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The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter
Japan's oldest surviving prose tale, written in the early Heian period (around the 9th–10th century) by an unknown author. An old bamboo cutter finds a tiny girl inside a glowing bamboo stalk; she grows into the beautiful かぐや姫, sets impossible tasks for her suitors, and finally returns to the moon.
In junior high school class we memorized the opening of The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter.
Every Japanese child knows the story as the picture book かぐや姫, and every student reads its opening in classical Japanese class. The 源氏物語 itself calls it "the ancestor of tales."
Common expressions
- 今は昔、竹取の翁といふものありけり: "Long ago there was an old man called the bamboo cutter" — the famous opening line
- かぐや姫: Princess Kaguya, the heroine; also a nickname for an unattainable beauty
- 無理難題: an impossible demand, like the tasks she set her suitors
Cultural note
Several episodes end in puns. One prince brings back a fake begging bowl (鉢), throws it away, and keeps courting — "throwing away his shame" (恥を捨てる). The tale ends by naming Mount Fuji (富士) after the elixir of immortality (不死) burned on its summit.