Nezumi no Yomeiri

In this widely transmitted Japanese folktale, mouse parents set out to find the most powerful husband for their daughter and approach the sun. The sun replies that the cloud which covers him is greater; the cloud, that the wind which scatters him is greater; the wind, that the wall which blocks him is greater; the wall, that the mouse which gnaws through him is greater. The parents conclude that their own kind is in fact the most powerful, and the daughter is married to a young mouse. A separate Muromachi-period text, Nezumi no Soshi, tells of a mouse named Gonnokami who, having prayed at Kiyomizu-dera, marries a human woman; when his identity is revealed he leaves to become a monk.

The folktale form follows a chain-of-power pattern, while the Muromachi otogi-zoshi form follows a marriage-and-renunciation pattern. Folklore scholarship classifies the former as AT 2031C.

The folktale is distributed across the whole of Japan. The Tokyo Metropolitan Library holds Iwaya Sazanami's "Japanese Children's Tales" (1896), and the Tokyo National Museum preserves an Edo-period emaki of the Muromachi-period "Nezumi no Soshi."

Iwaya Sazanami, Nihon Mukashi-banashi, Book 24 "The Mouse's Wedding" (Hakubunkan, 1896). The Muromachi-period otogi-zoshi "Nezumi no Soshi." Inada Koji's Japanese folktale type index classifies this as AT 2031C.