All Stories

Kyoto, a thousand years ago. Famine and fire have emptied the capital, and a servant who has just lost his job shelters from the rain beneath a crumbling city gate. Starve, or become a thief? As he climbs the stairs into the dark tower above, he finds someone already there. The story that gave the world the word "Rashomon."

Two young gentlemen from Tokyo come to the mountains to hunt, but they get lost, and they are very hungry. Then, deep in the woods, they find a fine Western restaurant. At the door, a polite sign invites them in. At the next door, another sign makes a small request. And then another. A playful, eerie fairy tale that Japanese children never forget.

One morning, the Buddha walks beside a lotus pond in paradise. Far below, in the depths of hell, he sees Kandata, a murderer and thief who once did a single good deed: he chose not to crush a small spider. So the Buddha lowers a thin silver thread of spider silk into the darkness. A short, perfect fable about the one chance we are given.