The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter
The second
book on the list is a traditional Japanese story called “Taketori Monogatari”
or “The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter”. It was written by an unknown author in the
ninth or tenth century and as far as I understand it exists in a number of
different versions.
The version
I found was only ten pages long and a part of an anthology of early science
fiction (!) stories edited by David Lear. From the mammoth and encyclopedic “1001
nights” that can only be read in abbreviated form to a tiny story that I wish
had been blown up into something more. What a difference.
Yet I found
this tiny story absolutely delightful and it is easily the best of the eight
stories included in the anthology.
In this
story a poor bamboo cutter finds a tiny girl in his field. He takes her in and
raises her as his daughter and she is growing fast, like really fast. Soon she
is a beautiful woman and of such radiance that her fame spreads widely. She
gets many suitors, but she gives in to none of them. Instead she gives the most
persistent of them impossible tasks they cannot complete. Finally even the
emperor of Japan becomes interest in her. When she refuses his invitation he
seeks her out and is captivated by her. Kaguya, as the girl is called, claims
that she will die if she leaves her home, which means that the emperor cannot
have her either. In the end however she is visited by her family from the moon
who takes her away in their spaceship.
I would
call this a classic fairy tale with a twist.
Frankly I
did not see that part with the spaceship coming, but that explains why it is
included in a science fiction anthology. At first this sounds like something
Monty Python could have made, but when you read the story it makes perfect
sense and it is written in beautiful prose that makes it the sweetest story
ever and not like my brutal synopsis above.
The style
is quite different from the formulaic fairy tales from the west, but whether it
represents a typical style of Japanese stories I really cannot tell. This is my
first Japanese fairy tale ever. There are none of the repetitions typical of
this kind of story and the story arc also lacks the classic climax. She is not
marrying the emperor or becoming crazy rich, but, ta-da, she just goes home to
the moon. Exactly what that is supposed to mean I am not sure, except that she
represents something otherworldly which can be admired, but never owned or
ruled by mortal men.
By some
crazy coincidence it turns out that there is a Japanese cartoon called “Princess
Kaguya” from 2013 and released in Denmark just yesterday. I was listening to a
movie show on the radio when they suddenly started talking about it and I
realized it was the very same story that I had just been reading. Except that
the 10 pages had become a 2½ hour movie. I think that beats even “The Hobbit”
for inflation. So far I have not seen the movie, but the trailer is awesome. It
looks like a beautiful movie made in traditional Japanese drawing style and
somehow that fits this story just perfectly.
I am dying
to know how they have made the spaceship exit…
For a ten
page read “The tale of the Bamboo Cutter” is surprisingly rewarding and it is
so easy a read that it is almost criminal not to read it. I recommend it.
