(Kakigoshi no Hana to Hana)
Long ago in a little village, two neighbors lived side by side:
One was a greedy rich man who loved coins more than kindness.
The other was a poor man who didn’t have much, except a big heart and one beautiful cherry blossom tree.
Every spring, the poor man would sit under his tree, sip sake, and admire the pink clouds of petals above. Sometimes he hummed silly songs about dancing frogs.
Next door, the rich man had no tree, no blossoms, and absolutely no tolerance for frog songs.
One spring, a few daring branches reached over the fence into the rich man’s yard.
“Well, if it leans my way,” he muttered, “it clearly prefers me.”
So he tied a rope to the branch and tugged a little.
Then a little more.
Then… a lot more.
By the next spring, most of the blossoms bloomed on his side the fence.
He opened his gate and put up a big sign:
“Cherry Blossoms: 100 yen entry.
No touching. No sneezing. No smiling too wide.”
Now, next door, the poor man was not pleased.
“That’s my tree!” he said.
“Wrong,” sniffed the rich man. “The flowers bloomed on my side. My yard, so, my rules.”
The poor man steamed. But before he could start plotting revenge, he felt a gentle tugged his sleeve.
It was Kai, the curious little girl from down the road. She’d been watching everything while munching on sakura mochi.
“What if you don’t fight him?” she whispered. “What if you… trick him instead?”
The poor man blinked. Then he grinned.
“I like the way you think.”
That very night, music exploded from the poor man’s yard: drums, flutes, laughter, even a triangle solo.
The next morning, the rich man pressed his eye against a knothole in the fence.
“Too much fun… must… look…”
Just as he peeked in, the poor man reached through and TWISTED the man’s long, shiny nose!
Exactly 90 degrees to the left.
“OWWWWW!”
“Don’t worry,” said the poor man. “In Japanese, ‘hana’ means both flower and nose. Since you stole one, I borrowed the other.”
Kai giggled. “It’s fair… sort of!”
Red-faced and thoroughly bent, the rich man whimpered, “Fine, fine! Take the tree back!”
As he pushed the branch over the fence, something miraculous happened:
His nose popped right back into place.
Flower returned. Nose returned.
Even Kai returned the last mochi… well, half of it.
From then on, the rich man let the blossoms bloom freely on both sides of the fence.
He even hung a new sign:
“Free blossoms. Bring a friend. And maybe some mochi.”
And as for Kai …
She tried to visit the blossoms every spring, where she sat under the tree with both neighbors, and told the story of the nose, the blossoms, and how a little cleverness can straighten out even the most crooked problems. Never steal your neighbor’s hana—no matter how good it smells.
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