The Jellyfish And The Monkey Page 1

It's time for me to do a non-Robertson story and this one has been sitting on the backburner for a while now. As the credits tell you, "The Jellyfish & The Monkey" is adapted from an Eastern fairy tale. I came across it in an omnibus of Japanese folklore translated by Yei Theodora Ozaki.

Ozaki's translations were significantly altered for Western consumption, but they were popular and they're likely the first encounter any English or American audience had with the stories. From what I could figure out on my own, Ozaki added the wife of Rin-Jin to this story; most of the other versions I've encountered find Rin-Jin suffering from a rash. The fish doctor and the vivid description of Rin-Jin's opulent palace is also her invention.

Also, a more accurate translation of Rin-Jin's name is Ryūjin. 

I decided to overlook the inaccuracies of the Ozaki translation since I found her version to be the most charming and likable incarnation of the story. It also gave me an opportunity to draw a catfish in a white coat; the benefits of this are many.

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