batch.motif.japanese-fairy-tales-ozaki-gutenberg-l3389-l3500
---
record_id: batch.motif.japanese-fairy-tales-ozaki-gutenberg-l3389-l3500
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/japanese/project-gutenberg/japanese-fairy-tales-ozaki.md
passage_locator:
label: THE FARMER AND THE BADGER / THE ADVENTURES OF KINTARO, THE GOLDEN BOY / THE
STORY OF THE MAN WHO DID NOT WISH TO DIE / THE BAMBOO-CUTTER AND THE MOON-CHILD;
lines 3389-3500
start: '3389'
end: '3500'
translation: Japanese Fairy Tales
notes: Generated from OpenAI Batch run motif-extraction-2026-04-28-high-priority;
human review required.
canonical_text:
quote: ''
summary: A stepmother, resentful of her husband’s affection for his daughter, schemes
to drive the girl from the house. After secretly observing the girl in her room,
she falsely tells her husband that the daughter is using an image and curses to
kill her by magic. The father doubts the charge but investigates because the girl
has been secluded. The girl, grieving for her dead mother and comforted by looking
into a mirror she associates with her mother’s face, is found by her father and
hides the mirror. Misreading her confusion, he angrily accuses her of cursing
her stepmother. The girl does not understand the superstition and prepares to
explain herself.
language: English
quote_policy: summarized
literal_observations:
- id: obs:1
text: The stepmother complains to the father about the daughter, but the father
does not reduce his affection for the child.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: obs:2
text: The stepmother plans to drive the stepchild out of the house.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: obs:3
text: The stepmother watches the girl and later claims she is in danger of losing
her life if she remains in the house.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: obs:4
text: The stepmother accuses the girl of making an image of her and cursing it daily
in order to kill her by magic.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: obs:5
text: The father knows of a popular belief that a person can cause another’s gradual
death by making and cursing an image of that person.
category: other
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: obs:6
text: The father doubts that his gentle daughter would do such an act, but he also
notes her recent habit of staying in her room.
category: attribute
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: obs:7
text: The girl has been unhappy because the stepmother mistrusts and misinterprets
her actions.
category: attribute
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: obs:8
text: Morning and evening, the girl goes to her room, closes the screens, takes
out a mirror, and gazes at it as if seeing her mother’s face.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: obs:9
text: When the father enters, the girl hides the mirror in her long sleeve because
she has kept her mother’s last promise secret.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: obs:10
text: The father interprets the girl’s confusion and hidden object as possible evidence
of guilt and accuses her of cursing her stepmother.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- id: obs:11
text: The girl has never heard of the superstition concerning prayer over an image
causing a hated person’s death.
category: attribute
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
figures:
- id: fig:1
name_or_label: stepmother
description: The father’s new wife, who complains about the daughter, resents the
father’s concern for her, and accuses her of deadly magic.
role_refs:
- role:1
- role:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- ev:3
- id: fig:2
name_or_label: father
description: The girl’s father, who loves his daughter, hears the stepmother’s accusation,
investigates, and confronts the girl.
role_refs:
- role:3
- role:4
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:4
- ev:6
- ev:7
- id: fig:3
name_or_label: daughter / stepdaughter
description: A young girl grieving for her dead mother, mistrusted by her stepmother,
and found gazing at a hidden mirror.
role_refs:
- role:5
- role:6
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- ev:6
- ev:8
- id: fig:4
name_or_label: dead mother
description: The girl’s deceased mother, whose face the girl believes she sees in
the mirror and whose last promise remains the girl’s secret.
role_refs:
- role:7
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- ev:6
roles:
- id: role:1
label: jealous step-parent
assigned_to:
- fig:1
basis: She resents the father’s renewed concern for his daughter and seeks to drive
the child out.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: role:2
label: false accuser
assigned_to:
- fig:1
basis: She tells the father that the girl is using image magic to kill her, though
the surrounding narration frames her as scheming against the child.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:3
- id: role:3
label: concerned parent
assigned_to:
- fig:2
basis: He remains affectionate toward his daughter and is distressed by the accusation.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:4
- ev:7
- id: role:4
label: misled judge within household
assigned_to:
- fig:2
basis: He investigates the accusation and misreads the girl’s hidden mirror and
confusion as possible guilt.
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- ev:7
- id: role:5
label: wrongly suspected child
assigned_to:
- fig:3
basis: She is accused of cursing her stepmother, though she does not know the superstition
and is actually grieving over her mother.
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- ev:7
- ev:8
- id: role:6
label: grieving daughter
assigned_to:
- fig:3
basis: She remembers her dead mother, weeps morning and evening, and finds comfort
in the mirror.
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: role:7
label: remembered mother
assigned_to:
- fig:4
basis: Her memory is associated with the mirror and with a last promise kept secret
by the daughter.
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- ev:6
symbols:
- id: sym:1
label: mirror as maternal remembrance
literal_form: mirror
associated_figures:
- fig:3
- fig:4
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- ev:6
- id: sym:2
label: image used for alleged curse
literal_form: image of the stepmother
associated_figures:
- fig:1
- fig:3
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- ev:4
- id: sym:3
label: closed room and screens
literal_form: girl’s room with screens/fusama shut or pushed aside
associated_figures:
- fig:2
- fig:3
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- ev:6
scenes:
- id: scene:1
label: Stepmother forms a plan against the daughter
summary: The stepmother sees that the father’s concern for the daughter has increased
and begins planning to drive the girl from the house.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:2
- fig:3
symbol_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: scene:2
label: Accusation of image magic
summary: After watching the girl, the stepmother tells her husband that the daughter
has made an image of her and is cursing it daily to cause her death.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:2
- fig:3
symbol_refs:
- sym:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:3
- id: scene:3
label: Father weighs superstition and doubt
summary: The father knows the popular belief in death caused by cursing an image,
doubts his daughter’s guilt, but decides to investigate because she has been secluded.
figure_refs:
- fig:2
- fig:3
symbol_refs:
- sym:2
- sym:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: scene:4
label: Daughter grieves before the mirror
summary: The daughter, unhappy under her stepmother’s mistrust, withdraws to her
room morning and evening and gazes into a mirror as if seeing her mother’s face.
figure_refs:
- fig:3
- fig:4
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
- sym:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: scene:5
label: Father discovers and misreads the hidden mirror
summary: The father enters the girl’s room, sees her bend over something, and after
she hides the mirror in her sleeve, accuses her of cursing her stepmother.
figure_refs:
- fig:2
- fig:3
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
- sym:2
- sym:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- ev:7
- ev:8
candidate_motifs:
- id: motif:1
label: jealous stepmother falsely accuses innocent stepchild
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: The stepmother resents the father’s affection for the girl, seeks to drive
her out, and accuses her of harmful magic.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:3
confidence: high
cautions: The passage gives only this segment of the plot; later resolution is outside
the supplied range.
- id: motif:2
label: sympathetic image magic accusation
taxonomy_refs:
- forbidden_knowledge
basis: The accusation depends on a belief that a made image can be cursed to bring
about a person’s gradual death.
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- ev:4
confidence: medium
cautions: The girl is not shown actually practicing magic; the motif appears here
as accusation and superstition, not as performed action.
- id: motif:3
label: hidden token of the dead mother misunderstood as evidence of wrongdoing
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: The girl secretly looks at a mirror associated with her mother’s face, hides
it when her father enters, and is then suspected of a curse.
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- ev:6
- ev:7
confidence: high
cautions: The object’s full prior history and later explanation are not included
in this passage.
- id: motif:4
label: withdrawal to private room creates suspicion
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: The girl’s seclusion in her room is used by the stepmother and father as
circumstantial support for the accusation.
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- ev:5
- ev:6
confidence: medium
cautions: This is a local narrative pattern rather than a taxonomy-linked motif
in the supplied list.
comparison_claims:
- id: claim:1
claim: The passage explicitly invokes a broader popular-superstition pattern in
which an image of a person is cursed to cause that person’s death.
claim_level: same_function
target: sympathetic image magic / harmful image curse pattern
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- ev:4
counter_evidence_refs:
- ev:8
confidence: medium
limitations: The passage presents the practice as a belief and an accusation; it
does not show the daughter actually performing the magic.
evidence:
- id: ev:1
type: summary
locator: 3389-3397
quote_or_summary: The stepmother’s complaints do not lessen the father’s affection
for his daughter; instead she begins thinking how to drive the stepchild from
the house.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/japanese/project-gutenberg/japanese-fairy-tales-ozaki.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:2
type: summary
locator: 3398-3415
quote_or_summary: The stepmother watches the girl, claims to have discovered a grave
sin, and tells her husband she must leave because her life is in danger.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/japanese/project-gutenberg/japanese-fairy-tales-ozaki.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:3
type: quote
locator: 3416-3424
quote_or_summary: The stepmother says the daughter has made an image of her and
is trying to kill her by magic art, cursing her daily.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/japanese/project-gutenberg/japanese-fairy-tales-ozaki.md
rights_note: Public domain source; short excerpt paraphrased/condensed.
- id: ev:4
type: summary
locator: 3425-3435
quote_or_summary: The father knows a popular superstition that one person can cause
another’s gradual death by making an image of the hated person and cursing it
daily, but he doubts his daughter has such knowledge.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/japanese/project-gutenberg/japanese-fairy-tales-ozaki.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:5
type: summary
locator: 3436-3453
quote_or_summary: The girl is unhappy because of the stepmother’s mistrust; remembering
her dead mother, she goes to her room morning and evening, closes the screens,
takes out a mirror, and gazes at it as her mother’s face.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/japanese/project-gutenberg/japanese-fairy-tales-ozaki.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:6
type: summary
locator: 3454-3464
quote_or_summary: The father enters through the fusama, sees the girl bending over
something, and she hides the mirror in her sleeve because she has kept her mother’s
last promise secret.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/japanese/project-gutenberg/japanese-fairy-tales-ozaki.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:7
type: summary
locator: 3465-3483
quote_or_summary: The father asks what she has hidden, sees her fear and silence,
and angrily asks whether she is cursing her stepmother and praying for her death.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/japanese/project-gutenberg/japanese-fairy-tales-ozaki.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:8
type: summary
locator: 3484-3500
quote_or_summary: The girl does not know what her father means and has never heard
of the superstition that prayer over an image can cause a hated person’s death;
she wants to clear herself.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/japanese/project-gutenberg/japanese-fairy-tales-ozaki.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
confidence:
extraction: high
motif_candidates: medium
comparison_claims: medium
notes: The passage clearly supports the household conflict, false accusation, mirror,
and image-magic superstition. Motif labels are candidate descriptions; only the
image-magic motif is cautiously linked to an available taxonomy family, and the
comparison claim is limited to the superstition explicitly named in the passage.
reviewer_status:
status: needs_review
reviewer: ''
reviewed_at: ''
notes: Machine-generated draft from OpenAI Batch; not human-reviewed.
extracted_by: openai_batch:gpt-5.5
extracted_at: '2026-04-28'
notes: |-
Used only the supplied passage text and metadata. No external tale context added.
batch_run_id=motif-extraction-2026-04-28-high-priority
custom_id=motif_extract:japanese-fairy-tales-ozaki-gutenberg__l3389-l3500
passage_sha256=4907cde5abfdd2bb0ee6a1bd045040783c7b0524acaae10d6fe564d73b51d83f