Life was dull for the old bamboo cutter and his wife. They
were poor, lonely, the old man was overworked, and their life was very
dull. Dull that is, until one day when the bamboo cutter noticed that one
bamboo stalk was glowing. The old man, bending over for a better look, saw
that a 3-inch tall girl was inside the stalk of bamboo!
The old man and his wife had never had any kids, so of course
they were pleased. They named the girl Nayotake
no Kaguya-hime, the Shining
Princess of the Young Bamboo. As the child grew into a young woman (this
taking only 3 months), it became clear that she was one of the most beautiful
women in the world, so beautiful that she seemed otherworldly.
After a while, the old bamboo cutter decided that it was
time for Kaguya-hime to marry. Word of her beauty had spread quickly, and year
after year men came to her home if only to catch a glimpse of her. Finally,
after many years, all except for 5 of the most determined men had left. These
men were Prince Ishizukuri, Prince Kuramochi, the Minister of the Right Abe no
Mimuraji, the Grand Counselor Otomo no Miyuki, and the Middle Counselor
Isonokami no Marotari. These 5 men each were given a task to prove their
devotion to Kaguya-hime. Prince Ishizukuri was sent to find the
begging-bowl of the Buddha, Prince Kuramochi was sent to find a jeweled
branch of Paradise, the Minister of the Right Abe no Mimuraji needed the
robe of Chinese fire-rat fur, the Grand Counselor Otomo no Miyuki was to
get a 5-colored jewel from a dragon's head, and the Middle Counselor
Isonokami no Marotari was asked to retrieve the easy-birth
charm of the swallows.
You can probably guess that Kaguya-hime did not want to
marry, as the items that she sent the men out to get do not exist. The
next 5 chapters describe the journeys of the 5 men; all of the journeys were
rough, and most lasted several years. In the end, Kaguya-hime marries none
of the men, as a surprising truth about her real identity is
revealed.
The Tale of the
Shining Princess is an old Japanese legend of this otherworldly woman
who comes down to Earth. In this story, there are several poems written by
Kaguya-hime and the 5 men mixed in with the storytelling, as well as several
beautiful paintings describing the story. The original album of the
paintings in the story is in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The
original author is unknown, and this version is based off of a translation.
While The Tale of
the Shining Princess is not a long story, young people and anyone who
has trouble reading foreign languages may stumble over some of the names. But
other than that, this legend is great for lovers of mythology (like me)!
---------------------
Daddy's afterthoughts: I first found this volume on a shelf of
cast away books at a take-a-book-leave-a-book station at a local college. What
a treasure. The color plates alone make the book worth owning, Edo-era Japan
illustrations of scenes from this thousand-year-old tale, thought to
be one
of Japan's oldest legends.
This version, published by the Met, contains a text by Sally Fisher, an adaptation of a translation from the Japanese by Donald Keane. The
story itself, believed to date back to the 10th century (circa 909, according
to Haruo Shirane's Traditional
Japanese Literature: An Anthology), but even that telling was itself an
embellished iteration of an earlier oral folk narrative, its origins likely
lost to antiquity. Curiously, its original (10th century) title was 竹取物語, Taketori Monogatari, or "The Tale
of the Bamboo Cutter," the emphasis on the male bamboo cutter, and it is
perhaps worthy of note that later iterations of the tale bore titles
such as "The Tale of Kaguyahime" or this, "the Tale of
the Shining Princess," with the focus (more appropriately,
perhaps) on Kaguya-hime herself.
On a broader note, I love mythology, and recommend its
reading for all age levels, but especially children. No other form of
storytelling conveys as much wonder, as much of a sense of what C. S. Lewis called
"the numinous"
as myth. This particular volume clocks in a 70 paginated pages, making it
somewhat longer than your normal short-story-length myth, but much shorter than
a novel. Its simplicity makes it a great read for children, but its style and
the beauty of the language held me rapt when I first read it as a man of 40 or
so years. It's a tough book to find, but thanks to the internet, this
volume may be had (secondhand) from a variety of sources.
No comments:
Post a Comment