spelling of 幸せ.N3
陸おかland (as opposed to the sea)おか is the old, native reading. りく is the modern Sino-Japanese reading.N3
噂うわさrumour, talkN3
恩おんa debt of gratitude, kindness receivedご恩を忘れない means 'never to forget the kindness one owes to someone'.N3
評判ひょうばんreputation, fame, public talk評判が立つ means 'word gets around'.N3
憧がれてあこがれるto long for, to yearn fordictionary form: 憧れるTakes を for the thing longed for. Now written 憧れる.N2
せっせとせっせとbusily, diligently, without a breakN2
災難さいなんmisfortune, disaster, mishapN2
儲けもうけるto make a profit, earn moneydictionary form: 儲けるCommon in 金を儲ける and in the noun 儲け (profit).N2
覗きましたのぞくto peep, to peekdictionary form: 覗くUsed for looking through a small gap or opening.N2

Plot summary

Show the full summary (contains spoilers)

A mermaid on a lonely rock in the northern sea is expecting a child. Believing humans are kind, she decides to give birth on land and swims toward the lights of a hilltop shrine. An old candle-making couple find a baby girl, a fish from the waist down, crying at the foot of the shrine's stone steps. They raise her as a gift from the god. She paints red pictures on their candles, which sell well, and the shrine becomes famous for protecting sailors. Then a showman from the south offers a fortune, and the couple sell her despite her pleas. Before she is taken away in an iron-barred cage, she paints a candle plain red. Later, on a calm night, a pale woman with wet hair buys a red candle and pays with seashells. That night a storm wrecks countless ships, including the one carrying the girl. After that, red candles bring storms every night, and the town falls into ruin.

About the author

Ogawa Mimei was a Japanese writer from Niigata Prefecture. He is often called the father of modern Japanese children's literature, and he is sometimes described as 'the Japanese Andersen.' He studied at Tokyo Senmon Gakkō (now Waseda University), where his teacher Tsubouchi Shōyō is said to have given him the pen name Mimei. He wrote both fiction for adults and fairy tales, and he later devoted himself mainly to children's stories. His tales are known for their lyrical, often melancholy atmosphere and their concern for the weak and the lonely. Among his best-known works is 赤い蝋燭と人魚 (The Red Candles and the Mermaid).

More stories by Ogawa Mimei →