The present conventional form of the tale (Standard Type) can be summarized as follows:[1][2] Momotarō was born from a giant peach, which was found floating down a river by an old, childless woman who was washing clothes there.

En route, Momotarō met and befriended a talking dog, monkey and pheasant, who agreed to help him in his quest in exchange for a portion of his rations (kibi dango or "millet dumplings").

This Standard Type of "Momotarō" was defined and popularized due to them being printed in school textbooks during the Meiji Period.

[7] The late date of the reprint has sometimes caused it to be classed as kibyōshi ("yellow cover" book, directed primarily at an adult audience) or later type of kusazōshi literature (intended for a more general audience, including women and children), but it should properly be classed as akahon ("red book") or early type.

[8][b][c] A second group of texts, which Koike considered to be younger, includes the miniature akahon, Momotarō (『もゝ太郎』), printed in Kyōhō 8 (1723).

The "birth from the peach" type examples (such as the version in Takizawa Bakin's 1811 essay Enseki zasshi [ja] "Swallowstone Miscellany") are found among tales that have deviated further, which Koike assigns to a third group of texts.

[18] Not every text specifies age, but in the version in Kamo no Norikiyo (賀茂規清) (1798–1861)'s Hina no Ukegi (雛迺宇計木) Momotarō's was 15 years and 6 months when he set out on his expedition.

[23][24] After Japan abandoned the feudal system and entered the Meiji era, Iwaya Sazanami [ja] became a seminal figure in how the Momotaro story was shaped and became familiarized to the Japanese populace.

[13] It has been generally accepted that the 2nd edition reader of 1910 was de facto written by storybook author Iwaya Sazanami, who had joined the Ministry of Education as nonpermanent staff in 1906.

[28] Teachers in essays submitted in 1917 stated that the perception of the Momotaro tale was shifting, so that they were seen as containing lessons of assertiveness and helping in the material advancement of one's country.

[36] In the early Shōwa era, after Emperor Hirohito assumed the throne, Momotarō continued to be used to instill patriotism (or the teachings of the Rescript on Education) pupils with the 4th edition National Language Reader (1933–1938) which begins with the picture of the cherry blossom.

Please spare our lives", and forfeits their treasures out of their own volition, thus addressing the foregoing issues (i.e., Momotarō accused of attacking oni for no legitimate reason).

Nowadays, Momotarō is one of the most famous characters in Japan, as an ideal model for young kids for his kind-heartedness, bravery, power, and care for his parents.

[46] Still, even as late as the antebellum period before World War II (1941–1945), Okayama was considered only the third contender behind two other regions known as Momotarō's homeland.

David Thompson's translation as "Little Peachling" appeared as the first volume of Hasegawa Takejirō's Japanese Fairy Tale series in 1885.

[i][53] There was another English translation that used the same source as Ozaki and published around the same time, namely, "The Story of Peach-Boy" in Iwaya's Fairy Tales of Old Japan (1903, repub.

[65] Portrayal of Momotarō as a soldier in the Japanese Imperial Army fighting hostile nations was already happening by the (First) Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895).

[66] The Momotaro tale was altered by Iwaya Sazanami in 1894 so that the oni lived to the northeast of Japan, a thinly veiled reference to Qing China given the then current geopolitics.

[67] Iwaya was not purely a major figure in children's literature, but a government official working as the head of the editorial bureau of the Ministry of Education, since 1878.

[69] Comic images picturing Momotarō defending Japan against Oni representing Russian "Northern Devils" were given out during the 1904–1905 Russo-Japanese War.

[70] Momotarō was an immensely popular figure in Japan during World War II, appearing in many wartime films and cartoons.