The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter (Taketori Monogatari)

Unknown · late 9th to early 10th century

Overview

A tiny girl found inside a stalk of bamboo grows into a beautiful young woman in three months and is named Kaguya-hime, the Shining Princess. She sets five noble suitors impossible tasks, such as bringing "the Buddha's stone begging bowl" or "a jeweled branch from Mount Horai," and so turns them away. She refuses even the emperor, and on the fifteenth night of the eighth month returns to heaven with the envoys who come for her from the capital of the moon. The emperor, left behind, has the elixir of immortality she left him burned on the mountain closest to heaven. The author is unknown, probably a learned man well read in Chinese and Buddhist texts.

Background

In the early Heian period, kana script began to spread, and tales (monogatari) written in kana rather than classical Chinese were born. The five suitors are given names resembling real court nobles, and the story can be read as satire mocking the greed and vanity of the powerful. It weaves many traditions into one tale, among them the legend of a heavenly maiden who comes down to earth and leaves again, and stories from China.

Highlights

  1. The suitors' failuresA prince who has craftsmen make a fake jeweled branch and then quarrels over their pay; a counselor who falls while trying to take a swallow's cowrie shell. A string of pun punchlines makes it fun as comedy.
  2. The ascent to heavenTwo thousand soldiers stand guard, yet when the heavenly beings come, no one can draw a bow. Once the robe of feathers is put on her, her human heart is gone.Read “Kaguya-hime Returns to Heaven” →
  3. The smoke of FujiThe emperor has the elixir burned on the summit, and its smoke, they say, still rises into the clouds. The story closes with the origin of the mountain's name.Read “The Smoke of Fuji” →