Folk tales were a big part of my childhood.

I used to read and watch all kinds of folk tales from all around
the world. Among them, I like Japanese folk tales the best. They have peculiar ways of giving moral
lessons yet the story-building and character developments are elegantly delicate and emotional. The
tale of bamboo cutter or “Kaguya Hime” is one of them and undeniably the one I favor most. I read the
original folktales of Kaguya Hime in addition to the famous animation of Ghibli Studio. It is written by an
unknown author in the late 9th or early 10th century during the Heian period.

Kaguya Hime which translates into “Shining Princess” is a tale about an elderly couple and a girl they
found in the bamboo shoot. It started with an old bamboo cutter called Taketori no Okina which
translates to “old bamboo harvester” finding a shining bamboo stalk in one bamboo forest and upon
cutting that bamboo, he found a very small girl who is dressed in beautiful attire but those clothes
disappeared and the girl turned into an infant when the old man reached home. Since the old couple is
childless, they decided to raise the child as their own.

On that day forward, every time the old bamboo cutter cut the bamboo stalk, he finds some gold,
sometimes expensive and delicate clothes, and many precious things. Soon the family of three grew rich
and Kaguya Hime grows up from an infant to a young lady with great beauty in just three months. The
old father tried to keep Kaguya Hime away from prying eyes, but the attempt was in vain as the young
keeps getting marriage proposals from different families and the news about her beauty reached the
ears of court officials.

The father was delighted with the proposals of high officials namely; Prince Ishitsukuri, Prince
Kuramochi, the Minister of the Right Abe no Mimuraji, the Grand Counselor Ōtomo no Miyuki, and
the Middle Counselor Isonokami no Marotari. but Kaguya Hime is not very pleased with them and
rejected all of them, but they persist hence Kaguya Hime gave them five impossible tasks. She agreed to
marry them if each of them can bring each material assigned by Kaguya to them. Those materials are the
stone begging bowl of the Buddha, a jeweled branch from the mythical island of Hōrai, a robe of Chinese
fire-rat skins, a colored jewel from a dragon's neck, and a cowry shell born from a swallow. Each of them
failed, unsurprisingly, and this event led Kaguya Hime to greater fame that even the Emperor of Japan
visited her in person and fell in love with her inevitably. The Majesty asked her hand in marriage but
Kaguya refused as usual but they keep in touch through letters.

Later that summer, every time Kaguya Hime views the moon, she gets teary eyes. This concerned
Kaguya Hime’s mother and father and they question their daughter but she never answers until one day
when she became more anxious and erratic, she told her adoptive parents that she comes from the
moon and now the people there are calling her back, but she does not want to go back. The father tried
very hard to prevent from Kaguya Hime being taken away by the moon people. He built a tall and strong
wall around their estate but the efforts were in vain as moon people were able to take away
KaguyaHime without any problems. In the animation, it ended with the old couple’s devastation. But in
the original script, it continues further with the emperor getting immortality elixir and a letter from
Kaguya Hime before she ascended. The emperor couldn’t take the elixir because he didn’t want to stay
forever without Kaguya and asked his advisors "Which mountain is the closest place to Heaven?" and
they suggest the Great Mountain of Suruga Province. The Emperor ordered them to burn the letter and
elixir at the top of the mountain. Legend has it the word for immortality (Fushi) became the name of
Mount Fuji.
Unlike western folktales, most Japanese folktales lack a stable, singular message with broad
generalization. Likewise, Kaguya Hime does not have a clear message but it emphasizes the difficulties
the women of higher social faces in those olden times. It strongly suggests that women are precious
displays for men to flaunt. And another one might be about the true love that parents can give their
children.