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The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter primarily details the life of the mysterious Kaguya-hime, princess of the Young Bamboo. The main characters in this legend are Taketori-no Okina (竹取翁, the Old Man who Harvests Bamboo), Kaguya-hime (かぐや姫, Princess Kaguya, "radiant night princess" wink , five princes, and the reigning Emperor of Japan (Tennō). Kaguya-hime is a mysterious girl, discovered inside the stalk of a great bamboo plant by Taketori-no Okina when she was a tiny baby, who is said to be from Tsuki-no Miyako (月都, "The Capital of the Moon" wink and who has unusual hair that "shines like gold".
One day while walking in the bamboo forest, the old, childless bamboo cutter comes across a mysterious, shining stalk of bamboo. Cutting it open, inside he finds a baby, the size of his thumb. Rejoicing to find such a beautiful girl, he takes her home and he and his wife raise her as their own child, naming her Kaguya-hime. Thereafter, the Old Bamboo Harvester found that whenever he cut down a stalk of bamboo, inside he found a small nugget of gold. Soon, he was rich, and Kaguya-hime grew from a small baby into a woman of usual size and unusual beauty. At first, Taketori-no Okina tries to sequester her from outsiders, but over time, the news of her beauty spreads.
Five princes come to Taketori-no Okina's residence, where Kaguya-hime has resided ever since she was found, to ask for her hand in marriage. She is reluctant to marry, so she concocts impossible tasks for the princes to accomplish before they can win her. The various princes set out on these near impossible quests. The first is told to bring her the holy basin of the Buddha. He returns with an expensive bowl, but noticing that the bowl does not glow with holy light, Kaguya-hime sees through his deception. The other princes likewise attempt to deceive her in order to fulfill her impossible demands. The second is told to retrieve a legendary azalea made of silver and gold. The third is told to seek the legendary robe of the fire-rat of China. The fourth must retrieve a colored jewel from a dragon. The final prince is told to find the seashell treasure of the swallows, but also fails.
After this, the emperor, called Tennō in Japanese, comes to see the strangely beautiful Kaguya-hime and upon falling in love asks her to marry him. Although he is not subjected to the impossible trials that thwarted the princes, Kaguya-hime rejects his requests for marriage as well, telling him that she was not of this country and thus could not go to the palace with him. She stays in contact with Tennō but continues to rebuff his requests.
That summer whenever Kaguya-hime would see the full moon her eyes filled with tears, for she knew that on such a night, she would be forced to leave this home forever. Though her adopted parents worry greatly and question her, she is unable to tell them what was wrong. Her behavior becomes increasingly erratic until it is revealed that the princess is 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 for some crime, while others say it is because she was sent to earth for safety during a celestial war.
As the day for her to return approaches, Tennō sets many guards around her house to protect her from the moon people, but when an embassy of "Heavenly Beings" arrives at the door of the Bamboo Harvester's house, the many guards are blinded by the strange light. Kaguya-hime announces 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, 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 takes Kaguya-hime back to Tsuki-no Miyako against her will, leaving her earthly foster parents and the still-pining emperor 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 forlorn Tennō dispatches a person to the great mountain of Suruga, the tallest mountain in Japan, that is, the closest place on earth to the heaven (Suruga is the ancient name of a region that is now part of Shizuoka Prefecture; it is the region where Mount Fuji is located). The mission provided by the Tennō is to burn a letter from the Tennō to Kaguya-hime on the summit, with the hope that his message would reach the now distant princess. In some versions, the men are commanded to burn the pot of elixir of immortality since the Tennō did not desire to live forever without being able to see her. The word immortality (不死, fushi?, or fuji) became the name of the great mountain. Also, it is written that the image of the innumerable soldiers of the Tennō's army ascending the slopes of the mountain became the name, Mt. "Fuji" (富士山, literally "Mountain Abounding with Warriors" wink . It is said that the smoke from the burning still rises to this day.
 brok3ndreams · Sun May 20, 2007 @ 10:01pm · 1 Comments |
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