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Cover of おじいさんのランプ (Ojiisan no Ranpu)

Upper intermediate · JLPT N2

おじいさんのランプOjiisan no Ranpu — The Lamp in Grandfather's Storehouse

by Niimi Nankichi (新美南吉, 1913–1943)

  • JLPT N2
  • 11,843 characters
  • 9 parts
  • about 99 minutes
  • 3 easier versions

This is a story within a story. On a spring day, a boy named Tōichi finds a strange old lamp in the family storehouse while playing hide-and-seek. His grandfather is gruff at first, then softens and begins to tell the story behind it. The tale goes back to the late Meiji era, to an orphan boy in a dark village on the Chita Peninsula. There he first sees the bright glass lamps of a seaside town and decides his future lies in bringing that light home. The story follows his rise as a lamp seller and what happens when electricity arrives. It is warm and gently humorous, and it turns serious when a person has to face change. The narrator often speaks directly to the reader, like someone telling a story aloud. For learners, the narration is mostly clear plain-form Japanese. The challenges are the rustic village dialogue, some Meiji-era vocabulary such as 文明開化, and a few long, looping sentences. At about 11,800 characters in nine parts, it is a manageable first long read at around N2.

Start reading →Try the easy N5 version

Contents

  1. An Odd Lamp from the StorehouseDuring a game of hide-and-seek, Tōichi finds a strange bamboo-stand lamp in the family storehouse, and his grandfather scolds the children and sends them outside. That evening Tōichi secretly fiddles with the lamp and is caught again. This time his grandfather does not scold him but says the lamp brings back fond memories of long ago.
  2. Minosuke, the Orphan Who Wanted MoreDelighted to see an old lamp again, Tōichi's grandfather begins a story set around the Russo-Japanese War. Minosuke, a thirteen-year-old orphan in Yanabe Shinden, earns his keep doing odd jobs for the villagers but longs to make something of himself. One summer afternoon he is asked to pull the lead rope of a rickshaw to Ōno, and the town's rows of big shops amaze him, since his village has only one.
  3. Ōno by Lamplight, and a Bold RequestIn Ōno, Minosuke is dazzled by the bright glass lamps in the shops, which are so unlike the dark houses and dim andon lanterns of his own village. He wanders the town spellbound and feels he finally understands what 'civilisation and enlightenment' means. Clutching his fifteen sen, he walks into a lamp shop and boldly asks to buy a large hanging lamp at the wholesale price, astonishing the shopkeeper.
  4. Minosuke Becomes a Lamp SellerMinosuke persuades the lamp shop owner in Ōno to sell him a lamp at the wholesale price, and he carries it home through the dark pass, full of hope. At first no one in the village trusts the new invention, so he lends the lamp for free to the old woman who keeps the village's only shop. Delighted with how bright and useful it is, she buys it, orders from other villagers soon follow, and Minosuke happily devotes himself to selling lamps across the villages.
  5. Learning to Read, and Strange PolesMinosuke grows up, builds his own house and marries. When he finds he can see a newspaper by lamplight but cannot read it, he learns to read from the village head. One day in Ōno he sees workmen putting up strange tall poles with white porcelain fittings. He is told electricity is coming to replace lamps, but does not understand it. A month later black wires run from pole to pole and into the houses.
  6. Electric Light Comes to ŌnoIn Ōno, Minosuke sneers at the new electric wires and at the strange electric light hanging in an acquaintance's sweet-sake shop, and he takes the lamp's side. When night falls and the houses and shops blaze with electric light, he stares at it bitterly and realises that the lamp has a formidable enemy. He begins to fear that electricity will reach his own village, but he comforts himself that the wary villagers will be slow to accept it.
  7. Minosuke's Midnight Revenge PlanA rumour that the village will vote on electric lighting horrifies Minosuke. He argues against it with absurd claims, but the council decides to bring in electricity anyway. Consumed by resentment, he blames the village head who chaired the meeting and creeps to his house one spring night to set fire to it. His old-fashioned flint and steel fail to light, and as he curses it for being useless, his own words stop him short.
  8. A Farewell to the Lamps by Handa PondMinosuke suddenly sees that lamps have had their day and that his resentful plan to set fire to an innocent man's house was shameful. He fills all his fifty-odd lamps with oil, carries them to lonely Handa Pond, and hangs them lit in the trees along the bank. After gazing at them for a long while, he begins throwing stones at them, starting with the biggest, declaring that their time is over.
  9. The Last Lamps and a Grandfather's LessonMinosuke smashes his lamps one by one until tears stop him, then gives up the lamp trade and becomes a bookseller in town. Back in the present, it is revealed that Minosuke is Tōichi's grandfather. He admits that destroying the lamps was rash, but says he is proud of how he let his old trade go when Japan moved forward. Tōichi looks at him with new respect.

Easier versions

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

Before you read

  • Keep track of the two time layers. Part 1 and the end of Part 9 take place in the present, with the grandfather speaking brusquely to Tōichi. Parts 2–9 are his memories, told in plain-form (だ/である) narration, and the narrator sometimes addresses the reader directly.
  • Expect Owari/Chita dialect in the village dialogue. だげな marks hearsay ('they say that…'), だのイ is a friendly sentence-ending tag, ええ means いい, and characters use おれ and わし for 'I'. Mentally convert these to standard forms and the sentences become simple.
  • Learn the core vocabulary of the story's theme before you start: ランプ, 電気, 行灯 (andon lantern), 文明開化 ('civilisation and enlightenment'), 身を立てる ('make something of oneself') and 人力車 (rickshaw). They carry the story's central conflict between old and new light.
  • Watch for the recurring grammar points: 〜かも知れない, 〜かと思ったら, 〜ほどだ, 〜させておく, stem + はしない, 〜たり〜たり, 〜ものだ (spoken as もんだ), 〜とて, 〜ねばならない and たとい〜としても. The last three have a slightly old-fashioned tone and appear at the story's moments of resolve.
  • In Parts 7–8, read Minosuke's words to his flint and steel slowly. The whole turn of the story rests on him hearing his own complaint and applying it to the lamps.

Words to know

The most useful words from the notes across the story.

WordMeaningJLPT
文明開化ぶんめいかいか'civilisation and enlightenment': the Meiji-era slogan for WesternisationA key historical term for the modernisation of Japan after 1868.—
負けまけるto give a discount, knock down the pricedictionary form: 負けるBesides 'to lose'; 負からん (sentence 28) is the dialect negative of intransitive 負かる, 'the price won't come down'.N4
きっかけきっかけopportunity, starting pointN2
番頭ばんとうhead clerk (of a shop)Old-fashioned term for the senior employee who ran a merchant's shop.—
身を立てねばみをたてるto make one's way in the world, establish oneselfdictionary form: 身を立てるA Meiji-era ideal of self-advancement through effort.—
卸値おろしねwholesale priceContrast 小売値 (こうりね), the retail price.—
まじまじとまじまじと(to stare) hard, intently, with wide-open eyes (often in surprise)—
利器りきuseful device, convenient toolLiterary; mostly in 文明の利器 'the conveniences of civilisation'.—
すっぱりすっぱりcleanly; decisively; once and for allUsed for cutting ties or giving something up without hesitation.—
時世じせいthe times; an eraSomewhat formal or old-fashioned.—
ひらけたひらけるto become developed or modern (of the world or a place)dictionary form: 開けるIntransitive verb, often written 開ける.N5
支度したくpreparationsN4
電燈でんとうelectric lightOlder spelling of 電灯. 電燈がひける means electric lines are brought in.N4
えんりょえんりょreserve, holding backdictionary form: 遠慮えんりょなしに means frankly, without holding back.N4
真剣しんけんserious, earnestLiterally 'a real sword', as opposed to a wooden practice one.N3

Plot summary

Show the full summary (contains spoilers)

Tōichi finds an old lamp in the storehouse, and his grandfather tells its story. Around the Russo-Japanese War, Minosuke, an orphan in Yanabe Shinden, is dazzled by the glass lamps of Ōno and persuades a shopkeeper to sell him one at the wholesale price. He lends it free to the village shop, which wins him customers. He becomes a lamp seller, marries and learns to read. Then electricity reaches Ōno. When the village council decides to adopt it, Minosuke resentfully tries to burn down the village head's house. His flint and steel won't light, and as he curses the useless tool, his own words stop him. He sees that the lamp's day is over and is ashamed of targeting an innocent man. At Handa Pond he hangs his lamps, lit, in the trees and smashes them with stones until tears stop him. He then becomes a bookseller. The grandfather reveals that he was Minosuke, and Tōichi looks at him with new respect.

About the author

Niimi Nankichi was a Japanese writer of children's stories, poems and songs from Handa in Aichi Prefecture. The countryside of that area is widely thought to lie behind the village and hills of Gongitsune. He began writing as a young man. Gongitsune appeared in the children's magazine Akai Tori (The Red Bird), edited by Suzuki Miekichi. Niimi later worked as a teacher at a girls' school while continuing to write. His health was poor, and he died of tuberculosis while still in his twenties. Many of his works were published and became widely known only after his death. Besides Gongitsune, he is especially remembered for Tebukuro wo Kai ni (Buying Mittens).

More stories by Niimi Nankichi →