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Cover of オツベルと象 (Otsuberu to Zō)

Upper intermediate · JLPT N2

オツベルと象Otsuberu to Zō — The White Elephant Who Wandered into Otsuberu's Threshing Shed

by Miyazawa Kenji (宮沢賢治, 1896–1933)

  • JLPT N2
  • 5,641 characters
  • 4 parts
  • about 47 minutes
  • 3 easier versions

Otsuberu and the Elephant is a short fable by Miyazawa Kenji, told aloud by an unnamed cowherd to a listener. Otsuberu is a rich man whose threshing shed roars with machines and farmhands. One day a white elephant wanders in from the forest. Otsuberu sees his chance and, with a show of friendliness, makes the trusting animal his own. The rest of the story follows how he uses that trust, and what the elephant does when he can no longer bear it. The narrator's voice sets the tone: chatty, sly and full of mock admiration for Otsuberu, so much of the humour and criticism works through irony. For learners, the text is short but lively. It is packed with Kenji's inventive sound words, casual spoken endings like ぜ, ねえ and もんだ, and three distinct speech styles: the storyteller, the gentle elephant and the rough farmhands. The sentences are mostly simple. The challenge is hearing the tone behind them: telling when the narrator is praising and when he is mocking, and noticing how the elephant's speech changes as his situation worsens.

Start reading →Try the easy N5 version

Contents

  1. A White Elephant Wanders In （第一日曜）Otsuberu, a rich man, runs a noisy threshing shed with six machines and sixteen farmhands. One day a white elephant strolls in from the forest and climbs into the shed. The workers are frightened, but Otsuberu pretends not to care, invites the elephant to stay, and so the innocent animal becomes his property.
  2. Clocks, Chains and Rising Taxes （第二日曜）Otsuberu 'gives' the white elephant a tin clock, a heavy chain, paper boots and a huge iron weight, and the elephant happily wears them all. Each day, blaming rising taxes, Otsuberu gives him harder work: hauling water, carrying firewood and blowing on the forge fire. The elephant enjoys the work, but his ration of straw keeps shrinking, and at night he murmurs to the moon and to Santa Maria.
  3. The Moon, the Letter, and the Charge （第五日曜）Otsuberu treats the elephant more and more cruelly until the elephant collapses and says goodbye to the moon. The moon tells him to write to his friends, and a child in red brings him paper and an inkstone and carries his letter to the mountains. The wild elephants storm toward Otsuberu's mansion; Otsuberu calmly barricades the shed and the gate, while his terrified farmhands tie white cloths to their arms to show they surrender.
  4. The Elephants Storm Otsuberu's Estate （第五日曜（つづき））The elephants surround Otsuberu's walled estate while he runs around in a frenzy and his farmhands are too dazed to help. When they climb over the wall, his pistol shots bounce off them, and he is crushed flat as they tumble down on top of him. The elephants break open the hut and free the white elephant, who is badly thin and gives them a sad smile of thanks.

Easier versions

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

Before you read

  • Read the narrator's praise as irony. Phrases like オツベルときたら大したもんだ sound admiring, but 〜ときたら often signals exasperation or mockery. Ask yourself whether each compliment to Otsuberu is sincere.
  • Learn the storyteller's spoken endings before you start: ぜ, ねえ, もんだ, and the command 〜たまえ (見たまえ, 'just look'). They appear throughout and mark him as someone talking directly to you.
  • Treat onomatopoeia like のんのん (the machines) and グララアガア (the elephants) as sound effects, not vocabulary. Many are Kenji's own coinages that you won't find in a dictionary, so read them aloud and move on.
  • Track the elephant's speech. He normally uses plain speech with ぼく, then shifts to polite です/ます when he is suffering. That shift tells you how he feels. Otsuberu's suggestions in 〜たらどうだい form are orders disguised as friendly offers.
  • Expect slurred, rough speech from the farmhands, such as 押し寄せやした for 押し寄せました. Mentally convert these forms back to standard polite Japanese rather than memorizing them.

Words to know

The most useful words from the notes across the story.

WordMeaningJLPT
百姓ひゃくしょうfarmer, farmhandWith どもが it sounds rough and looks down on them; the word itself can be felt as rude today.—
けいざいけいざいeconomical, cheap to rundictionary form: 経済This is an older usage meaning 'thrifty'; today one says 経済的.N4
瘠せてやせるto become thindictionary form: 瘠せるThe usual modern kanji is 痩せる.N4
覚悟かくごresolve, readiness覚悟をきめる = to make up one's mind to face something.N3
財産ざいさんproperty, fortune, assetsN3
大したたいしたremarkable, quite something大したもんだ is the narrator's ironic refrain; used here as mock praise.N3
稼ぐかせぐto work hard and earn; to toilIt usually means 'earn money', but here it means doing productive work.N3
税金ぜいきんtaxesOtsuberu uses taxes as his excuse for every new task.N3
塀へいwall, fence (around a property)A boundary wall, not the wall of a room (壁 かべ).N3
文句もんくwords, phraseHere it means a phrase someone said. It also commonly means 'complaint' (文句を言う).N3
鎖くさりchainN3
呑気のんきcarefree, easygoing, unconcernedN2
汲んでくむto draw or fetch (water)dictionary form: 汲むN2
据えつけてすえつけるto install, to set up (machinery)dictionary form: 据えつけるN1
頑丈がんじょうsturdy, solidly builtN1

Plot summary

Show the full summary (contains spoilers)

A white elephant strolls into rich Otsuberu's threshing shed, and Otsuberu coaxes him into staying. He then 'gives' the elephant a tin clock, a chain, paper boots and a heavy iron weight. Blaming taxes, he sets harder and harder work each day, from hauling water and firewood to blowing the forge fire, while cutting the elephant's straw ration. The cheerful elephant slowly weakens and one night says goodbye to the moon. The moon tells him to write to his friends. A child in red brings him paper and ink and carries the letter to the mountains. The wild elephants charge down. Otsuberu barricades his estate while his farmhands give up. The elephants climb the wall, shrug off his pistol shots and crush him as they tumble over. They free the white elephant, now terribly thin, who thanks them with a sad smile.

About the author

Miyazawa Kenji was a poet and writer of children's stories from Hanamaki in Iwate Prefecture. He studied agricultural science in Morioka and later taught at an agricultural school. He devoted much of his life to helping local farmers improve their methods and their cultural lives. He was a devout Buddhist, and his faith, love of nature and interest in science run through his writing. His fame came after his death, with works such as 銀河鉄道の夜, 風の又三郎 and the poem 雨ニモマケズ.

More stories by Miyazawa Kenji →