In our latest exploration of “The stories behind the art”, we tell an abridged version of the Tale of the Tongue Cut Sparrow.

A popular Japanese story of kindness, humility, jealousy, rage, betrayal and, ultimately…Karma. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do. (As always, you can click on any of the images for a closer look at the piece in question.)

There was once an honest, hard-working woodcutter who one day whilst out working, found an injured sparrow. The kind-hearted man took the sparrow home to care for it. One day, the woodcutter went out to work and asked his wife to feed the bird while he was away.

Unfortunately, his wife wasn’t as honest and generous as the wood-cutter and she did not take care of the injured Sparrow. Out of hunger and desperation, the starving Sparrow ate from the rice store and then., later when the wife found out, she flew into a rage, cut out the birds tongue and banished it back to the mountains where it came from.

Later that day, the woodcutter returned and was saddened to hear what had happened. He set off to find his friend and ask for forgiveness and after a long journey, he met a group of sparrows who led him to his feathered companion. They sang and danced for the wood cutter and offered him a choice of two baskets as a reward for his kindness.

As a humble man, he chose the smaller of the two and when he returned home, he opened it to discover it was full of treasure.

When his greedy and jealous wife learned of the existence of the other, larger basket she set off to claim it for herself. She stole the basket and impatiently opened it before she returned home to find it was full of venomous snakes. It scared her so much she fell down the mountain to her death.

We hope you enjoyed this short-read article. You can explore over 100 stories inspired by our collection of Chinese and Japanese Fine Art and Antiques by clicking here.