Under the Cherry Blossom Tree: An Old Japanese Tale

Under the Cherry Blossom Tree: An Old Japanese Tale [Allen Say] on Amazon. com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Spring had finally come and everyone .
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One day the landlord ge Type: One day the landlord gets tired of the fact that his tree brings joy to the people and so he decides to yank it out of his head. When he does so it leaves a larger crater in the top of his head. The rain begins to fill his crater with water and it becomes a pond and coi begin to live in this mans head. One day the kids decide to fish in his head. He wakes up and catches them. When this happens he goes to chase them, he trips over a rock and falls feet first into the pond on his head which eats him up and all that is left of the man is a pond full of coi.

This book has a very strange story line I really don't like how unrealistic it is. Do you live somewhere that has a landlord? Do your parents have to pay monthly to live in an area? Has there ever been someone that you hated so much that you wished this would happen to? I would use this to teach fairy tales from other countries. I would have the student to to see if they can come up with another fairy tale that has the same or a similar moral. Jun 16, Jennifer rated it it was ok.

We read this aloud as a family, but no one really liked it much. It could be because our children aren't familiar with Japanese folk tales, but I'm not sure. Their thoughts were that it was kind of weird. Aug 03, pati rated it really liked it Shelves: Sep 04, Caitlyn rated it it was amazing Shelves: This book is very far fetched, but hat is why I love it. This book starts out with a grumpy man who grows a cherry tree out of his head. Mar 01, Chris Lutz rated it liked it.

There once lived an old landlord in a small village in Japan. A wicked landlord takes advantage of his residents. Jami Schwarzwalder Children's Literature A Japanese landlord plagues his tenants for every penny they have. Ages 4 to 8. Publisher's Weekly "Allen Say retells a classic makura -- a short story told in Japanese joke houses to warm up the audience -- with the sharpness, vigor and timing of a stand-up comic.

I really didn't like this book all that much. I thought the story itself was a pretty good plot, but the illustrations were a bit too descriptive. Maybe the pictures took my attention away from the text. The other reviews say that it's funny, but the ending kind of lost me. I really enjoyed all the Japanese culture references it makes in the story though. I don't want to make it sound like the illustrations are bad, because in fact they are super detailed and well drawn, but they created a distraction for me and took me away from the story itself.

I believe that the setting plays a key role in this story. A lot of the references made in the story are native to the Japanese origins. It takes place in a small village in Japan, and references culture such as cherry blossoms and carp fish.

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The author is from Japan before moving to California in his teenage years so there is a lot of Japanese culture that is mentioned in this book. I think for my instructional application to this book I would like to decorate the room with a craft the kids make.


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I would like to see them research information and decorate cherry blossoms. Since there is a specific time each year that the cherry blossoms bloom, I think we could celebrate the same time to learn more about Japanese culture. Jan 09, Christy Bower rated it it was amazing Shelves: When I was a child there was one book I would check out from the library. It was mostly my name. I remember sitting at my grandparents kitchen table, reading that book and laughing every time.

What was this book? In the story, a grumpy landlord sits under a cherry tree eating cherries while he watches everyone else having fun. He swallows a cherry pit and it works its way through his body to his head. Soon, a cherry tree begins to grow out of his head. Now that alone would be enough fodder for children to work with. I warned people not to eat the pits. I daydreamed about birds nesting in the tree on his head.

I wondered about the complications of going through doorways and other daily activities with a huge tree on your head.

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The story continues to say that in a moment of frustration with some boys teasing him, the landlord pulled the tree out of his head. It left a hole that filled with water and fish came to live in it. He had to sit upright to keep his bed from getting wet. This raised all kinds of other possibilities as a child. What if he got a fever and the water boiled? How did he bend over to pick something up? The story is delightfully absurd, and the ending does not disappoint.

I probably read it hundreds of time as a child. As an adult, I long ago searched for the name and author and found the book was out of print. So I was delighted to discover the book is now available in Kindle version. When I read it again, it still delighted by childish imagination. This review first appeared on my blog, ChristyBower. Nov 06, Caroline rated it it was amazing Shelves: A old grumpy landlord is taking advantage of his residents, who are very poor, by raising their rent.

The landlord swallows a cherry pit and a tree starts to grow from his head. He pulls the tree out in anger because his resident's enjoyed it and he was a grumpy old man. Once the tree is gone, it leaves a hole. When it rains, a puddle grows on his head with fish swimming around. The residents children tried to fish from his head, which does not please him.

Under the Cherry Blossom Tree

He hates his residents for trying to take advantage of him, which is ironic because he was taking advantage of his residents from the very beginning. This was a cute book, and I loved reading it. I love the fact that it was translated from an old Japanese folktale, which gives it character and makes it unique. What could the landlord have done differently? Is there a lesson we can learn from this story? This is a great book to use to talk about different cultures, like we did in class. Using children's literature from other parts of the world is a great way to get kids interested in other cultures.

Apr 27, Josiah rated it did not like it. This certainly is a very odd story, though I did like it. A Japanese landlord who is crabby nearly beyond belief swallows a cherry pit one day; as a result, a little tree takes root in his head and the following spring, the tree begins to blossom. Tired of all the questions about the tree sprouting from his cranium I can imagine that questions of this nature would not be few and far between in such a scenario , the mean man rips it right out of his head.

This spontaneous uprooting leaves a ho This certainly is a very odd story, though I did like it. This spontaneous uprooting leaves a hole in his head that naturally collects rainwater, though, and eventually fish begin to swim in the water. The coming of the fish is the first part of the ordeal that the mean man actually likes, because now he has an ever ready source of fish for food within arm's length. When a few boys from the area begin to secretly fish in the man's head while he dozes outside, however, the dour landlord finally gets his comeuppance.

Allen Say is a good artist and storyteller.

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Under the Cherry Blossom Tree is vastly different in style from Grandfather's Journey , for which Allen Say won the Caldecott Medal, but loyal readers of his books will probably enjoy this story. Jun 18, Jo Miller added it Shelves: On old grumpy landlord is taking advantage of his residents but once the landlord swallows a cherry pit strange things started happening to him. First a tree starts to grow from his head, he pulls it out in anger as the residents were enjoying it.

Then a puddle is on the top of his head and fish are swimming around. The residents children tried to fish from his head and again he gets upset. He does not like that they were taking advantage of him, but he was taking advantage of the residents by r On old grumpy landlord is taking advantage of his residents but once the landlord swallows a cherry pit strange things started happening to him.

He does not like that they were taking advantage of him, but he was taking advantage of the residents by raising their rent every month. Sep 22, Rachel Otting added it Shelves: A rude old man who jacked up peoples rent accidentally ate a cherry pit one day. The next day a cherry blossom tree grew from his head.

He pulled the tree out and was left with a hole in his head. The hole filled dup with water and then he had fish. One boy and his friends would fish out of the old mans head when the man was sleeping. One day they got caught and when the man went to chase after the boys he fell and became a pond. Oct 07, Brittany Cullen added it Shelves: This book was really cute with great pictures. It was a funny story and had neat pictures to go with the story. A Japanese folktale brought to life by Allen Say's beautiful pen and ink drawings. The inspiration for the cranky old man is a equally real-life cranky old landlord whose Say's family lived with for several years.

Read this to pre-k to 2nd graders under the Cherry Blossoms on the National Mall while picnicking in front of the tidal basin. Perfect book for such an occasion! Great discussions with the kids too. And the simple but to the point illustrations were a plus. Jun 13, Lesley Looper rated it liked it Shelves: I enjoyed this humorous story about a grumpy landlord, and how the people of the town react to his various "conditions" including having a cherry tree grow out of his head! Mumbling and grumbling, he sat all alone eating a bowl of cherries and glaring as the villagers sang and danced in the meadow.

Then, quite by accident, he swallowed a cherry pit. The pit began to sprout.

Ancient Tales and Folk-lore of Japan: XLVIII. The 'Jirohei' Cherry Tree, Kyoto

Soon the landlord was the wonder of the village - a cherry tree was growing on top of his head! What happened to the cherry tree and to the wicked landlord is a favoritejoke in Japan. Allen Say tells the story with wit and vitality, and his beautiful drawings complement this classic Japanese tale. Allen Say was born in in Yokohama, Japan and grew up during the war, attending seven different primary schools amidst the ravages of falling bombs. His parents divorced in the wake of the end of the war and he moved in with his maternal grandmother, with whom he did not get along with.

She eventually let him move into a one room apartment, and Say began to make his dream of being a cartoonist a reality. He was twelve years old. Say sought out his favorite cartoonist, Noro Shinpei, and begged him to take him on as an apprentice. He spent four years with Shinpei, but at the age of 16 moved to the United States with his father.

Say was sent to a military school in Southern California but then expelled a year later. He struck out to see California with a suitcase and twenty dollars. He moved from job to job, city to city, school to school, painting along the way, and finally settled on advertising photography and prospered.