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犬と笛芥川竜之介

Upper intermediate · JLPT N2

犬と笛Inu to Fue — The Woodcutter, His Flute and Three Dogs

by Akutagawa Ryūnosuke (芥川竜之介, 1892–1927)

  • JLPT N2
  • 7,643 characters
  • 6 parts
  • about 64 minutes
  • 2 easier versions

犬と笛 is a fairy tale that Akutagawa Ryūnosuke wrote for children and dedicated to a girl named Ikuko. It retells the shape of an old Japanese wonder tale. Kaminagahiko is a gentle, long-haired young woodcutter in ancient Yamato whose flute playing charms even plants and animals. Three strange giant gods of Mount Katsuragi reward him with three magical dogs. Kage can smell anything however far away, Tobe can fly, and Kame can bite any demon to death. When the Minister of Asuka's two daughters vanish, Kaminagahiko sets out with his dogs and flute to find them, crossing paths with monsters in mountain caves and two ambitious samurai. The narrator speaks in a warm, polite です/ます voice, as if reading aloud to a child, and the plot moves quickly through clear, repeated patterns. The challenge for learners lies elsewhere: the story mixes courtly honorifics for the princesses and the minister with blunt, old-fashioned speech from gods and villains (己, 貴様). It also uses older kanji spellings and literary connective grammar, which makes it a good bridge from graded readers to classic prose.

Start reading →Try the easy N4 version

Contents

  1. Three Mountain Gods Bring GiftsKaminagahiko, a gentle, long-haired young woodcutter of Yamato, plays his flute so beautifully that even plants and animals stop to listen. On three successive days three strange giant gods of Mount Katsuragi appear to thank him for his music: the One-Legged God, the One-Armed God and the One-Eyed God. Asking only for a dog, he receives Kage, a white dog that can sniff out anything, and Tobe, a black dog that can fly. The third god then offers a spotted dog that comes running with bared fangs.
  2. The Dogs Find the Missing PrincessThe one-eyed god gives Kaminagahiko the third dog, Kame, and warns him that the dogs will come only when he plays his flute. A few days later, two proud young samurai tell him that the Minister of Asuka's two daughters have vanished and that a reward awaits whoever finds them. The white dog sniffs out the elder princess, held by the shokushinjin on Mount Ikoma, and the black dog flies Kaminagahiko there, where he finds her weeping in the cave while the monster sleeps off his wine.
  3. The Second Princess and the TsuchigumoKaminagahiko sends the spotted dog Kame into the cave, and it kills the shokushinjin in a single bite. The rescued princess Komahime is anxious for her younger sister, so the white dog Kage sniffs out that she is held by a cunning tsuchigumo on Mount Kasagi. The tsuchigumo first tries to lure Kaminagahiko inside, but it gives in when he threatens it, and the two princesses are joyfully reunited until the three dogs suddenly bristle.
  4. The Flute Opens the CaveThe tsuchigumo traps Kaminagahiko, the princess and his dogs in the cave by blocking the entrance with a great rock. Kaminagahiko plays his flute until the spellbound spider-demon moves the rock aside, and the dog Kame bites it to death; then a voice on a sudden wind thanks him. Kaminagahiko flies with the two princesses and the dogs toward the capital, and on spotting the two samurai at the three-way crossroads he has the black dog descend so he can tell them of his feat; the samurai are astonished to see the princesses come down from the sky.
  5. Betrayed by the Samurai, Rescued by the WindsThe two jealous samurai coax the secrets of the dogs and the flute out of Kaminagahiko, steal the flute and fly off with the princesses on the black dog. As he weeps in despair, voices calling themselves Komahime of Mount Ikoma and Kasahime of Mount Kasagi come on the winds, recover the flute for him, and send down a general's splendid armour and weapons. Kaminagahiko then flies down to the Minister of Asuka's mansion, to the samurai's dismay and the Minister's astonishment.
  6. The Golden and Silver CombsKaminagahiko tells the Minister that it was he, not the two samurai, who rescued the princesses. The alarmed samurai interrupt and call him a liar. The Minister asks the princesses, who point to the gold and silver combs they placed in his hair. The samurai confess and beg for their lives. Kaminagahiko is richly rewarded and becomes the Minister's son-in-law, while the dogs chase the samurai away, though no one now knows which princess he married.

Easier versions

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

Before you read

  • Learn the three dogs' names as verbs first: 嗅げ (kage, 'sniff!'), 飛べ (tobe, 'fly!') and 噛め (kame, 'bite!') are imperative forms of 嗅ぐ, 飛ぶ and 噛む. When a name appears in a sentence, it tells you what is about to happen.
  • Expect fast scene changes built on connective patterns from the notes: 〜が早いか ('no sooner than'), 〜かと思うと ('just when… then'), 〜か〜ないのに ('almost before') and 〜たが最後 ('once… there's no going back'). Treat them as signals that the next action follows instantly.
  • Use speech style to track who is talking. Honorific forms like 御-, 仰有る and いらっしゃる mark the princesses and the minister. Kaminagahiko switches to humble keigo with superiors. Plain, rough words such as 己 (おれ), お前 and 貴様 mark gods, samurai and monsters.
  • Older spellings appear throughout: 仰有る for おっしゃる, 中 read うち in 〜ない中, and 好い read よい／いい. Recognising these saves dictionary time, because they are ordinary words in old-fashioned kanji.
  • The story repeats the same sequence in each episode: he plays the flute, a dog appears, and the dog acts. Read the first episode (parts 1–2) slowly and carefully. Later parts reuse the same vocabulary and structures, so you can read them more quickly.

Words to know

The most useful words from the notes across the story.

WordMeaningJLPT
麓ふもとfoot (of a mountain)N2
土蜘蛛つちぐもtsuchigumo, a wicked earth-spider being of legendKept in Japanese. In old chronicles the name was given to rebellious peoples, and in later legends to monsters.—
手柄てがらgreat deed, achievement worthy of praise大手柄 means 'a great feat'.—
証拠しょうこproof, evidenceその証拠には means 'as proof of that'.N1
退治たいじslaying, getting rid of (monsters, pests)Typical word for heroes defeating demons, as in 鬼退治.N1
洞穴ほらあなcave—
往来おうらいroad, highwayLiterally 'going and coming'. An old-fashioned word for a road with traffic on it.—
御行方ゆくえwhereaboutsdictionary form: 行方行方が知れない means 'whereabouts unknown, missing'.—
食蜃人しょくしんじんshokushinjin, a legendary man-eating monsterNo English equivalent, so the Japanese name is kept. The kanji mean 'eat', 'clam-dragon / mirage' and 'person'.—
虜とりこcaptive, prisonerAlso used figuratively: 恋の虜 'a captive of love'.—
計略けいりゃくscheme, plot, stratagem—
御馳走ごちそうtreat, feast; ご馳走する = to treat someone to foodN4
感心かんしんadmirable, praiseworthyUsed here as a な-adjective meaning 'worthy of admiration'.N3
利口りこうclever, smartN3
劣らないおとるto be inferior todictionary form: 劣る〜に劣らない = no worse than, equal to.N3

Plot summary

Show the full summary (contains spoilers)

Kaminagahiko, a woodcutter whose flute delights the gods of Mount Katsuragi, receives three magic dogs, which come only when he plays. Two samurai announce that the Minister of Asuka's daughters have vanished. Guided by Kage and carried by Tobe, Kaminagahiko finds the elder princess in a cave on Mount Ikoma, where Kame kills the shokushinjin. He then frees the younger sister from a cunning tsuchigumo on Mount Kasagi. The spider traps them behind a rock, but his flute spellbinds it, and Kame bites it to death. Kaminagahiko foolishly tells the two samurai his secrets, and they steal the flute and fly off with the princesses. The grateful spirits of the two mountains return his flute and give him splendid armour. At the Minister's mansion the princesses identify him by the combs they placed in his hair. The samurai confess and are chased off by the dogs, and Kaminagahiko marries one of the princesses.

About the author

Akutagawa Ryūnosuke (1892–1927) was one of the most important writers of modern Japanese short fiction. Born in Tokyo, he studied English literature at Tokyo Imperial University, and his early story 鼻 (The Nose) won praise from Natsume Sōseki. Many of his works retell older Japanese and Chinese tales with modern psychological insight, including 羅生門 (Rashōmon) and 藪の中 (In a Grove), which later inspired Kurosawa Akira's film Rashomon. He died by suicide at the age of 35. The Akutagawa Prize was named in his honour by his friend Kikuchi Kan.

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