Summary of the story The Boy who drew Cats by Hasegawa Takejiro.

Long time ago in a Japanese village, there lived a poor family that included a little boy, his elder brother, sisters and parents. Each child of the family helped his/her parents except the little boy.

            The little boy was cleverest of them all. But he had a problem; the little boy could never grow big. Therefore the boy’s parents took him to a priest’s temple as an acolyte.

           

            The boy was obedient in all matters but he had one fault. He liked to draw cats during study hours. He drew the cats on the screens of the temple, margins of the priest’s books, on pillars and everywhere.

            He was a true artist. The priest got tired of him and decided to send him back with a message: “Avoid large places and keep to small”.

            The boy decided not to go home, because he was afraid of his father. He then decided to go to an abandoned (left the place) temple where a goblin lived. It had frightened the priests who lived there away.

            When he went to the temple he found a lamp burning in the temple. Inside the temple he found so many white walls to draw cats. When it was dark he remembered the words of the priest (“Avoid large places at night and keep to small”) and went to a small cabinet to sleep.

            Very late in the night he was awakened by some terrible noise of fighting and screaming. When it was all over in the morning he found a dead goblin rat. Then he realized that it was killed by the cats he drew and he also understood the meaning of the priest’s words.