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Japanese fairy tales Jiraiya the Bandit King Jiraiya was the son of a Daimyo in eastern Japan. Though is father was the prince of a great province he still had to wage a bitter war against a neighboring Daimyo which eventually defeated his father in battle and slew all his warrior or forced them to flee. With his heritage destroyed Jiraiya was forced to flee as a refugee. Deeply angered at this he fled further and further into the dark gloomy forests. He did not know what he should do, for he could not bring himself to go into the service of another prince as he was a prince by birth himself. But since he was now nothing in the world having lost everything he had to find some way to earn a living. Since he was a fearless and strong warrior he decided that he would feed himself through highway robbery. So he began to work in the Etschigo Mountains and soon became one fo the most feared predators there was. The mountains were full of other bandits but they knew that Jiraiya was indisputably the most daring and boldest of them all so they came to ask him to be their leader. Jiraiya agreed and soon became a bandit king without peer. After some time however he was not happy with his fate but lived with the hope that he would in time gain enough money to raise an army against his powerful enemy; the daimyo who had murdered his father. Now their lived in the same mountains in a deep cave a hermit by the name of Senso Dojin who had been a friend of Jiraiya father and so he held a certain affection for his friends son. The hermit was a notable sorcerer and possessed a very important and powerful spell. With the help of this spell Senso Dojin could turn himself and others into giant frogs which could travel undetected with ease and swim through any water. The hermit was proud of his knowledge of this strange spell but he was afraid. For their was in the same mountains an evil serpent called Orotschi who also possessed great magical power and had the ability to destroy Senso Jojin’s frog spell. She hated the Hermit and sought always to find and kill him. In order to seek him out she took on human form and prowled around his cave and so the hermit lived in constant fear such that he rarely ventured froth from his cave. Eventually it occurred to him however that Jiraiya could help him just as he could help Jiraiya. “You can benefit from my frog spell, which you can use to kill your powerful mortal enemy and I can benefit from the might of your sword to help me slay my powerful enemy with the aid of human power and weapons,” Senso Jojin told Jiraiya. Jiraiya liked the plan and so without delay Senso Jojin shared with him the frog spell. After this Jiraiya steeled his courage as he went after the serpent. The Orotschi had no idea the danger which threatened it and so was slain swiftly by the hand of the hero Jiraiya with an arrow. The Hermit Senso Dojin was then freed from all danger but Jiraiya had now placed himself in danger for the other serpents could not forgive the death of such a great enchantress and began to plan their revenge against Jiraiya. They were not however ready to go to open war against him but instead prepared a drink of snake’s venom which they snuck into his cup one day. Unaware of what had been planned Jiraiya drank and was so sick he nearly died almost immediately and indeed he would have died had he not received the help of miraculous magic. For nearby their lived a maiden named Tsunade who had heard much about Jiraiya for the people honored him as a brave man. The girl had learned from an old man who was a friend of her father a healing worm spell which protects against the magic and venom of snakes. Because of her power the maiden was very popular and had become famous far and wide such that people were brought to her whenever someone had been bitten by a snake. So she had already saved many people from death and the hands of evil serpents. Thus when she heard that Jiraiya was about to die of snake venom she immediately went to him and saved his life. Healed by her magic Jiraiya was soon healthy and strong once more. As thanks for her help he took Tsunade as his wife. Tsunade knew she was very fortunate to receive the famous warrior Jiraiya for her husband and so she took care to always stay by his side. The time had come now for Jiraiya to seek the vengeance that was his true life’s quest.  So he moved against his enemies who had driven him from his home the kingdom of his forefathers. He put on his armor and took up his weapons and gathered his army and moved towards the enemy castle. The castle was surrounded by a broad deep moat which had always appeared as the biggest obstacle to making war on his fathers murderer for no ships would have been able to withstand arrows from the palace walls.  Today, however, Jiraiya laughed at the wide moat as he was in possession of the frog’s spell, which allowed him and his companions to swim the moat and enter the palace unseen. He surprised the enemy. Jiraiya was overjoyed at the prospect of a quick victory but the snakes poison hindered him for the power which protected him from it had been damaged by the frogs spell. So despite his courageous fighting abilities he had to flee once more and give up on revenge forever. With his knowledge of battle and his realization that he’d failed he no longer found any pleasure in life and so he pulled back into the solitude of the deep mountains where he lived until his death with his wife and his old faithful friends.