The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter
The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter (竹 取物語 Taketori Monogatari?) is a 10th-century Japanese folk tale. It is considered the oldest extant Japanese text, despite the fact that the manuscript The oldest is dated 1592. The tale is also known as The Story of Princess Kaguya (かぐや姫の物語 Kaguya -hime no Monogatari?), being named after its protagonist.
The story is about an old couple with no children and how one day while the old man was cutting bamboo, he found a girl inside the stalk. The girl was Kaguya or Princess Kaguya, who came from the Moon. In 2013, the tale was adapted into an animated film by Studio Ghibli, called Kaguya-hime no Monogatari. In 2015, a musical based on the tale titled Prince Kaguya< was produced. /i>, where Kaguya's gender is changed from female to male.
History
A childless old bamboo cutter named Taketori no Okina (竹取翁 lit. The old man who harvests bamboo?) came across a bamboo tree that had light inside it. He wondered why and was very curious as to what was inside. He carefully cut the bamboo and was amazed to find a tiny baby the size of his thumb inside. He decided to pick her up and take her to her home, where he consulted with his wife what to do with the baby and they concluded that it was a gift from Heaven. They decided to call the girl princess Kaguya (princess of shining light). From that day on, every time the old man cut bamboo, he found gold inside it. It didn't take long for him to become rich and build a big house. Several years later, Kaguya grew up into a beautiful young woman. Everyone knew her because she was elegant and beautiful. Five princes came to her house to ask for her hand in marriage. She was reluctant to get married, so he proposed several impossible tasks for them to accomplish before he managed to marry her.
The first was commissioned to bring the sacred chalice of Buddha that was in India. The second prince was tasked with finding a legendary branch made of silver and gold. The third had to get the legendary tunic made from the hair of the fire rat, which is said to be in China. On the fourth, a colored jewel that shone on the neck of a dragon. To the last prince, he entrusted a precious shell that is born from swallows. The princess asked for things that no one knew existed and her suitors were very disappointed. After this, the young people stopped going to the old man's house for a while since they were all looking for the princess's wishes.
One day, the first man arrived, with the Buddha cup that the princess had asked for, but he had not been to India and instead brought a dirty cup from a temple near Kyoto. When the princess saw it, she knew immediately that this was not the Buddha's cup, because although it was very old and made of stone, the cup that was from India always had a sacred glow.
The second one had no idea where a branch of silver and gold could be found, also he did not want to make a long trip and since he was very rich, he decided to order it from some jewelers. He then brought the gift to the princess. The branch was so wonderful that Kaguya thought that it was really what she had asked for and she thought that she would not be able to escape from marrying this young man unless the jewelers showed up demanding her money. In this way, the princess knew that the branch was false, and therefore, it was not what she had wanted.
The third, who had been asked for the fire rat hair robe, gave a large amount of money to some merchants going to China. They brought him a showy skin and told him that it belonged to the fire rat. He took it to the princess and she said "It really is a very fine skin." But the hair of the fire rat does not burn, even when thrown into the fire. Let's try it". Kaguya threw the skin into the fire and as expected the skin burned in a few minutes, the young man left angrily and embarrassed.
. The fourth was very brave and he tried to find the dragon by himself. He sailed and wandered for a long time, because no one knew where the dragon lived. But during one day, he was besieged by a storm and almost died. He couldn't look for the dragon anymore and he left. Back at his home, he was very ill and was unable to return to Princess Kaguya.
The fifth and last of the men searched all the nests and in one of them he thought he had found it; but rushing down the stairs he fell and died. What he had in his hand was not even the shell that the princess had asked for, but a hard old swallow. In this way all had failed and none could marry the princess. The princess's reputation was such that one day the emperor wanted to know her extraordinary beauty. The emperor fell in love with the young woman and asked her to marry him and go live in her palace. But the princess also rejected her proposal, telling her that it was impossible since she had not been born on the planet and she could not go with him. However, the emperor could not forget her and continued to insist. That summer, every time the princess looked at the Moon, her eyes filled with tears. Her old father wanted to know what was wrong with her, but she didn't answer. Every day that she passed, the young woman, she was sadder and whenever she looked at the moon, she could not stop crying. The elders were very worried, but the princess was silent. One day before the full moon in mid-August, the princess herself explained why she was so sad. She explained that she was not born on the planet, but that she came from the Moon, where she was to return on the next full moon, and that they would come looking for her.
The elders tried to talk her out of leaving, but Kaguya said she had to. So the old man ran in search of the emperor and told him the whole story, the latter sending a large number of soldiers to the princess's house. On the night of the full moon in mid-August, the warriors surrounded the house in an attempt to protect the princess, while she was inside with her parents waiting for the moon people to come for her. When the moon became full, an immense light blinded everyone and the people of the moon came down for the princess, the soldiers could not fight because they were blinded by that immense light and because strangely they had lost the will to fight. The princess said goodbye to her parents, and she told them that she did not want to leave, but that she had to. Before leaving, she left the emperor a farewell letter and a bottle with the Elixir of Life. The devastated emperor sent an entire army of soldiers to the highest mountain in Japan. The commissioned mission was to climb to the top and burn the letter that Princess Kaguya had written and the bottle that she had left him, hoping that the smoke would reach the now distant princess.
Legend has it that the word immortality (不死 fushi?), became the name of the mountain, Mount Fuji. The kanji for mountain (富士山) is also said to derive from the emperor's army that ascended the slopes of the mountain to carry out his mission. It is also believed that the smoke from the burning letter is still visible to this day (in the past, Mount Fuji was much more volcanically active and therefore produced more smoke).
In popular culture
Today the story has been used in several anime, where they intervene in the legend. An example is Mirmo Zibang, in the chapter "Hunting the Murumo Monster", where Rima is Princess Kaguya.
This folk tale was used as the basis for the plot of Tsukimi Planet, created by the author of multiple Japanese horror games Charon, a game in which the princess Kaguya takes the name of Tsukimi, being She is in charge of fulfilling a wish to a human before his death.
Leiji Matsumoto takes the name of this legend for his manga and subsequent anime adaptation Shin Taketori Monogatari: Sennen Joō, known as Queen Millenia or The Princess of the thousand years, with the protagonist Yayoi Yukino, the adoptive daughter of an elderly couple who are unaware of her extraterrestrial origin.
This legend was used by Rumiko Takahashi to create the plot of the second film of her Inuyasha manga/anime, InuYasha: The Castle of Dreams in the Mirror, in which Kagura and Kanna, two servants of Naraku, the antagonist, were freed, and later tricked by Princess Kaguya to escape from the mirror and take revenge on the emperor, freezing time. According to this movie, the family that Princess Kaguya's cloak was given to was the Hojo family. In the film, mention is also made of a poem dedicated to Princess Kaguya, written by a Japanese emperor: "What good is it for me to know the secret of immortality if we will never see each other again And I spend my days shedding enough tears like to float in her wake & # 34;.
Kaguya also appears in the second film of the anime Sailor Moon, Sailor Moon S The movie, and is mentioned in one of the chapters of the live action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon.
In Imperishable Night, the eighth Touhou Project game, the story is somewhat based on the story of Princess Kaguya. It is the character of Kaguya Houraisan who hides in gensokyo to avoid returning to the moon.
Kaguya's story is also included in the video game Okami, for PlayStation 2, which is based on Japanese folklore and whose protagonist is the goddess of the Sun, Amaterasu.
In the 76th episode of Sergeant Keroro, the protagonists go to the Moon and meet Princess Kaguya, who is an alien and who was the one who spread that story on Earth to obtain those 5 materials, which were what his ship needed to continue his long journey.
Chapters 8 and 9 of Yami to Bōshi to Hon no Tabibito are based on this story, with Hatsumi being the princess Kaguya.
In Hime Chen! Otogi Chikku Idol Lilpri Princess Kaguya is one of the protagonists of the story.
In the manga Crayon Shin Chan there is a story with princess Kaguya as the main character.
In the fantasy card game Ayakashi: Ghost Guild there is a letter called Kaguya, which is sealed and to be released you must collect all the seal stones.
In Naruto Shippuden and in the manga of the same name, she is called Kaguya Otsusuki and is the mother of the Sage of the Six Paths, Hagoromo Otsusuki. It is also said that the Otsusuki Clan (of which she was leader and princess) came from a distant place until they settled on the Moon and part of the Earth.
Within the Touhou cultural movement, created by video game producer Zun, there is a character named Kaguya Houraisen. She bears similarities to the legend, but differs in that this was a Lunarian who was exiled to Earth for taking the Elixir of Hourai; After several years of living in Japan, she was forgiven and ordered to return, but she refused and fled to the Gensokyo portal, where she currently hides in the Eintei bamboo forest with the moon rabbit Reisen Udongein Inaba and other servants.
The story was adapted into the animated film The Tale of Princess Kaguya (2013), produced by Studio Ghibli and directed by Isao Takahata. Years before, the same director, in his film My Neighbors the Yamadas, makes a reference to the same story, when the birth of Nonoko, the youngest daughter of the Yamada family, is shown inside a bamboo, just like Kaguya.
In the manga and anime: Tonikaku Kawaii (トニカクカワイイ Fly Me to the Moon? lit. "She's cute anyway: take me to the moon") written and illustrated by Kenjiro Hata. The person in charge of burning the immortality serum gives it to his daughter who was going to die, and is then executed. 1400 years later, in the present day, the girl, forever 16 years old, marries a good-hearted young man whom she saves from a traffic accident. Serialized in Shōgakukan's Weekly Shōnen Sunday since February 14, 2018, compiled into 13 tankōbon volumes. And anime adaptation produced by Seven Arcs of premiered on October 2, 2020.
In the anime GARO - Guren no Tsuki, Kaguya is the adopted daughter of an elderly couple who mysteriously become rich after being possessed by evil spirits. It is then revealed that Kaguya actually hails from the Moon and is capable of imprisoning evil spirits in the Crimson Moon thus becoming Garo's ally.
In the trading card game Force of Will, Princess Kaguya is one of the main characters in the game's plot, summoned from myth by a sorceress for the purpose of protecting humanity..
In the 122nd chapter of the anime Konjiki no Gash Bell!!, the story of Princess Kaguya is mentioned by Natsuko's character (or Miss Natsuko) to Gash's character, after that he knows her as "the princess herself" during her experience at the Winter Festival of Lights in Japan. The character Gash believes he is with Princess Kaguya all the time, only until the end of the chapter when Miss Natsuko makes the decision to tell her the truth, and later gives herself to the people who were chasing her throughout the episode, revealing to be these Finally, those in charge of taking care of her. In short, and by way of interpretation, the allusion to Kaguya in this chapter is made to represent, metaphorically, the idea of "not feeling part of this world" or not belong to it.
In Beatmania IIDX 26: Rootage, the character of Kaguya appears, being a Qpro in STEP UP mode.
The manga-anime of Kaguya-sama: Love is War (originally: Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai: Tensai-tachi no Ren'ai Zunōsen) by Aka Akasaka has its main characters based on in those of the story. In fact, in one of its chapters adapted to the official anime, Miyuki Shirogane (one of the central characters of the work) talks about the tale of the legendary princess to her companion Kaguya Shinomiya (who is inspired by said princess). Other characters such as Yū Ishigami and Chika Fujiwara are also somewhat inspired by the characters in the story.
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