The Story of a Child with an Incredibly Long Name - 悠久城風の間　blog語り部のささやき

Do you think long hair on women is nice? I have always wanted beautiful long hair. Long hair swaying in the wind is beautiful. But when working, long hair can be a hindrance. In any case, hair should be pretty. Just being long is not enough. I think it might be the same for life.

People who read “An Incredibly Long Name” from Niigata’s Folk Tales Vol. 2 shared their comments.

One of them stated, “It’s the wish of all parents that their newborn child lives a long and happy life.”

Another commented, “You’ll surely feel this way more if you’ve finally been blessed with a child.”

One more said, “But I think it’s inconvenient to give children such a long name in the hopes of them living a long life. It’s also a problem if it takes too long to call the child. I heard that the child fell into a well and it took too long to rescue the child. What did the child with the long name think?”

Then, I interviewed the child with a long name. Here is his story.

My name is long. Some people call me the child with a long name, the child with a long, long name, or the child with a long, long, looooong name. It seems difficult to call me by my long name.

When I was born, my mom and dad wanted me to live a long life, so they felt that an ordinary name was not good enough. They went to a priest and asked his advice for a long and fabulous name.

Thus, I was named:

Choni Choni no Chōzaburō

Tsukushi no Onbō Sharinbō

Tōri no Kōbe wa Tate-eboshi

Wanbitsu Gatagata Gatazaemon

Dondorabyōshi no Dontarō

Chawan no Shiri ni Ito Tsukete

Kiriritto Mōta Man no Jō

My mom and dad loved me and always called me by this long name. When they did so, I stretched, became sleepy, and fell fast asleep. Every time I heard them call out my long name, my body grew longer. That’s how I grew up.

When I was playing with my friends outside, they called me:

Choni Choni no Chōzaburō

Tsukushi no Onbō Sharinbō

Tōri no Kōbe wa Tate-eboshi

Wanbitsu Gatagata Gatazaemon

Dondorabyōshi no Dontarō

Chawan no Shiri ni Ito Tsukete

Kiriritto Mōta Man no Jō

When they were halfway through saying my name, I stretched and then fell fast asleep. When I woke up, all my friends were gone. That’s when I started playing with worms and centipedes crawling on the ground. I think I love long-bodied creatures because I have such a long name.

One day, my friends and I were all playing Hide-and-Seek.

Here we go, I’ll hide and not fall asleep, I thought to myself.

Ah, that’s a good spot. They won’t find me behind that well. I squatted down behind the well.

“Are you all ready?”

“Okay!”

I wondered to myself, is the seeker coming? Is the seeker coming? Hmm.

The seeker didn’t come along, but a centipede did. Where is the centipede heading? I was watching the centipede. It walked busily along the edge of the well. Oops, where has it gone? It disappeared! Where, where?

Aaaaaaahhh… Whoa!

As I was chasing the centipede, I fell into the well.

Oh, oh, oh… Ouch. Waah, waah. It’s pitch-black. I’m scared!

I think this is the bottom of the well.

It was kind of slimy at the bottom of the well. Suddenly, I heard a voice.

“Who are you? You fell on my back. It’s me who is hurt.”

My goodness! It’s a snake.

“You must be the child with the long name. Did you come here to play?”

“No, it’s not true. It’s not true. I want to go home. I just want to go home.”

“If you want to go home, why don’t you just go home?”

Saying so, the snake started smoothly climbing the wall of the well.

“Wait for me! I want to go home, too! Please don’t leave me alone here! Take me with you!”

The snake turned around and said, “I can’t climb the wall with you on my back.”

“I don’t like it here. Please don’t leave me alone here in an awful place like this. Help me!”

I cried hard and begged the snake to take me with him.

Then, the snake said, “All right. Eat these Indian strawberries. If you eat them, you can transform yourself into a snake and you can climb the wall. Here you are.”

The snake threw some berries into my mouth.

“Munch, munch. They’re good.”

Then, I began to feel my body squirming. I waited patiently to transform into a snake…

My body had become much more like a snake. I wondered if I could climb the wall.

I tried to climb up, but I fell off the wall with a thud.

“I can’t climb the wall!”

The snake showed me how to move, saying, “You have to move your back like this, stretching it and contracting it.”

I got it. I’ll be able to do it now…

Thud! I fell off the wall again.

I think it’s because my body is not as long as that of the snake. I cried again.

Then I heard a voice saying my name in the distance.

Choni Choni no Chōzaburō

Tsukushi no Onbō Sharinbō

My friends must be looking for me.

Tōri no Kōbe wa Tate-eboshi

Wanbitsu Gatagata Gatazaemon

My friends kept calling out my name many times.

Dondorabyōshi no Dontarō

Chawan no Shiri ni Ito Tsukete

Kiriritto Mōta Man no Jō

I was glad to have my name said. As I listened to my name being said, my body gradually got longer and longer. Finally, my body became as long as the snake.

Well, I can climb the wall now. Following the snake, I could climb the wall easily.

I made it! I was able to get out of the well.

Snake, thank you.

My friends seemed to have gone to let others know that I had fallen into the well. I was able to get out of the well by myself, though. I was excited to return home.

When I reached the front of my house, I was ready to say, “Mom, I’m home now!” That’s when I realized that I was still a snake. I wondered how I could take off this snake’s body. I wanted to ask the snake, but he wasn’t around any longer. I was in trouble. I didn’t know what to do.

When I curled up on the dirt floor of my house, I heard a voice calling me.

Choni Choni no Chōzaburō

Tsukushi no Onbō Sharinbō

Tōri no Kōbe wa Tate-eboshi

Wanbitsu Gatagata Gatazaemon

Dondorabyōshi no Dontarō

Chawan no Shiri ni Ito Tsukete

Kiriritto Mōta Man no Jō

I felt sleepy as I listened to my name being said.

I woke up and found myself in my mom’s arms.

“Oh no! My child, why are you sleeping on the dirt?”

I looked at my body. I was not a snake any longer!