Member-only story
The Ambitious Stone Sculptor
A Japanese tale of arrogance and vanity
Original Japanese tale published in French by Philippe and Ré Soupault in the 1997 book Histoires merveilleuses des cinq continents, Tome 2. Translated by Joseph Mavericks.
Hundreds of years ago, there was a stone sculptor who lived in Japan. Everyday, he would walk from his small hut in the forest to the bottom of a huge mountain, and start hammering the rocks to carve and turn them into gravestones and house walls. The sculptor knew all the different kinds of stones that existed, what to use them for, and how to to take care of them. He was an excellent craftsman and had a lot of regular customers. Business was good, he was living a happy life, and for a very long time he didn’t wish for anything more than what life had already given him.
One day, the stone sculptor had to deliver a gravestone to a very rich customer. When he got to the place, he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. The place was magnificent, unlike anything he had ever seen before. The furniture, the rooms, the gold… Everything about the place was grandiose. When he got back to his place that night, he couldn’t fall asleep. He kept thinking of all the amazing things he had seen at his customer’s house. The next morning and for the rest of the days, his job became painful, exhausting, his life dull and unhappy.
