Japanese Fairy Tales

Prince Yamato Take bade his wife help him to attire himself like a woman.

Published by Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd.

www.tuttlepublishing.com

© 1970 by Charles E. Tuttle Publishing Co., Inc.

All rights reserved

LCC Card No. 70-109415

ISBN 978-1-4629-0352-8 (ebook)

First edition, 1970

Printed in Singapore

Distributed by:

Japan

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To

Eleanor Marion-Crawford.

Dedicate this Book

To you and to the sweet child-friendship that you gave me in the days spent with you by the southern sea, when you used to listen with unfeigned pleasure to these fairy stories from far Japan. May they now remind you of my changeless love and remembrance.

Y.T.O.

Tokyo, 1903.

Table of Contents

 
Publisher’s Foreword

FAIRY tales never go out of style; they are the stuff of dreams and life and imagination, immortalized in the human spirit.

These beautiful legends and tales of old Japan were written for the children of the West, and have been translated from the modern version by Sadanami Sanjin. They are not literal translations, although the Japanese story and all quaint Japanese expressions have been faithfully preserved. In a few instances, to enhance interest and enjoyment, the compiler has used incidents from other versions.

The quaint Japanese expressions have been superbly matched by the quaint but evocative and humanly stirring illustrations by Kakuzo Fujiyama, an artist who lived in Tokyo. There are 66 pictures for the 22 tales, an average of three for each tale.

The tales are about commoners and kings; castles and fairy-lands; good old folks and bad old folks; princesses and warriors; animals, birds, the sky and sea, and the illimitable realms of the imagination.

The stories are the old favorites, such as “Momotaro, or the Story of the Son of a Peach,” and “The Story of Urashima Taro, the Fisher Lad”—and many of the lesser known ones such as “The Stones of Five Colours and the Empress Jokwa.”

All will have wide appeal to children whose minds and imaginations transcend racial barriers. The “twain shall meet” through the medium of these delightful magic carpets. This book was originally published by Archibold Constable & Co., Ltd., Westminster.

 
Preface

THIS collection of Japanese fairy tales is the outcome of a sugges-tion made to me indirectly through a friend by Mr. Andrew Lang.

They have been translated from the modern version written by Sadanami Sanjin. These stories are not literal translations, and though the Japanese story and all quaint Japanese expressions have been faithfully preserved, they have been told more with the view to interest young readers of the West than the technical student of folk-lore.

Grateful acknowledgment is due to Mr. Y. Yasuoka, Miss Fusa Okamoto, my brother Nobumori Ozaki, Dr. Yoshihiro Takaki, and Miss Kameko Yamao, who have helped me with translations.

The story which I have named “The Story of the Man who did not Wish to Die” is taken from a little book written a hundred years ago by one Shinsui Tamenaga. It is named Chosei Furo, or “Longevity.” “The Bamboo-cutter and the Moon-child” is taken from the classic “Taketari Monogatari,” and is not classed by the Japanese among their fairy tales, though it really belongs to this class of literature.

The pictures were drawn by Mr. Kakuzo Fujiyama, a Tokyo artist.

In telling these stories in English I have followed my fancy in adding such touches of local colour or description as they seemed to need or as pleased me, and in one or two instances I have gathered in an incident from another version. At all times, among my friends, both young and old, English or American, I have always found eager listeners to the beautiful legends and fairy tales of Japan, and in telling them I have also found that they were still unknown to the vast majority, and this has encouraged me to write them for the children of the West.

Y. T. O.

TOKYO, 1903.

 
List of Illustrations