Omusubi Kororin Coloring Pages

The Rice Ball Rolls Rolling Down

Omusubi Kororin is a classic folk tale. An old man drops a rice ball. It rolls rolling down and falls into a mouse hole.
The fun story features a catchy, song-like phrase: "Omusubi kororin, sutton-ton!"
In some regions, people call this tale "The Mice Making Rice Cakes" or "The Mice Paradise."

Summary (1): Kororin, Sutton-ton

Long, long ago, an honest old man went to the mountains to gather firewood.
At lunchtime, he was about to eat the rice balls that his wife made for him. But one rice ball rolled rolling down the slope and dropped into a hole at the base of a tree.
Then, a cute song came out from the hole: "Omusubi kororin, sutton-ton!"
The old man found it so fun that he rolled another rice ball, and then another, into the hole.

Summary (2): The Mice Palace

When the old man peeked into the hole, he slipped and tumbled right inside!
The place was a palace of mice.
The mice gave him a big welcome and said, "Thank you for the delicious rice balls!"
They made rice cakes, served a grand feast, sang, and danced. They had a wonderful time together.
When it was time to go home, the old man got a wooden treasure chest filled with gold coins as a gift.

Summary (3): The Greedy Old Man

A greedy old man living next door heard the story. He tried to copy the honest old man and went into the mouse hole.
But the greedy old man wanted to keep all the treasure for himself! He made cat noises to scare the mice away.
The startled mice ran away, and everything went pitch-black. They say the greedy old man could not get out of the hole.
Just like Hanasaka Jiisan and Shitakiri Suzume, this story compares an honest person with a greedy person.

Three Coloring Pages

You can find 3 coloring pages here.
The first page shows a big rice ball and a tiny mouse.
The second page shows the scene where the rice ball rolls rolling down into the hole.
The third page is a detailed coloring page of the mice palace. You can see the mice making rice cakes to welcome the old man.
The mouse is the 1st animal in the Japanese zodiac. You can also try the Year of the Mouse coloring page.

Omusubi are White with Nori

For the rice on the omusubi, leave the paper white as it is.
If you color the nori with dark green or dark gray, you can see the shape much better than if you color it solid black.
Color the mice gray or light brown, and color their ears and tails pink.

Mountain Scenery

For the mountain on the second page, try coloring the leaves green or yellow-green, and the ground ocher or brown.
If you color the old man's clothes in calm colors like dark blue or brown, he will look just like he belongs in a folktale!

Make the Mice's Palace Colorful

For the mice's clothes on the third page, use a different color for each mouse, like red, pink, yellow, or light blue.
For the picture on the sliding doors, color the pine trees green and the sky gold to make it look fancy like a real palace!
Color the lanterns light yellow or orange to make them look like they are glowing.

Make the Feast Look Yummy Too

For the food on the trays, make it look delicious by coloring the rolled omelets yellow, the shrimp red, and leaving the rice cakes white!

Color Each Mouse One by One

Try changing the fur color of the mice on the third page a little bit for each one, using gray, light brown, and white.
For the mice pounding rice, color the mallet light brown and the mortar brown to make them look like real wood.
Color the tatami mats light green and the borders dark blue or dark brown to make it look like a Japanese room.
If you put gold patterns on the brown treasure chest next to the old man, it will look like it is filled with treasure!

Omusubi and Onigiri

"Omusubi" and "onigiri" are both foods made by shaping cooked rice with your hands.
People call them different names depending on the region or family.
They are often called "omusubi" in stories, but some picture books call them "Onigiri Kororin" too.

Mice Are Messengers of the God of Fortune

Mice have long been thought of as messengers of Daikokuten, the god of food and money.
That is because people used to think mice lived in wealthy homes with lots of stored rice.
The mouse giving treasure to the old man in the story might come from that idea, too!

Mice Making Rice Cakes

The "thump, thump" sound of making rice cakes in the mice's palace is a fun part of this story.
Some families even make rice cakes together before New Year's Day.

The Song of the Mice

In the story, the mice sing, "Omusubi kororin, sutton-ton!"
"Sutton-ton" is the sound of the Omusubi dropping right down into the hole.
It is so much fun to sing this together when someone reads the story out loud to you!