This A1 Beginner retelling of The Golden Boy keeps the plot clear for learners while still giving the story some atmosphere and momentum. He plays with rabbits and deer every day. His best friend is a big brown bear.
This version teaches Japanese through English and includes clickable word help inside the story, full story audio, and lesson notes after the reading. It is free to use on Yak Yacker and is designed to feel natural, readable, and manageable for learners.
Kintaro is a little boy. He lives in the .
He has many . He rabbits and deer every day.
Kintaro is very . He can big stones.
His best friend is a big brown bear. They .
One day, a sees Kintaro. "What a boy!" he says.
"Thank you!" Kintaro says. "I with my friends."
The samurai says, ". You can be a ." Kintaro goes with him. He and becomes a famous hero. Everyone calls him the Golden Boy.
Kintaro is a young boy living in the mountains.
He has many animal friends and plays with rabbits and deer daily.
Kintaro is very strong and can carry large stones.
His best friend is a big brown bear, and they play together.
One day, a samurai sees Kintaro and exclaims, "What a strong boy!"
Kintaro thanks him, saying he loves playing with his friends.
The samurai invites Kintaro to become a great warrior, and Kintaro agrees, trains, and becomes a famous hero known as the Golden Boy.
Let's pick out some friendly Japanese words straight from Kintaro's story. These will help you talk about people, places, and how strong they are!
- 男の子 (otokonoko) - boy
- 山 (yama) - mountain
- 友達 (tomodachi) - friend
- 強い (tsuyoi) - strong
- 熊 (kuma) - bear
In the story, we see Kintaro is a boy and he lives in the mountains. Japanese uses simple patterns to build these sentences.
For 'He is a boy,' say 彼は男の子です (Kare wa otokonoko desu). The pattern is [person] は [noun/adjective] です. For 'He lives in the mountains,' say 彼は山に住んでいます (Kare wa yama ni sundeimasu). The verb 住む (sumu) means 'to live,' and に (ni) marks the location.
- [Someone] は [word] です - It is … / He is …
- [Someone] は [place] に住んでいます - He/She lives in …
- です (desu) makes a polite, gentle statement.
Now you can describe Kintaro in Japanese! Try mixing the words and patterns you've just met.
Start small: 'Kintaro is a boy. He lives in the mountains. He is strong.' Then maybe describe your own friend, or even a toy bear! The mountains are waiting.
The Golden Boy comes from the Japanese / folk tale tradition and is best known as a folk hero tale. This Yak Yacker article is an original learner retelling based on Traditional Japanese folk hero tale; public domain, so the wording here is simplified for modern learners rather than copied from one old edition.
Older printings, translations, and retellings of this story can vary quite a bit. The original audience was usually kids, but this version is adapted for A1 Beginner learners studying Japanese. Good mountains/animals/strength vocabulary.
If you want to look into the source tradition, start with Wikipedia.
If you want to keep going, browse more in our Japanese section and review the Geography Vocabulary in Japanese. After that, try Japanese Question Words for another useful next step.
