The Spider's Thread facts for kids

"The Spider's Thread" (蜘蛛の糸, Kumo no Ito) is a short story written in 1918 by a famous Japanese author named Ryūnosuke Akutagawa. It was first published in a children's magazine called Akai Tori. This story teaches us about kindness, selfishness, and how our actions can affect our chances for a better future.

The Story of the Spider's Thread

Buddha in Paradise

One morning, Shakyamuni Buddha was walking around in Paradise. He stopped by a beautiful pond filled with lotus flowers. Through the clear water, he could see all the way down into Hell.

His eyes landed on a specific person in Hell named Kandata. Kandata was a very mean criminal. He had done many bad things in his life. However, he had done one good deed. One day, while walking in a forest, he almost stepped on a spider. But he decided not to kill it.

A Chance to Escape Hell

Because of this one kind act, the Buddha felt moved. He took a shiny, silver spider's thread from Paradise. Then, he lowered it all the way down into Hell.

Down in Hell, many sinners were suffering in a "Pool of Blood." It was very dark, except for a little light from a "Mountain of Spikes." It was also very quiet, except for the sad sounds of the people stuck there.

Kandata happened to look up. He saw the spider's thread coming down towards him. He quickly grabbed it with all his strength. He was a tough criminal, so he held on tight.

Kandata's Mistake

Climbing from Hell to Paradise is a very long journey. Kandata soon started to get tired. He stopped for a moment, hanging in the middle of the thread. He looked down to see how far he had climbed.

He realized he might actually escape Hell! This made him so happy that he laughed out loud. But his joy did not last long. He saw that many other sinners were climbing the thread behind him. They stretched far down into the dark depths below.

Kandata became scared. He worried the thread would break from everyone's weight. He shouted that the spider's thread was only for him. He said no one else should climb on it. At that exact moment, the thread broke! Kandata and all the other sinners fell back down into the Pool of Blood.

The Lesson Learned

Shakyamuni Buddha saw everything that happened. He knew why the thread broke. Kandata had only cared about saving himself. He did not care about helping others. This selfishness caused him to fall back into Hell.

Paradise continued as usual. It was almost noon there. The Buddha then continued his peaceful walk.

Where the Story Came From

The Onion Fable

Ryūnosuke Akutagawa often used ideas from different stories to create his own. "The Spider's Thread" is a good example of this. He read a book called The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky. In that book, there is a very short story called "The Fable of the Onion."

In the onion fable, a very bad woman goes to Hell. Her guardian angel tells God that she did one good thing in her life. She once gave an onion to a beggar. So, God tells the angel to use that onion to pull her out of Hell. The angel almost pulls her out. But when other sinners try to hold onto her to escape too, she kicks them away. She shouts that the onion is hers alone. At that moment, the onion breaks, and she falls back into Hell.

Buddhist Inspiration

Another idea for Akutagawa's story came from a Buddhist book. It was an old collection of five Buddhist stories published in 1895. One of these stories also had the name "The Spider's Thread."

From this book, Akutagawa got the character Kandata. In that story, Kandata is also a bad robber stuck in Buddhist Hell. He has to wait for his bad actions (karma) to run out. However, in that version, Kandata does not get an immediate way out of Hell. Instead, he is told that any good deeds he did, like saving a spider, would help him rise again later.