Abstract: Momotaro story, well known in Japan, is one of Japanese representative “folk words”. In the 20th year of Meiji Period (1887), Momotaro story first appeared in the Japanese primary school textbook and evolved until the early Showa period. During this period, by the state presence in the civil narrative, the story turned from a simple folk narrative full of “imagination and entertainment” into national narrative. As a result, Momotaro became a national hero, which, of course, was not the result of the interaction between the state and the civil narratives, but the cultural hegemony of the state which strongly interfered with folk narrative. It means that the rewritten narrative should be within the framework of the national ideology. After this kind of transformation, the story became a tool of training obedient citizens and expansion propaganda.

Key words: Momotaro story, Japanese primary school textbook, folk narration, state presence