DRUNKEN MESSENGER: IN JAPAN AS WELL!?

DRUNKEN MESSENGER: IN JAPAN AS WELL!?

I had heard of this as a primarily Occidental story motif... did European merchants or Jesuits bring it to the isolated Shogunate??? Or might there be another, more primeval, reason??

"a messenger happens to stop by the stepmother’s house to rest. The stepmother, who hears from the messenger is consumed with hatred and exchanges the letter for one that she writes while the messenger lies in an alcohol-induced sleep."

I had heard of this as a primarily Occidental story motif... did European merchants or Jesuits bring it to the isolated Shogunate??? Or might there be another, more primeval, reason??

Anyway, as far back as the Odyssey records the use of ethanol as a narcotic. But there are hypotheses that state that our attraction to this substance reaches as far as the whole length of the time we sapiens and our primate ancestors have fed on fruit. Which would equal thousands of millennia.
Other omnivores and herbivores have been seen exhibiting ethyl intoxication: the moose which run rampant in Swedish suburbia during late summer to early autumn, having consumed fermented fallen apples, for instance. Or fruit bats, or waxwings, or certain lepidoptera, who have also been seen displaying signs and symptoms of inebriation. Ethanol is actually fructose (fruit sugar), which has undergone certain biological changes (making it contain more calories), and it turns back to sugar after being absorbed. Sugar which brings power to bring on any undertaking (was this one of the key factors for Gustavus overpowering Tilly at Breitenfeld?). The scent of ethanol would help herbivores and omnivores find out if the fruits in question were ripe and suitable for consumption. In addition, the chemical also preserves fruit from decay. So the whole fatal attraction is hardwired since the dawn of times: ethanol=more calories. It's as simple as this.

In Japanese lore, the Orochi (8-headed serpent similar to the Hydra of Lerna), which had to be appeased with the damsel du jour, was plied with exceedingly strong distilled sake before it was beheaded.

So, ethyl intoxication is older than written history, even older than humanity itself. As old as time.