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The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter (Japanese: ????; Taketori Monogatari) is a 10th century Japanese folktale
Japanese folklore

The folklore of Japan is heavily influenced by both Shinto and Buddhism in Japan, the two primary religions in the country. It often involves humorous or bizarre characters and situations and also includes an assortment of supernatural beings, such as bodhisattva, kami , yokai , yurei , Japanese dragon, and animals with supernatu...
, also known as The Tale of Princess Kaguya (???????, Kaguya-hime no Monogatari). It is considered the oldest extant Japanese narrative
Japanese literature

Japanese literature spans a period of almost two millennia. Early works were heavily influenced by cultural contact with China and Chinese literature, often written in Classical Chinese....
.

It primarily details the life of a mysterious girl called Kaguya-hime, who was discovered as a baby inside the stalk of a glowing bamboo
Bamboo

The bamboos are a group of woody perennial plant evergreen plants in the true grass family Poaceae, subfamily Bambusoideae, tribe Bambuseae....
 plant.






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The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter (Japanese: ????; Taketori Monogatari) is a 10th century Japanese folktale
Japanese folklore

The folklore of Japan is heavily influenced by both Shinto and Buddhism in Japan, the two primary religions in the country. It often involves humorous or bizarre characters and situations and also includes an assortment of supernatural beings, such as bodhisattva, kami , yokai , yurei , Japanese dragon, and animals with supernatu...
, also known as The Tale of Princess Kaguya (???????, Kaguya-hime no Monogatari). It is considered the oldest extant Japanese narrative
Japanese literature

Japanese literature spans a period of almost two millennia. Early works were heavily influenced by cultural contact with China and Chinese literature, often written in Classical Chinese....
.

It primarily details the life of a mysterious girl called Kaguya-hime, who was discovered as a baby inside the stalk of a glowing bamboo
Bamboo

The bamboos are a group of woody perennial plant evergreen plants in the true grass family Poaceae, subfamily Bambusoideae, tribe Bambuseae....
 plant. She is said to be from Tsuki-no-Miyako (??? "The Capital of the Moon") and has unusual hair that "shines like gold".

Narrative

One day, while walking in the bamboo forest, an old, childless bamboo cutter called Taketori-no-Okina (??? "the Old Man who Harvests Bamboo") came across a mysterious, shining stalk of bamboo. After cutting it open, he found inside it a baby the size of his thumb. He rejoiced to find such a beautiful girl and took her home. He and his wife raised her as their own child and named her Kaguya-hime (???? "radiant-night princess"). Thereafter, Taketori-no-Okina found that whenever he cut down a stalk of bamboo, inside he found a small nugget of gold
Gold

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and atomic number 79. It is a highly sought-after precious metal, having been used as money, as a store of value, in jewelry, in sculpture, and for ornamentation since the beginning of recorded history....
. Soon he became rich, and Kaguya-hime grew from a small baby into a woman of usual size and extraordinary beauty. At first, Taketori-no-Okina tried to keep her away from outsiders, but over time the news of her beauty had spread.

Eventually, five princes came to Taketori-no-Okina's residence to ask for Kaguya-hime's hand in marriage. The princes eventually persuaded Taketori-no-Okina to tell a reluctant Kaguya-hime to choose one from among them. To this end, Kaguya-hime concocted impossible tasks for the princes to accomplish. She would agree to marry the prince who managed to bring her a specified item.

That night, Taketori-no-Okina told the five princes what each of them must bring. The first was told to bring her the stone begging bowl of the Buddha
Gautama Buddha

Siddhartha Gautama was a Spirituality teacher in the northern region of the Indian subcontinent who founded Buddhism. He is generally seen by Buddhists as the Supreme Buddhahood of our age....
 from India
History of India

The known history of India begins with the Indus Valley Civilization, which spread and flourished in the north-western part of the Indian subcontinent, from c....
. The second was told to retrieve a jewelled branch from the island of Penglai. The third was told to seek the legendary robe of the fire-rat of China
China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
. The fourth must retrieve a colored jewel from a dragon
Dragon

File:Ukiyo-e dragon 2.jpgThe dragon is a legendary creature with serpentine shape or otherwise reptilian traits that features in the mythology of many cultures....
's neck. The final prince was told to find the seashell
Seashell

A seashell, also known as a sea shell, or simply as a shell, is the common name for a hard, protective outer layer, a shell, or in some cases a "test", that was created by a sea creature, a Marine organism....
 treasure of the swallows.

Realising that it was an impossible task, the first prince returned with an expensive bowl, but after noticing that the bowl did not glow with holy light, Kaguya-hime saw through his deception. Likewise, two other princes attempted to deceive her with fakes, but also failed. The fourth gave up after encountering a storm, while the final prince lost his life in his attempt to retrieve the object.

After this, the Emperor of Japan
Emperor of Japan

The of Japan is the symbol of the state and of the unity of the Japanese people. He is the head of the Imperial House of Japan. Under Japan's present constitution, the Emperor is the "symbol of the state and the unity of the people," and is a ceremonial figurehead in a constitutional monarchy ....
, Mikado, came to see the strangely beautiful Kaguya-hime and, upon falling in love, asked her to marry him. Although he was not subjected to the impossible trials that thwarted the princes, Kaguya-hime rejected his request for marriage as well, telling him that she was not of his country and thus could not go to the palace with him. She stayed in contact with the Emperor, but continued to rebuff his requests.

That summer, whenever Kaguya-hime saw the full moon, her eyes fill with tears. Though her adoptive parents worried greatly and questioned her, she was unable to tell them what was wrong. Her behaviour became increasingly erratic until she revealed that she was not of this world and must return to her people on the Moon. In some versions of this tale, it is said that she was sent to the Earth as a temporary punishment
Punishment

Punishment is the practice of imposing something suffering on a person or animal, usually in response to disobedient or morally wrong behavior....
 for some crime, while others say it is because she was sent to earth for safety during a celestial war. As the day of her return approached, the Emperor set many guards around her house to protect her from the Moon people, but when an embassy of "Heavenly Beings" arrived at the door of Taketori-no-Okino's house, the many guards were blinded by a strange light. Kaguya-hime announced that, though she loves her many friends on Earth, she must return with the Moon people to her true home. She wrote sad notes of apology to her parents and to the Emperor, then gave her parents her own robe as a memento. She then took a small taste of the elixir of life
Elixir of life

The elixir of life, from Arabic: ???????, also known as the elixir of immortality or Dancing Water or Persian language: Aab-e-Hayaat ?? ???? and sometimes equated with the philosopher's stone, is a legendary potion, or drink, that grants the drinker eternal life or eternal youth....
, attached it to her letter to the Emperor, and gave it to a guard officer. As she handed it to him, the feather robe was placed on her shoulders, and all of her sadness and compassion for the people of the Earth were forgotten. The heavenly entourage took Kaguya-hime back to Tsuki-no-Miyako ("the Capital of the Moon") against her will, leaving her earthly foster parents in tears.

The parents became very sad and were soon put to bed sick. The guard officer returned to the Emperor with the items Kaguya-hime had given him as her last mortal act, and reported what had happened. The Emperor read her letter and was overcome with sadness. He asked his servants: "Which mountain is the closest place to Heaven
Heaven

Heaven may refer to the physical heavens, the atmosphere or the seemingly endless expanse of the universe beyond. This is the traditional literal meaning of the term in English, however since at least AD 1000, it is typically also used to refer to an afterlife plane of existence in various religions and spirituality philosophy, often descri...
?", to which one replied that the Great Mountain of Suruga Province
Suruga Province

was an old provinces of Japan in the area that is today the eastern part of Shizuoka prefecture. Suruga bordered on Izu province, Kai province, Sagami province, Shinano province, and Totomi Province provinces; and had access to the Pacific Ocean through Suruga Bay....
 is the closest place to Heaven. The Emperor ordered his men to take the letter to the summit of the mountain and burn it, with the hope that his message would reach the distant princess. The men were also commanded to burn the pot of elixir of immortality since the Emperor did not desire to live forever without being able to see her. The legend has it that the word became the name of the mountain, Mount Fuji
Mount Fuji

is the highest mountain in Japan at . Along with Mount Tate and Mount Haku, it is one of Japan's "Three Holy Mountains" . An active volcano that last erupted in 1707?08, Mount Fuji straddles the boundary of Shizuoka Prefecture and Yamanashi Prefecture Prefectures of Japan just west of Tokyo, from which it can be seen on a clear day....
. It is also said that the kanji
Kanji

are the Chinese characters that are used in the modern Japanese language logogram along with hiragana , katakana , Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet....
 for the mountain, ??? (literally "Mountain Abounding with Warriors"), is derived from the Emperor's army ascending the slopes of the mountain to carry out his order. It is said that the smoke from the burning still rises to this day. (In the past, Mount Fuji was much more volcanically active than today.)

Literary connections

Konjaku Monogatarishu
Konjaku Monogatarishu

is a Japanese collection of over one thousand tales written during the late Heian Period . The entire collection was originally contained in 31 volumes, of which only 28 remain today....
 contains a shorter version of the story, though their relation is under debate.

There have been suggestions that The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter is related to the tale of Swan Lake
Swan Lake

Swan Lake is a ballet, Opus number 20, by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, composed 1875-1876. The scenario, initially in four acts, by Vladimir Begichev and Vasiliy Geltser was fashioned from Russian folk tales as well as an ancient German legend, which tells the story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer's curse....
. This probably is due to Kaguya-hime wearing the hagoromo (?? "feather robe") when she ascends to her homeland. But the hagoromo figures more famously in a group of tales known as the hagoromo densetsu (in one example recorded in the Ohmi-no-kuni Fudo ki tells of a man who instructs his dog to steal the hagoromo of eight heavenly maidens while they were bathing, forcing one of them to become his bride). And the latter is remarkably similar to the tale of how Völundr the Smith and his brothers wedded the swan-maidens.

Banzhu Guniang


In 1957, Jinyu Fenghuang, a Chinese book of Tibetan tales, was published. In early 1970s, Japanese literary researchers became aware that "Banzhu Guniang", one of the tales in the book, had certain similarities with The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter. Initially, many researchers thought that "Banzhu Guniang" must be related to Tale of Bamboo Cutter, although some were skeptical.

In 1980s, studies showed that the relationship is not as simple as initially thought. Okutsu provides extensive review of the research, and notes that the book Jinyu Fenghuang was intended to be for children, and as such, the editor took some liberties in adapting the tales. No other compilation of Tibetan tales contains the story.

A Tibet-born person wrote that he did not know the story. A researcher went to Sichuan
Sichuan

is a Province in western China proper with its capital in Chengdu. The current name of the province, ?? , is an abbreviation of ??? , or "Four circuit #Circuits in East Asia of rivers", which is itself abbreviated from ???? , or "Four circuits of rivers and gorges", named after the division of the existing circuit into four during the Song...
 and found that, apart from those who had already read "Jinyu Fenghuang", local researchers in Chengdu
Chengdu

Chengdu , located in southwest People's Republic of China, is the capital of Sichuan provinces of China and a sub-provincial city. Chengdu is also one of the most important economic centers and transportation and communication hubs in Southwestern China....
 did not know the story. Tibetan informants in Aba did not know the story either.

In popular culture


As a popular folk tale, it has been a source of many adaptations and plot items.

Movies

  • In 1987, Taketori Monogatari (international English title: Princess from the Moon) by Kon Ichikawa
    Kon Ichikawa

    was a prominent Japanese film director....
     was released. It stars Yasuko Sawaguchi
    Yasuko Sawaguchi

    , is a Japanese actor....
    , Toshiro Mifune
    Toshiro Mifune

    Toshiro Mifune was a Japanese people actor who appeared in almost 170 feature films. He is best known for his collaboration with filmmaker Akira Kurosawa in films such as Rashomon , Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, and Yojimbo ....
    , Ayako Wakao
    Ayako Wakao

    is a Japanese actress....
     and Megumi Odaka
    Megumi Odaka

    started her career in 1984 as a voice-actress for the animation-TV-Series Fushigi na koala Blinky aka Noozles aka Noozles , where she played the character Sandy Brown....
    , in her first role. The song "Stay with me" is by Peter Cetera
    Peter Cetera

    Peter Paul Cetera is an American singer, songwriter, bass guitar player and Record producer best known for being an original member of the rock band Chicago , before launching a successful solo career....
    .
  • Big Bird
    Big Bird

    Big Bird is a full-body Muppet, featured on the children's television show Sesame Street, which airs on Public Broadcasting Service. He is sometimes referred to as "Bird" by his friends....
     attends a play of schoolchildren performing The Tale of the Bamboo-Cutter in the TV movie Big Bird in Japan
    Big Bird in Japan

    Big Bird in Japan was a 1989 in television special by the Children's Television Workshop . The special was based on the popular television series Sesame Street....
    . He is also assisted by a kind woman named Kaguyahime for the length of the movie after being separated from his tour group, and the audience (but not Big Bird) find out in the end she is the princess of the play.


Anime and manga

  • In the anime
    Anime

    is animation in Japan and considered to be "Japanese animation" in the rest of the world. Anime dates from about 1917.Anime, in addition to manga , is extremely popular in Japan and well known throughout the world....
     series InuYasha
    InuYasha

    , full title , is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi. It premiered in Weekly Shonen Sunday on November 13, 1996 and concluded on June 18, 2008....
    , the title character wears a kimono made from the fur of the fire rat; derived from The Tale of the Bamboo-Cutter. The plot of the second InuYasha movie The Castle Beyond the Looking Glass
    InuYasha the Movie: The Castle Beyond the Looking Glass

    is the second movie of the InuYasha movie series. It was released in Japan on December 21, 2002 , and in the United States on December 28, 2004. In this film, the character designs are virtually identical to the Rumiko Takahashi versions, from the original manga ....
     revolves very heavily around the fairy tale.
  • The full title of the Leiji Matsumoto
    Leiji Matsumoto

    is a well-known creator of several anime and manga series. His wife is also known as a manga artist ....
     series and movie Queen Millennia is Shin Taketori Monogatari: Sennen Joo, which translates to New Tale of the Bamboo-Cutter: 1000-year Queen.
  • The manga
    Manga

    , , are comics and print cartoons , in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 20th century. In their modern form, manga date from shortly after World War II, but they have a long, complex pre-history in earlier Japanese art....
     Kaguyahime by Reiko Shimizu is based on the Kaguya-hime story.
  • Planet Ladder
    Planet Ladder

    is a Japanese manga written and illustrated by Yuri Narushima who also wrote and drew the art for Young Magician, a Gothic fiction supernatural manga....
     by Yuri Narushima has a similar story centered around a girl named Kaguya who discovers that she is a long-lost princess destined to save one of nine worlds.
  • In Sailor Moon
    Sailor Moon

    is the title of a Japanese media franchise created by Naoko Takeuchi. It is generally credited with popularizing the concept of a sentai of magical girls, as well as "revitalizing" the magical girl genre itself....
     number eleven of the manga the story has the same references to Princess Kaguya. In Sailor Moon the anime series, the five main characters are on a quest to find and protect the Moon princess. The small and beautiful Moon princess had been reincarnated and sent to the Earth in order to be protected from a horrible battle taking place on the Moon. In some episodes of Sailor Moon Usagi can be seen crying as she looks at the Moon and remembers her past. This can be seen also in Act 10 of the live-action adaptation
    Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon

    is a tokusatsu television series in the Sailor Moon metaseries originally created by Naoko Takeuchi. It is produced by Toei Company, the same company that produces the Super Sentai and the Kamen Rider Series....
    .
  • The anime series Oh! Edo Rocket
    Oh! Edo Rocket

    is a stage play written for the Gekidan Shinkansen theater troupe by Kazuki Nakashima. It was adapted into a TV anime series in April 2007, directed by Seiji Mizushima and produced by Madhouse ....
    , not only is loosely based on the tale of Kaguya-hime, but uses the tale itself within the story. This is done deliberately for comedic value. The anime was adapted from a stage play.
  • In an episode of Doraemon
    Doraemon

    is a Japanese manga series created by Fujiko F. Fujio which later became an anime series and Asian Media franchise. The series is about a Robot named Doraemon, who time travel from the 22nd century to aid a schoolboy, ....
    , the 22nd Century Department Store delivered to Doraemon a "Kaguya Robot Set"
  • The manga
    Manga

    , , are comics and print cartoons , in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 20th century. In their modern form, manga date from shortly after World War II, but they have a long, complex pre-history in earlier Japanese art....
     Mangetsu Monogatari by Nakamura Shungiku is loosely based around the story.
  • In the anime version of Yakitate!! Japan
    Yakitate!! Japan

    is a manga, authored by Takashi Hashiguchi, serialized in Shogakukan's Shonen Sunday, which has been adapted into a television anime series by Sunrise ....
    , they used this story in one of their delicious bread reactions, which had switched to Mobile Suit Gundam
    Mobile Suit Gundam

    is a televised anime series, created by Sunrise . Written and directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino, it premiered in Japan on Nagoya Broadcasting Network between April 7, 1979 and January 26, 1980, spanning 43 episodes....
     for the second half of the reaction.
  • The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter has inspired several other anime centred around a princess from the Moon, including Turn A Gundam
    Turn A Gundam

    is a 50 episode anime series that aired between 1999 and 2000 on Japan's FNN networks and the anime satellite television network, Animax, created for the Gundam Big Bang 20th Anniversary celebration....
     and Yoake Mae yori Ruriiro na
    Yoake Mae yori Ruriiro na

    is a fictional series centering around a princess from a kingdom on the moon who lives with a family on Earth for a time. It began as a Japanese eroge visual novel video game developed by August that was first released on September 22 2005 for the IBM PC compatible, and the PlayStation 2 adaptation developed by Aria was released on December 7 2...
    .
  • In episode 14 of the anime Mushishi
    Mushishi

    is a manga series written and illustrated by Yuki Urushibara, published in Kodansha's Afternoon magazine from 1999 to August 2008.The manga was adapted into an anime television series in 2005....
    , entitled "Inside the Cage" was based on the story of Kaguya-hime. In this episode, a childless couple end up conceiving after spending time with a shining white bamboo stalk, and the child the woman gives birth to is born inside of a bamboo shoot.
  • In Sakura Hime Kaden, the heroine, Sakura is a descendant of Princess Kaguya.


Games

  • The story of the Touhou Project
    Touhou Project

    The , also known as Toho Project or Project Shrine Maiden, is a series of Shoot 'em up#Bullet hell made by Team Shanghai Alice whose sole member is Japanese game maker ZUN, who does all the graphics, music, and programming....
     game Imperishable Night
    Imperishable Night

    , by Team Shanghai Alice, is the eighth official game of the Touhou Project Shoot 'em up#Scrolling shooters series. It is the third Touhou game to be released specifically for the Windows operating system....
     is heavily based on this story.
  • In the PlayStation 2
    PlayStation 2

    The PlayStation 2 is a History of video game consoles video game console manufactured by Sony. The successor to the PlayStation, and the predecessor to the PlayStation 3, the PlayStation 2 forms part of the PlayStation of video game consoles....
     and Wii
    Wii

    The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo. As a History of video game consoles console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3....
     game Okami
    Okami

    is an action-adventure game video game developed by Clover Studio and distributed by Capcom. It was released for the Sony PlayStation 2 video game console in 2006 in Japan and North America, and 2007 in Europe and Australia....
    , the player must rescue a girl named Kaguya, who is the Old Bamboo Cutter's granddaughter.


Music

  • The goa trance
    Goa trance

    Goa Trance is a form of electronic music that originated during the late 1980s in Goa, India....
    /psytrance group Juno Reactor
    Juno Reactor

    Juno Reactor are a musical and performing act known for the cinematic fusion of electronic, orchestral and global music. Central to the project is Ben Watkins, and his collaborations with a constantly changing ensemble of musicians from across the world, including percussionist Mabi Thobejane from South Africa along with countrymen Amampondo,...
     included a track named 'Kaguya Hime' in their album 'Bible of Dreams', released by Blue Room Released
    Blue Room Released

    Blue Room Released was an independent record label from London, United Kingdom. It operated from 1994 in music until 2002 in music.Some consider Blue Room Released to be one of the most important labels in the psychedelic trance genre....
     in 1997.
  • In 2006, Japanese musician Namie Amuro
    Namie Amuro

    is a Japanese people singer, dancer, and former child actor/child singer, who, at the height of her popularity, was referred to as the "Teen Queen [of Japan]" and the "Queen of J-pop"....
     released a video for the song "Ningyo" based on the Kaguya-hime legend.


Others

  • The tokusatsu
    Tokusatsu

    is a Japanese language word that literally means "special effects." It is primarily used to refer to live-action Japanese film and Japanese television drama that generally feature superheroes and make considerable use of special effects....
     series Gougou Sentai Boukenger
    Gougou Sentai Boukenger

    is a Japanese tokusatsu television series. The series is produced by Toei Company, and is the thirtieth installment in their Super Sentai series. It is also the first Super Sentai installment to be broadcast in High-Definition Television....
     has an episode based around this tale (Task 13: The Treasures of Princess Kaguya).
  • Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency renamed the SELenological and ENgineering Explorer (SELENE
    Selene

    Selene is the Titan goddess of the moon.In Greek mythology, Selene was an archaic lunar deity and the daughter of the Titan Hyperion and Theia....
    ) probe KAGUYA.


See also

  • Thumbelina
    Thumbelina

    "Thumbelina" is a fairy tale by the Denmark poet and author Hans Christian Andersen . The tale was published with two others by Andersen in an inexpensive booklet by C.A....
     - another folktale involving a tiny girl found in vegetation


External links