Jiraiya Goketsu Monogatari

Jiraiya Goketsu Monogatari (The Legend of Jiraiya the Gallant) is a traditional Japanese story that tells the adventures of Ogata Shuma Hiroyuki (尾形 周馬弘行?), a wandering ninja nicknamed Jiraiya (児雷也? lit. "son of thunder"). The novel was published between 1839 and 1868, in 43 episodes written by various authors. Utagawa Kunisada illustrated it.

Argument

Jiraiya (自来也, Jiraiya^?), was the scion of a powerful clan in Kyushu. When the family fell on hard times, Jiraiya went to Echigo Province, now Niigata Prefecture, and became the head of a yakuza gang.

Jiraiya learned toad magic from an immortal who resided in Myokobu Mountain, popularly known as Echigo Fuji.

Jiraiya was unable to kill his hated rival, a man named Sarashena, who was the cause of his family's ruin.

Jiraiya falls in love and marries Tsunade (綱手, Tsunade^?), a young and pretty woman, knowledgeable about the magic of slugs.

Later, one of Jiraiya's followers, Yashagoro, began to learn snake magic and ended up taking the name Orochimaru (大蛇丸, Orochimaru^?) (Orochi means 'Monster snake').

Then Orochimaru attacks Jiraiya and his wife (Tsunade). Jiraiya fights Orochimaru fervently, but he and his wife are poisoned by the snake and consequently fall unconscious. Fortunately, another of Jiraiya's followers, whom Jiraiya had once saved from death, came to his rescue.

Curiosities

The novel of Jiraiya the Gallant has no ending and therefore remains unfinished.

Currently the existence of this novel in book form is unknown, it is only known that this Japanese Folklore novel was written by different authors between 1839 and 1868.

It is worth mentioning that the characters of the anime-manga Naruto (Jiraiya, Tsunade and Orochimaru) were based on this novel and each one masters the same powers with the same names.

Extra

One of the things Jiraiya did was defeat the giant snake using magic he shouldn't have used, which is why it's unknown where he is spending eternity.