Japanese Culture: Nezumi no Sumo

The Sumo Wrestling Mice



Once upon a time there lived an elderly couple who were poor, but kind hearted. One day, the old man went to the mountains to gather firewood. He noticed some tiny voices coming from the other side of the bushes. “Denkasho! Denkasho!”
The old man took a peek to see what all the commotion was, and saw a skinny mouse from the old man’s home having a sumo bout with a fat mouse from a rich man’s home. The skinny mouse from the poor old man’s home kept losing over and over again. The fat mouse threw him to the ground with such force that the skinny mouse easily fell right over each time.



The old man went home and asked his old wife, “Do we have any rice in our home?” The old woman replied, “We might have a teeny bit of rice at the bottom of the rice jar.”
“In that case, let’s cook that rice, and pound it into rice cakes.” The old man continued, “Our mouse wrestles, but he keeps losing, and I can't help but feel really sorry for him. I’d like to feed him up on rice cakes to strengthen him up and help him win.” So the elderly couple cooked the rice, pounded it into rice cakes and left them outside the entrance of the mouse’s hole.



The next day, the old man went to the mountains again and peered into the bushes. Again he saw the two mice having a bout of sumo. But today the skinny mouse was holding his ground. On top of that, to the old man’s surprise, the skinny mouse won! The fat mouse asked, “Why have you grown so strong all of a sudden?” The skinny mouse replied, “The elderly couple at my house made some rice cakes for me.”
The fat mouse lamented, “You’re so lucky. There’s a lot of rice and other food at the house I live in, but I always have to eat in secret. No one ever cooks anything just for me.” The fat mouse began to weep.
The skinny mouse said, “We’re poor and don’t have much rice, but if you bring us some rice from the rich man’s house maybe the old lady would make some rice cakes for you too.”



That night, the old woman sewed two tiny red loincloths for the two mice and left them outside the mouse’s hole.



The next day, when the old man went and took a peek inside, the two mice were having a bout of sumo, wearing the teeny tiny red loincloths. This time, both the skinny mouse and the fat mouse were wrestling hard, making it a very good bout indeed.



That evening, the elderly couple found a large pile of rice outside the mouse’s hole. And ever since then, the fat mouse would bring rice, and even gold coins from the rich man’s house, in very small quantities. This gradually made life easier for the elderly couple, and the two mice continued to be good sumo wrestling buddies.
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Source: NHK World Radio Japan

http://justdubsonline.net/japanese-culture/nezumi-no-sumo

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I remember watching an interpretation of this from Ghibli and enjoyed that story quite a bit, so I kind of liked reading this version. While essentially the same thing, it offers something extra being the friendship between the two mice instead of a larger tournament.