::Momotaro:: Digital Print on Hahnemuehle Photo Rag 308 gsm (100% acid free cotton) Print Size : 250mm x 250mm Andrea Innocent (a.k.a innocentgirl), 2006
All images © Andrea Innocent 2005 - 2008 Momotaro, (often translated as Peach boy). According to the present from of this famous folk-tale Momotaro was found inside a giant peach which was floating down a river where an old woman was washing her clothes. The woman and her husband had cut open the peach to eat it when they discovered the small boy baby. The child explained to them that he had been sent to heaven to be their son. The couple named him Momotaro (momo, peach, taro, eldest son in the family). The boy grows up and is found to have exceptional strength.
The people of the village hear that the ogres of the island Onigashima have been marauding the surrounding villages, Momotaro decides to travel to the island to fight the ogres so that peace can again return to his world. His preparation for his journey includes his mothers chibi dango (small balls of mochi, a popular Japanese sweet) and these gave him added strength. On his way to the island Momotaro encountered and befriended a dog, monkey and a pheasant. These animals helped him along his journey and in defeating the demons at their fort on Onigashima. Returning home victorious with his new friends.
(In the original tale after eating a piece of the peach, the old woman is suddenly rejuvenated and regains the beauty of her youth. When her old husband comes home from the hills, he is astounded to find a dazzling young lady in his house. At first he does not even recognize his own wife in her rejuvenated form, but she explains to him how she has picked up an unusual peach floating in the river and brought it home to eat it and was magically transformed. She then gives her husband a piece of the peach to eat, and he also regains his youthful vigor. That night, the newly invigorated couple make love, and the woman becomes pregnant as a result. She eventually gives birth to their first child, a son, whom they name Momotaro. This version of the story is the oldest one that is historically documented, but it appears to have been replaced with the sexless version in school textbooks of the Meiji period, perhaps owing to a newfound sensitivity to sexual subjects that was introduced to Japan through contacts with contemporaneous European and Euro-American cultures, and the censored textbook version rapidly supplanted the traditional tale in the general Japanese social consciousness. It is notable that the peach is often seen as a symbol of sex or fertility in Japan, as its fruit is believed to resemble a woman's buttocks).