The Mystic Tinderbox

Whilst researching for future posts, I was looking into the Andersen fairy-tale Fyrtøjet (The Tinderbox), which famously is about a soldier who fortuitously meets an old witch that offers him abundant riches if he is to help her retrieve a magical tinderbox that her grandmother forgot down in the bottom of a hollow tree, that in reality leads to an elaborate set of halls, where three dogs, one after one with larger ocular organs are residing, going as far as having the size of a tower's circumference, though the latter is implied.

The witch within the fairy tale has her title translated in a rather unique way in Toiguchi's translation from the 1920s, where the aforementioned sorceress is rendered as onna sennin (女仙人, "female Immortal"), or more literally "female Xian," where the latter element of the name, sennin, refers to people whom in martial arts legends such as in the Wuxia genre of Chinese myths and literature have achieved immortality and supernatural abilities by devoting themselves to an ascetic life-style in the far mountains, away from worldly concerns or temptations. As such, the word can also refer to a supernatural person who someone akin to a wizard or witch, the latter two being a common translation in some Japaese - English dictionaries. Hence, her title is that of a Wuxia Immortal rather than a humble sorceress or witch.